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“Say what?”
“In your life. I meant your life.”
“Cinnamon swirl?”
“Fine, sprinkles of pretty deep brown that spice up your life. Tell me that’s not Titan to a ‘T’.”
“Ida Sue, I love you, but it’s just too late. And besides, Titan didn’t want to stay married to me. If he did—he would have.”
“Then make him want to,” she says like that’s so simple.
“How would I do that?”
“For starters, you could tell him about that bun you got baking in your oven.”
I stop breathing. I haven’t told a soul; I’ve been afraid to say the words out loud. My hand goes to my stomach and I hold it there.
“Ida—”
“Don’t even try to start lying to me, Faith Lucas. You aren’t so big that I can’t bend you over my knee.”
“How did you know?”
“Oh please, you’ve been kneeling at the altar of the porcelain gods every morning at six, like clockwork.”
“I don’t know how to tell him.”
“My Titan deserves to know he’s going to be a daddy.”
I let the “my” part of her sentence pass. It almost makes me want to smile.
“What if he doesn’t believe me? I told him there was no way I could be pregnant. I was on the best birth control on the market, damn it,” I whisper, feeling more than a little lost.
“If he doesn’t believe you then you tell him to kiss your Lucas ass, and walk out with your head held high. What you don’t do is let him hitch his horse to another woman before you tell him.”
“I’ll think about it,” I answer—knowing I won’t be able to think of anything else.
“You do that, but do it packing. Black will be here in about thirty minutes.”
“Black?”
“Yeah, precious. He’s flying out to California with you. You don’t need to be flying alone in your condition.”
“But—”
“You better just do it. There’s no arguing with my woman when she gets an idea in her head,” Jansen tells me and I just look at the two of them.
“I’m not ready to go to California. I need to think about this.”
“Think about it on the plane. As it is, you’ll barely make it to that big fancy church before Titan says I do.”
“What?”
“He’s getting married this evening.”
“Then it’s already too late,” I murmur, feeling like the world is coming down around me.
“The hell it is. You’re a Lucas. We never let go of our man. Even when that man is an asshole. Ask Petal. She wouldn’t give up on Orange and as much as I hate to admit it, she was right about that one.”
“His name is Luka, lovey,” Jansen reminds her gently.
She shrugs and ignores him. In the time I’ve been here, Orange is all she calls him.
“You really think Titan would want…”
“You’ll never know until you grow a pair and go talk to him,” she answers with a shrug. It’s not exactly comforting or even confidence building, but when I look at her, I know she’s right. Titan deserves to know he’s going to be a father. It will be up to him what he does with that information.
“I’ll go pack,” I tell her, getting up out of the chair.
“That’s my girl. Now, when you get back, we need to discuss names.”
“Names?” I ask over my shoulder, already heading to the front door.
“For little Titan. A name is very important. Titan is a god among men, so his daughters and sons should be too. I’m thinking Zeus for a boy and maybe Eris if it’s a girl.”
“Eris?” I ask, standing at the door, waiting to go in.
“Supposedly she’s a goddess of chaos. It seemed fitting,” she says with a sly grin.
“Lord help us,” Jansen says with a chuckle. I close the door on Ida Sue telling him how Eris is a perfectly good name.
I have to pack… and get to California… and see my ex-husband… and his new wife to be… and panic.
Definitely panic.
twenty-six
titan
“You sure about this?” Gavin asks for like the millionth time.
“Quit busting my ass, man,” I growl, not needing this shit. I look down at my watch. Thirty minutes until show time. With every minute that passes, I’m more and more convinced I’m making the wrong decision. Having Gavin here poking at me is not helping.
“I’m just saying marriage is a big fucking step,” he says—proof he’s not going to zip it up.
“Seems to be working out well for you,” I respond.
“I love Casey. I’ve always loved her.”
“What-fucking-ever,” I growl. I’ve got a migraine working its way through me and I don’t need more of this crap.
“Faith asked Hope about you the other day.” This comes from Aden.
“She did?” I ask, doing my best to sound uninterested.
“Yeah. When Hope told her she was glad you two finally got your divorce, Faith hung up on her.”
“It wasn’t a divorce, it was an annulment,” I answer, refusing to look at him. I don’t know why the end of my marriage is a bitter pill to swallow, but it is. I don’t like when Aden and Gavin talk about it being a divorce too. That implies that Faith and I were truly together and couldn’t wait to get rid of each other. That’s not what went down—not really. We weren’t ever truly married, not in the real sense of the word. A wedding implies vows in front of a preacher, a big church full of your friends and family.
