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Joel bounced Theo, who giggled like he was on a carnival ride. “Is that right, Theo? I’m not ‘uncle’ Joel? Too formal?”
Sydney studied him, head slightly tilted. “I mean, Theo doesn’t have a father. Maybe he sees you as his father.”
Ayesha winced, and she looked from Joel to Sydney, praying they hadn’t noticed. Theo had a father. Just because he wasn’t standing in front of them didn’t mean Theo didn’t have a father.
Joel’s head snapped around. “Syd, really?”
Sydney’s jaw dropped, and she sucked in so much air, it could have been mistaken for one of the waves crashing against the shore.
“Oh, god. I didn’t…Ayesha, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Syd, Theo has a father,” he said. “Just because Curtis isn’t standing in front of us doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a father.”
Ayesha looked down at where she’d curled her fingers around Joel’s wrist. She didn’t remember reaching out, and it wasn’t until he faced her that she realized she’d grabbed him.
Sunlight cascaded around him with the vast Pacific as a backdrop. Damp hair clung to his forehead, and a droplet of seawater glistened on his eyelashes. His brows had wrinkled in the middle, taking his browbone so low his irises looked like they were locked behind a dark, feathery prison.
Then, it all calmly vanished.
“You okay?” he asked.
She looked from him to Theo, who was also staring at her, still munching on the now soggy, wrinkled piece of grilled bell pepper. He wasn’t only asking if she was okay with what Sydney had said. In two words, he’d asked her if what Sydney said had triggered what she’d confided in him about regarding Curtis’ family.
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
He smiled, and had she been Sydney, she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t have given him a baby just for the hell of it.
Just to keep him.
“Good.” He ticked his head toward the beach. “Let’s take this food down before people start gettinghangry.”
Sydney rushed forward. “I’ll help you. And really, Ayesha, I’m so sorry.”
She shook her head. “No harm done, Sydney. We’re good.”
* * *
The setting sun brought their beach day to an end.
Everyone went inside, showered, and cleaned up, and after putting all the children to bed, they listened to Joel and Dez animately tell stories that had them laughing until they cried.
Sydney caught Ayesha’s eye, motioned toward the balcony with her head, and then left where Joel had been sitting on the floor, his back pressed against her shins.
Ayesha followed and found Sydney sitting at the edge of a lounge chair, tugging on both sides of the slouchy cardigan she’d casually tossed over a romper. Next to Sydney, she felt like a teenager in the nightclothes Josiah had volunteered to pick out for her—a green cotton T-shirt with an avocado on the front that read, “I Will Guac Your World,” and red and purple checkered cotton pajama bottoms.
“It doesn’t matter if they match, Mama,”he’d argued.“You look beautiful.”
There’d been no arguing with that logic.
“So, I think I might be pregnant,” Sydney began.
Ayesha sat on the lounge chair across from her. “Have you taken a test?”
“No, but Ayesha, I can’t be pregnant. I’ve never missed a pill, but I didn’t get a period with this last pack.”
“Okay. Well, how do you feel?”
“Tired. Achey. My breasts are sore, and I’ve been nauseous all day. Do those sound like early pregnancy signs? It’s been so long.”
