The Heart's Game (The Kelly Brothers, Book 4) (9 page)

“And there’s perfectly good pho by the door. I put in the kitchen for you to eat later.”

Her stomach rolled. If the pho had been sitting out all night, she wasn’t going to take a chance on getting food poisoning by eating it. She was already puking enough from the morning sickness. “Thanks, Mom.”

“Let me pick out something for you to wear.”

Jenny’s pulse went into overdrive as her mom reached for the doorknob, and she plastered herself to the bedroom door. “Really, that’s not necessary. I’m a big girl, and I can dress myself.”

“But I want you to look nice in case we meet a good Vietnamese boy for you in Chinatown.”

I wonder what would happen if I told her I spent the entire night fucking a white boy.

“Mom, if that’s the reason you want me to go to Chinatown with you—”

“Why are you not letting me into your room?” Her mother tried to grab the knob again, but Jenny continued to block her. “How messy is it?”

“
Very
messy.” Rumpled sheets, tossed clothes, naked man…

“Then I will clean it for you while you get ready.”

“No, Mom, please, I—”

Her words died in her mouth as the door gave way behind her, and she stumbled back into a hard, warm bare chest.

If ever there was a need for a wormhole to swallow her up, it was now. Or maybe a Tardis…

Her mother’s eyes bugged out, and her jaw dropped. Jason coughed to cover his snicker.

“There’s my shirt.” Dan took it from her and bent to place a kiss on her cheek. “Thanks for finding it.”

“Who is that?” her mother whispered in Vietnamese.

Time for the most embarrassing introductions in my life
. “Mom, Jason, this is Dan. Dan, this is my mother and brother.”

Unlike her family, Dan seemed to remember his manners. “Nice to meet you.”

When they still didn’t respond, he tilted her chin up and placed a quick peck on the tip of her nose. “I’ll see you later this afternoon.”

“Okay.”
If my mother doesn’t kill me first
.

Her mother and brother parted to let him pass, still trapped in stunned silence.

But as soon the door closed behind him, the spell was broken, and her mother started screeching in Vietnamese, “What was that man doing in your room?”

A sting of irritation formed at the base of her neck. A few weeks ago, she would’ve respectfully lowered her eyes and pleaded for forgiveness from her mother, but since she was already on a crash course for being disowned, she might as well say what was on her mind. “He was sleeping before you barged in and woke us up.”

“He was sleeping with you.” Her mother pointed a single finger at her, but it was full of censure. “First, you sleep with your brother’s husband, then you sleep with a white boy?”

“Just to clarify, she never slept with Mike,” Jason interjected, but their mother drowned him out with a string of Vietnamese curses.

After hearing her mother call her a slut and a disgrace, Jenny stopped listening. She crossed her arms and sank onto the sofa while her mother circled the room, vocalizing her anger and distress to the walls.

Jason plopped down next to her. “He has a cute butt.”

“You would notice that.”

“I’m an ass man,” he said with an unapologetic grin. “So, tell me a little more about him.”

Jenny couldn’t help but notice her mother’s rants began to quiet, her ear turned toward them so she could pick up any details.

“He’s Paul’s old college roommate.”

“And?”

“And he just moved up here and joined our game.” She didn’t dare tell them about Comic-Con. Her mother had never understood her fascination with cosplay, and she didn’t want to give her the wrong impression that cons were little more than orgies.

“What else?”

“He’s a doctor.”

That
shut her mother up. She came to the sofa, the sly smile on her lips complementing the scheming light in her eyes. “What kind of doctor?”

“A surgeon.”

Her mother nodded. “A surgeon is good.”

“Yeah, too bad he’s a white guy, and I’m nothing more than a slut, eh, Mom?”

The smile slipped from her mother’s face, and the ranting revived at full force.

Jason gave her a playful nudge. “Nice comeback.”

“Maybe I’m getting a bit cranky in my old age.”

“Don’t forget hormonal from the baby.”

“How can I forget that?” Her stomach was already churning. She grabbed a watermelon candy from the bowl on the coffee table and popped it in her mouth. “Calm her down before the neighbors complain. I’m going to take a quick shower.”

“So you’re still coming with us to Chinatown?” her brother asked.

“Sure, as long as my slutty presence won’t disgrace the family.”

“Mom will get over it.” He dropped his voice and added, “Besides, I want more details on this guy. I think he’s the first guy you’ve ever had over to stay the night.”

“So? I’m allowed to enjoy a night of good sex, aren’t I?”

Jason’s grin widened. “Just good?”

She laughed. “Try mind blowing.”

“I thought as much. And he’s cool with you being pregnant?”

The happy glow faded. “Um, I haven’t told him about that yet.”

“Well, you’re going to have to do it soon.”

“I know, I know. Just give me some time to sound him out first.”
And enjoy a few more nights in the sack with him before he runs away screaming.
“I’ll be out in a few.”

“I’ll take care of Mom.” Her brother crossed the room to their mother and began speaking in soothing tones.

Jenny turned on the hot water and let the shower beat down on her knotted shoulders. The water streamed down her overly sensitive breasts and along her still-flat stomach to the pleasant ache that lingered between her thighs. She had enjoyed last night. Almost too much. It was going to make it that much harder to sit across from him today and pretend they were just friends.

She just couldn’t risk losing her heart to him, though. It was just sex. Nothing more. After all, when he learned the truth, he’d want nothing more to do with her.

Chapter Seven

Jenny opened her eyes and rolled over to the side of the bed Dan slept on just like she had every morning for the last three and a half weeks. The scent of his cologne lingered on his pillow. She hugged it and took in a deep breath through her nose, a flush washing over her body when she remembered the rough quickie they’d had this morning. She’d woken up just as he was getting out of the shower and pulled him back into bed for a round of fast, pounding, toe-curling sex before he left for the hospital.

As she came to the end of her first trimester, her morning sickness was giving way to a severe case of morning horniness. Thankfully, Dan had been more than happy to oblige her demands. He’d slept over almost every night since she’d invited him over, and it was nights when he was on call that she missed him the most.

She paused and loosened her hold on the pillow. Damn, she was getting used to him being in her bed. She enjoyed their conversations in the wee hours of the morning about the meaning of the Borg or how Peter Jackson had managed to ruin
The Hobbit
. She was getting spoiled by the great sex on demand. And she was running out of time. It wouldn’t take Dan long to realize that she hadn’t gotten her period since he’d started sleeping with her, and then she’d have to reveal the truth that would end the seemingly perfect arrangement.

Of course, if she didn’t tell him soon, he’d find out on his own and probably be angry with her for deceiving him.

It was a classic
Kobayashi Maru
situation—one she had no chance of winning. And unlike James T. Kirk, she had no idea how to cheat.

The buzz of her alarm interrupted her thoughts, reminding her that her personal life would have to be placed on hold until she got home from work. She crawled out of bed, saw the dried blood along her inner thighs, and sank to her knees.

Oh, shit! Oh, shit! Oh, shit!

Blood like that could only mean bad news when it came to the baby.

She fumbled for the phone and dialed her OB’s office, only to get a recorded message telling her they were closed. She hung up and doubled over, paralyzed with fear, her heart pounding in her chest and making it nearly impossible for her to draw in a deep breath. Dan was a doctor. She could ask him what to do, but in doing so, she’d have to reveal she was pregnant. But none of that mattered to her anymore. The most important thing was the baby.

Her breath caught.
What if this was all my fault?

A sob tore through her. All this time, she’d been cursing the fact she was pregnant because it was keeping her from having something more with Dan. And now, when she was faced with the prospect of actually losing the baby, all she could do was wonder if her reckless abandonment in the bedroom had caused this. What if the quickie she’d had this morning triggered a miscarriage?

The images of the disappointment on Jason’s and Mike’s faces flashed before her. They would be crushed if she lost the baby they wanted more than anything in the world. How could she tell them it was because she was being selfish?

She picked up the phone and dialed her OB’s office again, this time staying on the line long enough to hear the option to page the doctor on call. She left a message with the call service and dashed to the bathroom to scrub the blood from her legs. By the time the doctor called back, her thighs were raw, but his calm instructions helped her regain her focus. They were going to do an ultrasound to check the baby. If by some small miracle she wasn’t miscarrying, then she promised she would put its safety before anything else.

And if that meant ending things with Dan, then so be it.

***

Techno music blasted through the OR, but Dan was too focused on the screen in front of him to pay much attention to the lyrics. The throbbing beat helped him zone out distractions during surgeries and focus on precisely guiding his equipment. He maneuvered the robotic arm holding a pair of tiny scissors between the two metal clamps he’d placed seconds before and cut the neck of the gallbladder. A moment later, he pulled the dark green pouch out through the port. “Come to papa, you bad boy.”

His nurse placed it in a formalin jar to go to pathology, and he turned to the anesthesiologist. “What’s the time?”

“Fifty-eight minutes.”

Dan pumped his fist. “Oh, yeah! New record.”

He panned the tiny camera around the abdominal cavity, checking for signs of bleeding and loose clamps. Everything looked stable and secure. “Time to close up shop.”

One by one, he removed the instruments and deflated the patient’s belly before stitching the peritoneum closed. His brothers had always teased him about his addiction to PlayStation when they were kids, but now those video game skills were paying off. He was one of the few surgeons at the hospital who was trained to perform robotic surgery. To him, it was the ultimate game. The precision, the dexterity, the melding of skill and technology. The reason he’d decided to become a surgeon.

He tied his last stitch and then swapped out the needle driver for a skin stapler. A minute later, the patient was ready to go. “How much time do I have before she wakes up?”

“I’d say at least an hour before she’s coherent,” the anesthesiologist replied.

“Sounds good. I’ll let her husband know we’re done, and then swing by radiology to check on my next case.”

He grabbed the photos he’d taken of the stone-laden gallbladder to show to the patient and her husband, gave his brief talk to the family in the waiting room to let them know everything went well, and then headed downstairs to pay a visit to the radiologists. Aka, the Shadow Merchants. He’d been consulted on an internal medicine patient this morning due to worsening diverticulitis and had ordered a CT to confirm his suspicions that the guy had a perforated gut. If his estimates were correct, the patient should just be wrapping the study.

The radiologist, Kai, was just beginning a dictation on an ultrasound when Dan stepped into the dark office with multiple computer screens. He lingered in the doorway, not wanting to interrupt while his fellow doctor spoke into the microphone. If he’d learned one thing during his years of medical training, it was “Don’t piss off the Shadow Merchants.”

“First trimester pelvic ultrasound for patient Hue Jenny Nguyen,” the radiologist said in a flat voice.

Dan’s chest tightened, making it almost impossible to breathe. His head swam, and he grabbed the door frame to steady himself before he suffered a bout of vasovagal syncope and hit the floor.

Not my Jenny
.

Kai continued with his dictation, completely oblivious to him. Dan strained to catch the details as he rattled them off. Single intrauterine pregnancy. Average heart rate of one hundred and fifty six beats per minute. Crown rump length of two point one two inches. Low-lying anterior placenta without evidence of previa or abruption. Estimated gestation age of twelve weeks and five days.