Pregnant with the Bad Boy

51

“I’m sorry, who is Linda?” Grant looked at us all as I watched Dad mutter something before answering defeated Grant's charming searching smile.

“She is my girlfriend…” he stopped as if he wanted to say more and I looked meant him where he sat and he sighed now and was about to knock out his plate that mom gave him where she stood and laughed quietly that he was ashamed before us. 

“Jennifer and Amanda have a younger brother, who I have with her…” he looked pleadingly at mom who just smirked, I was glad that she had received some kind of redress for what he had done to her.

Grant looked confused and I realized that I did not say much more about my parents than what came up when I met his side.

“Dad was cheating.” Mandy's voice was harsh but a little amused to see Dad shift in the chair where he sat, and Grant's eyes lit up with understanding for the situation.

“I'm not proud of it? okay?” He was looking at us all now and I smiled at him, maybe he had finally understood what he had done to us as a family and not just that he had been unfaithful to his wife.

“They are divorcing.” I nodded at his now gloomy face as he already understood it and I hugged his hand under the table and smiled encouragingly, I did not know that he would be so sad to hear about my parents' divorce.

“I'm sorry.” He raised the glass as if toasting it and mother raised her wine glass where she stood with and dad after some hesitation held up his hand with his beer how ridiculous it was in his eyes, I watched as Mandy raised his glass and I mine with, it felt special, like we said goodbye to the old and everyone drank in silence.

“Okay. Now we eat.” I said the words relieved when Grant laughed at me and the others looked relieved, I could hardly believe it, Grant had helped my family to get an end to something that had torn us apart, I looked at him lovingly when he got a plate of mom with way too much on and he smiled at me as I sat and winked stupidly at his question he seemed to be asking.

“Do you want me to give you?” He looked at me now and I nodded at his question, how I was so lucky to have him in my life I would never understand.

I took the plate with the pot and my mother looked at me lovingly as if she finally understood what I had meant when we last spoke, that I could love him even though I still had my love for Dylan in the background.

Dad did not look angry anymore either when he smiled and laughed at what Grant said now and Mandy just stared at him now and then, but she mostly listened to what was said for once and I looked around happily when I took another bite. of the amazing stew my mom made, I think it may have been the tastiest I've ever tasted in my entire life.

“Mom, this taste amazing, what have you done?” I looked at her in surprise as she just took a bite and looked at me in wonder but with a smile that did not know what I was talking about.

“This can be the best stew you've ever made! Ever.” I said the words seriously and she laughed and pointed at Grant who winked at me, I laughed back of course that it had been him who did something because it tasted fantastic like everything else, he touched.

“We can tell that on your second serving.” My mother's voice was amused, and it was happy, I assumed that the wine helped a little, but I understood that she was happy, that she might stop worrying about me not to eat, as I did not want to do anything else when Grant made something.

“I'm pregnant, I can eat as much as I want mom.” I laughed to myself as she herself put her laugh in her throat and immediately became serious to my surprise.

“So, is it still the same? Do you feel the same way?” She looked at me and Grant when I had to think about what she meant before I nodded and filled in for the others who were not in our conversation the other day.

“We have agreed that when the baby is born, I will let Grant be the father.” I looked nervously around the room when my mother nodded as if she was okay with it now and my father shrugged as it was the smartest thing I could have done.

“Good, then I'll never have to see that bastard again.” he took another bite which he rinsed down with beer and I looked at Mandy who looked at me in surprise, she was Dylan's last defense in this household.

“But it's not his kid?” She looked at us confused and I shrugged as if it did not matter and she got a darker tone, I understood her, she had adored him, no matter what she said outwardly, I with if I would be honest.

“Mads… I want to move on, and the last time I heard anything about him even was that he was in Canada…” I tried to make her understand but she only looked accusingly at me.

“But you love him, how can you just let him disappear and then pretend you do not have a kid together then?!” She was upset now, and my mother was about to say something when I held up my hand, I wanted to answer her myself as I looked straight into her beautiful blue eyes and smiled tenderly at her anger.

“Yes, I do, and I will always do.” She looked more confused now that Grant took my hand and kissed it, I was so happy that he understood by all people.

“But he left me Mandy, I've done everything I can to get him, he doesn’t want to talk to me, or see me anymore.” I did not want to cry but it was already too late when I wiped a tear from her cheek and exclaimed sobbing in front of her cooled anger.

“I can’t wait for him anymore… for him to come back, because he isn’t Mads.” I said the words sadly when she blinked a couple of times as she was about to start crying and I wanted to go forward and hug her now, I knew she had been waiting for him with. I had seen it in her.

She crossed her arms for a while and stared down at her plate and angrily pulled invisible tears from her cheek as I only looked at her grief, another heart that Dylan had broken. I sighed heavily at having to have her grief on my conscience with.

“f**k him.” she looked up at us crying and I smiled at her and let go of Grant's hand before I walked around hugging her hard, my tough sister who did not need anyone.

“f**k him.” I said the sentence again and Dad said out loud now that he was going to speak for us.

“f**k him!” I laughed until my mother mumbled the same thing, I never thought I would hear her say and I looked at Grant now, he just smiled lovingly at us and I let go of my sister who quickly pulled away the remaining tears.

“Do not worry, you will make some boy very miserable in the future.” I said the words playfully and she pushed me lightly on the arm when I went back to my place laughing, it felt like I was floating on clouds, my family felt… okay and we were together, I looked at Grant again who took my hand and kissed it again, his eyes looked gratefully around at us, as if it was something he had never seen when I leaned against him and smiled relieved to be told everything.

“I'm going to marry Linda. When the divorce is complete.” Dad's voice was heard, and everyone was silent, apparently not all secrets were out yet when he looked at mom's face that looked hurt for a while before she nodded understandingly, and I just looked at him.

“Are you going to remarry?” I probably looked hurt too, I had forgotten Linda for a while no matter how awful it sounded.

Dad did not answer and the rest of us sat quietly as it was Grant who said something only when he smiled at Dad as if he was happy for him and I had a bad conscience, I should be happy too.

“My congratulations.” He smiled and Dad nodded gratefully that someone felt that way when I looked annoyed at Grant, what was it really to congratulate? He looked at me as if he knew what I was thinking and raised his wine glass to his mouth before answering.

“Why would that be so wrong? they are going to divorce and it's sad but if your dad wants to remarry someone, he loves we should be happy about it, not cry over the love that is dead.” His voice was a little drunk now and I sighed, of course everything was so easy for him.

“Is it that simple?” I looked at his sincere eyes that looked back into mine with love now.

“Why not? I want to get remarried with you one day.” I stopped completely when the cold in my stomach hit as it always did when he said something that completely stunned my feelings for a few seconds to make them flare loudly so they burned in me.

I ignored my family's surprised faces for a few seconds as I just stared at him, I had thought he would never do it again after Veronica.

“I thought you told your family they would have to wait until hell froze on it.” he laughed, as he had really said it but I knew that was how he had meant it.

“That was before you.” He leaned forward and touched his nose on mine and I just smiled stupidly against his burning eyes, damn what I loved him so much.

“just so everyone knows so no weddings yet? Okay?” Mom looked at me sharply now and I shrugged at her resignation.

“I said one day Grace, not tomorrow.” His words reassured her at once as she remembered what I had said about Dylan and I nodded in agreement with what he said, one day. It felt very nice to know that.

“did you say you were remarrying? So you've been married before?” Dad's voice was not harsh anymore, on the contrary, he looked at Grant now with kind eyes and I closed my eyes, damn, now he would have to tell about Veronica. I hurried to try to say something else as I did not know what he felt about it as Grant held up his hand and just looked at me calm as if there was no danger and I sank down to his side, what a birthday this was.

“I'm been married once, yes.” He sat up as he leaned back and they looked at his honest face in surprise.

“I was married to my college girlfriend Veronica.” I shudder at how he said her name and my mother quickly looked at me as if wondering if I did and I nodded minimally and she looked at Grant again who continued to talk silently.

“we did not know better so we got married when I was 22 and she was 21…” he looked at me quickly and it felt like my neck had been laced up that she was as old as me when they had married together and I looked down in my water glass, why did it feel even more awful now?

“where is she now?” Dad's question was so innocent but it had so much pain with it when he turned around completely and looked at my nervous parents.

“she's dead.” He smiled sadly at them and I put my hand on his arm and smiled consolingly at his grief.

“how?“ I was the one who had asked now, he had not told and I wanted to know everything about him. when he looked at me and smiled at me as if he did not want to tell but he would do it for my sake.

“she had just come out of the house we lived in, I was just going to go inside when she would just pick up something she forgot at work or something like that… and a man came who was in too much of a hurry at the red lights and drove into her side of the car so it overturned several times.” He was silent now and I felt bad, I wanted to vomit, and I kept my mouth shut as if I would do it soon.

“She died instantly, which was perhaps just as good when she was crushed under the car.” I now ran to the kitchen and vomited up everything I had eaten when he sat still and looked ruined, no wonder he never talked about it, the love of his life had died in an instant, a whole life he had had that was gone. Right in front of his eyes.

I leaned over the sink when I took water and dried my mouth quickly, I did not want him to sit there himself so I went back and sat down next to him and took his hand, the only thing I could do it felt like.

Mom made the sign of the cross and Dad just looked blank, like he did not know what to say, I just held his hand tight, and Mandy cried in the corner, I looked at us all, we were completely devastated by what he told us.

He looked up at all of us and smiled blankly now, as I had never seen him before and I promised myself never to ask that question again as I could see how he saw it in front of him every time he closed his eyes now.

“I'm sorry.” Dad's voice was hollow and I just at him broken down by what he had told me, I wished I could take his pain, but it was his grief to bear.

He shook himself, as if to get the image out of his head and drank more, I looked at his movement with the glass, as if he was doing it without thinking right now and it hurt me when he said that he drank himself wasted the first years and now when his memory tormented him it came back, without him noticing it when I put my hand on his arm as he was just about to pick up the wine glass again and just looked questioningly at his now somewhat drunk face, he would really have more?

He must have understood what I was doing and put the glass down quickly and looked at me remorsefully as if he was ashamed of how badly he had control over himself right now.

“are you okay?” I whispered the words to his ear and pulled my arm over his waist around where he was all still taken over by what had happened to Veronica so many years ago.

“she was pregnant when it happened.” I was the one who said that when I wanted them to understand why he was so okay with me being that and mom looked more white in the face now and dad's grip became harder on the bottle again, not out of anger this time but out of helplessness we all looked in Grant's face when I said that and he put his arm around me and pulled me close to him and I looked at my parents who did not know what to say yet and Mandy who was still sniffing in the corner when she looked up at us with a determined voice.

“I'm glad you met him, really Jen.” She smiled now even though she was red crying and I nodded, so was I.

I saw that they refused to understand, in some strange way they understood why he was so understanding of everything that had happened to me, and those who would have been a death blow to other relationships had not stopped us, because we had both lost our hearts before we found it in each other again.

“Grant has helped me so much more than you know to be… alive again…” I looked at him lovingly when he got back the glow a little at a time when he looked at me and I kissed him quickly on the cheek when he had his hand over his stomach as if he wanted to come back to the present and look at me with his big brown eyes that gleamed beautifully when they lay on me.

“we see that.” mother's voice was tired but not as it used to sound, she was happy and finished after what had come out, me with.

“I'm happy as long as you're Jenni.” Dad smiled warmly at me and I smiled back at him in the same way, I was so happy that they seemed to have accepted Grant, especially so shortly after Dylan.

“Okay. I've had enough of all the serious emotions for one night.” Mandy stood up and just smiled at us before she left without saying anything more and I laughed that she sounded like an elephant on the way up to her bedroom when mom and dad looked at each other quickly, they looked away again and I saw amused that they seemed together for real now.

I smiled at their interaction when dad got up and he went up to mom and put his hand on her shoulder which made her smile foolishly at him, they looked like teenagers where they stood, I knew they were over, but for one for a short time it seemed as if they remembered when they were young and had fallen helplessly for each other.

“I'm leaving tomorrow Grace…” he smiled at her when she nodded and he left the kitchen after hugging me quickly and shaking Grant's hand again, this time nice and hoping they would see each other soon.

“I'm retiring for tonight. Happy birthday my sweetheart.” She came forward and hugged me softly and I put my arms around her slender body and drew in her scent that smelled of roses and detergent.

“Thanks mom.” I whispered the words as she just smiled calmly at me and put her hand on Grant's arm unexpectedly and looked at his surprised face.

“You can stay if you want Grant.” She smiled when he got a charming smile again, as if nothing had happened and he had not sat apathetically for a while ago.

“Thank you, Grace.” He nodded at her kindness, and I laughed to myself as she looked at us one last time and then walked silently up the stairs and disappeared.

We stood still and I turned to him now, I just wanted to be with him and took his hands in mine as if never to let go of them.