Just a Positive Pregnancy Test - London Casey Page 0,24

said. “Is he going to be accused of a crime?”

“Knocking up my little sister should be a crime,” Crosby said.

“Shut up,” I said.

“I’m sorry about what happened,” Ma said. “It just seemed that when he showed up… trouble followed… I’m going to assume that won’t happen again. I’d like to see him. All of us would.”

“Yeah, okay,” I said. “We’ll have to-”

“Trouble.”

We all looked as Edith held out her cellphone.

“What?” I asked.

“You just said something about Silas and bringing trouble,” Edith said.

“Yeah,” I said. “So what?”

“Zeke just called,” Edith said. “We’ve got trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?” Crosby asked.

Edith sighed. “Well, apparently Tyler and Silas are trying to kill each other, right now.”

Chapter Twelve

SILAS

Tyler and I weren’t done yet. While we weren’t throwing out the biggest and best punches, we weren’t giving up on each other either. Tyler landed a punch to my stomach and I threw him back into a filing cabinet as I tried to catch my breath.

“What the fuck did I do that’s so wrong?” I asked.

“Oh, now you want to talk?” Tyler asked.

I laughed. “I wanted to talk the second I walked in here. You were looking for a fight. You wanted this to happen. I’ve passed all your tests and you hate it.”

Tyler came toward me and I lifted my fists.

“Tests?” he asked. “There were no tests.”

“Yes, there were. You want to protect your family. So do I.”

Tyler grabbed for my shirt. I knocked his hands away.

We both dropped our fists and went nose to nose.

At the right corner of my mouth I tasted blood.

The left side of Tyler’s face looked a little swollen.

And, yeah, a part of me felt guilty.

Tyler had a daughter to face. Little Lucy would have to see her father with a few bumps and bruises and would have ten thousand questions.

“You’re lucky, Tyler,” I said.

“I’m lucky, huh?”

“Yeah. I would have ripped your face off if it wasn’t for Lucy.”

“What does Lucy have to do with anything?”

I shoved him away. “I didn’t want to scare her.”

Tyler came charging at me again. “You really thought that?”

He slammed his hands to my shoulders to toss me back but I didn’t move.

“I’m capable of thinking beyond myself,” I said. “Unlike you.”

Tyler cocked a fist back.

The office door opened and in rushed Crosby.

“Holy shit,” he said.

“Great,” I said. “You called your brother for help?”

“I didn’t call anyone,” Tyler said. “I don’t need anyone to fight my battles.”

“Look at you two,” Crosby said. “This office is trashed too.”

“Get out of here, Crosby,” Tyler said. “This is between me and Silas.”

“You don’t like that your brother likes me, right?” I asked. “I’m sure if I told Crosby I wanted to give Mila her dream house, he’d be okay with it.”

“You want to do what?” Crosby asked. “Is that what this is about?”

“Crosby, get out!” Tyler roared.

“I can’t,” Crosby said. “You two have no idea what…”

He looked over his shoulder for a second and then stopped.

He suddenly looked afraid.

There was good reason for it.

Next into the office came both Olivia and Mila.

The looks on their faces said everything.

I looked at Tyler and he looked at me.

Yeah, we were both in trouble.

“We’re just working things out, darling,” I said to Mila.

“You shut up,” she snapped at me. She looked at Tyler. “I don’t care how this happened. It shouldn’t have happened.”

“He’s in my office, Mila,” Tyler said.

“Shut up, Tyler,” Olivia said. “Your sister is right. And it goes for both of you. You morons. Fighting each other? You almost gave poor Zeke a heart attack. Silas, you just got back into town. You just found out you’re going to be a father. And this is your reaction?”

“I came here to-”

“She wasn’t done talking,” Mila said.

“Don’t cut her off,” Tyler said.

“I’ll knock you out, Tyler,” I said.

“Oh, this is wild,” Crosby said.

“I don’t care why you came here, Silas,” Olivia said. “This is the message you want to send?”

“No,” I said.

“And you,” Mila said to her brother. “After everything I’ve been through lately. And what Silas has gone through. This is how things are going to be again?”

“Hey, wait a second here,” Crosby said. “I kind of want to know why Silas came here. I mean, a call would have done the trick too, right?”

“Stay out of it, Crosby,” I said. “It’s not your business.”

“Oh, man, you’re mistaken. In the Justa family, everything is our business.”

“Look at your faces,” Mila said. “You look like idiots. Complete and total idiots. I can’t believe this. I just…” She put a hand up and