This Game Called Life (Kingdom Book 4) by Theresa L. Henry
Chapter 1
As Aviva and Jason exchanged their vows, MacKenzie found it increasingly difficult to ignore Jake. She felt the pull of his gaze as though it were a powerful magnet luring her against her will.
If nothing else, she was stubborn, and by focusing on the beauty of the ceremony through sheer willpower, MacKenzie fixed her concentration on the words being spoken by Jason and Aviva. As the minutes passed, it became easier to ignore Jake and his brooding stare.
Although pleased for Aviva, MacKenzie envied her happiness. Even if she didn’t look it, she was nine months pregnant, and she certainly felt every month of her pregnancy. To cap it all, Carlos was nowhere in sight.
Aviva and Jason’s wedding ceremony was short and extremely beautiful. Before MacKenzie realized it, she was crying. She’d never seen two people who loved each other as much as Jason and Aviva. She was happy for her friend; Aviva deserved someone to love her the way Jason so obviously did.
The first time MacKenzie saw Jason and Aviva together, she had instinctively understood how happy her friend was. Even she, a stranger in their midst, felt welcomed by the whole Kingdom clan. Revising her thought, MacKenzie omitted, Jake. The man was obviously emotionally challenged, and his verbal filter was almost non-existent. Every time she spoke to him, he ended up insulting her. She didn’t like him, and she was okay with it.
While the rest of the wedding attendees danced, MacKenzie mainly sat with her legs propped up. Her body was telling her she was in her third trimester, and she was exhausted.
From her position on the sofa, MacKenzie looked around the wonderfully decorated room with the Christmas tree in the corner. The house looked as though an interior decorator had been at work, but she knew Aviva had probably accomplished the festive look alone.
MacKenzie watched Aviva rise from her position on Jason’s lap to collect a gift and deliver it to Jackson. Jackson’s stunned reaction when he removed the wrapping piqued her curiosity, and she couldn’t wait to see what pleased him so much.
When Jackson turned the gift around for viewing, MacKenzie was happy, all the wedding guests’ attention was directed at the lovely portrait. If that hadn’t been the case, she was sure someone would have seen her grimace of pain; this was her sharpest contraction yet.
A surreptitious glance around the room confirmed that nearly everyone was admiring the portrait. Jake was the exception, he was watching her with an unreadable expression. Finally, after moments of scrutiny, he turned away.
There was one other person aware of her plight. Within minutes Aviva was sitting beside her, and MacKenzie knew there was no longer any point attempting to hide that she was in labor. Her contractions were still quite far apart, but they were painful, and she didn’t know how she would cope once they began in earnest.
“How far apart are the contractions?” Aviva asked.
“Pretty far, our girl isn’t ready to make her appearance just yet.”
“So it is a girl, I knew it!” Even with her excitement, and by silent mutual agreement, Aviva was careful to keep her voice low; so that no one was alerted to MacKenzie’s condition.
“I honestly don’t know if the baby is a girl. I didn’t want to know.”
“Are you crazy?! How could you go through nine months of carrying a baby and not want to know the gender?”
“Easy, I wanted it to be a surprise.” MacKenzie grinned at her friend who still looked as stunning as she had at the start of the wedding.
“Whatever, when I get preggers, you better believe I’m going to find out the gender at the first opportunity.” The look Aviva gave her warned MacKenzie that she had more questions to ask.
“Can they tell the gender at the first ultrasound?”
“Yes.”
“That’s what I thought, I seem to remember something like that from biology class.” Without seeming to draw in a breath, Aviva changed the direction of the conversation and kept up her stream of chatter. “Raymond Styles fainted when they showed the birth of the baby. I thought he was perfect boyfriend material, until he held the back of his hand to his forehead and fainted. I can’t lie, I was over him.”
“Aviva!” MacKenzie wasn’t in the mood for her best friend’s incessant chattering.
“What?”
“Shut up!”
Giving Aviva an annoyed look, MacKenzie only hoped she had injected enough exasperation in her voice to get her to be quiet.
“Sorry, I was going for distraction. I can see it didn’t work.”
MacKenzie gave her a look that obviously meant she agreed. With a shrug, Aviva pressed on.
“How about a bath? I have vanilla and anise scented bubble bath; you always liked that scent.”