Undeniably Married (Boston’s Irresistible Billionaires Book 4)
Undeniably Married: Chapter 29

If nerves had a color, they’d be black. Or maybe vomit green. Definitely vomit green since I’m a bit sick to my stomach, and yet oddly turned on, so there’s that. The sight of Sorel across the lawn of the Fritz compound talking to her parents and grandmother is triggering my dick. And my gag reflex.

And before you think that’s gross or wrong, it’s not my fault. She’s throwing me coy, sexy looks every chance she gets. For the last few days, it’s been nonstop sex every chance we get, and with each glance, memories of her naked and me coming all over her tits early this morning flash through my head. What’s triggering my nerves is that Sorel is only eight weeks along, and with that, she’s decided to keep things about her pregnancy quiet.

What’s happening right now is complicated.

She’s telling her parents and grandparents we’re together. But she’s not telling them she’s pregnant. At least for now. And she asked that I keep that part of this a secret too.

Not so easy for me when surrounded by my best friends, whom I don’t keep secrets from.

Compounding that, tomorrow I have my first regular-season game at one, and I just got here from our team walk-through, where things were a bit shaky. I have a lot on my mind. I need a win tomorrow. I feel like a dickhead for being here and having not yet told some of our people that Sorel and I are actually together, let alone pregnant. My main people know, but they don’t know how serious it is because that’s not the sort of thing you relay over text.

They think we’re trying. Because that’s what I had told them. Then everything else happened.

In fairness, I’ve been busy, and so have they. I texted that I needed to talk to them, and so far, it’s been impossible to connect. Even with Stone, who lives next door. Tinsley left this morning for two months, so he’s been completely focused on her like I’ve been completely focused on Sorel. And football. I’ve been focused on that too.

And the fact that my girl is pregnant.

Brody called her yesterday to say he needed more time to think. She said fine after being on the phone with him for more than twenty minutes. The two of them talked, and I didn’t eavesdrop, though I was desperate to. She didn’t tell him about me, and he didn’t ask. I don’t know what to make of any of this. Her reasoning for not saying anything was valid. She didn’t want him to make a gut-check, emotional reaction based on jealousy or one-upping. This is a child, and Brody needs to be in it for the right reasons.

I get that.

Doesn’t mean I like it.

Brody’s indecision is another reason she wants to keep the situation on lockdown until she has a definitive decision from him.

At some point, Brody will need to know that I’m a package deal with Sorel and the baby. But being patient—as I’ve proven over the last five weeks—isn’t exactly my fortitude. That’s another thing. We’re just about at the halfway to the end of our three-month bargain. What happens then? We didn’t fully figure that out, and we haven’t talked about it again since the shower.

It’s weighing on me. I want Sorel only for myself as my wife. I don’t want to have to share her or the baby with anyone else. I want them as mine and mine alone. But the baby isn’t technically mine, and with that, there’s a chance I’ll always be second behind Brody.

“Hey, man. Glad you could make it.” Owen comes in beside me with a slap to my back as he sips something I’m desperate to snatch from his hands and down in one gulp.

“Wouldn’t have missed it.”

Today is the annual Fritz end-of-summer bash. The massive lawn spread out before me is littered with children and adults dressed in wild colors running around since Rory requested a rainbow theme party, and Octavia Abbot-Fritz never half-asses anything. It looks like the most kickass gay pride party you’ve ever seen.

There are bouncy houses, clowns, balloon animal makers, cotton candy machines, crafts tables, and an ice cream truck. That’s all in addition to the pool, waterslide, spread of food as far as the eye can see, and, of course, since it’s a Fritz event, a large, fully stocked bar that I could use about now but don’t get to indulge in.

“Rory seems to be having a great time,” I note, watching Owen’s daughter run around in her rainbow bathing suit. I try to focus on the fun around me, but like a magnet, my eyes skip over to Sorel and lock on Landon, who is staring at me with a look I can’t read. She asked to talk to them alone about us being together. She told me I have nothing to be nervous about because they already love me, but the fact that I want to raise a baby that isn’t mine as my own will thrust me up to superhero status.

When she tells them that part.

The jury is out on that. Her father already doesn’t like me because I married his daughter in Vegas, and if ever there was a woman I want to make proud of me—other than my mother—it’s Octavia. Plus, I think Stone and Owen might, well, I don’t know what.

“She’ll be throwing up by the end of the day for sure, but for now, she’s enjoying herself. How are things going with⁠—”

“Oh, my hell, take Willow from me.” Katy shoves baby Willow directly into my arms before she proceeds to rip her shirt off right here in front of us.

“Speaking of throwing up.” I gag. “What the hel—heck, Katy?” I correct my language since Katy doesn’t like us swearing in front of baby Willow, who isn’t exactly a tiny baby anymore. She’s fifteen months old and walks or runs all the time. At the moment, she’s in only a diaper, and I wrap one arm beneath her little butt and another around her back to hold her.

“She threw up all over my shirt. What else am I supposed to do?”

“Go into the bathroom?” Owen shoots back at her.

Katy rolls her eyes at us. “Grow up. It’s a bra. They’re boobs. You’ve both been around when I’ve breastfed her in the past, and you’ve both seen me in a bikini that shows way more than this. Besides, the bathroom is like fifteen miles away.”

“Or a two-minute walk,” Owen supplies, averting his gaze from his half-naked best friend.

“You try walking two minutes when you’re covered in hot dog and ice cream vomit.”

“Still…” He trails off. That’s a difficult thing to argue.

“Mwaysn,” Willow says, delight on her face as her slimy hands plaster themselves onto my cheeks.

“Hello, my darling girl. How’s my favorite toddler? I haven’t seen you in a bit.”

“That’s because you’ve been busy,” Katy throws back at me with a knowing lilt to her voice. “We should plan a movie night. Bennett is working nights for the next ten freaking days.”

“Bummer. I bet you miss Daddy.” I kiss her forehead. “Is your tummy okay?”

She gives me a wet, toothy smile, though her breath isn’t fun. I can smell the throw-up on her, and unlike the two doctors on my right, I don’t do so well with bodily fluids like that. I try not to gag. I try very hard.

“I guess I’m going to have to learn to get used to this baby vomit stuff,” I muse only to freeze when both Katy and Owen do the same. Shit. I wasn’t supposed to say that.

“What exactly do you mean by that?” Owen’s eyes narrow on me.

“Um. Well.” I don’t lie to these people. I can’t. Forget throwing up, my body revolts against it. It’s like I’ve been programmed for truth and honesty.

“Tell me how I’m supposed to survive two months without my girl,” Stone mercifully interrupts, only to scrunch his nose. “What’s that smell?”

“And why are you half-naked?” Vander follows up.

Katy rolls her eyes at them too as she pulls a shirt out of her massive diaper bag and slips it over her head. “Happy now? You can all get over the panic of me in a bra. And for a pediatric emergency room attending, Stone, you’d think you’d know the aroma of baby vomit when you smell it.”

“Right,” Stone continues without missing a beat. “But I’m not at work, so I shouldn’t have to smell vomit when I’m off the clock.”

“Try living with Rory,” Owen counters. “And you went two years without Tinsley. You can handle two months now.”

Stone glowers. “You think it’s a bad idea if I surprise her in London next month?”

“I told him it’s clingy,” Vander states with a shrug. “Tinsley already warned him that she’ll be on a tight schedule with filming.”

“Still, I think that’s sweet,” Katy tells him. “If you want to go to London, go to London, but she’ll be busy, and you’ll have to deal with that.” She tries to steal Willow back from me, and I twist my body so she can’t.

“Mine.”

“Mwine,” Willow repeats and I grin, bouncing my eyebrows at Katy.

“Ugh. Fine. Keep my kid.”

“I will.” I grin smugly. “My girl loves me. Right, baby rock star? You’re getting so good with your words, sweetheart.” I kiss her nose only to regret it when I get another whiff of puke.

“She is,” Katy agrees. “And big. How is she already this big? I told Bennett we need to try for another. The world needs more babies.”

“Can you have more babies?” Vander asks. Katy is a type 1 diabetic and has endometriosis. She had trouble with her pregnancy and ended up delivering early.

“I thought about a surrogate. Sorel once offered. Maybe I’ll take her up on it.”

I choke. On nothing. Then I cover it with a cough and a laugh because I don’t think Katy was serious.

Owen is staring at me again. He’s no fool. Not by a long stretch. As if to prove this point, Owen says, “You’re keeping something from us.”

“No,” I answer quickly while averting my gaze and keeping it on Willow, who is now squirming because she wants to get down so she can run.

“That’s why you just squeaked like a thirteen-year-old whose balls haven’t yet dropped?” Stone jumps in, and now everyone’s eyes are on me.

“Oh, my hell, Sorel is pregnant!” Katy practically screams.

“Shhh!” I hiss, glaring at her as I set her daughter down so she can chase after the other kids. No one seems to care that she’s only in a diaper, and Katy is too busy staring at me as if someone just branded her ass with an electric prod. “How could you even figure that out so quickly? What do you have, some sort of mind reading magic?”

“Wait!” Stone grabs my arm and twists me so I’m facing them. “Is that true?”

I sag a bit. “Yes. She’s pregnant.”

“Holy shit,” Owen exclaims. “Why weren’t you going to tell us?”

“I was. When the time was right. When she told me it was okay to. It’s not simple.” I glance around to make sure no one else is around. Oliver, Amelia, Layla, and Callan walk by, and I throw them an awkward wave. They look at me as if I’m nuts, and I turn back to my friends with my face in my hands.

“Why are you waving at my grandparents and parents like a six-year-old waving at Mickey Mouse?” Katy questions.

“Because I’m losing it,” I cry, my hands flailing about “The baby isn’t mine.”

“The baby isn’t yours?!”

“Jesus, Stone. Why don’t you shout a little louder so the entire party can hear you?”

He grimaces sheepishly.

Owen holds up a hand. “Stop. Start from the beginning because nothing is making sense right now.”

“The baby is Brody’s,” Vander states flatly, and I throw him a side-eye, though I shouldn’t be surprised he already knows. “What? You have me checking up on him so I am. It’s in his texts. Speaking of those⁠—”

“Wait. Shut up for a second.” Katy comes over and clasps my forearm, her eyes all over my face. “Are you okay?”

This is why I love her. “Yes. I’m okay now. It was a big shock and not a fun one to find out that the baby isn’t mine, but Sorel and I are together, and I’ve made the decision to be part of the pregnancy and raise the baby like it’s mine.”

Katy climbs up onto her tiptoes and kisses my cheek. “I told her you’re one of the best men I know, and you just proved that a million times over. I’m so proud of you, Mason. I mean it. That couldn’t have been an easy decision.”

“Shockingly enough, it’s Baby Willow that made me realize I could do it. I love Willow like she’s mine because you’re mine.” I shrug. “If you had ever asked me to raise her as my own, I wouldn’t have hesitated. My dad pointed that out, and he was right.”

Katy wraps her arms around me and hugs me tight. “I’m so happy for you.”

“Thanks, babe. I am too. Sort of.”

“What do you mean, sort of?” Stone pries as Katy steps back.

“I mean there’s still a lot of uncertainty with Brody. He hasn’t made a decision yet if he’s in or out.” I turn my focus to Vander. “Unless you know something I don’t.”

“He told his dad and Eloise that she’s pregnant with his kid. His dad told him to be a man and step up, and Eloise told him that Sorel was lying and conniving and simply trying to hurt him. She told him to get a paternity test.”

My eyes widen. “She said that?”

“Yes. Brody told her that Sorel sent an ultrasound picture that showed how far along she is and that he knows Sorel wouldn’t lie and didn’t cheat. He knows the baby is his.”

My brows furrow, but Owen beats me to the question that is hovering on the tip of my tongue.

“Why would he tell Eloise about the baby?”

Vander shakes his head at a loss. “No clue. They hadn’t talked in weeks. Not since Brody called it off between them after the wedding didn’t happen. He asked if they could meet up to talk.”

Weird. Okay. In truth, I hadn’t thought much about Eloise. I don’t think Sorel’s had any contact with her, but I’ll have to mention⁠—

“They’re all totally fine with it.” A bump on my shoulder from Sorel drags me out of it. “Grandma and my mom especially love it. My dad is warming up to the idea.” She beams at me. “See. All good. Like I told you.”

I lean in and kiss the corner of her lips. “That’s a relief. Um.” I glance at my friends and then back at her. “So, I might have⁠—”

“You’re pregnant?” Katy practically tackles her with a full-body hug. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell us.”

Sorel gives me a perturbed look. “You told them I’m pregnant without me?!”

“You’re pregnant?!” comes two sets of voices from behind us.

All of us spin around at once.

“Grandma. Dad. Hi!”