“Yes,” I admitted. I wasn’t one to keep secrets from my family, but I needed to figure things out first before I alerted everyone.
“I can’t believe she didn’t tell you she was pregnant. What the hell? Do you have all the parental rights?”
“Yes. She didn’t even put up a fight. We did a paternity test, and then she gladly signed Charlotte away.”
He sighed. “Since she planned to give her daughter up, I guess it was all the same to her.”
“Exactly.”
Ella was truly a heinous person, but I wasn’t without fault. I slept with her that night and never called her again. My mother always joked that my man-whoring ways might come back to bite me in the ass, but I never expected something like this.
“Listen, the family is wondering why you missed Grandpa’s birthday,” Anthony warned me.
“I bet they are.”
My family was very close, and we never missed anyone’s celebration of any kind. When I told my grandfather I couldn’tmake it, he must have realized that something very serious had happened. He said he understood and that I shouldn’t worry, but I knew my absence hadn’t gone unnoticed.
“How was the party?” I asked.
“It was interesting. I don’t understand how all of us were born and raised in New Orleans, because half the family doesn’t like the bayou.”
I laughed. Both my grandfathers loved spending hours on their boat, fishing out in the bayou. Grandpa David had decided to celebrate his birthday there this year.
“It’s an acquired taste,” I replied.
I, for one, loved spending time there, and I routinely chaperoned the two of them when they were fishing. They got dangerous ideas in their old age, such as fishing in the spots that were full of alligators. It drove all of us crazy.
“Do you want me to break the news to everyone?” Anthony asked.
I hesitated. I wasn’t a coward. I always shared everything with the family myself, the good and the bad. But I was too exhausted right now.
“You’d be doing me a huge favor. Thank you.”
“No problem. Do you want me to tell them everything or just that you have a daughter?”
“Everything.”
“All right. Roger that. So, are you home with… what’s her name again?”
“Charlotte,” I said. Mom always said if she’d had a daughter, she’d name her Charlotte. It was perfect for my baby.
“Okay, you’re home with Charlotte.” Hearing him say my daughter’s name only made it more real. “And you’re sure you don’t need any help this evening?”
“I’m not sure of anything right now,” I confessed.
And this was probably the first time in my life that I’d felt like that. I was a damn CEO. I was always certain of everydecision I made, and I didn’t back away from challenge. But this was something else entirely.
“Then I’ll start spreading the news.”
“I guess I’ll hear from the family within the next hour.” I liked the thought of that. “Tell them not to call, just to text. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to answer the phone.”
“Sure. Hey, Beckett?”
“Yeah?”
“You’ve got this.”
“Thanks, bro. I know I do.” I was going to be a great father for Charlotte. I was determined. “Gotta go, she’s waking up. Fuck, I should’ve read the instructions for that bottle maker.”
