He froze. She knew mention of Mark—who he saw as a potential rival—would startle him. She’d made his reaction more authentic. Nice.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Who’s Mark?” Theo asked, staring from Gavin’s cooling expression to Zoe’s fearful one.
Casting her eyes down for a second, she said softly, “A man I shouldn’t have anything to do with.”
“Are you fucking with me?” Gavin said, his voice rising. “’Cause that shit isn’t funny.”
“Oh, Gavin. It’s not my fault. I didn’t want to tell you this. And not here. But…I tried not to, but I-I love him.”
“Mark Swanson?” he asked in a voice a pitch higher than normal.
Hope and Theo resembled onlookers at a Ping-Pong match.
“No, you idiot,” Zoe shouted, totally in tune with Gavin’s shenanigans. “My brother, Mark!”
Everyone sat in stupefied silence before Gavin put his head on the table. Theo burst into hysterical laughter. Hope didn’t seem to know what to think and stared at them.
Van and Linda didn’t know where to look or how to act.
“Did you know about this?” Linda sounded half strangled.
“Hell no,” Van said, absurdly calm. “Let’s all take a minute and just—”
“I’m not keeping it. My brother’s baby? I can’t!” Zoe yelled and raced off into the bathroom, slamming the door in her wake.Holy shit, I channeled Aubrey.She could almost feel her twin laughing like a loon, so at home at anything having to do with theatrics. The strange connection made Zoe smile, then laugh. Her goofiness soothing the nerves once again racing up and down her spine.
Zoe lost the belly shirt, now dressed once again in the shirt over her flat tummy. Such a terribly dramatic exit. She took a well-deserved bow.
And if the Donnigans didn’t hate her after her masterful audition, she’d ask for seconds on the pepper steak, because the one bite she’d taken had been delicious.
* * *
Gavin slowly raised his head, admiring the chaos Zoe had left in her wake. Out-fucking-standing. His parents were talking over each other in their haste to understand. Theo wouldn’t stop laughing, and Hope didn’t seem to realize it had all been a huge fabrication. The golden moment had been the introduction of Zoe’s incestuous, jail-ridden brother, of course.
She’d hit him in the ego with that reference to Mark though. Nicely played.
Gavin stood to go get her when she entered the room. He could tell right off she’d removed the fake belly. He tapped his glass with his fork. “Everyone, quiet please.”
His mother and father glared at him. Not amused, apparently.
Zoe came to stand next to him. “I’m sorry, Gavin. But I can’t keep my brother’s baby and raise it as our own. Not even for you, the man I love.”
He got a weird tickle at the confession, fake though it was.
Theo went into another gale of laughter. This time, Hope joined him.
“Classic!” Hope erupted into giggles. “Oh man, Mom. If you could see your face!”
Van sighed. “I thought so.”
“Oh, you did not,” Linda snapped. “You bought into this stupidity like I did.” She turned to point a finger at Zoe. “And you…you lied to us. With him.”
“Yes, yes I did.” Zoe reached for his hand and gripped it tight.
So, not as sure of the outcome as he’d told her to be. That was all right. Her payback for freaking him out about Mark.
“But sugar pants,” he said to her, “with all that Federal Reserve money Mark stole, we’ll be set for life if we raise his quadruplets.”
