Sweet Twins For My Brother's Best Friend: An Enemies To Lovers Romance (The Sweet Twins Collection)

Chapter Thirty One

Hannah

I’m in a situation I never thought I’d find myself in.

I’m sitting in the backseat of Chris’ car while my mom rides in the passenger seat.

The silence is awkward and seems to sit on my chest. As awkward as it is, though, I knew that I was pregnant the second Chris mentioned the possibility.

Chris wants to take me to get a blood test or an ultrasound, depending on how far along I am.

I have a feeling I conceived the first time we had sex, which would put me right at seven weeks. I spend the silence in the car googling whether or not I can get an ultrasound at seven weeks. Some say yes, some say no. I give up and put my cell down, opting to close my eyes and lean back against the seat.

“How ya doing back there, baby girl?” my mom asks from the front seat.

She shoots her arm back behind her to grapple at my knee, a familiar mom move that makes me smile. I wonder if that’s an instinct that all mothers have, to reach for their children when they are hurting or upset.

“I’m fine, Mom,” I tell her, my eyes still closed.

“Are you sure? You can tell me how you really feel, you know.”

“I really don’t feel like anything. Didn’t you both tell me to wait to see a doctor before I panicked?”

“Before you panicked, Hannah, not before you allowed yourself any feelings,” my mom clarifies. I can hear the eye roll in her voice.

“Maybe panic is the only feeling she would have right now, Mrs. Jackson,” Chris replies, the steering wheel sliding under his hand as he turns into the OBGYN office building.

“Is that true, Hannah? Are you that anxious?”

“Mom, please. No more questions,” I beg as Chris pulls into a parking space, stopping gently.

My mom twists around in her seat and reminds me, “You called me, Hannah. I’m trying to be supportive in the best way I know how.”

Despite the financial choices she made that led to my current job, my mom and I have a good relationship, and we almost never bicker, and I certainly don’t want to bicker right now, so I just say, “Thank you, Mom,” as Chris opens my car door and holds out his strong hand.

He pulls me out of the car, snakes an arm around my waist, and hugs me tightly.

With his mouth on my ear, so close that I shiver at feeling his breath on my skin, he whispers, “She’s just worried about you. She’ll even out.” I nod against his shoulder and lean into him.

The waiting room is full of expectant women, and their faces show the entire spectrum of human emotion.

Some look out-of-their-mind terrified, and some look elated, others slightly nervous.

I don’t know what I am yet. I won’t know until I can get Chris alone and figure out how he feels about it all. I could do this alone, but I don’t want to.

I look over at my mother, her hair fading with age and her eyes set deeper, and think about how even if Chris decides he didn’t want to do this with me, I will never be alone as long as my mother is on this earth.

She came instantly at my request, even without my father. “Hey, Mom?”

“Yes?” She gathers my hands and pulls them into her lap, smiling sweetly.

“What did you tell Dad?”

“Oh, my God! Your father!”

She drops my hands like a hot potato and stands up quickly, pulling her phone out of her purse with a heightened anxiety I can feel from here.

I raise my eyebrows up into my hairline and watch her with amusement as she finds his contact information.

“I’ll be right back! I’m going to step out and call him. I plum forgot about him, I was so worried about you!”

She leaves quickly, the little bell above the door ringing as she does.

I have a flashback to the first time I saw Chris again for the first time in several years.

The bell had rung above his head, too, hanging like mistletoe. He’d given me a start, caused me to catch my breath in my throat.

Now, in this moment of uncertainly, he sidles up closer to me, pulling his chair over a few inches so that he can talk in a low volume.

When he does, I feel my breath in my throat again, the rising attraction to him even under these circumstances, his piney smell. I’m grateful that smell still brings me comfort.

“You have a good mom,” he mutters to me.

I nod, and he continues, “Questionable if your dad has a good wife or not.”

When I laugh, he bumps my shoulder with his and kisses the top of my head. Butterflies take flight in my stomach.

“Hannah Jackson?” a nurse calls from the doorway, and when Chris and I stand, she smiles warmly at us and says, “Just Miss Jackson for now, sorry.”

Chris and I look at each other awkwardly, and I say, “I’d like him with me, though.”

“You can have him with you in just a moment, okay?” The nurse’s smile is kind, crinkling into her eyes, so I nod and shrug at Chris.

Once we’re on the other side of the door, she asks me, “Do you feel safe at home?”

“Yes?”

My face must betray my absolute confusion because she rests a hand gently on my shoulder and says, “It’s a routine question. Girls and women in all types of situations come in here. We want to make sure you’re okay with the people you arrived here with. Is that Dad out there?”

Hearing ‘Dad’ like that sends another jolt through my body. Dad? Is that what Chris is now? Someone’s dad?

“Um, yea, that’s…Dad.”

“You’re in Room 12. Go ahead and change into the gown that’s on the bed, and we’ll send Dad in in a few minutes.”

Her voice has a warm gentility to it, like a distant aunt who’s stepping up during a tough time.

Stepping into the room is my first time in complete silence in days.

The chilly air touches my skin everywhere as I pull off my clothes. I fold them neatly and place them on the small, upholstered chair that seems to be in every doctor’s office.

I plunge my arms into the holes of the gown and tie it behind my back. I sink into aloneness as it hits for the first time what’s happening and where I am.

If I’m pregnant, what will my life look like? Will Chris be in it? Will I be a good mother? Can I still grow a business while I grow a life inside of me?

I try to quell the thoughts that try to scream in my mind, the anxiety and uncertainty of the unknown.

Since I was a little girl, I’ve known everythingng about myself. I understood myself and my limitations as well as I understood my strengths. The only knowledge I lacked was what sort of lover I would be.

I knew that I was good at math, that I was needed by my parents, that Tyler was proud of me.

I knew what kind of life I wanted to lead and the path I needed to follow to get to it.

When I decided to become a CPA, I noted that the other potential licensees were generally at least several years older than I was.

People always seemed surprised to see a young woman just out of school working to become a CPA. But I never doubted my own abilities for a second.

My future has always been written in stone. Until now.

A small knock at my door is followed by the door opening almost immediately. The nurse steps in and smiles at me. “I brought you someone.”

Chris peeks out from behind her and smiles with relief, his dimples pressing into his cheeks.

When I look at him, a thought passes through me instantly: There’s your future.