Page 29 of Mind Blowing

They said their good-byes and she had all her tears wiped away by the time Jasper stepped back into her tiny empty dorm room.

Their lies were in order. Eachfamily fooled into thinking something that wasn’t entirely true. Guilt gnawed at her gut, but their deceit was necessary.

She didn’t know how she felt about the pregnancy,andshe didn’t know how to handle the way she felt about Jasper.

Callahan had never feltsounsettled before,and the tears kept threatening to fall.

Chapter Nineteen

Jasper

They took two separate cars to Haxton, Riley and Blake in one, and him driving Callahan in his truck. Jasper wanted the option to leave any time they needed. He wasn’t sure how this would go, how Callahan would handle any of it. His family, his pack, it was large and growing all the time. It was hard to curb the otherworldliness of it all,whichhad beenblaringlyevident when Riley was forced to bring Blake into the fold a few months ago.

Jasperwanted to be able to whisk Callahan away, take her back to his place in Greenly where it would only be the two of them. The two of them and the tiny baby she wasn’t sure she wanted to raise.

Did he want to be a dad? He knew he fathered the baby, and that knowledge would be with him every day, whether they chose adoption or anything else.

Being a dad was more than biology though. Didhe want to be the one who was up all night? The one who took the kid to the doctor and taught him how to throw a wicked curveball?Fuck.He had no clue.

He’d lived a life wilder than most. Hell, he’d shot and killed his own old man. Still. At the core of it all, he was a nineteen-year-old kid with apparently too much testosterone for anyone’s good.

When they’d stopped for gas, he leaned against his truck and asked,“You feeling okay? Carsick?” He found it was much easier to focus on Callahan in the present than it was to think about their future together.

She stoodcrunching on the crackers he’dbought in the mini-mart. Once,Maddi threw up in Linc’s lap on a road trip. JasperwantedCallahanto avoiddoingthat ifat all possible.

“I feel okay, the crackershelp, thank you.” He noticed her putting her hand to her stomach, something she’d been doing more and more often.

“Can you tell? Do you feel any different? Aside from the puking, I mean.” He wanted to touch her stomach too,tosee if he could tell the baby was causing even more changes to the petiteredhead’sbody other than her expanding boobs, at which he paid way too much attention.

“It’s hard, like rock hard.” She laughed lightly, a sound he hadn’t heard since their ill-fated night together. “I think my abs might be harder than yours right now.”

He patted his own stomach. “No one’s abs are harder than mine.”

“Oh yeah?” She reached over and took his hand, pulling it acrossher bodyand placing his palm on her skin. She was warm. He swallowed past the new ever-present lump in his throat. Her stomachwashard, like stone. He applied a little pressure, focusing on the faint sound of the baby’s heartbeat. He rubbed his hand in a small circle, wanting in that moment to reassure them all.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”Reluctantly, he took backhis hand.“I didn’t, fuck, I didn’t mean—”

“To get me pregnant?” She scoffed, showing him her profile as she lookedacrossthegas station’s parking lot.“I assumed you didn’t do this on purpose,Jasper.” She shrugged, her fingers knotting togetheratherwaist. “We weren’t careless.”

No, that theyweren’t. In fact, he’d been more careful with her than he’d ever been. He’d gone slow, he’d made sure she was okay every step of the way. He let her stay the night, he’dpretty muchdemanded it. He wanted her to know she mattered, that her trust mattered to him. Look where that trust had gotten her though.

“We’re going to get through this,Callie. We’reall going to be okay. Oneway or another.” He glanced over at her, smiling when she met hisgaze. “I promise.”

Her chin dropped to her chest, breaking their connection. “Well, for what it’s worth, I won’t hold you to that promise.”

He wanted to protest. He wanted her to hold him accountable for every stupid word he ever uttered.

He wanted her to ask that he keep his promise,thathe swoop in and take care of the three of them.

Jasper wanted someone in his life to require more from him. His twin was a force all on his own, taking the world in his capable hands andreshapingit to fit his demands.

Riley existed with Blake, breathing the same air, maintaining the same heartbeat.Maddi, Linc, and Allison were a family, a perfect unit that was thrivingas were all the other mates.

Callahan washisresponsibility.and she should want more from him.

“Will you tell me about your family? Please.” Callahan put her hand back to her stomach. “I don’t think I can take any more surprises at the moment.Don’tleave anything out. I need to know what I’m walking into.”

Well fuck him running. He sent up a silent prayer her next surprise wasn’t Riley shifting in the damn dining room. “Uh, you know, we’re your run-of-the-mill boarding school family formed out of loneliness and necessity.”

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