You Were Meant For Me (Wishful 10)

Guilt immediately washed over her. She was upset, confused, but he was only being kind and supportive. She dropped to her butt and turned, intending to apologize…and saw her father standing in the hallway behind him, his jaw slack with shock.

Tess dropped her head against her updrawn knees. “Shit.”

“Pregnant?” Trey’s shocked stutter from the hall had Mitch closing his eyes.

She was supposed to have said yes. They were supposed to announce their engagement and give everybody a little while to get used to the idea of the two of them as a couple before they sprang the news of the baby. But she’d said no, and now the secret was out with no preparation, no forethought, no means of damage control. Absolutely nothing was going the way it was supposed to. Could this day get any worse?

No. Mitch knew better than to ask that question. Everything could always get worse.

Knowing it probably would before this was over—especially for Tess—he backed out of the bathroom. No matter how frustrated he was right now, he’d do whatever he could to shield her from the backlash.

“Take however much time you need.” He shut the door and braced himself. He’d never dreaded facing his family before, but he dreaded this. What would they say? What would they do? Didn’t matter. Mitch turned to find all of them trailing down the hall in a line, staring with various degrees of shock and confusion.

Trey’s mouth opened and closed like a fish. “Did she say pregnant?”

Mitch kept his tone even, quiet. “Everybody go sit down.”

Nobody moved other than to split their stares between him and the door at his back. Beyond the door, the toilet flushed and the water turned on.

He crossed his arms and drew himself up to his full height. Bodyguard wasn’t his default role, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to allow them to make Tess feel any worse about this. “She’s been through enough without having the lot of you staring at her like she’s a circus freak. Sit the hell down.”

The steel in his tone earned him several sharp looks, especially from the older generations, but they started moving, filing into the living room. Nobody went into the dining room except Norah, probably to cover the food again.

The hallway was empty by the time the door opened and Tess emerged. She’d found some composure again, wrapping herself in a determined dignity, despite the fact she’d been puking her guts up just minutes ago. It was a helluva trick. She didn’t meet his eyes as she moved down the hall, toward the murmuring voices. Mitch was right behind. Everybody fell to silence as they came into the room.

Tess zeroed in on her dad, head held high, almost defiant. “Yes, I said I’m pregnant.”

“How far?”

“A little over eleven weeks.”

A muscle jumped in his jaw, and Sandy reached over to lay a hand on his arm as he ground out, “Who?”

Some of Tess’s defiance wavered and she swallowed. Mitch wrapped his arm around her stiff shoulders, unsurprised when she didn’t tuck into him. God forbid she let him take care of her here, even now. But he held his ground as exclamations of shock rippled through the room. Trey’s hands had balled to fists, and Mitch couldn’t even look at his own parents.

“We met in Edinburgh. She’s why I extended my trip.”

It took the group approximately three seconds to do the math and conclude they’d fallen into bed almost as soon as they met. Which wasn’t inaccurate but was uncomfortable as hell as the realization settled in.

Trey scooped a hand through his hair. “I don’t even know what to say about this.”

Tess’s back went ramrod straight as she took a step toward him. “You don’t get to say a damned thing to me about this. You don’t get to judge. We both know I wouldn’t be here right now if not for this exact situation.”

Mitch absorbed that kick to his gut. He’d wanted her from the first, before the baby. Without the baby. Was she really saying she wouldn’t be with him at all if not for it?

Maybe he had it wrong. She was strung out and upset and embarrassed, no doubt feeling cornered by having things come out like this. He had to believe she meant something else.

A vein in Trey’s temple began to throb in time with the muscle tick in his jaw. “Will you be getting married?”

“Of course you would ask that,” she scoffed.

“It’s a relevant question.”

“A baby is a terrible reason to get married.”

At the end of his rope, needing answers, Mitch turned toward her. “Why? You’ve said no, but you haven’t explained why. It’s the right thing to do. You’re carrying my child.”

She flinched at the words, as if he’d lobbed some terrible insult. But before he could process the reaction, she squared off with him and lifted her eyes to his. “Because you don’t love me.”