Until the End (Sea Breeze #9)(65)

At some point Jason would realize what he’s done. I was just sitting here, waiting on him to figure it out. He is brilliant and going to do big things. What could I do? Make clothes? Who wants me to make them clothes? No one. That’s who.

I sank down on the sofa with my plate of food and rubbed my stomach. We were going to be parents while Jason still went to his Ivy League college. Soon there would be diapers and sleepless nights and hardly any time for sex. How soon would it be before some girl in one of his classes took away all his stress and met his needs?

My appetite vanished again. I set my plate down and stood back up. I shouldn’t have been eating all those carbs. I was going to get fat. I needed to go for a walk instead. I had to have my perfect body so that when our baby was sleeping, I could keep Jason interested in me.

Would we be married then? Jason hadn’t talked about setting a date. When he proposed to me, I hadn’t been pregnant. Now that I was, he didn’t seem really excited about making a wedding happen. Which was not helping me feel safe in this relationship. I wanted to go see my momma. Talk to her about all this. She’d make me feel better. Being around people who didn’t look down their noses at me would be a nice change.

My cell phone rang just as I was lacing up my tennis shoes. It was Jason. I pressed it to my ear. “Hey, you,” I said, trying to sound happy.

“Hey, baby. You slept good. I liked seeing you all curled up in bed like an angel this morning.” His voice made me smile.

“I’m sorry I didn’t wake up to tell you bye.”

“Don’t be. I liked leaving you tucked in and resting. I was just heading to lunch, and I know you have Italian food in the fridge, but I thought you might want to come to the campus and eat with me.”

I looked down at my leggings and off-the-shoulder shirt I was wearing. No makeup and my hair was in a ponytail. “Right now?” I asked, hoping he’d say, No, in half an hour.

“Yeah, sorry it’s late notice, but a meeting with a professor was canceled and I realized I’d have time to eat today.”

I wanted to see him. And I didn’t want to turn him down. “I don’t look great. I was about to go walking. I’m in my workout clothes.”

Jason chuckled. “Noted. But, baby, you look gorgeous no matter what you’re wearing. Come eat with me. Please.”

The Vivians of Harvard were going to love this. I was going to give them something to make fun of for weeks. Maybe months. “Okay, I’ll head that way now.”

“I’ll wait for you in the courtyard outside the main cafeteria.”

Great.

***

The whole way there I prepared myself for all the preppy, skinny girls who’d look at me like I was a bug that needed to be squashed.

But seeing Jason’s smiling face when I rounded the corner to the courtyard made it all not matter. He beamed at me and started walking toward me with purpose. When we reached each other, he grabbed my face and kissed me hard. It was a claiming kind of kiss he liked to do in public. It made me feel special and loved.

When he pulled back, I heard a catcall and a whistle. Someone else told us to get a room. Jason was oblivious to all of them. “Hey, baby,” he whispered, then pressed one more kiss to my mouth. “Come on. Let’s go eat.”

His arm slid around my back as we walked to the cafeteria. I felt eyes on me as we stepped inside. But I didn’t focus on any of them.

“They have lasagna today, but I don’t think it will compare to last night’s. But the chicken parmesan is good. I think you’ll like that.”

“Sounds good. I trust you,” I told him.

He led me over to a table and pulled out a chair for me. “Wait here. I’ll go get the food. They don’t have your soda, but they have Sprite. You want that?”

I nodded and smiled up at him.

He winked, then headed to get in line.

I was the only pregnant girl here. I didn’t have to look around to know. The girls who got into school here didn’t get knocked up.

The chair beside me moved, and a guy sat down with his gaze directed at my chest. “This seat taken?” he asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

This one actually had a sweater tied around his neck. Seriously?

“I’ve not seen you around here. What classes are you taking?”

Had I not just told him that seat was taken?

“I don’t go here. And that seat is taken.”

He grinned and leaned forward. “That explains it. You don’t look like the girls here. But I do like the way you fill out a shirt. Who you here with? Boyfriend?”

“Me. Move, Devin,” Jason snarled, slamming down the tray in his hands, making me and Devin jump.

Devin stood up. “Damn, Jason, get a grip. I was just making your friend feel welcome. It was obvious she was an outsider.”

Jason took a step toward him, and the angry clench in his jaw told me Devin needed to run. “She’s my fiancée, dickhead. And the fact that she doesn’t fit in here is one of the many reasons I love her.”

Devin shrugged. “Got it.” He held up his hands in surrender. “Leaving now.”

Jason stood there glaring at him until he was happy with how far away Devin had moved. Then he swung his gaze to mine. “I’m going to go get you a drink, but I’m trying to decide if I need to take you with me.”