Convincing her

Jason left after the 'promotion' he received. If he stayed there for longer, he would just be tempting James to think up other things he can do to make him unhappy.

"I think he is upset," Lucas commented, and James shrugged his shoulders. He did not care. It's not like he was not able to do the job. He needed him to take charge of this because of the expansion.

Not only do they need to recruit more celebrities, but now they needed to pull in directors and scriptwriters, and he was familiar with a lot of these people because of the nature of his work.

James only wanted to reduce his own workload. But he would never phrase it like that. He knew eventually Jason would understand his decision.

"Where is Ethan?" Lucas asked James as he looked around. He knew that he would not let Leanna out of his sight if he could, so he must be at the house.

"His wife told him that she wanted to eat some strawberries, so he got in the car and went to look for them," James said with an amused smile.

"He could have just sent someone to get them and stayed with her. But I have to say, this is fun to watch," James said with a chuckle and drank a mouthful of wine. 

"He probably doesn't trust they would choose good ones for her," Lucas said as he nodded with understanding. He didn't think he would be that different from Ethan either.

"Mmmh," James responded non-committally.

As the two brothers chatted, Jen came to the pool a bit later. She was wearing her swimsuit and Lucas' long-sleeved shirt as a cover-up, so even though she was covered, her swimsuit could still be vaguely seen through the white material.

Jen made a beeline for Laura, who was applying some sunscreen. 

"What did you do?" Jen asked Laura when she was in front of her. Laura's body looked so toned, and because of it, she did not hesitate to wear her bikini in front of everyone. She worked so hard for these past months; it would be a shame if she did not show off the results of her hard.

"I was doing shoots for sportswear, gym wear, fitness equipment and all that in the past couple of months. I had to look the part," Laura said with a smile as she watched her friend poke on abdominal muscles.

"Wow," Jen exclaimed at how firm they felt. She did not build muscle like a bodybuilder, but the long firm muscles that accentuated her curves became more pronounced and bulkier, like a person who enjoyed working out.

"I know, it's the first time I'm sporting this look," Laura said with a wide smile.

"Fortunately, I don't have to for too long, since I have to be on the runway in two months. I have to get my body back to where it was," Laura said happily.

"Why is it fortunate?" Jen asked with confusion.

"Because I don't have to work out so hard anymore. It's exhausting," she answered.

"Oh, it must have really been tiring," Jen parroted, but continued to admire her friend's new look. Jen didn't exercise too often and just focused on what she ate normally. The most workouts she got were those between the sheets, and when she was doing chores in the house.

Jen then went around to greet everyone else. She then sat with Leanna and Nancy as she didn't want to interrupt the conversation Lucas was having with his brother. 

"Are you comfortable?" Jen asked Leanna, who was relaxing on a lounge chair.

"I feel too comfortable," Leanna said with a small smile.

"Are you two doing fine?" Jen asked her as she sat on the lounge next to hers.

"Better than I had ever dreamed of. I sometimes ask if it's okay to be this happy," Leanna said with a laugh. Jen looked at her friend's cheerful expression and her mood improved. As long as she was happy then she wouldn't worry about it.

"And the baby?" Jen asked.

"The baby is fine. My morning sickness is better than it was before," Leanna said as she maintained her smile. Only she thought she was better, but Ethan thought otherwise. 

"That's good to hear," Jen said, completely ignorant of how reality was like.

When Ethan returned, he came with his young brother who went to the pool first and left his brother in the house to deal with the fruit he had just bought.

Nathan came to greet his sister-in-law first, therefore greeting the other two girls that were there before going to join Lucas and James. 

"He looks so much better than the last time I saw him," Jen commented as she watched Nathan's retreating back.

"You don't know this, but he is already working on transferring into his family hospital. I think seeing his brother get married stimulated him," Nancy said in a low voice.

Leanna had told her about what he was doing, she was just guessing that it was because of Ethan. That was why when Leanna heard what she said, she rolled her eyes at her. What did she mean that her marriage stimulated him to return?

That was how Leanna and Nancy started bickering with each other as Jen watched with an amused smile until a certain person's husband interrupted them.

"Don't stimulate her too much, it's not good for the baby," Ethan said, startling all the three of them as they hadn't noticed him before.

"I think you are the one stimulating her too much," Nancy said as she patted her chest. Ethan sat down next to Leanna and handed her a large bowl of strawberries.

"Thank you," Leanna said with a smile, and Ethan merely grunted in acknowledgement of her thanks and then pulled her so she could rest comfortably against him.

"They aren't cold," she complained after eating one of the strawberries.

"You shouldn't eat cold food," Ethan said as he patted her back. Nancy resisted the urge to roll her eyes, and Jen resisted the urge to laugh at Nancy. Her eyes seemed to be asking the couple what the hell did they think they were doing.

"But room temperature fruit is unappetizing," Leanna complained, and Ethan tactfully took the bowl from her before she set aside herself.

"Okay, there's a small fridge here, we can just let them cool for twenty minutes, okay?" Ethan said and put the fruit in the fridge. If he did not do this, she would say something along the lines of. "It wasn't what I wanted; I no longer feel like eating it" he wouldn't let that happen, especially since he had to go to the market to look for good strawberries.

"Okay," Leanna with an expression that showed just how much she was enjoying being spoiled. Nancy stood up from her lounge chair after she decided she had enough of being fed dog food.

"I'm going for a swim," she said and went to the pool.

"Me too, you two enjoy yourselves," Jen said with a smiled. They felt like light bulbs after just being in the presence of that couple for a few minutes.

"You can go ahead," Leanna said as she also felt like they were being too much. And watched as Jen unbuttoned the large white shirt she was wearing and went to hand it over to Lucas so he would hold it for her since he ended up sitting and drinking with the guys. Even David who had been napping earlier had already woken up and once in a while, you could notice his eyes stray around to find Nancy's location.

"Will you think I'm ugly once my stomach is three times its current size?" Leanna asked as she touched the small bump that was already visible. Especially because she was wearing a swimsuit, it was even more visible.

"How could that be, it looks so cute," Ethan said and kissed her cheek, and almost bent over to kiss her stomach, but Leanna quickly stopped him with reddened cheeks. Ethan looked at her face and laughed at her shy expression.

"You think it's cute?" Leanna asked as she continued to look at her friends who were either in the pool or dipping their legs in it. They all took care of their bodies, so they all looked good. Then she faced her own changing body and then looked at Ethan.

"It's cute, I wish you would have gained weight so that I'd feel more reassured," Ethan continued to say, and Leanna laughed at his statement. If she ate whenever he placed food in front of her, she would already by twice her original size. Maybe the pickiness she developed was not so bad. At least she could manage her weight because of it.

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