28. Chapter Twenty-Eight #2
Brett's staring at my mom like he’s never seen her before in his life. Liam and Aiden have stopped mid-conversation to stare at me. Then at Sarah. Then at the onesie. Then back at me.
Quinn and Lindy are trying to act completely normal and doing an absolutely fucking terrible job of it.
Diane looks like she's trying not to laugh.
And Sarah — Sarah looks at me with wide, panicked eyes: What do we do?
I step closer. Put my hand on her lower back. Look at my mother, who's still barely holding the onesie, letting it dangle between her fingertips like it might explode.
"Well," I say, "they definitely know now."
The silence stretches for exactly three seconds.
Then Liam finds his voice.
Of course it would be Liam.
"DUDE." He's staring at me like I've just announced I'm coming back next season as Angus, our mascot, instead of playing on the top D pairing. "We told you to tell her you liked her. Not knock her up. That's a little fast, man."
"There's a process," Aiden adds, but he's about to bust something while trying to hold in his laugh. "Dating. Relationship talk. Meeting the parents—"
"Which you apparently did," Liam cuts in, gesturing at Mom and Dad.
"And then you get to play house and have babies. You skipped like four steps."
Sarah's trying not to smile. I can see it. That makes me breathe a little easier.
Brett's walked over. He's looking between me and Paige and his expression is absolute stone. That does not make me breathe easier.
"You knew," he says to Paige with a tone of complete disbelief.
She gives him a little shrug of her shoulders. "Brett—"
"How long?"
"Since the last Wing Wednesday."
"The last Wing Wednesday? That's like ten days ago… Dude—" Brett's looking at me now. "You told my wife before you told me?"
I shake my head and hold up my hands. "Technically, Sarah told your wife—"
"Best friends tell each other things, Kev. Like 'hey, remember that girl I've been in love with for eighteen months? Yeah, she's pregnant'."
"Eighteen months?" Tyler joins the conversation, looking up from his own love affair with Hercules. "You've been hung up on her longer than the whole time I've been here and didn't say anything?"
"I said things," I protest. "To some people. Like Brett."
"Well, I mean, I knew," Liam says, with a total shit-eating grin on his face. "I gave you great advice on text."
"Your advice is legendary, Crash."
I notice Quinn abruptly looks down at her feet, then toward a corral of dogs.
"Well, like am I just stupid? I thought you two were just friends!" Tyler's mind is clearly blown.
Six people laugh. I am doing everything in my power not to be the seventh.
"We were friends," Sarah says. "We're still friends."
"Friends who are having a baby," Quinn adds, matter-of-factly.
"Exactly," Sarah says. "Friends who are having a baby and also... Um, other things."
"Other things?" The lightbulb finally goes off for Tyler. "What other things? Are you guys like, together-together?"
"Yes, Tyler," I say. "We're together-together. It's part of the having-a-baby thing."
Even Hercules seems less perplexed than our rookie. "Since when?"
"Since—" I look at Sarah. When did this become official? When I got home from Vancouver? After the Dallas game? The bathroom at Wing Wednesday? Over the Thanksgiving table?
"It's complicated," Sarah says.
"It's not that complicated," Paige says. "Sunshine's been in love with her forever. She finally figured out she loved him back. Now there's a baby. Pretty straightforward actually. Can we all go back to adopting dogs?"
My mom is still mortified, clutching the onesie like evidence at a crime scene. "Sarah, honey, I'm so sorry. I thought they all knew. I didn't mean to—"
"It's okay, Melanie." Sarah reaches over and squeezes Mom's hand. "Really. We were going to tell everyone soon anyway. You just, um, accelerated the timeline."
"By a lot," I add.
"Anyway," Liam cuts in loudly, finishing off the last of his Texas-sized, full-throttle-and-a-little-bit-of-liquid-courage coffee. "New plan. We're having a baby shower. Today. After this."
"What?" I say, glad that everyone turned to stare at him instead of me.
"Baby shower," he says again, like repeating the words will make more sense. "For Paige and Sarah. The Oasis. Three o'clock. Everyone's going."
"Bro, The Oasis is kind of a bar," Aiden points out.
"It's a restaurant," Liam corrects, layering on an intensity that makes his statement seem like some kind of verbal power play. "With the best sunset views in Texas. And nachos."
I cannot believe the grin on his face. He's actually proud of himself. "The guests of honor can't drink, Crash."
"So? They get the view. And nachos. Pregnant women love nachos."
"How do you know pregnant women love nachos?" Tyler asks. The question should be innocent, but for some reason lands like a grenade.
Liam freezes. Like someone just hit him in a spot where an old injury never quite healed.
Quinn's head turns and looks up from across the lawn.
They lock eyes for half a second. I recognize it immediately. It’s the look that happens when two players both know exactly how a play got completely busted.
"I—" Liam clears his throat. "I have a sister, man. She's always talking about food and shit."
Aiden's face goes completely blank. All the color drains out of it. He chokes on air as he gets his words out, and everyone can hear it. "Wait. Caela's pregnant?"
Suddenly, the most awkward part of the day is not my mom pulling out baby clothes.
"What? No!" Liam's backing away like Aiden just accused him of treason. "No, she's not pregnant. I didn't mean — she's not — oh, fuck me. I'm fucking going to Whistling Pig."
The color slowly comes back to Aiden's face. "It's eleven in the morning, Crash."
"They have lunch. I think." He's already walking backward. "I'll see you all at the Oasis at three."