“Understatement of the century,” Teddy sneered. ”Bright spark.”
I could feel Joey’s knee bopping restlessly against mine, as he thrummed with barely restrained anger. Reaching under the table, I hooked my foot around his and pulled his big, knuckle-torn hand onto my lap, holding onto it with both of mine. Jaw-ticking, my boyfriend did exactly what I asked him to do and ignored his father, focusing on mine instead.
“I fucked up,” Joey repeated, tone thick with emotion, eyes locked on my father, while ignoring the muttered rantings coming from his own. “I let you down, and I let your wife down, but I won’t let your daughter down.” Knees bopping restlessly, he swallowed deeply and said, “I won’t let your grandchild down.”
“Joey, lad.” My father’s eyes flashed with emotion. “I’m not—”
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” Teddy interjected, sounding entirely unaffected by the sincerity in his son’s voice. “Talk is cheap. It’s grand saying you’ll be there now, but you haven’t a notion of what’s coming down the line, boy.”
“I won’t leave her,” Joey continued, ignoring his father. “I’ll be here. For all of it. I won’t run, Tony.”
“I didn’t run either,” his father reminded him. “I stayed for all of it, too, boy, and look where it got me.”
“I’m not him,” Joey strangled out, as a vein bulged in his neck from the force it was taking him to not respond to his father’s goading. Turning to my mother, he shrugged his shoulders almost helplessly, clearly willing her to believe him, “I’m not him, Trish.”
“I know, pet,” I heard my mother whisper.
“This isn’t a wham-bam relationship,” I decided to interject, desperate to take the heat off Joey, and shoulder some of this pressure. “Joey’s my best friend.” I looked around the table, imploring our parents to hear me. “We’ve known each other since we were twelve. So, when he says that he’ll there for me, I believe him and all of you should too. Because his word is good.”
Surprised by my words, my boyfriend turned to look at me, green eyes burning with unspoken emotion. It was almost like it hurt him to hear someone speak kindly of him. It was foreign to him, and it broke my heart.
“He’s the best person I know,” I added, keeping my eyes locked on his as I spoke. “And I trust him with my life.”
“Then you’re even thicker than my wife,” Teddy dismissed with a shake of his head. “Because that young fella of mine is a walking disaster.” Looking to my father he said, “You know he’s off his trolley most of the time, don’t ya, Molloy?”
“Teddy,” his wife croaked out, pressing her small hand to her brow. “Please.”
“Shut up, Marie,” Teddy warned. “The man has a right to know what kind of serpent got his young one pregnant.” He turned his attention back to my father. “It’s no secret that I’ve battled with the drink for most of my life, but this fucker.” He leaned back and whistled. “This fucker takes it to another level.”
“The boy is grand with alcohol,” I heard my father defend. “And if you’re referring to the bit of grass he smokes, then I’ll be talking to him about that.”
“Grass?” Teddy threw his head back and laughed. “Don’t be so fucking na?ve, Tony. The lad’s a full-blown drug addict.”
Both of our mother’s gasped, while Joey’s shoulders slumped and he bowed his head, still remaining silent, even when his character was being shredded to pieces around us.
“No, he’s not,” I heard myself defend – I heard myself lie – tightening my hold on the hand balled into a fist on my lap. “He made a few mistakes in the past, but that’s over and done with.”
“I’ve been in your shoes,” his mother said, looking directly across the table at me, with so many unspoken words glistening in her forlorn blue eyes. “I know where this is going, and I think…” Pausing, she sucked in a shallow breath and tentatively tucked her dark hair behind her ears before continuing, “I think you should consider a termination.”
“So, you’re saying if you could go back in time, you would choose the same?” I demanded, furious and unwilling to back down. “You would have aborted Darren?”
“Maybe not Darren, but definitely him,” Teddy spat, and if any other father said that to his son, I was sure there would be eruptions, but Joey didn’t bat an eyelid at his cruelness.
He was used to it.
He’d heard it a thousand times before.
“Kind of like what your mother should have done to you, Teddy?” I heard myself hiss.
“Aoife!” Mam gasped, tone shocked. “We don’t speak to people like that.”
“People, no,” I agreed. “But he’s not people, Mam.” I glowered around the table at each one of our parents and said, “It doesn’t matter what any of you think. I don’t care if you agree with my decision or not. I’m sorry, Dad, but that includes you. Joey and I talked about it, and we’re keeping our baby.”
“Are you sure?” Marie choked out, looking devastated.
“Yes,” I narrowed my eyes and growled. “The only thing I’ve ever been surer of is your son.”
“You’re making a mistake,” Marie sobbed, dropping her head in her hands. “This is a mistake.”
“We’ve all made mistakes,” Mam offered, trying to be the voice of reason. “Not one person sitting at this table is perfect, and I, for one, think it’s very admirable of our children to stand over—”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake, woman, get a grip, will ya?” Teddy snapped, slamming his fist down on the table in annoyance. “There’s nothing admirable about two teenagers shacking up to play house. You want a preview of how it goes, take a good fucking look at us.”
“Don’t raise your voice to my wife,” my father warned in a deathly cold tone of voice. “And her name is Trish, not woman.”
“Well, knock some damn sense into her,” Teddy argued, looking at my father like he couldn’t understand why he was letting my mother lead the conversation. “Because her head is in the clouds if she thinks this can work.”
“Knock some sense into her?” Dad’s face reddened. “A bit like—"
“Steady up, Tony, love,” Mam interrupted, offering my father a knowing wink from across the table. “We’re here for our daughter, remember?”
With a pained sigh, my father offered her a loving nod and unclenched his hands from the rim of the table. “So, you’re keeping the baby.” He looked to me and Joey for confirmation.
We nodded in unison.
I presumed to my father that we looked like a duo of nodding seals.
Or a couple of deer caught in headlights.
“Fine, I accept this as your decision, and I respect your willingness to go ahead with your plan,” he replied after a long pause of silence. “But you both need to be aware that at the end of this pregnancy, there will be a child to care for, and this child will bind you together.” Blowing out a heavy breath, he added, “A child is not a relationship that you can walk away from, or a marriage that can be dissolved. This is a lifetime commitment. You’ll forever be entwined in one another’s lives. That baby will need the both of you for the rest of your lives. Together or apart. The baby will need its mother and father in equal measures.”