“Hanna isn't pregnant, you idiot.” She glared at me. “I am.”
Chapter Six
Hanna
I'd actually been enjoying the holiday, more or less. Mom and Dad were their usual selves when it came to making sure everything was done exactly how RJ liked it – the game he wanted to watch, the dishes he preferred – but that was typical for them. It was almost a Breckenridge family tradition. That they liked Cross was more important to me, and on that front, things were going well.
Then I'd stepped into the bathroom to ask Cross something, and it'd all fallen apart. He'd snapped at me, verbally attacked me, accused me not only of lying, but of trying to manipulate him by getting pregnant. I could barely believe what I was hearing, what I was seeing. This wasn't the man I'd fallen for, the man I loved. This was some angry, cruel imposter.
Then Juliette dropped the bombshell that she was pregnant.
I stepped past Cross without giving him a second look. I shoved aside all of the negative emotions I had toward him and focused on my sister. She was the one who mattered.
“Come on, Jul,” I said, keeping my eyes on her. “Let’s get out of here. You and me. We'll go out, get something to eat, and you're going to talk to me.”
“Hanna...”
I ignored him. I didn't want to talk to him. Didn't want to look at him. I was furious and hurt, in no position to have the sort of conversation we needed to have. I felt sick but made myself stay calm. Juliette needed my support.
And Cross could go fuck himself for all I cared at the moment.
Juliette's eyes flicked behind me, then back to me. She nodded, and I put my arm around her shoulders.
“Let's go.”
Neither one of us said a word as we made our way down the stairs. Fortunately, our parents were preoccupied, and we got to the car without having to explain ourselves to anyone. She waited until we were on the road before speaking.
“I'm sorry, Hanna.”
I shook my head. “Nothing to be sorry about.”
“It was my test.” Her voice was flat. “If I hadn't thrown it away in the bathroom, he couldn't have found it, and none of this would've happened.”
“I don't want to talk about him or what he thought.” I turned at the next road. “I want to talk about you.”
“Not yet,” Juliette said. “I need a couple minutes to get my head together.”
I flicked on the radio and let Christmas music fill the car. The local station always started off on Black Friday. The traffic was surprisingly light as I made my way toward the bar and grill I liked. Most of the people in the area had probably gone to the big department stores, the places that had the big sales today. I was heading toward the section of town that had the Mom and Pop stores, the small businesses, so there was no surprise that there were only a few people out and about, bundled against the chill in the air. I didn't have any difficulties finding a parking space, which was good. I wasn't sure my frayed nerves could take any additional frustration.
Juliette and I went to a booth in the back, placed our orders, and snacked on the breadsticks until our meals came. Only after we'd taken a few bites did I broach the subject again.
“I would ask what happened, but I'm pretty sure I'd get a smart-ass response.”
That earned a hint of a smile at least. “Damn straight.”
I reached across the table and put my hand over hers. Her eyes met mine, and I could see the dark circles she'd tried to hide. “Talk to me.”
She nodded, then took a slow breath. “I'd been getting sick in the mornings, so I suspected for a while. I just couldn't get up the nerve to take a test. But on the way to the airport, I stopped to pick up something – I don't even remember what – and bought one. I stuck it in my purse and ignored it until last night.” She paused to take a gulp of water. “When I saw it, I knew I had to take it or I'd put it off forever.”
“And you're pregnant,” I stated the obvious.
“Looks like.” She stabbed at a crouton with exceptional viciousness. “There's a chance it was a false positive, of course, but I don't think so.”
“Are you late?” With our age difference, we hadn't talked a lot about personal things until I'd moved out to California. Once the whole Dominatrix thing had come out, there was very little that the two of us felt uncomfortable sharing.
“Not yet. I got one of those early detection tests when I remembered Mom had morning sickness for a couple weeks before she realized she was pregnant,” Juliette said. “I'll make a doctor's appointment when we get back to be sure, but I'll be shocked if I'm not.”
I leaned back in my chair and let myself absorb the fact that my sister was going to have a baby. Neither of us had ever talked about kids in specific terms, but she'd always talked about her future in the singular sense. She'd dated one guy, Michael, for two months after she'd been kidnapped, but since that'd ended, she made a point of one-night stands only.
“The father...is it Michael?”
She shook her head. “I haven't been with him since we broke up.”
I raised an eyebrow as I ate another fry, but I didn't ask. Now that Juliette had started, I knew she'd tell me everything.
“I'm not sure who the father is,” Juliette admitted, her cheeks flushing. “I hooked up with two guys within a couple days of each other around the time I would've gotten pregnant.”
“Anyone I know?”
“I doubt it,” she said. “But we didn't really exchange a lot of personal information.”
“What do you know about them?”
“They were Subs,” she said. “The first one, I hadn't intended to sleep with. We were just going to work off some steam. Do a scene together. Things just kinda got out of hand. We used a condom, of course, but you know those things aren't always reliable.”
“And the second?”
She gave me a grin this time, one that made her eyes sparkle. “Him, I definitely meant to sleep with. Again, condom. I guess the odds were against me.”
“I thought you were on the pill.”
She exhaled long and loud. “Remember that sinus infection I had?”
“Shit.” I got it. “Antibiotics.”
“Yup.” She nodded. “I just happened to hit the right percentages all at once. Or, I guess, the wrong ones.”
“Damn, Juliette.” I ran my hand through my hair. “This is...wow.”
“Tell me about it.” She barked out a laugh. “This is the last thing I expected.”
I finished my coffee, hesitated, and then asked the question I really wanted to know the answer to. “Do you know what you're going to do?”
She fell silent, her fingers moving restlessly over her utensils, then twisting her napkin.
“I don't know,” she finally said. “But I won’t be impulsive about it. I want to make sure that whatever I decide to do, I've thought it through.”
“Will you try to find the father?”
She nodded. “I want to give him a chance to weigh in on the decision.”