Page 64 of The Vow

“What do you say?” April prompted, looking expectantly at her son.

“Pease.” The little boy grinned cheekily and wrinkled his nose.

Carmelo smiled and scooted along the sofa, scooped the little boy onto his lap and read the book.

“Baby animals—hen and chick.” Carmelo pointed to the pictures and Chase yelped and echoed back and turned the pages excitedly. “Duck and duckling… Dog and puppy… Cat and kitten. Cow and calf. Pig and piglet-”

“Whayyyyy, pig!” Rafe bent over to ruffle Carmelo’s hair. Lena smiled at the friendly gesture. Carmelo took a playful swipe in Rafe’s direction but missed.

“Horse and… oh that page is missing, it must have got ripped out.” Carmelo frowned.

“Got ripped out!” Chase repeated seriously, blinking down at the last page in the book.

“Oh well, buddy, it’s a foal,” Carmelo said, ruffling Chase’s hair and closing the book.

“Foal? I thought a baby horse was called a colt?” April frowned.

“A… colt?” Carmelo frowned. Colt.

“No, that’s only male baby horses,” Jared butted in.

“What?” April blinked back.

“So what’s a filly?” Rafe piped up.

“A female baby horse,” Jared clarified.

“How is that different from a foal then?” Rafe frowned.

“God, you city boys need to read some of Chase’s animal books to learn the birds and the bees! A foal is the name for a baby horse of either sex, and a colt is a male baby horse, a filly is a female baby horse.”

“A… Colt?” Carmelo repeated slowly. The others all groaned and told him to wash his ears out. Lena took over reading the book and Carmelo sat there like a sack of potatoes.

Something was catching in Carmelo’s brain. Something that was rapidly forming, like a Rubix’s cube being completed by an expert in a champion rubix competition. Blindingly fast. Sickeningly fast, the whole picture was taking shape in his mind. And Carmelo was stunned into shocked silence now that he could see it.

“I gotta make a phone call,” Carmelo finally said, standing, forgetting Chase was perched on his knee.

“Wait, what?” Lena frowned, looking confused. “Carmelo-”

“I’ll… be back,” he said over his shoulder, but couldn’t find the humor in quoting the famous movie line with his brain whirring like it was now.

He stumbled out of the bar and out onto the sidewalk, where he instantly puked on the spot. Sweaty, shaking, his head spinning, he dialed and made a phone call that was about to change his life.

Lena

She frowned down at the text he’d just sent her. “Hope you’re having a good bachelorette party, Princess. Are you being a good girl?”

She hadn’t wanted him to message. And yet, she was so pleased he had. And she was annoyed with herself for being pleased.

“Pah, yeah having a wild time.” She typed sarcastically. She took a quick video of her surroundings of the beautiful apartment that had been rented out for her party. Balloons and bunting and party streamers were everywhere. Champagne bottles, empty and full were scattered across the dining table with champagne flutes, all drank from with varying amounts left in them, all over the place. It looked like a typical bachelorette party.

Except no one was there.

“Where’s your guests?” Came his next, inevitable message.

She pursed her lips. Was she too proud to say that she had, in fact, ruined the night by telling them all to leave in a fit of rage?

Her fingers jabbed the keyboard of her phone. “They left. I had an argument with them all. I told them I didn’t want to get married.”

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