Free Forever Starts Tonight by Roni Loren

I’ll be fine.” She took the cup but didn’t lift her head. “Thank you.”
    He stared at her for a long moment, not wanting to leave her, but knowing there wasn’t much else he could do right this second. He stepped back into the main part of the plane and found Andre standing there, his brow creased with worry. “Is she all right?”
    “She’s dry heaving, said the steak smelled bad and it set her off.”
    Andre’s forehead wrinkled.
    Alice, who was a few steps behind, moved closer. “Sir, I’m so sorry Ms. Kennedy’s not feeling well. But I assure you the meat is top quality. We got it from a local supplier this morning, fresh. The pilots ate the same thing before we took off.”
    Jace rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, it smelled fine to me. I’m not sure what happened. But would you mind spraying some air freshener to get rid of the food smells? Something about it turned her stomach.”
    “Absolutely, sir.” Alice’s lips pinched together for a moment. “Ms. Kennedy wouldn’t happen to be—” she started, but then caught herself. “Never mind. That’s none of my business. I’ll freshen up the cabin. Is there anything else I can get her? Sprite, crackers?”
    Jace frowned. “No, what were you going to ask before you stopped yourself, Alice?”
    The older woman seemed to debate for a moment more. “I don’t want to overstep.”
    “You’re not,” Andre said, turning around to face her, too. “Go ahead.”
    “Well, I was just going to say that the smell of meat can sometimes get to women . . . you know, when they’re pregnant.”
    Jace stilled, the words not quite registering, then his stomach fell right into his toes. Andre went ramrod straight in front of him.
    “I mean, it’s probably not that,” Alice said, shifting her gaze away. “But I just remember when I was pregnant with my daughter, I couldn’t even go into restaurants that first trimester because my sense of smell was so strong. But it’s probably just a stomach bug or something.”
    Jace had trouble finding his voice. He cleared his throat. “Thank you, Alice. Why don’t you see if you can find those crackers, and we’ll go check on Evan?”
    “Of course, sir.”
    Alice hurried off, and Andre turned around, the stunned look on his face probably a mirror of Jace’s. “Jesus, do you think—”
    “She’s on the pill.”
    Andre glanced toward the curtain leading to the back of the plane, keeping his voice low. “But she’s been so tired lately. And that night of the wedding, she thought she had food poisoning but then was fine the next day. No method is one-hundred percent. What if . . .”
    Jace ran his hands through his hair, the possibility rocking him to the core. He didn’t know how to process that information. Evan
pregnant
? A
baby
?
    “We can’t jump to any conclusions yet,” Andre cautioned, though his voice sounded shaky. “We don’t want to freak her out or anything. But we need to ask her if it’s a possibility.”
    “Right.” Jace nodded, dazed. “We’ll do that. But let’s make sure she’s okay first.”
    Jace turned to go to Evan, but Andre grabbed his arm. “Hey.”
    He glanced back.
    “You okay? You can’t go in there looking panicked.”
    “I’m fine,” he said, shrugging out of Andre’s hold. “I’m not panicked.”
    He was fucking terrified.
    They found Evan in the back, lying on one of the long couches, a wet towel on her forehead. Jace kneeled down next to her and Andre sat on the couch by her feet.
    “You okay,
bella
?” Andre asked, rubbing her calf.
    Evan pulled the towel from her face and opened her eyes. Her pallor was still a shade of green but her eyes looked clear. “I can still smell that God-awful meat.”
    “They’re working on it, baby.” Jace pushed her damp bangs away from her face. “And Alice is getting you some crackers to settle your stomach.”
    “I don’t think I want to eat anything ever again.”
    Jace couldn’t help himself from