Page 52 of Father Knows Best (A Family Affair #1)

thirty-one

. . .

avery

The I Love You

On the drive home, Geo and Sutt hammer me for specifics about the pain I’m still in, and how thorough the attending doctor was.

They grumble about the client even asking Roberta to make a call that late, and decide in no uncertain terms that they will no longer allow key drops that late.

I tried to explain to them that time of day had nothing to do with what happened, but still, they decided.

They also decided that I should get a round of second X-rays at another hospital, which I’m definitely not going to do, but I don’t tell them that now.

Sutton carries me inside, while Geo holds the door and gets a place ready for me on the couch.

Sutt runs upstairs to change, but when he’s back down, he asks me what I need.

I decide that grilled cheese is good, since the sushi has been sitting on the porch for a few hours now and my stomach has been rumbling and washy since the drive to the hospital.

He disappears into the kitchen, and a moment later, dressed in his sweats and a t-shirt, Geo appears, shoulder pressed to the doorframe.

“I’m glad you’re okay.” He strides across the room and sits next to me, pulling my feet into his lap.

Sutt pops his head around the corner. “Put the pillow in your lap so her feet stay elevated, Dad.”

Geo pulls the pillow onto his legs, and lowers my feet over him, gently. “How’s the pain?”

I shrug. The adrenaline is still going, because I don’t know where we stand, and I haven’t told them the news. “It’s okay. It’s just a sprain.”

He nods, and our eyes idle together like two teens with a crush. “Avery, I’m in love with you.”

I blink at him, heart thudding madly in my chest, palms suddenly clammy, eyes misty. Sutton appears between the kitchen and living space, a dishtowel draped over his shoulder.

I look up at my husband, who wasn’t in the room but is clearly, without a doubt, aware of what Geo has just said. “Did you tell him?” I ask.

Geo looks at Sutt with a dip in his brow, watching as Sutton staunchly shakes his head no.

“Tell me what?” Geo asks.

I swallow against the knot in my throat. It’s a lump of happiness wedged there, and a good lump in my throat. “I just told Sutton that I’m in love with you. And that you being gone so long was making me worried that we were going to lose you. That maybe you don’t want the same things.”

Geo looks at his son.

Sutton nods his head. “It’s true.”

I play with the hem of the blanket Geo draped over my legs after Sutton lowered me to the couch earlier. “Were you really trying to find a replacement for Jon, or were you avoiding this?”

Geo strokes a hand through his hair, looking at my toes as he massages my good foot.

A moment passes and he finally looks at me.

“I was avoiding how I felt. I didn’t think there’d be a place for me after too long, so I was trying very hard not to become attached.

I found a replacement for Jon and was going to remove myself from the equation, to protect myself, when Sutton showed up. ”

Sutton, who had left the room, reappears with one plate stacked with three grilled cheese sandwiches. He sits on the table in front of us, and passes me a sandwich wrapped in a paper towel. Asiago and cheddar flood my tastebuds on the first bite, and I roll my eyes back in delight.

“Sutt, this is so good.”

He wipes cheese from the corner of my mouth, then licks his thumb.

“It’s unconventional, a woman sleeping with her husband and her husband’s father.

It’s highly unconventional for her to be in love with both, too.

But Avery, this is the happiest you’ve ever been.

And this is the happiest I’ve ever been and I think–”

Geo nods. “It’s not something I thought I’d ever be a part of but now I think if I couldn’t be here, giving you what you need, and spending this part of my life getting to know my son better… I don’t know what I’d do.”

The room falls silent as the three of us think, but with my excitement on the line, I can’t seem to table it one more second. “Tell me you’re here to stay, for good. Please.” I wipe at the desperate tears leaking from my eyes.

He cups my cheek. “I am.” We share a kiss, and after, Sutton and I do, too. It’s perfect.

Sutton passes his dad a grilled cheese. “Let’s celebrate with fat and carbs so Avery can take her Tramadol.”

Geo’s brows lift, and he reaches to the side table where he placed my prescription. “Give her the full dose so she sleeps well,” Sutton advises. Geo studies the label. “I think we give her one now and wait until she wants to move up to our room, then give her the second then.”

Our room.

Those two words smashed together coming from George Mercer? Everything I wanted to hear after hearing Sutton say I do.

I can’t wait a moment longer. I take the pill bottle from Geo’s hands and pass it to Sutton. “Toss it. I can’t take those.”

“The hell you can’t, Avery. The doctor wants you taking these, so you need to be taking them,” Sutton asserts, with Geo adding in, “that’s right, honey. It may not hurt that bad now but–”

“No,” I say, smiling. I take Sutton’s hand in mine, and find Geo’s hand, placing it on my leg. “I’m pregnant.”

Sutton’s eyes grow shiny in a matter of seconds. “Avery.”

I nod my head. “I was nervous when Roberta gave you the paperwork–”

“I planned on reading it in bed tonight,” he says, making me smile and Geo snort.

“See? That’s why this works. He planned on reading your medical chart and I planned on making your toes curl.”

I smile. “Is it selfish to want both?”

In unison, they answer. “No.”

Sutton shakes his head, disbelief running through his features for a moment before a tear slips. I wipe it away, and kiss his lips. “I’m four weeks, according to the bloodwork. I probably wouldn’t have known for another few had I not fallen down, so tonight was a good thing, in a way.”

“Tonight has been exceptional,” Geo says.

We eat our grilled cheese, Sutt and Geo deciding they’re going to give up whiskey and wine with me. We sip Diet Cokes and talk about the pregnancy, which room will be the nursery and, at the end of the night, discuss putting Geo’s home on the market.

When we head to bed shortly after, in the bathroom, the three of us brushing our teeth—me on the counter, the two of them standing–something occurs to me.

“You kissed me in front of Roberta.”

We both look at Sutton. “We have a few conversations to have, but we start where it matters. Family.”

I wrinkle my nose. “My parents will never understand this.”

Sutton shakes his head. “Doesn’t matter. They are your folks, baby. They deserve to know, and Dad isn’t a secret.”

I love how much he wants to protect his father’s feelings. I love him so much for it.

“I know. You’re right. I want them to know, I just want to be on the other side of telling them, you know?”

Geo spits mint toothpaste into the sink basin, and rinses his mouth. “We’ll tell Ford, Cade and Kat, then your parents, all on the same day. It’ll be a family affair.”

Sutton drops his toothbrush into the stand. “It kind of already is, no?”

We head to bed, and though my lower half is humming for excitement and touch, the three of us are exhausted and fall into a deep sleep before anything fun can happen.

But it’s okay.

I know now that I have a lifetime of funny business with them.

And I can’t wait.