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I gritted my teeth, annoyed she would assume I would question her. Iknewher. We’d spent the better part of a year becoming friends, and I knew in my bones she wouldn’t lie about this. That baby was mine. Instead, I gripped her hand. “We’ll figure this out.”
She let out a shaky breath before wiping her puffy eyes. “Can you take me home?”
I fought the urge to point her in the direction of my farmhouse and instead walked her to my truck and brought her where she’d asked to go.
The midday sunslanted across my table, casting a warm, intimate glow as my family gathered for dinner. The clinkingof utensils against plates was accompanied by an undercurrent of tension, as if the very air held its breath, waiting for the unspoken to be revealed. After Sylvie had outed our friendship at Fireside, facing them all at once seemed like my best option.
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, my gaze darting to my cramped dining room as we barely fit around the table. I thought back to how upset and scared she had been. Even now, nearly a day later, the remnants of her presence lingered—a faint trace of her perfume and the ghost of her surprised smile when I told her I wanted her to keep the baby. The memory of her tearful confession still played in my mind, a constant loop that refused to fade.
“Duke, pass the beans?” Aunt Tootie’s voice cut through the quiet, and I hastily obliged, my hands betraying the unease I felt.
“You’ve been quiet.” Wyatt’s voice was laden with concern, his brows furrowed as he watched me closely. “What the hell is going on, man?”
My niece, Penny, stifled a chuckle at her dad’s choice of words, but he silenced her with a look.
I took a deep breath, grappling with the turmoil roiling in my gut. I knew everyone was talking about the scene Sylvie and I had made the night before. “Yeah, there’s... something.”
Lee leaned forward, his piercing eyes fixed on me. “Don’t keep us in suspense, man. Spill it.”
A nervous glance around the table confirmed that the whole family was watching, their expressions a mix of curiosity and apprehension. Lark’s and Annie’s wistful eyebrows crept up their foreheads. Wyatt crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.
“It’s Sylvie,” I finally admitted, my voice quiet but sure as it cut through the razor-sharp air.
Tootie’s eyes widened, and she exchanged a knowing look with Lark. Wyatt’s fork paused midway to his mouth, and heexchanged a swift glance with Lee before fixing his gaze on me. “What about her?”
My heart pounded, and I met their collective gaze, the weight of their attention almost suffocating. “We’ve been friends for a while.”
Wyatt’s brows pinched down. “Friends?”
My jaw clenched, pissed that I felt the need to explain my relationship because they couldn’t understand. “Yeah. Texting and talking over the phone.”
A shit-eating grin spread across Lee’s face. He’d been poking at me about Sylvie for a while, so I was certain he was patting himself on the back, the schmuck.
I released a breath. “She’s pregnant.”
The revelation landed with a thud, the silence that followed palpable. Gasps and wide eyes met my words, and I could almost hear the gears turning in their minds.
“Pregnant? Sylvie King, is pregnant?” Lark’s voice was laced with disbelief, her fingers brushing over her collarbone.
Annie’s hand slipped into Lee’s, her lips forming an O of surprise. “Oh, wow.”
Tootie let out a breath, her expression a mix of concern and resignation. “So it’s yours then?”
I nodded, my throat tight. “Last night, at the Fireside Flannel Festival, she had just found out and couldn’t keep it in anymore.”
The tension in the room thickened, the weight of our history with the King family and my own family’s legacy bearing down on us.
“The Kings knew something was up.” Lee’s voice was a low rumble, his jaw clenching. “Lots of angry questions after you left.” He gestured toward his jaw and at a small bruise I hadn’t bothered to notice.
My eyes narrowed. “What happened?”
Lee rolled his eyes playfully. He liked getting into scuffles with the Kings, so a hit to the jaw was no big deal to him. “Royal and JP got their panties in a twist. Demanding answers we didn’t have.” He shrugged. “A little shoving match is all.”
Beside him, Annie shook her head and frowned. Inside, my heart sank. My brothers had cleaned up my mess, defended me, without even knowing why.
Lee’s eyes softened, his grip on Annie’s hand steady. “Duke, this kind of changes everything.”
The truth hung heavy in the air—Sylvie’s pregnancy was a complication we couldn’t ignore, a reminder of the ties that bound us together and the consequences that could follow.
