Page 63 of Salty Pickle

So he knows a lot. “She is.”

“And she says it’s yours?”

And there it is. Lucy’s pronouncement last week has gotten out. “She is saying so, yes.”

“So, how is this handled?” His gaze bores into mine.

“She’s at my apartment. We went together to the doctor yesterday. We’ll run a paternity test when the baby is born.”

“So it could be yours.”

“It’s a possibility. I met her briefly when I was in Colorado for the New Year.”

“Briefly, eh?” Jason says with a laugh.

“Don’t be coarse,” Sherman booms.

I’m definitely not laughing. “We rang in the New Year together.”

“Eight months ago.” Sherman taps his shiny black shoes. “How far along is she?”

There’s no tiptoeing around this. “Eight months.”

He sighs. “What do you know about her?”

“She’s a naturalist. Estranged from her family.”

“Hmmmph.” Sherman sniffs and leans back on the sofa. “Do you get a sense she’s after something?”

“I don’t think so. She lives very simply in Colorado. I think she just needs somebody.”

Jason rubs his chin. “Why wait eight months to turn up?”

“She hadn’t planned to tell me.”

“Really?” Sherman sits up again. “Why the change?”

“She was going to raise the baby with two friends, but they bailed on her.”

“Why was she going to blow you off?” Jason asks.

This I don’t know. “Other than the plan with the friends, she hasn’t said.”

Sherman pours a glass of water from the pitcher on the coffee table. “Well, I’m sure it occurs to you that being a father is a big deal. It will affect everything.”

“I will be able to do my job as usual. I assure you of that.”

Sherman waves his hand. “I’m not worried about work. But you’ll see things differently. And people will see you differently.”

“You think being a family man will save morale? Devin suggested that.”

He sips the water and shrugs. “Maybe. Maybe not. That’s a separate issue. But there will be changes. You do the right thing. No matter what the outcome, you be a credit to the Pickle name.”

Jason bites back a smile at that. I stifle any retorts about his sullying of the name before he got his act together.

Most of us cousins have had a time of it.

But as Uncle Sherman sorts through takeout menus, I wonder, what does being a credit to the Pickle name really mean for me?

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