Page 2 of Over and Above (Mount Hope #4)
Chapter Two
Present Day
Eric
“I’m pregnant.”
Maren’s words seemed to echo through the riverfront park like someone had handed her a megaphone.
A collective gasp sounded, along with a strangled noise that undoubtedly came from me. My head buzzed, reality rapidly reshaping around me. “You’re what?”
“I’m pregnant.” My oldest kid was slumped in a lawn chair, looking greener than the time she’d had food poisoning at fourteen. Fourteen had passed in a blink, along with the rest of her teens. How on earth was she twenty now? She couldn’t even legally drink, yet she was about to have a baby? No. Not possible. She was still our baby.
Moments earlier, we’d been celebrating her brother Rowan’s graduation from high school. The park was full of such parties, and spirits had been high. Well, other than mine. In a matter of days, Rowan would be headed for LA to start his life as a professional actor and begin filming his new show. My thoughts had been bittersweet already, heart heavy with the coming goodbye, images of Rowan and Maren when Montgomery and I had adopted them years earlier front and center in my brain.
And yes, maybe I should have realized Maren was sick. Wren, my youngest, had noticed and summoned Jonas, our nurse practitioner friend, leading to Maren’s shocking proclamation. For his part, my old friend and roommate looked as gobsmacked as the rest of us.
“Why are you all staring at me? You’ve never seen a queasy pregnant person before?” Maren, who could be as dramatic as Rowan at times, stood on wobbly legs, making a go-on gesture to all who had gathered. As people started to disperse, Maren turned her wrath on Wren, who continued to hover. “Wren, why did you go get Jonas?”
“I didn’t know.” Wren looked on the verge of tears, their hair even frizzier than usual and their T-shirt streaked with grass and ketchup. Where Wren was short and stocky, Maren was lithe with elfin features and straight dark hair. And in no universe did she look ready to have a baby.
“Hey now.” I stepped between Wren and Maren. The news would have to be dealt with soon, but I also couldn’t let Maren talk to Wren like that.
“Sorry. Sorry.” Two fat tears rolled down Maren’s face. “I’m…my mood is all over the place. I’m going to walk home.”
She stalked away from the popup canopy she’d been sitting under, but I was fast on her heels. “You are not.”
“You’re ordering me to stay?” Although shorter than me by a fair bit, Maren still managed to look down her regal nose at me. For better or worse, she was a classic oldest child and had never taken orders well. But then, I’d never needed to give that many. Other than the occasional dramatic turn, she’d been a good kid—helpful, kind, and quiet.
“No.” As much as it pained me, I needed to get used to acknowledging she was an adult. Barely. But an adult. “You don’t have to stay, but you look nauseous and far too pale for this heat wave. I’ll take you.”
“Fine.” Maren clomped after me, past a lot of curious eyeballs belonging to our friends. I couldn’t meet any of their gazes, not right then, or I might risk tears myself. And I was many things, but a public crier wasn’t one of them. Maren practically launched herself into the passenger side of my SUV. “Well, let’s hear it.”
“Hear what?” I played dumb as I put the car in gear. Maren owned an old rattletrap of a Toyota compact, but with limited parking at the park, she’d opted to ride with me and the other kids earlier in the day. A fact I was now grateful for as it meant she couldn’t easily escape the conversation we needed to have.
“We both know you offered the ride so you could lecture me in private.”
“We do need to talk?—”
“Aha!” Maren made a noise like a detective solving a tricky murder case.
“I’m not going to lecture, not without knowing more.” I struggled to keep my voice calm and my thoughts collected. Maren had never been one to date, not in high school and not now that she was in college at a school outside of Portland. “Are you…okay? I didn’t know you were seeing anyone. Did something…not good happen?”
Funny how I’d been called to multiple cases of obvious assault over the years, stomach-churning events that I’d somehow made it through and done my job as a paramedic. I could discuss all manner of horrible injuries with other medical professionals and never so much as stammer. But I’d never had to ask my daughter a question like this.
“Way to dance around the consent issue, Dad.” Maren rolled her eyes at me as I pulled into the driveway of our house. “Diesel got me a valentine. And then Jonas and Declan helped me make Diesel one. And…I guess we’re dating. Maybe? He thinks we’re dating.”
Fuck me. I suppressed a groan. Why did it have to be Diesel? And not simply because of the obvious Magnus complication. Magnus, who I continued to do my best to avoid. But Diesel was a problem in his own right, a prankster who’d never grown out of his role as the goth class clown, and his inability to take anything seriously had irritated me the few times we’d interacted.
“But you’re not so sure you’re dating?” I couldn’t claim to have dated everyone I’d ever slept with, so I tried for a neutral tone. This might be easier if they weren’t dating anyway.
“I like him,” Maren said softly, looking down at her pale hands in her lap. “A lot. It’s weird. I wasn’t attracted to him. Like at all. Not that I get attracted to many people, but at no point did I think Diesel was cute or hot.”
“I can see why.”
“ Dad .” Maren drew my name out to four syllables before exiting the car. I did the same before Maren whirled on me. “I’m serious. However, one day, I looked over at him while we were playing a stupid card game he learned in Europe, and I was like, ‘I might want to kiss Diesel.’ Which was a heck of a strange impulse.”
“You’re telling me.” I groaned, happy Maren had discovered attraction, frustrated that it was Diesel, and terrified for the outcome.
“And obviously, a lot more than kissing happened.” Maren gestured toward her flat stomach.
“Obviously.” My voice was drier than Oregon tinder in August. “How far along are you?”
“I’ve never had regular periods.” Maren wrinkled her face. “I missed one, but that wasn’t strange. I already had an appointment at the student health center to get the pill. Spoiler alert: I didn’t need the pill.”
“I see.” I wanted to applaud her for trying to be responsible and get birth control while also wanting to shake her for whatever had happened prior to getting the pill.
“So, the student health center sent me to a clinic. And the ultrasound tech there said it looked like maybe six weeks. Which would make it eight weeks now.”
“So early then.” I looked up at my large yellow house, hoping my tone was nonjudgmental. Two weeks. Two weeks she’d known and not told. My chest clenched cardiac-event tight.
“I’m keeping it.” Maren’s voice was fierce. “Not up for discussion.”
“Okay.” I nodded slowly. I’d figured as much from her first defiant announcement. “I’d support you if your choice was to?—”
“Which it’s not.” Her voice was firm, reminding me of Magnus’s when he’d present me with dessert. And why in the hell was I thinking of Magnus right then? This was one of the most pivotal moments of my life as a parent. Heck, of my life period. Maren needed my full attention.
“There are other options,” I said carefully, studying a nearby rosebush. Montgomery sure had loved his roses. I couldn’t help but wonder what he’d say in this situation, whether he’d be furious or sympathetic or maybe both. He’d had high expectations—for himself, for me, for our life, and for the kids. But he was also a rather empathetic doctor and human being. “Maybe something like an open adoption?”
“You think I would consider adoption? Really?” Maren’s outrage wasn’t entirely unexpected. I’d sat in on enough therapy sessions with her and Rowan after our adoption to know she, like all my kids, had big, complicated feelings around adoption. I didn’t doubt that she loved me, but she also wished Montgomery and I had never been necessary. Which was valid.
“Foster care adoption is way different from an open adoption at birth.” I chose each word like an instrument from my paramedic bag. Despite hours and hours of research and discussion on the topic when Montgomery and I first decided to bring children into our lives, I struggled to make my case to Maren. “What if it were someone you knew and loved, like Jonas and Declan?”
“Because they’re more suited to raise my baby than me?” Maren looked at me with utter rage in her eyes. In all those counseling sessions, even in the first trying weeks when we’d brought her and Rowan home, she’d never once looked at me with such anger.
Oops. Holding up my hands, I took a literal step back. “I didn’t say that.”
“But you thought it. Loudly.”
“I’m sorry.” I rubbed my graying-by-the-minute temples. “You’re only twenty. I’m trying to wrap my brain around everything, honey. Does Diesel know?”
“Of course.” Another epic eye roll and huffy exhale. “He insisted on going to the clinic with me. He’s kind of excited. It’s cute. He even told his dad.”
Magnus knowing before me was another roundhouse kick to the sternum.
“Is Diesel pressuring you?—”
“ Dad. Seriously. I’m keeping this baby, and you’re going to have to deal.” With that, Maren strutted into the house, slamming the kitchen door behind her, leaving me to wonder what the hell had just happened to my life?
If I returned to the park, I’d have any number of friends who would be happy to listen to me vent and offer advice. But there was only one place I was headed, and it was probably the last place I should go.