BOUND TO BE HICCUPS
“Arik,” his grandmother said when she answered the phone. “I didn’t expect to hear from you. Everything okay?”
Since Natalie was breaking the news to her parents, he was going to let his grandmother know.
“I wanted to check in and see how you were doing?”
“I’m fine. Happy about the nice weather. How is island living?”
“Great. Wonderful. I’m going to be a dad!” he blurted out. There was no way to ease into it and there didn’t seem to be a reason either.
He was excited and wanted his grandmother to know that.
“Excuse me?”
“I’ve put a bun in Natalie’s oven.”
His grandmother coughed on the other end. “You’re joking with me, right?”
Maybe he was going overboard. “That’s not something I’d joke about,” he said.
“I need to sit down for this.”
“It’s a good thing.”
“Maybe for you since you went there hoping to win her over. Was having a baby part of the plan?”
Put that way, it didn’t sound so great.
“What do you think?”
“I think my grandson hasn’t been acting much like himself for months. First you bring her to Nick’s wedding under false assumptions.”
“They weren’t false in my eyes. We’d been on a few dates and I knew things were going to progress. I knew how she made me feel and I was right. We talked about this already, remember?”
“How does she feel about you?”
“We love each other. And before you ask, it’s not just because she’s pregnant. I could see how she felt, but she was keeping her lips sealed tight. I made the first move and said it.”
“Seems to me you’re doing a lot of the first moves,” his grandmother said drily.
“Don’t be that way. I don’t need Natalie to find out. Things are working out exactly as I hoped. We felt something for each other before and never had the chance to explore it. It’s right now.”
“I won’t tell you it’s wrong. Your parents will do it enough. I told you before I liked her. Are you going to let them know?”
“Eventually,” he said. “We aren’t telling too many right now. She’s letting her parents know now and I’m calling you. No one else.”
“What’s the plan? Hope you like that island because you’ve said she won’t leave it and you won’t leave your child.”
“I won’t,” he said. “I already told you I love it here.”
“And you’ve got something to occupy you for now, but what happens when that’s done?”
“Then I’ll be a father. There are lots of stay-at-home dads. That’s going to be my job. I’m reading everything I can about it. I’ll be more prepared than her.”
His grandmother laughed on the other end. “Have you told Natalie that yet?”
“No. But I don’t think she’s going to care. She loves her job. I gently brought up she doesn’t need to work so hard and she bit my head off that she plans on working through and after the pregnancy.”
