26. Chapter 26
Aspen
We pull up to my parents’ house first thing in the morning. Rhett is supposed to work after this, assuming my father doesn’t put him in an early grave.
“Dreading this as much as me?” I ask, making light of the situation.
I spent the entirety of yesterday crashing out. There were many failed attempts of pulling myself together, so I just let myself cry. Get it out of my system so I could go into today with a clear head. We’re moving forward, and after today our slates will be clean.
“I’m not sure who I’m more scared of telling, your mom or your dad.” The look of utter terror on his face would be laughable if his concerns weren’t valid.
“Make sure she isn’t holding her rolling pin. You’ve got long legs so you should be able to outrun both of them.” I try to bite my smile back.
“Death by rolling pin would be rather emasculating.” He does a quick wag of his brows before pulling the keys out of the truck. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Such encouraging words.”
He scoffs and opens the door, then walks to mine and opens it up, and helps me out.
“How do you want to do this?” Rhett asks.
“Like I do the rest of my life, flying by the seat of my pants.” I give him a semi-sarcastic grin.
“Alright then, no plan. Got it,” he says, nodding with wide eyes.
We walk through the front door, and lucky for me, they’re at the table drinking coffee together.
“Hey you two!” As if noticing the time, my mom furrows her brow. “Rhett, you’re usually the first one out the door. Rough morning?”
“Not as rough as it’s ‘bout to be,” he mumbles inaudibly to himself. “Yeah. We wanted to talk to you guys.”
My dad’s face drops, and with the force, he sets down his mug; I know he knows.
“Well, alright. Sit down, do you want coffee?” my mom asks, suspicion clear as day on her face.
Shaking my head no, I go to sit down, but the nerves tell me otherwise. “You know what, I think I'd rather stand.” If we need to bolt out of here, it’s quicker this way.
Rhett goes to talk, but I brush his hand with mine and shake my head. I need to do this.
My mouth starts moving before I really even think.
“Rhett is the father to my baby and was recently promoted to boyfriend after much deliberation and a series of unfortunate events that turned out to be pretty great in the end. I kept it a secret because Rhett had something going on that could affect the baby, so we were waiting until we had answers, but then Weston found out and now everything is a shit show.” I take a deep breath in after that rush of words.
My mother opens and closes her mouth like she spent her past life as a fish. My dad is staring at Rhett with a look I can’t describe, but if I was on the receiving end I’d be shitting my pants.
“Do you love her?” my dad asks, voice firm.
I look to Rhett to see how he is handling this. To no surprise, there is no evidence on his face right now that this is even bothering him. I knew he was nervous, but the second he is faced with anything hard, he puts on a brave face.
His next words make my heart soar. “With everything that I am.”
“That’s all I needed to hear.” My dad shrugs and picks up his coffee mug. Like we didn’t just drop a big ole bomb on him. “You’ll take good care of her and that’s the only thing that matters in the end. That she is loved and cared for,” my dad says as he brings his coffee to his lips.
My mom and I stare at each other as if we are sharing the same thought. How the fuck are they both so calm and collected right now? Maybe my hormones make it a little more difficult, but this felt like big news.
The relief I feel is palpable even if I am entirely bewildered by the reaction from my father. My mom still hasn’t said a word.
“Mom, you want to chime in?”
“To be honest, I am shocked I never pieced it together. I wish you would have trusted me enough to tell me sooner, but I understand. You were doing what you thought was best.” She stands up from the table and rubs Rhett’s arm as she steps in front of me.
“I love you no matter what. And I am incredibly happy for you.” She looks to Rhett. “For the both of you.” She pulls me into her arms and I feel content.
When she pulls back, I add, “Thank you for taking this so well. I want to warn you that Weston is mad, which is fair, but I don’t know how to fix it.”
As if being summoned, the front door opens, and when I turn, I am face to face with West again.
He looks between Rhett and me, probably putting the pieces together about what is happening right now. He pivots on his heels and walks right back out the door.
He might be able to live with being angry at me and not speaking, but I can’t. It makes me feel sick to my stomach. He’s been my built-in best friend my whole life, and yes, I messed up. But we are supposed to love each other unconditionally.
I high-tail it out of my parents’ house to chase him down.
“Weston, wait!” I yell to his back as he power walks to his truck.
He jumps in the truck and somehow my pregnant ass eats the distance and rips open the passenger door to jump in.
My breathing is ragged and I genuinely cannot remember the last time I jumped that high that fast. I feel like I deserve an Olympic medal for the effort I just put out.
I glare at him from the seat; he can be mad at me, but I am mad at him too.
“I don’t want to talk to you right now.” He looks forward.
“Well, lucky for you I don’t give a fuck. We’re going to talk this out like adults.”
“Adults don’t hide shit.”
“You have every right to be upset. But Rhett and I are consenting adults. We both knew if we had told you we were sneaky links, you would have lost your ever-loving mind. It never was supposed to go on as long as it did. In fact, we were done and over with when I found out I was pregnant, okay? And then I found out the father of my child might die before we ever get the chance to grow old together, so forgive me for not immediately running to your door while I tried to be there for him.”
He doesn’t say anything for a while and I take a second to compose myself and get my own temper under control before I talk again.
“This isn’t going away. And you cannot avoid us forever. There is nothing more I can do right now besides apologize, which I have. Multiple times now. I didn’t sleep all night because all I could think about is how I let you down.”
He sighs and closes his eyes, his head falling against the headrest. “You didn’t let me down. I don’t get why you wouldn’t tell me.”
“I want you to take a second and think to yourself: would you really have been cool with it if I had told you from the get-go? Rhett was always upfront with me about what he had to offer. There was no point in dragging people in if it was going to be temporary. But, we couldn’t stay away.
My heart has wanted him for a long time, and now that I have him, I might lose you because of it. ”
“You could never lose me. Me needing space doesn’t mean I won’t forgive you.”
“I get that, but I have a million hormones pumping through me right now. Conflict makes me want to vomit and I just got out of the nausea phase of this pregnancy.” I’m hoping I can guilt him into forgiveness. I am a lot of things but shameful ain't one.
“Okay,” he says, taking a deep breath. “I forgive you. It’s still going to take me a while to get used to this and to process and move on. You will always be my baby sister, and no matter how mad you make me, I will always forgive you.”
Emotion rises in me, which isn’t new. Pregnancy means I have tears on demand. Happy, cry. Sad, cry. Mad, cry. It’s very annoying. So it’s no shock when tears fall.
“You know I hate it when you cry.”
“And I hate it, too. Yet, here we are.” I throw my hands up in defeat.
Weston leans across the console of his truck to hug me. “It’s going to be fine. We are okay.”
I nod. “You have to forgive Rhett, too.”
Weston goes rigid with that. “I’m trying.”
“He needs a friend right now. He’s going through a lot. Waiting on results, processing being a dad in a few months,” I say, my tone soft and careful. “He needs you.”
He hangs his head, seeming to stew over my words before responding. “I know,” he responds quietly.
“I know it will take time, but please show up for him.” I lean my head into his shoulder and I realize my brother's shoulder will always be my soft place to land.