The Accidental Countess (The Aristocrat Diaries 3)

“Have you talked about it?” I asked, putting my mug on the side table next to me.

He nodded, then slowly leaned back in the chair and looked over at me. “Been over every possible situation. You two?”

“Not so much. Honestly, I think Eva only even told me she was late because I told her I have feelings for her.”

“I am shocked,” he said dryly. “What did she say?”

“That she didn’t want to hear it.”

“Still shocked.”

“Alex.”

He laughed quietly. “You offered her the break clause?”

“Yes. I’m a man of my word. I told her I’d give her a way out if she couldn’t cope with it. That’s when she told me.”

“Tough. Let me guess, she didn’t want to talk about that, either?”

“It’s complicated.” I blew out a breath and explained how we’d spoken about this not long ago and how we’d come to the decision to wait a few months. “She hasn’t settled in yet, despite her best efforts. She’s starting to, though, and I think she really just needs to meet a few more people. It all seemed quite easy in theory, but in practice, she’s struggling a bit more than we both thought she would.”

Alex nodded and walked over, sitting on the sofa opposite me. “I understand that. I think you made the right decision, for what it’s worth.”

“Not a lot if that test comes back positive in the morning.”

“True. How do you feel about it?”

“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “I’ve spent the day worrying about her and trying to make her feel better. I haven’t thought about myself at all.”

“This is what you wanted,” he reminded me.

“It is what I wanted. It’s what I want,” I corrected myself. “But I’m not sure that matters if it’s not what she wants right now.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You’re not happy?”

“Not if she isn’t. She’s the one who has to go through it, isn’t she? I just watch it happen.”

“That’s true.”

I didn’t want to talk about me anymore.

“What did Adelaide say about it?”

Alex shrugged. “I think she and Eva are in the same position, to be honest. We spoke about trying for a baby when we were setting a date for a wedding, when we were deciding when to have it. We were both happy to wait which is why we chose this summer to get married, so I’m not sure if she’s entirely ready to go through it.”

“You’ve been through this before.”

“Kind of. It’s different than with Natalie,” he said, referring to his late ex and Oly’s mum. “We really weren’t serious, and I didn’t know there was a chance she was pregnant until she’d already taken the test. There was none of this uncertainty. And after she died, I wasn’t sure I was ever going to have more kids. This… is new. More so for you than me, but new all the same.”

I nodded thoughtfully. It really was. I was realising that I hadn’t processed this news the way I thought I had, and I had to take a moment to sit down and think about this all.

“It is bugging me, though.”

“What is?” I looked over at him.

“I know they’re twins and they’re weird.” He met my eyes, and we shared a small laugh. “But both of them are late? At the same time? I know Adelaide is on contraception, and she said Eva is on the pill. What are the chances?”

“Eva said it is the fact that they’re twins and weird. She told me about one time when they were about twelve, Adelaide had appendicitis and needed surgery. Eva was sick and in pain to the point they ran scans and tests on her, too, but there were no signs of anything wrong with her.”

Alex frowned. “It was all phantom pain?”

“As soon as Addy’s appendix was out, Eva said she was fine. No pain, no vomiting, nothing. It’s not the only time it’s happened, either.”

“Jesus, they’re weirder than I thought. Right up there with your grandmother insisting one of them is pregnant to me all evening.”

“She is quite insistent. I’m thinking that if one of them is, I’m going to hire her out for parties. Get her guessing the gender before gender reveals or some shit like that to get her accuracy rates up.”

Alex chuckled, leaning back. “No kidding. She doesn’t happen to know the lottery numbers for this weekend, does she?”

“If she does, I call dibs on those,” I muttered.

He laughed again, then slowly sighed it out. “I don’t think I’m getting any sleep tonight.”

I grimaced. “No, neither do I. I guess there’s nothing to do but wait.”

“Yep.”

He glanced at me. “Or we could play FIFA.”

I stared at him.

“It’s better than doing nothing.”

Well, I couldn’t argue with that.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

EVA

The bed was, once again, empty.

Given what I had to do this morning, this seemed unfair.

Unless the reason the bed was empty was to bring me breakfast, but I doubted that would happen.