“I will.”
She cradled her hand and watched him walk to his car and drive away. What was happening? This was more than ménage. More than sex. His walking directly into the lion’s den to check on her proved that more than anything in the last few weeks.
It also confirmed her fears. She was in love with him. With both of them. What was she going to do?
“Jennifer.” Her mother’s voice was almost shrill, and so unexpected it made Jen jump and turn around, her heart in her throat.
The look on her mother’s face scared her. “Oh God, is Tasha…?”
Ellen winced and shook her head, holding out her hand. “The doctor just came out with Rory. Tasha is stable and the babies are healthy and strong and still waiting a while before they join us.”
A sob of relief escaped her throat and her mother reached her in seconds, wrapping her in her warm, familiar embrace and kissing the top of her head. “I know, baby. I was scared too. She’ll have to stay the night so they can keep an eye on her, but she’s fine. They’re all okay.”
“Thank God,” Jen said, pulling her mother closer and wincing at the pain in her hand. “Ow. I really think I do need to get some ice.”
“I heard you punched the Baby Bump ringleader.”
She laughed as her mother walked beside her toward the waiting room. “I did.”
“Your brother’s going to give you the key to the city for that.”
“He’s not the mayor.”
“Stephen will find a way. Now let’s forget everything else and go take care of our boys.”
Chapter Nine
Declan looked at his clock again and scowled. Had the damn thing stopped working? He’d only had two appointments with students to discuss how they could improve their grades, but he was required to keep his door open to walk-ins for another twenty minutes.
Jennifer would be out of her last class by now. She was no doubt on her way back to her apartment for the night. Damn it. He’d wanted to see her before she left. Wanted to kiss her and convince her that it would be just as easy for her to come back home after her family obligations. That she could study for her exams until she fell asleep on her books just as easily with them as she could in her apartment. He’d been working on being less distracting.
It had only been a week since Jen’s sister-in-law, Natasha, had been hospitalized with what seemed to be a combination of Braxton Hicks contractions, or false labor, and preeclampsia. The first wasn’t anything to be the concerned about, but the second meant the Finn family lockdown would continue until the twins were born and Natasha Finn was out of the woods.
Jen had been struggling to keep up with schoolwork and being there for Tasha, which meant a lot of their time together over the last week had been comparatively tame, after what had come before.
Declan didn’t care. He still craved her, now more than ever, but as long as he could take care of her, talk to her, he was able to maintain. She slept in his bed. The smell of her shampoo filled his bathroom every morning. And Trick was more than willing to help him take the edge off.
He couldn’t describe the new peace he’d found with this arrangement. It was like a switch flipped inside him, and it had happened the morning he’d woken up in his bed with both of them curled around him like cats.
He whistled now, for God sake. He’d sat on his living room couch and watched Jennifer attach something to his cable box that put every National Geographic and History Channel documentary at his fingertips. And he could watch them with Trick and Jen lounging beside him.
But nights like these, when her family took her away and she stayed in her own apartment, complete with alarms, locks and a diligent roommate… He didn’t enjoy the reminder that she wasn’t actually living with him.
He felt like a selfish ass. He loved how close she was with her family. Despite her complaints about their overprotective nature, he appreciated how well taken care of she was. She was loved and she loved them in return. Declan actually wanted to be a part of that now. Because it was a part of her.
He thought about Trick. He couldn’t push so hard he pushed her out the door. He’d learned that lesson. Trick always came back, but he had a feeling Jennifer Finn wanted something more than on again, off again. She’d said it herself. She wasn’t a halfway kind of girl. Which worked out well because he was definitely not a halfway kind of guy.
He wanted everything. Trick and Jennifer in his house and in his bed. In his life in every way possible. He knew, more than most, how complicated their relationship would be on a long-term basis. But what they had was worth the complications. It was too good, and they were too completely fucking perfect for him, for it not to work.