The Dare (The Bet #3)(58)
Author: Rachel Van Dyken

"He’s teasing." Grandma winked "I’m ALWAYS WELCOME IN MY GRANDSON’S HOME!"

"YOU BELONG IN A HOME!"

"WHAT? YOU BOUGHT ME A HOME?"

Cursing followed, and then dishes banged together before Jake rounded the corner, his eyes narrowing in on Grandma and then me.

"You’re pale."

"Jake thinks himself a doctor now." Grandma rolled her eyes.

"Why are you pale?" He reached out and grabbed my wrist and then felt my forehead. "You don’t feel hot."

I shrugged. "I don’t think I have a fever."

"She puked." Grandma felt the need to add

"I’m fine." I was going to lose my mind if they both kept staring at me like I was in a museum. Just let me be sick and feel sorry for myself, damn it!

"What’s wrong with Beth?" Char ran down the stairs.

"She puked," Jake said at the exact same time that Grandma declared, "She’s pregnant!"

"What!" we all said in unison while Grandma clapped her hands in glee.

"I’m not! No, I’m not." I started getting hysterical. "It’s impossible."

"You’ve been having the ex." Grandma nodded.

"Grandma stop putting the in front of everything."

Char grabbed her husband’s hand. "The Jake is right. It’s getting weird. And Beth, do we need to have a little talk on how babies are made?"

"Oh, I have a chart for that!" Grandma held up her hand.

"I burned that chart last week," Jake shot her down.

"But they were color-coded," Grandma said dejectedly. "I spent hours on them."

"Listen," I held up my hands in innocence, "I don’t need charts, and I don’t need help. I’m not pregnant. I didn’t have the sex with Jace, or at least I didn’t while in…" My head suddenly started pounding. Would I be that stupid? Would Jace be that stupid? The night of the wedding? Holy crap, holy crap. I reached for something to hold onto and latched onto Jake like a leach. He looked panicked as I gripped the front of his shirt.

"Hello?" Grandma said.

I turned slowly to see her leopard cell phone attached to her ear.

"Yes, Jace."

"No!" I shouted, launching myself at Grandma.

She hung up and chuckled to herself. "Well, that was easy."

The doorbell rang.

Seriously. Was I hallucinating?

Grandma all but skipped to the door and threw it open.

Jace.

I opened my mouth to speak just as Grandma shouted, "Beth’s with child!"

"What?" Jace roared, his face turning red. "Who the hell did you let touch you, Beth? I swear I’ll kill him. I’ll rip him apart with my bare hands! You hear that, bastard? I’m coming for you!"

"I’m not—"

"Aren’t you a little late to be playing hero?" Jake said smugly. "What the hell are you doing here anyway?"

"I came for my wife."

"You’re married!" Char shouted, launching herself at Jace.

He held up his hands in panic. "Not yet!"

"You have a freaking fiancée!" I shouted, my voice carrying across the giant house like a firecracker.

"Oh, I feel faint. I do feel faint." Grandma patted her head.

Char swayed on her feet next to Grandma, turning an interesting shade of white before passing out in Jake’s arms.

"Hospital!" he yelled.

"For the last time, I’m not pregnant!" I countered.

"BUT CHAR IS!" He all but screamed in my face.

"Yay!" Grandma did a little dance. "I knew those beads would work."

"A little help?" Jake motioned to Jace, who was already opening the door and grabbing flip flops for Char.

She was starting to come to. I was too worried to do anything but pray. Why hadn’t Char told me? She could only be a few weeks along!

"I took a taxi," Jace said in clipped tones.

"Garage." With his free hand, Jake dialed the garage pad, and it opened.

If I hadn’t been in such a panic, I probably would have passed out. He had more cars than a dealership, and they all looked expensive.

Which one were we supposed to take?

Jace ran to where the keys were hanging, grabbed a pair, and unlocked a new Mercedes SUV.

"Get in," he barked.

I got in the front while everyone else piled in the back.

Tears burned at the back of my throat. "Is she awake? Coherent?"

Jake’s voice cracked, "Yeah, her eyes just opened. Baby, are you okay? Talk to me. Do you know where you are?"

Grandma reached up to the front seat and patted my shoulder. "She’ll be alright, honeybug. This sometimes happens."

Jace pulled into the closest hospital in record time. I didn’t even realize I was holding his hand until I tried to sit down and realized I’d have to sit on his lap with how close I was leaning against him. Abruptly, I let go and shook the familiarity of his touch away.

Wife? His wife?

The man was quick. Two weeks, and he was moving on?

Jake went back with Char, while Grandma left to call Travis and Kace.

"She’ll be okay," Jace said confidently. "She’s strong."

"Yeah."

"I don’t have a wife," he added a few minutes later.

"I don’t care."

"You do," he said confidently. "I meant you, by the way."

"What? We’re secretly married?"

"Not yet," he said smoothly, "but we will be."

"What gives you that idea?"

"Well, first of all, I love you."

My breath caught in my throat.

"And second? I didn’t walk away."

"I know, I know. I did. But you didn’t give me a reason, and then you denied everything in front of the news! What was I supposed to do?"

"Stay." He turned in his chair and grabbed my hands. "You were supposed to stay."

"But—"

"I didn’t walk away."

"So you keep saying." I tried to jerk free.

"Ten minutes. That’s all I need. And then I will walk away. If I can’t convince you in ten minutes, then…" his face fell, "then I’ll go if you want me to."

"Is that why you’re here? To plead your case?"

"I’m here because I wanted to make the big gesture. I wanted you to see that I wasn’t going to run with my tail between my legs. But the minute I got back, I had some things to fix, some choices to make. I wanted to make sure I had those firmly in place before I talked with you. I wanted to be sure you knew that I was fully committed."