Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 100661 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100661 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
But Gianni and Ellie were always going to be together! They’d been getting under each other’s skin since childhood, thrown together constantly because our moms were best friends. They’d gone to high school together. He was a chef and he ran the restaurant at her family’s winery. She was a wine expert and ran the tasting room. They’d been made for each other.
Paul had always known he wanted a family, and Alison had been there all along. He was a lawyer, and she was an accountant. They both liked rock climbing and jigsaw puzzles. They made perfect sense.
Mabel and I were polar opposites and near strangers. We didn’t even live in the same city. We’d spent less than twenty-four hours together.
She was going to have my baby?
I don’t want this, I thought like a selfish prick. I don’t fucking want this.
“Joe? Are you okay?” Mabel was looking at me with worried eyes, but I couldn’t answer her.
The room had started to spin like I was on a carnival ride. I could even hear the creepy organ music, wavering like a warped record. I swayed on my feet as the edges of my vision blurred. As the edges of my life frayed. The beer slipped from my grip and hit the floor, and my knees began to buckle.
“Joe!” Mabel stood up.
I backed up until the backs of my legs hit another piece of furniture—a chair—and I dropped into it. I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. My eyes closed.
What the fuck?
Her announcement sank into my head like a stone reaching the bottom of the lake. I’m pregnant.
I’m not sure how much time passed while I wished with all my might that this wasn’t happening. That I’d inadvertently slipped through a portal to an alternate dimension, but I’d find my way out any moment now, and things would go back to normal.
But when my eyelids went up, I was still sitting in the chair, and Mabel was on her hands and knees, mopping up the beer I’d spilled on the rug.
It brought me to my senses.
“Let me do that.” I got off the chair and took over, sopping up the mess with a towel she must have found in the kitchen while I was catatonic.
She sat back on her heels and adjusted her glasses. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. No. I’m . . . in shock.”
“I was too, when I first found out.”
“How long have you known?”
“A couple weeks.”
“And it’s definitely for sure in there?” I looked at her stomach, which appeared suspiciously flat.
“It’s definitely for sure in there, but it’s only the size of a pea. You can’t see it yet.”
“You’ve seen a doctor?”
“Yes. I’m almost eight weeks along.”
I cocked my head. “But the wedding wasn’t that long ago.”
“Pregnancy math is weird,” she said. “It starts from the date of the last period, not the date of conception.”
“Oh.” Jesus, I knew nothing about this stuff.
Mabel hugged herself. “It’s real, Joe. I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s real.”
I went back to mopping up the spill, like a stain on the rug was my biggest problem at the moment. I knew she was scared, and instinctively, I wanted to reassure her. But dammit—I was so out of my element. I felt lost.
“Say something,” she begged.
I knew what I was supposed to say. What a better man would say—or ask. But the words weren’t coming.
“Give me a minute,” I said instead.
She rose to her feet and sat on the couch again, while I went over to the kitchen, rinsed the towel, and set it aside. Wiping my hands on my jeans, I came back to the couch and sat down next to her.
“Sorry. I should have asked this sooner,” I said. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” She nodded, but then she promptly burst into tears.
I got up again, found a box of tissues, and set it on the coffee table.
“I’m sorry,” she said, removing her glasses. “I’ve never been a big crier, but my emotions are all over the place.”
“Don’t apologize.” I lowered myself to the couch again. My emotions were all over the place too—I was furious the condom had failed, terrified of the future, guilty as fuck for putting her in this situation. And her tears were killing me. Reaching for her, I pulled her into my arms. “Hey. Come here.”
She wept against my chest for a minute, but then pulled herself together. “Oh God, your shirt. I made a mess of it.”
I looked down at the wet splotches. “I don’t care. The shirt can be washed. We’ve got bigger issues than laundry.”
She plucked a tissue from the box. “True.”
I steeled myself for the answer to my next question. “Have you decided what you want to do?”
“Yes.” She blew her nose and took a breath. “I’m going to have the baby. And I’m going to keep it.”