This sigh meant that things were about to change for their family in a way none of them was going to like.
“Braxton met someone,” she said, and Noah waited for the punch line. Was it a guy? Was his little rebel brother going to throw their family another curveball and come out as queer? “A nice young woman who’s interning at your father’s company.”
Noah squinted at the little orange and red styrofoam gourds on his desk, which were sitting innocuously next to Aspen’s new prosthetic dick. It had arrived on Monday, and they hadn’t had a chance to try it out yet.
“Okay, that sounds nice–”
“Unfortunately, they were not very careful,” she said tightly, and Noah froze.
“Like…with drugs?” Noah asked, afraid that this might actually be the phone call he’d been dreading his entire life.
“With condoms, dear. She’s pregnant.”
Noah nearly fell out of his seat. His brother had gotten some poor woman pregnant? If she was an intern at his dad’s company, that meant she had to be at least in her twenties because they only took college graduates. The fact that it was an unpaid internship was a whole other can of worms Noah refused to open right now. That had actually been the silver bullet Noah used to avoid going home after college, but it still pissed him off to no end.
“Are they…going to keep it?” he asked, because that was the next thing someone asked in this kind of situation, right?
“Of course they’re going to keep it,” she said, and Noah rubbed the bridge of his nose. For the first time, it seemed like his parents’ messed-up morals applied to both him and his brother.
“Wow. That’s a lot to take in.”
A twenty-four-year-old and a twenty-two-year-old raising a baby wasn’t unheard of. In fact, his mother would probably havebeen happy if Noah had settled down at twenty-two or twenty-four. As long as she could wrap it up in a pretty bow for her squash partners.
“Yes, well, we’re going to need you to get with the program immediately because she’s due in under a month. We don’t expect you to be there for the actual birth, but we will need you here for the first week or two at minimum. Thankfully, that should be near the holidays, so you shouldn’t have to take too much extra time off work.”
Noah was absolutely speechless. This happened pretty frequently around his family, his windpipe bending and buckling under the stress of all the things not said, and the feelings he was never allowed to express.
Lord, his therapist was going to have her work cut out for her next week.
“How…early do you need me?” he was able to choke out, glancing at the calendar Charlie had gotten him last Christmas, which showcased a multitude of cartoon household items with butts on them.
“She’s due on the 15th, but first babies are often late, so we won’t expect you until that weekend.”
So, the 17th. That meant there was almost no chance he’d be around for the fundraiser for the animal shelter.
“Mom, I don’t think–”
“We need you to show up for your family, N… Noah,” she said, stumbling over his name like she always did. His parents were lucky he’d chosen to keep the same first initial. It probably made it easier to play off when they messed up in front of other people. “We showed up for you with all of your gender business, and now it’s your turn.”
Ah, yes. His gender business. The anvil they held over his head.
“Okay, Mom. I’ll do my best to–”
“We’ll also need you to make yourself available for the wedding.”
Noah wasn’t even surprised anymore. “The wedding?”
“Yes, Noah, the wedding. They will, of course, be getting married, so they are not raising this child in sin.”
Well, at least she didn’t stumble over his name that time.
“Okay, so is that happening before the baby comes?”
There was another sigh, but this time it sounded more like the time she’d had to inform Noah that she and his father wouldn’t be attending his graduation, because Braxton had crashed the car they’d just bought for him. Braxton had been completely fine, but the car had been totaled, and they had some legal issues to “deal with.”
“No, she and your brother didn’t tell us until over the summer, and by then she’d begun to show, and we didn’t want the wedding to…look like what it is.”
“A shotgun wedding?” Noah said, unable to hold his tongue any longer. They’d known she was pregnantsince thesummer? This was all too much.
