A Pregnancy Scandal (7 page)

Alex's heart stopped, and when it started beating again, it was too big and tight for her chest.

“Is that the baby?” Alex whispered, eyes wide so she didn't miss anything.

Phillip should be here. He should be holding her hand and watching this miracle unfold with her. Her throat ached with emotions she couldn't name, and she wished he'd care enough to be here to experience all of this, too.

“Yes,” the sonographer confirmed, grinning. “And there's the other one. Dizygotic twins, or in layman's terms, fraternal. See how there are two distinct placentas?”

Twins. Alex's eyelids fluttered closed and then she pried them open to watch the sonographer type into the machine. Xs and dotted lines appeared.

“We're measuring their size so we can monitor growth,” she explained. “Dr. Dean will want to do more ultrasounds as you progress to ensure we don't have an imbalance.”

Alex nodded, too overwhelmed to speak.
Babies.
She had two babies in there sloshing around and causing so much havoc with her stomach. No wonder.

“So that explains your severe morning sickness,” Dr. Dean said gently. “That's good news. Means nothing more serious is wrong. You'll probably start to feel better by about twelve or thirteen weeks, so not long now.”

The doctor wrapped up the appointment with some additional tips and instructions and answered all of Alex's and Harper's questions. When Alex sank back into the seat of Harper's Mercedes, she let her head fall back against the headrest, too weary to think. Harper chatted about how great the news was all the way back to Fyra, and Alex let her talk, mostly because she couldn't get a word in edgewise. And her throat was too tight to make a sound.

Back in her office, she debated how to break the news to Phillip. There was no telling how he'd react. It was a reality they'd never even contemplated. Would they have to hire two nannies now? Have two nurseries—or did parents of twins typically put them in the same room?

In the end, it didn't matter. Phillip didn't answer his phone, even though she called him four times, fifteen minutes apart. Finally, she sent him a text message:

Went to the dr today. Guess what? It's twins.

Phillip was going to get his full-blown family much sooner than he'd anticipated.

* * *

When Phillip finally walked out of a three-hour meeting, the only thing he wanted to do was get something hot to eat and cold to drink. He grabbed his phone and briefcase from his office and waved to his admin, Linda, as he left Capitol Hill for the day.

The week had crawled by. Barely an hour had gone by that he hadn't thought about Alex, what she was doing, whether she felt better, if she was getting used to living at his house. He'd picked up his phone four or five times to send her a funny text message, like he'd done when they were still dancing around the edges of their attraction.

And then he'd remembered. They weren't flirting with the intent to eventually take it up a notch; they were married. In name only. She'd agreed to it and seemed pretty happy with the status quo as best he could tell during their nightly conversations, which he'd forced himself to cut short. Their relationship needed distance if it was going to work.

Of course, the distance wasn't working so well for him.

Every night, he would end the call and stare at the ceiling until he fell asleep, fighting the urge to call her back so he could hear her voice again. She needed to sleep, not hang out with him on the phone for no other reason than he suddenly hated the quietness of the DC condo that had always been perfectly fine before.

One more day of Washington and then he'd fly home. Somehow, he'd have to figure out how to maintain that distance while they were in the same house. It was a horrible catch-22 to want to spend time with his new wife and yet have an inner voice reminding him that the only reason he had a new wife was because Gina had died. He'd married Alex but it didn't mean he'd moved on. Not at all. Guilt weighed down his soul to the point where some mornings, he'd had a hard time getting out of bed.

Randy opened the back door of his town car and Phillip slid into the seat with a glance at his phone. Speaking of his new wife...looked like he'd missed a bunch of calls from Alex. Frowning, he noted a text message, too. Hopefully nothing was wrong.

And then the word
twins
leaped off the screen.

“Randy, change of plans,” he croaked as he tapped furiously through the message app to see if she'd sent any follow-up texts. Nothing. “Drive me to the airport. I'm flying home to Dallas unexpectedly.”

Twins.

The flight home took a million years, during which Phillip questioned every single decision he'd made since the first moment he walked into Fyra and saw the barefaced woman in jeans named Alex. They were having
twins
.

And Alex had found out at a doctor's visit he hadn't been asked to attend.

That was not okay.

These were his
children
. Alex was his wife. He wanted to be involved in everything, no matter how small, and he'd been robbed of that chance for some reason. He wanted to know why. Why hadn't she told him she was going to the doctor? Why hadn't she wanted him there?

The pilot announced the aircraft had entered Dallas airspace. Finally.

Phillip whipped off his seat belt the moment the wheels hit the tarmac and glared at Randy as his driver, who always traveled with him, lumbered to his feet a good thirty seconds after the plane had rolled to a stop. All Phillip had to do was raise his eyebrows for the man to clue in that time was of the essence.

“Where to, boss?” Randy asked mildly as they double-timed it to the private lot where Phillip kept his car. Normally, Randy pulled the car onto the tarmac and loaded Phillip's luggage when they returned home, but his driver had figured out that normal wasn't the theme of this trip. Plus, Phillip didn't have any luggage since he hadn't taken time to go back to his condo.

Phillip glanced at his watch. Nearly 9:00 p.m. Dallas time, a near miracle considering he'd climbed into his car at Capitol Hill just before six DC time. “To the house.”

Where Alex would be at home, hopefully eating whatever Franka had made. Whatever Alex wanted, spare no expense or effort, he'd told Franka. Of course, he hadn't known his wife was eating for three then or he might have thrown Franka a side comment about watching Alex's nutrition, as well. He should have anyway.

Randy drove like a demon possessed, which Phillip appreciated, but when they got to the house, George met Phillip at the door with a puzzled frown. “Sir? We didn't expect you unt—”

“Where's Alex?” Phillip blew through the door, his gaze already searching the floor above. “She's not already in bed, is she?”

“Not hardly.” George clucked, displeasure lacing his tone. “Ms. Alexandra is still at her office.”

A spurt of anger ripped through Phillip's breastbone. “She's...what?”

“At work,” George repeated, but Phillip had already spun to march back down the steps.

Not only pregnant, but with twins...and still at work? She should be working reduced hours, not putting her nose to the grindstone. If he had his way, she'd be sitting on the couch at home reading a book instead of working even eight hours a day, let alone fourteen. And she'd let Phillip take care of her. He wanted to.

By the time Randy pulled up at the glass-and-brick building housing Fyra Cosmetics, Phillip's temper had well passed the unreasonable stage. He and his wife had some words to exchange.

Fishing his guest security badge from his briefcase, Phillip launched from the car and stormed through the reception area, pausing long enough—just barely—to beep through the glass door leading to the executive offices.

Light spilled from the door marked Chief Financial Officer. The moment he stepped across the threshold, he opened his mouth to blast Alex.

Clearly startled, she glanced up, and as her gaze lit on him, it filled with something so warm and so tender, all his breath rushed from his lungs. Her wide smile poleaxed him in the stomach, and all of that was so definitely
not
what he'd expected that he forgot everything he'd planned to say.

His wife was so beautiful. And she was the mother of his babies. It was nearly divine how she'd suddenly filled him to the brim.

“Phillip!” She shot to her feet and rounded the desk with her arms spread as if she meant to fly into his embrace, and then, all at once, she skidded to a stop just short, her gaze hungrily taking him in. “I wasn't expecting you.”

“Clearly not,” he said gruffly, taken aback at how disappointed he was that she'd stopped.

What the hell.

He pulled her into his arms for what should have been a quick hug between parents...friends...spouses...whatever they were. But then she nestled in with a sigh, setting his blood on a simmer that completely changed the mood. His arms tightened and he held her, breathing in the scent of her hair.

“I guess you got my message,” she murmured. “I tried to call.”

“I know. I was in a meeting.” It sounded as inane to his ears as it probably did to hers. He pulled back to zero in on her face. “Why didn't you tell me you had a doctor's appointment?”

“Oh.” Confusion marred her beautiful bare face. “I didn't think you'd care. It was just a doctor's appointment. I have a lot of those. Goes with the territory.”

“Of course I care.” His voice was still gruff from the long day. Or something. “Especially if you're going to have an ultrasound. You have to tell me about these things.”

“I didn't know. It was just a routine checkup, but when I mentioned how bad my morning sickness still was, Dr. Dean wanted to see if I was carrying twins.” She shot him a wry smile. “I guess that's why they pay her the big bucks, because she called it in one.”

“So it's true?” he whispered and his hand moved to Alex's abdomen involuntarily, as if he could validate by touching her that not one but two heartbeats lay just on the other side of her skin.

She pressed into his hand and the moment intensified as they stared at each other. He wasn't just touching the babies, but
her
. And she felt amazing under his palm. Everything in the world could vanish except for what was in his grasp and he'd be all right with that.

“It's true. I saw the pictures myself,” she murmured, her gaze going soft and bright. “Oh, I have them.”

She ducked out of his embrace and crossed to her desk, pulled open a drawer and rummaged around until she triumphantly held up a few pieces of paper.

She handed them to him and he glanced down at the black-and-white squares. Ultrasound pictures. And
there they were
. Two light-colored blobs in circles, surrounded by darkness. His babies.
Their
babies.

His eyes stung.
Stung
, like he might actually shed a tear. Why hadn't someone prepared him for this moment when he got to see his children for the first time? It wouldn't have mattered; he wouldn't have listened because how could he have prepared for
this
? The swell of his heart, the spike of his pulse. The sheer awe. All of it poured through him thickly and he couldn't have spoken to save his life.

“It's pretty amazing, huh?” she asked softly and he took it as a rhetorical question because of course the answer was yes. “I wish you'd been there to see them move.”

“Me too.” Apparently he
could
talk. “I'm going to be there next time. I want advance notice of all doctor's appointments from now on.”

“Okay. I'm glad you want to be involved. I thought...” She trailed off and bit her lip. “Well, when you left on Sunday, I got the impression we weren't supposed to share things. I would have said something, but you seemed...distracted every time we talked. It almost felt like you were avoiding me.”

Of course she'd thought that. His quest for distance had been a stellar success. So much so that he'd missed an important step in Alex's pregnancy because of his own boneheadedness. Paper rustled under his fingers as his hands tightened into fists. Carefully, he set down the ultrasound pictures before he crumpled them.

“I'm sorry you thought that. I wasn't trying to avoid you.” Yeah, he kind of had been, but now it didn't make any sense. Either they were partners and friends or there was no reason to be married. He wanted her to feel like she could tell him things. He wanted to know about her and not just about the pregnancy.

The Distance Plan wasn't going to work. He needed a new plan in order to make this marriage succeed. Otherwise, they'd both be miserable.

“Won't it be hard to come to doctor's appointments when you're in Washington?” she asked and it was a perfectly logical question.

Yes, it would be difficult but he didn't care. He couldn't stand the thought of missing one more second of his wife's pregnancy. Of missing his wife.

Where had
that
come from? That wasn't the point here.

“Let me worry about that. Now, let's talk about what time it is and why you're still at work, shall we?” The subject change flowed out smoothly, a plus considering he'd started out this little interlude as a confrontation. And somehow, she'd got him all discombobulated with a simple smile.

She had the grace to look chagrined. “I wasn't expecting you to catch me.”

“Ah, so you recognize that it's a problem for a woman in your condition to work herself too hard.”

Good. Maybe this would end up being a reasonable conversation about what a woman expecting twins could and couldn't do. Back on track, he smiled gently.

“What? No.” She shook her head with a scowl. “What kind of ‘condition' would that be, Phillip? I'm pregnant, not incompetent. I know my limits.”