Page 65 of Four Tattoos

“It’s better that we talk to Patrick on his home turf,” Zipper says. “If we’d invited him over to our place, it might have seemed like an ambush.”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way. Good point.” My brother knows that I’ve moved in with the men, but he hasn’t wanted to talk about it. He has no idea about the baby, however, and that’s why we’re here. Pretty soon, I won’t be able to hide the fact that I’m pregnant, so the time has come to tell him.

Mace helps me down from the truck, and the men surround me as we walk up to the door, two of them on each side of me.

Nancy opens the door moments after I ring the bell. “Rose, hello, come on in.” She nods at the men, and greets them as a group. The four of them have all been into the coffee shop a few times recently, and I introduced her to them, but maybe she’s like me when I first met them, not yet sure of their names.

“Would you like something to drink?” Nancy offers. I ask for water, but the men decline. It’s strange to be served by someone in what used to be my house, but it’s Nancy and Patrick’s home now.

Patrick appears and leads us into the living room, where I settle in the center of the couch, and Hutch and Christian sit on either side of me. Mace takes a chair, and when Zipper hovers nearby, not wanting to occupy one of the two remaining seats, Patrick pulls in a chair from the dining room for himself, insisting that Zipper take the recliner. The gesture is a promising sign.

A bit of small talk follows after Nancy comes in with glasses of water for me and herself.

Patrick knows the men’s names and uses them as he asks general questions about their business and their life on the island. The men ask questions in return, business owner to business owner, and I’m pleased to see that things are cordial, though there’s definitely a stiffness to Patrick’s words and body language.

When there’s a break in the conversation, I find my opening. “Patrick, I know you weren’t happy about me seeing Hutch, Mace, Zipper, and Christian. I assume that was out of concern and fear that they weren’t right for me or that they wouldn’t treat me right.”

When Patrick nods once, Hutch says, “I can assure you that we’ll treat her right. Always.”

My brother’s expression remains neutral.

“Maybe you’d like to share your concerns, and we can talk about them,” I say to Patrick.

He looks uncomfortable for the first time since we arrived, and briefly glances at Nancy, who seems to give him an encouraging look. “Well, I suppose my biggest issue is that there are four of you,” he says, directing this at Hutch, who’s been the one doing most of the talking.

“I don’t know how that works, and I don’t want to know—” He holds up a hand as if he’s expecting someone to volunteer graphic details of our sex life. “But it doesn’t seem right to me. It seems like you’d just be using Rose.”

Zipper speaks up before anyone else has a chance. “Absolutely not.”

“The four of us are like brothers,” Christian says. “We all fell for her, and we weren’t going to fight each other about it.”

“We’re in love with her,” Hutch says. “There’s nothing casual or temporary about this. We intend to take good care of her, always.”

Patrick nods again, and I think he’s softening. This seems to be going very well so far, but my stomach is still in a knot about what else we have to tell him.

“Ideally, I’d want Rose to get married to a man she loved and who was committed to her. How’s that going to work, since you can’t all marry her?”

“We’re completely committed to her,” Hutch says, “and we don’t need a piece of paper to prove that, though if legal marriage became an option, we’d gladly marry her.”

Christian takes my hand. “We’re bound to her. We always will be.”

Patrick nods, and when he doesn’t respond, I say, “There’s something more I need to tell you.” I take a deep breath and rest my other hand on my belly. “I’m having their baby.”

My brother stares for an uncomfortably long several seconds, then he gets up, and immediately sits back down, perching on the edge of his seat. “Whose baby?”

Nancy reaches an arm across to set a soothing hand on him. “I don’t think that’s the point, Pat.”

“It’s not important for us to know,” Hutch says. “We may find out someday who the father is, but we’re all going to be a father to the baby.”

“Rose, you’re so young,” Patrick says.

“I’ll be the age Mom was when she had you.”

Patrick’s brows lift at the realization, and he lets out a breath. “Times have changed, though. Why are you having a child so soon?”

“It wasn’t planned,” Hutch says. “In fact, we were careful to take measures to prevent it, but we’re very happy that it happened anyway.”

I offer my brother a smile, the first I’ve managed since we arrived. “You’re going to be an uncle, Patrick, and I hope that you’ll be a big part of our baby’s life.”

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