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I cleared my throat and shoved the test back in the box. “I’m coming home now. I’m sorry about running late. Forrest can go with the guys if he wants to. Just tell him I love him, please.”
“No, no, no. I don’t like the way you sound.” Mom sounded like she was running a marathon with the way she was speaking. “I’ve got her on the phone but she doesn’t sound right. I’m worried something’s wrong.”
“Mom!” I threw the test on the passenger seat and pulled out of the parking lot. “I’m on my way right now!”
There was a lot of shuffling sounds coming through the phone and then Ben’s deep voice was in the car with me. “Where are you, Vi?”
“Leaving CVS now. There’s no reason for anyone to freak out.” I thought about that pregnancy test. There was definitely reason to freak out. I was pregnant. I just wasn’t sure I wanted to shout it out over the phone.
“Are you okay to drive?”
“Yes! I haven’t been drinking, Ben. Jeez. I just went for a drive to get something and now I’m coming back.” I swallowed a wave of nerves and then decided I needed time before I told them anything. “Forrest wants to go home with you guys and that’s okay with me.”
“Fuck that. It takes forty-two minutes to get here from that CVS, Violet. If you’re not here in forty-two minutes, we’re coming looking for you. We’ll be here waiting.”
I groaned when I realized he’d hung up on me. I knew that if I didn’t go to my parents’ they really would come looking for me. I didn’t want to cause a scene so I just bit my tongue and drove straight to my there. Everyone was in the yard when I pulled in, which made me feel like a teenager who’d been out past her curfew. Even General and Captain were there. At least they ran to greet me with happiness. Captain even climbed into the car and refused to get out.
I left the giant dog in my car and wrapped my arms around myself. No one made a move towards me, so I felt painfully awkward as I inched closer. My chest gave a tight squeeze at seeing the guys, but I forced myself to stay strong.
Mom looked me over from the porch and sighed. “I was worried something happened. You’re never late.”
“I just lost track of time. I’m sorry I was late.” I looked around for Forrest and frowned when I didn’t see him. “Where’s Forrest?”
“He’s waiting inside.” Mason stepped closer. “We thought it would be better if we talked first.”
My stomach churned and I swallowed down the need to vomit again. “What is this? An intervention? Guys, I’m fine. I’m not good at drinking. I don’t do drugs. Smoking makes me want to gag. I don’t gamble or have a sex addiction. What’s the intervention for?”
“It’s not an intervention, smart ass.” Justin rolled his eyes at me. “It’s us using every weapon in our arsenal to make you come home with us.”
Mom nodded and moved down the steps. “They’re right. You should go home with them, Vi. You were so miserable without them. You love them and they’re offering you everything you’ve ever wanted. Take it.”
“I thought you weren’t on their side after their disappearing act.”
She shrugged. “I got to talk to them. They love you, Vi. They love you so much that I don’t understand it at times. They love the stubborn parts of you I want to strangle, and the sweet parts of you, you hide deep down. That’s special. You don’t find that every day.”
“The concept as a whole makes me want to bleach my brain, honey, but they love you and you love them. That doesn’t seem complicated to me.” Dad smiled. “Forrest loves them. And we talked about them going away for business. Things are changing. You have to trust them.”
I turned my gaze on the guys and shook my head. “You somehow managed to get my parents to fight your battles for you?”
Mason smiled. “You can’t shame us. We have no shame when it comes to you, Violet. We love you.”
I gritted my teeth. “Everyone thinks I should just forget all these fears I have and run back to you guys.”
Ben nodded. “Everyone seems pretty smart.”
“Can you promise me right now, in front of my parents, that you’ll never disappear for a month again?” I pressed my hand over my stomach, thinking about the life growing inside me. “I’ve already been a single parent. If I’m going to have to deal with sharing a bathroom with three men, I want to know I’ll never be a single mother again.”
Justin grinned. “You will never be a single mother again. Not to a child, not to a dog, not to a fucking fish, Vi. We promise you, we will never disappear for a month again. We don’t ever want to leave you.”
“Do you promise you’ll always be safe at work? You’ll do everything you can to make it home to us?”
Mason nodded. “I’ve never been more motivated to get home, Vi. You’re everything to us. You and Forrest are our world. We mean that.”
“We want to take care of you and Forrest. We fucked up with that job and we deserved you leaving us. Even waiting less than an hour for you to get here, was torture tonight, so I can only imagine what we put you through. Let us make it up to you.” Ben inched closer. “Let us spend forever making it up to you.”
I wiped my eyes and swallowed around the lump in my throat. I was just opening my mouth to give in when General dropped something at Ben’s feet and then flopped onto his back to roll around. My eyes dropped to the piece of plastic just as everyone else’s did. The positive pregnancy test. General had just ratted me out to everyone.
“Are you…pregnant?” Ben’s voice was thick with emotion as he picked up the stick. “This is yours, correct? Are you pregnant, Violet?”
