Page 134 of White Knight Husband
It wasn’t her usual smile, though, and seeing it made my ribs shrink around my heart. Her eyes were shining in a way that made me nervous, the curve of her lips too small to be comforting.
“Hey,” I said. “What’s happening? Are you okay? Where’s the realtor? I thought you were taking a tour.”
“Yeah, I did,” she replied. “I sent her home. I… just… come here.”
She stepped back, letting me pass into the room she’d just come out of. The first thing I registered was that it was already furnished, not empty like the rest of the house or echoing, but gently lived in.
A soft rug was spread on the hardwood floors, a crib against the far wall with its white wood polished to a soft sheen. There was a rocking chair by the window and pale curtains stirring slightly in the breeze.
I stopped dead, my brain trying to catalog the details enough to make logical sense of it.Maybe it came with the house. Maybe it’s temporary. Maybe?—
My heart was already racing ahead of me, pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears as I turned slowly to look at her. “Jane, why are we in a nursery?”
She watched me with her arms folded loosely over her middle. “I didn’t want to show you downstairs. I wanted you to see it like this first.”
My throat worked, but no sound came out at first. “I thought you wanted to show me the kitchen.”
“Oh, I will.” Her eyes became even glassier as she stared at me. “This house has everything we talked about wanting for our future. Space. Light.”
“Yeah. Okay.”
“So I, uh, I bought it,” she said, just about blurting it out. “I signed all the papers just before I called you this afternoon, but I’ve had access to it for a few days. This last tour I did with the realtor was basically just a final walkthrough.”
I let out a shaky breath, blinking slowly. My head spun and my brain kept stuttering over the details of this particular room. “Did they leave the baby stuff behind?”
“No, the house isn’t the only surprise.” She took a step toward me, then another, and she kept going until we were standing inches apart. I could see the faint tremor in her fingers when she lifted her hands to my chest. “I went to the doctor last week, but I didn’t want to tell you until I was sure and I knew it was real.”
My pulse thundered, the room suddenly feeling very small. “Until you were sure about what, Killer?”
Her mouth curved into a smile that broke my heart wide open. “I’m pregnant, Alex.”
The world stopped. It didn’t slow or shift. It just… stopped.
Every plan, every meeting, and every contract that was waiting for me to sign dissolved into nothing as the words landed and took root somewhere deep in my chest. I stared at her, stunned, like if I moved too fast, I would wake up from this dream.
“You’re…” My voice cracked and I cleared my throat, my eyes intent on her sparkling, glassy grays. “You’re serious?”
She laughed softly, the tears spilling over now. “I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life.”
I pulled her into my arms, holding on to her like she was the only solid thing left on earth. She fit against me perfectly, likeshe always had, but this was different, the moment somehow so much fuller.
“We’re…” I tried again, my forehead pressed to hers, and finally just croaked it out. “We’re having a baby.”
“Yes.”
A sound tore out of me that was half laugh and half something dangerously close to a sob. I cupped her face and kissed her, so completely in awe of this woman and the life we were building that I felt pressure at the backs of my eyes.
“I love you,” I said fiercely. “God, Jane. I love you so damn much.”
“I know,” she whispered. “I love you too, Alex.”
I pulled back enough to look into her eyes, one of my hands already instinctively sliding to her stomach and resting there like it belonged. Like deep down, I already knew what it was protecting.
Back when I’d first found out Sterling had agreed to get married—and produce an heir—I’d thought he was insane, but I’d known it would be my turn soon. The dominoes had kept falling in California, one of my cousins charging down the aisle after the next, and every time I’d spoken to them, I’d assumed their happiness had simply been a result of having drunk the Kool-Aid.
Never in my life would I have imagined that it could be real, that it could feel like this, or that I would one day have it too, but in this moment, all that changed. This incredible woman, Dr. Jane Thayer-Westwood, was not only my wife and the love of my life, but she was carrying my child and I suddenly knew thatthiswas what winning actually felt like.
Everything I had, everything I was, and everything I ever would be, belonged to them. This was the ending I hadn’t quite been prepared for—our very own happily ever after, and the beginning of the rest of our lives.
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