Amaya“There’s something else as well,” I continued, and her face dropped again.“Don’t tell me you’ve been hiding a whole niece or nephew from me as well?” she exclaimed, glancing around the room as though she expected the secret child to come sprinting out from behind the bed. I shook my head.“Nothing like that,” I promised her, chuckling. “That’s a long way down the line. But we wanted to ask you …”I hesitated for a moment. Should I give her some time to process everything I’d just dumped on her head? Or should I just get it all out there now and let her make her own decision? All of this was happening so quickly, and I didn’t want my baby sister to be left out of a single thing.“We wanted to ask you if you would consider living with us.” I grinned, and she stared at me again, silent, as though she was waiting for me to tell her I was just fooling and not to get so excited. I didn’t contradict myself. Her eyebrows shot up.“You’re serious?” she shrieked, and I nodded. I leaned o
KristoI ran my hands through my hair and inhaled deeply. This was the first time I would be seeing the family since they’d found out about everything, and I was about as scared-shitless as it was possible to be.“Hey, it’s going to be fine.” Amaya caught my hand and drew it down by her side. I managed to smile at her and planted a kiss on her cheek.“Easy for you to say,” I reminded her. “They all think you’re the best thing to ever happen to me.”“Aren’t I?” she vamped playfully, and I couldn’t help but laugh.“Point taken.” I waved her into the house. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”As soon as I took a step over the threshold, my nonna descended on me. When she saw Amaya was there at my side, she slowed a little, and I could see her reconsidering the talk she’d clearly had planned in her head as soon as she’d heard I was back in the house.“Amaya.” She gave her a quick hug. “So nice to see you. Come on, get something to eat. You look like you could use it.”I remembered the fl
Amaya“Dinner.” Nonna clapped her hands together and nodded toward the dining room. “Someone give me a hand bringing the food through, and we can eat.”Amaya and I volunteered to take everything through to the dining room. I was glad for a little time alone with her. I seemed to be craving it any chance I got, drinking in these sweet little moments where she would tap my arm as though reminding me how she felt about me. I couldn’t believe how natural it felt to be near her like this, even now. I’d assumed at some point that novelty would wear off, but for now, I was just enjoying getting her to myself. After all this time feeling like she had one foot out the door, that I could never truly call her my own, it was just the two of us, and I couldn’t have been happier.Cleo wasn’t coming for dinner, and I, for one, was relieved at that. We would have to start talking again eventually, but I was still too furious at what she’d pulled with the contract to face looking her in the eye withou
AmayaAs I walked along next to Darla, I found myself slowing as I passed by a flower shop, peering into the window and checking out the arrangements. I liked the ones with the blue in the forefront, especially the ones with those yellow flowers dotted so prettily through.“Amaya? Earth to Amaya?” Darla waved her hand in front of my face, and I blinked and came back down to the real world. I shook my head and laughed at how ridiculous I was being.“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I feel like I’ve got weddings on the brain.”“Well, not long till you get married,” she remarked. “No wonder. How long now?”“Oh, only a few months,” I replied with a sigh. It wasn’t that I wasn’t super excited about what was to come, just that it was a hell of a lot to take in, the full-blown, pedal-to-the-metal momentum of the marriage I was heading toward. At least I had more notice with this one than the last time I thought I’d been married. That had just been a matter of waking up in bed next to the man I tho
AmayaI talked to Kristo, who thought it better for me to grab an over the counter test. He picked me up and even went into the store to get it himself. We drove to a cute little diner that he loved, and I left him sitting at the table, his knuckles white and eyes a little wide. His words rang in my ears from the car ride over. “I’m sure you’re fine,” he promised me. “Just a little food poisoning, that’s all.”I didn’t have the heart to tell him I hadn’t eaten anything heavy enough to warrant this kind of reaction the last few days and, instead, just waited in the office with him until we were called in. “Everything’s going to be okay, baby.” He squeezed my hand. “I promise.”I was glad he was there by my side, but I was having a hard time believing him, even though I wanted to. My heart twisted in my chest as I tried to think about everything it could be—not food poisoning but maybe the flu? Perhaps just tiredness from working my fucking ass off since what felt like the beginning o
KristoI helped her to bed, and she crashed face first into the pillow and passed out right away. I sat on the edge of the bed and stroked her hair, watching her, wondering what the hell we were going to do.She wasn’t happy. I could tell that. She hadn’t said a word about getting rid of it, thank goodness, because I’d known as soon as I’d seen her walk back into that room, pale-faced and panicked, that I wanted to keep this kid. I would have let her make the final decision, no matter what, but I was glad I wouldn’t have to fight her on this one.In the meantime, we had so much to talk about. I was still racking my brains as to how she had even gotten pregnant, but I guessed we had been hooking up a lot these last few weeks. Maybe I had forgotten to use a condom one of those times in the rush of it all, in the thrill of finally having her be mine. I hadn’t wanted this baby, but as soon as I’d seen her walk out of that room, I’d known it was the perfect thing to fill out our little fam
Kristo“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy,” she remarked nervously, fiddling with a loose thread on the side of the bed. “I mean, it’s going to change everything. And your family—”“My family has already dealt with the weirdest shit from the two of us these last few months,” I reminded her. “I really don’t think this is going to upset them. You know how long my nonna has been waiting for great-grandchildren? She’ll be here every day, helping out.”“Yeah, that’s what I’m worried about,” Amaya joked, and then she shook her head again. “But with Jolene, I don’t know.”“Amaya, not everything can be planned in advance,” I reminded her. “I know you like having control over everything, but you need to let go. If we’re going to have this kid, you can’t bother clinging onto order. Everything’s going to change, and you need to be all right with that.”She looked at me and bit her lip. I could see the fear on her face, sure, but I could also see the excitement, too, buried underneath it.
AmayaI took a deep breath as I sat at the desk and then followed it with a sip of my ginger ale. I picked up one of the crackers to nibble on, and some of the nausea began to recede. All right, well, that was a start. If I could get through a day at a time like this, I was going to be fine. The sickness wasn’t going to stop, but I could at least find ways to distract myself. Work was providing a decent excuse for that for now, but I didn’t know how long I would last here before I needed to take some time off to look after myself and the baby.The first thing I had done was let my manager know I was pregnant so nobody could accuse me of hiding this to try to hold on to the position. There was quite a bit of work I could do from home, which was a relief, so I wouldn’t have to give up the job entirely, but I would have to step down and let someone else fill in the gaps for me while I was away. I already had my eye on someone to do just that.“Hey.” Darla stuck her head around the door,