The Heart's Game (The Kelly Brothers, Book 4) (14 page)

“Smooth, bro.” Gideon flashed his famous smile at her. “I thought you’d be dropping my name everywhere to pick up chicks.”

“No, that would be Frank’s MO,” Dan shot back. He hugged Jenny, noting the way her shoulder curled up and her heels remained planted, despite his efforts to bring her closer to his brother. “There’s no need to panic,” he murmured.

“But he’s a movie star,” she whispered back.

“He’s also my baby brother. I remember him waddling around the house in diapers.”

“We all do.” Ben ruffled Gideon’s dark hair. “Or how he had to wear braces from the time he was eight.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Gideon ducked out of Ben’s reach. “Bring up every embarrassing thing you can.”

“And with seven boys, group baths were a must. I even have pictures I can show you.” Their mom turned to leave the room and retrieve the incriminating evidence.

“Don’t,” all three boys said in unison, freezing her in her tracks.

Giggles bubbled up from Jenny’s chest, and she covered her mouth to contain them. The tension fled her muscles as she leaned into him. “Sorry if I seemed a little starstruck, Gideon, but I was expecting Thanksgiving dinner with a normal family, not one filled with celebrities.”

“But we are a normal family.” Dan’s hand grazed the side of her stomach, reminding him why this trip was so important. “Just give us a chance.”

She looked up at him and nodded. “I can do that.”

“Good.” His mother came over and led Jenny away from him. “Hailey and I could use a little help getting dinner on the table. How are you in the kitchen?”

“Awful,” she replied with a laugh. “I burn toast.”

“Don’t worry, Jenny, I’m sure we can find something for you to do.” His mom glanced over her shoulder and gave him a wink. “Why don’t you boys take Jasper outside and let him run around so he won’t try to steal the turkey.”

“Yeah, we don’t want a repeat of the 2010 Thanksgiving disaster,” Gideon said dryly as he opened the door and ushered the dog out.

Dan followed his brothers, looking once more into the kitchen to make sure Jenny was all right before he left her alone. She was smiling and chatting with his mother and Hailey, already at ease with them, and the worry in his gut eased. If everything went well today, then maybe he wouldn’t be too far off from popping the question.

Chapter Eleven

Jenny sniffed the garlic mashed potatoes before scooping up a heap and dropping it onto her plate. Her stomach rumbled. The food smelled heavenly. Such a change from a few weeks ago, when every little scent made her queasy. She passed the bowl to Ben and took the gravy from Dan, pouring a generous amount on her turkey and stuffing.

“Hungry?” Dan teased.

“Ravenous.” Her mouth had been watering since she’d been recruited to help in the kitchen. Thankfully, that meant very little actual cooking. Maureen and Hailey had done most of the work before they’d arrived. She helped with the last-minute prep work and set the table, relieved that the dinner was playing out normally.

Normal.

She’d forgotten what that word had meant over the past few months.

Once everyone started eating, though, Dan’s mom focused her attention on her. “What’s your due date, Jenny?”

A paralyzing sense of dread seized her. She lowered her eyes. “April eighth.”

“And do you know what you’re having yet?”

The juicy turkey that had tasted so delicious moments ago now felt like sawdust on her tongue. If Maureen kept asking questions about the baby, then she’d eventually have to reveal the whole convoluted story about how she had agreed to be a surrogate for her brother.

“The ultrasound is scheduled for next week,” Dan answered. “We’ll find out then.”

“You’ll have to call me as soon as you know.”

“Don’t worry, Mom, we’ll let you know what we’re having. No doubt, you’re going to spoil your grandchild rotten.”

Shit, shit, shit!
The word kept playing over and over again in her mind. She’d told him it wasn’t his, and he’d said he hadn’t cared, but how awake was he when she tried to tell him? Had he even understood what she’d said? Obviously not since he sounded like he thought he’d be raising it like it was.

She had to set things straight. She had to tell him the truth—that the baby would be going to her brother and his husband as soon as it was born—but if she did, would he still want her? Would she be sitting here at the Thanksgiving table with his family if she’d told him about this surrogacy from the beginning?

Guilt squashed what was left of her appetite. She needed to come clean soon, but this wasn’t the appropriate time and place. But tomorrow, when they got home, she’d explain everything and hope for the best.

“Just don’t spend too much on Dan’s baby,” Ben said, casting a meaningful glance to Hailey. When she nodded, he continued, “Hailey’s due in July.”

“Two grandchildren?” Maureen got up from her chair and hugged Hailey. “This is such wonderful news! I’m so happy for the both of you.”

“We’ve been planning on telling you the news over dinner for weeks.” Hailey beamed with pure joy, the way Jenny had always imagined an expectant mother would. “And the timing is perfect since the baby will come during the off season.”

“Why did you wait to tell us?” Maureen scolded.

“Because so many pregnancies end in miscarriages, and we didn’t want to get your hopes up until we knew Hailey was past the first trimester.” Ben’s eyes softened as he looked at his wife.

Jenny slid her gaze over to Dan to see how he was taking the news. The creased line between his brows vanished as though he’d finally solved a puzzle, and he leaned into her to whisper. “Is that why you didn’t tell me at first?”

It was better to lie than to cause a scene, so she nodded.

“Ah, I see now.” He covered her hand with his and squeezed it. “Congratulations, Ben and Hailey. It’s so great that our kids will be so close in age.”

“And only a few hours from each other, too.” Maureen circled the table and gave Dan a hug.

Jenny forced a happy smile on her face when Dan’s mom did the same to her.

“So, Gideon, do you have any good news to share with us?” Dan teased.

“Yeah,” he replied with a deadpan delivery. “I’m going to be wearing two condoms every time I have sex for the foreseeable future.”

The table erupted in laughter, and Maureen came back around the table to give him a playful smack on the back of his head.

Jenny slouched down in her chair and picked at her food through the rest of the meal. As much as she liked Dan’s family, she wondered if they’d still want anything to do with her when they learned the baby wasn’t his.

***

Dan stood at the bottom of the stairs, indecision warring with the sense of unease that had formed at the base of his spine during dinner. Everything had seemed to be going well, but as soon as the meal was over, Jenny excused herself, saying she needed a nap. He hadn’t missed the way she seemed to pull away from the conversation after Ben and Hailey’s announcement, or that she’d barely touched the food on her plate.

He took a step up, only to have his mom come up behind him and pull him down. “Let her sleep. It’s hard work being pregnant.”

“I just want to make sure she’s okay. She seemed a little off during dinner.”

“She’s probably exhausted from the travel and meeting everyone all at once. The turkey probably didn’t help, either. Besides, Frank’s game is on TV.”

He cast one more glance up the stairs before conceding to his mother. After all, she’d had seven kids. She probably knew what she was talking about.

“Boom!” Ben shouted as he came into the living room.

“What did I miss?” his mom asked, running past him and picking up her glass of chardonnay from the end table.

“Frank just plowed the quarterback into the turf,” Ben answered.

His brothers were on the long sectional sofa, beers in hand as they stared at the seventy-two inch TV while Hailey sat on the end with Jasper’s head in her lap and flipped through a magazine. His mom took the spot on the other side of the dog, and Ben and Gideon parted to give him enough space to sit.

“That’s my boy,” his mom said with pride as the camera zoomed in on Frank’s cheeky grin.

Dan took the beer Ben offered him and leaned back. The game distracted him from his worries, and he reveled in the time he spent with his family. He’d lived in Chicago his whole life, but he never realized how much he missed them until he moved to Seattle.

When the game turned to a commercial, he nudged Gideon. “Where’s Sarah?”

“Red decided to stay in LA,” he said, the clipped words telling Dan he didn’t want to talk about it now. Probably for a good reason, since Gideon rarely went anywhere without his assistant. He’d been up in Vancouver for the last couple of weeks, crashing in the small carriage house on Ben’s property while he worked on a movie.

The game came back on, and at halftime, his mom pulled out her iPad to FaceTime Adam and Lia. Thankfully, Adam revealed nothing when their mom told him about Jenny’s pregnancy.

Loud conversations in Italian filled the background, and Adam rolled his eyes at one point. “When Lia said she was inviting her family over for Thanksgiving, I thought she just meant her mom. Instead, she brought over her cousins from Italy, and her Zia Carolina tried to take over the kitchen.”

Dan chuckled. Lia was one of the finest chefs in Chicago, and he could only imagine the sparks that would fly if someone tried to usurp her domain. “How much longer are they in town?”

Adam grimaced. “Through Sunday. At least Nick and Giovanni are cool. ”

The sound of female voices rose even higher, and Adam glanced over his shoulder. “I’d better go before they start throwing knives. Congrats to everyone. I’ll pass on the good news to Lia.”

Adam hung up just as the third quarter was getting underway.

Jenny reappeared near the end of the game. Gideon stood and gave her his spot on the sofa, which she silently took.

Dan reached over and stroked her silky black hair, earning a weak smile from her. She curled her legs up under her and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Who’s winning?” she asked.

“Atlanta.”

Just as he answered, Frank intercepted the ball and ran it back for a touchdown. His family jumped up from their seats, shouting and exchanging high-fives. Jenny, however, stayed where she was, her brow furrowed in confusion.

“Frank’s my brother,” Dan explained, pointing to the TV screen.

Her eyes widened, and panic washed over her face once again. “Do you have any more famous brothers I should know about?”

“Well, there’s Ethan.” He turned to his mom. “How is Ethan doing, anyway?”

She shook her head. “He’s staying clean, but otherwise, he really doesn’t want to talk much. Says he’s too busy working on a solo album.”

“Ethan was the lead singer for Ravinia’s Rejects,” he explained, and Jenny turned another shade paler. That name she apparently recognized.

“And your other brothers? Are they astronauts or politicians or something like that?”

“Nah. Adam runs the family business, and my twin, Caleb, is a pilot in the Air Force. Pretty normal stuff.” Another commercial came on with twenty-nine seconds left on the clock, but the game was over as far as he was concerned. “What does your brother do?”

“He’s a lawyer.”

“What kind of lawyer?” his mom asked, leaning forward to snag any details she could about Jenny.

“Environmental law.”

“And do you have any other siblings?”

Jenny shook her head. “My mom always said the two of us were enough to drive her insane.”

“If she’s insane, then I’m probably ready to be committed,” his mom joked. She snatched the remote from Ben and turned down the volume. “And what do you do?”

“I’m a robotics engineer,” she said slowly, casting a sideways glance to Dan for help.

“Don’t look so nervous, Jenny,” his mom said. “It’s just that Dan’s told us so little about you, and naturally, we want to get to know you better.”

Especially since my mom’s already assuming we’ll be married by this time next year
. “Jenny’s brilliant. She’s working on this robot that can be remotely controlled by just hand movements. No equipment. No joysticks. Just a camera.”

“It’s nothing that extraordinary,” she said, her cheeks flooding with heat.

“Of course it is. What you’ve developed is so precise, I could perform surgery across the globe with it.” His chest filled with pride as he described her project to his family. Jenny chimed in and explained her goals for it, including the ability to perform surgeries from the other side of the world. As she talked about her work, her shyness melted away, and his family could finally see the real Jenny he’d fallen for.

As she was winding down the conversation, Caleb and Alex called using FaceTime to show off the 1968 Chevelle they were restoring. Before long, Jenny and Alex were swimming in engineering jargon, leaving the rest of them in the dust.

Caleb finally had to wrestle the iPad away from his wife. “This is what happens whenever Alex gets around another engineer,” he said with a dramatic roll of his eyes.