Page 33 of Interpreter

“You had a bet going?” Cade asks, pulling his wife from Theo, addressing Anniston. His grin tells me he’s not upset with their bet.

Anniston shrugs. “She’s been cleaning like the Pope is coming for a visit.” Another shrug. “And I might have seen you squeezing lemons in her water.” She looks at Breck. “Morning sickness?”

Breck nods and snuggles deeper into Cade’s embrace. “And evening sickness.”

Come to think of it, Breck has been looking a little tired. How did I miss that? Because I’m selfish and I’ve only been able to think of one thing since all this new job shit started.

“Congratulations,” I tell her, shifting Aspen’s weight onto my other side. “I’m sorry you had to wait to tell us.” I don’t add because of me and my new onset of deafness. My jaw tightens as I think of how selfless Breck has always been to everyone; something exciting happens to her and she has to wait to share the news because I’m such a glory stealer.

“Oh no!” She pulls away from Cade to stand in front of me, brushing a strand of hair away from Aspen’s cheeks. “I know what you’re thinking, but that’s not why we waited.”

She looks over her shoulder at Cade and says something I don’t catch since I can’t see her lips, but then he nods and she faces me, a smile bigger than I’ve ever seen on her. “We wanted to be sure before we said anything.” She looks around at Mason and Kane who apparently just parked. Confusion is all over their faces and coolers hang from their shoulders. “We’re having twins!”

Anniston jumps up and down, and I imagine there is a lot of high-pitched squealing going on, especially when Kane covers his ears.

“Our kids are going to be besties!” Breck declares to Anniston, still jumping.

“As long as they are girls,” Theo adds, glaring at Cade. “If they are boys, they’ll be strangers.”

Anniston shoves Theo and scowls. “No, they won’t.”

Like Breck just put it together, her eyes widen and her mouth forms an O. “OMG! We could be family! What if they get married?”

You don’t have to be able to hear Theo’s scoff that nearly vibrates the car with his growl. “No. They will not get married. Aspen is never getting married.”

Delusionville is Theo’s favorite place to be.

I wink at Cade, who looks extremely happy, whether that be from pissing Theo off or finally being able to share his news. I don’t know, but it sends something fluttering in my stomach. I’m happy for my brother, and yet, I may be slightly jealous of never being able to share the joy of having a child of my own. I would never pass down this gene and destroy a life.

Something soft clasps my face, and I realize the little girl in my arms wants my attention.

“Play,”she signs again. Right. We are basically teasing her by standing in the parking lot and not going up to all the fun things.

“I’m taking Aspen into the festival,” I tell my family. “I’ll meet you before the movie.”

“Oh dear God. I should have brought a change of panties.”

Gretchen and I have been stuck at the face-painting booth for over two hours now. We’ve seen snot, candy, and what I hope are remnants of chocolate on nearly a third of the kids attending the festival. I knew it was going to be busy. These functions always are. Even if I would have preferred to stay at home with Pe, digging the last little bit of ice cream out of the container, I came, because the little chatty boy that I brought with me is having a freaking blast running around and torturing Gretchen with “did you know?” facts.

“What? What are you talking about?” I ask her, cleaning my brush after painting a unicorn that looked more like a blob on a little girl’s face.

“Don’t look now, but your co-teacher is heading this way.”

I whip around and confirm that, yep, the man who brought tears to my eyes is heading this way with a little girl grinning on his shoulders. She looks so small sitting on his massive trap muscles. She and I both could fit up there, and he wouldn’t even break a sweat.

“That’s the baby!” Gretchen whispers, not so quietly, in my ear. “The one he kissed in the car that day when I saw him. Do you think he has a baby mama I mean, I don’t care. I can deal, but I like to know what I’m getting into.”

“Shh! Be quiet.” I scold her. Frankly, I don’t want to think about Tim having any baby mamas or someone else seeing him naked. I kind of like the big headache with enormous biceps, who has grown on me these last couple of days.

“He’s deaf. He won’t hear me.” Gretchen’s face scrunches up in confusion. “Right?”

Have mercy. “He can lip-read, Gretch. Even if he couldn’t, we shouldn’t be whispering about him when he’s this close.”

She nods serious. “Okay. We’ll wait until his fine ass leaves.”

“Gretch—” It’s too late though, Tim and the little girl have made their way to the front of the line.

I’ll have to explain later to Gretchen that talking about Tim is a no-go zone with me. After the past two days I’ve had with him, I wouldn’t betray his trust and share the moments we’ve had together with anyone. Not even with Felipe.

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