Page 4 of Fall Love

She’ll come around, Lumi hesitantly told me about the little thorn making previous sales difficult.

Hessfield Holdings will not fail. Our offer is insanely generous because this location is prime real estate. Waterview. Steps from the ocean. Quaint small town.

“I think it might be best if I talk with Lumi.”

“Why?” Neve’s voice is hard as she takes a step towards me. Then she pitches forward, gripping her belly. “Fidgety sticks.”

“Fidgety sticks?” I choke-chuckle at the same time I rush forward, holding my hands out like I intend to catch her. Or a baby.

Fuck, is she going into labor? Is she that far along? Does that mean she was pregnant when we⁠—

I’m going to be sick. Quickly doing the math, it’s been almost nine months since I’ve seen her. A full-term pregnancy runs nine full months, complete at the start of the tenth month.

Then again, I’m not a baby expert, so I can’t guess as to how far along she is.

While I consider myself still young in my forties, she’s a little old to be having a baby, and it’s a thought I should not be thinking. But now my brain is spiraling over later in life pregnancies and the health risks for a woman over thirty-five. Stuff tucked in the recesses of my brain from a life I never lived.

Swiping my hand through my hair again, I blurt, “What can I do?” How can I help you?

“Should I call Lumi?” She said Lumi is her sister.

“Or maybe your…” My throat tightens. “Boyfriend? Or your husband?” Holy hell, has she gotten married in the past nine months? I can’t see her left hand, tucked under her belly as she’s still bent forward.

“Subtle,” she barks, slowly standing upright while continuing to hold the underside of her stomach. “If you wanted to know if I was still available, you should have led with that.”

Stunned, my lips gape, and I blink once. Not one ounce of flirtation rests in her comment, only a pound of sass.

“Well, what do you need?” I toss my arms outward before swiping through my hair again. It’s a nervous habit. My hair is a little longer than when we met, and it’s probably sticking up everywhere from how anxious she’s making me. Especially as she stares back at me, her mouth falling open to say something before she clamps it shut.

“Nothing,” she grinds out. “I don’t need anything from you.”

The sharpness of her retort causes my brows to lift. What have I done to her?

Unless she knows. Unless she somehow found out the buyer isn’t Bucky Beaver Body Shop, but a parent company. They aren’t interested in renovating the garage but demolishing it. But she can’t know that. Not yet. Disclosures haven’t been revealed. Contracts haven’t been signed.

Only money has been offered. That’s why I’m here. To persuade Lumi Snowe to convince one prickly sister that it is time to sell.

But the longer I look at the pinched lines in Neve’s face and the clench of her jaw, the sale is the last thing on my mind.

“Are you in pain? Are you in labor?” My voice cracks like I’m a prepubescent teen and not a competent, forty-two-year-old businessman.

She shakes her head. “Slow down, Driver.” She holds up the hand originally holding her belly and places her other hand on her lower back, arching backward a bit. “It’s way too early for labor. I’m not due until⁠—”

She cuts herself off, while I’m hanging by a thread over here. Like a spider dangling from a web. And I fucking hate spiders.

“Let me call someone for you.” Someone better equipped to handle this situation.

I’m not her guy. I was just a one-time thing. A stupid dare.

“There’s no one to call,” she says quietly, glancing toward the small waiting room off to the left of the garage. “It’s only me.”

I stare at her, noting a pinch of sadness underneath her declaration.

“And I need to sit down for a second.”

Without further explanation, she spins toward the waiting area.

I rush past her to open the door.