“We’ll handle everything.” Brek took her tray. Tried to take her tray. Marlee wasn’t letting it go.
“Brek.” Velma said her husband’s name but slid her gaze to Eli. “We need to finish the job first.”
“Who all knows?” Eli asked. The words came out harsher than he’d intended, but why did everyone else seem to be in the know? Given that he shared her bed, maybe he should’ve been clued in when she found out?
Marlee focused on him and he felt that gaze cut straight to his spine. “The girls know. They were there when I found out last night.”
The ballroom floor seemed to fall open. He was in a freefall.
“Not Sadie,” Marlee continued. “She wasn’t there.”
“But she’s here because you told her.” He couldn’t seem to process anything that was happening after the words left his mouth.
They’d never even had a real shot.
Scotty would find out. He’d want her back. Marlee might’ve been pissed at him, but she couldn’t spend a decade with a guy and not have any feelings for him. Marlee felt everything. How could Eli even compete with that?
He studied Marlee’s face, steeling himself for what was to come. Letting her go would be the hardest fucking thing he ever had to do.
“Eli?” his head server asked. “We need to keep dessert moving.”
Given the tone of her voice, she’d heard the whole thing. Everyone within ten feet had. Eli still hadn’t taken his eyes from Marlee. Memorizing her face was all he’d be left with.
He’d finally decided a chance with Marlee was worth the risk, and the opportunity was being swiped away.
The one time he finally opened himself up? She was going to break him in two anyway.
The thickness in his throat nearly choked him. He wished beyond anything that he could hold on to the numbness for a bit more, but feeling was already starting to return.
He fought against it, knowing it was a fight he wouldn’t win.
“Go,” Brek said. “You two need to talk.”
The committee chairwoman tapped a glass at the microphone. The room went silent just as—
“Marlee’s pregnant. What are we supposed to talk about?” Eli asked louder than he’d intended, zeroing in on his wife.
Shit.
The ballroom’s attention shifted to him.
“Marlee?” An older version of Marlee stood from a table, the man in a tux on her right standing as well. Eli recognized him as Jackson Medford from the media box on Altitude Sports Network.
“You’re pregnant?” Jackson asked, his face drained of color.
“Seriously?” Scotty asked from beside Jackson.
The whole family came out to play.
“Maybe we should take this to the kitchen?” Eli’s dad slid his gaze to the doors leading to the kitchen.
Marlee’s jaw dropped. She took in her family. The ballroom. The silence.
“Is it mine?” Scotty asked in front of God, Eli’s parents, her parents, and the upper crust of Denver’s elite.
That’s when Eli’s freefall ended and reality smacked him right in the face.
Chapter Twenty-Two
