Page 134 of Anti-Hero

“Hey. What are you doing here?” I ask. “I thought Bash and I were meeting you at the restaurant.”

“I was running early,” my dad clips. “Thought I’d pick you boys up instead.”

I frown, confused by his curt tone. He was the one who planned this guys’ night, and now he’s acting like?—

“Care to explain this?” My dad steps to his left, revealing the package Samuel must have been referring to.

Itisoversize. I can see why they didn’t store it behind the desk downstairs. And the crib printed on the side of the box is a dead giveaway about its contents.

I swallow hard. Fuck. Fuck.Fuck. “Any chance you can pretend you never saw that?”

“What is acribdoing in your hallway, Christopher?” he thunders.

Guess not.

I drag my thumb along the bottom of my mouth, searching for the right words. I’ve had months to figure out how to break this news to my dad, and I still haven’t come up with the right way to. “This wasn’t how I wanted you to find out,” I finally state.

“Find outwhat? Is your housekeeper expecting? Did they deliver to the wrong address? Please, tell me this is not what it looks?—”

“She’s due in May,” I state. “And I wanted to tell you and Mom sooner—Iplannedto tell you sooner—but I needed time to wrap my head around it first.”

Total silence follows that admission. It expands, filling the hallway with its suffocating weight.

I try again, aiming for a little levity. “So, uh, congrats. You’ll be a grandfather soon.”

More silence.

My dad’s expression might as well be carved from marble.

Maybe I should have held off on dropping the G-word.

Uneasily, I realize this is probably what Collins was looking at when she told me the news. I’ve never seen my father freeze before. He’s always competent. Always prepared. Always expecting the unexpected.

I scramble for something—anything—reassuring to say. “I was going to tell you and Mom later this week. Once Lili was home.”

Still, he says nothing. I might as well be conversing with a statue.

My front door opens.

“Kit? What’s—Dad?” Bash glances back and forth between me and our father, his phone in one hand. I didn’t even realize mine had been buzzing in my pocket. “Weren’t we meeting you at the restaurant?”

“Uh …” I rub at the back of my neck.

Dad unfreezes to point at the crib leaning against the wall. “Your brother was just explainingthis.”

Bash follows his finger. “Oh. Right.”

Dad reads his lack of reaction correctly. “Youknewabout this, Sebastian?”

Bash grimaces, glancing at me, then back at Dad. “Well, uh, sort of. I mean, Kit mentioned it at Thanksgiving, so I’ve known about it for a little?—”

“Thanksgiving? You’ve known your brother was expecting a baby forsix weeks?”

“Wasn’t my news to share, Dad. Kit and Collins are the ones who … yeah. I’m gonna go … anywhere else.”

Bash spots the same switch on my dad’s face I do when he mentions Collins’s name. And comes to the right conclusion—I hadn’t gotten around to the wholewho’s having my kidpart of the story yet.

The front door closes a second later, emphasizing the total silence that follows the softclick.

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