Page 109 of Best Frenemies

They’re in a struggle, my dad trying to both help my gran and keep her from committing assault, but eventually, my gran wins and just throws the whole dang urn into the water.

“Ma’am, you really shouldn’t have done that,” the security guard says through a heavy sigh.

“I don’t care!” Gran shouts victoriously and turns around to put her arms behind her back. “Arrest me! Take me to the slammer! I did it all out of love for my Harry, and I don’t regret it!”

“What?”my mom shouts. “You’re going to arrest her?”

“You better not touch my mother!” my father joins in.

I’m still sobbing, mind you, and the fear I now have for my sweet little grandmother feels like too much for my current emotional state.

The rubber band of tension inside me breaks with a snap.

“You can’t arrest her!” I yell at the top of my lungs. “I’m with child! It’d be a crime to take a pregnant woman’s grandmother away from her!”

The security guard looks downright confused, and like a whip, four faces turn to look at me at once, and I realize the words that just came out of my mouth.

Oh shit, what have I done?

Mack

I almost don’t believe my ears, but when I look down at the woman beside me and see big, fat tears falling from her face, all that comes out of my mouth is“Katy?”

“You’re pregnant?” Melissa shouts.

“Katybug?” Kai looks like he just swallowed his tongue.

But Gran, well, even though she continues to stand there with her hands behind her back, the look on her face is outright elation. “Oh, happy day! I’m going to be a great-grandmother!” she cheers like a woman who didn’t just battle over an urn with a security guard.

“I…I…” Katy’s lip trembles through her tears. “I…yes…I’m pregnant.” She looks up at me, and my heart wants to break over the uncertainty I see within her blue eyes. “Mack, I’m pregnant.”

“You’re pregnant?” I ask dumbly.

She nods, tears still falling down her cheeks. “I’m pregnant with your baby. Our baby.”

Holy fucking shit. Katy is pregnant with my baby?

Katy is pregnant with my baby!

Old Mack would be freaking the fuck out, but I’m not the old Mack anymore. I’m the Mack who’s been forever changed since falling in love with Katy, and I can’t do anything but feel happy over this news.

Sure, it’s the last fucking thing I expected to hear come from Katy’s lips, but now it’s all making sense. Her running out of the auditorium on Friday and the way she looked yesterday.

She’s pregnant. With my child.

I feel like someone has put a shot of adrenaline in my veins, and I almost don’t know what to do with myself. I want to run. I want to shout the news from the rooftops. I want to kiss Katy like she’s never been kissed before. I want to do a million things right now, but her next words pull me up short.

“I’m sorry,” she says, like she’s supposed to apologize to me for the best fucking news I think I’ve ever heard. “I know things didn’t end well yesterday and I know I was a bitch to you, and I understand if you need some time to think about this…”

What?

“I know this was just supposed to be a fun fling between us and this isn’t at all what you had in mind, but I—”

“Katy.” I say her name to get her to stop talking nonsense. “I love you,” I tell her and reach down to gently hold her face in my hands. “I love you,” I repeat so she doesn’t misunderstand what I’m saying.

“You…you love me?” Her voice is so small that I know with certainty there is so much more she needs to hear me say.

“Katy, I am so far deep in love with you that there is no going back for me. And I came here today because I don’t want to be anywhere else but with you.”

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