Page 51 of Keep Me Close

ChapterTwenty

Hallie

I ran my fingers through my hair, tousling it lightly. With a sigh, I dropped my hands and rolled my eyes at my reflection in the mirror. I had a forty-five-minute drive ahead of me. Whatever I did to my hair wasn’t going to make a difference.

I took a shaky breath, letting it out quickly. My eyes dropped down to the now visible curve of my belly. My regular jeans didn't fit anymore. I was wearing a blouse with a soft and stretchy tank top. I experienced a little thrill the other day when I'd gone into the maternity shop to buy some clothes. It was a small thing, but I hadn't thought I would be able to do that in my life.

With another mental shake, I turned and left the bathroom, switching off the lights and grabbing my backpack. Chase had invited me to stay for the weekend. He’d explained his house wasn't completely finished, but he was living in a small cabin he planned to use as a rental after he finished building his house.

With Chase, it felt as if I were riding a roller coaster, one of those drop ones where you plummet from the sky and scream. I was falling for him, and I didn't know what to think about that. That very night we'd first spent together, I'd known it was a risk because everything had felt so good and almost too easy. I thought back to another relationship where I'd really wanted things to work. It was with my friend, and everything had been easy, except the chemistry. I laughed to myself. We'd never even gotten past a kiss before we acknowledged that it just wasn'tthatfor us.

I was so happy for him. He knew what he wanted, and it wasn't women. As I started my drive to Willow Brook, I tapped my dashboard to call.

Jonathan answered on the third ring. “Hey, Hallie girl!”

“Hey, Jonathan, how are you?”

“Doing well. How are you?”

“I'm driving.”

“To where?”

“Willow Brook.” Just saying that sent a little jolt of anxiety through me.

“Ah, you’re visiting the lucky guy.”

“Do you think?” I asked, trying to keep my tone light. I didn’t want towantChase so much.

“Hallie, of course he's lucky. You're my best friend, and I really wanted to fall in love with you.”

We laughed together. “It wasn't meant to be,” I added.

“How's the pregnancy going?”

“Good. I think. I'm showing.”

“Seriously? When can I see you?” he demanded.

Jonathan lived in Seattle now, but he used to live in Anchorage. “I don't know. When are you coming up because I'm not flying down to Seattle anytime soon?”

He chuckled. “I’ll keep you posted on when we might travel.”

“How is the pregnancy for your surrogate going?”

“Really well. I know all the details. I could ask you all the questions about your doctor's appointments and how you're feeling. Do you realize we’re having babies only two months apart? They can be best friends. Maybe they can get married, no matter their gender. It's irrelevant.”

We burst out laughing. “Maybe.”

“Speaking of travel, we're thinking about moving back to Anchorage.”

“Are you really?”

“Yeah, we love it here, but both of us have jobs that can travel because they're primarily online.”

“You know I'd love that.”

“We’re doing the family chats on it, and we’d love to make it happen. Speaking of moving, where do you plan to live when you have the baby?”

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