AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll walk you guys out.”
The warmth of the outside air hit me like a wall of bricks as I opened the door, completely at odds with the coolness of my house. I had to squint to keep the sun from burning my retinas as my dad walked out, my mom following behind, looking back to make sure I was close to her. Across the lawn, in the still heat of his driveway, my neighbor was bent at the waist over the innards of his Mercedes. My breath caught in my throat from both the humiliation of yesterday and the fact that he was topless and sweaty. Again.
“You know, Soph,” Mom started, her voice quiet, “I really think coming to church on Sunday would do you some good. I understand how you’re feeling.”
I could barely pay attention to her. My thoughts were twisting and spiraling, my gaze fixed solely on the way his muscles flexed as he twisted a wrench, tighter and tighter. It felt like the bolt was inside of me, fixing me in place.
“I went through a similar thing in my early twenties, bug,” Mom continued, her voice sounding further and further away. If only I was on the hood of his car. Would he fuck me like that? “My friends started getting married and having babies. I knew how unholy it was to fall pregnant outside of marriage, so I went back to church, started praying for a man. Blessed be, I found your father a month later.”
He looked directly at me as he stood up straight, his abs flexing from the movement, wrench still in hand. A wry smirk spread across his lips. He’s eavesdropping.
“I don’t want you to fall down the beaten path, sweetheart. It’s important to keep your morals?—”
My head spun around to face her, finally picking up on her words. “Beaten path? I want a child, Mom, not heroin.”
“I know, but it’s so easy to get swept up in one-night-stands and such these days. I worry for you, honey,” she said quietly, one hand on the door handle of their white Ford F150. Her phone dinged in her handbag, and she quickly fished it out. “Oh! Would you look at that? It’s Aaron and little Brynnie.”
She held the phone out to me. A photo of my grinning brother and an equally ecstatic little girl in his lap, her hands clapped together and her mouth a huge smile. The hole in my chest grew a little bit wider, a little bit deeper, a little bit more empty.
The words fell out of me before I could stop them.
“I’m doing IVF,” I whispered quietly. A rush of relief flooded me, but the moment my words were processed by my mother, the solace turned as sour as her face. “Mom?—”
“You’re what?” She pressed, her voice turning cold, angry, bitter. The slight wrinkles on her face deepened, anger making her look older. “You don’t even have a boyfriend, Sophia! Are you telling me right now that you’re actively trying to become pregnant?”
I swallowed what little saliva remained in my mouth. It went dry, filling with what felt like sand, and the brightness of the sun became far too overwhelming. Had I been transported to the desert? “Mom, calm down?—”
“Did you hear that, Martin?”
I was going to be sick. I could feel it in the back of my throat, that familiar sensation of acid clouding my better judgment. “I’m engaged,” I said, the words hollow on my tongue, the lie flowing from me so easily that I hadn’t even considered how ridiculous it was.
Her lips went flat, her head tilted to the side. A look that said I don’t believe you. “Oh yeah? And why haven’t we heard this before? Where’s the ring?”
“I…” I fiddled with my hands, feeling for a ring I knew I wouldn’t find. Shit. Think, Sophie, think. “I didn’t want to tell you until I knew it was serious. And then I got so wrapped up in the move and getting my business going. I know I should have told you guys earlier. I’m sorry. My ring is upstairs.”
Mom’s brows creased deeper as she looked me up and down. Dad stood on the driver’s side, his gaze fixed on me, a hint of suspicion in his eyes. I had to make this work. I had to make them believe it. I wasn’t ready to lose them, not yet.
“So, who is he, then?” Dad asked, his voice less angry than Mom’s.
“He…” I bit my lower lip, wracking my brain for any sort of explanation I could come up with. I could make someone up, but of course they would want to meet him. It was better than nothing, I supposed, I could figure something out between then and now. But…wait. No. I can’t.
I have to.
My pulse was pounding in my throat as I took a step, my bare feet crunching in the grass between our lawns. Another step, and I wanted to throw myself off a cliff. But I’d committed to what I was about to do. I couldn’t turn back, not after I crossed the property line between our houses, not as he stared at me in confusion, those green eyes blazing. Not after I took his grease-covered, massive hand in mine, and not even after I began pulling him toward my parents with my eyes locked on his. Please. Please, go along with it. I know you were listening.
To my immediate surprise, he doesn’t fight me. He comes without a second thought, a filthy rag in one hand and my fingers in the other. You owe me, he mouthed, a sly grin on his face.
He planted his croc-covered feet in the grass in front of my mom, dropping my hand so he could rub the sludge off his with the rag. “Afternoon,” he said to her, and fuck me his voice sounded like browned butter, thick and heady. “You must be my dear fiancée’s parents.”
He was listening. I knew it.
He held out his cleanest hand.
Mom shook it, her suspicions lessened.
“I’m Hudson,” he beamed. “I’m sorry we haven’t had the chance to meet yet. This one,” he jutted a finger at me, “was so nervous to tell you about me that she had me over there working on her neighbor's car.”
“Hudson,” Mom enunciated slowly as if she was tasting every letter of his name. “When did you?—”
