Chapter Twenty-Five
"Daddy, I'm pregnant."
"Annie, José's back."
What? I whip around and peer into the living room, as if I'm expecting to see José sitting on our plaid couch. He isn't anywhere to be seen, of course, so I turn my attention back to Ray. He's standing there looking as shell-shocked as I feel. I'm not sure which one of is more surprised at this moment.
My eyes flick over to Christian, who's still standing just inside the door, the bag of food we brought for Ray at his feet. I see his hands curl into fists, as if ready to pummel José if given the chance. And then the oddest thing happens to the entryway. The walls start to close in, shimmering with black flecks, the air is thick and hard to breathe, and then the whole room gets dark and starts to rotate slowly around me.
The last thought that goes through my head is how funny I must look, standing there confused about what's happening to the room. And the last thing I feel is a pair of strong hands grabbing me before everything goes black.
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"... think we should call an ambulance."
"... give her a minute, son…"
"She's been through so much… couldn't take…"
"... going to be a father? Not sure I agree with your timing… you love her… and I know she loves you."
The words are swirling around in my head, getting louder as I near the surface, until I break free and feel my eyes flutter open. The first thing I see is the little brown water stain in the ceiling. I had a pool party for my Barbies in the sink when I was seven, ended up flooding the bathroom. I smile at the memory and then turn my head to see my husband's beautiful profile and his head of copper curls. He's kneeling on the floor, holding my hand, but he's looking down and he doesn't look happy… not like the Christian who hasn't been able to wipe the grin off his face all week. He looks worried.
I reach up and run the fingers of my free hand through his curls, and his head immediately raises, gray eyes searching my face. "Anastasia… thank God," he breathes.
I pull myself into a sitting position on the couch, tucking my legs under me, getting my bearings. "I fainted? I've never fainted before. How long was I out?"
"Just a few minutes. How do you feel?"
"My head is pounding and I don't know… shaky?"
Christian turns to my dad, who I now see is perched at the edge of his recliner, also looking worried, and asks him for some juice and Tylenol.
No one speaks again until I've taken the pills and drained the glass of orange juice. Finally, I break the silence, willing myself not to panic again. It's not like José is here-here, my dad would never allow that to happen. "What's going on Daddy? What did you mean when you said that José is back? I thought he was in prison."
"I'm sorry, Annie… he is in prison. I probably should have led with that," he says, giving a nervous laugh. "He's in a federal prison in Lompoc, California. He's awaiting a trial date on the charges of fraud, of falsifying documents. Apparently, he had a nice little set-up down there… putting his photography to use, helping others with their papers as well."
Oh.
"Annie, you didn't know anything about it, did you?"
"No… no I didn't. I hardly ever left the apartment," I say. "I didn't know."
"Good," he says, sounding satisfied at my answer. "Because you're going to have to testify, probably in court in Santa Barbara. They're going to serve you with papers, Annie. I'm almost sure of it."
I take a deep breath in and let it out. I suppose that, deep down, I knew that my connections - my marriage - to José wouldn't be severed so easily. "Well, if it helps to keep him where he belongs, then that's what I have to do."
Christian's shaking his head. "Surely they can just take a statement from her. She didn't have anything to do with it. To make her go all the way down there and face him -"
"I know, son, but I don't think it's going to be that easy. We're just going to have to ride it out, see what happens."
"When? When do you think it will happen? I'd rather get it over with before -" I start to gesture to my middle, but then stop when I realize that we haven't really gotten to talk to Ray about the pregnancy yet. But maybe he and Christian were talking about it? I'm not sure. Before what? Before I start really showing. Before I have to waddle into a courtroom, with dozens of pairs of eyes scrutinizing me, to face him.
Ray shakes his head. "I doubt it will be until after the first of the year. It's likely to get dragged out over months, and the courts are backlogged… But tell me, sweetheart, when can I expect my grandchild to arrive?" Now he's smiling, leaning forward in expectation instead of anxiety.
"Around the beginning of April," I say. "I know it's really soon, Daddy… but we didn't plan -" I stop, not really wanting to go into detail about our failed birth control and my husband's unexpected virility. That skirts too close to the line of actually discussing S-E-X with my dad, and that's a hard limit for me.
"Both of you listen to me. I know that I tend to be a man of few words, but I will tell you this. I may not completely understand what you two have… when it started, how you've settled in together so easily. But I do know this. You are healthy and happy, and whole in a way that I wasn't sure I would see again. And for that I will always be thankful. It's all any parent can ever ask. The rest of it's just… details. Now. Did you bring one of your lasagnas or what?"
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"Hey, let's stop and surprise Kate on the way home," I say as we pass the signs for Sea-Tac, nearing the 405 interchange that will take us east to Bellevue. "We can introduce her to Gulliver."
"You're sure you want to face the Kate Kavanagh inquisition after all that with your dad?" He asks.
I laugh at his accurate description of Kate's direct way of getting answers from people, particularly me. I'm pretty sure she had her suspicions before, but she held back because it was my wedding day and because she was distracted by Elliot. Unlike my dad - who definitely does not want details - she'll want to know exactly how, when, where, and in what position this happened.
That's something that I'd like to know for myself, but - let's face it - we had a lot of sex over the summer, like two people who have waited a long time and who have complete faith in their birth control. I've pretty much decided that it was the night of the meteor shower, when we sat out in the Adirondack chairs on the patio after dinner, watching the shooting stars. Eventually, I got cold and ended up on his lap, which led to pants coming off, me straddling him and… I squirm in my seat just thinking about it. It just seems so magical and fitting - conceiving our baby under the stars. Christian's convinced that it was one of our quickies in the shower. I guess we'll never know.
My own life has been such a whirlwind these past few weeks, and I haven't given much thought to if something happened after she and Elliot left that night. In fact, I never even mentioned my suspicions to Christian. The Greys all left to go back to Colorado the next day, so it's not it was anything more than a one-night fling.
We reach Kate's building, and Christian enters the code to the indoor parking garage. I have the code memorized, and I still have my key from the time I spent here last month. I direct Christian to Kate's second parking spot, and he pulls in next to her little black Mercedes CLK.
I'm practically dancing in the elevator as I hold a still-sleepy Gulliver to my chest - partly out of excitement, and partly because I really have to pee.
Christian's just standing there, smirking as he watches the show. "Are you all right?" He finally asks.
"I gotta pee really bad," I say. "So I'm gonna unlock the door and let Gully go sniff out Kate and surprise her. And, meanwhile, I'll sneak down the hall to the bathroom."
He rolls his eyes, but agrees to go along with my plan, even if it is technically an invasion of Kate's privacy.
I quietly unlock the door to Kate's loft apartment and set Gulliver down on the floor. "Go find Kate!" I whisper to him, giving him an encouraging little push. Gully hasn't met Kate before, but he's a sucker for new people, confident in his ability to bring them swooning to their knees to give him pats and belly rubs.
Christian and I tiptoe behind him as he trots down the little entry hallway into the main living area. I'm about to skirt off to the right, toward the bathroom, when I spot movement - very distinct movement - from the couch. Someone's bare back and ass are visible as they bob up down and - oh God. Kate has a guy in here and they're… oh God.
Christian stops abruptly beside me, and I can practically hear him cursing my plan in his head. Whoops! Okay… okay… so we'll just grab Gulliver, tiptoe back out of here, and -
An ear-splitting, female shriek of surprise fills the air, and I know that Gully's pink tongue has found its target. Too late. The are several moments of scuffling and a "What the fuck?" before Elliot pops up, pulling a pair of jeans on as he stands. It only takes him a split second to recover from seeing Christian and me standing there, frozen and slack-jawed, before he grins and says, "Hey."
"Hey Elliot," I giggle, the shock wearing off and the absurdity of the situation setting in.
"Elliot, what the fuck are you doing here?" Christian growls. "I thought you went back to Colorado with the rest of the family."
"I did, but I came back... on business. I've been looking to expand Grey Construction into a new region. Seattle's a good fit with a lot of… benefits."
At this, his latest benefit appears beside him, with Gully in her arms, having managed to find and secure a satin robe around herself. But, in typical Kate fashion, she's not embarrassed by the situation or deterred by the two Grey brothers having a stare-down. Her eyes immediately zero in on my middle and I look down at myself. My gut, no doubt helped by three servings of lasagna and a full bladder, is definitely protruding, pushing tight against my jeans and t-shirt.
"Whoa, Steele," she says.
"Um, I need to pee," I say quickly, dashing off down the hall. Maybe if I take long enough, the Kate Kavanagh inquisition will be re-directed at Christian, and over by the time I get back.
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By the time we're headed home, across the I-90 bridge over the dark waters of Lake Washington, Christian is relaxed - full of Pagliacci's pizza and a couple of beers - and able to see the humor in the situation. He and his brother reached an agreement over their second beers. Elliot will keep quiet about the baby until we've had a chance to tell the rest of his family. And Christian will keep quiet about us catching him making the beast with two backs with Kate on his "business trip."
Kate, of course, is thrilled about the idea of becoming an auntie. She says she has the best end of the deal - she gets to shop for baby clothes without actually having a baby or losing any sleep. And she kept going on about something called a gender reveal party, which involves either colored frosting or balloons full of glitter.
My head starts to droop as I'm trying to figure out how they get the glitter in the balloons, thinking that it's just all been too much. My dad, the news about José, the fainting, Kate and Elliot - which was entirely my fault - and now glitter-filled balloons. I can't…
"Next weekend's that trail run at Lake Padden, you know," Christian says as he turns up the Lake Hills Connector toward home.
"Mmm," I answer, willing myself to stay awake. The Lake Padden trail run is up near Bellingham, where Olive and Matt live. We talked about going up there for it, but that was earlier this summer. Back when we assumed that the four of us would be friends. And before the two of us became the three of us.
"You wouldn't have to run the race," he continues. "It's only a 5K and you could walk it, jog some if you want."
"Mmm," I say again, and I know that he knows that my lack of enthusiasm is not because of the race.
"Ana, you know that we need to try talking to them again, to make them see how good we are together. And we need to do it soon," he pauses and reaches over to squeeze my knee.
"I know… before I turn into a whale," I sigh. "Fine, we can go up there. But you do the talking. Deal?"
"Like I did with Kate and Elliot? Like I didn't know you were hiding in the bathroom?"
I just shrug. No comment. He knows I have the upper hand here.
"Fine. Deal."
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Happy Valentines Day, everyone! As always, thank you for reading and reviewing! ((Smooches!)) xoxo