Page 79 of Accidental Vegas Vows

My brows furrowed. “Why didn’t you come get me? I could have done that.”

“You’re… busy.”

I scrubbed at my face. She had a point, even if she was wrong. I’d finished work hours ago. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“I’ll probably be up for another couple of hours,” she said, one hand encompassing the other’s wrist. She rubbed at it nervously. “If you’ve got a minute, I really need to speak with you.”

She wants to ask about the papers. Avoid it. “Yeah, of course. I’ll be down in a little bit,” I said.

As if they were on fire, I could physically feel their presence in the drawer beside my right thigh, along with the box I kept hidden at the very back. It burned me, made me want to shrink down and bury myself inside the drawer so I could go up in flames alongside it. I’d been feeding her excuse after excuse, hiding from her, pulling myself away from her so I wouldn’t have to face her asking about it. But it would come. And I’d burn.

“I am sorry,” I repeated, hoping another apology would make both of us feel better.

She nodded again. “Have you heard from Ethan?”

Sweat broke out across every inch of my skin. “No,” I lied.

“Not at all?”

“Not about the annulment,” I clarified, my mouth feeling like I’d swallowed a mouthful of fucking sand. “He’ll tell me the moment he gets them back. And I’ll tell you.”

She hesitated in the doorway, her gaze locked on mine. “Okay,” she sighed.

And then she was gone.

Chapter 31

Olivia

The morning sickness was too much for me.

I’d told my manager I’d be working from home the moment I woke up. For the first time in the last week since I’d found out, I was actually relieved that Damien hadn’t been in bed beside me this morning. He didn’t notice how quickly I’d run to the bathroom, didn’t notice the retching sounds as I spilled stomach acid into the toilet, didn’t notice how pale my face had gone. I wasn’t even sure if he’d made it to the bedroom at all last night.

I’d sent him a text letting him know, too, that I wouldn’t be in the office today. I’d offered to get Noah after school instead of having Caroline take him for the afternoon, but Lucas and him had already made plans to finish their video game, so I let that go.

I could handle a day on my own, lost in my own head. I’d been in my head for days with Damien being so busy, anyway.

It had taken me a week to come to terms with the pregnancy and telling Damien. Sophie was right — it wasn’t okay for me to keep it from him like Marissa did. I’d decided I’d tell him once things settled, maybe even after the custody hearing, when another stressor on his plate wouldn’t make him explode. I’d deal with the consequences then.

The whirr of the printer on the other side of my home office brought me back into my body and away from my mind. Page after page of environmental reports printed, and once I realized just how many pages it was, I searched for my stapler.

Odd. It should be right…there.

Where the fuck was my stapler?

I pushed my rolling chair back and popped my earbuds out. The silence of Damien’s too-large house was shockingly unsettling — I was so used to having at least the steady hum of children’s cartoons in the background while I worked. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d stayed home without Noah around, and the more that I considered it, it might have actually been the first time.

I slipped from my chair and looked through my filing cabinet, checked my drawers, checked each shelf of the bookshelves Damien had recently installed. I couldn’t remember ever opening the closet in here, but I also had pregnancy brain and wouldn’t have put it past myself to forget that, so I checked there, too.

Coming up thoroughly empty-handed, I almost gave up. I could have just held the stacks together with smaller sized binder clips, but the temptation to abandon my work for a couple of minutes to get to the bottom of my mini-mystery was too tempting. I could use a break and maybe a snack, if my stomach would allow for it.

Rounding the open office door on the top floor, I made my way past useless rooms that sat unfurnished and forgotten, save for Damien’s home gym. For a moment, just a fleeting, passing second, I let myself envision what I’d do with them if I lived here more than I already did. If the planets aligned and Damien wanted me and the clump of cells growing inside of me, and wanted me to stay…

I’d start by turning what was considered “my” room on the second floor into a nursery.

I’d move my things into Damien’s room, and Noah could sleep next door to his little brother or sister, close enough that I wouldn’t need to worry too much and far enough that we would still have our privacy.

As I took the stairs down to the second floor, my footsteps echoing in the eerie quiet, I considered turning one of the third floor rooms into a playroom for Noah and the baby. But the thought of us being downstairs and them being so far away seemed daunting, so my mind shifted, turning, tearing down the wall that divided the two unused rooms and redecorating it entirely. Damien’s home office could move up there instead of being on the ground floor, and we could turn his office into a playroom instead. No stairs needed.

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