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His voice is soft but even and it calms my racing heart a little. “Either way, we have to tell them.”
“I know.” He gets out of the car, putting up the umbrella even though we are only twenty or so feet from my house and opens the door for me, holding the umbrella over my head. The small act of chivalry makes me smile and I remember exactly why I’m doing this today. I can’t go another second hiding how much I love Jacob Price.
“Thank you.”
He smiles down at me. “I would kiss you right now, but just in case your mother is waiting at the window for us, I’ll refrain.”
I laugh because it’s a very real possibility. I see Mason’s car in front of us but I don’t see Chloe’s but given her track record of tardiness I didn’t expect her to be here yet. We enter the house to the sounds of laughter and it puts me at ease that it seems that everyone is in a good moodfor now. We walk down the foyer toward the living room to find my parents and Mason talking and they all stop when Jacob and I enter the room. My mom hops up from her seat, the only person in the room not privy to some piece of information regarding me and I hate that I’ve kept her in the dark. My biggest supporter and probably the person that’s going to be caught most in the middle of this situation and she has no idea the bomb I’m about to drop.
“Whitney!” She pushes her glasses into her blonde curly hair that she has pulled into a bun and makes her way over to me and pulls me into a hug, kissing me on the cheek and pulling me to sit next to her on the love seat. “I made brunch, it’s that time you know? So, we can eat when Chloe gets here,” she says and I briefly wonder if like our normal brunches and if she’s already had a mimosa but I don’t see anything on the table except one of her sparkling waters and a bottle of water in front of my father.
My eyes move to my father for the first time since I walked in, eyes that are sad with maybe a hint of comfort. Like he knows this might be difficult but that he understands.
You do not know the half of it.
The sounds of the door opening stop me and I’m grateful to see my cousin walk into the room and her eyes fall on me immediately.I’m here.Her eyes tell me with a nod.
“Oh lovely, you’re here! We can all eat. Unless you want to tell us your news now!” My mother claps her hands together in excitement. “You said you had something big to tell us.”
“I said important…?” I wince, not understanding how she’s excited when I’m fairly certain I did not sound enthusiastic about this news I’m about to deliver.
“Tomato, tomahto.” She waves at me. “Are you pregnant?” Her eyes widen. “I know you drank with us last weekend, but if you just found out, it’s early enough that it’s okay, sweetheart.” She pats my arm and I shake my head.
“No. Not pregnant.”
“Oh.” She frowns. “I could have sworn that was it. Although, I was expecting you to show up with Parker though, not Jacob.” She moves around me to hug him and reaches up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “Hi hon. Did you guys come together?” she says, looking more confused before moving toward the kitchen. “Well let’s eat, and you can tell us your news. Or… are we waiting for Parker?”
“Parker and I broke up,” I blurt out and given that everyone in the room besides my mother is aware of this fact, no one reacts. Everyone is silent while they wait for my mother to get on the same page.
She turns around and looks at me and blinks her eyes several times. “What?”
I let out a sigh and take a step closer to her. “Parker and I broke up.”
“That’sthe story you’re going with?” The voice is cold and angry and isn’t from anyone in the room that was previously here. But it’s a voice I know well.
Fuck.
Parker is standing at the entrance to my living room, being held up by his crutches staring at me with a look of rage that I’d never seen before. He looks unshowered, wearing jeans and that same black hooded sweatshirt from last night making me wonder if he’s been up all night wondering how best he could set fire to my life. His posture is tense, his hands balled into fists and a scowl so intense on his face that I actually feel that sayingif looks could kill, I’d be dead.
Jacob wasn’t as close as he’d been before after my mother hugged him and inadvertently put space between us and I can already sense him moving back toward me even though I’m sure he won’t touch me given the precarious situation we’re currently in.
“Parker, please don’t do this.” My heart is pounding in my chest and I feel my knees buckling.Why is he here? How did he even know we’d be here? FUCK!
“What’s going on?” My mother snaps her head back and forth between me and Parker before realizing that she still needed to be a good hostess even if it is to my injured ex-fiancé. “Please sit, I… I am so sorry about the accident. Are you okay? How are you feeling? Would you like something to drink? Or food? We’re about to eat.”
He leans against the wall, foregoing my mother’s invitation to sit. “Oh? Well, I would love to join you.” Chloe and I lock eyes and I feel like everything is happening in slow motion.Brace for fucking impact.“But I do feel like some things need to be cleared up first.”
“Parker, can I talk to you alone?” I stop him and begin moving toward him despite hearing a growl from behind me.
“No. The time to talk to me would have been before you were cheating on me, with whom I assume to be this guy.” He points at Jacob and my eyes widen and a hand goes to my chest as it feels like my heart might just fly out of it.
“With who!?” My mother’s eyes widen in shock before she shakes her head. “Whitney, cheating? Impossible and…” She looks at Jacob and then me and then back to Parker. “You’re mistaken, that’s Whitney’s godfather, Parker. And to shoot off such baseless accusations, is unbecoming.” She looks at me. “Did you guys really break up?” She gives me a sad look even though I know she’s thinking something along the lines of‘thank goodness, he was not right for you, honey.’
“Shebroke up withme. For… JP, right?” A smug grin finds his face as he points at Jacob and I can tell JP is trying not to react until we get some emotions under control, most importantly my parents. But for him to know that I call him JP…fuck fuck fuck.
“What? Parker? I know you might be feeling some anger toward Whitney right now, but please,” my mother says, putting a hand up toward him. “You do not know what you’re talking about.”
“I will fucking murder you.” The words are quiet and my eyes snap to my father who’s staring at Jacob. His hands are shaking as he stands to his feet and I don’t think I’ve ever been as afraid of anything as I am at this moment as my father crosses the room and makes his way toward us.
