“I understand that completely,” Bella told her. “If I’d been in your situation, I would have done the same thing. You know, Jesse told me how happy you and his brother were together. And I can tell you he was really surprised when you two split up.”
Mrs. Carey huffed out a disgusted breath.
“He wasn’t the only one.” Maggie felt a quick sting of tears behind her eyes, and she blinked fiercely to keep them at bay. The time for tears was long past. “I would never have believed that Justice and I wouldn’t be together forever. But he’s just so darn…”
“Stubborn. Bullheaded,” Mrs. Carey supplied.
“That about covers it,” Maggie said with a laugh, relieved to feel her emotions settle again.
“So is Jesse,” Bella said, then went on to describe life with a husband who rarely let her walk across the room without an escort. She started in by telling them how her office at King Beach had been outfitted with a resting chaise and that Jesse made sure she took a nap every afternoon.
While Maggie listened, she tried to hide the pain she felt. The envy, wrapping itself around her heart, for what Bella shared with her husband. Jesse had already come into the room twice in the past hour, ordering his wife to put her feet up, getting her a pillow for her aching back.
It was easy to imagine that Bella’s whole pregnancy had been like that. With her eager, loving husband dancing attendance on her. And Maggie couldn’t help but remember what her own pregnancy had been like. Sure, she’d had her parents and her sisters, but she hadn’t had Justice. She hadn’t had the luxury of lying in bed beside the father of her child while they spun daydreams about their baby’s future. She hadn’t been able to share the excitement of a new ultrasound photo. Hadn’t been able to hold Justice’s hand to her belly so that he could feel Jonas moving around inside her.
They’d both missed so much. Maybe she should have come to Justice immediately on finding out she was pregnant. Maybe she should have given him the chance then to acknowledge their child, to let them both into his life. But she’d been so sure she wouldn’t be welcome. And frankly, his actions over the past few days supported her decision.
But then she remembered the look in Justice’s eyes just an hour or so ago when she’d dropped Jonas into his lap. There had been an unexpected tenderness on his face, underlying the surprise and wariness. Maybe, she thought wistfully, if she’d just stood her ground long ago, things might have been different. Now, though, she’d never know for sure.
“You all right, honey?”
Mrs. Carey’s concerned voice brought Maggie out of her thoughts to focus on what was happening. She shot a look at Bella in time to see a quick flash of pain dart over her features. “Bella?”
“I’m okay,” she said, taking a deep breath. “It’s just that my back’s been bothering me all day. Probably just spasms from carrying around all this extra weight.”
“A backache?” Maggie asked.
“All day?” Mrs. Carey added.
Bella grimaced, then said, “I probably just need another cookie.”
“Um,” Maggie started, “just when exactly are you due, Bella?”
“Oh, not for two weeks yet.” She groaned a little as she pushed herself forward to reach for the plate on the table in front of her.
Maggie and Mrs. Carey exchanged a long, knowing look.
“You’re crazy, you know that, right?” Jesse took a long pull of his beer and stretched his legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankle.
Justice shot a look at his younger brother in time to see him shaking his head in disgust. The sun was hot, the breeze was cool and the patio was empty except for him and Jesse.
Maggie, Bella and Mrs. Carey were all in the house cooing over Jonas and talking about Bella’s due-any-minute baby. He scowled to himself and took a drink of his own beer. Justice and Maggie had already legally separated by the time Bella and Jesse got together, but you wouldn’t have known it from the way Maggie and Bella had instantly bonded. They were like two old friends already, and their chatter had eventually chased Jesse and Justice out to the patio for some quiet.
At least, that had been the plan.
“Crazy? Me?” Justice laughed shortly. “I’m not the one hauling my extremely pregnant wife around when she should be at home.”
“Bella gets antsy sitting around the house. Besides, we’re only forty minutes from the hospital—and you’re changing the subject.”
“Damn straight. Take the hint.”
Jesse grinned, completely unfazed by Justice’s snarl. “Why should I?”
“Because it’s none of your business.”
“When’s that ever stopped a King?”
True, Justice thought. Never had a King been born who knew enough to keep his nose out of his brother’s business.
“Look,” Jesse said, “Jeff called, told me he’d hired Maggie, so I thought I’d bring Bella over to meet her sister-in-law. Nobody told me you had a son.”
“I don’t.”
Laughing shortly, Jesse said, “You’re so busy being a tight ass you don’t even see it, do you?”
“I’m not talking about this with you, Jesse.”
“Fine. Then I’ll talk. You listen.”
A cloud scudded across the sun, tossing the patio into shadow and dropping the temperature suddenly. Justice frowned at his brother, but Jesse paid no attention. He sat up, braced his forearms on his thighs and held his beer bottle between his palms. “I thought your leg was hurt, not your eyes.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means, you dumb jerk, that Jonas looks just like you and you’d have to be blind not to see it.”
“Black hair and blue eyes doesn’t make him mine.”
“It’s more than that and you know it. The shape of his face. His nose. His hands. Damn it, Justice, he’s a carbon copy of you.”
“He can’t be.”
“Why the hell not?” Jesse’s voice dropped and his gaze narrowed. “Why can’t he be your son?”
Irritated beyond measure, pushed beyond endurance, Justice awkwardly got out of his chair and grabbed for his hated cane. Then he walked a few uneasy steps away from Jesse, stared out at the rose garden and told his brother what he’d never told another living soul before.
“Because I can’t have kids.”