Page 82 of Resorting to Romance

You can’t play pretend forever.

~ Holly Black

I’m pacing the living room. Literally pacing. Like the way one of those dads waiting for the birth of their child paced the hospital waiting room in old movies. Only, I’m not awaiting a birth.

I’m debating with myself.

Call her.

Don’t call her.

Call her.

Don’t call her.

“What is going on?” Bodhi comes around the corner from the hallway followed by my sister.

“What?” I look up at them, stopping dead in my tracks when I do.

Shaka stops right behind me.

“Why are the two of you trying to wear a groove in the hardwood?”Bodhi asks.

“Nothing. I’m just working something out.”

“Such as?” Bodhi asks.

“Nothing. Everything.”

“You and Mila?” Kalaine asks.

“Sort of.”

“Did you two fight?” she asks.

“What? No.” I shake my head. “Not at all. We’re good.”

I look between my sister and Bodhi. Then I drop my head into my hands, rub the heels of my palms into my eyes and look back at them.

“Spill it, bro,” Bodhi says, leaning onto the back of the couch and crossing his arms over his chest.

“You can talk to us, Kai,” Kala says with a softness to her voice that basically cracks me open.

“You’d better sit,” I tell them.

They stare at me with twin expressions of confusion, then at one another. Bodhi rounds the couch with Kala on his heels. Shaka follows and hops up on an empty cushion once they’re seated, plopping his head in Kala’s lap.

I guess I’m doing this.

“I really didn’t want to tell you before your wedding.”

“Is Mila pregnant?” Kalaine guesses.

“No! What? Why would you think that?”

“You’re obviously freaked out,” Bodhi answers for my sister.

“Not overanythinglikethat. She’s not. At all.”

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