Page 5 of Remember That Time

"No, no, you're right, of course. I didn't mean to say otherwise. I just wondered if maybe you got drunk at the partyand slept with someone willingly, even if you don't remember it."

I sighed and let my head clunk back against the wall again. "Anything is possible, I suppose."

I groaned as I buried my head in my hands. There was no possibility of informing whoever I had slept with that he was going to be a father because I didn't remember who he was.

My family was going to kill me.

"Before you blacked out, do you remember anyone that might have been at the party at the same time as you were?" Henry asked. "Maybe we can make a few discrete inquiries and find out if anyone saw you with someone."

My hand snapped up. "My roommate."

"Your roommate?"

"Yeah, Tony said I was all over some guy that night. Maybe he knows who it was."

"Is there any way that you can ask him?"

"When I get home, I suppose. I lost my cell phone somewhere during the trip here or I'd call him. I don't remember his number."

He was a number on the dial pad.

"Well, come on." Henry stood and then held his hand out to me. "Let's get you some ginger tea. It'll settle your stomach."

"Ginger tea?"

Henry nodded. "For now, we'll just tell everyone you ate something bad at dinner last night, but you know you'll need to tell them eventually."

I did, but I was going to put that nightmare off for as long as I could manage it. I did not need my parents or my overprotective brothers butting into my life.

"I just need time to figure this out."

Henry nodded as if he knew exactly how I was feeling, and considering what had happened between him and my brother, he probably did.

"How did you do it?" I asked. "How did you become a single father and raise Eva all on your own?"

Henry shrugged. "I didn't really have a choice. I couldn't go to Frank, but I wasn't about to give up my child. I muddled through as best as I could until I figured out what I was doing."

"How long did that take?"

Henry nodded as he patted my shoulder. "I'll let you know when that happens."

I was not reassured.

"If I have this kid, it'll mess up my whole life. I'd have to drop out of my residency and everything." Granted, I only had a couple of years left, but taking time off to have and raise a kid would derail all of that.

"Maybe or maybe you could tell your family and let them help you. There are a lot of people that love you, Gianni. They aren't going to abandon you just because you got pregnant."

I wasn't so sure of that.

Oh, I knew my family loved me. That had never been an issue. But an unwanted pregnancy out of wedlock changed a lot of things. I didn't think it would change their love for me, but I also wasn't sure I could face their disapproval.

Things would get even worse when they learned I had no idea who the father was.

I groaned as I rubbed my hands over my face. "I can't believe this is happening to me. I've always been so careful."

"Life doesn't ask us what we want, Gianni. It just throws things at us and waits to see if we sink or swim. The choice is yours."

I dropped my hands and stared at my brother-in-law for a moment before asking the one question I had never asked. "Was it hard for you to forgive my brother?"

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