Chapter 29
twenty-nine
GRAY
Silence truly was deafening. Gray could only hear her heart beating in her ears—until she couldn’t.
All hell broke loose when her dad’s water glass shattered in his hand, and blood started leaking over the counter and floor.
“Thomas,” her mom shrieked, “don’t move, baby.” She started throwing everything out of the kitchen medicine cabinet until she found the kit she was looking for. “Get to the sink. Now.”
Not the response Gray was hoping for. She glanced at Lochlann. His cheeks were seared red, and his fists were clenched. His eyes, though… Oh, God. His eyes were glassy.
While her parents were busy, she said, “Loch. I’m sorry. I just found out today.”
“Is it Ciar’s?” her brother asked.
“Yes.” Not giving him a chance to push her off, she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his broad, youthful chest. “I love you. Please don’t be disappointed in me.”
“Damn it, sis. Nothing could make me disappointed in you. Ciar, however, better watch his fucking back.”
“Language,” her mom scolded.
Gray didn’t realize that her mom and dad had moved back to the island and had been watching their children.
Both Coll and Laith appeared rigid and expressionless. Her aunt Cat, though, gave Gray an encouraging smile.
“Dad,” Gray implored, his usually stoic countenance appeared devastated. He did take several steps closer to his daughter, at least.
“I just found out today, Dad, I swear. I decided I’m going to try to work things out with Ciar, but if I can’t, I can promise you that I’ll bloody well do it on my own and do a damn good job of it.”
And because she refused to bow to her father’s possible judgment, she added, “I would have liked to come to you with this announcement in a better place, Dad, but as I’m a woman grown, and one who has proven her worth in Mom’s family business, I won’t apologize.”
Her dad took the final steps that separated them and gently touched her cheek. “I will love your child as I have my own. I only wish that you would have used that big brain of yours to remember contraception, or at the very least, choose a better partner.”
Gray gasped, Cat gasped, and her mom hissed, “Thomas.”
Her brother even stepped forward and said, “Da. Enough,” which was mild compared to her father’s sister.
“Tom, you say one more fucking word like that, and I will never speak to you again. I can’t speak for Coll and Laith, but if you don’t apologize to Gray, I will walk out that door,” she pointed to the carved wooden entrance, “and you won’t see me again.”
“Cat,” Coll began.
“Don’t you Cat me. If you think the shit my brother just said was correct, you can find a new place to sleep.
I’ll also remind you, Coll Barr, that you were the one without a care for contraceptives, which is why I was pregnant with Blair when we’d only just started sleeping together,” her voice raised when she added, “behind our family’s backs too! ”
“Christ, Mom,” Laith groaned, embarrassed to be hearing about his parents’ sexcapades.
Coll, smartly, put his hands up in surrender. “Forgive me, my love. I wouldn’t change a thing about how we started out, which you better damn well know,” he growled.
Catriona sniffed and clamped her lips tight, but she did give one shaky nod of agreement. Seeing that, Coll pulled her tight to his front, holding her close.
“Christ, Loch, can we bounce yet?” Laith whined.
Her brother didn’t answer because her mom suddenly had the floor. “Are you saying,” her mom began stiffly, “that when you had sex with me on the plane, when my birth control was screwed up, it’s because I wasn’t being smart?”
Lochlann mumbled, “Jesus, my ears.”
Her dad looked like he’d been shot between the eyes. “No. No, that’s—” He raised a hand to touch Gray’s arm, but when he reached out to touch his wife, her mom took a step back.
He looked between Gray and her mom, deflating when he saw their tears. “I’m an idiot. I spoke without thinking.” He tugged Gray close, wrapping an arm around her back to bring her close for a hug, using one of his beefy hands to push her head to his chest.
Gray hadn’t realized how badly she needed a hug from her dad until that moment, feeling silent tears trickling down her cheeks to soak his shirt.
“Jo. Please.” He motioned to his wife. She hesitated a moment before joining Gray on her dad’s other side. “Will you girls forgive me? It was one of the best days of my life when you told me you were pregnant, Jo, and Gray, I forget sometimes that you aren’t a little girl anymore.”
“Clearly,” Laith snorted, “since she’s knocked up.”
“Shut the hell up,” Lochlann started to say something else, but Laith wasn’t finished.
“I can’t believe your folks are part of the mile high cl—” Loch’s fist to his best friend’s stomach finally shut Laith up.
“And how do you know your parents aren’t members?” Cat asked her son sweetly, who moaned something about needing to vomit.
Her dad kept talking, ignoring the company. “I’m mad at Ciar, not about the pregnancy. I think he’s shit and doesn’t deserve you. I took my anger at him out on you. It won’t happen again. Forgiven?”
Gray sighed in relief. “Of course. Grandpa.”
“Too soon, Gray,” her dad grumbled. “And you, Jo? I’ve never regretted the plane or anything that came after. Forgiven?”
Her mom smiled at Gray across the expanse of her husband’s chest. “Men can be so dumb,” she announced before twisting from his arms to reach up and kiss him gently. “I love you.”
Cat clapped her hands and grinned. “Now that’s over, how far along are you, Gray?”
“The test said eighteen weeks.”
“Christ Almighty,” her dad spluttered, “she is definitely your daughter, Josephine.”
Her mom giggled and elbowed his side. It was kind of funny that her mom found out she was pregnant with Gray at around the same time.
“It’s because you both are so lovely and tall with so much more room for a baby to grow than simply out.
I swear, Coll caught me a million times from tipping over face-first. Having that heavy belly threw my equilibrium off something terrible.
” Cat smiled at her husband, who grinned back. The memory was a fond one.
“What now?” Lochlann asked.
“I’m changing my flight. I’m going to London in the morning and see what’s really going on with Ciar, and then once I’m back to Dublin, I’ll find a doctor. The rest is TBD.”
Lochlann stepped forward, looming almost as large as their dad, and said, “I’ll go with you. To London. For moral support, that is.”
She gave him a big hug where he awkwardly patted her back. “Thanks Loch, but I’m not letting you or Dad anywhere near this child’s father until things are sorted.” She knew she’d made the right call when her dad and brother exchanged looks of disappointment.
“Oh, and Cat, please don’t say anything to Blair. I’ll tell the girls when I get home.”
“The sooner the better, because as soon as the girls know, we can call the Byrne sisters to get their recommendations for doctors,” Catriona grinned, excited about the baby.
“Also,” her mom added, “would you mind, Gray, if we had Aileen and Charles come over so you can tell them the big news? She would never tell Mags if we ask her not to.”
“Of course we should,” Gray agreed.
Twenty minutes later, the kitchen was more crowded, including Mirren on a video call. Aileen cried and congratulated Gray. “I’d better not get news like this from Mags for several years, though,” she laughed.
“Do you remember calling me when you found out, Jo?”
“You listened to me bawling in my car in the doctor’s parking lot for what felt like hours. You made me feel like I could conquer the world or at least your ex-husband,” her mom joked.
Gray felt lightheaded at the speed with which the day had escalated. It started with a relaxing barbecue with the family, led to a positive pregnancy test, and finished with a big family reveal.
Her mom was right. It was a relief that her father knew. Waiting would have been stressful, and worse than that, it would have hurt his feelings.
Before she went to bed, Gray booked an early flight to London in the hopes of cornering Ciar before he went to work for the day.
Even before she found out about the baby, she wanted a reconciliation. No matter how she’d tried to snuff out her feelings, she still loved Ciar Murphy—add to that a baby, and she was beginning to feel twinges of desperation.
He’d better cough up every secret he’d ever hoarded.
He’d better want their child.
He’d better still care about her.