FRACTURES (The Lake House #3) *REUPLOADED*

Chapter Thirteen

Justin

When I walked into the kitchen, Ana was staring down at a bunch of takeout menus sprawled across the counter. The stressed out look on her face made me smile and I leaned against the doorframe.

"I don't know if I want italian or chinese." She mumbled with a heavy sigh. "But I'm so hungry."

I chuckled, moving deeper into the kitchen to put my hands on her shoulder. She turned into my arms and I laid my cheek on top of her head. "Long day?"

"I cried watching Spongebob." Her words came out muffled since her cheek was squished into my chest. Next to the menu were furniture books as we were starting to decide what we wanted to do with the nursery.

I knew better than to laugh as hard as I wanted to. Last week, when I laughed at one of Ana's hormonal breakdowns, she locked herself in her room for the night and refused to talk to me.

It had been the first night we spent apart since new years.

"You wanna order both? Whatever we don't eat now, we'll save for later."

She beamed up at me as if I just told her she won a million dollars. "See? This is why I keep you around."

We ended up eating chinese, leaving the rest of the food we ordered in the fridge. I filled two wine glasses with water, joining Ana on the couch. We ate in comfortable silence for a few minutes, Ana staring into her food like it had all the answers in life.

"Everything okay?" I asked gently. Lately, it was hard to measure what was running through her mind. It was frustrating but all I could do was have patience.

She shrugged. "Yeah, it's fine."

"Oh man," I groaned, sliding closer across the couch. "Fine is probably my least favorite word. Fine is what you say when you don't really wanna share what you're really thinking. I am the professional at being 'fine'". I put my hand on her upper back, rubbing my thumb back and forth.

"Your food's getting cold," Ana muttered.

"Don't care, I have this cool thing called a microwave." I grinned when she glared up at me. "Please tell me what's wrong."

She let out a heavy sigh, leaning forward to place her lo mein on the coffee table. "What's our situation, Justin?"

"What do you mean?" I pressed a kiss to her cheek. "We're having a nice night in." One under her jaw. "After spending a long, long day apart."

"We have to talk about this." She replied, not letting up.

"Okay, let's talk then. You first."

"It's been two weeks since the new year's party. We sleep in the same bed every night, you call me every afternoon and text me in the evenings to tell me you're coming home. Hell, you kiss me before you leave and when you come back. The baby will be here before we know it and she needs a solid family. Not two parents who have no idea who they are to each other."

I stayed quiet for a few moments, thinking carefully about my response. I knew this was coming and for probably the first time ever, I wanted to be completely open with my feelings.

"If I had a dollar for every person at that party that called us a beautiful couple, I'd be rich."

Ana wrinkled her nose, "You're already rich."

I rolled my eyes. "You know what I mean. And what else could I say except thank you over and over again. After a few hours, I started to believe it. It felt real to me. I wanted it to be real. These were people who have seen me for years at these events with random dates. Girls I would send to the bar and barely acknowledge for the rest of the night. But I was proud to be there with you. The guys at the gym always joke that I was a lucky man for having you. But they don't know that half of it. I've always been the luckiest man to have you in my life and I always will be, no matter what life throws at us."