Page 90 of Wishing for Love

He was trying not to get too worked up. Everything seemed to be too good to be true. Even in most of his family’s lives.

West was married. Braylon was engaged and even Laken got engaged after West’s wedding last month.

He’d spoken to West twice since the wedding, but most of his communication lately had been through Laken and even Nelson. Nelson and Memphis had a lot in common and West thought maybe Nelson could spend some time here too.

He knew Nelson was overseeing Jamie’s company but was not needed as much as when they were getting it set up and running months ago. And since Nelson did a bulk of the work before production could start and even hired key staff, Phoenix wasn’t going to question anything.

When he was done with his shower, he came back into the kitchen to see the food on the island and Elsie ready to dig in. She had an appetite but most likely burned it all off because she never sat still.

He caught Crystal yawning and wondered if maybe she was tired and needed a break.

She hadn’t gotten a day off since she’d been hired. Even if she wasn’t working on the weekends, she was still around and hanging out with him.

Yeah, he was taking advantage of things and would address that later when Elsie was in bed.

They finished dinner and he stood up to say, “I think Elsie and I are going to clean up. Crystal does way too much. She should be done working by now.”

He got into the habit of letting her do it all and that was wrong on his part.

The original agreement was she’d feed Elsie if he was late, but it quickly turned into her having dinner every night duringthe week and then when they started to date, even on the weekends.

“It’s fine,” she said.

“No,” he said. “It’s not. Go relax. You look tired. I’ve got this.”

“Elsie needs a bath.”

“She can miss a night,” he said. “Or I can have her do it and not wash her hair.”

“Whatever you decide,” she said.

It wasn’t like her to give in that quickly and he started to panic that he was going to get hit with bad news.

Once Elsie was in bed and sleeping, he went upstairs to see Crystal on the couch looking at her phone and frowning.

“Let me start. You’re tired and overworked. I realized you haven’t had a day off because even on the weekends you’re spending it with us and doing things. I’m sorry. I hope you don’t think I planned that and I should have noticed. I’ll do more on the weekends and pitch in. You shouldn’t be doing it all.”

She stood up and started to cry and he raced toward her and pulled her into his arms and hugged her. “I’m pregnant.”

She was bawling her eyes out on his chest. It wasn’t the news he was expecting and least of all the reaction to it.

“What?”

“I’m pregnant. I took a test a few days ago and thought for sure it was wrong but then went to the doctor today.”

“You thought you might be pregnant and haven’t said a word to me? How far along are you?”

“Eight weeks,” she said, crying harder. “I didn’t realize I never got my period in April. It was due around the wedding and I was so nervous and there was so much going on and then I forgot. I’m such an idiot. How do I forget about something like that?”

“Shhh,” he said. “It’s fine.”

“No,” she said. “It’s not. You wear a condom. I don’t get it.”

“Nothing is guaranteed,” he said.

“I messed everything up,” she said. “I always do this. Just when things are going well, something like this happens.”

“Stop,” he said. “There isn’t anything to get upset over. It’s not planned, but I’m not upset. Or do you not want a child?”