23. Sophia
Chapter 23
Sophia
"I like this guy.” Cody’s grinning from ear to ear. Him and Pecker have hit it off and are having a great time. Mostly at Jax’s expense, but Jax doesn’t mind no matter how much he scowls.
He’s always been a good sport and loves it when people can joke around and bust his balls. He can’t handle anyone who’s serious all the time.
“That’s only because he has your jersey.” Jax rolls his eyes. “If he had mine, you’d like him a lot less.”
“Are you saying you don’t love me?” Pecker bats his eye lashes.
“I'm pretty sure I have a man crush on you. If you move here, you can replace Cody as my best friend since he’s so mean to me.” Jax flips off Cody, making him laugh even harder.
“Well, Soph, I'm not sure you could’ve found a more perfect boyfriend.” Mom smiles from her spot on the couch, cuddled up with Dad.
“I still can't get over how similar Peck and Wyatt look. It’s eerie. They look like they could be related.” Kennedy shakes her head.
“I love that. Then you can't find him attractive because that’s admitting your son is attractive.” Blake grins.
“My son is attractive.” She scowls at him.
“Yeah, but not in a Mrs. Robinson way.”
“Stop it!” Mom giggles. “I hate when people say that! Wes, can we change our last name?”
“No, baby. We’re not changing our last name because of some movie.”
Pecker pulls his phone out of his pocket and declines a video chat with Sydney. I wonder if it’s something important. She knows he’s meeting my family today; I can't imagine she’d call unless there was a reason.
“Just wait until Kendra meets him,” Mom warns, making everyone laugh. Kendra is one of our pseudo-aunts and she loves flirting with people on Jax, Cody, and Wyatt’s teams. It doesn’t bother Uncle Nick one bit, I think he actually finds it entertaining how uncomfortable the guys get.
Pecker silences another call from Sydney and my brows pull together. Something must be going on.
“I think you should answer it. Just make sure nothing is wrong.”
“No, it’s fine. We’re with your family.” Pecker brushes off my concern. I know he’s worried about my family liking him, but they’re not going to get upset over this.
“Answer it. Family always comes first and she’s the only family you have,” Wyatt pipes up. “We’d all answer even if we were in the same position as you.”
“I’ll take it outside then.” He goes to stand, but I tug on his arm.
“You don’t need to go. If you want privacy, you can, but none of them care,” I say softly.
He glances around at everyone. They all nod in agreement and he happily settles back into the couch and answers the call.
“What’s up, Syd?”
“Peck! I just got the DNA test thingy back!” She’s practically shouting with excitement.
“Ok. Can this wait until later? I'm with Sophia’s family right now.” He keeps his tone soft. He loves his sister and isn't upset about hearing from her, but he’s trying to respect my family too.
“I really think you’re going to want to hear this, Peck.”
“It’s alright. It won't take long,” I encourage him to keep talking.
“What did it say?”
“Well, did you know we have a freaking brother!”
“What?” His brows draw together as he processes what she’s saying. “How?”
“Right before Mom died, she confessed some things to me. I didn’t believe her, but now I do. She told me she got pregnant before she met Dad. She couldn’t take care of the baby so she put it up for adoption.” Sydney’s practically bouncing with excitement at this point.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes! I didn’t think a thing of it until I got the results. The adoption was closed. There was no way for her to find her baby or for the child to find her later on. She was so upset about it when she told me. I thought the medicine was just messing with her head, but it wasn’t.”
“So, you know who our brother is?”
“Yes. And you’re not going to believe who it is.” She grins impossibly wider.
“Are you going to tell me or make me start guessing?”
“Our brother is Wyatt Everson!” She squeals.
My eyes widen and my gaze bounces between Pecker and Wyatt, just like everyone else’s in the room. She can't be serious.
“Are you sure?” Pecker asks slowly.
“Yes! Isn't that the baseball player you really like?” Sydney’s so excited and it’s adorable, but she doesn’t know the type of bomb she just dropped on this family.
Wyatt’s staring at Pecker with his brows furrowed together. We all know his parents died in a car accident, but we didn’t know they adopted him first. Blake adopted him when he was around ten or eleven years old. We know very little about his life before that.
“Yeah, he’s also Sophia’s brother-in-law,” Peck whispers. “I'm staring at him right now.”
“Oh, shit! Why’d you let me tell you then?”
“Well, it’s not like I expected him to be my brother. How was I supposed to know that’s what you were going to say?” Pecker frowns at Sydney.
“Great. Now I’ve made a crappy first impression and I wasn’t even there to see it.” She folds her arms over her chest and glares.
“Hey, Syd?” I push in closer so she can see me. “I think we’re going to call you back later on.”
I don’t wait for her to answer, I just end the call and place Pecker’s phone on the coffee table. Everyone is watching Pecker and Wyatt in silence, waiting for one of them to make a move.
“Did you know your parents adopted you?” Blake is the first to break the silence, which isn't surprising.
“Yes, I know you adopted me, Dad .” Wyatt’s always insisted on calling Blake and Kennedy his parents and doesn’t like to refer to what he thought were his birth parents as mom and dad.
He realized early on that Blake and Kennedy would always be there for him and Charlie helped him see family is so much more than who gave birth to you.
“You know what he meant,” Dad says, keeping his tone gentle. “Did you know?”
“Not at all. I always thought they were my birth parents.” There are so many emotions flickering across Wyatt’s face. It’s going to take him time to process this and come to terms with his entire life being flipped upside down.
Hell, it’s going to take all of us some time to process this.
Charlie moves closer and rubs a hand up and down his back. She whispers something to him and he nods his head, then follows her outside. The door shuts softly behind them and the room is blanketed in silence again.
“I'm so sorry. I never would’ve answered the call if I had known Sydney was going to drop that bomb.” Pecker scrubs a hand down his face in frustration. “Even if I knew, I never would’ve let him find out like that.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault and it’s not Sydney’s either.” Blake gives us a sad smile.
“Yeah, but I just…” He motions to the door leading onto the deck and sighs.
“He has Charlie, he’s going to be fine. She’ll help him work through everything, just like she always has. That man would be a completely different person without that woman in his life. She’s been pulling him away from the edge of destruction since they met and she’s not going to stop now.” Dad throws the truth out there so effortlessly.
He isn't someone who’s going to beat around the bush and try to make you feel better about yourself. He’s going to tell you the truth and be there for you if you fall apart. I'm glad he’s already treating Pecker like he’s part of the family. Though, I guess he’s part of the family now even if we weren’t dating. He’s Wyatt’s family and that makes him automatically part of Mulberry Lane.