“I didn’t say that.”
“But no one knows?”
“No.”
“Did you just find out?”
“No.”
“When did you find out?”
“The night I took Poppy to the emergency room.”
Niko did a double take at him. “You mean after Liam and Frankie’s wedding?”
“Yes.”
“So when we all went to look at her house, you knew?”
“Yes.”
“You knew you were going to be a dad, and you didn’t tell me?”
AJ heard the hurt in his brother’s voice. It was the same hurt Poppy had that he hadn’t told her Deacon was her half-brother. AJ never intended to make anyone feel bad, it bothered him when he did. Especially people he loved. He loved his brother, not as much as he loved Poppy, but he loved him.
“Poppy has pre-existing conditions. She’d been told her chances of getting pregnant were less than one percent, and it makes her pregnancy high risk. She didn’t want anyone to know in case the worst happened.”
Niko took in the information, and AJ saw that it didn’t quite sting as much now that he knew the breadth of the situation.
"But she’s okay?” Niko looked at him, and all there was in his eyes was genuine concern. “The baby is okay?”
“Yes. We heard the heartbeat at the twelve-week checkup.”
“Does anyone else know? Frankie? Yaya? Mom?”
“She told everyone on Thanksgiving, but she didn’t say who the father was.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know.”
“You didn’t ask her?”
“No.”
“Why not?” he repeated.
AJ could hear the frustration in his brother’s voice. He wasn’t trying to frustrate him. He was trying to speak to his brother about the situation.
“She didn’t get to tell everyone how she planned. Her mom was tipsy and asked her loudly at dinner if she was pregnant because she wouldn’t take a drink, and everyone overheard. It was awkward. I was going to ask her on the way home, but she drove her mom home because she’d been drinking instead of riding with me. Every day since, someone has been at her house, so I haven’t had a chance to speak to her alone. She’s been different. Distant.”
“Are you sure it’sherwho’s been distant? Maybe she doesn’t know how you feel? Have you told her? Have you talked about it?”
As they pulled to a stop, AJ picked up his phone, opened it up to his and Poppy’s text message thread, and handed it to his brother.
Niko scrolled through all the messages that AJ had sent her. All the articles, spreadsheets, cribs, strollers, bassinets, etc,—he then handed the device back to AJ. “Okay, well, that definitely shows that you want to be supportive, but have you actually talked about it?”
“No.” AJ was waiting for her to bring it up. With her being high risk, he hadn’t wanted to say the wrong thing. He tended to do that. He’d been waiting for her to be ready, for her to tell people. But as soon as she had, it was as if she didn’t need him any longer. Or she was embarrassed that he was the father. She recoiled when he tried to touch her hand.
