“He’s a rocker.”
Rosa gasped. Ansel frowned. They knew my disdain for musicians. They’d had front row seats when the first one trampled all over my life.
“Are you together?” Rosa asked gently.
“No. It was a one-night thing. But…” I scrubbed my face with my hand. “I married him.”
Ansel’s big hands fell to my knees like anvils. “Okay, now I’m going to need a name, Smalls. If you’re married, he’s a shitty husband. I haven’t seen some rocker punk sneaking through my yard to visit you and you’ve been back a week.”
Rosa pushed his big brute of a shoulder. “Shush. When she wants to tell us, she will.”
I cupped my stomach. “We got married before the tour. God, I’ve got to be, like, three months along now.” I stood, looking at my profile in the mirror. My stomach was pretty flat still, but if I squinted, there might have been a slight protrusion.
Rosa stood beside me, her arms wound around my middle. “You might not show for a while...if you keep it.”
I turned to her, my sister in all but blood. Mother of maniacs, wife of a giant—I wanted to be like her when I grew up, and she was only three years older than me.
“I think I’ll keep it,” I whispered.
I didn’t know where that had come from, only that I was thirty-four and had always wanted a child of my own. This wasn’t the way I’d wanted it to happen, but here I was. If I didn’t keep this baby, I might not have another chance. And apparently, I was all about snap decisions these days.
“I’ll call my doctor. I bet they can squeeze you in tomorrow,” Rosa said.
I gripped her hand. “You cannot abandon me. I’m going to be so needy.”
She assured me she wouldn’t, then took out her phone to call her doctor.
Ansel palmed the top of my head like a grapefruit. “Are you going to tell the guy?”
I lifted a hand. “I kind of have to. We didn’t leave on a good note, but he needs to know he’s going to have a child wandering around in the world, even if he doesn’t want to be part of its life.”
Mo had blocked me from contacting him as soon as he’d sent me the nastiest words that had ever been uttered in my direction. And his lawyer had been giving mine the runaround about signing our divorce papers. I’d have to find a way to get in touch with him, though.
That would come later.
Ansel made a noise that sounded like a bear growling. “Tell me his name.”
I removed his hand from my head and gave it a squeeze. “I will. First, let me wrap my head around all this. Then I’ll decide how to proceed.”
Rosa made a whooping sound and rubbed her hands together. “They’re fitting you in first thing. Since I’m a frequent customer, the receptionist pulled some strings.”
I laughed, but it sounded empty.
“Can we not tell anyone yet?” I asked.
Ansel mimed zipping his lips. “I’m a vault.”
Rosa patted her husband’s arm. “No he isn’t, but I’ll keep an eye on him and make sure nothing slips.”
On top of being extremely close to each other, we were also close to our parents. In fact, Ansel’s mom, Astrid, lived next door, my dad lived across the street, and my mom lived two houses down from him. I’d never intended on winding up living in the guest house in my big brother’s back yard, but since I was gone so often, it made sense. The upside was I got to see my family a lot. The downside was I got to see my family a lot. They would want answers, and I didn’t have any to give.
Not yet.
Ansel and Rosa crowded around me in the dark room while Dr. Gupta squirted gel on my belly. I was kindly informed I seemed to be far enough along to avoid theinternalultrasound—thank goodness. I got a look at the tool that would have gone up my...never mind. I’d rather not think about it.
Dr. Gupta pressed the scanner low on my belly, just above my pubic hair, andsomethingappeared on the screen. From the squeals Rosa made, it was something exciting.
“Oh my word, I see your little gummy bear,” Rosa said.