The next day, when Addison came out for breakfast, Jace was on the floor in the living room doing push-ups.

She walked over and watched him pump out a sizable number of them in a short amount of time. He didn’t even seem to be breathing hard.

“Hey.” He glanced up at her. “Your breakfast is on the table. I’ll just finish up a couple more exercises.”

“Have you been doing all these things everyday?”

Getting to his feet, he started doing up and downs, and she noticed a sheen of sweat on him. “Sweetheart, I’ve been up since five and gone for a ten-mile run on that crappy treadmill downstairs by the time you get up.”

She laughed, putting her hand on her belly, liking him calling her sweetheart more than she should. “Are you serious?”

He grinned up at her. “You’re just a lazybones. What are you doing, growing another human being or something?”

She smiled, but she couldn’t believe him. She considered herself a fit person. At least, she’d been in pretty good shape. Had she ever been a marathon runner? No. But she ran a couple of miles a day.

“What?” He looked like he wanted in on the joke as he continued doing the up-downs.

“Nothing, I just …” She shook her head and felt herself getting out of breath just watching him. “I think the most I’ve run is a 5K. I’m more of a yoga girl.”

Flashing her a smile, he winked at her. “After the baby comes, we’ll go on some runs.”

This was something she hadn’t really thought about. After baby comes. “Oh.”

“What?” He paused in his up-downs, going to the table, picking up a water bottle, and squirting it into his mouth.

“Are you going to be here after the baby comes?” She couldn’t keep the doubtful note out of her voice.

“Of course.” He didn’t hesitate. “Where would I go?”

“Oh.” Suddenly, she wasn’t sure of that.

Seeming unfazed, he went back to doing more up-downs.

Shuffling over to the table, she saw eggs covered with foil, fruit, and some yogurt. It was amazing how he took care of her like this.

While eating her breakfast, she scanned through her emails to take her mind off of Jace. She smiled when she saw an email from Laura asking if Addison could come up with any furniture suggestions.

It was kind of Addison’s specialty. They needed two couches, a dining room table, and beds for four children and a married couple.

She went to the classified pages of the newspaper’s website. Often, she would call the families and tell them about her organization and ask if they would donate the furniture. In the end, many of them did.

Making a phone call, she spoke to a gentleman and asked about the table and chairs he had for sale. He readily agreed to donate them. She told him she would send a truck, and promptly sent a couple of texts to a moving company. She knew the guy, and he frequently donated his time for the nonprofit.

As she emailed Laura back, she regretted there were still the two couches she hadn’t gotten.

“Hey.”

She hadn’t realized that Jace was standing right next to her. “Oh.”

“Whatcha doing?”

She went ahead and explained the situation.

Popping a piece of pineapple into his mouth, he studied her. “You’re dedicated, aren’t you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you’re about to have a baby, and you’re on bed rest, yet you still make time to help others.”

“It’s nothing, I could easily do this from my bed.” She sighed. “I quit doing social media work though. It was too much.” She shrugged. “I have enough from Tim’s insurance to be okay for a while, but I couldn’t give this up.”

Even though he didn’t say anything, she knew he was thinking something.

“What?”

“Well, what if we donate some of Tim’s things? His desk? Computers?”

It made her take pause that she hadn’t thought about this. “Oh.”

“Hey, you said you wanted me to help you go through some things.”

“Are you willing to do that?” she asked.

Picking up her dishes and moving to the sink, he started in on all of them. “Yep. I am. Today. I asked a couple of guys to come help me in a bit.”

She wanted to ask what had made him change his mind but decided not to. It was still insane to her that he’d slept in the same bed as her last night. She couldn’t even talk about it. She stood. “Let me take a look. I’m fine donating some stuff today.”

“Okay.”

* * *

Jace cleared his throat from the doorway.

She looked up. “What are the two boxes for?” he asked, coming into the room and quickly making the bed.

“You don’t have to do that.” She protested, hating that he felt like he had to pick up after her incessantly. “You’re not a cleaning service.”

“I want to.” Usually, he was so fast at stuff she didn’t even have time to complain he was doing it.

“One box for his parents, one for Lila.”

Jace turned, giving her a sharp look. “Are you friends with his parents?”

“No. They made it pretty clear they were never really enthusiastic about us getting married.”

His expression softened. “I’m sorry.”

“I wasn’t what his mother wanted. He came out here to CSU on scholarship, and she wanted him back east. Truthfully, I would have gone, but Tim didn’t want to.” She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter now. I told them I was pregnant, and they haven’t reached out to me at all.”

It hurt. She wouldn’t lie. It hurt to be alone, but what could she do? She’d dealt with it.

Giving her a sympathetic smile, he nodded. “Sometimes we don’t get what we want in marriage, do we?”

She avoided his gaze, her heart beating rapidly, and finally asked the question that had been nagging her. “Are you still in love with Stacy?”

He took a deep breath. “No. I was hurt. But we never had much between us in terms of friendship.”

Her mind raced as she thought about how all they had was friendship.

He waved her hand away. “I know the press says she broke me. That I haven’t really dated since the divorce.” He wagged a finger at her. “But they don’t know about Cooper Harrison and the power of positive affirmations.” He winked at her.

“I hear they help.” She smiled then snapped her fingers. “I haven’t done many these past couple of months.”

“What would you say?”

Without hesitating, she grinned. “That I’m grateful for some hulky football player that makes me breakfast and does everything for me I guess.”

He laughed. “I’m grateful for a woman who scatters sunshine wherever she goes.”

Addison smiled. She liked that description.

He sighed. “So which box do you want shipped?”

It stunned her how fast he worked. “That one,” she said, pointing. “If you don’t mind, I’d like this one in the garage.”

He picked up Lila’s. “I’ll write ‘Lila’ on it.”

It wasn’t five minutes later that he was back with a bunch of trash bags and started gathering up all of Tim’s things out of his closet.

The doorbell rang. Jace ran out of the room, and a few seconds later, he returned with two guys. He pointed to the one with brown hair. “Meet Frankie.” Then to the other. “Meet John.”

It was stupid, but she did kind of feel silly, meeting superstar football players. “Thank you for coming.”

Both of the guys smiled at her and shook her hand. They looked happy to join the mission.

Frankie waved at her as he walked into the closet, holding out the bag. “I saw you when Jace moved out a couple of months ago through the window. You were hot.”

John rolled his eyes, opening up his own bag. “Don’t pay attention to him.”

Jace came out of the closet with a bag stuffed to bursting. “Are you sure you don’t need to go through anything else?”

Amazed at how fast he was, she shook her head. “Nope.” She got up. “I’ll go get ready.”

He pointed at her. “Lay down.” He winked. “I’m going to get this stuff out. Luckily, Frankie has a truck. Then I’m taking you to your Lamaze class. What time is it again?”

“Oh, it’s not until six. It’s in Denver.”

“Great, we’ll stay at my apartment tonight.”

“What?”

He shrugged. “My apartment’s downtown.”

His apartment? The thought of staying at his place, in his bed, made her suddenly want to scrap the whole Lamaze class.