They both sit up straighter. “It’s not just so we can see your handsome face?” Mom asks.
“I’m going to be a father,” I tell them without drawing it out.
There’s silence as my parents look from me to one another and back to me.
“Say that again,” my dad finally says.
“You heard that right. My, uh …”Shit! What do I even call Alyssia?
“I met someone.”
“Obviously,” my mom says.
“One thing led to another. She’s due around the end of summer.”
I watch as the gears in my mother’s mind work. “That’s five months away. You’ve known for four months already and you’re just telling us?” she shrieks.
Without giving every detail, I explain to my parents that Alyssia and I only recently reconnected which is when I found out.
“Then she’s living in your apartment now?” Dad asks.
“Not quite,” I gripe. I tell them how Alyssia basically rejected my place to opt for getting her own.
“Good for her,” Mom says, surprising me.
“How is that a good thing? She?—”
“Is choosing to keep her independence. From what you’ve shared with us, you two don’t know one another that well.”
“It’s not like it takes long to fall in love,” Dad cuts in, giving my mom a look.
Since I was a child, I’ve been privy to the fact that my dad basically fell for my mom at first sight. She took some convincing given that she was leery of professional athletes, but obviously, came around.
“She’s not even giving me a chance,” I reply to my mom.
“Not giving you a chance would’ve been her moving back to New York after finding out that you got her the job and apartment,” she counters.
“Still,” I gripe, not liking that my mom is right.
“What do you want?” my dad asks.
To take care of her.
The answer arises as soon as he asks the question. My mind goes back to that night in Vegas, the panicked expression on Alyssia’s face in that elevator. I was met with the same look in her eyes that night at the gala when she told me she needed to get to the hospital.
Never have I had the urge to take care of anyone else.
That’s why I was so damn eager to get her to move closer. Once I found out she wouldn’t do so willingly, getting her the job made the most sense to take care of her without her directly knowing it.
“You’re also in the prime of your career,” Dad says, bringing my attention back to our conversation.
“Yeah?”
He lifts his eyebrows as if I should know what he’s referring to. “Which means your attention will be divided. Have you considered that?”
“And your job is particularly grueling,” Mom adds in. “With your season being so long and you literally flying all over the world for races.”
“What are you two saying?” I ask defensively.
