Gray knew she couldn’t stay quiet much longer, and with a last look at her mother, who nodded in encouragement, she said, “I’m pregnant.”
twenty-nine
GRAY
Silence truly was deafening.Gray could only hear her heart beating in her ears—until she couldn’t.
All hell broke loose when her dad’s water glass shattered in his hand, and blood started leaking over the counter and floor.
“Thomas,” her mom shrieked, “don’t move, baby.” She started throwing everything out of the kitchen medicine cabinet until she found the kit she was looking for. “Get to the sink. Now.”
Not the response Gray was hoping for. She glanced at Lochlann. His cheeks were seared red, and his fists were clenched. His eyes, though…Oh, God.His eyes were glassy.
While her parents were busy, she said, “Loch. I’m sorry. I just found out today.”
“Is it Ciar’s?” her brother asked.
“Yes.” Not giving him a chance to push her off, she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his broad, youthful chest. “I love you. Please don’t be disappointed in me.”
“Damn it, sis. Nothing could make me disappointed in you. Ciar, however, better watch his fucking back.”
“Language,” her mom scolded.
Gray didn’t realize that her mom and dad had moved back to the island and had been watching their children.
Both Coll and Laith appeared rigid and expressionless. Her aunt Cat, though, gave Gray an encouraging smile.
“Dad,” Gray implored, his usually stoic countenance appeared devastated. He did take several steps closer to his daughter, at least.
“I just found out today, Dad, I swear. I decided I’m going to try to work things out with Ciar, but if I can’t, I can promise you that I’ll bloody well do it on my own and do a damn good job of it.”
And because she refused to bow to her father’s possible judgment, she added, “I would have liked to come to you with this announcement in a better place, Dad, but as I’m a woman grown, and one who has proven her worth in Mom’s family business, I won’t apologize.”
Her dad took the final steps that separated them and gently touched her cheek. “I will love your child as I have my own. I only wish that you would have used that big brain of yours to remember contraception, or at the very least, choose a better partner.”
Gray gasped, Cat gasped, and her mom hissed, “Thomas.”
Her brother even stepped forward and said, “Da. Enough,” which was mild compared to her father’s sister.
“Tom, you say one more fucking word like that, and I will never speak to you again. I can’t speak for Coll and Laith, but if you don’t apologize to Gray, I will walk out that door,” she pointed to the carved wooden entrance, “and you won’t see me again.”
“Cat,” Coll began.
“Don’t you Cat me. If you think the shit my brother just said was correct, you can find a new place to sleep. I’ll alsoremind you, Coll Barr, that you were the one without a care for contraceptives, which is why I was pregnant with Blair when we’d only just started sleeping together,” her voice raised when she added, “behind our family’s backs too!”
“Christ, Mom,” Laith groaned, embarrassed to be hearing about his parents’ sexcapades.
Coll, smartly, put his hands up in surrender. “Forgive me, my love. I wouldn’t change a thing about how we started out, which you better damn well know,” he growled.
Catriona sniffed and clamped her lips tight, but she did give one shaky nod of agreement. Seeing that, Coll pulled her tight to his front, holding her close.
“Christ, Loch, can we bounce yet?” Laith whined.
Her brother didn’t answer because her mom suddenly had the floor. “Are you saying,” her mom began stiffly, “that when you had sex with me on the plane, when my birth control was screwed up, it’s because I wasn’t being smart?”
Lochlann mumbled, “Jesus, my ears.”
Her dad looked like he’d been shot between the eyes. “No. No, that’s—” He raised a hand to touch Gray’s arm, but when he reached out to touch his wife, her mom took a step back.
