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Every inch of me was suddenly on fire. I wanted to bury my hot face in my palms, but Alex’s hand still swallowed mine, and I had to relent.
“What about Vicki?”
Alex swallowed hard. He looked down at his fingers and said, "We don't tell her yet."
Relief was an understatement. I could barely consider telling Vicki.Hey, I’m pregnant with twins, can you believe it? And what’s crazier is that I’m pregnant by your ex-fiancé.“Okay.”
“Okay?” he asked. “Are you saying okay to not telling Vicki about the pregnancy or to me being involved?”
“To both,” I muttered softly as the door opened once more and the doctor popped her head into the room.
“All good here?” she asked, her curtain bangs falling into her eyes.
“All good,” Alex and I said at the exact same time.
CHAPTER 14
Alex
“Well, that was easier than I thought,” I said, stepping back to study the two baby bouncers I had just assembled. Sam had recommended the brand, raving about how it had changed their lives when Kaycee was born and how everything would’ve been so much easier if they’d known about it when Anderson—a fussy baby—was little. Then, right after the recommendation, he rolled his eyes and told me not to get my hopes up.
But I couldn’t help myself.
The news of the twins had hit me like ice-cold water, leaving me momentarily speechless, until Sophie had snapped me back to reality with her wide, fearful eyes. As the shock settled like a dust cloud after a storm, I found myself excited, intrigued, and eager to see the two little copies of us. Even if it meant moving to St. Helena and buying a house next to Sophie's. Even if it meant arranging weekend visits, school pick-ups and drop-offs, Thanksgiving, and alternating
Christmas every year.
I was prepared to do anything to be in their lives. To be a father.
Or maybe it didn’t even have to be that complicated.
Maybe Sophie and I can—
I stopped that thought before it matured in my head, and rose to my feet at the same time my phone rang. “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” from TheWizard of Oz—a joke from Sam that I hadn’t bothered to change back—played loudly out of the speaker.
"Vicki," I huffed when I answered, feeling unnecessarily impatient. "I really don't want the walnut set. How clear can I make myself? Tell your dad he can gift it to your brother." "Alex, love, why are yousoangry?” she said, her voice sloppy, her words dragged out. Vicki was drunk. Probably on that nice bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon I kept forgetting to take out of the custom-made wine rack in the kitchen.
Music played in the background, and I knew what was coming. This wasn’t the first time Vicki had called on a Friday evening since our breakup, and I knew it wouldn’t be the last. Whenever she drank, that steely armor melted away and she became the soft, gooey, happy version of herself. A rarity, but I wasn’t dumb enough to fall for it again.
“Come over, Alex. Just for the night.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“You know you want to, Alex . . . I miss you.”
“No, you don’t,” I said, taking a deep breath in and releasing it. “I’m going to put the phone down, alright? Go drink some water.”
“I’ll be waiting,” she said and hung up first.
The last thing I wanted to do was pay Vicki a visit. Still, I headed to the front door, grabbed my car keys and wallet along the way, and walked out into the crisp evening air.
It was forty minutes later when I drove into St. Helena and reached a single-story house with a stucco exterior, a pitched roof with red clay tiles, and a large California sycamore leaning over the driveway. Next to the front steps, bushes of lavender swayed gently in the evening breeze, and a welcome mat on the top step declared,Please leave by nine.
I remembered that from the last time I had showed up uninvited.
Parking on the curb this time, I stepped out of my car and crossed my fingers, hoping Sophie was home and not out with friends. I should’ve called first, especially since I’d decided to head to her place the moment I’d turned on the ignition—Sophie was the only person I wanted to see.
When I got to the front door, I rang the bell.
