Page 16 of His Best Man's Baby

“Yes, they do,” Tae agreed.

Susan chattered away, and Tae let her gaze wander to Jax. While she watched him, Jax stood and held up his glass. Tae realized servers had come around and provided everyone with champagne. She raised her own along with everyone else, and Jax started his speech. His deep voice rumbled over the audience, pitched to reach her in the back. He had dressed in a dark tux and crisp maroon shirt, with matching handkerchief. His bearing made ghosts of all the groomsmen. As she raised her glass to her lips following Jax’s lead, she noticed a lock of hair fall onto his forehead. A memory flashed through her mind, of her running her fingers through his hair last night while he wore her body out. She choked on the sip of champagne and pounded her chest.

“Are you okay, dear?” Susan asked.

Eyes watering, Tae forced a smile. “I’m fine. Thank you.” She peered back at Jax and found him watching her, his expression unreadable. The woman beside him, the maid of honor whose name Tae promptly forgot when she was introduced, grabbed his arm and leaned forward to show off her cleavage. She said something to Jax, and he allowed himself to be distracted by her. Of course. That was Jax. No one wom

an could keep his attention.

The evening wore on, and Tae made the best of it. She managed to find interesting topics of conversations with Susan and discovered the baked chicken, her choice for dinner, turned out to be delicious. Afterward, the dancing began, and when Daniel took Alise into his arms, she slipped away, went to her room to pack, and checked out of the hotel. The trip home included a stop at the grocery store for a big box of Frosted Flakes, tissues, and a DVD that no one had ever heard of from the magazine aisle.

Chapter Six

Eight weeks later…

“No, no, no, no!” Tae texted. “This can’t be happening, Zerita, and why aren’t you here? I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“You’re not going to make any rash decisions.”

“You don’t understand.”

Tae studied the stick again as she’d done a million times before. Nothing had changed. The evil device still read positive. She threw it across the bathroom, and it landed behind the toilet. Her cell phone buzzed, but she ignored it and set her head down on her arm as she leaned on the sink. Nausea rolled her stomach, an occurrence that had been happening too often lately. That along with the fact that she hadn’t seen her damn period for a couple months had forced her to come out of denial and go get a pregnancy test. Now the truth stared her in the face, or it did before she slung it away.

Her cell phone buzzed twice more, and she reached for it.

“Tae, I’m going to get out of this meeting as soon as I can. Promise me you won’t be reckless.”

“Apparently, I’ve already been reckless.”

“Okay, we’ll have the pity party a few more hours, and then that’s it.”

Despite her dark mood, Tae laughed. Leave it to Zerita not to bite her tongue.

“I deserve my pity party. My life is over.”

“Dramatic much?”

Tears filled Tae’s eyes, and she swiped them away. Her friend attended an out of town meeting for the writers of her magazine, so of course Tae would learn of her pregnancy at the worst possible time. She set the phone down and turned on the faucet to wash her hands and then splash water on her face. The cool liquid did nothing to lower her temperature or restore her mood. She turned from the sink and dried her hands, then headed for the kitchen. In her cabinet sat two big boxes of cereal, but corn flakes would not fix this issue.

Ice cream. She frowned, wondering at the sudden craving, not being a big ice-cream eater. Still, right now she wanted a turtle waffle bowl sundae with a chocolate-dipped cone, pecans, and caramel syrup. Making it herself was out of the question because it meant going to the grocery store to first buy the ingredients and then preparing the dessert. No, she needed a shop with the treat on the menu. None were nearby. Come to think of it, there was a Dairy Queen in South Park she could go to. The twenty-minute drive would be worth it to drown her sorrows in sugary goodness.

Halfway to the ice cream shop, Tae’s craving switched to cheesecake, and she grumbled her way to South Park mall to the restaurant with the best cheesecake to be had. She found a parking space in the busy lot and strode into the restaurant and ordered two slices of the red-velvet cheesecake. Since the day mocked her with its warm sunshine, she took her treat outside and stuffed bite after bite of the creaminess into her mouth.

“PMSing?” came the amused comment.

Tae froze, fork halfway to her mouth. She turned slowly and looked up. Of all people, Daniel stood smiling over her and blocking out the sun. She’d forgotten how sometimes when she was PMSing, Daniel drove her to the mall or to Dairy Queen to get something sweet. She’d made a poor choice coming over this way, nearer to where he lived, and the thought that maybe she’d done so on purpose made the decision worse. Her appetite disappeared in a blink, and she sat up straighter in her chair, placing her fork down on the table. “Shouldn’t you be on your honeymoon?”

He chuckled and sat down in the chair next to her. “We’ve been back a while. Can’t stay on vacation forever.”

What had she been thinking? The wedding took place two months ago. She’d been busy incubating Jax’s baby. At the thought, her mood plummeted even more. Daniel reached out and covered her hand. Her fingers spasmed beneath his, and she pulled them free to clutch in her lap.

“What’s wrong, Tae?”

She closed the lid on the cheesecake and stuffed the container in the bag along with the other slice. “Nothing. I’m great. How’s married life treating you?”

Concern wrinkled the spot between his eyebrows. Her heart stirred. She suppressed the sensation and looked away, but Daniel wouldn’t be put off.

“Something’s upsetting you. Tell me about it.”

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