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I let out a sound that can only be described as a wail as I drop to my ass on the floor, bringing my knees up to my chest, and Bella drops with me. “It’s going to be okay. I’m going to get nurses to come and take care of me because we know Mom and Dad will be useless. I’ve already got things happening on the work front to protect my business. I have everything taken care of—” She stops and sighs. “The only thing I worry about leaving behind isyou.”
I feel like shit that I had no idea she was sick and that I’ve been gone for so long. She’s been asking me to come home for months, and I have been so caught up in my own shit that I didn’t hear the signals.
“I’m so sorry, Bella. I’ve been a real shit brother. Do Mom and Dad know?” I ask.
“They do. They think it’s a cry for attention, so I’m not talking to them right now. Are you and Ingrid going to go and see them while you’re here?”
My hands ball into fists, and I shake my head. “Fuck them! If they’re abandoning you, I’m abandoning them. So you’ve been dealing with this on your own?”
Tears flood down her face, and she nods, wiping them away. “That’s why I caved and begged you to come see me. I needed you to know before the symptoms started becoming too severe.”
I reach out, grab her face, and force her to look at me. “Bella, I never want you to think you can’t talk to me. You should have called and told me the second you thought something was wrong.”
Tears flow down her cheeks, and she nods. “I know. Just things were happening with you at the club, and you were starting out there, so I didn’t want you to feel obligated to come back home and check on me every ten seconds.”
My stomach flips at her words.Come back home and check on me.The fact Mom and Dad aren’t going to be here to support her is driving me crazy, and the idea of my beautiful sister having nurses being the ones to support her through this kills me.
My eyes meet Ingrid, a heaviness weighing me down.
My life in New Orleans is everything I had ever thought it would be.
I fucking love it there.
But Hurricane is the first person to tell me thatfamily comes first.
I have a huge decision to make.
But it doesn’t only involve me.
I have made a small decision for now, but I need to talk to Ingrid. Moving to stand from the floor, I pull Bella with me, and I walk with her over to the sofa. “Bells, I need to talk to Ingrid for a sec. Can you make us a coffee? I need a real strong one, please.”
Bella looks from me to Ingrid and then back to me. “Yeah, okay, sure,” she says, then heads off for the kitchen, leaving me with my Old Lady.
I make my way over to the sofa Ingrid is sitting on, and she weakly smiles, reaching for my hand. “You okay?” she asks. “That was a lot to take in.”
My eyes meet hers, and I see the moment it clicks. She weakly nods, a tear sliding down her face. “You have to stay in LA, don’t you?”
My chest squeezes as I stare at her, feeling like my entire world is being ripped away from me right now. “I fucking love you more than anything, but as Hurricane said,family means everything. I have to stay to help mine, and I won’t ask you to leave yours for me.”
Ingrid exhales, her eyes welling like she’s fighting a battle in her mind. “South…”
“Nothing will change my mind, angel. I have to stay for Bella. And you can’t leave New Awlins—”
“Romeo, I’m pregnant,” she blurts out.
My eyes widen in shock as I stare at her, now feeling like the world that was falling away at my feet suddenly exploded into a ball of fireworks, but the good, celebratory kind. I let out a shocked laugh as I shake my head, trying to wrap my mind around this. “You’re…”
“Pregnant? Yeah, I’m just as shocked. Apparently, Aubree said I’m in the final stages of perimenopause, not full menopause, and she was as surprised as anyone that a woman of my age was not yet in full menopause. Because of that, the risk was super low of me getting pregnant, but because of the amount of sex we have, I guess those odds shot up.”
My heart pounds so fucking hard I feel like I am going to pass out at any given second. I thought the chances of me being a father were never going to happen, but here it is, staring me in the face.
But I also have my sister who needs me.
What the fuck do I do?
Scrubbing at my eyes, I let out a heavy exhale. “How do you feel about the pregnancy, Ingrid? I mean, you know that I’m going to support you no matter what, but this is your body. I can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
She beams in excitement, then shrugs. “This baby made its way into our lives even though the odds were so minuscule. You’re supposed to be a father, South. I never thought I would be a mother again, especially not at this age. But with you helping me, I know we will make an amazing team.”
