When I walked into the house to pick up Abi so we could catch the game, I found her sobbing in the living room. I called to her a couple of times, but either she didn’t hear me or she chose to ignore me. I sat on the floor next to her and my heart clenched when she fell into my chest, her tears quickly soaking my t-shirt.
“Hey, what’s all this about?” I asked, steadying her shoulders to get her to look at me.
“I’m scared,” she whispered, although I don’t think she meant for me to hear her.Nothingscared Abi. She was the fearless one in the Tucker family, and that was one facet of her personality that drove her parents crazy.
“You don’t need to be,” I soothed her. “You’re safe here, and anything you have to say won’t change the fact that your brother and I both love the hell out of you.”
She shuddered and she started bawling so hard that she struggled to catch her breath. Despite my better judgment, I excused myself long enough to get her a glass of water.
“Here, take a drink,” I said as I kneeled in front of her. She looked so young and innocent cradling the glass in both hands as she sipped the ice-cold water. “I sound like a broken record here, but you need to let me know what’s going on so we can help you.”
When she finally regained her composure enough to speak, I nearly fell over by the two words she managed to get out.
“I’m pregnant.” They were so quiet, I was almost able to convince myself that I misheard her.
I ran through over a dozen questions, but all of them sounded condescending and judgmental to my own ears, so I knew they’d put Abi over the edge. The loudest question bouncing around in my mind was ‘how did this happen?’ but no way was I about to ask that. I’d have been perfectly happy ignoring the fact that my boyfriend’s little sister had sex, but that was going to be a bit difficult now.
“Does he know?” I asked as I settled back onto the couch. I desperately wanted a drink, but there was nothing in the house strong enough to dull the urge to kick the shit out of the guy who’d knocked her up. “The dad, I mean. Not your brother. It’s a no-brainer that you haven’t mentioned this to him.”
“Yeah, he knows.” Her body tensed, and I knew this situation was about to get even worse. “I had to threaten his new slut when she answered his phone, but he knows.”
Shit. I cracked my neck, imagining each pop was a bone in the punk’s face. I’d always been taught that violence wasn’t the answer, but I was beginning to think this wouldn’t be the first thing my parents were wrong about. I was really struggling as I watched Abi fall apart in my arms.
“What did he say when you told him?” It was hard to remain calm for her sake, but I somehow managed.
“He accused me of sleeping around on him, said it’s probably not even his, and I could do whatever I wanted to with the ‘thing’ as long as I forgot that I ever knew his number,” she sobbed. “What am I going to do, Mason? There’s no way I can raise a baby on my own. I don’t even know if Ieverwant kids, much less right now.”
“Have you been to the doctor?” I asked. My blood pressure had risen to what had to be close to stroke levels, and blood pumped furiously through my veins. There were so many things I wanted to say, and none of them would help her at all.
“Not yet,” she admitted. “I don’t want to gross you out, but I’ve never been regular so I didn’t think anything of it when I skipped a month, but I’ve never missed two in a row. I took the test this afternoon after Sean went to the park. Oh, my God, he’s going to kill me when he finds out.”
He wasn’t going to be happy, that was for sure, but I assured her that he wouldn’t kill her, kick her out of the house, or any of the other worst-case scenarios she could think of. “You do realize you have to tell him, right? If it makes you feel better, I’ll be right there with you, but I won’t keep this from him.”
“I know,” she cried some more. “And I think I do want you there. He won’t do anything drastic in front of witnesses.”
I chuckled at her weak attempt to crack a joke and kissed her temple. We sat on the floor for close to an hour, her sobbing quietly until she finally drifted off to sleep. I carried her to the downstairs guest room and laid her on the bed, wondering what would have happened if I hadn’t driven up here today.
I didn’t bother Sean before the game, since he was starting. It wasn’t a guarantee that I was going to make it up in time to go, and I figured it’d only worry him if I told him something had come up. Instead, I kicked back in his recliner and watched the game on TV while I considered what Abi was going through.
I’m sure she hadn’t meant anything by it, but while she was in the midst of her breakdown, she’d made a comment about how she wished Sean and I had been together longer so we could raise her baby as our own. There were so many things fucked up with that statement that I couldn’t begin to count them, but she’d planted a seed in my mind.
There was a time when I couldn’t wait to be a father. I dreamed of having a little boy to play catch with in the backyard. I saw my teammates spending time with their kids during spring training, and I wondered what it’d be like to have that.
Now that I was with Sean and couldn’t see myself ever wanting that to change, would it mean giving up my dream of having a family? Sean knew how I felt, but he still hadn’t said whether or not a family was something he wanted. I wondered what he’d say if I mentioned it to him now.
Sometime after the fifth inning, I gave in to the exhaustion and drifted off to sleep.
* * *
Mason’s Jeep wasin the driveway when I got home from the game. I quickly parked and rushed inside, eager to see him after ten days apart.
“Mace?” I called out through the dark house.
Abi sulked out of the guest room, her eyes red and puffy, and her hair sticking out in every direction. Without saying a word to me, she disappeared into the bathroom. I wondered what was going on, but selfishly chose to find my boyfriend instead.
I followed the sound of his soft snoring into the living room, where I found him passed out on the couch. I traced a finger down the center of his chest, smiling when he jerked and rolled to face the back of the couch. I sat on the floor in front of him, watching him sleep until the temptation of that round ass within my reach became too much to resist.
I carefully slid my hand beneath the waistband of Mason’s shorts, trailing my fingers along his crease as I kissed the small of his back. He arched back and let out of a soft moan, letting me know he was awake.
