“Sssh. Pass out again,” she said, impatiently waiting for something to happen.

My eyebrows pulled in. “What do you plan to do?”

Jared steadied himself and squared his shoulders. His eyes darkened, and then he lowered his chin. In the next moment his body relaxed, and he threw his head back. “I can’t,” he sighed, looking at the ceiling.

“What a wuss!” Claire laughed.

The front door opened, and I closed my eyes, waiting for the painful shrieking of my mother. It never came.

“Uh…what happened here?” Bex said. I opened my eyes, seeing Bex stood frozen in place in the doorway, a half-eaten apple in one hand.

“Nina pulled me off Ryan,” Claire said, her voice trembling with excitement.

“Okay. So what are you doing, Jared?” Bex said.

“Nothing,” Jared replied, clearly embarrassed.

“He’s going to test the theory,” Claire said.

Jared shook his head quickly. “No, I’m not.”

I crossed my arms. “And how were you going to do that, exactly?”

Jared rubbed the back of his neck. “I was just going to throw it. I wasn’t going to….”

“Punch her?” Bex said.

Jared frowned at Bex, and then looked at me apologetically.

“What?” I wailed.

Jared held out his hands. “I wasn’t going to land it! Just to see if you would catch it.”

Claire puffed, unimpressed. “I was going to punch her,” she mumbled.

My mouth fell open.

Bex walked casually across the room, stopping a couple of feet from me. Jared reclaimed my attention when he reached for me again. “Come on, Nina. You don’t think I would punch my pregnant wi—”

Before Jared could finish his sentence, Bex’s fist hurled toward me with lightning speed. My body reacted, and suddenly his fist was in my hand.

“I’m not holding back,” Bex grunted, still pushing his fist toward my face.

Jared’s eyes widened. He tried to talk, but the only result was his jaw flapping about.

Bex relaxed and lowered his hand, and then bent down to kiss my forehead. “She’s been like that for months. You couldn’t tell?” he asked Jared.

“I uh…I could tell something was different. I assumed it was the baby.”

“It is the baby,” Bex smiled. “Bean is sharing angel juice with Nina. I haven’t taken it easy sparring with her for weeks.”

“What?” I said.

“What?” Jared repeated.

Bex rolled his eyes. “Remember that time she threw me on my back?”

Jared’s eyes dashed to mine. “She really did that?”

Bex frowned. “It hurt, too. I just didn’t say anything because I assumed you knew, and this was one of those things you didn’t want to talk about.”

“He is so like that.” Claire said.

Jared was instantly angry. “You were sparring with her on your level? She’s pregnant, Bex. Are you insane? What if you hurt the baby?”