Caught In A Riptide
Chapter Twenty-one
Arlo
"Dad…" Lakely whispers, the sound ragged and wrapped in misery.
CJ's face is hard, but Jane's doesn't seem to be able to settle on any one emotion as they move closer, off the sidewalk and onto the gravel path leading up to the stairs.
"Is it true? Twins?"
CJ's eyes aren't on me when they pause a few feet away. They're on Lakely as she trembles in my lap.
Swallowing hard around my resentment and anger, I dip my chin in a nod, drawing his eyes away from her. His expression hardens as he stares me down, but I'm not scared of him. Not at all.
Especially not when Dad lifts out of his crouch and straightens up, one hand gently squeezing my shoulder, the other tucked swiftly into his pants pocket—but not before I see him ball it into a tight fist.
Papa Bear is angry.
"I can't believe you've done this," CJ finally says, and honestly, I'm not sure if his words are meant for me or Lakely.
Either way, it doesn't matter.
"You don't get to play the disappointed parents right now," Lakely bites out, her voice as wobbly as her legs when she lifts off my lap to take a few slow steps toward her parents. I hold my breath and take a leaf out of Dad's book, stuffing my hands into the pockets of my shorts to stop them doing something I probably wouldn't regret, but should.
Like wringing their necks.
"You lost that right when you kicked me out onto the street when I needed you the most."
"Needed…" Jane trails off, and it seems like she didn't really mean to say that out loud.
"Yeah, needed." When I tuck my arm around Lakely's waist, fingers twitching toward her stomach, I feel her relax as she adds, "I don't need you now. I don't need your negativity or your judgement. I'm going to make it without you."
She doesn't completely sound like she believes it, but just her standing up to them makes me proud as fuck.
Jane takes a big step closer, my anger igniting white-hot as CJ reaches out to grab her arm, holding her back. I don't want either of them anywhere near Lakely or our baby—fuck, our babies, plural—but I hate that he's keeping her away. Lakely is acting tough now, but I know her. I know my girl.
I know that under the bravado, under the fierce look on her face and the bite in her tone, is a soft sweetheart who desperately wants her mom and dad to hug her and tell her all this will be okay. God knows I've soaked up as many of my mom's hugs as possible in the last couple of weeks. Nothing fixes shit like her scratching my head like when I was a kid while she promises that she's here, she's going to help.
"How could you do it?"
All eyes turn to Mom as she folds her arms over her chest, a confused frown on her face, the sting of betrayal strong in her voice.
"This isn't you, either of you."
Jane and CJ straighten up, and the masks covering their emotions snap back into place.
"We're not just going to sit by and—"
"Sit by and—what?" Mom scoffs, losing her patience pretty damn quickly. "Instead of supporting your daughter, instead of being the good people, the good parents, I thought you were, you threw her out onto the street. She's pregnant, she's not a criminal."
"No daughter of ours is going to act like a common whore and continue to live under our roof."
Lakely flinches in my arms, but I don't get a chance to unleash the fury rising in me like lava in a volcano.
Charlotte sucks in a gasp behind me—I'd forgotten she was even here—as Dad strides straight down the steps until he's right in CJ's face. He's got a good few inches on him and a whole lot of weight, and CJ knows it.
But he doesn't need any of that.
He has the fact that he's right on his side.
"Unless it's an apology and—or an explanation for your really goddamn shitty behavior as of late, I don't think we need to hear another word out of your mouth, CJ," Dad grits out through clenched teeth. "I don't know what the hell has gotten into you two, but the people I knew? The people I was friends with? They would never do this. I've never been more disgusted with two people I used to trust with my life, with my kids' lives. That young woman over there?" He doesn't look away, but he tosses his thumb over his shoulder, toward Lakely. "She's one of the most mature, kind, level-headed young women I've ever met. I have no doubt that having not just one, but two babies is going to be incredibly hard—for both Lakely and Arlo—but cutting them off and resorting to high school name-calling is absolutely fucking ridiculous. Your kid is acting more grown-up than you."
Go, Dad!
There are times when Dad makes it plainly obvious just how lucky me and my siblings are to have him as our dad. This is for sure one of them.
I can't see his face, but I can see CJ's.
They've been friends for years now. We've had cookouts and pool parties together. I swallow hard, a swell of betrayal joining my resentment and anger. They watched me grow up. I trusted them. I don't anymore. Honestly, I could kick the shit out of CJ, and if it weren't for the fact that I'd never hit a girl...Jane would be toast, too.
Biologically, they're the grandparents of my babies.
If I get my way, they'll never meet them.
If I get my way, they'll never get the chance to hurt Lakely the way they are right now, the way they did when she told them she was pregnant and they turned their backs on her.
CJ is glowering while Jane's expression has gone blank.
Lakely stiffens in my arms, but I'm not sure if it's because of what Dad just said or the fact that CJ and Jane aren't fighting him at all. They just start to walk away, like this was a random altercation on the street, like they're not walking away from their daughter.
"Don't you even want to ask how I am?"
CJ doesn't stop walking, but Jane's steps falter as she glances over her shoulder and tugs him to a stop. For a moment, just a moment, I think I see regret in the face of a woman I used to think of as an honorary aunt.
I feel Lakely release a long sigh as she deflates, and follow her without thinking when she closes the gap. When we're just a couple of feet away from Jane and CJ, she reaches into the purse slung over her shoulder and pulls out one of the spare sonogram images Uncle Dale printed out. Staring down at it for a few seconds, she finally holds it out with a trembling hand. I hold my breath and bite my tongue. They don't deserve this, but Lakely…
Lakely does. If this helps, if this helps her feel even the slightest bit better, I can keep my mouth shut.
CJ doesn't move a muscle, but Jane...I feel my eyebrows lifting when she glances up at his face before taking the sonogram print-out with a hand as shaky as her daughter's. CJ huffs before resuming his swift steps in the opposite direction, pulling Jane with him.
~ oOo ~
When we get home, Mom and Dad take some time by themselves out by the pool.
I catch a glimpse of him stroking her face as she tips it back toward the sun and realize they're decompressing, calming down after the intense confrontation with their—I guess, former—friends.
The house is weirdly quiet with the sixers all at Nana and Papa's, but it'll fill up later when they come back and Jaxson and Finley arrive. I grab a bottle of soda and a big bag of chips, then tow Lakely by the hand to the den, figuring we might as well make the most of having some peace and quiet.
The den is down in the basement and it's one of my favorite areas in the whole house.
We have a couple of huge L-shaped couches, a bar Dad and my uncles built out of beach wood, and a massive flat screen over a cabinet filled with all our favorite movies. This is where we all crowd when we have movie nights, and Lakely is no stranger to those, so it doesn't surprise me when she immediately finds her spot.
Smirking, I grab a couple of glasses from behind the bar and flop down beside her, wiggling closer so we can both wedge ourselves in the comfy corner.
We've done this probably hundreds of times, but once she's picked a movie and we've settled in to watch, I realize it feels totally different this time.
When she exhales a soft little sigh and adjusts to lean against me, I hesitate a second before letting the arm draped around her shoulders slip down behind her back so I can rest my fingers over her belly.
There's no bump there yet, but I bet it won't be all that long.
Especially with twins in there.
It doesn't take long before I realize I'm not concentrating at all on the movie.
Twisting around, I pull my arm from behind her and get cozy with my head in her lap. She doesn't protest, so I stuff a pillow between my head and her thighs, staring at her still-flat stomach as I try to picture it getting big enough to fit two babies.
When her fingers slip into my hair, absent-mindedly toying with the strands, I'm distracted again.
Humming, I let my eyes slide closed, thoughts shifting to something I can only imagine.
How we got into this situation.
My stomach flips as I picture it, us, on the beach in Miami. As I imagine myself kissing Lakely, sliding my hands into her chocolate curls, pulling back to see her butterscotch eyes hooded and wanting. The image feels funny when I try it on for size, like a too-big pair of shoes.
But then I peel my eyes open and flick a glance up, and I'm trapped.
Caught in the depths of her gaze as she frowns a little and stares down at me, fingers still threaded into my hair, my heart speeding up to pound against my ribs as she blows out a soft breath. "What are you thinking?" she whispers.
"About that night," I admit in a whisper as soft as her own, briefly wondering if I regret it when her eyes widen in surprise and what looks a little like panic. "I don't remember anything."
It takes a second and the tension leaking from her body for me to realize that her reaction was because she was worried I'd remembered something.
"Do you prefer that? That I don't remember, I mean."
"I...don't know," she says after a long pause. "I feel awful that you don't, like I took advantage of you or something, but it's still a little weird to think about it." Her cheeks flame. "I mean, it's you, and I'm just…"
"Beautiful," I breathe with a small grin, reaching up to tuck a stray lock of her hair behind her ear. "You're beautiful, Lakers. And I'm glad that, out of everybody, you're gonna be my baby momma."
She snorts and shakes her head, eyes crinkled with the force of her smile. "Do not call me that. Christ, Arlo."
"What? That's what you are, Lakers," I laugh, sitting up a little. "You're my baby momma. Those tiny aliens in your belly, they're our babies," my voice gets thick, "and you're gonna be the best momma."
I watch her eyes get misty as she sniffs, cheeks still bright red as she sucks in a big breath and slowly lets it out through her nose. "I'm so scared, especially now we know it's twins, but I'm glad it's you, too. I couldn't...I don't know what I'd do without you."
Second-guessing myself for maybe a few seconds, I tell myself to get over it and lean up to catch her in an Eskimo kiss—something we used to do a bunch when we were kids and everything was innocent.
Her eyes soften, and I feel her gentle giggle as I grin and rest our foreheads together.
"You're never gonna have to find out, Lakers. I'm here, with you and our twins, and I'm not goin' anywhere."
I can see questions in her eyes—questions I'm going to have to answer at some point, I'm sure—but she doesn't get a chance to answer them.
"Arlo! Lakely!" Mackenzie or Asher yells from the top of the basement stairs. "We're home and it's nearly dinner time!"
~ oOo ~
As expected, Jaxson and Finley die when they show up and I take them aside to tell them about the twins.
"No fuckin' way," Jaxson guffaws, slapping my back and using me to hold himself up while Finley tries—barely—not to crack up, too.
"Quit it," I grumble, dragging them around the corner out of view of the windows. We're not telling the rest of the family yet. We figure it can be a surprise, kind of like when Mom and Dad announced they weren't having one baby, they were having six.
"Congrats, little brother," Finley finally says, wrapping his arms around me while Jaxson catches his breath. "You just had to go and make it ten times harder on yourself, didn't you?"
"Ten?" I laugh, shaking my head. "No, two, bro. You should know what twins are better than anyone."
"Yeah," Jaxson pipes up. "Hard fucking work. We're twins, so we know."
"All right, way to give a good pep-talk, Jax."
He snorts and tugs me out of Finley's grasp, draping one arm around my shoulders and chucking my chin. "You know I love you, Lo. And all kidding aside, we're proud of you for stepping up. Not many kids your age would, especially with everythin' you're gonna have to give up."
"Give up?"
Finley shoots a weird look at Jaxson and he might as well yell 'abort mission' at the same time, he's that obvious.
"What? What's with the look?"
He turns gray eyes on me, Mom's eyes, and sighs. "Have you made any decisions about college?"
Dropping onto the end of the closest lounger, I admit, "Nothing concrete. I don't know, but I guess Stanford is out now."
It's dumb, but in the back of my mind, I guess I've been harboring just a little bit of hope that I'd get to have my cake and eat it, too. That we'd have this baby, or babies, and I'd still get my dream of going to Stanford, playing soccer, and eventually becoming a star like Brody Weller. That's always been the dream.
Except, maybe, that dream needs to change?
"Have you talked to Mom and Dad about it?" Finley asks, squeezing my shoulder as Nana pokes her head outside to call us in for dinner.
"Not yet. I will," I promise, "it's just...I don't know. It's a lot."
"Yeah, but that's why you need to talk to them, dumbass." Jaxson rolls his eyes. "Talk to them, Arlo. They'll help you figure shit out. You only have, what? A few months before you need to make a decision?"
"February," I murmur, realizing I'm down to four months. I have just four months before the letter of intent needs to be signed and I need to make a decision on where I'm going to go to school next fall.
If I'm going to school.
Don't most teen parents end up dropping out?
"C'mon, bro," Finley sighs, mustering a reassuring smile. "It'll all work out, don't worry."
"Yeah."
Lakely can obviously tell something's up, but she doesn't push, not with everyone gathered around the table. Mealtimes at the Cullens' are always a noisy, busy affair, especially when Jaxson and Finley are home. Nana and Papa are here since they brought the sixers home and got roped into staying for dinner, and Pops was already supposed to be here. It's a full table, and I find myself watching Lakely for the most part, soaking in her laughter and smiles as she gradually relaxes.
Seeing her chilled out like this makes me unclench.
In the grand scheme of things, I'm lucky. I have a great life, a great family, great friends.
If Stanford doesn't fit into that anymore, that's something I'm going to have to just man up and accept.
I'm so distracted by thoughts of colleges closer to home and their soccer teams that I miss the warning signs.
"Oh!" Nana gasps, managing to catch Lakely's soda glass before it tips over completely as she jumps up from the table.
Everyone falls deathly silent as she runs down the hall to the bathroom.
"Something I said?" Papa teases, everyone slowly starting to return to their food as I stare, wide-eyed, across the table at Mom.
"What do I do?" I mouth, pursing my lips when she imitates the clenched-teeth emoji and half-shrugs.
Shit.
"Is she sick, sweetheart?" Nana asks, placing her hand on my shoulder, and I suddenly regret sitting next to her because she's perceptive as fuck. There's no hiding anything from her, which is why I drop my gaze to my plate and pick at my food.
"Uh, no, she's just, uh…" I have no idea what to say. Literally, zero.
Apparently, Asher doesn't have that problem.
"It's probs 'cause she's prego," he says around a mouthful of steak and potato, shrugging when all eyes turn to him. "What? That's what happens, right? Mom always says she got sick a lot when she was havin' us, and Lakely's havin' twins so that's, like, a third of the sick?"
It's quiet enough around the table that we all hear the toilet flush down the hall and Lakely's footsteps on the hardwood as she emerges, still pale but obviously mortified.
How the hell does he know?
Suddenly, I remember him yelling for us earlier and wonder if he was actually on the stairs down to the basement, not just at the top of them like I thought.
Did he hear us talking? I guess he must have.
"I'm so sorry, I think I must have eaten something bad at school…" She trails off when I swallow hard and turn to face her, and I guess my expression says it all. "Oh, God."
"The cat's out of the bag," Dad chuckles ruefully, reaching over his shoulder for Mom's purse on the island. Fishing a familiar white envelope from the pocket inside, he holds it out over the table toward me, nodding when I hesitate.
I can feel Nana and Papa staring at me as I suck in a big breath and take the envelope with trembling fingers, scooting back so I can join Lakely as I slip the sonogram strip out. As soon as they spot the back of the images, they know what I'm holding. They've had kids and a billion grandkids; they're no strangers to a sonogram print-out.
"Oh my God," Nana breathes, one hand over her mouth, the other squeezing the shit out of Papa's on the table.
"Sixers, Nana, Papa…" My eyes catch Pops' as he winks and mouths 'you got this.' "Lakely's pregnant, and it's...it's not just one baby, it's two. It's twins. We know we're young and dumb, so we're probably gonna rely on you guys a whole lot to help advise us and stuff. We're gonna step up and do the right thing, though."
Lakely curses under her breath, but she's smiling just a little when I thread our fingers together and give them a squeeze.
"We just found out today that it's twins. Apparently, one of them was kinda hiding behind the other one in our first scan a couple weeks back."
"Wait...so you are having two babies?" Asher asks. I grin when his left eyebrow lifts while Mackenzie's right copies. "I thought it was just Lakely."
"Uh-huh," I nod. "You're gonna be an uncle."
Fuck. The sixers are gonna be uncles—or an aunt, in Rylee's case—at the age of ten.
"Uncle Mac." Mackenzie grins and nods. "I like it."
His excitement quickly spreads through the sixers until they're all bouncing in their seats and volunteering to help with bottles and snuggling babies—offers I reckon we'll definitely be accepting once we're exhausted from being up at all hours while also navigating school.
I'm gonna need a job, I realize, making a mental note to ask Dad if he'll hire me over at Burger Co.
Nervous, my pulse lightning fast, I drag my eyes over to Nana. She's got tears spilling from her eyes, but before I can freak the hell out, her lips spread in a shaky smile and she's flying out of her seat to grab me and Lakely in a hug.
"I could wring your neck for being so irresponsible, Arlo Maxwell Cullen," she starts, Lakely choking on a surprised laugh, "but my word, I'm proud of you two for standing up and doing what's right."
"Thanks, Nana," I croak, a lump lodging itself in my throat when Papa joins the group hug next, arms wrapping around all of us as he kisses the top of my head, then gently pats Lakely's cheek.
"This makes it official, you know," he tells her with a twinkle in his eye.
She cocks her head, brushing a stray tear from her cheek. "Makes what official?"
"You're stuck with all of us now. You're one of the family."
As her butterscotch eyes meet mine, a fresh round of tears welling up, I wrap her up in my arms and kiss her temple, just like I have a hundred times before, not one of them meaning one iota of what this one does.
We're gonna be parents, Lakers.
And with the help of my—our—awesome family, I think we're gonna be pretty good ones when our babies are born in March next year.
~ oOo ~
Over the next few weeks, we ignore the whispers and the bullshit at school.
We slowly come to grips with the idea that we're having not just one, but two freaking babies early next year.
Soccer practice is gruelling, which is nothing new—but having college scouts sitting in the stands during almost every game is.
Having Lakely up in the bleachers while I practice isn't new, either. Heidi usually keeps her company up there, or if he's not practicing, Tyler hangs out.
At first, I hate it. I hate looking up at Lakely only to find her laughing at something he's said and done.
Then, one day, he doesn't show up and Lakely chills on her own until I drive her back to the apartment above Burger Co. where we stuff ourselves with Pad Thai fries and fried chicken until Heidi 'fesses up on Tyler's behalf.
"Wait...you and Tyler?" Lakely says, deadpan and confused as fuck, just like me. "You...and Tyler?"
Heidi video-called, so we see her shrug as she grins wickedly and tugs Tyler into view by the collar of his shirt. He looks embarrassed, but I grin when he ducks back out of view and I spot the hickey already developing on his neck.
Aw, yeah. I definitely don't need to worry about Tyler anymore. Heidi's for sure got her claws—and teeth, apparently—into him.
As twelve weeks turns into thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, then sixteen, we spread the news about the twins to the other members of my extended family.
My uncles, the ones not already in the know—Emmett, Benjamin, and Jasper—all think it's equal parts hilarious and terrifying that their goofy nephew is having kids of his own, but they're supportive.
Just like their wives, who put a scowl on my face by turning to Lakely to offer their condolences for having to deal with me for the rest of her life.
She blushes bright red and laughs her ass off while I sulk like a toddler, but when Aunt Everly shoots me a wink and blows me a kiss, I realize what they were doing.
Putting Lakely at ease.
It hasn't escaped anybody's notice that between the celebration and serious talks about how tough this is going to be, about how grown-up we've got to act now, Lakely doesn't hear a peep from her own parents. What kills her more is that she has no way to contact Austin, and since Jane and CJ have turned into massive assholes, they're not letting him over to see the sixers, either, so she can't even sneak time with him that way.
It frustrates the crap out of me that they're punishing her like this, but there's nothing I can do. Nothing I can say that will fix this.
So, I do what I do best, what I can do better than anyone else.
I make her smile.
When I catch her morosely flicking through pictures of herself with Austin, I remind her of the time we took him to the fair and he threw up all over CJ's shoes when we overloaded him with candy and dropped him home before heading back out to a party with our friends, leaving CJ to deal with him.
When Mom texts us both a picture of the shirts she's ordered for her and Dad to wear at our gender reveal party, and Lakely's eyes well up because her parents should have 'Meema' and 'Poppa' shirts too, I get Mom to send me the link to the site and order Lakely a 'Donut Lose Your Sprinkles, We're Having Twins' tee.
When Uncle Dale scans the babies to find out their genders and grins like a pig in shit when he writes them down before handing them to Uncle Sullivan to organize our gender reveal, I squeeze Lakely's hand and tell her one of them has to be a boy or I'm gonna be seriously outnumbered.
And when our gender reveal finally arrives one cool Saturday afternoon in October, our family and friends gathered in the back yard as Uncle Sullivan drops the balloon weights into the pool so they hover a few feet over the water, I kneel to kiss her itty bitty bump and flash her a grin.
"What's your final bet?"
Smiling down at me, she pulls her lip between her teeth and glances over my head at the black balloons. "Two boys."
My eyebrows lift. "Two boys huh?"
She shrugs, running her fingers through my hair before her cheeks flame and she quickly snatches her hands back. "I don't know. Two little Arlos running around? It would be cute."
Kissing her belly again, always hoping to feel the twins kicking around even though Mom says it sometimes takes longer with first pregnancies, I stand and pull my 'So Happy It's Twins' tee over my head, leaving myself in just swim shorts. "I'm rooting for a mini clone of each of us. A little you? Fuckin' adorable."
Her gaze softens and the blush staining her cheeks intensifies.
I'm starting to wonder if it's me that causes that, 'cause I swear, almost everything I say at the moment seems to coincide with her blushing as red as a London bus.
"All right, Romeo," Uncle Sullivan chuckles, tugging me by the shoulders toward the pool. "It's time, pal. You ready?"
"As I'll ever be," I grin, looking around at everyone waiting sort-of patiently.
Mom and Dad are giddy, a few feet away with Jaxson, Finley, Finley's girlfriend Haley, and the sixers. My grandparents are here, too. Aunts, uncles, friends, cousins...all of them. Jake even managed to make it with Quil, and I guess some time away from him has mellowed Lakely. She even smiled when he arrived.
And in five months, there'll be two more Cullens.
We just need to find out if they're gonna be mini Arlos or cute little Lakelys.
Sucking in a big breath, I take the pins from Uncle Sullivan and tug Lakely over to stand right by the edge of the pool so Lexi, the photographer, can be sure to get her reaction when I leap off the side and stick these balloons. If all goes to plan and I pop them, a bunch of dye is going to explode into the water, coloring it either pink, blue, or a mixture of both.
Personally, I'm hoping to turn the pool purple.
An expectant hush falls over the yard and I decide to just rip off the band-aid, shooting Lakely one last grin as I leap off the edge of the pool, arms and pins stretched toward the balloons.
I hear them burst, then a cheer goes up as I hit the water with a splash.
I'm so, so close to being done writing this, so you'll get the reveal in a few days, don't worry. Last chance to get your guesses in, though!
As always, all my love and gratitude goes to each and every one of you, and to my wonderful team of ladies who keep me on track and help make the words pretty-annaharding, maplestyle, and hotteaforme
xo