Chapter 23
FLYNN
“Is it weird that we always leave these appointments and go straight to eat somewhere?” Courtney asked.
“No. You’re pregnant. Feels like good planning to me.” She laughed at my answer as I got her squared away in the car and walked around to the driver’s side. “Are you sure you’re up to dinner with my family tonight?”
Courtney couldn’t answer right away since she was mid-yawn. “We need to tell them, so it seems like the perfect time since your sisters will be there too.”
I held the ultrasound photos in my hand before I tucked them in my pocket with my phone. “At least we’ll have the fresh images to show everyone.”
“Do you think they’ll be excited?”
“My mom is going to lose her damn mind,” I assured her. Courtney glowed as a beautiful smile spread across her sweet face. Maybe it was the pregnancy, or the excitement of finally being able to share our news, but whatever it was, it looked good on her.
“You are so beautiful,” I told her before I turned my attention back to getting the car started, so we could get to my parents’ house in time for family dinner.
“Thank you.” Her soft voice barely carried to me, as she looked away.
“I mean it.”
“I know you do. I just don’t understand how you could think so. I feel like a whale already.”
“You can’t even tell with that big ass sweater on,” I informed her, which made her laugh.
“See, it takes a big ass sweater to hide all this and I am only four months along!” She whined.
“Do you hear me complaining?”
“No.”
“Okay then. No one else’s opinion matters.”
I ignored the way she stared at me and grinned from ear-to-ear. It sucked that I had to focus my attention on driving, but I wouldn’t risk an accident just to see her happiness aimed at me a bit longer.
When we got to the house, I was too busy helping my wife out of the car to notice that there was another vehicle in the driveway that shouldn’t have been there. If I had been paying attention, we would have turned around and found a restaurant to go to for date night, rather than dinner with my family.
When my parents invited us that morning, I thought they had said it would be just us, my parents, two sisters, and then my wife and me. When Mom and Dad greeted us, I noticed the extra guests over their shoulders.
“I thought it was just the kids coming to dinner?”
My mom’s face turned red with embarrassment as Gayle smiled softly and spoke up. “That’s my fault, I’m afraid. We came to talk to your parents about something, and they invited us to join everyone for dinner. I hope you don’t mind the intrusion.” My aunt turned her attention from me to my wife then. “Courtney, it is so good to see you, my dear. You’re looking absolutely radiant. What kind of skin care are you doing these days?”
My wife blushed and waved her off. “Nothing special,” she managed to get out as my aunt and mom tutted her denials.
“To be young again and not even have to try to look good,” My mom huffed as if she wasn’t still in her prime.
“You’re always effortlessly beautiful,” Dad said to her. Every woman in the room swooned a bit and I had to join Uncle Marty in rolling my eyes.
I glanced between Gayle and Marty then and noticed the distance between them. Normally, if we were all standing around, my Uncle would have his arm around his wife in much the same way my dad always did with his. It struck me then that Marty had probably always emulated what he saw Dad do, because I didn’t think he had it in him to be a sweet, caring husband on his own accord. Then again, I might have been prejudiced by the fact that I knew he was carrying on an affair with Courtney’s mother.
That bitter pill was something else I had to contend with. I promised Reed that I wouldn’t say anything until he collected all the information he would need in his divorce. He didn’t want anyone to tip Jill off that he had hired a PI to follow her around. It sucked, because I didn’t like keeping secrets from my wife, but I also knew my little Nemesis well enough to know that she would go after her mother for betraying her dad and ultimately their whole family dynamic.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and when I went to pull it out to check my message, the ultrasound photos went fluttering to the floor. Just as that happened, the front door opened behind us and my fucking cousin marched in with a date in tow like he had every right.
“What’s this?” Mom said as she bent to scoop up the ultrasound photos. My eyes darted between Mom with the pictures and my wife, whose face had gone ashen at the sight of Beckett.
“Is this what I think it is?” My mother shrieked in her excitement.
“Mom, shhh, we’ll talk about it later.”
Her eyes were bright, and shining with joy as she ignored me and announced to the whole house, “I’m going to be a grandma!”
I quickly looked at Courtney, who had collected herself after the shock of seeing her former fiancé in my parents’ home. She gave me a shoulder shrug and smirked as we watched my father lean in and study the images a little too closely.
“I guess the cat is out of the bag,” Courtney stated as her arm wrapped around my waist and gave a reassuring squeeze.
“You’re pregnant?” We both turned to see my cousin’s eyes bouncing between the images in my parents’ hands and Courtney. “Is that my baby? Did you think I wouldn’t find out about it? Fuck you, Flynn! You can’t claim my kid! I don’t care if you won’t divorce each other, you’ll still have to deal with me. We’ll have to coparent or whatever the fuck they call it. No, fuck that. You’ll have to get a divorce. My kids won’t be raised in a broken home, Courtney. We’ve loved one another our whole lives, we can work it out for our baby.”
“Thank God the baby isn’t yours,” Courtney expressed. “Coparent or whatever the fuck…” She muttered unhappily. Before anyone could say anything else, we all heard the slap of a hand on skin, and I turned to see that my cousin’s date had nailed him right across the face.
“I can’t believe you brought me to a family dinner and then had the nerve to propose to another woman.”
“She’s already my fiancee,” Beckett argued.
“I’m married to his cousin,” Courtney told the girl.
“So you’re a liar too?”
“No, I’m not. Babe. Look.” Each word was punctuated with a heavy pause as he tried to find the right words and failed. “We were engaged and then she married my cousin to help him get his inheritance.”
“Do you plan to get back with Beckett?” The girl asked my wife.
“God, no!” Courtney huffed. “Honestly, this whole conversation makes me want to vomit.” She ignored everyone’s open-mouthed stares and went to park her ass in the chair she dubbed, “the comfy one”. I heard her sigh in relief as she took a load off.
“You are unbelievable Beckett Robeson. I thought you were bringing me to family dinner to make our relationship official.”
“What relationship?” He asked her, and as sad it was, my cousin truly looked perplexed.
The woman slapped him again and then walked out. “Find your own ride home!” She yelled just before the door closed.
“How do you know it’s not my baby?” Beckett asked my wife, as if his date hadn’t just slapped him twice and left him.
Courtney rolled her eyes. “It’s not your baby. I would be six months or more along for it to be yours and I’m only four months. Even if it had been yours, I wouldn’t divorce Flynn or marry you. You’ve proven to be unreliable at best.”
“We are in love with each other,” He argued again.
“No, Beckett. We were in love. At least, I was. I’m not sure if you ever were. That love died the minute you tried to sell me off for a cabin and someone else filling our future children’s college funds, so you wouldn’t have to.”
“Beckett!” Aunt Gayle hissed. Clearly, she hadn’t known that he set everything in motion and basically tried to sell his fiancee in marriage to me for his own benefit. “Tell me that is not why you did this.” When he didn’t answer her, she fumed, but it was my uncle who spoke up next.
“I am truly disappointed in you, son. You deserve to see them happy and growing a family.”
“You have no room to talk, Martin!” His wife sniped.
“Not here,” Uncle Marty growled at her.
“Why not? Seems like the perfect time to air our dirty laundry.” She turned to the rest of the gathered family. “Martin and I are getting a divorce. He’s been cheating on me with…” She hesitated as her eyes glanced toward Courtney and then her cheeks heated. She must have realized how callous it would be to out the fact that Courtney’s mother was having an affair.
“It’s okay. I already know my mother is having an affair with him. My father told me this morning.” My wife gave me a pointed look that I said I was only sort-of in trouble for not telling her myself.
“What the fuck?” Dad asked. “Marty, tell me you aren’t that stupid. No offense, Courtney. It’s not about your mom.”
“None taken, even if it was,” My wife assured him.
The conversation devolved into a bunch of pointed fingers and accusations. Bea and Ky seemed to be enjoying the drama. Mina escaped without anyone else noticing. Mom grabbed a bottle of wine and mouthed “Sorry” to me. Dad looked ready to punch his brother, or his nephew, maybe both.
Finally, Courtney was the one to speak up as the voice of reason. “Okay, listen up!” She shouted above everyone else. “My husband and I have some amazing news to share with our family and we don’t need whatever drama you guys have making that impossible. Please, take your arguments somewhere else.”
“You can’t kick me out of my brother’s house,” Marty insisted.
“She can, with my permission, but if I need to make it clear to you - go home, Marty. Take your son with you. Gayle, if you need to stay and chat with Margaret, feel free.”
“You’re letting my wife stay, but not me?” Marty asked.
“She didn’t do anything wrong. She gets to stay. Now, brother, I asked you to leave. My daughter-in-law is pregnant and does not need all this added stress.”
“She was supposed to be my daughter-in-law. That’s supposed to be my grandchild!” Marty yelled.
“Maybe you should have taught our son to keep his dick in his pants where it belonged then,” Gayle snapped at him. “Oh, never mind, you never learned that lesson either, so it was hard to pass on the knowledge.”
“Gayle!” He cried out in shocked disbelief.
“Don’t Gayle me. You’ve been sleeping with Courtney’s mom for over a year! What if our son hadn’t abandoned her for a profit? What if that was our grandchild and here you have made a mess of our lives. I was heartbroken that Courtney wouldn’t be in our family as my daughter, but now I’m thankful. She doesn’t have to bring a child into this world who will one day learn that her grandparents were adulterous assholes who ruined everything for everyone.”
I cringed as my mom came and pulled Gayle away. My dad only grew angrier at his brother while Beckett made sad, puppy dog eyes at Courtney. She wasn’t paying attention though. She took advantage of everyone else being distracted and dug into my mom’s peach cobbler that had been left unattended on the table. I thought about asking her to share, but remembered what the doctor told us just a bit ago. My woman was eating for three, not two. She could have the whole damn cobbler to herself.