My mind was still reeling when I let myself inside Jordan's house later that night.

Cameron was going to be a father.

My little brother was going to be a daddy.

And I was the first one in the family to know!

I still couldn’t grasp my head around it. I sucked as a sister for not being there for him.

I didn’t care about what happened in the past anymore. it was exactly that; in the past. The prospect of a niece or nephew overrode all our bullshit history. At sixteen weeks pregnant, Tillie was right around the same stage of pregnancy as Teagan and were both due in September. Jesus Christ…

Whether I liked her origins or not, Tillie Grayson was the mother of brother's unborn child. And Cam loved her deeply. That was enough for me. I doubted our brothers would feel the same way as I did, but that wasn’t something I would lose sleep over. I'd given up a long time ago on trying to control my reckless and headstrong siblings.

Jordan was sitting up in bed reading when I practically danced into our bedroom. I was grinning like an idiot, but I didn’t care. The thought of becoming an aunt for the first time had me on cloud nine.

"You're home late," he acknowledged in a quiet tone, flicking a quick glance in my direction before turning his attention back to the paperback in his hands. Come to think of it, those three words were the first he'd spoken to me in days. Whatever had gotten into Jordan the other day, he was still working through it, and I was taking Annabelle's advice and waiting for him to come to me.

"I was visiting with Cam," I replied happily. "I had the best day." Flopping onto my side of the bed, I exhaled a contented sigh and turned my face to look at him. "I want a baby."

Okay, so I knew that sounded reckless and irresponsible and completely out of character for me, but I didn’t care. I always knew that in order to procreate, my husband would have to have sex with me and I hadn't been having much luck in that department as of late, but I was an optimistic woman. Everyone was having babies around me and I wanted one too.

I watched, with my heart in my mouth, as Jordan set his book down on his nightstand and removed his reading glasses. "Where's all this coming from, Hope?" he finally asked, still holding his glasses in his hands.

"Cam and his girlfriend are having a baby," I replied excitedly. Rolling onto my stomach, I leaned up on my elbows and beamed at my husband. "Can you believe it, Jord? Cameron is going to be a father!"

Jordan's brows furrowed. "What?"

"I know, right?" I chuckled. "And I'm the only one who knows."

He continued to stare at me like I had seven heads. "The pregnancy is a secret?"

"I guess." I shrugged. "But she's due in September, so I really don’t see how they're going to hide it."

"So, you make a habit of breaking people's trust?"

I frowned at his question. "What?"

Jordan sighed heavily and shook his head. "Never mind." He rubbed his jaw before adding, "So, Cameron Carter is going to be a father. Well hell."

"Yes," I squealed happily, choosing to ignore his previous remark. I was too damn happy tonight to be dragged down right now. "She's due in September." Rolling onto my back once again, I folded my arms behind my head and smiled up at the ceiling. "Same as Teagan's baby." I plastered on my sweetest smile and winked. "Lots of babies, Jord. Sounds pretty tempting, right?"

"We're not having a baby, Hope," Jordan stated flatly.

Anger fused with disappointment inside of me and I wanted to scream, And what about what I want? But I found an inner strength inside of me and said, "I didn’t mean right this minute. But down the line. In the future. A baby would be nice."

My husband looked at me like I had two heads. "You want to be a mother?" His tone was incredulous, his expression skeptical.

Yes! "I might." I was moving into my late twenties and this was exactly the kind of thought that poked at a woman of my age. I swallowed deeply before adding, "In time."

Jordan stared hard at me for the longest moment before expelling a huge breath. "I don’t want to be a father, Hope." I watched with a heavy heart as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Not now, further down the line, or ever."

My mouth fell open and I gaped at him in horror. "Why not?"

"Why not?" he repeated, clearly frustrated. "Why would I ever want to be partially responsible for bringing a child into this fucked up world?"

"Because it would be a part of us," I urged, pulling myself up into a sitting position.

"And have half of my genes?" Jordan spat. "No." He shook his head. "I'm sorry, but that's not something I want."

"But shouldn’t we at least talk about this before making a final decision?" I argued, striving to keep my cool as I watched my baby dreams fly clean out the window. "This affects the both of us."

"What's to talk about?" he countered. "I'm not interested in bringing children into this world, Hope."

"But…but you're so good with Ryder," I tossed out, clutching at straws.

"Ryder is not my son," he was quick to point out.

"I want to have a family, Jordan," I whispered. "Not right away. But eventually… I want that for my life."

"I'm sorry." He shook his head and exhaled a heavy sigh. "But I won't breed anything that has the remote chance of becoming what I am. Or worse, my parents."

"So, that's it?" I demanded, not bothering to hide my annoyance now. "Your decision is final?"

"I'm sorry," was all he replied.

"You're sorry." My words were laced with sarcasm and hurt. "How long have you known you don’t want children?"

"Always," Jordan said with a shrug. "Children have never been in my future. I've always made it clear that I don’t want to be a father, Hope. I don’t know why you're acting so surprised about this."

Surprised didn’t come close to how fucking crushed I was feeling right now. "You said those things when we were kids," I shot back defensively, thinking back to the few times we had ever talked about kids. "No teenage boy wants to be a father." I threw my hands up in sheer exasperation. "I didn’t actually think you were serious."

"Well, I was," he whispered. "I love you, Hope – more than life – but I'm not going to change my mind on this. I'm never going to want children." With that, he rolled onto his side then, giving me his back, and whispered, "Goodnight, Keychain."

I didn’t respond.

I couldn’t.

Not bothering to get undressed, I slipped under the covers and turned my back to my husband. My heart was breaking and I didn’t trust the words that could come out of my mouth.