Page 12 of Capitally Unexpected

Jax reaches down to squeeze my hand. “That might be an anecdote for your therapist, not for a party.” Her words have a teasing lilt to them, and I know if I actually needed to talk about the way pregnancy is twisting up feelings about my mom, she’ll listen. She already has, more times than she should need to, in the last few weeks. My therapist found a slot for me to bump up to weekly sessions starting this week, so I’ll have another outlet soon.

“A good note. This is why you’re the writer, and I read off a teleprompter.”

“I mean, you write those forecasts and then read them.”

“And have them approved ahead of time by an old white man,” I grumble. “Okay, see, there I go again. I’m going to the bathroom now and when I come out, I will be a less grumpy, more charming Michelle.”

Jax points around the corner. “My bathroom sense is tingling and saying it’s around that corner there.”

“I’m so glad you use your powers for good and not evil.” Jax lives with irritable bowel syndrome and has developed an uncanny knack for finding a bathroom in a place she’s never been before.

“Toilets might say otherwise,” she says with a wink before shooing me. “Didn’t you really have to pee?”

The urge comes back, stronger than before, and I speed walk my way around the corner, saying a quick thanks when I find it unoccupied. I take a quick moment of peace to check my email. Ignore the one from my boss. Star the follow up from the baby proofing consult Jax and I did this afternoon, gifted by Laurel and Caitlin frighteningly fast after I told them the news. Apparently, Caitlin “knew someone.” I swipe through more junk, before an email from Tinder pauses my thumb.Subject Line: Lonely Long Weekend? It doesn’t have to be. Reactivate today. A huff of a laugh escapes before I swipe it into trash too. It’ll be a good long time before I’m ready to swipe on profiles instead of emails. Maybe eighteen years plus thirty weeks.

After I wash my hands, I tug on my dress. My body doesn’t look much different yet. I’ve gotten questions if I was pregnant long before the two lines on the backup tests appeared. People don’t know how to handle themselves when women’s bodies don’t conform to “normal” standards. I know I can’t hide being pregnant forever. But along the same lines of people not keeping their opinions about my body to themselves, I know intrusive inappropriate questions will be lobbed my way on the regular once people find out. I’m not ready.

I swing the door open and jump to find Jax leaning against the wall. “You jinxed me,” she teases. “Preston’s right around the corner talking to Hayden and Hayden’s girlfriend, Charlotte. He’ll protect you until I’m done.” With that, she locks herself in the bathroom.

Sometimes, it’s easy to forget Jax and I have only known each other for ten weeks. A personal crisis each can do that for a friendship. But it also means I don’t know all of her people yet. She promised she wouldn’t abandon me when I tried to beg off coming tonight, making a case I can’t hide away for the next thirty weeks.

I spot Preston, as promised, by the snack table. My eyes scan the rest of the crowd while I walk, seeing if there’s anyone else I know when I hear it. A laugh I last heard right next to my ear, from the pillow beside me. My head whips toward the sound, and I stop dead when I see the man Preston’s talking to. He looks exactly like ... I shake my head and blink my eyes a few times. A man by the grill yells “Hayden,” and the guy who looks just like my Bonnie, RidgeMan93, lifts his beer in acknowledgment. The arm he raises is bare of both sleeves and tattoos, and my heart sinks when I realize it can’t be him.

Preston spots me and comes over to give me a hug. “While it’s the two of us, how did the appointment go?”

I force myself to focus on the man in front of me instead of staring at the one-night stand lookalike apparently named Hayden. “It was great. Really helpful. They reassured me the second room is plenty big enough for everything the baby needs for at least a few years. In my rational mind, I knew it would be, but it’s helpful to hear from experts. They also ...” I trail off as I take in Preston’s face. The features seem more familiar now than they ever did before.

“Also?” He prompts me to continue.

“Also recommended everything I would need to make the place baby proof.” I finish my train of thought. “All in all, really helpful.”

“Well, that’s great,” Preston says. “I’m glad you can stay put. I know moving is stressful enough without everything else. At least it’s not twins, huh?”

At the word “twins,” my spine stiffens, remembering something Jax mentioned about the Brandt brothers. Preston confirms it an instant later.

“Luckily, Mom and Dad already had two kids’ worth of stuff when Hayden and Hunter came along. Hey, you okay? You’re pale all of a sudden. Do you need some water?”

“Sure, that would be great. Do you mind grabbing me some? I think I need to go to the bathroom again.” Somehow, I manage to not sputter like my brain is exploding, which it absolutely is. Preston walks away, presumably to get me water, because he follows through like that. I race around the corner and find the “In Use” placard on the lock.

“Jax?” I call through the door.

“Be right out,” she replies.

I rest my back against the wall. The door opens a few seconds later and Jax comes to stand in front of me.

“Shit, Michelle, are you okay? You look like a ghost.”

I laugh, wincing at the slightly hysterical nature of the sound. “You and Preston are really meant for each other. He’ll be finding us with water in a second. But first, the day we met, we went to brunch and then that lingerie store. Was Hunter in town?”

Jax thinks for a moment, a confused look on her face. “Yeah, actually he was. He came to the river clean up earlier that day. Why?”

I laugh again, this one tinged with a little bit of a sob. “It’s a really fucking small world, that’s why. We better go out before Preston comes looking.”

“Wait. Do you think ... Hunter is the father?” she whisper yells, starting after me.

“I about had a heart attack when I heard Hayden’s laugh out there. My heart definitely stopped when I saw the person the laugh belongs to. Then Preston reminded me Hayden has a twin. So, unless there’s a third Brandt brother who looks exactly like them, I think there’s a really good chance.”

“Michelle,” Jax whisper screams again as we round the corner. “Hunter is?—”

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