Page 77 of Forever

“Where’s the fun in that?”

She laughed and shook her head.

“Besides, we wanted everyone to come over anyway for the game tonight.” The Giants were on. It seemed like the perfect time to finally have all my friends over at the same time. I’d never hosted one of the game nights before. I’d always been worried someone would find my art studio.

“Muffykins!” Jacob yelled and ran into the kitchen.

“Not until you put a shirt on…” Brooklyn’s voice trailed off because Jacob was already fully clothed. “Oh. Well. You can have one then. Are you excited to see Scarlett?”

“Oui.”

She lifted him onto the counter and handed him a muffin.

I never knew when Jacob was going to be speaking Spanish or French. But I should have known when Nigel had been over here all afternoon. I turned to Brooklyn. We’d wanted to wait to tell everyone she was pregnant, butwith Nigel, Justin, and apparently Tanner loose with the information…we didn’t think we had that long before the news came out with or without us. We were visiting my parents tomorrow night to tell them the good news. And tonight we were telling all our friends.

But we’d agreed to talk to Jacob before everyone came over tonight. Jacob needed to know first. We’d gone to the doctor this afternoon. Brooklyn was definitely pregnant. And if I was being completely honest, I wasn’t sure I could have kept it a secret either. She was lucky I wasn’t screaming it from the rooftops already.

“We need to talk to you about something, kiddo,” I said.

He swallowed a mouthful of muffin. “What’s up, Coach?”

This was a lot of information within the span of a few days.

I thought Brooklyn might jump in, but she was just staring at me. I cleared my throat. “You know how the other day when your mom told you that I was joining your family?”

“Oui.”

“And you were wondering if I was going to be your brother? Is that something you want? A little brother?”

He shrugged. “Not really.”

Oh. Okay.I wasn’t expecting that answer. I didn’t really know what to say. I hadn’t expected him to say no.

“But you like Scarlett’s little brother, right?” Brooklyn asked.

Jacob shrugged again. “Liam’s okay. But he cries a lot. I like Mr. Nigel better.”

What did Nigel have to do with any of this? I turned to Brooklyn.

“Nigel?” Brooklyn asked.

“Yeah, can he be my brother? He’s as good at playing as my abuelo. But he does the car noises better.”

All I could think about was Jacob calling Nigel “brother Nigel” now. I laughed.

Brooklyn put her elbows on the counter to get on eye-level with Jacob. “I love that you think of Nigel as a brother. But I think there’s still room in our family for one more sibling. A little brotherora little sister. It’s always good to have more playmates. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

“I guess,” Jacob said. “As long as I don’t have to share a room. I like that Mr. Nigel has his own house. Can my new brother have his own house too?”

Jacob really did not like the idea of sharing his room. He’d said something similar to Brooklyn when she asked if I could move in. That it was fine as long as I had to share a room with her instead of sharing one with him. But I valued my privacy too. I understood that.

“You won’t have to share a room,” I said. I didn’t need my painting studio anymore. Because I had the real Brooklyn back.

“Okay,” Jacob said. “Did you already order the baby? It seems like you already ordered one.”

Order? What?“We didn’t order a baby. But we made one.”

Jacob stared at me for a moment. “How?”

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