Page 60 of Bossy Ex's Brother

“I don’t know, baby,” I said. “It’s complicated.”

“What are you going to do?” Felix asked now, and I was surprised that there was no judgment in his voice. There was a little piece of disappointment there, but I refused to let it make me feel bad. I was a human. I wasn’t impervious to mistakes, and we’d all made them. There was no reason why I should be held to higher standards than anyone else.

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “But we can’t have another baby in the house. I already have a lot of people to take care of.”

“Take me out of the equation,” Felix said. “I told you. I’m going to work to support myself and the family.”

“Me too,” Bethany piped up, but I shook my head.

“You’re both going back to school to finish your education,” I said.

“But—”

“But nothing, Beth,” I told her. “Working without a degree out here is hard. It’s not impossible, but it can make things more complicated than they need to be. I can tell you that firsthand. At the very least, you’re finishing high school. Understood?”

She swallowed and nodded.

“And Felix—”

“Don’t bother,” he said, holding up his hand. “I’ve already made up my mind.”

“But you’re making a big mistake by giving up Harvard,” I pleaded with him, hoping he would see reason.

“Maybe,” he shrugged. “But if you’re allowed to make mistakes, then so can I.”

He gave me a look.

“But it would be nice to have another little guy or girl running around,” Emmett piped up, much to my shock. I glanced at him but was distracted when Bethany added, “Yeah. That would be nice. And Angel would finally be a big sister.”

Angel shifted in my arms, and I glanced down at her. She’d been a surprise baby from my mother. None of us kids were planned, but Angel was an extra surprise. Mom had dropped her off one day and disappeared. I’d been pissed because I didn’t know how on earth I was going to take care of her. But look how much I loved the little girl now.

What if the child I was carrying was like that, but I was denying them a chance and denying myself the chance to love them?

Denying Luca a chance too.

“Yeah,” I finally admitted to my siblings. “It would be nice.”

We all cuddled on the same bed and talked for a while about everything from baby names to the possible gender and signingthem up for baseball early—Emmett’s idea. At some point, they all dozed off, but I stayed awake, thinking.

By morning, I had made my decision.

TWENTY-FOUR

LUCA

I sat in my office and stared blankly at the papers on my desk before I gave up. I wasn’t getting any work done today, and I was only fooling myself by trying.

I got up and headed out.

Initially, it was only supposed to be a night drive to clear my head. I rode my motorcycle up to Barker’s point, where a hiking trail led into a deep forest. I hoped that nature would somehow clear the tangles in my brain, but it didn’t.

I needed to talk to someone, or I would explode.

The ideal person would be my mother, but I didn’t want to be bothering her this late. I was going to call her tomorrow and go over to her place.

But for tonight, it looked like there would be no rest.

Maybe I could ride some more and eventually tire myself out that way.

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