Once Upon A Half-Time: A Secret Baby Romance (46 page)

He pulled me onto the couch with him. I rested my head on his shoulder just like when I was little.

“You haven’t, Mandy. How…did this happen? Is it Nate’s?”

“How did you—”

“I told you. You can’t keep anything from your dad…” He flinched. “Except a pregnancy, I guess. But I think I would have figured it out after a couple months.”

“Probably.”

“Do you care about this boy?”

I nodded. “I do. But…he didn’t take the news well.”

Dad tensed. “Why? What did he do?”

“He offered to marry me.”

Dad’s sigh of relief was unnecessary. “Sounds like he did the right thing.”

“No, he didn’t. No one understands. Dad, I can’t marry him because of a baby. We’ve only been together for these past three months, and during most of them, I was hiding.”

“Hiding?”

“I’ve been trying to keep this a secret until after the wedding, when I could tell everyone without worrying about pissing Lindsey and Mom off. I tried to avoid everything that happened just now, and it went even worse than I could have imagined. Nate’s mad. Mom’s lost it completely. Lindsey is furious.”

Dad tugged me closer. “Mandy, what’s the real reason you kept it secret?”

“Real reason?”

“I know you. You’ve never hidden from anything in your life. You face your problems head on…or, you used to. Why did you really hide?”

I didn’t ask if he meant hiding the truth from Nate or the rest of our family. I swallowed.

“Our family has been through enough,” I said. “I wanted one event that might have made us feel whole again. Everyone’s been fighting and angry. I thought if I took the brunt of all the insanity, maybe I could keep everyone calm enough to…I don’t know. Be a family again, if only for a night.”

I felt stupid saying it, like I was a little girl who couldn’t understand why her parents split. I did understand, but that didn’t mean I liked it. Dad ruffled my hair. I smirked.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I haven’t been taking your divorce very well,” I said.

Dad chuckled. “In case you hadn’t noticed, neither have I.”

“It’s just…no one seems happy. I always thought love would be like…a fairy tale. You’d know the instant you were meant for someone, you’d get married, and it’d be…perfect.”

“There’s your problem,” Dad said. “There is no perfect relationship, just like there’s no
right time
for a baby. Every couple is different. They love and they hate and they desire each other, and none of it is the same for other people. Don’t measure your possible happiness based on the misery of others. Not when you deserve to experience all the love in the world.”

“But what happens if it fails?”

“Marriage is not solely about
love
. It’s work and commitment. I don’t believe any two people are
meant to be
, but I know plenty of people who rely on
fate
and
chance
to solve their problems. You have to nurture your relationship. That’s the secret of marriage, and that’s why mine failed. And it’s also why I’ve been trying to get your mother back. I know how it should be done now.”

I sighed. “I can’t believe you’re so forgiving.”

“Your mother forgave more.”

“But even after Marcus Washington, you’re still chasing her.”

Dad stiffened. He frowned at me. “Marcus?”

I arched an eyebrow. “She’s…been having an affair with him.”

“
She what
?”

Oh shit.

I leapt off the couch. “I thought you knew! You said you had forgiven her!”

“
Forgiven
her? I didn’t even know they…she’s having an
affair
with Marcus?”

“Yes! Remember? I walked in on them at the country club!”

“The
country club—
”

Dad froze. His eyes immediately averted from me, and he swallowed, hard. “Oh. You think…” He cleared his throat. “Okay, kiddo. That wasn’t Marcus Washington with your mom.”

God, that was a relief. “Then who?”

“That…was me.”

And the need for therapy returned. Great. Mom wasn’t having an affair. She was just fucking the brains out of her estranged husband.

Ew.

“Oh, thank God.” I covered my eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t recognize you from…that angle.”

“I’m all right with that.”

“
What
are you doing back with Mom?”

Dad looked even more ashamed, but he sheepishly shrugged. “It just happened. I’m sure
you
can relate. We got caught up in the moment.”

I nodded. “I can’t get out of my moments with Nate.”

“You sure it’s just a moment now?”

“I don’t want it to be.”

“Then you better tell that boy and tell him quick. It’s easy to fall in love, but it’s hard to make a relationship work.”

“Do you think he’d even…”

“Want you?” Dad pulled me into a hug. “That boy has loved you since you were kids.”

“He…has?”

“A father always knows. You tell him you want him, and he’ll be tripping over himself to buy the cutest damn onesie he can find for that baby.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because I have two babies of my own, given to me by the woman I love. No man in his right mind is going to walk away from that blessing.” He didn’t let me cry. His smile helped to rebuild what had been shattered. “Now you have a wedding to get ready for.”

I shrugged. “Lindsey doesn’t want me there.”

“The wedding wouldn’t have happened without you. Your sister is like your mother. They won’t ask for help, and they get…defensive when they’re scared. Right now, your sister is scared. She needs you.”

“What if she gets upset that I crash the wedding?”

Dad picked up the bridesmaid dress from my bed and handed it to me. “Good thing you know best how to calm your sister down. Get changed. I’ll take you to the church.”

I twisted the dress in my fingers. I wished I hadn’t teared up when I said it, but at least Dad was a little misty too.

“You know I love you, Mandy-Pandy.”

I smirked. “When the baby comes, I hope I’m half as good a parent as you are, Dad.”

“And I hope you have a child just as perfect as you.”

T
he tux wasn’t mine
.

Just my fucking luck.

The jacket was too tight over my arms and chest. It must have been Josh’s. I figured Bryce mixed them up when he left my tux in a pile of formal wear bundled on my bar. My bartender said he was pissed when I didn’t show for the rehearsal dinner.

Except I had been there.

And I witnessed everything I needed to see.

I ripped the jacket off, but the rest of the tux fit like shit too. I’d have to fix it at the church.

If I went.

I spent all night trying to figure out what the hell to do, and every twisted thought in my head led to the same resolution.

I had to get Mandy back.

I was an idiot for leaving after she told me about the baby, and an even bigger idiot for trying to sort through this shit without her. Christ, it had only been two days since she revealed the truth to me. How the hell had she dealt with that monster of a secret for three
months? Alone
.

It still pissed me off that she hadn’t told me, but it didn’t matter now that the truth was out.

Mandy was mine, and I’d be damned if I sat by and let another man take her from me.

The church was packed. The wedding party had crashed inside one of the Sunday school rooms. I hauled Josh out of the clouds of hairspray and shrieking, tipsy bridesmaids attempting to fix Carmen’s melted hair extensions. He wasn’t happy about swimming in a tux two sizes too big for his scrawny ass frame.

I patted his shoulder and pointed him towards the bathroom so we could switch.

“
There
you are!” Bryce charged at me. “Where the
fuck
have you been?”

Suddenly my best friend sounded like his former, non-wedding planning self.

“Sorry,” I said. “Something came up.”

“Dude, this is my
wedding
. If it isn’t perfect, Lindsey is going to have my balls for the next fifty years,
if
she doesn’t kill me first.”

“I know. I’m here now.”

I searched over the insanity that was the staging room. Music played, panty hose ripped, wine bottles toppled. If it wasn’t for the church, I’d have thought the scene was out of one of my old parties.

I couldn’t find Mandy. That didn’t mean anything. Knowing the Prescotts, they tossed her into the rafters to light the candles with flint and steel or ordered her outside to trim the grass with a pair of manicure scissors.

“Where’s Mandy?” I asked. “I gotta talk to her.”

Bryce actually flinched. “You didn’t hear?”

“Hear what?”

“I thought she would have told you. There was a…problem earlier.”

A
problem
?

Oh no. My vision hazed, and my heart nearly ripped from my chest.

Something was wrong. What if I got her upset? She was stressed. What if I hurt her?

Jesus fuck, what if something happened to the baby?

The kid was so new to me, but goddamn did it feel real. I’d sulked in the middle of the night, pissed and raging after the rehearsal dinner. I didn’t know what to do, so I hopped in the car and toured Target’s baby section. I bought the cutest damned onesie I could find.

Green, cause Mandy didn’t tell me the gender. Not that it mattered. I just wanted the baby

And I wanted to raise him or her with Mandy.

My voice caught, ragged and pained. “What happened? Is she okay?”

“She had a fight with Lindsey at the salon. She’s kinda…” He apologized with a shrug. “Uninvited to the wedding.”

“
What
?”

“It’s been one hell of a day.” Bryce slapped my shoulder. “Thanks for showing up. We’re lining up in fifteen minutes.”

Son of a bitch.

I couldn’t stay for this. Knowing Mandy, she’d be goddamned radioactive now. I wasn’t about to let her get upset and endanger herself or the baby.

“I gotta go find her,” I said. “Sorry, Bryce.”

“Nate,
no
!” Bryce trembled uncontrollably. “
Please
, dude. Find her after the ceremony. Don’t leave or Lindsey will kill me.”

I already wasted enough time fucking with my own idiocy. I hated to dick around more, but I couldn’t screw over my best friends.

I’d call her. Make sure she was okay. Then, as soon as they said
I Do
, I’d be gone.

“All right. Josh and I gotta switch tuxes.” I pointed him towards the bathroom again.

“No. Stay here. Sandra has to go over the routine once the ceremony starts. You weren’t at the rehearsal. You don’t know what to do.”

I grunted. “I walk Carmen down the aisle and stand on your side of the altar. It’s not rocket science.”

“It’s a
wedding
. It’s worse! Change here.”

“
What
?”

“I swear to God, Nate—”

“Fine.” I waved him off. “Whatever. Josh, strip.”

Josh was a nervous kid who went into accounting because he didn’t like working in open spaces. I hated causing someone’s nightmare to come to life, but we didn’t have a choice. His fingers trembled just unbuttoning his coat.

Our shirts switched first. I kicked off my shoes and unbuckled the pants, but Lindsey’s shriek echoed over the church.

“Oh, no you don’t, pretty boy!”

Bryce panicked upon seeing his bride and turned away, hiding his eyes. I wasn’t lucky enough to have permission to flee.

Lindsey tripped over the layers upon layers of fluffy white lace and whatever they used to puff the wedding dresses out like old-school princesses gowns. She poked a finger in my chest then aimed south.

“Oh no. I know what you’re firing down there.
Your
pants stay on.”

“These…aren’t my pants.”

“Well, you’re not getting in Mandy’s anymore, so
forget
it.”

“Thanks…” I gritted my teeth. “But I’m trying to get in Josh’s now.”

Lindsey snorted. “Well, at least he doesn’t have a uterus. Knock yourself out before you knock someone else
up
.”

If my pants weren’t at my ankles, and if every bridesmaid I’d slept with wasn’t staring at the moneymaker I used to knock up the bride’s innocent little sister, I’d have let Lindsey know exactly what I thought of her damn wedding. Instead I kicked the trousers to Josh and worked on buttoning the dress shirt.

That’s when I saw the son of a bitch.

Mandy wasn’t here, but her knight-in-shining-armor dared to show his face. Granted, I couldn’t fault the best man for attending his brother’s wedding, but he had a lot of balls to confront me.

Too bad mine were bigger…and very nearly on display for the bridal party.

Rick wasn’t a classy bastard, but he thought he was witty. He glanced at my boxers and gave me a goddamned smirk.

“So who’s the lucky lady today?”

I didn’t give him the pleasure of an argument. This was only gonna get settled one way.

I reared back and swung, punching him clean on the cheek.

“Jesus
fuck
!” Rick howled and staggered backward.

Rick wasn’t a physical guy, but he never backed down from a fight. Today was no different. He leapt at me, pushing at my chest.

“What the hell is your problem?”

The bridesmaids all squealed a different octave of drunken harmony. Rick swiped for my jaw, but I dodged his punch.

I decked him again. “What the hell are you doing
proposing
to Mandy?”

Rick made the mistake of getting too close. I captured him in a headlock and rammed his back into the wall. A crucifix fell, and the wedding party shrieked. Bryce tried to peel me off his brother.

“I gave her an option!” Rick swore. “In case
you
didn’t!”

“Fuck you! You had no idea what I was going to do!”

“Neither did Mandy!”

Jesus. I’d put his goddamned head through the wall. We grunted, and I blocked his kick.

“I trusted you, man. When Jada hit on me, I turned her down because I knew she was your
wife
. But the instant Mandy gets upset, you offer to
marry
her? What the
fuck
!”

“I wanted to be there in case you didn’t take responsibility.”

The rage stiffened my spine. I launched at him, pummeling him with three more blows.

“That’s my
baby!”

The bridesmaids abandoned their posts, kicked off their shoes, and rushed me with their bouquets. A nasty arrangement of roses smacked my head. They hadn’t stripped the thorns. The barbs dug into my ear and ripped. Another bridesmaid whipped my ass with her bouquet. A third bit my elbow.

Lindsey screamed at us both, an empty champagne bottle raised for the final blow on whichever one of us assholes she punished first.

A startled voice squealed from the doorway. The room silenced. Rick and I froze.

“What are you
doing
to each other?”

Mandy rushed between us, pushing us apart. She stared at me and Rick, her eyes wide with shock.

“Nate, what are you doing? Why are you fighting? And why aren’t you wearing
pants
?”

Rick shoved me away. “Don’t worry about it. We’re fine.”

We were so far from
fine
I couldn’t spit to reach the line he crossed. He straightened his tux and tossed me my pants.

“Nate just had a crisis of conscience,” he said.

I rushed him. “You son of a—”

Mandy stopped me with a hand to my chest. “Stop it! We’re all friends! Back off.”

My anger dissolved. Mandy wore the same hideous bridesmaid dress as the other girls, but only she filled it out right. Her silken, dark skin complimented the god-awful teal, and the soft curls of her hair fell over her shoulders and chest. She was the most beautiful woman here, but she flinched away when I reached for her.

“
Don’t
,” she whispered. “I can’t believe you’d hurt Rick. What’s wrong with you?”

“You know what’s wrong. We have to talk.”

“
Now
?”

“Yes, now.”

She shook her head. The bride stormed towards us in a cascade of taffeta.

“Now isn’t the time, Nate.”

“What are
you
doing here?” Lindsey pointed at her sister. “I thought…I thought you weren’t coming.”

I expected Mandy to tear up. Instead Lindsey immediately wept. She fanned her face and stomped a foot. Mandy took her hand.

“I wasn’t going to miss your wedding,” Mandy said. “Even if you didn’t want me here now, I think we’d both regret it when we’re all old and grey and cranky.”

“Speak for yourself, noodlearms.” Lindsey sniffled. “I’m already cranky.”

Mandy’s lip trembled. “I know you are, muffinbutt.”

The girls hugged, holding each other tight. Rick thought he’d get a handshake out of it from me.

I wasn’t as forgiving as
noodlearms
. He’d have to buy a round for me first.

Mandy pulled away from her sister. “I brought you some things.”

She reached for her purse, offering Lindsey a gold class ring from the front pocket.

“Something old,” Mandy said. “You used to wear this all the time.”

Bryce swore. “Goddamn it, Lindsey. I thought I lost that damn ring.”

Lindsey clutched it to her chest. “No. I stole it after our first anniversary. Sorry, babe.”

Bryce grabbed it from her hands, shoving it on his finger with a grumble.

“Something new.” Mandy gave an apologetic shrug as she handed her sister a red air freshener for a car rearview mirror. “I was…kinda in a hurry at the gas station.”

Lindsey tucked it into her bouquet. “It’s okay.”

Mandy offered her the picture of our sonogram. “Something
borrowed
. I want that back.”

“Oh…” Now she sobbed. “This is
amazing
.”

“And something blue.” Mandy smirked handing her a folded card. “Or…something indigo.”

The sample wedding invitation looked as hideous now as it did then, but Lindsey actually smiled.

Mandy shrugged. “I couldn’t let you get married without some luck.”

“And I couldn’t get married without my little sister.” Lindsey pulled her into a hug. “I’m sorry I yelled and banished you from my wedding.”

“I’m sorry I let you think you could banish people.”

Sandra broke up the girls, flittering between the two of them before lamenting that Mandy’s hair would have to stay down while they walked the aisle. She clapped her hands.

“We’re officially behind. Let’s move it! My baby has to get married!”

She hustled from the staging room, leading the bridal party. Damn it. I reached for Mandy, but Rick already took her arm.

Mandy didn’t look at me, and Rick’s nose still bled. She gently touched his swollen brow, repeatedly apologizing for
my
behavior.

Fuck. She was going to hate me.

I had to talk to her, but the music strummed from above. The church’s string quartet group began their set. We took the stairs and waited for our cues to head into the sanctuary.

My eyes never left Mandy.

I searched for her between the ruffles of teal and half-busted bouquets. She waited for her cue in silence, and she walked arm-in-arm with Rick as Maid of Honor and Best Man.

He was responsible. He was kind and caring. He might have taken excellent care of her.

But I wasn’t losing Mandy to him. I couldn’t.

She took her place beside the altar, and her eyes averted from me. My pulse beat out-of-sync to the music.

How could I have been so stupid?

The instant she’d told me about the baby, my heart split in two and grew double in size, beating for her and my unborn child. I should have stayed. She deserved better than my shock, and she deserved more than a proposal of convenience.

I never planned to settle down before, but now I couldn’t imagine a life without Mandy.

I blew my first chance, but I wouldn’t ruin the second.

If she’d take me back.

The bridal procession filled the church. The pews packed with family and friends. They stood as the wedding march strummed.

Lindsey was a hellcat, a raging bitch, and the craziest damn woman I knew, but she did look beautiful. She held her father’s arm and trembled while she walked down the aisle. Conrad hugged her before giving her arm to Bryce. She held on and whispered something in his ear.