Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 100661 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100661 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
“Yes and no. I mean, I’m not the first Lupo brother to find myself in this situation—this happened to Gianni too.”
“Really?”
“Yes, but it was a while ago.” I ran a hand through my hair. “My niece Claudia is twelve now.”
“So they got married?”
“Yes. But they were . . . Their situation was different.”
She nodded in understanding and gestured toward an older-model, two-door Kia. “This is me.” It reminded me of what she’d said about being so practical she’d never know what a new car smelled like.
I stuck my hands in my pockets while she unlocked the doors. “Thanks for letting me come today.”
“Of course,” she said. “Good luck with your family. I told mine on Monday.”
“How did it go?”
“Pretty good, I think,” she said in a way that made me think she wasn’t being 100 percent truthful. “I mean, they were all surprised, but once they heard me talk about it, I think they started to accept the news.”
“Did you tell them who the father is?”
She nodded. “I did, yes.”
“Do they hate me?”
“No!” she said a little too quickly. “No, of course not.”
“I don’t believe you. If some guy got my little sister pregnant like this, I’d want to fucking punch him.”
“There may have been some mention of punching,” she admitted. “But I talked them all down.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m really glad you were here today, Joe.”
“Me too. That heartbeat thing was crazy. I had no idea we’d be able to see it, let alone hear it.”
She laughed. “It was crazy. Made it so real. Not that the morning sickness and body aches and extreme fatigue weren’t real enough, but this was on another level.”
I looked at her stomach. “It’s kind of weird how uneven the whole thing is. I never thought about this before, but the woman really has to do all the work, doesn’t she? Like, the guy’s part is over so fast and then we just get to sit back and watch. The mom has to, like, grow the human. And then get it out.”
Mabel’s expression was wryly amused. “Yes. It does seem a bit uneven.”
I wanted there to be more I could do, but what the fuck was there? “Hey, are you hungry?”
She shrugged. “A little. This is usually when my morning sickness kicks in, but it’s actually not bad today.”
“Want to get something to eat before I head down to see my parents?”
“Okay. What are you in the mood for?”
“You choose,” I said. “What’s your favorite place in town?”
“Do you like diner food?”
“Definitely.”
She grinned. “Let’s go to Moe’s.”
Twenty minutes later, I was seated across from her in a booth at Moe’s Diner, a retro-style place complete with black-and-white tiles on the floor, a long chrome-edged counter with red-vinyl-topped stools, and a jukebox in the corner.
“This is Ari’s family’s place,” Mabel said as I looked over the menu. “Ari ran it for a while, but now that she has kids, she’s not here as much. I pretty much grew up here.”
“So what should I get?”
“Well, you can’t miss with any of the burgers here, but the specials are always delicious too.”
“I’ll go for tried and true.” I set the menu aside. “The sign in the window promised the best burger in town.”
She smiled. “It’s the truth.”
We put in our order, and while we waited for our food, I asked Mabel more about growing up here, where she’d gone to school, what she did on the weekends. I told her to quiz me on her brothers’ names and got all of them right, but mixed up their wives and totally flubbed with her nieces and nephews.
“That’s all right,” she said, laughing as she poked her straw into her iced tea. “There are a lot of them.”
Of course, she remembered the names of my parents, all my siblings, their spouses, and their children—even their ages—which she shrugged off.
“I just have a good memory,” she said.
“Have you thought about what you’ll name this baby?” I asked.
“Not really. I figured I’d wait and see if it’s a boy or girl first.”
“When do you find out?”
“At the next ultrasound.”
I nodded. “When will that be?”
“Around twenty weeks, so halfway through. Which would be around Thanksgiving.”
Thanksgiving. The season would be in full swing, and there was no way I’d get time off to shoot up here. “I probably won’t be able to make that one,” I said apologetically.
“It’s okay. I don’t expect you to.”
“Maybe you could take a video for me.”
She smiled. “I will.”
Our food arrived, and everything looked fantastic. I polished off my burger and fries in minutes. “Well, you were right,” I said, laying my napkin on my empty plate. “The sign didn’t lie.”
Her eyes sparkled as she ate a spoonful of her soup. “Told ya.”
I sat back and looked around. The diner wasn’t too busy at this hour—it was only about five o’clock—and most of the customers were older. A few old-timers seated at the counter kept turning around to look at us, and I wondered if maybe they were hockey fans. But the way they kept pinching up their faces, their eyes going beady beneath their brows, made me think again.