Page 15 of Charlotte

Gareth pressed a kiss to Aria’s hair. “Even when you were, I didn’t get it for the baby, sweetheart. I got it for you.”

Emotion clogged Charli’s throat, and she picked up her glass to take a drink. Once again, jealousy swirled through her as she remembered what her pregnancy with Layla had been like.

She’d had such a tumult of emotions back then.

Worry. Anger. Love for the baby, but also a whole lot of anxiety.

And she’d felt very alone during those months. There had been no one there to get her pregnancy cravings or massage her sore back and feet. Sure, she’d been surrounded by her family, but the one person who should have been there had been absent.

Knowing that her situation had disappointed her parents, she’d felt like she needed to shoulder all parts of the pregnancy by herself. So, whether it had been the wretched morning sickness through far too many months or feeling the baby kick, she’d experienced it all on her own.

Before he’d left and not come back, Charli had been certain that Blake would be the perfect husband and father. She’d imagined what it would be like to be pregnant with his child. But when she’d gotten pregnant, the reality had been very different.

Charli hated that she was feeling so much jealousy lately. Though she’d struggled with it a lot as a teen, it had faded over the years as she’d focused on Layla and her career.

Blake’s return, however, had brought with it a reminder of how things had ended between them. Of how absent he’d been during her pregnancy and all the years since. And now she was feeling jealous over the relationships and pregnancies of her siblings.

She knew that was not what she should allow into her heart. But lately, it had become a big battle that she struggled to win.

Needing to escape for a moment, Charli got to her feet and went to the kitchen to get coffee and dessert, which was once again cookies and brownies. It seemed to be their go-to dessert on Friday nights. An easy final course to an easy meal.

Charli took some cookies to Layla and Peyton, who were playing video games in the basement. In no rush to rejoin the others, she hung out with them for several minutes before going back up to the dining room.

Eventually, people began to leave. Even Janessa left, heading out with Will to go to a late movie. Layla had come up with Peyton, but she’d gone to her room once he’d left with Misha and Jay.

Charli was still in the kitchen when the doorbell rang. Frowning, she dried her hands on a dishtowel and headed for the front door. When she opened it, she found Jackson on the porch.

“Forget something?”

“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Jackson asked.

“No.” Though she suspected why he was there and she knew she should talk to him about it, Charli felt too confused to deal with him. Still, she sighed, then stepped back as she waved toward the kitchen. “Fine.”

Once there, Jackson settled onto a stool at the island. “Given that response, I’m going to assume you know what I want to talk to you about.”

“I have an idea.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” Jackson asked. “This means that Layla’s my cousin.”

Charli glanced at the door leading out of the kitchen. “Precisely because of that. I didn’t want you to know because you would have told Blake.”

Jackson frowned. “You didn’t want him to know?”

“I did. At first. But then I got a text from him saying that didn’t want to be with me. So I figured if he didn’t want to be with me, he wouldn’t want to be with my baby.”

“I’m sorry that he made you feel that way,” Jackson said, leaning his arms on the counter. “It’s crazy to think we’ve been family this whole time, and I didn’t know.”

“There are only two people in the world who know the truth now,” Charli said. “You and Missy.”

“Missy knows?”

“Of course. She was my best friend, and she was the first person I told when I found out I was pregnant.”

“Where is she these days?”

“I’m not sure where she is right at the moment, since her job has her flying all over the world, but she lives in New York.”

“Did she think you should tell Blake back then?”

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