Page 105 of Heartbroken Husband
“Charlotte and the baby are both healthy,” Jesse said. “Apparently, Trent is crying more than the newborn, but it sounds like they’re tears of happiness. Probably. Yeah, okay. I hear you. Definitely.”
A few minutes later, he finally hung up the phone, looking smug but happy. “You know, I didn’t realize how stressed I was about her until right now, but our little sister is a mom. Can you believe that?”
I shook my head. “I really can’t. At all.”
“What’s the baby’s name?” Jacque asked.
Jesse winced. “You’re going to hate it.”
“That means it’s another Tiberius.” She sighed. “It’s another Tiberius, isn’t it?”
“It’s another Tiberius,” he confirmed. “Sorry, baby.”
She dropped her head into her hands. “Why must your family be like this?”
“Tradition,” Jesse said proudly. “To be fair, though, this was probably Trent’s family, not ours.”
She lifted her head back up for the sole purpose of rolling her eyes at him. “That doesn’t make it sound any less like he emerged from the womb already owing taxes to the Roman Empire.”
I laughed into my whiskey, though my mind was still drifting around Adeline and her girls as Jesse groaned. “If it makes you feel any better, they’re calling him Tyler for short, not Tiberius.”
“Thank God,” Jacque muttered.
Jesse chuckled. “Yeah. Alex wants to know if we’re going to be flying out to Texas to go meet him. He and Jane are trying to rearrange their schedules to go.”
“We should too,” Jacque said thoughtfully. “Charlotte’s going to be exhausted. Let’s try for next weekend?”
Their conversation turned to logistics and I tried to listen, but as I watched Jesse reach for Jacque’s hand across the table so naturally that it was almost like he wasn’t even aware of it, that familiar ache started up in my chest again.
I hadn’t expected to miss Jennifer and Lu as much as I did. I hadn’t expected to become attached to them at all, actually.
“What do you think our baby is going to be?” Jesse asked, yanking me straight out of my thoughts and sending me crash-landing right back into their dining room. “Yet another boy, or the unicorn of the Westwood family, a girl?”
My eyes narrowed slowly.Hold on. Just hold on one fucking second. “Oh my God. You’re pregnant?”
Jacqueline burst out laughing, covering her face with both hands. “He could’ve been talking hypothetically.”
“He’s not,” I said confidently. “You’ve both been acting weird for weeks. Jesse’s been way too happy, dishing out advice, and being oddly Zen, and he nearly tackled me when I offered you whiskey earlier. Also, you’re drinking sparkling water. I know that’s not champagne in your flute.”
“I told you he’d figure it out,” Jesse muttered but tightened his grip on her hand. “Especially the sparkling water thing. That’s a dead giveaway, baby.”
Jacque lowered her free hand to her still flat stomach. “It’s early, so we haven’t told anyone yet.”
All the heaviness in my chest evaporated as I glanced between them, genuinely, overwhelmingly happy for them.
“Congratulations,” I said, then stood up to hug Jacqueline before clapping Jesse hard on the shoulder. “This is awesome news. Seriously.”
Unfortunately, happiness wasn’t the only thing I felt. Jealousy also hit me so hard, it nearly knocked me on my ass, but it wasn’t about the baby. Well, it wasn’tonlyabout the baby. It was more about the fact that they’d conceived one together at all.
Alex’s words in his office the other day came flying back into my head, how he’d said that he’d never regretted fighting for Jane and neither had any of my brothers when they’d had to fight for their wives—and they’dallhad to fight at some point. For one reason or another.
Jesse had taken one look at Jacque and fallen in love with her, and now here he was, building a life with her. God, he’d thought they were related at one point and hestillhadn’t given up.
Meanwhile, I’d spent eight years orbiting around the ghost of a girl I’d never stopped loving, convincing myself it was noble to suffer quietly instead of actually doing something about it.
Theo would have a field day with that realization. Hell, Alex probably would too.
My brothers had fought tooth and nail for their respective wives and I’d just been sitting around, waiting for something I wouldn’t have until I just… took it.Fuck, I probably only have to actually say it.
