Page 88 of Trouble

“And?” Liam asked. I could tell by the agitated energy emanating from him by my side that he was doing everything he could to rein himself in and let her tell us at her own pace,too.

“Remember that last afternoon? In theshack?”

I blinked at the subject change—and at her flushedcheeks.

“When we fucked?” Liam askedbluntly.

Her blush deepened. “Yes.”

“What aboutit?”

“God, how can you be so calm talking about that?” she asked. Clearlystalling.

“Love, are you going to tell us what’s up or do we have to force it out of you?” I asked, too nervous to let her get to the point at her ownpace.

“I’m pregnant.” The words rushed out of her mouth, a mix of relief and anxiety on her taut face as she looked atus.

I stared blankly at her. Somewhere, a buzzing sound made its way into myconscience.

“I didn’t exactly get to pack birth control before we left for Wales, and if I recall correctly, no one thought about condoms. I guess it’s not the first thing one thinks of when fleeing for your life.” Audrey’s voice was higher pitched than normal, her hands rubbing up and down her knees as if she needed something to do with them to not fallapart.

“You’repregnant?”Liam asked, sounding about as dumbfounded as I felt. “FromWales?”

“Well, yeah. It’s the only time we haven’t… used protection.” She refused to meet oureyes.

Pregnant.Our girl was pregnant. Flashes of Marcus’ proud smile as he showed off Evelyn’s baby bump made its way past the weird buzzing sound, drowning it out as my pulse picked up until it thundered in my ears. I could feel a slow smile of my own spread across my face, wide and tight as something that felt an awful lot like happiness bubbled in mygut.

Shit. I was going to be someone’s father. Some poor fucking kid was going to grow up with me and Liam as rolemodels.

I kept waiting for the panic to set in, but it didn’t. Only this slow, creeping sense of complete and utter elation that slowly filled me up from the bottom of my toes up through my body until it finally reached myheart.

“Audrey—”

“Iknow!”she said, despair in her voice. “I know it’s fucked up. That this makes things a hundred times worse foryou.”

“Audrey—”

“But I’m keeping it, so don’t even ask. If you want nothing to do with it, that’s your choice. I don’t want anything from you. This is my choice, and mybaby.”

“Audrey!”Liam snapped, finally managing to force her eyes to lift to his. They flickered from him to me and back again, and I could see fear plain as day in those dark pools. But also grimdetermination.

“It’s not your baby,” I said as I got to my feet. By my side, Liam mirrored my movements. “It’sours.”

“That’s the bloody problem, isn’t it!” she said, her voice definitely pitching toward hysterics. “I don’t know who of you… and there’s no way we’lleverfind out! Did you know a paternity test can’t distinguish between identical twins? There is literally no way of knowing which of you is the father to this child. So I absolve you of any responsibility toward it—you don’t have to go through that pain. We’ll befine.”

“Do you really think that little of us?” Liam murmured as he stepped around the right side of the coffee table to be by herside.

“That we would abandon a pregnant bird and our baby?” I continued, stepping around the left side. We both reached for her, but she flinchedaway.

“Don’t,” she said, trying to pull away, but neither of us were having it. We stepped in, trapping her between us, and simultaneously wrapped our arms aroundher.

The moment she felt our bodies press against her, whatever had been keeping her together crumbled to dust. She sagged between us, and this awful, broken sob tore out of herthroat.

“Audrey,” I murmured, tightening my hold on her so I could rest my head againsthers.

“Don’t cry, love,” Liam said. “This is happynews.”

“Happy?” she hiccuped. “I don’t even know whose name I’ll write on the birthcertificate!”

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