Page 31 of Secret Twins for the Alien Dad

And now we’re sitting in Eva’s living room, and I have no idea where to begin. He fidgets on the couch, and we’re playing a game of chicken, daring each other to speak first.

I decide to break the silence. “Can I get you something to drink? Water? Tea? Coffee? Something stronger?” It’s a tactic I learned from Eva. If you don’t know where to start, play the part of a good host.

“That depends,” he says.

“On what?”

He flashes a smile that I’m sure he intended to be smooth and cocky but really comes across as anxious. “Is the baby definitely mine?”

I swallow. Not one to beat around the bush, then. I give him an equally blunt answer. “Yes. There’s no question. And it’s twins.”

With a sigh, I sit down on the opposite end of the couch, my belly making me off balance and far less graceful than I would have liked. I'm much bigger than I expected at about five months pregnant, though maybe I just don't know much about pregnancy or twins. It's not like I've done this before.

“I think I should start by saying I’m sorry about all this. You deserve an explanation for what happened, and I want you to understand that you didn’t do anything wrong.”

I pause, searching for the right words. Maybe I’m the one who needs a glass of water. Something to fidget with in my hands. “Should I start at the beginning?”

“That’s usually the best place to start,” he replies with a flickering smile.

“So, after I accepted your invitation, I was called into my boss’s office.”

“He thinks you stole something,” Zair says, and my neck cracks from the speed of turning my head to look at him.

“You know about that?”

He nods. “When you didn’t show up to our date, I started asking around and heard that he accused you of stealing a hotel comm-pad.”

I lay a protective hand across my belly as a horrible thought occurs to me. From what Zair told me, he’s a mercenary, and if he was investigating me, that could mean… “Did Brev hire you to find me?”

His eyes widen. “Oh, no, of course not. I’m not here to take you back there, I promise.”

I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. But that sudden fear is replaced with confusion. “Well, then why were you looking for me all this time?”

For a moment, something flickers across his face. Embarrassment? Anxiety? I can’t tell. “Well, at first, it was because I didn’t believe that you would just stand me up. But then I couldn’t get you out of my head, and the more I looked for you, the more worried I got.”

He’s holding something back. I’m not sure what, but he’s not telling me everything. I consider pressing, but things are going well right now and I don’t want to step on a landmine, so instead, I’ll file this away for later.

“I’m sorry,” I say again. “Really, I am. After my boss accused me of stealing, I was so panicked that I completely forgot about our date. And then, well…” I gesture to my stomach. “But I didn’t think it was safe to look for you.”

“How far along are you?” he asks. His hand twitches like he wants to reach over and feel the baby kick, but he’s restraining himself.

“About eight weeks from delivery, the doctors say.” Kaleidian babies, I have been told, have a shorter gestation than normal. I smile and scooch a little closer. “Do you want to feel?”

His jade eyes flicker to mine. “Is that okay?”

I take his hand and press it to my left side where I feel one of the babies kicking. His face is utterly awestruck as he stares down at the movement underneath my skin.

“I think the babies are excited to meet Daddy.” I pause, reconsidering. “A-assuming you want that, I mean. I can manage on my own if you want nothing to do with us.”

His gaze snaps up to meet mine. “It would be the greatest honor of my life to be the father of this child.” Almost reluctantly, he retracts his hand. “If you want it, that is.”

I very much do. And if he wantsusto be something more, I’d want that too, I think. But after all I’ve done, I wouldn’t dare ask that of him.

There’s another problem, too…

I swallow. “I would, but I’m not sure if it’s safe. Brev still thinks I’m a thief, and even if I convince him that I’m not, he won’t forgive me for running out on him when I owe him, and he’s not the kind of man that you cross.” I let out a little, half-hysterical laugh. “I’m fucked. After the babies are born, it might be safer if you just take them and run as far as you can.”

“Hey, hey,” he says, taking my hand and giving it a squeeze. “Take a breath, okay? It’s not as bad as all that.”

---