Baby For The Mountain Man

“By the way, you should know that everything is fine with your brother now. We talked. He’s okay with us.”

At that, I couldn’t help smiling despite how freaked out I still felt about everything. That was at least one weight lifted off my shoulders. “Then it’s even more all right.”

“Here, sit down. Relax,” Anderson said, walking me over to the couch in the living room.

“I’m fine, really,” I said. “You don’t have to keep pampering me like this.”

Anderson smirked. It was the first time I’d seen him smile over the past few hours, which had honestly had me quite worried. I couldn’t recall ever seeing him so angry before, although I knew his anger was strictly toward Zander rather than the other circumstances around us. But it was hard, for both of us.

“You better get used to it. After all, you’re carrying my child. I’m going to spoil you rotten from now on.”

I smiled and shook my head, although that felt like the second weight that had been lifted off my shoulders. “What am I going to do with you?” I said.

He winked. “I have a few ideas. Maybe I’ll show you in a little while.”

I shook my head and chuckled.

“Do you need anything?” he asked, his tone turning serious once more.

“Um…yeah, hand me my phone. Let me call Tobias.”

Anderson nodded. “Yeah. I know he’s dying to hear from you by now. I told him you’d call once I got you settled in,” he said as he brought my purse to me.

“Thanks,” I said.

“I’ll be right back.”

I watched Anderson disappear farther into the apartment, and then I took a deep breath and called my brother.

“Joanna! Are you all right?” he said the instant he answered.

“Hi, Tobias. Yeah, I’m all right.”

“I’ve been so worried about you,” he said after a long pause. “And…I have to tell you that I’m sorry for the way I acted. For the way I overreacted. I was out of line. I’m sorry.”

I swallowed against the lump in my throat. “Thank you,” I said.

“So, you sure you’re okay? Everything else is fine? You can disagree with me if you want, but it’s time to do something about Zander now.”

“Yes, I know that.” And I genuinely meant it. I had gone into complete shock when Zander attacked me at Libby’s house. We’d got into a bad fight, resulting in me throwing a vase at his head, but missing and breaking a window instead. Neighbors heard the crash and began knocking on the door, trying to check if everything was all right. Zander had made a run for it, escaping out the back door. And then I’d sat on the floor for a long time, in complete shock I guess, more scared than I had ever been in my life. I didn’t know what to do, and I was terrified for the baby. Even worse, I had been terrified to call the police or ambulance. I was in denial, and had fallen into the illogical thinking that if I didn’t say anything, I could pretend nothing had happened, at least until I snapped back to reality and was ready to face it. The next thing I knew, morning had arrived, and then police and an ambulance started showing up on the premises even though I hadn’t touched the phone.

“Joanna, you still there?”

“Yeah,” I sai

d, snapping out of my thoughts. “Anderson is already on the case. In fact, he said he was going to see you about finding some of the best private investigators and lawyers to handle Zander.”

“Yeah, I’ve already started looking.”

“And Tobias, there’s something else.”

“Yeah?”

I waited for a moment, halfway hoping he would tell me that he already knew because Anderson had already told him. But from the way he quietly hung on to the line, I realized I didn’t have that luxury. I took a deep breath. “I’m pregnant,” I said and laughed nervously afterwards. “Hope you’re looking forward to being as doting of an uncle as you are a big brother.”

There was another long silence and I halfway thought he somehow hadn’t heard me.

“Wow. Congratulations, sis,” he finally said. “I’ll be looking forward to meeting my future niece or nephew.”