Love Song(115)

“It means once we accepted the relationship was happening whether we like it or not, we obviously talked through all the steps that might follow. Marriage, for one,” his dad says.

“We’re splitting the cost of the wedding,” mine pipes up. “That way, we have equal say.”

“You have no say,” Mom says in exasperation. “It’s their wedding.”

“There’s no wedding!” I interject, starting to get frustrated.

“Anyway, after the wedding, what naturally comes next is babies.” Dad gives me a reassuring look, which doesn’t reassure me in the slightest. “Don’t worry, sweet pea. We’ve already negotiated everything.”

Oh my God. I rub my forehead.

“Graham will come first in the hyphenated name. Graham-Logan. Because Grahams are always in first place,” Garrett explains.

“But Logans always come in clutch to get the job done,” Dad says smugly.

“If it’s a boy, Grahams have middle name rights.”

“If it’s a girl, Logans obviously.”

“And then the grandfather babysitting schedule will be—”

“Okay, we’ve heard enough,” Hannah interrupts while Gigi’s uncontrollable laughter floats out of the phone speaker.

“All right, guys,” chirps Wyatt’s twin. “I gotta get on a work call. But…maybe congratulations? Either way, Luke and I will keep this to ourselves. I promise.”

“Thanks, but I wasn’t worried about you or BIL blabbing,” Wyatt says before she disconnects. He turns to glare at his father. “You’re the one I’m worried about.”

“Yeah,” I chime in. “I know we have this whole incestuous family dynamic where everyone is up in everyone’s business, but I don’t want anyone to know. If we keep it, the pregnancy stays a secret until the first trimester’s over.”

Dad is stricken. “We can’t even tell Dean and Tuck?”

“Especially not Dean,” Wyatt grumbles.

Meanwhile, I’m tripping over the last thing I said. And the word if.

If we keep it.

We only told our families because I needed to explain why I’m throwing up every other minute, but now that we’ve brought them in on this fucked-up journey, it’s feeling a lot more real. Like maybe this isn’t an “if we keep it” situation anymore.

Maybe it’s when we keep it.





Chapter 45


WYATT





MY FATHER JOINS ME ON the dock later that night, where I’m sneaking a cigarette. I cut back almost entirely this summer, but the past few days have been…overwhelming, to say the least.

“You okay?” He comes up beside me at the edge.

I exhale a cloud of smoke and let the night breeze carry it away. “Well, my girlfriend’s pregnant so…”

Dad chuckles. “Is it too late to give you the condom talk?”

I groan. “Don’t even start. It was one drunken night. And we were so responsible.”

“Clearly not.”

“Seriously, we even drove to the pharmacy the next day for Plan B. We had to chase some down, and we thought we took it in time, but…”

“But fate had other ideas.”

“Fate? You think I was fated for this?”

“Nah. Not really.” He shrugs. “I believe in making your own fate.”

I go to rake my hand through my hair, but I forget I’m holding a cigarette and almost burn the ends of my hair off. I take a deep drag instead and blow out another puff of smoke, watching it float over the water.

“You seem to be handling it okay,” Dad remarks.

I bark out a laugh. “I started smoking again, so obviously not. I’m trying to, though. I have to figure out how to be someone who can handle this.”

“Of course you can.” His tone goes gruff. “But I will say…”

“What?”

“Being a father isn’t something you can half-ass. You can’t get lost in music for days.”

“I know. If she keeps the baby, I’ll do whatever I need to do.” A lump fills my throat. “I love her.”

His expression softens.

“I’m not gonna let her go through this alone.” I take another drag. “It’s weird, but when she told me, we were sitting right there,” I say, nodding to the end of the dock. “Time just stopped for a moment. But then…it kept going.”

He chuckles. “Well, yes, that’s usually how time moves. Forward.”

“No, I mean… I wasn’t panicked. I was calm. I thought, okay, I guess maybe we’re doing this, or maybe not. Blake even commented that I wasn’t as scared as she thought I would be.” I exhale another cloud. “Were you scared when Mom told you she was pregnant with us?”

“Beyond scared,” he admits. “I reacted poorly.”

I frown at him. “Poorly how?”

“We got into a big fight because she kept it from me for weeks. I only found out because she started bleeding and had to go to the hospital.”

“That doesn’t sound like Mom. Why didn’t she tell you?”

“Because she was scared of how I would react, and rightly so. I didn’t want kids that young. I was still in the NHL. But not only that—I didn’t know how to be a father. Because mine was a piece of shit who only spoke to me if it was about hockey or when he was beating the shit out of me and my mom.”