Page 22 of Amor Prohibido

Job.

Done.

Oh god, now I was gonna be sick. Clutching my stomach, I panted through the unease while ignoring Mama’s stunned silence.

“Jace?You don’t mean JasonMalone? Kath and Kip’s Jace?”

I cringed. “Yes, yes, andyes.”

Fuck, fuck, andfuck.

“¡Señor ten piedad! [Lord have mercy!],” Mama exclaimed, shaking her head slowly as she digested the news.

“I know, Mama. I’m really sorry. I know we’ve both let everyone down but—”

She jumped to her feet and threw her hands in the air in what looked to be a hallelujah. “Señor ten piedad. Kath and I are going to beabuelas?”She all but squealed and flapped her hands like a hummingbird.

“Mama! Are you actually celebrating right now? This is not the time to be getting excited about cashing in your abuela card. What am I going todo?”I cried.

“Oh, my sweet Jacquelyn,” Mama gushed, blatantly ignoring the one rule I wouldn’t budge on—using my full name.

“Jax,” I corrected her.

She took my face in her hands and squeezed the shit out of my cheeks. “Oh, mi bebé is having un bebé! You had me worried out of my skin. But with Jason being el papá del bebé… It could have been so much worse!”

I gulped. “No, Mama, this isn’t ayaysituation. This is an ‘Oh shit what have we done?’situation. Jace isn’t going to want this as a reminder of his drunken mistake.” Dammit, I hadn’t meant to let that slip.

She inhaled sharply. “What? You were both...drunk?He didn’t force you, did he?”

Aaaaand, we were back to concerned Mama. I ignored her ludicrous question. Sure, the memory was a little hazy, but Jace sure as hell hadn’t forced himself on me.

“I’m sorry, Mami,” was all I could say. She clasped my hands again, but remained silent. “We’re not dating, so I don’t even know if he wants to be… involved… with any of this,” I murmured.

“Oh, mijita, worse things have happened at sea. I promise you, what will be will be. When are you going to tell him? You know the longer you leave it, the harder it gets.”

I sighed heavily. “I know.” The mere thought of what I needed to do weighed profoundly on my shoulders again. “I’m just not ready yet.”

EIGHT

JAX

I put off the dreaded talk with Jace for three more days. It was a train wreck waiting to happen.

Mama rung me every day to check if I was okay, and I had even briefly spoken to Papi yesterday when I called the house. He was unhappy about the situation, but at least today he’d asked how I was doing.

It seemed like now my little secret was partially out in the open, the morning sickness erupted in full force… literally. Hugging the porcelain bowl was not my idea of being classy, though I clung to it like my life depended on it.

According to Dr Google, I was about six weeks and four days along and this was around the time the pregnancy hormones really began to ramp up. Right now, I believed it; they were kicking my ass.

Struggling out to the kitchen table, I plopped into the seat and crunched down more ice cubes while my mouth contorted in a permanent nauseated grimace. I hadn’t been able to face anything else apart from carrot sticks, but those had just been evacuated, so for now I was back to ice.

Feeling unreasonably abandoned and alone, I decided the time had come to make the dreaded call to Jace.

Just seeing his name on my phone made my unease multiply. I hovered a finger over the call button for a second before jabbing at it. My body refused to breathe as I silently prayed for Jace to miss my call.

“Jax! Um, hi,” his surprised and wary voice swam through the phone into my ear.

Oh fuck. I can’t do this.

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