25. Learning About Each Other
25
LEARNING ABOUT EACH OTHER
“ Y ou just told us you were fine,” her mother shouted.
There was mass chaos with questions flying around the room faster than Angel could duck them.
“Everyone calm down,” she said. She got up to get a tissue and blew her nose and then came back. “Right now I am. My appointment on Thursday was just a basic one to confirm I was pregnant. I’m due September fifteenth.”
“If everything is fine, then what is going on?” Spencer asked.
“I should be fine during the pregnancy. But I guess like everything else happening during the past week, none of this occurred to me. Pregnancy puts a strain on your body. They need to monitor my heart.”
“Monitor it how?” her father asked.
The last thing she needed right now was for everyone to build a bubble and shove her into it. She wasn’t sure she could do this again and thought she was past it.
Maybe she needed to grow up some and realize that life just didn’t always go as planned.
Hadn’t she known that most of her life?
She’d thought after the surgery to repair her heart she was out of the woods even though she knew she might never be completely.
Anything could happen even if her health had been great for over a decade.
“I don’t know completely,” she said. “I’ve got an appointment in two weeks in Boston. It was the soonest I could get in.”
“How is this all going to work out with you being on the island?” her mother asked. “Are they equipped for things like this? Are there no specialists here?”
She turned to Coy. He could answer this better than her. “To the best of my knowledge, there is no full-time cardiologist on the island. There is one that visits, but I’m not sure of the availability. The island is considered a satellite office. The doctor Angel saw on Thursday is based out of Plymouth, but she does rotations here on the island too.”
“So you can give birth here?” her mother asked. “You won’t have to worry about getting a ferry off the island during labor?”
Angel didn’t even want to think of that possibility. She hadn’t been talking about it much with Coy because she was trying to digest it herself and knew there was still a lot of time.
“I have a direct line to helicopters,” Coy said. “My first cousin owns Bond Charter. Though I don’t often use the service, one phone call will get us on a helicopter fast. When we get closer to delivery, if they want her to deliver in Boston, we’ll make sure we are relocated there prior. Housing isn’t a problem.”
Coy hadn’t said any of these things to her. She wasn’t sure why and wanted to get annoyed but then told herself he knew more about those things.
Maybe he was trying to plan it all out so she didn’t have to.
“There you go,” she said. “I’m trying hard not to worry or get upset or figure it out. It will work out the way it needs to.”
“I’ll make sure of it,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of resources at my fingertips.”
“And money to make it happen,” Spencer said. “Like a fast marriage.”
“What?!” Angel said. “Where did that come from?”
“Spencer,” her mother said. “Mind your own business.”
Her brother looked at Coy. Marriage hadn’t come up once in the past week. She was happy about that too.
“What year do you think this is?” she asked. “People don’t get married for that reason anymore.”
She didn’t want anyone to marry her because of an unplanned pregnancy.
And though she’d been in love with Coy for more than half her life, it was not the same as what she felt for him now.
She was smart enough to understand that.
To her, they’d been dating for three months.
They were still learning about each other.
“They don’t,” Coy said. “They get married because they love each other.”
“Yes,” she said. “We do love each other. But you’ve only loved me for a few months. We don’t know enough about each other to even consider that.”
“You don’t think you’re going to live anywhere other than under this roof soon, right?” he asked.
Her jaw dropped. She’d never heard him talk like that before.
Be that controlling.
They’d been talking together about things. She hoped they’d make mutually reasonable decisions.
“Maybe you should ask and not just assume,” she said, crossing her arms. He’d brought it up last weekend and she explained she wanted her independence.
Spencer snorted. She turned her head and saw the smirk on her brother’s face before he went to the kitchen.
He came back out and tossed a can of beer to Coy. “You’re going to need it and I can’t wait much longer.”
Coy set the beer on the table without opening it.
“I’m not assuming anything,” he said. “I’m being reasonable. Logical. Planning it out. I want to support you in your career because not only does it help your growth but helps my business. But I can’t do that on a personal level if you don’t live in the same house as me. I can’t get up in the middle of the night and change or feed or care for a baby if it’s across the island.”
“He has a point,” her brother said.
“Now you’re for this?” she asked. Was she going to get ganged up on?
“Just being smart about this,” Spencer said.
“Yes,” her father said. “What if you need help in the middle of the night during your pregnancy? Or you’re not feeling well? I don’t like the fact you might be alone.”
She sighed. Here they went again. Babying her.
“I appreciate everyone’s concern,” he said. “And we’ll need the support, trust me. My parents are here on the island and my mother is going to be thrilled. My brothers and their wives are too. But Angel should have the support and comfort of her family. There are a lot of things we need to discuss between us.”
“Like wedding plans,” Spencer said, smirking.
“I’m going to throw something at you in a minute. Cut the shit,” she said.
“No,” her brother said seriously. “Why don’t you ask your baby Daddy what I’m talking about and why?”
She turned to Coy. “What is going on?”
“It’s just a conversation your brother and I have had before.”
“One you’re going to share with me,” she said.
“Later,” he said.
“Don’t be shy now,” she said. “Everyone here is family.”
He looked at her brother and frowned. “Spencer and I have talked about this before. It has to do with why we’ve had each other’s backs. We’ve never wanted to be accused of anything that we couldn’t dispute. We never wanted anything to come back on us.”
“It’s an image thing,” she interrupted. “Is that it? You don’t want people to think poorly of you because I’m pregnant?” She tried to keep the hurt out of her voice. “You told me your parents would be happy about this. Did you lie to me?”
“I didn’t lie,” he said. “It’s not an image thing like you’re saying.”
“Then what?” she asked, throwing her hands in the air.
“Why don’t we give them some privacy?” her mother said. “Todd and Spencer, let’s go get some lunch.”
“You want me to leave?” Spencer said. “This is getting too good.”
“We are leaving,” her father said. “But we’ll be back. Maybe it’s smart if we do stay here tonight. All of us. There is a lot to discuss and go over.”
“No,” she said. “I want you here to visit. But we don’t need to make that many plans. None of this is going the way I thought it would. We’ve told you everything we know.”
She watched her parents stand and get their jackets. Spencer had thrown his over the chair when he came back in and now grabbed that to leave.
When they were left alone, she turned to Coy. He had some explaining to do.
“I want to marry you, Angel. Not because of the baby. Not because of an image. Because I love you. It’s as simple as that. Maybe you’ve had more time to get used to things, but I know what I want and I’m staring at it. I’m sorry if that scares you or upsets you. I don’t know how else to answer it.”
“This is just so much for me,” she said.
He pulled her into his arms. “I know. And it’s why I didn’t bring it up. I thought after we got done telling our families we’d have more time to talk about these things.”
It’s like all her dreams were coming true.
The guy she loved wanted to marry her. She was having a family with him too.
But she never expected it all to be this fast.
She was struggling to keep up and understood how her brother felt today.
“Can I just think about it some more?”
He pushed her back some and lifted his eyebrow to look at her. “I meant what I said about you moving in here soon.”
“I know,” she said. “I’m not going to be stupid about things. I’m not even two months pregnant. News is just getting out we are dating. I want to keep the baby news quiet for a bit.”
“I understand that more than anyone else,” he said. “And why. I don’t want to even think about anything bad and am going to tell myself not to.”
“But things can happen,” she said. “I know. I understand.”
“We don’t think that way. But we have to be prepared for anything and I’m asking you to be reasonable too. Not just for you and us but for the baby. Can you promise me that?”
She nodded even if she felt as if she just lost control of the independence she’d been craving most of her life.