Page 138 of Kaden & Keegan
Keegan didn’t look away and she saw it in his eyes. It was the same thing she’d seen in Kaden’s. They were on the same page. They were thinking about a future but neither of them had bothered to clue her in on it?
“I don’t understand how we got here,” she said softly, holding his gaze. “I thought … I thought we were goin’ slow.”
“Any slower, Bristol, and we’re goin’ in reverse.” There was heat in his tone now, frustration, maybe anger. “Is this temporary for you, Bristol?”
She frowned. “What? No. I … I don’t know.”
His dark eyebrows shot upward, his surprise obvious.
Move in with them? Then what? Would they want to get married? How the heck did that even work? Polygamy was illegal in Texas, right? Maybe everywhere? How had they gotten here? How—
A wave of heat hit her, but not the sensual kind. It was enough to have her stepping back, leaning against the wall, trying to draw in breath although her lungs felt constricted.
“Bristol? What’s wrong?”
“There’s not enough air,” she said. “It’s too hot in here.”
The next thing she knew, Keegan was leading her down the hallway, into the kitchen. He urged her into one of the kitchen chairs, put his hand on her shoulder, and rubbed gently.
When the hot flash faded, Bristol breathed through the queasiness, her hand to her stomach.
Keegan squatted down, put his hand on her knee. “Is it the baby?” There was real concern in his voice.
She didn’t want him panicking, so she attempted a smile. “Yes and no. Just morning sickness. But, you know, it’s not relegated to only the morning. At least not for me. It happens all the time. Day, night…”
She realized she was rambling, so she stopped.
Keegan stood, walked away. When he returned, he passed over a bottle of water. “Here. It’s cold.”
She took it from him, took a sip, let the chill soothe down her throat then rolled the bottle along her wrists. It took a few minutes, and the nauseous feeling subsided.
“When’s the last time you ate?” he asked.
“Lunch. It was late though. I had a peanut butter sandwich.” Bristol took a deep breath.
“What Kaden said, Bristol…” Keegan stepped closer, placing his hands on her knees and crouching down in front of her again. “If you haven’t realized it already, Kaden doesn’t say things he doesn’t mean. He’s the thinker, the planner. He works through something until he knows the possible outcomes, then he proceeds with an end goal. With that said, it might not look like it from the outside, but he’s as vulnerable as the rest of us. He just does a damn fine job of hidin’ it.”
Unlike him, she knew. Keegan was the one who resorted to snide comments. Not Kaden.
“We just started seein’ each other,” she said as an excuse.
“Officially, sure.” He lifted her chin with his finger, forcing her to look at him. “But we’ve been doin’ this dance for a long damn time. There’s only so much foreplay necessary before the Big Bang.”
“So eloquent.”
“I have my moments.” His eyes glittered briefly. “But I’m serious.”
“Is it because I’m pregnant?”
“It’s because it’s inevitable. The pregnancy, Bristol, that’s just a bonus. Was it unexpected? Damn straight it was. Would we do it differently if we could? Sure. Would we go back and change it if we could? No. Things happen for a reason.”
She swallowed hard, stared into his beautiful face. Who would’ve thought Keegan could be the rational one?
“If you don’t feel the same, we need to know.”
“I haven’t thought about it.” It was mostly true. A couple times, she’d let her fantasies run wild, imagined a life with the two of them. But no sooner would they appear than she would shove them back into the little box in her mind. Bristol didn’t look to the future. Anytime she did, it never worked out well for her.
“Well, you need to.”
