Page 34 of Dirty Grovel

I wait by the pool until Oleg returns with my towel. He tosses it to me instead of handing it over, like he doesn’t want to venture too close.

“Thank you.”

“No problem,” he says, before jumping right back into the pool.

But he doesn’t start swimming like I expect him to.

He leans against the side, both arms draped up on either side as he faces me.

I wonder if it’s possible for us to have a normal conversation anymore.

Or is our every interaction going to be marred by the undercurrent of uncertainty and mistrust?

I’m just about to test that theory when Oleg’s phone starts vibrating against the glass-topped side table next to one of the pool chairs.

He hoists himself out of the pool the same way I did earlier—his ass is also easy to admire—and goes to retrieve it.

I have no idea what the call is about. He talks in rapid-fire Russian and when he’s done, he grabs his own towel and hangs it around the back of his neck.

“I have to head out for a bit,” he says. “I’ll see you later.”

“Oh. Okay.”

I’m actually a little disappointed.

For a moment there, it felt like we could find some sense of familiarity between us again.

“I’m going to go to the doctor’s today,” I blurt at his back.

He stops short and glances back over his shoulder. “Yes, I heard. You’ll be taking the paternity test, I assume?”

Disappointment curls in my stomach. Along with a good side of anger.

“As you ordered.”

Oleg’s eyes go cold. “Good. Because your week’s almost up.”

He strides away and I’m left standing there, watching him go, wondering where the Oleg I first got to know is.

He must be in there somewhere…

Just not for me.

“How was it?” Jesse asks the moment I rock up to the playground where she and Teo are waiting for me.

“It was… surreal,” I mumble, thinking about the moment when I heard my baby’s heartbeat for the first time.

It was so loud.

So bold.

Sitting there alone in the doctor’s office, it hit me for the first time.

I’m having a baby.

“I felt the same way when the doctor confirmed my pregnancy,” Jesse says. “Like my whole life was about to change, but in a good way.”

“You weren’t scared?”

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