Page 129 of Forking the Billionaire

Sage gave me a warm smile and patted my hand. “Congratulations, Esme.”

I didn’t know if she was congratulating me on the news, or on my newfound courage. Given she already knew I was pregnant, probably both.

“I want to raise my baby here on the island,” I said.

“I volunteer to babysit,” Sage said.

I grinned at her. “Thank you. I’m sure I’ll need you.”

“I’ll teach him to scuba dive.” Ziggy flashed me a nervous smile. “And the drums.”

“Thank you, Ziggy. That’ll be great,” I said. “Before we get that far, I have a problem I need to work out. Jasper’s the father.”

Sage’s eyes twinkled. “The pretty one with the long hair.”

“Yes,” I said. “He found out before I did.”

“How does that work?” Ziggy leaned forward and propped his elbows on the bartop.

They both looked at me with interest and compassion. It felt surprisingly good to have someone to talk to about all of this, and even though I could feel tears pricking at the corners of my eyes, I felt a little lighter than I had before.

“Well, there was a costume party, and I didn’t know it was him, and then later on he saw the costume in my closet,” I said.

“So he put it together. Then what?” Sage asked.

“He didn’t tell me,” I said.

“Sounds like you found out,” Sage said. “Since you know he’s the father.”

“Yeah, after the wedding. He let it slip,” I said, and my heart broke a little more at the memory.

I could still see the fear in his eyes when he’d thought I lost the baby. I could see the confusion and hurt when I’d told him to leave me alone.

“How much time passed between when he found out and when he told you?” Ziggy asked.

“A day,” I said, knowing it didn’t sound that bad. “But he should have said something right away.”

“One day?” Sage said.

“And that day was your brother’s wedding?” Ziggy asked.

“Well, yes,” I said. “There wasn’t really a good opportunity to talk about it during the wedding, but?—”

“You think he should have told you as soon as he found out.” Sage nodded.

“Yes,” I said.

“I don’t know. That’s pretty big news to try and process. Maybe he needed some time,” Ziggy said.

Which was pretty much what Jasper had said.

“But he wouldn’t have told me if it hadn’t slipped,” I said.

“Are you sure about that?” Sage asked.

“He looks at you like you’re the sun and moon and all the stars,” Ziggy said. “I saw him. It’s part of why I….”

He shot a side-eye glance toward Sage, then cleared his throat.

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