The waitress returns, cutting into possibly the most bizarre way a pregnancy can be announced. At a Mexican restaurant. With a tequila shot standoff. In French.
“Ready to order?” she asks.
“We need like ten minutes,” Daisy tells her.
She nods, her eyes lingering on Daisy’s scar before she disappears. I can’t tell if the waitress recognizes us or not, but Daisy ends up resting her head against my arm. I comb my fingers through her hair.
“You’re not aborting the baby,” Connor tells Rose.
“I know,” she retorts, fire coming back to her eyes. “You want a lineage. Eight kids, I remember.”
“We’re married,” he says. “We have billions of dollars. We may be young, but we can be the best parents. You just have to trust that you’ll be a great mother.”
I’ve seen Rose around kids. She’s about as maternal as a fucking brick wall, her nose curling in disdain when a baby cries or acts out. But I do know one thing—when she loves someone, she invests her whole fucking heart and time into them.
After a long stretch of silence, Rose says softly, “I thought about getting rid of the baby.”
Connor’s face stays unreadable. “I know.”
She swallows hard. “Lily talked me out of it.”
Lo kisses Lily’s temple. I think we’re all glad Rose didn’t choose that option, even if she thought about it.
And I would feel worse for Connor if he didn’t already know everything beforehand.
“I just…” Rose lets out a deep breath. “I figured that I had a couple of months before my body started to really change. Two months to ignore the fact that my world is going to flip upside down and a creature is going to grow inside of me. Give me that.”
He smiles. “I did, darling.”
“So,” Lo says, holding his water, “how exactly do two geniuses accidentally get pregnant?” He sips his drink in amusement.
Rose starts putting her frizzy, wet hair in a sleek pony. “Why don’t you answer this one, Richard? You’re friends with Satan’s spawn.”
Lo laughs. “I think you’ve mistaken me for the ‘creature’ growing inside you.”
Connor raises his hand to quiet them. Rose looks ready to pelt my brother with the contents of her purse. There’s probably a canister of pepper spray in there.
“We have unprotected sex,” Connor announces.
Rose points at me at this. Fuck. “You better be wearing a condom with her.”
My face hardens. I already told her I’d be safe with Daisy. They all need to chill the fuck out. “That’s none of your fucking business, Rose.”
Daisy ends up saying it anyway, just to appease her sister. “I’m on birth control.”
“So was I,” Rose snaps. “And I never missed a day.” She prides herself on this fact.
“Then what the fuck happened?” I ask, extending my arm in confusion.
“Birth control is only ninety-nine percent effective,” Connor says. “We’re, of course, in the one-percent.”
Rose smacks him on the arm for that comment, and he grabs her wrist and kisses her deeply. She melts. I stop fucking watching.
And then I meet eyes with my brother, with Lo. He has his arm wrapped around Lily, and even with the news, he looks more at peace now, in this moment, than he did three days ago.
“So you know French,” he says to me.
“Yeah, I know French.”
Connor holds Rose’s hand on the table, and he nods to me. “Where’d you learn?”
“Tutors as a kid, like you and Rose.”
“I taught myself, actually,” Connor says with a million-dollar grin.
Lo claps slowly. “Congratulations, love.”
Connor only smiles wider, and I share it as well, surprisingly.
Lily perks up. “I’ve learned some French too.” She clears her throat. I think we’re all laughing internally, not at her, just fucking with her. She’s goofy as hell. In a more American accent, she says, “Comment allez-vous?” How are you?
Connor replies with a genuine smile, “Je ne pourrais pas être plus heureux.” I couldn’t be happier.
Rose relaxes into Connor’s body. And Lily looks really fucking confused. He’s already lost her.
Daisy slides her misshapen pumpkin napkin over to me. I squeeze her hand beneath the table. And for a brief second, I think about after California, after my climb. Back in Philly. Her parents… it doesn’t seem like they should be a big roadblock. I’m twenty-five. But your family doesn’t just leave when you become an adult. They’re a part of you forever.