Double The Love (BWWM Pregnancy Romance Novel) (6 page)

Jasmine nodded, standing up to
follow him without looking at Eli. “The next performance is about to start.
I'll let you out the back way.”

Eli glared at them both and
muttered something inaudible as they entered the hall. At the fire exit, Liam
turned to Jasmine and grabbed her by the arm. “Is he always like that?”

“Like what?”

“An overbearing
mouth-breather,” Liam said. “Seriously, Jazz. The way he treats you is more
than a little creepy.”

“He's just overprotective,”
Jasmine said with a shrug.

“Uh, I hate to break it to you,
but that’s not overprotective. That's just flat out Fatal Attraction. I’m just
saying…be careful, alright?”

Jasmine studied Liam’s face as
she attempted to sift the underlying humor from his statement, but it didn't
take long for her to realize that there wasn’t any. The look in his eyes made
it clear that he was genuinely concerned about her. It was too much for her to
handle. She broke his gaze and stood up straighter as she pulled away from him.

“Anyway, I’ll see you at the
appointment tomorrow,” Liam said, clearing his throat in an attempt at
dissipating the awkwardness that had settled over them. “It’s at ten a.m.
right?”

Jasmine nodded. “It’ll be nice
not to be gawked at for once,” she remarked.

“Gawked at?”

Jasmine nodded again and leaned
against the wall. “I like Dr. Everett, don’t get me wrong, but her office is
even worse than Dr. Gilligan’s. Everyone recognizes me, and a few even whisper
behind my back. Oh, and if that’s not bad enough, it seems like every woman
there comes with her husband. It’s the worst.”

“So what,” Liam said with a
shrug. “Ignore them.”

“It’s not that easy,” Jasmine
said. “I mean, I did the first few times, but there was this awful woman there
during my last appointment who spent the entire time subtly lecturing me on
‘careless pop stars’…like I didn’t see the copy of US weekly with my face on it
open in her lap.”

Liam picked up on the underlying
layer of aggravation in Jasmine's tone right away. “Fuck her,” he said, cupping
her face and forcing her to look at him. “Our kid has two parents. That’s all
that matters here. Who cares what some Bitter Betty has to say about things?”

Jasmine smiled and allowed him
to pull her into a hug. It was one of the first moments in months that she felt
entirely at peace in his presence.

Chapter eight

Liam met Jasmine outside Dr.
Everett’s office bright and early the following morning. It was a lovely sunny
day, one of the first nice spring days of the year, and Jasmine tried to push
aside the reminder that the change of season meant she’d be giving birth
anytime now. All it did was make her anxious.

“What are you smiling about?”
Jasmine asked Liam as she approached him.

“Oh, nothing,” Liam said with a
slight smirk. “Here, give me your hand.”

Jasmine raised an eyebrow at
him. “What?” she questioned, not at all following.

Liam didn’t explain. “Come on,”
he insisted. “Just trust me on this.”

Jasmine gave Liam an odd look
before holding out her right hand to him, but he shook his head and quickly
grabbed hold of her left one instead. Before she could ask him what he was
doing, he slipped a beautiful gold band onto her knuckle and folded her fingers
up so that she could look at it.

“There,” Liam said with a
satisfied grin. “Now you’ll never have to worry about anyone judging you.”

“Liam…” Jasmine spoke up. “I
can’t—”

“Don't worry,” Liam
interrupted. “It's just for show.”

Jasmine relaxed, exhaling a
deep breath she hadn’t realized she was holding in. “It's beautiful,” she
admitted, comparing the ring on her hand to the one on his. “Not to mention
brilliant. How’d you manage to come up with this?”

“It was Andrea’s idea. She said
it did the trick in ‘warding off the judgmental bitches’ when she was pregnant,
so I figured it was worth a shot.”

Jasmine smirked. “Thank you,”
she said, genuinely meaning it. “This was really sweet of you.”

Liam smiled and laced his
fingers through Jasmine's as he led her inside the building. Just as he'd
expected, no one in the waiting room gave her so much as a second look this
time around. It set the mood, and the rest of the appointment went by just as
smoothly.

Liam offered to treat Jasmine
to his favorite breakfast joint to commemorate the success, and she wasted no
time in stating how famished she was.

Jasmine studied the ring on
Liam's finger as he dug into his waffles. “So, Newport,” he spoke up between
bites, dabbing at his mouth with a napkin. "When do you want to leave on
Friday?”

“I was thinking kinda early,”
Jasmine said, regaining her composure. “Sometime before noon would probably be
best if we want to beat rush hour traffic.”

“Yeah, but you heard Dr.
Everett,” Liam said. “You need to take it easy. That means no rushing to pack
an hour before. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get ready.”

Jasmine couldn't help but
smile. He knew her habits a little too well. “You have my word,” she said,
holding up two fingers in solidarity.

Liam smiled and continued
eating. This was nice. It wasn't like they were friends or anything, but in the
interests of their child, it made him feel good to know that they could at
least hold a cordial conversation.

Once he and Jasmine had
finished their meals, Liam pulled out his wallet and paid the bill. “So where
are you off to now?” he questioned, following her outside.

“Home to pick up my lyrics,
then I’m off to the studio to record for a bit.”

“Well I’m walking past your
place,” Liam said. “Care to join me?”

Jasmine nodded and fell in line
alongside him. They attempted to make small talk as they walked, but the
conversation felt awkward and disjointed. One would start to say something, and
the other would immediately interrupt, causing them both to fall silent at the
same time.

After a particularly clumsy
attempt at forming a sentence, Jasmine gave up and exhaled a frustrated sigh.
“Okay, what is this?” she questioned.

“What do you mean?”

“I feel like I'm walking on egg
shells with you all of a sudden.”

Liam shrugged and continued
down the road. “Yeah, well, I'm not exactly sailing my way through this
conversation either babe.” He glanced over at Jasmine and his eyes settled on
her face for a bit longer than he intended.

“Its just…are we alright?”
Jasmine questioned. “You don’t think the ring thing made things weird do you?
Because if you do, we don’t have to—”

“Jazz, it’s fine. It was my
idea remember?” Liam interrupted. “I just have a lot on my mind, that’s all.”

“Like?” Jasmine questioned when
they approached her house. She lingered near her front steps and turned to meet
Liam’s gaze, studying his face for a response. When he didn’t give her one, she
slid off the ring and attempted to give it back to him, but he wouldn’t take
it.

“Keep it,” Liam insisted. “You
still have a few more weeks to go.”

Jasmine stared at Liam for a
few moments before nodding. “Alright,” she said, putting the ring back in place
on her finger. “But you have to let me give it back to you as soon as the baby
is born. It looks expensive.”

Liam nodded and looked down at
the identical ring on his own hand. A small smirk surfaced on his face, but it
disappeared as soon as he spotted a familiar figure hurrying across the street.

It came as no surprise to him
that it was Eli.

Chapter nine

“Have you got everything?” Liam
questioned as he loaded Jasmine’s luggage into the car. She had packed three
huge bags for a weekend away. It was more than a little excessive.

“I think so,” Jasmine said as
she surveyed her things, not seeming to pick up on the underlying note of
sarcasm in Liam’s tone.

“What about your maternity
bag?” Liam questioned. The old Liam would have never asked these questions, but
that wasn’t who he was anymore. Responsibility had hit him like a brick to the
face. “Remember what Dr. Everett said. You need to be prepared for anything.”

“Liam, I’m not going to give
birth in Newport two months early,” Jasmine said, failing to mask her
amusement. That would be a disaster. “But yes, to answer your question, I
packed it.”

 
“Well you can never be too safe. Anyway, quit laughing at me
and get your
very
nice
ass in the car,” Liam said in a gruff tone.

Jasmine smirked and did as she
was told.

The drive passed uneventfully,
and Jasmine was surprised that she only needed to make one bathroom break. The
larger the baby grew, the harder it pressed down on her bladder. These days it
wasn’t all that uncommon for her to make two trips to the ladies room in the
time span of an hour. She shuffled in her seat as Liam turned onto the
cul-de-sac that housed their childhood homes, but it wasn’t just because of her
sudden urge to pee.

“What's up?” Liam questioned,
sensing Jasmine’s distress.

“Just nerves I guess.”

“Yeah, well, just think how I
must feel.”

Jasmine immediately picked up
on the fact that he was nervous about how her parents would treat him. “Trust
me, they won’t give you a hard time,” she assured him.

Liam looked over at her
skeptically. “How can you be so sure?”

“Because I made them promise,”
Jasmine said, glancing out the window at the large house she’d grown up in. She
ended up being true to her word. To Liam’s surprise, they were whisked into a
sea of hugs, kisses, and loud words of adoration as soon as they got out of the
car.

The only difference was the
manner in which Jasmine’s mother hugged her. It wasn’t as tight and
affectionate as it usually was. Her protruding stomach made that impossible.
“You look tired,” Diana critiqued. “Have you been getting enough iron? That’s
important for the baby’s development, you know.”

“Yes, mom, I know,” Jasmine
said. “I've just busy with the tour, that’s all.”

“Ah, yes, the tour,” Diana
remarked as though she was only just remembering. She gave her daughter a
concerned look. “I worry about you, Jazz. You can’t afford to run yourself into
the ground in your condition. You have two people to look out for now.”

Jasmine sighed and ran her
fingers through her hair. “Yeah, well, I also can’t afford not to work. Look,
the tours almost over. All I have to do is make it through these next few shows
and everything will be fine.”

Diana started to say something,
but she stopped in midsentence when she caught sight of the ring on her
daughter’s hand. Jasmine followed her gaze and was quick to explain. “Liam
bought it for me, but it’s just for appearances. I was getting some judgmental
looks at my doctor appointments.”

Diana wasn't sure what
perplexed her more. The fact that her very pregnant daughter was sporting an
engagement ring, or that the juvenile young man she and her husband brought up
while his parents were off furthering their careers had given it to her. Liam
and Jasmine were polar opposites who barely got along in their youth, but
apparently that wasn’t enough to stop them from falling for each other.