Christmas With His Brother’s Baby Novel – I am four months pregnant, and my husband doesn’t know it. Three months ago, he abandoned me. Then a few days before Christmas, he sent me divorce papers. When my mother-in-law invites me to Christmas with the family, I figures why not? But from the first moment Asher Hawkes,my brother-in-law, comes to pick me up, I notice how he looks at me. Standing just inches away he got a nice eye full of my naked body, complete with baby belly. I came to myself and screamed as she shut her robe. Before I could leap off the chair in a panic and run out of the kitchen, he stopped me. “Take your time,” he commanded. She swallowed. He didn’t see. He didn’t see. When I reached the door, he spoke again. “You’re pregnant.” My hope shattered, and I faced him. “Please, don’t tell anyone, okay?”
The horn sounded outside Gracie’s window, and she frowned. That better not be him. She’d said she could drive herself, but Emily, her mother-in-law, had refused to hear her. Gracie suspected the woman worried about her not showing up at all, and she would have been right. Half a million times, Gracie picked up the phone to call Emily to tell her she wasn’t coming. The only thing that stopped her was that she knew Emily wouldn’t take no for an answer. When the horn sounded again, Gracie opened the window, and a cold blast of air hit her in the face. She shivered, hating winter, hating the holidays coming. Funny, six months ago when she was sweating like an animal, she couldn’t wait for Christmas.
In fact, it was her favorite holiday until not too long ago. “Hey!” Gracie shouted out the window. She winced at the tone of her voice because she sounded hoarse, like she’d been crying. Hopefully, he wouldn’t notice. “Ash, you’re early.” He unfolded from his car and stood frowning up at her. Asher Hawke was the original to her husband. At six foot four with a muscular build, raven hair and dangerous gray eyes that flashed anger far more than necessary, he screamed charming. He was impatient and had little time for anyone except his family. She wasn’t included on that list right from the start. Ash was the older of Emily’s two boys, but Gracie was stupid enough to fall in love with and marry the younger one. Everything that Ash was at thirty-five, his brother at thirty-one was a lesser imitation. They could pass as twins, but Carter just didn’t have that something that Asher had. “Presence,” she mumbled, looking down at him. Gracie didn’t mind admitting to herself that Ash intimidated out of her. She didn’t get him, and the anger turned confused her.
“You’re not ready?” he called up to her second floor apartment and had the nerve to look at his watch. Who still wore watches in this day and age? “You’re early,” she snapped. “If you don’t want to wait, I can drive myself just like I said.” The crease over his eyes deepened. “Buzz me in.” She ducked her head back in the window and shut it. A glance down at her belly didn’t stop her worries. Would he notice? She faced her floor-length mirror and turned left and right then left again, trying to study her profile. At four months pregnant, she didn’t show a lot because she’d started out with extra weight hanging around her middle. She didn’t want any of them to know, especially Ash. The buzzer jarred her from her thoughts, and she hurried into the living room to let Ash in. She unlocked the door and ran back to her bedroom and shut the door.
Let him wait a little longer. She had to be sure. Her bed held a mound of clothes, all discarded because they didn’t hide the bump in her belly enough. Well, at least it was wintertime, so she could get away with layers. She stripped off the sweater and tried another one, bought the week before the trip. The top hung loose on her and dipped off one shoulder. Maybe she could pretend she’d been going for the charming oversized sweater revealing a little skin look. “Yeah right.” The front door opened and closed. Gracie imagined the noise Ash made was on purpose to encourage her to get a move on. She sighed. No sense in putting it off because if she was going to do it, she needed to get it done. Not like she didn’t want to go—if she weren’t pregnant and if Carter hadn’t left her. Pain tightened her chest, but she pushed the emotions for her husband out of her head. Time to put on a show. No one but Emily knew Carter had abandoned her, but not even Emily knew she’d received divorce papers a few days ago. She wanted to keep it that way.
Gracie stood in the shower letting the warm water run over her body. She gazed down at her belly. The thing looked massive to her eyes, and she couldn’t see her feet. What in the world would she look like once she was in her last trimester? “A whale probably,” she moaned. She’d waited until late to take her shower and figured she could avoid anyone seeing her coming from the bathroom. With all the prep work she had put into this trip, she never imagined she needed a thicker robe. No, she knew why she had clung to the silky teal one that only reached mid-thigh. The reason was Carter gave it to her last Christmas. She hadn’t been able to tell him at the time that she hated the color teal, despite it being her first name.
The robe accentuated her plump figure. Not only did it show off the girls too well, it clung to her damp skin when she got out of the shower no matter how much she dried off with a towel. The robe would leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that she was pregnant. After she was done washing off, she stepped out of the shower and used the towel Emily had given her. She scrubbed her skin as dry as possible without rubbing it off and donned the robe. Maybe tomorrow she should go out and buy a new robe, something heavy and thick—and long. Her dimpled thighs had no business being on display. Gathering her toiletry bag, she opened the bathroom and peeked into the hall. The entire house was silent. At last that Here Comes Santa Claus song was turned off. She thought Emily had played it at least three times since she arrived.
That was another thing she might want to pick up, some better Christmas music. She was almost to her room when she remembered she liked to keep a bottle of water by the bed to wet her throat in the night. Should she risk running downstairs to get some? Maybe she should put her clothes back on just in case. Exhaustion overtook her, and she yawned. Going back downstairs was bad enough. To get dressed, go down there, and then undress took more energy than she had. She dropped off the toiletry bag in her room. At the top of the steps, she leaned over the banister to see if she could see any lights. On the way to the steps, she hadn’t spotted any under the bedroom doors. She would take the risk. Gracie checked the fridge. Nothing. She checked the cupboards. There was no water there either. At dinner, she’d claimed to be dehydrated as an excuse not to drink alcohol, and Ashford had brought her a bottle of water. So she knew they had some in the house.
Where did they keep it? She spotted a cabinet over the refrigerator and judged weather Emily would keep the water up there. If she did, maybe that was why Ashford had brought her the water. Emily at five foot three, shorter than Gracie, wouldn’t be able to reach the cabinet. Neither could Gracie. She tiptoed a chair over to the refrigerator and climbed onto it. Too late, she realized being up so high made her dizzy, another condition she blamed on pregnancy. Taking a deep breath, she stretched over the top of the refrigerator to the cabinet door. Her belly got in the way. “Who decided to put these cabinets so high? Were they on drugs? Jeez.” The chair rocked, and the belt on her robe slipped. She tried to catch the robe before it opened with one hand, but she needed both to steady herself. A small squeak of fear erupted when the chair slid on the tiled floor. She let out a breath of relief when it thunked against something and stopped moving.
“I think I’m not meant to find the water.” She turned, ready to climb down and discovered she faced Ash. He had come in unannounced and stopped the chair from sliding. Standing just inches away he got a nice eye full of her undressed body, complete with baby belly. She felt like time slowed down in the seconds it took her to register that his gaze swept her body from top to bottom. He lingered in the interesting places and then swept back to focus on her stomach. She came to herself and screamed as she shut her robe. Before she could leap off the chair in a panic and run out of the kitchen, he stopped her. “Take your time,” he commanded. She swallowed. He didn’t see. He didn’t see. She was fooling herself, because he offered his hand and refused to let her get down without his help. Once she was on the floor, he kept hold of her until the kitchen stopped spinning.
Holding her robe closed with one hand, she was aware she still had way too much cleavage on display, but breathing and calming down took precedence. “Um, I was just looking for water,” she whispered and turned toward the door. “We keep it in the pantry.” “Oh, I should have thought of that.” She kept walking. When she reached the door, he spoke again. “You’re pregnant.” Her hope shattered, and she faced him. “Please, don’t tell anyone, okay?”