Page 85 of Twins For My Bestie's Brother

Lily and I are quiet.

“And right there . . . ” She points to another little thrumming heartbeat. “It’s twins. Accounts for your elevated hCG levels and . . . ”

“Twins?” Lily asks. “Like t-two?”

“Exactly two,” Dr. Hannon says with a chuckle.

I cover my mouth and start to laugh as well. It’s the shock. We’ve gone from worrying we’re losing one baby to having two.

Maybe the universeison my side.

Lily’s pale as a ghost. “What are we going to do?”

I smooth my hand over her forehead, my eyes flooding with tears. “We’re going to be just fine, Lil. I promise. I’m going to be right here.”

“Here, let’s . . . ” She turns up a dial on her control panel and the grainy sound of a heartbeat emerges from the machine. My own heart lodges in my throat.

“If you listen close, you can hear the echo of the second heart. Listen.”

It takes a few seconds, but I hear it, each beat followed by a distant matching one. Two babies.

Tears spill down Lily’s face again, but this time, there is no sense of fear. Just joy. She touches my cheek and smiles.

And suddenly, things aren’t moving too fast.

Everything is just right.

Chapter 27

Lily

Waiting until twelve weeks is desperately difficult, but after the close call with the possible miscarriage, I didn’t want to get anyone else’s hopes up, especially not when we have double the babies on the way. It’s a secret for the two of us. Well, and Kayla, but that was unavoidable.

Things just . . . fell into place after that night in the emergency room. Apologies were exchanged, and tears were shed, and then the future unrolled before us.

We’re going to be parents. And while I certainly saw more time passing before babies were in the cards, I know that this is exactly right. Just as everything has been since the very first kiss. There have been some hiccups, sure, but that’s life, isn’t it?

So, we continue on as we have, as if Banff never happened. Danforth calls from time to time, but Jackson never picks it up. I feel bad for cutting his project off at the legs, but not that bad, considering all the hoops he was going to jump through to make things convenient for Danforth. Plus, we’ve got so much to get ready over the next six months.

The plans for the tattoo parlor move forward. We’ve settled on a name, Wild Bloom Ink, and I already have a few apprentices on the docket. When Jackson isn’t tinkering with the business side of Wild Bloom, he’s going overboard on preparing for fatherhood. He goes to sleep scrolling through parenting blogs, reading about the best kinds of cribs and secrets to parenting twins. He’s seemingly dedicated his life to me.

Jackson and I move in together which seems like the next natural step for everyone around us. Oh, if they knew how backward things were . . .

I don’t mind though. Being apart from Jackson feels impossible right now. He’s my security, the father of my children, and the love of my life. When I’m at work, I feel like I’m teetering on losing it without him nearby, which I guess I can chalk up to all these hormones which are double the trouble thanks to the twins.

Tonight, though, is finally the day we get to tell my parents. Officially day one of my second trimester. No more secrets, no more bulky clothing to hide myslightbump, no more fear all this joy will get snatched out from under us.

The world gets to finally know I’m going to be a mom.

I stand at the bathroom mirror, popping my bumblebee earrings in. Jackson strides into the room, doing up his tie in a Windsor knot with such grace it’s like he came out of the womb knowing how to do it.

“Really? A tie?”

He grins. “It’s an important occasion. Besides . . . ” Jackson comes right up to me and cages me from behind against the stove. He slides his hands around my stomach which has markedly grown in the past five weeks. It’s not quite obvious yet, but it’s getting there. “I have to try and measure up to you. Tie’s the least I can do.”

Jackson kisses my neck as I finish putting in the second earring. His hands create friction against my belly. He knows what it does to me. It’s like a brand-new erogenous zone. When he worships this growing piece of me, I grow feral almost immediately. I grab the edge of the bathroom counter. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I have a gift for you,” he says, planting his hips against my ass. I feel his already full-blown erection.

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