Page 20 of One More Chance

Except when she reached to cut her steak and saw the pink dot on the inside of her arm, with slightly blue bruising on one side of it.

She sighed. “I really want to know what’s going on.”

“We know you lost time, and we know someone else unloaded the groceries, cleaned up the mess of shredded paper the cat made, and shut her in the closet.”

“Making it look like I just came home and took a nap.” She ate a bite of steak that was groanworthy. “Which makes me wonder if that’s happened any other times in the past two months.”

He ate a bite of his meal, saying nothing. Enjoying the silence, or not wanting to start a fight. Life wasn’t ever going to be perfect, but talking it through was better than not. Right?

She glanced over. “What are you thinking?”

Jax took a sip of his beer and sat back in the chair. “It’s easier to keep it to myself rather than unload and cause you to have to carry that weight along with everything else.”

“I want to know.”

“And I don’t want to burden you with my issue.”

That was going to put them at an impasse. There was no resolution to both of them wanting to support the other but going about it differently. Their intentions were for good for each other. They just disagreed on how to go about it.

“I feel good today. Better than I have in weeks.” Kenna leaned back in her chair, shifting her knees toward him so she faced him a little better. “You, a great meal, and the sunset. Hit me with it. I want to know how you’re doing with all this.”

He stared at her. “You’re going to think I’m crazy.”

“With our lives? I find that unlikely.” She smiled.

He smiled back, but it didn’t last long. “I was…actually kind of hoping.” He paused. “That you were pregnant.”

“With aDominatusbaby?”

He shrugged.

“You were hoping I was having a baby.” Having a child might not be conducive to the kind of life she lived, working cases. Not being on the road all the time, settling here, had changed things. But did that mean she was ready?

Maybe she would never feel ready to go down that road.

He asked, “Why not?”

Kenna chuckled. “There are always reasons why not.”

“And a whole lot of reasons why as well. There are a lot of reasons for and against it. Ours. Theirs. It’s an innocent baby that deserves to be safe and cared for.”

“Doesn’t mean we have to jump into that right away. If we have kids, I should probably retire from private investigation. Become a consultant or something.”

“You wanna get a nine-to-five gig?”

She shrugged. Her thoughts went to those kids from the medical center this morning. They’d need to be taken care of now that their mother was—hopefully, for their good—out of the picture. “Maybe we could adopt.”

“I’ve thought about that.” Something shifted in his expression, and he looked almost nervous when he asked, “Were you hoping that youweren’tpregnant?”

She would’ve been actively preventing it now that they were married, but the risk to a baby in the event she’d been impregnated by her enemies meant her options were limited. “I was prepared to embrace it if it happened. Even knowing it would be a child that was genetically altered like me. No way was I going to let an innocent baby suffer just because they wanted me as an incubator. I would’ve given my life to protect that child. And knowing them, it would have been a very real possibility.”

“There’s a whole lot of honor in you, Kenna Jaxton.”

Her lips curled up at the edges. “Unless I’m fed up and tired and, let’s face it, probably hungry andso overthe whole thing. In which case, you’ll find me all up in their faces screaming bloody murder about how they’re ruining my happily ever after, controlling my life, and I don’t like any of it.”

“You’re better at living in the moment and rolling with the punches than anyone I know.”

She wrinkled her nose, taking a sip from her soda can. “I don’t want to get punched anymore. I’ve had enough punches.” She glanced at him. “Isn’t life just supposed to be plain sailing after you get married? I didn’t think I got the angst and problems package. Did you?”

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