Page 94 of Play the Game
Cooper slides his hand into mine and laces our fingers together, squeezing, telling me without words that he’s here, and he’s letting me decide how I want to play this. His solid presence gives me the confidence I need to stand my ground.
“Hi, Mom, it’s good to see you too.”
“Don’t be sarcastic, Evangeline. It’s unbecoming. Are youpregnant?” She whisperspregnantlike it’s a dirty word and then swivels her head around, as if to make sure she wasn’t overheard. Heaven forbid one of her fancy friends finds out what they could discover just by using their eyes.
I take a deep breath, trying to summon the calm I no longer feel. “I am. I’m pregnant and due in May. This is Cooper,” I say, turning to look at him, letting his familiar face, the encouragement in his eyes, center me before I turn back to my mom. “My boyfriend and the baby’s father.”
“The baby’s…” My mom breaks off and closes her eyes, taking a deep breath of her own.
Cooper takes the opportunity to stick a hand out in greeting. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Rhodes.”
My mom looks at Cooper’s hand for a beat, wrinkling her nose slightly in a way that has me seeing red. She finally takes his hand limply, barely shaking it before tugging her own away and turning her gaze back to me. “How did this happen?” she hisses. “And how could you possibly think that waiting until now to tell me was a good idea?”
I let out a sharp, humorless laugh. “Oh, I don’t know, Mom, maybe because I knew how you would react and didn’t feel like subjecting myself to ten rounds of your particular brand ofjust asking questions, delightful as it may be.”
“That’s my girl,” Cooper murmurs under his breath, dropping my hand to slide his arm around my waist. I let his solid presence next to me, the way he’s telling me without words that he’s there if I need him but is letting me take the lead, settle me.
“What’s going on over here?” I wince slightly as my dad comes to join our little party because if my mom makes things bad, both of my parents together make them worse.
“Hello, Evangeline,” he says, nodding his head at me as if he’s greeting an acquaintance instead of a daughter. Then he sticks his hand out to Cooper. “Ed Rhodes.”
Cooper takes his hand, shaking it. “Cooper Wyles.”
My dad’s eyes sharpen. “Are you related to Jordan Wyles?”
“I am,” Cooper says cooly. “He’s my oldest brother.”
“Well, what a surprise! Jordan has been such an asset to the hospital’s pediatric surgical program over the last year or so. I’ve been trying to get him to meet with some potential donors, but he hasn’t gotten back to me. I know he’ll be here tonight, so maybe you could put in a good word.”
Cooper makes a noncommittal sound, and everything about his body language is sayingnot fucking likely, but my mom saves him from having to respond.
“Ed,” she hisses. “Did you perhaps miss the fact that Evangeline is pregnant?”
My dad’s gaze arrows straight to my stomach, and when he looks back up at me, I see the exact thing in his eyes that I’ve been dreading. The reason I put off telling them for so long. Disappointment. Directed straight at me. My heart sinks as I wait for the fallout.
“Pregnant?” my dad says, shaking his head. “Well, that’s just ridiculous. Did you not consider what being pregnant at this stage of your life could do to your career?”
“And what people will say?” my mom chimes in, holding a hand to her heart so dramatically that I would laugh if my entire body wasn’t vibrating with a mix of fury and anxiety that makes me want to jump out of my skin. “I mean, honestly, parading around unmarried and pregnant, bringing your boyfriend to our most important event of the year. Did you not even consider how this would look for us?”
“What about making partner next year? You can’t very well do that with a baby in tow.” My dad shakes his head like even the idea of making partner and also having a baby is the most ridiculous thing he has ever heard.
Each of their verbal barbs hits the mark, carving out another piece of me I wasn’t prepared to give. Even after all these years, I’m never prepared. My parents’ casual cruelty never stops being a surprise. I open my mouth to say…I’m not sure what exactly, but I don’t get the chance before my mom goes in for the kill shot.
“We are so disappointed in you, Evangeline. For you show up here pregnant and embarrass us on the most important night of our year? I just can’t possibly even imagine what you were thinking. But then, I guess we shouldn’t have expected any different from you. You have always done what you want, never thinking about anyone but yourself. This selfish display of…”
“No,” Cooper interjects, moving his arm from my waist to splay his hand over my back. Shame and embarrassment curdlein my stomach, and my eyes burn with the effort of holding back the tears that desperately want to escape. I’m not sure how Cooper knew that this was the exact moment I was done handling this myself, but I shouldn’t be surprised. When I look up at him, he’s already looking down at me with fury in his gaze for the situation, and a tenderness behind it that I know is all mine. Then he fixes his attention on my parents. “You don’t get to talk to her like that.”
“Young man, this is a family matter,” my mom practically sneers. “We’ll let you know when your opinion is necessary.”
When Cooper speaks, his voice is quiet, but every muscle in his body is coiled tight in a sort of protectiveness that has me taking my first deep breath in what feels like hours. “My opinion is necessary right now because Evan ismyfamily. She is the most important person in my life, and I won’t let you, or anyone else, speak to her that way.”
My dad stands to his full height that is still inches shorter than Cooper. “Evangeline is my daughter, and I’ll speak to her in any way I choose.”
Cooper’s hand flexes on my back, like he’s trying to restrain himself from throwing a punch. “With absolutely no respect at all, no, you won’t. She may be your daughter, but she is her own person. She is brilliant and accomplished and the most amazing woman I have ever known. Now that I’ve met you both, I understand that she’s actually even more incredible than I even knew because she became this woman despite the fact that she was raised by two people who wouldn’t know good parenting if it walked up and introduced itself.”
My dad’s face turns crimson. He opens his mouth to speak, but Cooper holds up a hand, effectively cutting him off. “I protect what’s mine, Mr. Rhodes. I would die before I ever let anything or anyone hurt Evan, and from where I’m standing, it’s you and your wife doing the hurting. It’s you she needs protecting from. So, no, you won’t talk to Evan this way. If it were up to me, you wouldn’t talk to her in any way at all, butthat’s a choice she gets to make. Evan has a family. She has people who love her and care for her and support her always and no matter what. I would hope her own parents could be part of that family, but not if this is the way you’re going to treat her. She deserves better than that.” Cooper turns to look at me, his eyes blazing with an emotion that has my throat tightening. “She deserves everything.”
My mom lets out a dramatic sob that makes me want to roll my eyes even as my stomach churns and my hands shake, and my dad’s eyes are bulging so wide I wouldn’t be surprised if they fell out and rolled onto the floor. “Evangeline, are you going to let him talk to us this way?”
