Page 58 of His Christmas Gift

DEAN

Low, droning white noise filled my head as I drove to Jared’s house.

My eyes zoned in on the road so that my focus didn’t slip away. It was hard to focus on anything else other than what just happened at Autumn’s parents’ house. Autumn’s words went around and around in my mind.

Autumn was pregnant. With my baby. We talked about kids, but we didn’t talk about having them together or having them now. It was a rhetorical conversation, but this was an actual situation. I didn’t know what to do or what to even think. I didn’t expect this to happen!

But I knew that Autumn didn’t expect this either. She looked scared and upset, especially with all of those eyes on her. It looked like she wanted to flee, and she ended up doing so. I wanted to go after her, to pull her into my arms and comfort her.

But I froze too. I couldn’t move. When her parents started asking me questions about the baby and what Autumn meant when she said that we weren’t really together, I locked up. I forgot how to properly string a sentence together, and I never did that. I could handle toasts, speeches, and presentations with complete ease. Talking in tense situations was natural to me, but it felt like the hardest thing in the world at that moment.

As much as I wanted to see Autumn and check on her, I didn’t know what to say to her. I was still trying to wrap my mind around everything, and I needed to talk to someone who could help me think straight. I needed to talk to my brothers.

They didn’t even know that I was coming. They would be happy to see me on Christmas, but this wasn’t the surprise that they would be expecting. I hoped that they could tell me something to put me at ease because I could feel myself threatening to spiral. I was a master at being cool and collected, but I didn’t know where that person was right now.

I parked in front of Jared’s house, seeing Aiden and Jenna’s car parked near theirs. Perfect. I could talk to Jared and Aiden at the same time instead of making two trips. I wanted to hear from both of them.

I knocked on the front door and waited, running my hand through my hair and wondering what else could possibly happen today. This was the most interesting Christmas that I had ever experienced, and it wasn’t even over yet.

A few moments later, Jared opened the door, a happily surprised look appearing on his face.

“Hey, man! What a surprise,” he said as he reached out to hug me and pat me on the back.

“Sorry, I should’ve called before coming over,” I told him as I stiffly hugged him back. I hoped that I wasn’t crashing his Christmas, but I just needed to see him and Aiden for a minute.

“Who’s that?” Aiden’s voice sounded somewhere in the house. He then walked into the foyer and grinned at me. “Hey, where’s Autumn?”

The sound of her name made my heart ache. Whenever I thought of her, all I could think about was the devastated look on her face before she fled from the dining table. It looked like her heart broke right then and there, and I would be lying if I said that look on her face didn’t hurt my heart too.

“I… can we talk? Privately?” I asked them, needing to tell them everything. I didn’t want to have this conversation on Jared’s doorstep where anyone could hear me.

Jared immediately frowned, sensing that something was wrong. He led Aiden out of the house, shutting the door behind them. He motioned for us to follow him around the house and through the side gate that led to the backyard. String lights crossed over the yard diagonally, illuminating the space so that we could sit in lawn chairs and talk in privacy.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Jared asked, sounding worried.

I had every reason to worry. The woman that I had been falling in love with was pregnant, and instead of going back to the hotel or talking to me, she decided to shut herself in a room in her parents’ house. She was so distressed that she felt the need to hide from me more than her parents.

“Autumn is pregnant,” I said.

Jared and Aiden both had wide eyes as they stared at me. For the first few moments, the entire backyard was silent. We all just looked at each other, processing the words that I just said. Then, Aiden let out a breath and spoke.

“Well, at least you guys are engaged. You love each other,” he pointed out.

I hung my head and sighed, wishing that things were that simple. Now, I had to explain to my brother how everything was a lie, how we faked an entire relationship to everyone. We were on the home stretch, but nobody saw this curveball coming.

“We’re not really engaged,” I admitted, making them give me confused expressions. I didn’t like saying that Autumn and I were virtually… nothing. We left New York as acquaintances. We hadn’t even been friends at that point. What were we now that the curtain had fallen away and we didn’t have to lie anymore?

“But you’re together?” Jared questioned me.

“No, we lied,” I replied. “We met up in New York after I bought her aunt’s gym. I’m her boss.”

Aiden could only blink in shock as he stared at me. He leaned back in his chair, reeling in everything and trying to make sense of it.

“So, why are you pretending to be together?” he asked.

“Her parents give her grief about everything, especially about not bringing home anyone for the holidays. They want her to have a successful husband, and Autumn didn’t have anyone to bring this year. I offered to go,” I replied.

“Wow. So, everything was fake?” Jared asked. “Because you guys were acting as lovey and touchy as we are with our wives.”

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