Page 14 of So That Happened

Which, I must say, I’m rather okay with at the moment.

“Yes, heaven forbid we’relate. But you know how it is in the early days—you can’t keep your hands off each other.” I chuckle lightly, patting Liam’s taut stomach, a move that perhaps goes against my better judgment. “But you two have a good honeymoon.” I wiggle my fingers at the happy couple. “Sayonara, then.”

Ugh. I have never once used this in parting. What is wrong with me?

Before I can embarrass myself further, Liam takes my elbow and directs me towards the front desk. Away from whatever… that was.

“Babe?” I grin up at him, the bubbling laughter rising in my throat. “Really?”

“I could ask the same thing, MissSayonara.” He gives me a glare so powerful, it makes my knees wobbly. Then, he turns away and continues his frog-march across the lobby with frightening purpose.

Rosemary and Mildred are waiting for us at the reception, and Rosemary looks positively giddy. She’s flushed like a school girl. “That happened even quicker than anticipated. I knew I could spot a match when I saw one.”

Liam looks at her in horror and drops my elbow like it’s covered in leprosy.

Me? I hold my breath until Justin ushers Veronica and his unborn offspring into an elevator. Once the doors close, I let out a trembling whoosh of air and turn to Liam. “Thank you. You saved me back there.”

He grunts in response.

Of course he does.

But, lucky for me, he doesn’t ask me for an explanation. Which means that I don’t have to declare myself crazy just yet.

“We’re off to our room,” Rosemary announces, then gives me a strange, fluttering, blinky-wink that makes her look like she’s having a stroke…

Oh my gosh, I hope she’s not having a stroke!

I step forward, hands out. “Rosemary! Are you okay?”

“Never better. Good night, you two!”

And just like that, the spasm-y winks stop. She and her sister head to the elevators, all smiles.

Weird.

I watch them curiously as the doors shut on their smiling faces, then rub my temples in slow, steady circles as the weight of what just happened finally hits me.

Veronica is pregnant. Pregnant enough that my mind is a mess of numbers and dates that tell me something I really, really do not want to know. After I threw that awful pity-invite to their wedding in the trash—actually, crammed it down the garbage disposal just to see it get shredded to a pulp—I fervently wished to never see either of them again.

But I guess you can’t have everything.

“Care to enlighten me as to what on earth just happened?” Liam’s deep voice pulls me from my spiral.

So much for getting away without an explanation. I wonder if he’d accept “clinically insane” or “I blacked out for a minute.”

I still can’t bring myself to look at him. To face those dark, mysterious eyes, that brooding expression. I shrug a shoulder. “Ex and new wife. Did not, however, know that new wife was bearing his child.”

Liam shifts next to me and I finally look at him. He’s gazing towards the elevators, and for a moment, I swear I see a touch of softness move over his expression. But then, it clears and he nods curtly.

“Right, what’s the hold up?” he grumbles, turning to the reception desk. “You’d think these people were checking in an entire baseball stadium with how long this is taking. Can only hope that the people who work here are more competent than the AmeriJet staff. If I had—”

“Annie Jacobs,” the receptionist calls.

Hmm. Maybe Liam’s incessant grumbling really works.

“That’s me!” I stride towards the desk.

“Great. You’re the last two to check in,” he says, looking from me to Liam. “One key or two?”

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