Once Sophia was showered and dressed, we were off to her parents’ house. She was sitting beside me in the Audi, clasping her hands tightly in her lap. I reached for her hand, placing it under mine on the gear shift in the hope that it would bring her some small measure of comfort.
It seemed like it did when she gave me quick smile.
Her parents lived in a single-family home over in Forest Glen. It was a spacious, homey place with a large garden. I used to love spending time there. The Loves had always been welcoming, and they’d given me my first real taste of what having a properly functioning family was like.
And you paid them back by knocking up their daughter.
I pushed the thought away. I couldn’t afford to be having thoughts like that right now. Sophia needed me to be there for her. That was what this was about.
“You got any ideas on how you want to break the news to them?” I asked over the low hum of the engine.
“Not really, but I do think it should come from me. Thanks for coming with me, though. It means a lot to me.”
Giving me another small smile, she withdrew her hand from underneath mine and placed it over it instead, winding her fingers through mine.
“Of course. I told you, Soph. I’m in this with you. Two hundred percent. I’m all in.”
She surprised me by letting out a sudden peal of soft laughter.
“Are you laughing at me right now?” I asked.
“No,” she said, still giggling. “I’m laughing at myself.”
“Why?”
“You saying you were ‘all in’ reminded me of one of the first thoughts that I had when I found out.”
“Yeah? And what was that?” I was already starting to grin. If it could make Sophia laugh at a time like this, I was desperate to know.
Her cheeks flushed a little, and she hesitated before answering. “That you just had to have super sperm that gave it their all, just like you always do.”
“Super sperm?” I liked the sound of that. Chuckling, I told her, “What can I say? I’m a balls to the wall kind of guy.”
“That you are,” she mused, still smiling.
But all traces of lightness or laughter disappeared when we pulled up to her parents’ house to find Mark’s car parked behind their two-car garage.
“He’s here?” Sophia asked disbelievingly. “I thought for sure he was passed out on Shawn’s couch or something.”
“Me too,” I agreed. “If he came home, it hit him a lot harder than I thought.”
Sophia nodded her agreement and sighed. “It also means that he’s probably already told them.”
Mark must’ve seen my car pulling up because he came barreling through the front door and down the porch steps, his eyes spitting fire at me when I opened my door.
“What are you doing here?” His eyes might’ve been spitting fire, but his voice was ice cold.
Thankfully, he didn’t intimidate me. I rounded the car to open Sophia’s door and held onto her hand after I helped her out. “I’m here to support your sister.”
I inclined my head toward the house, where her parents were standing in the doorway, lowering my voice. “Did you tell them?”
“Of course, I fucking told them,” Mark fumed.
Sophia went slightly limp against my side, so I wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her close. I knew that it was important to her to have told them herself, but Mark had stolen that opportunity from her.
I leveled him with a gaze that I usually reserved for business competitors and
employees caught stealing. “That was a pretty shitty thing to do, man.”