Vegas Aces: The Wide Receiver Complete Series

CHAPTER 1 TRISTAN

“I’m pregnant.”

The high I’ve been riding after catching evidence on Savannah and serving her with the final papers seems to deflate at her words.

I knew she was holding onto something…but I wasn’t expecting her to tell me that .

All the blood seems to drain from my face, and I feel a little dizzy at the rush.

“You’re…” I trail off.

“Pregnant,” she says again.

We’ve spent nearly every day together since we arrived back in town on the same day well over a month ago.

How could she be pregnant?

Okay, fine. I know how .

Maybe the better question is how did she keep it from me ? Or even better…how did I not realize it?

And maybe most importantly…does she have a relationship with the father?

I start to form one of those questions on my tongue, but I find it a little too twisted to actually speak coherently right now. “But how—I mean when, or who…” I shake my head as I try to reconcile her words with everything that’s happened over the last month and a half.

We haven’t toasted with alcohol since we’ve been back, but maybe she’s not a big drinker.

I think back to the few times we drank together when we were kids. I held her hair when she puked, climbed in her window and slept on the floor beside her to make sure she was okay, helped come up with alibis so she’d never have to admit to her strict parents what we were really up to. She vowed to never drink again more than once. Maybe she kept true to that promise, though I somehow doubt it.

She doesn’t look pregnant. But it’s winter, and it’s damn cold here in Fallon Ridge. She’s been bundled up in sweatshirts, and maybe she’s not showing yet.

Or maybe she is. Hard to tell. She has a glow emanating from her, but I figured it was the glow of her beauty, not of pregnancy.

And every time I’ve tried to get physically close to her, she’s backed away, citing all the things I don’t know as her excuse. I guess what I didn’t know is that she’s growing a baby.

I clear my throat as I try to come to terms with this news. “How far along are you?”

She draws in a breath. “Six months.”

“Six months?” I practically yell.

How the fuck is she six months along and I’m just finding out about it now? I glance down at her stomach. Surely she’s showing at this stage of her pregnancy, but she’s in yet another bulky sweatshirt that hides away what’s happening inside her body.

How could I have been so oblivious?

She nods, and the fear in her eyes is evident. “I was so scared to tell you,” she whispers. “I was so afraid we’d get close, or we’d cross the line to get back where we were before, but then you’d find out and it would scare you off. It’s why I’ve tried keeping my distance. It’s why I—”

“Used my marriage as an excuse not to get close to me,” I murmur, finishing her sentence for her.

Anger vibrates in my chest as I get a look at this new woman standing in front of me.

She’s not my girl. She’s not the one I used to know.

And yet…I’ve fallen in love with who she is now despite the huge secret she’s been keeping. I don’t know how I could fall for someone I feel like I hardly know, but I know what I feel. She’s different than she was before, but so am I.

I’m not sure what that means. I’m not sure where we go from here.

“That’s not true,” she says, and her voice cracks with emotion as a tear slips onto her cheek. “I can’t get involved with someone who took vows with someone else. Especially not when the father…the father…” She chokes on her words, the tears coming faster now.

“Who’s the father?” I whisper, even though I already know the answer.

“Cam. The doctor from the office who was married. The one who won an award for his family values. The one who told me to take care of it when I told him I was pregnant.”

“To take care of it ? What does that even mean?” I ask, the anger vibrating harder in my chest but for a different reason now.

She shakes her head. “I think it meant something different to him than it did to me. I am going to take care of it,” she says, air quoting the words he used. “For the rest of her life.”

“Her?” I say softly. “You’re having a girl?”

She nods as she presses her lips together, and more tears fall from her eyes. “He doesn’t want anything to do with her. With me. With us. When he won that award and promised some of the grant money to Paul, my old boss…I couldn’t get in the way of that. I couldn’t make some public scandal even though the world deserves to know what a trash human he is.”

I have the sudden urge to hold her. I don’t know what this means—for her, for us, for everything…but the woman I love is standing before me, hurting and scared as she cries for everything she’s been through, and my job is to provide her comfort in this time of need.

I close the gap between us and take her in my arms. She slides her arms around my waist and rests her head on my chest as I clutch her tightly to me, and for the first time, I feel the bump of her belly pressing into me.

This is the first time I’ve held her in my arms. The first time we’ve been this close.

The first time she’s let down her guard enough to let me touch her like this.

I breathe her in, the soft scent of her sweet jasmine telling me this is the same woman I’ve loved over half my life despite the changes. She’s been through a lot over the last six months, and she’s been doing it largely alone.

I’m angry, sure. I’m hurt she didn’t think she could tell me. I’m confused about what happens next—if anything at all, or if the road of hope for us ends here.

But a tiny glimmer locked away deep in my heart has me wondering whether this could be the start of everything I’ve ever wanted…with the right woman this time.