Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 95295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
My mother looks like she’s been crying, and my father has his arm around her, as he talks to her and she nods. “Hey,” I say, and they both look at me.
My father looks at me and then his eyes move to over my shoulder where I feel Gabriel is, his hand on my hip. “Mom, Dad.” I smile at them. “I don’t know if you remember Gabriel.” My mother’s mouth hangs open. “He’s Sofia’s cousin. He helped me out when I was down there.”
“Of course,” my father says, “it was a busy day, lots of people, but you look familiar.”
Gabriel reaches out, extending his hand. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, sir.” Then he turns to my mother. “Ma’am.”
“Please, call me Zoe.” My mother shakes his hand but you can tell the smile on her face is fake as she tries to guess what the fuck is going on.
“I’m Ethan’s son,” Gabriel says to both of them.
“That’s the oldest one, right?” my mother asks and Gabriel nods before turning to me.
“Sit down,” Gabriel urges, pulling out a chair for me and then sitting in the chair beside me. We both take off our jackets and he rubs his hands on the tops of his jeans, while he studies the menu in front of him. “What are you hungry for?”
“I’m sorry,” my mother says, “are you visiting the area?”
Gabriel smiles at her. “You could say that. I came down yesterday.”
“How long are you in town for?” my father asks, also trying to figure out what the fuck is going on.
“We leave as soon as we are done here.”
“We?” My father catches that. “Who is we?”
Gabriel looks at me and all I can think of is just do it like a Band-Aid, rip it off and then deal with the aftermath. “I’m going to go back down there until next week.”
“Oh, that’s nice.” My mother tries to hide that she, too, is secretly freaking out.
“That’s nice?” my father echoes like he didn’t hear her. “How is that nice? That isn’t nice.” He looks at Gabriel, who puts his arm around my chair, making my calm father not so calm. “What is going on?”
“I don’t think there is an easy way to say this,” I start, putting my hand on Gabriel’s thigh to feel his strength. “We are having a baby.”
My mother gasps out as my father leans in to the table and turns his head to the side. “A what now?” As if he didn’t hear what I just said.
“We are having a baby.” I take a deep breath in. “Gabriel and me.”
My mother looks over at my father with huge eyes as my father chuckles. “This is a joke?” He looks at my mother. “Are you in on this?” He keeps laughing. “You got me.” He points at me. “I will say, you got me.” He shakes his head.
“I’m not kidding, Dad.” I notice him watch me, then turn his eyes to Gabriel.
“That’s impossible.” He then turns back to me. “You”—he points at me—“and him?” He points at Gabriel. “It can’t be.”
“With all due respect, sir,” Gabriel now cuts in, “it can be. It is and it’s happening.”
“Oh my God,” my mother whispers.
“Abso-fucking-lutely not.” My father slaps the table with his fist. “You don’t even know each other.”
“We got to know each other when I was there.” I blink away the tears. I knew they would be surprised, but I thought I would have to talk my mother off the ledge and not my father.
“Oh, you got to know each other when you were there?” my father mocks me.
“Viktor,” my mother hisses, and he whips his head toward her.
“She’s known him what, ten minutes, and she’s pregnant.” My father shakes his head as I look down and wipe the tears away. I feel Gabriel move from beside me when he pushes away from the table.
“Okay, so this isn’t happening.” He grabs his jacket. “I’m not going to let her sit here and go through this.” I look up at him. “It’s not happening, not today, not tomorrow, not ever.”
“Is that so?” My father gets up from his chair. “How could you be so careless as not to protect her?”
“Viktor.” My mother pushes away from the table and puts a hand on his arm. “They are two consulting adults.”
“She was just engaged,” my father tells Gabriel.
“I’m aware of that, sir,” Gabriel says calmly. “That was then, this is now.”
“This is preposterous,” my father snaps. “You’ve been home six weeks, and in all that time, you haven’t mentioned him once. He’s never come up in conversation. We’ve never even heard of him.”
“Can we all sit down and discuss this like adults?” My mother sits back down, pulling my father’s arm until he’s sitting down. I reach up and put my hand in Gabriel’s, who sits back down.