Total pages in book: 167
Estimated words: 157175 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157175 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
‘Oh shit, who’s upset the she-devil?’ Sam mutters under his breath, spotting his girlfriend steaming towards us. ‘Hey, gorgeous!’
‘What the fuck, Jesse?’ She launches right in. ‘Your scars. You told her you had a motorcycle accident?’
‘Oh,’ I say, her grievance suddenly crystal clear.
‘Oh? That’s it, oh? You can’t keep that kind of shit from her!’
What? I can’t keep that kind of shit from her? Fucking watch me. Only because Kate’s expecting do I hold back from getting up in her face. I don’t fancy a scrap with my mate, not that Kate would need him. She’s a firecracker all on her own, more so since my mate put a bun in her oven.
‘I know what I’m doing.’ I breathe through my statement, calm as I can manage when on the inside I’m livid. I know what’s best for my wife. Me.
She’s the one recoiling now, and Sam’s quick to move in, a pacifying arm placed on her back. And Kate’s quick to shrug him off. ‘You’re lying, that’s what you’re doing.’
‘I’m protecting her.’ I can feel my teeth grinding, my jaw aching in an instant.
‘By lying?’ She laughs, and it’s sarcastic as fuck. ‘Haven’t you learned? Look what happened the last time you kept her in the dark.’ Her face is getting redder by the second, her rage probably matching mine, though I’m containing it far better than Kate.
‘Kate, calm the fuck down.’ Sam tries to encourage her away. She’s having none of it.
‘You can’t lie to her. It isn’t right.’
I swallow and reach for Kate’s hand, taking it in a firm grip and looking her square in the eye. I hope she sees how sincere I am. How determined. ‘Kate, lies are necessary when you know the person you’re lying to can’t handle the truth.’ I breathe in more oxygen, and Kate snaps her mouth shut, so I push on while she’s been silenced. ‘Ava can’t handle the truth, Kate. Not now. Maybe never. I don’t know, but in this moment I’m not telling her all that shit. It pales into insignificance, anyway. What matters to me, to Ava, is us. Our family. The kids. I want all of her energy on me and the twins. Not a nobody who’s not in our lives any more.’
She’s staring at me, absorbing my speech. ‘I think you’re mad.’
‘I feel it,’ I say. ‘But she’s falling in love with me again, and now more than ever, I don’t want anything to jeopardise that.’ I flick my eyes to Sam. He still has hold of Kate, but his eyes are on me. Sympathy is emblazoned across his face. And his small nod tells me he understands the angle I’m taking here. I’m grateful.
‘Oh shit,’ Kate blurts, her welling eyes overflowing when she blinks.
‘Hey.’ I move in to comfort her, to make sure we’re all right. ‘Don’t get upset.’
‘I’m not upset.’ She looks down, as do I, finding a puddle around our feet. ‘My waters broke.’
‘Oh, fuck.’ I step back, cringing, feeling all kinds of guilty for more or less inducing her labour.
‘What?’ Sam shoots a fiery stare at his girlfriend. ‘That’s what happens when you get stressed out!’ He takes her cheeks and moves in, smacking a big kiss on her lips. ‘If you weren’t in labour, I’d spank you stupid.’
‘Save it for later, Samuel.’ Kate gazes at him as Sam gazes back. ‘We’re going to have a baby.’
And like the news might have just sunk in, he flips to panic mode. ‘Fuck! I’m going to have a baby!’ He looks at me, and then to Drew. ‘We’re having a baby!’ he shouts, silencing the room. ‘Call an ambulance!’
‘Someone calm him the fuck down,’ Kate mumbles, and then that mumble turns into a moan, her body bending at the waist. ‘Ohhh, shit, there it is.’
‘What’s going on?’ Ava rushes over, looking to everyone, and then down at her feet. ‘Oh.’
‘Oh, your pretty shoes,’ Kate whines, clinging to Sam’s arm. ‘They’re ruined.’
‘Give it a rest, woman,’ Sam chides as Kate flings her other arm out and grabs me. I hold on to her as she pants, her red face now red for other reasons. Flashbacks, tons of them, steam forward and swamp my brain – visions of Ava in the latter weeks of her pregnancy, fooling me into believing she was in labour to wind me up, and then the moment she wasn’t playing any more. The moment it actually happened. I look across to my wife as I help Sam hold up Kate, a crowd of people growing. I watch as she throws out instructions, before taking Kate’s arm from me. I’m in a world of my own, rendered immobile by my memories, a useless heap of man amid the pandemonium.
‘Jesse!’ Ava’s sharp shout of my name snaps me back into the room. She’s looking at me in question. ‘You’re the only one who hasn’t been drinking.’ She must catch my confusion, because she pushes on urgently. ‘You need to drive us to the hospital.’