Nova

A high-pitched scream leaves my mouth and I hear a crash in the other room.

I come running out of the bathroom and crash into Jace’s arms. He catches me, but just barely. I hold up the slender white stick triumphantly. 

“We did it!”

Jace looks at me like I’ve lost my ever-loving mind, but then his lips part as realization strikes him. 

He grabs my flailing hand and looks at the pregnancy test.

The positive pregnancy test.

After months trying to get to this moment we finally did it.

Paris must’ve been awfully lucky for us.

A grin breaks out over his face like the sun rising. “We’re going to have a baby?”

I nod, tears in my eyes. “You’re going to be a dad.”

“And you’re going to be a mom.” 

He growls lowly and crashes his lips to mine. The test falls from my hand to the floor as my arms go around his neck.

He sets me down and presses his forehead to mine, his hands on my cheeks.

“This is happening.”

“It is,” I concur.

After all this time, it doesn’t feel quite real, like it’s too good to be true. All the wishing and hoping and heartbreak and tears have been leading to this moment.

We stand there, him holding my cheeks in his hands, for endless minutes. Like we’re afraid if we move it’ll burst the bubble and this won’t be real anymore. 

I place my hands on his slender hips, grasping his shirt in my fists, and to my surprise I begin to cry.

“Nova,” he gasps softly, “what’s wrong?”

I sniffle and force my eyes to his. “I was beginning to think it was never going to happen.”

He rubs my tears away with his large thumbs, but just as quickly there are more there replacing them.

“You worry too much,” he tells me, and I laugh.

He’s right. Between finishing school, trying to start a business, Greyson, Owen, my parents, and now this, I’ve worried myself to death. I feel nothing has been going right, like the world has been conspiring against me, and while things haven’t been bad they haven’t been good, either.

I take a deep, but shaky breath, and nod to him that I’m okay.

He lets his hands fall and looks me over.

“This is happening,” he says again, like he’s trying to imprint the words into my brain and get them to stick.

I close my eyes briefly, picturing my belly round with our baby, the nursery, Jace singing softly to the baby.

God, it’s a wonderful picture, one I’m finally going to get.

Giving up Greyson was hard, but seeing him with his adoptive parents I can’t deny he’s been given a better life than what I could’ve given him. And if I’d been able to keep him, college would’ve been nearly impossible. I probably would’ve had to work like a slave to make ends meet. As much it sucks not having my son, I can’t deny both our lives are better for it, and at least now I get to see him. That makes all the difference in the world.

“I need you to hold me,” I confess.

He obliges immediately, wrapping me in his long arms, and holding me to him.

Sheltered. Protected. Safe.

He does all of it for me.

I never had that before him, not even with Owen.

My relationship with Owen was young love, nothing about it compares to this, but it doesn’t mean I regret it. Everything in my life has been a step leading me to here, to Jace.

Jace hums softly, a tune I’m not familiar with.

Without moving away from him I ask, “New song?”

I feel him nod against the top of my head. “Something I’m working on,” he murmurs. 

“It’s beautiful.”

“It should be, you’re my muse.”

I laugh softly, that’s what he always says, but Jace is incredibly talented. I know he thinks he’s average, but he’s wrong, and I’m not being biased. The first night I ever met him he was singing and I was captivated by the words, the music, and him. He’s magnetic.

“What do you want to do today?” he asks.

I shrug against him.

“I feel like we should celebrate or something.” He chuckles softly.

“I don’t know,” I hedge, not wanting to break the spell I feel like we’re currently under. “Why don’t we watch a movie or something?”

“Why don’t you watch the movie naked and then I’ll watch you instead.”

I pull away and smack his chest as I laugh. “Jace,” I scold. He grins mischievously and I shake my head. “Fine, clothes stay on, but I’ll let you feel me up.”

He frowns. “What if you flash me your boobs? Just once?”

I roll my eyes. “We had sex this morning and you’re already desperate for more, aren’t you?”

His eyes darken and he grabs my hips, pulling my body flush to his, eliminating the small amount of distance gained between us. 

“I always want you,” he says huskily, licking his lips like he can already taste me.

I can feel my desire building but I do my best to squash it. If I let Jace we’ll spend our entire day fucking everywhere we can in the apartment. 

I shake my head. “Down, boy.”

He laughs and releases me. “Movie then. I’ll be on my best behavior. Scout’s honor.” He winks and looks me over, telling me with his eyes he’s going to be anything but on his best behavior. “I’ll make the popcorn. You get the movie.”

I turn the TV on and bring up Netflix, searching through the movies until I find something that sounds good.

I turn it on as the smell of buttery popcorn fills the apartment.

The microwave dings and I turn to watch Jace empty the popcorn into a large bowl for us to share. He’s ditched his shirt—to torture me, I’m sure—and his back muscles flex as he works.

He turns around, giving me a cocky smile when he sees me watching him.

I sit down and get cozy on the couch with a blanket. Jace flops onto the couch beside me and motions me to lie against him. I do, gladly. His skin is always hot he’s like my own personal space heater. 

I reach into the bowl in his lap and grab a handful of popcorn, shoving it into my mouth.

The movie starts but I don’t think either of us is really paying attention.

Jace glides his fingers through my hair and I startle when he leans down, brushing his lips against my forehead. 

“We’re having a baby,” he murmurs, his voice still full of awe and wonder.

I feel the same, wondering if this is really happening.

I don’t think it’ll feel real to me until I see a doctor, and maybe not even then.

He touches his hand to my stomach, like he can already feel the tiny human growing there, and I shiver.

“I love you, more than anything,” he murmurs. “You know that, right?”

I smile up at him and reach to curl my fingers in his hair, pulling him down until our lips are pressed together in a soft kiss. 

“Trust me, I know.”

Jace shows his love for me in so many ways.

In the way he touches me, the way he looks at me, the way he takes care of things before I even have to ask. 

I never knew love could be like this—that it’s supposed to be like this. 

Growing up with my parents … It’s not like they hated each other, but they weren’t exactly happy, either. They nit-picked every little thing the other did and I’m sure it’s only gotten worse in recent years as they’ve gotten older. I was lucky to get away when I did—before I could be poisoned by what I witnessed.

I gulp suddenly and my body stiffens as I realize I’ll have to tell my parents about this.

After my last phone call with my mom I vowed to never speak to them again, but I can’t risk them finding this out through someone else.

“What is it?” Jace asks, noticing my rigidness.

“We’re going to have to tell my parents.”

He looks at me, blinking slowly, and utters one word. “Fuck.”

That word sums up exactly how I feel, and I wonder how long I can put off the inevitable.