Page 90 of Family Bonds: Coy & Angel

“It’s an image thing,” she interrupted. “Is that it? You don’t want people to think poorly of you because I’m pregnant?” She tried to keep the hurt out of her voice. “You told me your parents would be happy about this. Did you lie to me?”

“I didn’t lie,” he said. “It’s not an image thing like you’re saying.”

“Then what?” she asked, throwing her hands in the air.

“Why don’t we give them some privacy?” her mother said. “Todd and Spencer, let’s go get some lunch.”

“You want me to leave?” Spencer said. “This is getting too good.”

“We are leaving,” her father said. “But we’ll be back. Maybe it’s smart if we do stay here tonight. All of us. There is a lot to discuss and go over.”

“No,” she said. “I want you here to visit. But we don’t need to make that many plans. None of this is going the way I thought it would. We’ve told you everything we know.”

She watched her parents stand and get their jackets. Spencer had thrown his over the chair when he came back in and now grabbed that to leave.

When they were left alone, she turned to Coy. He had some explaining to do.

“I want to marry you, Angel. Not because of the baby. Not because of an image. Because I love you. It’s as simple as that. Maybe you’ve had more time to get used to things, but I know what I want and I’m staring at it. I’m sorry if that scares you or upsets you. I don’t know how else to answer it.”

“This is just so much for me,” she said.

He pulled her into his arms. “I know. And it’s why I didn’t bring it up. I thought after we got done telling our families we’d have more time to talk about these things.”

It’s like all her dreams were coming true.

The guy she loved wanted to marry her. She was having a family with him too.

But she never expected it all to be this fast.

She was struggling to keep up and understood how her brother felt today.

“Can I just think about it some more?”

He pushed her back some and lifted his eyebrow to look at her. “I meant what I said about you moving in here soon.”

“I know,” she said. “I’m not going to be stupid about things. I’m not even two months pregnant. News is just getting out we are dating. I want to keep the baby news quiet for a bit.”

“I understand that more than anyone else,” he said. “And why. I don’t want to even think about anything bad and am going to tell myself not to.”

“But things can happen,” she said. “I know. I understand.”

“We don’t think that way. But we have to be prepared for anything and I’m asking you to be reasonable too. Not just for you and us but for the baby. Can you promise me that?”

She nodded even if she felt as if she just lost control of the independence she’d been craving most of her life.

26

WORRIED ONE

“You’re going to have a baby?” his mother said with a massive grin on her face three days later.

“We are,” he said. His parents had been in Boston and returned on Tuesday. The first day he and Angel could share the news and invited themselves to dinner.

His mother rushed forward, he opened his arms for a hug, but she bypassed him and went to Angel.

His jaw dropped and he turned to see Angel’s stunned reaction while she was cocooned in his mother’s embrace.

“I’m so happy,” his mother said.

---