Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
EVAN
“Evan Rhodes, where the fuck have you been all my life?”
I grin, turning from where I just stepped out of Cooper’s car at the valet stand in front of The Langham hotel where the ball is being held to see my brother and Rio strolling down Franklin Street. “I literally just saw you last week when you both browbeat me into leaving my office for lunch.”
Chris reaches me first and wraps his arms around me, kissing the top of my head. The comfort and familiarity of my brother’s arms has my stress levels lowering immediately. “Can’t have my pregnant sister eating sad desk lunches. You need real food and actual lunch.”
“What he said, Ev.” When Chris lets go, Rio swoops in and hugs me tightly, keeping his hands on my shoulders when he pulls back and studies me with a smile.
“As the funcles, it’s our responsibility to make sure the baby is well fed.
And right now, since you’re growing the baby, that means keeping you well fed. ”
I roll my eyes. “I think you guys and Cooper all forget that I am a whole entire adult who is fully capable of feeding myself. Also, funcles?”
Cooper sidles up next to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “Fun uncles.”
Rio grins, pulling Cooper in for a hug. “You get me.”
Chris wraps his arms around both of them so they’re in a three-person hug, and seeing my three favorite guys together like this has tears springing to my eyes that I immediately blink back.
Fucking pregnancy hormones. “If you’re done with your brofest, I think we have a ball to get to,” I say dryly.
They break apart, and Chris reaches out to take one of my hands, squeezing. “You sure you’re okay to do this?”
I huff out a laugh. “You mean am I okay to tell Mom and Dad I’m almost thirty weeks pregnant in a room full of Boston’s wealthiest and most influential people? Sure, Chris. I’m totally okay. This is all so completely fine.”
Rio takes my other hand. “It’s not too late to make a break for it. We could just say fuck it and dip. Go find somewhere fabulous to have dinner and forget that Kathy and Ed even exist.”
Cooper slides an arm around my waist, and I’m not someone who likes to lean on other people—especially not a man—but standing here, just a few minutes away from causing what I’m sure is going to be one hell of a scene and potentially imploding my relationship with my parents, I can’t deny the fact that the support of these three men makes me feel, just for a minute, like I could take on the world.
“She’s ready,” he says simply, and his quiet confidence and understanding means everything.
I nod. “I am. Let’s just get this over with. My heels are already killing me, and Cooper promised me waffles later. The sooner we see Mom and Dad, the sooner we can get the fuck out of here.”
“Preach,” Rio mumbles, and Chris wraps an arm around his waist. Chris might be my parents’ golden child, but they have always been hyper-critical of Rio.
He’s a ray of sunshine and mostly lets it roll off his back, but I know that his favorite place is anywhere my parents aren’t, and Chris knows it too.
Rio gives Chris a calculating look. “Evan has to do something she doesn’t want to do, and Cooper is making her waffles later. I don’t want to be at this ball either. What’s my prize?”
Chris gives Rio a sly smile and dips down, whispering something in his ear. Rio’s eyes flash, and he gives Chris a wink. “That’ll do.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Ew, no. Absolutely fucking not. You don’t get to do that in front of me.”
“Do what?” Chris asks innocently, grinning and tossing an arm around Rio’s shoulders.
“Be all sexy. You’re my brother, and if you guys would ever get around to getting married, Rio would be my brother too. I don’t need to know about the sexy stuff.”
Rio rolls his eyes. “You know we would never do something as conventional as getting married. I’m your brother whether Chris and I have a stupid piece of paper or not.
And also, are you honestly telling me you’re not getting up to the sexy stuff?
With a man who has all of that going for him?
” He waves a hand at Cooper, and Cooper snorts out a laugh.
I give Chris a sly smile of my own because payback’s a bitch. “Oh, we are. So much sexy stuff. All the sexy stuff really.” I glance over at Cooper, and the mischief in his eyes spurs me on. “I mean, just last night he did that thing with his…”
“Okay, no.” Chris cuts me off with a grimace. “Absolutely not. I definitely don’t need that visual in my head.”
I smirk at him. “That’s what I thought.” Glancing at the hotel entrance, I sigh. “I guess we should go in.”
Chris nods. “I’ve got your back, Ev.”
“We’ve got your back,” Rio says, sliding his hand into Chris’s and lacing their fingers together.
“All of us,” Cooper murmurs, kissing my head.
I take a deep breath and square my shoulders, even as anxiety tightens my stomach. “Okay, let’s get this shitshow over with.”
Cooper whistles under his breath as we walk into the ballroom. “Holy shit.”
“I know right?” Chris and Rio got waylaid by some rabid baseball fan who wanted to kiss Chris’s ass, so it’s just Cooper and me as we take in the scene.
The usual movers and shakers of Boston’s high society are drinking, laughing, dancing, and wheeling and dealing around the glimmering ballroom.
Massive, ornate chandeliers hang on the ceiling, and the space is decorated to resemble a classy winter wonderland with branches adorned in twinkle lights, oceans of flickering candles, tall, dome-shaped centerpieces of white hydrangeas, roses, and greenery, and gold accents everywhere.
The whole thing is tasteful elegance and looks exactly like my mom.
“Kathy Rhodes doesn’t do anything halfway. ”
Cooper slides an arm around my waist, squeezing. “It’s pretty, but it’s got nothing on Scandal, pajamas, and waffles for dinner.”
I blow out a breath as my heart thuds against my chest, wishing I was sitting on Cooper’s couch right now doing all those things. “Let’s get this over with so we can go do that.”
Cooper tugs me to the side, out of the way of guests streaming into the ballroom, and turns me to face him, framing my face with his hands. “You say the word, and we get the fuck out of here. Anything you want, Ev. Whatever you need.”
You, I think. I just need you.
It’s simple and also my truest thing, and when the baby moves, jabbing some tiny body part into my stomach as if to say Duh, Mom, took you long enough to figure it out, I laugh a little.
Mom.
For the first time, my brain doesn’t immediately reject that word. Standing here facing Cooper, with his hands on my face and his eyes only for me, mom feels like something maybe I could be, but only if he’s here beside me while I try.
“Evangeline, finally! I thought you would never get here.” I inhale sharply at the sound of my mom’s voice behind me, and Cooper’s thumbs stroke my cheeks, his eyes telling me without words the only thing I need to know.
I’m here.
I nod, and with a deep breath I turn and cleave my life in two. The time before my parents knew I was pregnant, and the time that comes after.
My mom’s perusal of my body is nothing new.
It’s been such a constant since I was old enough to dress myself that I barely even notice it anymore.
The furrow of her eyebrows as she takes in what I’m wearing.
The downturn of her lips when she finds it wanting.
And finally, the shrug and sigh as if to say, You did the best you could.
Except that’s not what happens now.
Now, her perusal stops halfway down and arrows in on my stomach. I watch with an almost detached sort of calm as she blinks, looks, and blinks again, as if she can’t comprehend what she’s seeing. But detached turns to dread the second her gaze snaps to mine, her eyes filled with an angry disbelief.
“Evangeline, what on earth is going on?”
Cooper slides his hand into mine and laces our fingers together, squeezing, telling me without words that he’s here, and he’s letting me decide how I want to play this. His solid presence gives me the confidence I need to stand my ground.
“Hi, Mom, it’s good to see you too.”
“Don’t be sarcastic, Evangeline. It’s unbecoming. Are you pregnant?” She whispers pregnant like it’s a dirty word and then swivels her head around, as if to make sure she wasn’t overheard. Heaven forbid one of her fancy friends finds out what they could discover just by using their eyes.
I take a deep breath, trying to summon the calm I no longer feel. “I am. I’m pregnant and due in May. This is Cooper,” I say, turning to look at him, letting his familiar face, the encouragement in his eyes, center me before I turn back to my mom. “My boyfriend and the baby’s father.”
“The baby’s…” My mom breaks off and closes her eyes, taking a deep breath of her own.
Cooper takes the opportunity to stick a hand out in greeting. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Rhodes.”
My mom looks at Cooper’s hand for a beat, wrinkling her nose slightly in a way that has me seeing red.
She finally takes his hand limply, barely shaking it before tugging her own away and turning her gaze back to me.
“How did this happen?” she hisses. “And how could you possibly think that waiting until now to tell me was a good idea?”
I let out a sharp, humorless laugh. “Oh, I don’t know, Mom, maybe because I knew how you would react and didn’t feel like subjecting myself to ten rounds of your particular brand of just asking questions, delightful as it may be.”
“That’s my girl,” Cooper murmurs under his breath, dropping my hand to slide his arm around my waist. I let his solid presence next to me, the way he’s telling me without words that he’s there if I need him but is letting me take the lead, settle me.
“What’s going on over here?” I wince slightly as my dad comes to join our little party because if my mom makes things bad, both of my parents together make them worse.