“Uh…ha ha! I’m so glad Wes asked me to marry him, because he’s right, he literally could not wait.” She gulped then gamely smiled. “We’re pregnant!”
The room was dead silent. Then people started cheering and screaming and hugging each other.
No.
“Yes!” Brea said happily. “A baby! Don’t you love babies?”
“I’m not a kid person,” I said flatly.
Could have been you.
But you fucked up.
Liz and Wes were beaming as they descended the stairs from the stage to receive well-wishes. I squared my shoulders and tried to ignore Brea as I made my way up to the happy couple.
“Congrats, Liz,” I told her, giving her a hug. “That’s wonderful news.”
“I’m going to be an uncle!” my cousin, Grant Holbrook, boomed, throwing his arms around his half brother. I was glad he did, because I didn’t know what I was going to say to Wes.
My brother Carter sauntered over with a plate of snacks almost as big as Brea’s.
“Can I have some of those?” Liz asked hopefully.
“You need to start sending your fiancé out to get you all the snacks your heart desires,” Carter said, offering her the plate.
“Prawn?” he asked me, dangling a crustacean in my face.
I batted his hand away. My younger brother was incapable of being serious.
“I can’t believe you’re the first one to have a kid!”
Wes grinned. I couldn’t believe he was going to be a father. All my male cousins and my brother were paired off. I was the only loner. But I had told myself it was fine, because it wasn’t as if they had started having kids yet. Now here we were.
“You’re making me feel old,” Dana complained to Wes. “I hope you’re having a girl,” she told Liz. “I’m tired of all the men in the Holbrook family.”
“I’m doing my best. It’s going to be a surprise though,” Liz said. She had eaten so many of the snacks from Carter’s plate that he finally just gave her the rest of them. “I’m so nervous!”
“You’ll be a great mother,” I assured her.
She smiled at me as Brea, hopping up and down, hugged her and led her to a table.
My cousin and brother looked between me and Wes awkwardly.
I took in a breath. “And you’ll be a great father,” I told him, shaking his hand and giving him a one-armed hug.
“Thanks, Mark,” he told me then stepped back. “Look, I, uh, I know we probably never started off on the right foot, but I wanted to see if you would be my best man.”
No.
“Are you sure you don’t want Grant to do it?”
Wes looked slightly hurt.
“Well, I just was thinking this could help clear the air.”
“There’s nothing to clear,” I said, more harshly than I had intended. “What happened was my fault. I should have known.”
Wes ran a hand through his hair. “It’s not. It’s mine, and I was hoping…”
