Page 34 of Entirely Yours
As we are walking down the sidewalk, I turn to Jules, butterflies erupting in my stomach. “I’m going to keep it. If that’s okay with you.”
He ducks his head and smiles, tucking his hands into his pockets. “Yeah,” he replies. “That’s definitely okay with me.”
I tentatively approach my family home, unsure of how tonight’s dinner is going to go. I fire off a quick text to Thea to make sure she’s still okay with our plan.
It’s still fine if I tell everyone tonight?
Thea
I mean, Ben and Gabe already suspect…
And we can leave them suspecting if that’s what you’re comfortable with.
Thea
Just… rip off the bandaid I guess
Hesitation consumes me. I want to call her, but I need to trust that she was being honest when she said I could tell my familyabout the baby.
Would you like me to be there when you tell Hank?
Thea
No
I’m a big girl
We can do this. *high five emoji*
Thea
……
Wow that was weird
But thank you Jules
Call me later?
Yeah, I’ll call you.
Pocketing my phone as I walk in, the usual Bardot family chaos greets me like an old friend. Gabe and Ben are arguing about the best cut of meat for a steak. Ben, the more practical of the two… barely, has chosen the crowd favorite: filet mignon. Which makes a hell of a lot more sense than Gabe’s choice of?—
“Tomahawk, Gabriel? That’s really what you’re going with?” I interject.
“C’mon! You have to admit it’s the coolest cut of meat. You can use it like a meat sword!”
Ben pipes up then. “Mom, did you drop Gabe on his head a lot when he was a baby?”
Unbothered, she answers, “I think that was your father’s doing, my cabbage.” She’s sitting in her favorite plush armchair, drinking a glass of red wine—pinot noir if I had to guess. Bending over, I place a quick kiss on the top of her head. She responds by patting my cheek and saying, “How are you feeling, darling?”
When I answer her with a confused look she continues. “You took a sick day on Friday, no?”
Oh. I see what she’s doing.
“You know I wasn’t sick, Mother.”
“Don’t ‘Mother’ me! I’m doing my duty—it’s my job to make sure my children are taken care of.”
