Page 69 of Inked Devotion

“Yes, but not for a little while. I have to be further along. That’s just going to be so weird. I know we saw Annabelle and Jacob’s, and you saw those two little faces, but it feels real when you look at that. Instead of a blob.”

I snorted. “Yes, it will be a little weird not just seeing a blob. Of course, I used to think babies looked like little aliens until they were around two months old.”

Brenna snorted. “Oh my God, me too. I know people say babies are cute, but not all of them. It takes a while for them to grow into cute. And if you ever tell our friends and family that I said that, I will murder you.”

“Between all of your nieces and nephews, you must have held a lot of babies.”

“My fair share. I need to head out there again soon since my sister’s about to give birth any minute now.”

“You missed the birth of your brother’s kid, right?” I asked, frowning.

Brenna bit her lip, sighed. “Yes, but I’m trying my best to make it to this one. It’s going to get a little more complicated when I’m further along, but with all of my family seemingly having babies one after another, I can’t take as much time off as I would like to since they live on the other side of the country.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” I asked, my voice low.

She blinked and swallowed hard. “You’re welcome to. I mean, you’ve already been there, and they know you, and you did get me knocked up, so they might have questions,” she muttered.

I snorted. “I got the phone call from your brother, your father, and your sisters. Don’t worry. They had questions.”

“I still can’t believe they did that.”

“Of course you believe it. It’s what they do, just like my family. But they weren’t rude about it. Just posturing.”

She shook her head as the waitress came with the check. Her eyes widened as she looked at the sonogram and grinned at the two of us. “Oh, you guys, I’m so happy for you. I didn’t even realize when you had gotten married. Colton hadn’t mentioned it. Congratulations. So many babies in the Montgomerys. That’s wonderful.” She tapped the check on the table, and grinned, and walked away, leaving me shaken.

“I hadn’t realized she had known you were a Montgomery,” Brenna said, her voice soft.

I swallowed hard, took out cash so we wouldn’t have to wait for the credit card to process, and grabbed the bag of leftovers. “Come on. We’ll head out of here.”

“What? Oh, that sounds good. Sure.”

I held back a curse, knowing that when someone thought we were married or had questions about our future, Brenna took two steps back.

I didn’t know when I became the one to think of our relationship as something that needed to move forward, but I was. I was there, and I wanted more. That meant I needed more from Brenna. I just wasn’t sure how to ask her to make that happen.

She was quiet on the car ride back to her place, where I thought I would be spending the night, but after the way she kept looking at me and frowning, I wasn’t sure I would be welcome. She was going to do her best to push me away again. I didn’t know why. Things were working, but maybe I wasn’t what she wanted.

I needed to talk to her tell her what I was thinking. Why did that sound so much easier on paper than it did when it was real life?

I pulled into her driveway and picked up the takeout. Without another word, we walked inside through the garage.

“Benjamin, we need to talk.”

I held back a curse, knowing what was coming. “I should put the food in the refrigerator, so it doesn’t go bad.”

“Okay. This feels so domestic.”

I shook my head, stuffing the bag in the fridge without really caring where it went. “Of course, it looks domestic. We’re having a kid. I’m in your house. That’s domestic.”

“I don’t want to confuse the baby.”

I swallowed hard, knowing where she was going with this. Frankly, I was surprised it hadn’t come up sooner, or that it wasn’t me saying it. “Confuse the baby? Or you.”

“Maybe that’s it, too. I don’t know. But maybe we should stop. Take a step back and realize where we are.”

“Just like that?”

“Maybe it’d be best.”

---