by Ella Brooke
I was standing in his living room, looking out at the street a couple of stories below. People moved about their business like ants, like nothing of significance had changed in the past twenty-four hours. If only that was true for me, too.
“Brett, do you want any coffee?” Sophia called from the kitchen.
I’d stayed with her the night before. I couldn’t bring myself to leave her alone. Mark hadn’t come back, and he wasn’t talking to either of us, as far as I knew.
Sophia and I hadn’t talked much about anything, though we’d been at the apartment together. We watched mindless action movies, ate comfort food, and let each other think. It was pretty great to be with someone who knew me well enough that I could be by myself, even though she was there with me.
“Please,” I called back to her.
There was a domesticity about us suddenly that I wasn’t completely uncomfortable with. What I was entirely uncomfortable with was being on the outs with Mark. We’d had spats over the years, sure. But nothing like this.
He was actively avoiding me, and while I would never admit it, I needed him. Sophia needed him. We were both still in shock and trying to come to grips with the fact that we were about to be parents. My stomach clenched, and my heart went wild every time I let myself think about it.
If it kept going the way it was, I was probably going to have to get to a cardiologist, sooner rather than later, but I didn’t let Sophia know it. She was drifting around like she was in some kind of daze. I had to be strong for her and be there for her.
I still had to tell my mom that she was going to be a grandmother, and I didn’t really know why I was putting it off. She was likely to be thrilled about the latest development. Mom had always loved the Loves as much as I did.
Sophia hadn’t told her parents yet, either, probably because we were still struggling to deal with it ourselves. She hadn’t even told me outright that she wanted to keep the baby. I blanched at the alternative, but swallowed it back.
The tone of the few conversations we’d had thus far hinted strongly that she wasn’t considering… taking care of it. I wasn’t even going to think the word.
Sophia’s soft footfalls sounded on the carpeted floor, and I turned to find her holding two steaming mugs of coffee. She held one out to me and came to stand beside me.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Sure.”
We sipped in silence, both watching the people below go about their business as though they didn’t have a care in the world. Realistically, I knew that probably wasn’t true. Everyone had their own shit to deal with. It simply felt like we were dealing with this monumental thing while everyone else was going out to brunch or doing Sunday morning grocery shopping.
I didn’t know how to feel about that.
It was pretty fucking hard to believe that there were actually three people in this room, not only the two I could see reflected in the window we were staring out of. I couldn’t believe we’d made a baby. And that that meant I was going to be a father.
My heart did the crazy galloping thing again, only calming when I fixed my gaze on Sophia’s reflection. Because as much as I never thought I would be a father, I also never thought that I could love someone the way I did Sophia.
I’d known for a couple of weeks now that whatever was happening between us was different, and I strongly started suspecting about a week or so ago that I was in love with her. We were at my place at the time, and the sun was just starting to set over the Lake outside, casting the room in a soft, orange glow.
Sophia was naked in my bed, a light sheet covering her body while she napped. We’d spent the afternoon making love, not getting enough of each other. She’d come five times, not that I was counting.
Okay, I was counting, but it was because I cared about her, and she made me feel like the superhero she told me she used to think of me as.
I had some work to get done, so I let her nap while I worked in my home office, then went to wake her because she’d told me that she needed to be home that night. Once I’d reached my bedroom, I paused in the doorway to admire her in my bed, and something inside me just clicked.
Having women at my house wasn’t usually something that I was a fan of, but with Sophia, it was kind of right. I hadn’t wanted her to leave. In that moment, I realized that what I felt for her was infinitely more than what I’d ever felt before.
It felt good to finally have it out there, to have said it to each other. The road ahead of us wasn’t going to be easy, but we’d get through it. I knew it in my heart and in my gut. And I trusted both.
To get through it, though, we actually had to start facing it.
“You heard from Mark yet?” I asked.
Sophia shook her head sadly. “Not a word. He’s still not reading my messages or taking my calls. You?”
“Nada. Complete radio silence.”
“Has he ever ignored you like this before?” she asked quietly.
“No, not like this.”
“I’m sorry, Brett. This is all my fault.” It sounded like her heart was breaking, which made me want to leap from tall buildings or save a tree full of kittens or something. Anything. Her heart belonged to me, and she should never be feeling what she was.
I set my mug down and gently took hers, setting it down beside mine. Wrapping my arms around her waist, I tugged her to my chest and leaned my forehead against hers.
“Listen to me, Soph. You have nothing to be sorry about. It’s not your fault. None of this is. I knew exactly how Mark would feel if he ever found out, and I did it anyway because I couldn’t stay away from you. I’ll try him again. We’ll deal with him together.”
She breathed out a rattled sigh, her arms winding around my hips. “Okay.”
I pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose. “In the meantime, we should probably get this ball rolling. We need to talk to your parents, to my mom, and we probably need to get you a doctor’s appointment. I’ll give Mark one more try now. If he still doesn’t answer, he goes on the back burner for now.”
“Look at you, all alpha male and in control.” Her lips hitched into a small smile. “Can’t call a doctor on a Sunday, so should we start with the parents?”
I was far from in control, but if it was making Sophia smile to think that I was, then so be it. “Sure, go get showered, and we’ll leave after. Okay?”
“You’ve got yourself a deal, Mr. Kelly. I love you.”
God, I loved hearing her say that. I placed a kiss on the corner of her mouth. “Always a pleasure doing business with you. Love you, too.”
Sophia gave me a squeeze, resting her ear over my heart for a couple of beats. Then, she smiled up at me and skipped from the room.
I dug my phone out of my pocket and gave Mark one last try. No surprise there. The call went straight to voicemail.
“This is Mark Love. I’m not available at the moment. Please leave me a message or try again later.”
I’d been trying to get him to change his generic message for ages, but he didn’t want to listen.
“Mark, it’s me. Again. You really need to pick up or call me back. We’re gonna have to sit down and talk about this sometime. We’re officially family now. You can’t ignore that forever. Call me.”
I knew that Mark was upset and that he had every reason to be, but I wanted to talk to him. Or at least have him listen. He needed to know that I loved her and that I wasn’t walking away from Sophia or from our baby. I wanted him to accept our relationship, but I wasn’t expecting it to happen overnight.
While he still thought that I was simply fucking his sister behind his back, though, he would never accept it. Soph and I were so much more than that, so much deeper. If I could make him see that, he would come around. I was sure of it.
Until he did, I had to focus all my energy on Sophia and stop placing so much of it on her brother. She was carrying my child, and I was going to take care of both of them. No matter what.
Fuck whatever Mark had to say abo
ut that.
Once Sophia was showered and dressed, we were off to her parents’ house. She was sitting beside me in the Audi, clasping her hands tightly in her lap. I reached for her hand, placing it under mine on the gear shift in the hope that it would bring her some small measure of comfort.
It seemed like it did when she gave me quick smile.
Her parents lived in a single-family home over in Forest Glen. It was a spacious, homey place with a large garden. I used to love spending time there. The Loves had always been welcoming, and they’d given me my first real taste of what having a properly functioning family was like.
And you paid them back by knocking up their daughter.
I pushed the thought away. I couldn’t afford to be having thoughts like that right now. Sophia needed me to be there for her. That was what this was about.
“You got any ideas on how you want to break the news to them?” I asked over the low hum of the engine.
“Not really, but I do think it should come from me. Thanks for coming with me, though. It means a lot to me.”
Giving me another small smile, she withdrew her hand from underneath mine and placed it over it instead, winding her fingers through mine.
“Of course. I told you, Soph. I’m in this with you. Two hundred percent. I’m all in.”
She surprised me by letting out a sudden peal of soft laughter.
“Are you laughing at me right now?” I asked.
“No,” she said, still giggling. “I’m laughing at myself.”
“Why?”
“You saying you were ‘all in’ reminded me of one of the first thoughts that I had when I found out.”
“Yeah? And what was that?” I was already starting to grin. If it could make Sophia laugh at a time like this, I was desperate to know.
Her cheeks flushed a little, and she hesitated before answering. “That you just had to have super sperm that gave it their all, just like you always do.”
“Super sperm?” I liked the sound of that. Chuckling, I told her, “What can I say? I’m a balls to the wall kind of guy.”
“That you are,” she mused, still smiling.
But all traces of lightness or laughter disappeared when we pulled up to her parents’ house to find Mark’s car parked behind their two-car garage.
“He’s here?” Sophia asked disbelievingly. “I thought for sure he was passed out on Shawn’s couch or something.”
“Me too,” I agreed. “If he came home, it hit him a lot harder than I thought.”
Sophia nodded her agreement and sighed. “It also means that he’s probably already told them.”
Mark must’ve seen my car pulling up because he came barreling through the front door and down the porch steps, his eyes spitting fire at me when I opened my door.
“What are you doing here?” His eyes might’ve been spitting fire, but his voice was ice cold.
Thankfully, he didn’t intimidate me. I rounded the car to open Sophia’s door and held onto her hand after I helped her out. “I’m here to support your sister.”
I inclined my head toward the house, where her parents were standing in the doorway, lowering my voice. “Did you tell them?”
“Of course, I fucking told them,” Mark fumed.
Sophia went slightly limp against my side, so I wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her close. I knew that it was important to her to have told them herself, but Mark had stolen that opportunity from her.
I leveled him with a gaze that I usually reserved for business competitors and employees caught stealing. “That was a pretty shitty thing to do, man.”
Chapter Fourteen
Sophia
Brett was tense beside me, shooting Mark a death glare that would’ve had me organizing a funeral if looks really were able to kill. Mark’s own glare wasn’t far behind Brett’s, however.
Mark snorted and scoffed. “That was a shitty thing to do? Are you kidding me? You slept with my sister and then you got her pregnant!”
“Yeah, thanks. I got that memo, and I’m taking full responsibility for that, but at least I never deliberately hurt her,” Brett said as calmly as he could manage. I could see that he was fighting for control.
“Gee, that’s great,” Mark said sarcastically. “You saved all the deliberate hurt for me then.”
I glanced toward my parents, frozen in the doorway as the guys went at it.
My dad watched on with a kind of resigned expression on his face, like a let them get it over and done with kind of look. Mom’s eyes were wide, but she was no stranger to seeing Mark in a fight. It just wasn’t usually with Brett.
Since the very first day they met, those two had fought side by side. I didn’t like seeing them facing off against each other. It was unnatural, wrong.
“Stop it, you guys,” I said, quietly but firmly.
Mark grunted and turned his anger on me. “What? Now you suddenly want to talk? After how long of lying right to my face? You had plenty of time to talk to me, don’t think—”
“You will not speak to her like that,” Brett seethed, taking a step toward Mark. I held his hand, giving it a squeeze, and he came back to my side.
“I will speak to my sister however the fuck I want. She’s been my sister all my life. She’s only been your baby-mama for what? Twenty-four hours? You have no right—”
“Fuck if I don’t have the right,” Brett said, but I cut him off before he could continue.
“That’s enough. Both of you. This isn’t helping anyone with anything. You’re only causing a scene. Let’s go inside and talk like the adults we’re supposed to be.”
It wasn’t often that I sounded authoritative, but in that moment, I did. And I was damn proud of myself. I gave them each a long look, then turned on my heel to do what I came here to do.
Brett didn’t let go of my hand, turning his back on Mark and walking up the steps of the front porch with me. My parents looked at our joined hands, then right at me.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for all of this to happen the way that it did,” I said, my voice shaky with tears that I hadn’t realized I was fighting back.
Mom’s eyes softened, and she pulled me into a tight hug. “We know, sweetheart. I can’t say that the news didn’t come as shock, but you’re right. Let’s go inside and talk.”
My mom’s hugs had always soothed my soul, and it had the exact same effect now. It felt like balm spread over the pain of Mark’s stinging words and my guilt about not having been the one to tell them.
Dad gave me a hug, too, but didn’t say anything. His eyes were on Brett the entire time. Eventually, Brett stuck his hand out to my dad. “Mr. Love.”
For a long second, I thought that my dad was going to ignore his hand, but he glanced at me, sighed, and shook it. “Brett. Come inside. You too, Mark.”
Mark huffed behind me, but we all followed my parents inside. No one said a word until we were settled in my parents living room, glasses of iced water sweating on their coffee table. Brett was sitting close by my side on the white love seat, while my parents sat in their usual pair of leather wingbacks by the unlit fireplace. Mark didn’t sit down, opting to lean against the wall beside my parents instead.
My mother was waiting for me to speak with kind eyes, while my father wore that same resigned expression from before, and Mark glowered at Brett.
“Floor’s yours, Soph,” my mom said. “Why don’t you tell us what happened?”
Mark snorted again. “It’s pretty obvious what happened. They—”
My dad silenced him with a look. “We’ve heard your thoughts on the matter. Give your sister a chance to talk.”
I cleared my throat and grabbed Brett’s hand to try and channel some of his strength. He gave his support willingly, unconditionally, and that, more than anything, gave me the courage to push forward. “Brett and I have been seeing each other for a little while. We know that it was wrong to hide it, but we knew Mark wouldn’t like it.”
Mark scoffed. �
��So, this is my fault now?”
“That’s not what she said, son,” my dad said. “Just let Sophie speak, please.”
I looked at my brother, willing him to understand, but he refused to meet my eyes. “I’m not saying it’s your fault at all. I’m just saying that we fell in love, and we didn’t want to hurt you. That’s why we didn’t tell you.”
“You’re in love?” my mom asked, the first hint of a smile playing on her lips, despite the circumstances.
I nodded, so did Brett.
My mom sighed, her lips curling into a knowing smile. “I can’t say that it comes as much of a surprise to me. The baby? That’s a surprise, but I always had a feeling about the two of you.”
Even my dad grunted his agreement.
Well, what do you know?
“You’re not angry?” I asked, not able to believe that everything was going so smoothly.
“We’re not thrilled,” my dad said, then glanced at Brett. “Not because of your relationship, I mean. We both expected that would happen eventually, like Martha said. But it would’ve been nice if we’d had a wedding before a grandchild.”
“Speaking of which,” Mom said hesitantly, looking pained by what she was about to say. “You’re an adult now. We understand that, and we understand that it’s your decision, but have you decided what you’re going to do?”
They couldn’t seriously think… “We’re keeping the baby,” I said.
Mom smiled a relieved smile. “That’s good. I’m glad. We like that. I think congratulations are in order then.”
“Seriously?” I gaped. Both my parents nodded and stood, so Brett and I did, too. More hugs were exchanged, and my dad even thumped Brett’s back.
“You’re a good man, Brett. We’ve both always liked you. We know that you’re gonna be a stand-up guy for our Sophie and the baby, and if you’re not, well...”
“You’ll kick my ass?” Brett supplied helpfully, grinning at my dad.
“Exactly.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Brett said. “I love her. I’m going to care of both of them.”
“Glad to hear it,” Mom chimed in, leaning over me to give Brett a quick hug, too.