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“Okay?” Kiersten rubbed her eyes. “That’s it? Okay?”
“What did you expect?” Chris lurched to his feet. “It’s not like you can take away what you did. You slept with my freaking coach, and now I’m going to be a big brother. Hey, my friends will laugh at me and accuse me of getting played in the game because of Garrett, but whatever. As long as you’re happy.”
Kiersten winced. Yeah. He wasn’t okay. “Don’t be mad. It wasn’t planned. It just kind of happened.”
“Really?” He clenched his fists, looking far too old for his years. “I took sex ed. I know how it happened, and it takes two to get jiggy. It’s not an accident, so don’t say it was.”
Garrett stood up, too. “Sometimes, adults do things they don’t think through all the way. Just like kids.”
“Yeah, well.” Chris spun on him, his arms akimbo. “I wish you two would have thought this one through. And what it meant to me.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” Kiersten said, grabbing Chris’s shoulders and pulling him close. She latched gazes with Garrett over Chris’s head. “But Garrett is going to move in now. We’ll be like a…like a family.”
“A family?” Chris pulled free. “You mean like we were supposed to be with Pete? That worked out really well.”
“Yeah.” Garrett paced in front of them, biting his thumbnail. “But minus the leaving part. Chris…I’ll be here for you and your mom. And for the baby, too. I promise. Anything you need, I’ll be here.”
“I need you to turn back the clock, keep your hands off of my mom, and stay out of my house,” Chris snarled. “Can you give me that?”
Kiersten’s eyes went wide. She’d never heard him so angry before. “Chris!”
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“It’s okay. He’s mad.” Garrett held up his hand. “But I’m not going anywhere. And you’re going to have to accept that I care about both you and your mom.”
Chris seemed to deflate. He sank down on the couch and flopped back dramatically. “Are you two getting married?”
“No.” Kiersten sat beside him and rested her hand on his knee. “But we’ll still be a family, even without a piece of paper to make it official.”
Chris’s knee relaxed under her hand. “I guess it’s kind of cool, as long as my friends don’t make fun of me.” He gave a little shrug. “I’ve always wanted to be a big brother.”
Her heart clenched. He wanted to be a brother. She hadn’t even known that about him. And the way he always saw reason once he calmed down and thought about whatever had upset him in the first place never failed to impress her. In fact, he reminded her of Mike in that way. They shared the same temperament. A big, heavy weight lifted off of her shoulders. She could do this. “Well, now you will be.”
He hesitated. “Do you know what it is yet?”
“No. Not yet. That’s not until…” She broke off, realizing she had no clue when that was. She had a doctor’s appointment next week, but she doubted she would find out then. Did she even want to find out, or did she want to wait?
Garrett swooped in. “The fifth month. Twenty weeks. If we find out then.”
That was right around the corner. Holy crap.
“Cool.” Chris nodded, but was still avoiding Garrett’s gaze. “Can we stop talking about this now? I want to play my game again.”
“S-Sure.”
He un-paused his game and went back to ignoring them, even if he did grip the remote too tightly. She wanted to press him some more, make sure he was really okay, but she sensed he needed time. Time and space. He was a lot like her in that respect. Kiersten motioned for Garrett to follow her upstairs. Once they were alone, she leaned against her closed bedroom door and took a shaky breath.
Garrett grinned and leaned next to her. “That went well, huh?”
She laughed somewhat hysterically. “Yeah, I think so. But he’s still mad.”
Garrett nodded. “Yeah, but I think he’ll be okay.”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head, because she really didn’t know. “This is all such a freaking mess.”
Garrett pulled her against his body and hugged her close. “It’ll be okay. You’ll see.”
“Garrett…”
