Happily Ever All-Star: A Secret Baby Romance - Sosie Frost Page 0,41

tossed a napkin into his lap.

“Aurora!” And yet she yelled at me. “What is going on?”

Like it was my fault Eric was picking stuffing out of his ears and corn from his nose.

I didn’t have a choice. I had to come clean, especially since we were never getting the stains out of Jude’s dress shirt.

“Mom…” I swallowed, hard. “Jude is pregnant, and I’m the father.”

Jude’s wine spilled during the brawl. He grabbed the bottle instead. “So close.”

Damn it. “Wait. I’m pregnant. Jude’s the father. That’s why I wanted to talk to you today. I’m sorry, Rick. Grandma. Eric already knew.”

Eric disagreed. He roared, crashing his dining room chair over the table.

Regan’s china shattered to pieces. So much for my inheritance. At least he hadn’t broken Jude’s neck.

Not yet at least.

“I didn’t know shit!” Eric’s shout carried over the house. “I had no fucking idea this son of a bitch was the father!”

“Please…” I said. “We’re all friends here.”

“No. Not anymore. This is unforgivable.” He pointed a trembling, gravy soaked finger at Jude. “This isn’t how a friend treats the people he cares about. A friend doesn’t fuck his buddy’s little sister. A friend uses a motherfucking condom!”

To demonstrate, Eric ripped the pack of three from his wallet and threw them at Jude. They bounced off his chest and landed on Grandma Mildred’s plate.

Mildred, practical as always, dried them off and stuffed the pack in her bra. She patted Rick’s arm.

“For later,” she whispered.

Rick chugged his wine.

Regan didn’t let Eric charge again. She pointed him upstairs to cool down. He didn’t listen. The front door slammed behind him, and his car peeled out from the driveway.

That…went worse than I’d expected.

Silence fell, broken only by Grandma Mildred. She patted Jude’s hand.

“I was holding out for you, my boy, but I suppose I better let my granddaughter have you.”

Jude nodded. “Sorry to break your heart, Mildred.”

“No worries, son. That’s what a pace-maker is for.”

Regan stared at me, that perfect façade cracking as her dinner dripped off the table, peeled from the walls, and coagulated in Jude’s lap.

“Pregnant?” She repeated the word as if the greatest doctor in the state hadn’t heard it before. “I…can’t believe this. How could you be so careless? You had so much potential, Aurora. This will ruin your career.”

I forgot to bring my BINGO card, but I was pretty sure that in fifteen seconds I’d cleared a full row. “It wasn’t easy telling you this.”

“Easy? It shouldn’t be! I’m…” Regan shook her head. “I’m very disappointed with you, Aurora.”

“It’s not the first time.”

“And I’m sure it won’t be the last. Jude…” She excused herself from the table, but she didn’t look at Jude, only Rick. “I apologize for the way my son reacted.”

Jude stood. “Regan, I just want you to know how much I care about—”

The kitchen door swung shut.

“—Rory.”

Mildred dragged her dinner roll through a puddle of gravy. “Good lord. When I was young, all the bears prowled around the honey hives. They’d get stung, we’d have a wedding, and seven months later we’d meet a lot of fully-grown, premature cubs. That was how it worked. No wrestling through the potatoes needed. You hear me, Rory?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I know what you mean.”

“These things happen, child.” She patted my hand. “Ain’t nothing to it. Part of life. We’re gonna have a baby around here, and that’s always a blessing, no matter how many side dishes we wash off the ceiling.”

“Thank you, Grandma.”

“Now you go get your man a shower…or some bread to soak up the juices. I’ll talk with Regan.”

I hated this part. I apologized to Rick with a shrug. “I’m so sorry for all of this.”

He savored a bit of Regan’s yams and shrugged. “Believe it or not, this is the most peaceful dinner I’ve been to all week. My brother and his wife, Lindsay, aren’t anywhere near as polite as your family.”

I found that hard to believe.

Jude took my hand and walked with me out of the house. It helped. We reached the Jeep with a smidgen of our dignity.

“I’d say it went well,” he said.

“You think?”

“I’ll talk to Eric. He’ll be okay.”

“Regan’s mad.”

“You knew that would happen.”

“She’s…really mad.”

Jude took my hand. Nothing was going to calm me down, but he shook the crumbs from his pony tail and mercifully changed the subject.

“We can get a pizza on the way home.”

I bit my lip and yielded to the craving. “Or maybe…some strawberries?”

“Deal.”

He started the car, but I didn’t let him drive. I took his hand.

“I’m sorry,