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

Chapter Forty-Eight

Christopher

The waiting room is painted in muted pastels, and the walls are adorned with framed photos of smiling babies. I sit beside Hannah, our hands entwined, and try to keep my excitement from bubbling over. My leg is bouncing uncontrollably, and I take a deep breath to steady myself.

Hannah reaches over and sets her hand on my knee to stabilize it.

She sneaks her fingers up the hem of my shorts and gently rubs my skin. The anticipation is almost unbearable, and her touch is comforting.

I rest my own hand on the back of hers and feel her cool skin against my warm, sweaty palm. Hannah closes her eyes and leans her head back against the chair, her other hand resting protectively over her slight bump.

I watch her, my heart swelling with love and admiration. I still can’t believe this incredible woman is carrying our children.

“Hannah Jackson?” a nurse calls from the doorway, a bright smile on her face.

Hannah’s eyes flutter open, and she squeezes my hand as we stand up. I help her to her feet, and we follow the nurse down a hallway to the ultrasound room. At this point, it’s so familiar to me that I feel like I know it like my own home.

We do all of it all over again.

Hannah puts on a gown alone in the room, then they let me enter, too. Hannah climbs onto the examination table, and eventually the doctor joins us.

She spreads a cool gel on Hannah’s belly, and I feel her grip tighten briefly as she reacts. We exchange a glance, and I can see my own excitement mirrored in her eyes.

“Ready to find out if your babies are little men or little women?” the doctor asks, positioning the ultrasound wand on Hannah’s stomach.

“Yes! Yes, yes, yes,” Hannah chirps, bouncing while on her back. Her smile lights up her face, and I reach over and wipe a strand of hair off her sticky, glossy lips.

Dr. Meyers moves the wand around and laughs when it’s almost entirely at Hannah’s back before two gray, lumpy forms appear. She looks over at Hannah and raises her eyebrows with a smile. “How’s your back feeling these days?”

“Oh, it’s sore,” Hannah says back, laughing.

Their conversation is background noise for me as I see the forms moving. One of them appears to be sucking its thumb. I can hear the woosh of their heartbeats, two overlapping.

I glance back to Hannah, and she’s being very still now, her eyes on the screen.

It’s strange to know that we’re both looking at something showing us what’s inside her. It’s completely surreal and hard to wrap my head around.

“There they are,” the doctor says softly. “Let’s take a closer look, shall we?”

She looks up at us, and we nod in unison, both of us breathless.

“Okay, see right here?” She touches the screen with her pinkie finger, drawing it in a line upward from her starting point. “There. That’s the stem of the apple. We’ve got a boy!”

“A boy,” I whisper to her, my voice choked with emotion. Hannah wipes away a tear from her cheek as my heart soars.

Hannah and I look at each other with barely concealed excitement. Hannah bites on her bottom lip, exposing her two front teeth. Quickly, she turns her head back to the screen. The silence is deafening as we wait.

“And this one,” the doctor says, moving the wand again, “is a boy, too! Congratulations. You have a very exciting life in front of you.”

“Two boys,” Hannah echoes, her voice barely a whisper. She looks at me, her eyes shining with happiness. “Chris, we’re having two boys.”

I can’t speak, so I just nod as Dr. Meyers prints out ultrasound images for us.

I help Hannah sit up, still reeling from the news, and keep my eyes on her as she thanks the doctor and listens while she’s told what to expect in the coming weeks.

I think I hear the word ‘cramping’ but it’s all background. My mind races as I watch Hannah’s lips move, her eyes sparkling and her smile wide even while she talks. I wrap my arms around her and help her dress before walking her back to the car.

It’s dusk outside and the moon is visible at the same time as the sun, the sky’s blue darkening quietly.

I tuck Hannah into her seat and kiss her forehead. She looks up at me through her blonde eyelashes, and for a moment, I see the eyes of the girl I knew, all the fear and the vulnerability and the innocence.

“You’re amazing,” I tell her, and she rolls her eyes before I close the door.

It’s a quiet drive home, and I let it stay quiet. Both of us are processing and imagining the ways our life will change. It’s easier to imagine the future now that I can imagine the children, the dinosaurs and monster trucks materializing in my daydreams.

Clutching the ultrasound pictures in her hand, Hannah says, “Chris, I’ve been thinking a lot about Maine.”

Outside the window, the nighttime has finally overcome the evening, and the darkness seeps into the car. The moon follows us from the dark sky, flanked by stars.

My heart pounds in my chest, feeling the tension in her words and in the energy coming off her.

“Oh yeah?” is all I say, as though I don’t feel my heart leaping into my stomach.

She carries on while looking at her hands in her lap. “I know what a dream it is for you, and I want you to go.”

“I can’t go, Hannah,” I tell her firmly, tightening my hands around the steering wheel.

Sweat pools in the lines of my palms and I look over at her and see the sincerity on her face. “There’s no point even talking about it.”

“Our kids need to know it’s okay to chase dreams,” she murmurs, picking at one of her fingernails.

“Yes, but, more importantly, our kids need to know their dad is there for them and always will be,” I respond without looking at her, my eyes on the road.

“I’ve let it go. You should, too. There’s plenty to focus on here. Maine will still be there when the time is right.”

“I think you’re going to regret it,” Hannah mutters, “And I don’t want you to ever have regrets. You deserve to do what you were planning to do. I have family here. I’ll be okay.”

“I know you’ll be okay. But I want to be with you while you’re okay. No, I’m not going.”

I shake my head as I pull into the parking lot of the apartment complex. I park the car and relax in my seat, finally looking over at her.

She holds up the ultrasound and points at the two little beans on the glossy white paper, their faces gray lumpy shapes that somehow still bring tears to my eyes.

“We can still visit each other. You should have everythingng set up within 5 months.”

“You’re not being realistic, Hannah. It would certainly take much longer than that. And, even if it didn’t, I’d have to find someone to run it if I come back here. Right now, I have good managers in my other clubs but getting a new one off the ground is a different proposition. How do you see that working? I get it set up and I just come back? I don’t oversee anything? You think it would only take 5 months for the construction, purchasing or leasing the equipment, hiring employees, training them, decorating, get a decent clientele, all that? No, Hannah, I’m done talking about it.”

I see her lip quiver, and her eyelashes moisten, but I step out of the car and walk over to her side to let her out of the car. I hold out my hand, but she ignores it and braces herself against the car to get up instead.

“Seriously? Lord, you are such a little brat, Hannah Jackson. Come on.” I reach for her hand, and she lets me hold her hand limply. I continue to out of spite.

Despite her attitude, or maybe because of it, I can’t stop finding her adorable. There’s just something about a woman who takes on your dreams as her own.

I squeeze her hand and unlock the front entrance of the building for her. I hold the door as she enters, her jaw still set angrily.

I can hear Lucy inside, shuffling and sniffing at the crack under the door. Hannah smiles and dips her head away from my line of sight so I can’t see it.

When I unlock the door, I’m greeted first by Lucy and second by the realization that all of the luggage normally stored in the top shelf of my closet is packed and sitting in the living room.