Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 60864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
“You were?” she asked.
I nodded.
“I wanted to talk to you over breakfast,” I said. “I brought you to my family dinner for a reason. I want to do this. Like for real. This. Us.”
“You want to be official?” she asked, something like hope in her voice.
“Yes,” I said. “To be honest, I have wanted to since the first time you fell into my arms, but now, yeah, absolutely. That’s regardless of this.” I motioned toward the test.
“But this,” she said, also motioning toward the test, “this changes everything.”
“Does it?” I asked. “I am falling in love with you, Jodi. I have been for a while. Having a baby with you is a natural extension of that, isn’t it? We just skipped the whole part about telling everyone what I think we both already feel.”
“But what about my parents?” she asked. “What about Jack? Won’t your brothers be upset you are potentially ruining an important business deal with my parents? What if it all falls apart?”
I shook my head.
“My brothers would rather burn up the contract right in front of them than try to make me choose them over you. That’s a fact,” I said. “They like you, and they want me to be happy. If Jack or your parents give them any trouble, they would back us. One hundred percent.”
“Really?”
“Really,” I said. “Now, what do you say?”
Instead of saying it, a wide, deep smile spread across her face, and tears fell from the corners of her eyes. She nodded and fell into my arms, and I kissed her head. She wept for a moment, then pulled away, kissing me on my lips through the smile. My smile was just as wide. My heart was doing jumping jacks in my chest as the reality of it all began to hit me.
“We’re going to have a baby,” I said.
I laughed, and Jodi joined me. It was as glorious a sound as angels singing.
“We are,” she said. “I’m going to be a mom.”
“I’m going to be a dad,” I said. “Wait until my brothers hear. They are going to be the most excited group of assholes you have ever met in your entire life.”
We sat there, laughing, occasionally kissing, and wiping joyful tears from each other’s eyes for a few more moments until a head poked between us and a wet nose rested on our legs.
“I think he wants some bacon,” Jodi said, reaching over to the plate and grabbing a piece.
“He always wants bacon,” I said. “But we should eat too. We have a day of work and most likely a ton of celebration to do.”
“I still have to change,” she said, looking down at my clothes she was still wearing.
“Do you have to?” I joked.
She laughed, and I thought my heart would burst in my chest.
26
JODI
When I was trying to prepare myself to tell Derek about the baby, I tried not to let myself conjure up any scenarios for what he was going to say or how he was going to react. I hoped it went well, of course. I didn’t want him to blow up or throw me out or completely melt down. But I also didn’t want to build myself up with all kinds of ideas of how it might go.
It felt like if I did that, I was only building myself up for more stress and anxiety, and possibly to be let down and hurt. So, I just hoped for the best and went for it.
If I had let myself come up with ideas of how he might react, I probably couldn’t have imagined a situation as good as what actually happened. Maybe I would have thought he would be okay with it. Or at least he would be open to eventually being okay with it. I probably would have envisioned him telling me it was unexpected, but that we were going to be great coparents.
I apparently wasn’t so great at thinking big. Or being optimistic.
But it didn’t matter. I was stunned by his reaction. In the very best way possible. Not only was Derek not angry about the prospect of us having a baby together, but he actually seemed excited about it. Maybe he wasn’t ready to jump up and down and plan a gender reveal party or anything. But he wanted us to be together. He wanted us to be a family and to raise our little one.
There had been barely a second of hesitation. And looking back on it, the reaction when he first saw the pregnancy test in my hand, the positive result fairly obvious even from a distance, wasn’t really hesitation or being upset. It was just pure, unprepared shock.
I couldn’t really blame him for that. I was still in that zone myself. Even though I knew in my heart before I took the test, the confirmation was a dose of reality, and I was still working on wrapping my head around it when I told him.