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Chapter 289: I Can\'t Do This

"We met our senior year of high school," Aaron said simply. "The seating chart was ordered alphabetically by last name and Keeley introduced herself to me by commenting on how similar our names were."

She was surprised he remembered that tiny detail. Even she had forgotten what she said during their first real encounter.

"That was all? How did you start dating?"

In this life or the last one? Keeley wasn\'t sure how to answer that question. Thankfully Aaron took it for her once again.

"We were best friends first. I was a bit of a statue back then but she kept talking to me and asking me to do things until we became friends. We were apart for a while during college because I was in Boston and she was still here in New York but when we met up again we sort of picked up where we left off."

It was a partial version of both truths. As always, Aaron was an excellent liar. His poker face was second to none. Except maybe Cameron\'s because he was the World Champion of Poker but Keeley had never seen his poker face in action.

Gray seemed to buy it anyway. "No wonder you started plotting against Father your first year of college. You were already in love with her and wanted to pave a way for the two of you."

"Yep," Aaron replied simply. "Everything I did, I did for her."

Sometimes it surprised Keeley how readily he would admit his feelings for her, both to her and to anyone else willing to listen. It was the exact opposite of how he used to be. It was both sweet and a bit embarrassing.

He was obnoxiously mushy sometimes. She blushed at how straightforward he was being.

Gray smiled. "How sweet. I wouldn\'t have pegged you as a romantic."

"He\'s the worst kind there is," she whispered conspiratorially, wanting to embarrass him back a little.

He took it in stride, shrugging nonchalantly. "You know you like it."

Sometimes, but she would never admit that aloud. His version of romance now was something her much younger self would have killed for. Scheming people in his life aside, Aaron was the perfect husband.

"Have you chosen names for your children yet?"

Keeley nodded. This was relatively harmless conversation. Maybe this dinner wouldn\'t be so bad.

"Kaleb for the boy, named after my late brother, and Violet for the girl."

"Late brother? My condolences."

She shrugged it off. "It happened a long time ago. Honoring his memory like this was actually Aaron\'s idea."

He narrowed his eyes at his younger brother. "You\'re a lot softer than I thought you would be."

"Only towards my wife."

"Oh yeah, my friends were terrified of him right up until we got married. He\'s very scary," Keeley assured him.

Aaron elbowed her and she blinked up at him innocently. Wasn\'t he trying to defend his honor as a domineering businessman? She was trying to help him out here!

The momentary tension broke as Gray laughed. "You two are funny. It\'s obvious that you started out as best friends."

Was it really? It had been ages since they were best friends. Although she supposed that he had sort of wormed his way back into that role without her realizing it. Now that she thought about it, their relationship now was an awful lot like it was back then.

The main differences this time were that Aaron openly showed his affection and they both treated each other as a partner rather than hiding things. Plus Keeley wasn\'t infatuated with him like before.

When the entrees finally arrived she dug in with gusto. It had been a few hours since she had eaten and she was on the verge of expiring. About halfway through her curry, she felt a strange popping sensation in her abdomen and then a sudden dampness between her legs.

"Um, Aaron?" she asked weakly. "I think my water just broke."

His eyes nearly popped out of his head. "Now?! You\'re only 33 weeks along!"

"The doctor did warn me that twins come early," she said with a wince. Being all wet wasn\'t terribly comfortable. "We need to go."

Gray stared across the table at them in mute horror as Aaron ushered her out the door without another word. He was too focused on the fact that his wife was about to give birth to even remember that someone else was present.

He sped all the way to the hospital so it was a miracle they didn\'t get pulled over. Dr. Chapman hurried them to the maternity ward and confirmed that Keeley had indeed started the early stages of labor. She hooked her up to an IV in preparation for her epidural.

Keeley began sweating nervously. She had never gotten this far in a pregnancy before. Everything she had heard told her that this was really, really going to hurt. And she didn\'t have her mother here to hold her hand and talk her through it as an experienced birth giver.

"I can\'t do this," she said in a panic.

"Yes you can," Aaron replied soothingly, holding her hand in both of his. "You\'re the one who said you wanted it to be over with. The sooner you do this the sooner we\'ll be able to meet our babies. I\'m going to be right here the whole time."

The next few hours passed torturously slow. It all blurred together. The epidural. The contractions. The TV she watched in between them because it was taking forever.

By the time active labor began, she wasn\'t sure how long she had been sitting in that hospital bed. All she knew was that Dr. Chapman and a couple of nurses were encouraging her to push and she thought she might pop a blood vessel in her eye from the strain.

With a pained scream from his mother, Kaleb Robert Hale came into the world shortly after six in the morning. His sister, Violet Marie Hale joined him thirteen minutes later. They both weighed slightly under five pounds but were breathing fine on their own so Dr. Chapman decided to give the new parents a few minutes with them before taking them to the NICU.

The nurse cut their cords, cleaned them up, and handed one baby each to their parents. Keeley was exhausted but she had never seen anything more beautiful in her entire life. She started to cry at the sight of her children.

She was a mother. They had made it into the world this time.

Aaron seemed to understand what she was feeling and gave her the softest smile she had ever seen from him before kissing her sweaty forehead. "I love you, Keeley."

She cried even harder.