Page 23 of Accidentally in Love

My brother ran a hand down his clean-shaven jaw in frustration. “Nol, why did you ask her to marry you?”

I sighed. “You know.”

He glared. “Say it out loud.”

“I already told you,” I growled.

“Christ, you need to learn to talk about your feelings. Why did you ask Avery to marry you? Not because of the baby, right?”

“No, of course, not. It’s because I love her, and I want to be worthy of her.”

He stared at me for a long time. Declan had long accused me of being an emotionless robot. He said the only time he ever saw me show any emotion was when Kath finally left.

“Tell her how you feel.”

“She already rejected me.”

He groaned and banged his head on the desk. “Bro, you’re dumb! She said no because she thinks you only asked because of the pregnancy. She has no clue how you feel about her. You have to tell her.”

I mulled over my brother’s words, but I wasn’t sure how to do any of that. I thought I had done that when I offered Avery what she wanted more than anything. When she rejected me, it was clear she’d have my baby, but she’d never be mine.

Chapter Seven

AVERY

I cut a glare at Nolan as his knee bounced up and down while we waited for my OBGYN to start my check-up.

“Nol, stop,” I snapped.

He gave me a sheepish look. “Sorry.”

I gave him a tight smile. I shouldn’t have snapped at him, especially since things had been off with us since I rejected his proposal a couple of weeks ago. Gemma said he had been moodier than usual and had made one of the new guys quit on the spot yesterday. Thanksgiving was tomorrow, and Nolan despised the holidays, so he was probably just being his typical Grinch self.

“Sorry, I’m moody,” I offered.

He raised an eyebrow and pressed his lips to a thin line but was silent.

“Nol—”

I couldn’t complete my thought because Dr. Lee came into the room. She looked at Nolan first since he hadn’t been with me at the last appointment. She walked over to him and firmly shook his hand. “Hi, I’m Dr. Olivia Lee. You must be the father.”

“Nolan MacGregor,” he said as he broke the handshake.

“It’s good to meet you,” Dr. Lee said to him. Then she looked over at me and asked, “How are you feeling?”

“Okay,” I lied.

“Avs, don’t lie,” Nolan cut in. He turned to my doctor while I glared at him. “She’s been dealing with a lot of morning sickness. I got her one of those relief bands, but I’m not sure it has helped.”

I fidgeted with the band around my wrist. Nolan had shown up at school during my free period one day to give it to me. When I expressed my surprise, he shrugged and said, ‘you were complaining,’ and then he left as quickly as he had come. That grumpy bear of a man confused me sometimes.

My doctor wrote something down on her chart. “Okay, that’s normal, but maybe once you hit the second trimester, you’ll be out of it. If the band works, use it.”

I nodded. I knew that, but feeling sick and tired all the time sucked. I was supposed to hit the second trimester in December, and I had been counting down the days, hoping once I hit it, I would feel better.

She ran a couple of tests as we went through the rest of the check-up. She said everything was looking good, despite me being at high risk because of my age. Other than my morning sickness, which she thought would go away soon, she felt like we were in good shape. I wasn’t having any further complications, so she wasn’t worried.

“Do you have any other questions for me today?” she asked.