Always There

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Eight

Dumbly stating the obvious, I say, "Holy shit. You're pregnant."

Jasmine chuckles to herself, reaching to rest a hand on her very large stomach. "Very, very pregnant, and ready for this thing to get out of me. Everyone keeps asking if I'm having twins, but I'm not, and I still have two months until my due date."

I blink at her, confused. I can't imagine that this was a planned pregnancy, and as far as I knew, she wasn't in a relationship with anyone.

"If you don't mind me asking, who's the father?" I ask quietly. It feels like an intrusive question, but I can't help my own dumbass curiosity and I also want to distract myself to give Blossom a moment with her brother.

Jasmine snorts, and her eyes briefly flick towards the Brooks siblings before focusing again on me. "Who do you think? I've been stuck with him ever since, and we've been living together for a few months now."

My eyes dart to her left hand, checking for a ring. When I don't see one, I focus on her face again and say, "I didn't realize you two were together."

Jasmine scoffs. "We weren't." Then, she lets out an abrupt laugh. "Well, we still aren't, I guess. It's just . . . really complicated. Charlie doesn't want to make things official, but my parents really want us to get married before the baby comes, and—"

"Jazz. I never said that," Charlie cuts in. When I turn towards him, I find that his arms are still firmly around his sister, who has her face buried in his sweater. "All I said was that I don't want you to have to stress about a wedding right now, too. I love you, Jazz, and that's all that matters to me."

With a sigh of resignation, Jasmine looks down at her stomach and begins to idly rub a large circle against the bump. When I glance over towards Blossom, I find her pulling away from Charlie with a sniffle. She begins to wipe away the tears streaking her cheeks with the too-long sleeves of the sweatshirt of mine she's wearing, but when her gaze settles on Jasmine, her eyes light up.

She takes a few timid steps towards her, but as soon as Jasmine meets her eyes and says, "She's kicking. She must know Auntie Lexi is here," Blossom rushes towards her and lets Jasmine guide her hand to her stomach to feel the baby kicking.

Charlie suddenly comes up beside me, and in a voice too low for Blossom and Jasmine to hear, he asks, "How are you? I saw that you . . . that you, y'know . . ."

I look towards Blossom, still eagerly fawning over Jasmine's baby. My eyes remain on her when, quietly, I tell Charlie, "Your sister is an angel. She's helped me more than I deserve."

When I look to Charlie, I find him also focused on Blossom. "She isn't talking," he says. "When did this start?"

I look down at my feet. "It started recently. She's in a state of shock. She's been through a lot of shit over the past couple days."

I look again at Charlie. One of his eyebrows is raised when he asks, "Anything that I don't already know about?"

I lift my shoulders in a shrug. "It isn't my story to tell."

Suddenly, Jordan chimes into the conversation from behind me. I look over my shoulder to find him, Aidan, and Sawyer approaching with all of our suitcases rolling along behind them.

"Who knocked Jazzy up?" he asks with a smile, nodding towards Jasmine and Blossom.

Charlie chuckles to himself and leaves my side to go stand beside Jasmine and Blossom. He slips his hand into Jasmine's and leans in to brush a kiss against her blue hair. "Guilty."