Carly Griggs
I really didn’t want to do it this way, but sometimes you had to meet the raging bull head-on and stop it in its path. If my dad chose to be a stubborn asshole about this then he was going to have to do it in front of everyone else, too. I couldn’t decide whether I was angry, mortified or just plain old sad.
Sophie was clinging to me. My lack of contact had cost me dearly and God, I’d missed her. My mom wasn’t looking at me, though. She was trying to keep a grip of Isaac while her eyes were transfixed on my hand, the hand that held my new wedding band—the one thing my dad hadn’t noticed yet because he was too busy glaring at Jack.
This had the potential to get really out of hand.
My mom began to look at me, her eyes flitting between my face and my hand. She slowly shook her head, imploring me to keep quiet and not mention it. I could see tears welling up in her own eyes at what I’d done, and I knew she was seconds away from dragging my family out of here before my latest misdemeanor could be discovered.
Half of me wanted to let that happen, to go back into my bubble world with Jack and our babies, and pick up life again. After all, I’d survived twice now after being discarded by my so-called parents and if I had to, I knew I could do it again. The problem was that Jack’s family and mine were linked and I hated that everything we’d done had the power to destroy everything for everyone else. At a base level, I hated that Jack’s family would know about the wedding and our babies, but mine wouldn’t. It felt wrong, so I knew I had to try. If I wanted to prove that I was mature enough to be a married woman with kids on the way, I had to face this ugliness head on. Tell them all at the same time and deal with the fallout. They’d divide into supporters or haters and one way or the other, I’d know who was going to be there for the long haul.
As my mom took a side step to reach my dad and make him leave, I beat her to it and got in their way. If they wanted to go, then they were going to hear me out first and then show everyone the decision that they’d made and were choosing to carry on making.
“I love him,” I began. “Can’t you just give him a chance?”
My father looked down at me, and the emotion fighting in him was obvious. I was his first-born. He’d fought to make up for all the years we’d missed out on, but his pride was still too strong and I could see that winning over. “You’re too young. You’re throwing your life away. I’d be a bad parent if I gave you my blessing.”
“I married him.”
There.
I said it.
It was out in the open.
Sophie squealed. I’d forgotten that she was still wrapped around me. Part of me was pleased. With her plastered up against my front, it meant my parents couldn’t see my expanding waistline. “You got married?”
No one else had said a word, including my mom and dad. Although tears were falling down her face now and it looked like my dad might actually cry, too. The sheer look of hurt on his face was killing me.
“Hey, Sophie, Isaac,” I heard Dolly say, taking their hands. “Want to come and watch TV with the twins?”
She wasn’t happy to leave. I had completely underestimated how much my disappearance would affect her. “Go on, kiddo. Let me talk to Mom and Dad.”
“Will I see you again?”
“Absolutely, I missed you.” I kissed her, ruffled Isaac’s hair and waited until she was well out of earshot before I looked at my dad again.
“Why did you have to rush into this, Carly?”
It was my mom who spoke first and Jake moved closer to her back. I wasn’t sure whether he was getting ready to restrain her or back her up. Her words oddly comforted me. She was on the path to accepting us because she knew better than anyone not to step in the way of true love.
“Because I love him. Because I want to be with him. Because he loves me.”
“Did you know about this?” She finally spun around to face Jack’s twin.
“No. Not about the wedding.”
The music had stopped, but the sound of everyone’s unhappiness was ringing out loud and clear. It was starting to make my head thump. I could see Lottie and Oli hovering. I didn’t want them to learn about things like this, but at least it was all out on the open at once.
“Mom, please,” I finally whispered.
“I know what it’s like to be lost. I was that girl, too, once. I know what it’s like to be so desperate to be loved. But neither of us are those girls anymore,” she told me. “You didn’t have to jump into something because you missed out on so much as a kid.”
Was she kidding me right now? Was she really going to play this off as abandonment issues and turn me into a case?
Now I was feeling disappointed. “You’ve got to be joking! You think I did this because I had a screwed up childhood?”
“Carly. Don’t,” I heard my dad spit out. It was possibly the worst reason my mom could have cited and my dad knew that. I’d always accepted where I’d come from.
“Is that what you did when you hooked up with my dad? Fell for the first older guy who came along because you had mommy and daddy issues?” No one missed the derision in my tone. There was an edge of venom to my words and even as I was saying them, they didn’t feel good, and I hated that I was taking this out on her. “Did you fall in love because you were lost and missed out? Anyone else recognize double standards at all these days?” I shouted.
“That’s enough!” My dad was finally entering the ring and as he stepped up to shout at me, Jack stepped in front of me, shielding me from his wrath.
“People in glass houses and all that,” I continued. “Don’t judge me by your own standards. I thought you would understand.”
Her face softened. “Carly…”
“Do not speak to your mother like that.”
I watched as Jack folded his arms across his chest. “And you can stop shouting at my wife like that.”
I peered around his side and saw my dad had a furious look in his eyes. My husband inserting his newfound place in my life was the wrong button to press.
“Get out of my way, Griggs.”
“We don’t want this unpleasantness. We just want to talk. Carly needs her family.”
“I asked you to get out of my way.”
“And I’m just asking for five fucking minutes. Five rational minutes,” Jack repeated.
Pointing out that my dad was being irrational was like poking a hornet’s nest and he got the response I expected. Dad tried to push Jack out of the way. My man, calm as a cucumber, surrounded by his family and his brothers, one who had loyalties to both sides, stood his ground. He was determined to make him stay and listen.
“I won’t ask again.”
Jack didn’t reply and as I moved to stand closer to Jack, ready to lean in and tell him to forget it, my dad drew back his fist and punched my husband. Jack staggered back into me and knocked me on my ass, landing with a thud.
“Fuck! Carly!” I heard the despair in Jack’s voice the minute he righted himself. Completely forgetting about my dad and the rest of the audience, he fell to his knees to check me. “Tell me.” The fear was evident and his mom shuffled over to my side, too, coming to my aid as Lacey stepped around my dad. Oli, Jake and Jonas moved closer to my dad, getting ready to restrain him if things got even more out of control. “Do you feel anything? Shall I call a doctor? Fuck! Someone get me an ambulance!”
“Honey, she’s fine,” his mom said, slapping his fussing hands out of the way. Jack’s dad was on the fringe of it all, but I could see he was settled with the decisions his kids had made and was oddly proud of how much Jack loved me.
“She’s got my fucking babies in there!” Jack stood up, pointing at my belly and spun round to face my dad. “If you’ve caused anything to happen to them, I swear to God, Tommy…”
“Babies?” The surprised question came at me from my mom who was trying to help me up off the floor.
“Yeah.” I was so embarrassed. “I didn’t want you guys to find out like this. I wanted a normal conversation.”
Mom was looking at my stomach now. It was more obvious that I had bulked up a bit round the middle. “Twins?”
“Yeah,” I replied, like a stuck record, but I couldn’t help the smile I felt start to grow on my face.
“So, it was a shotgun wedding because you knocked my daughter up?”
I watched as Jack shook his head in amazed exasperation and decided to turn the other cheek and completely ignore him. “Baby, let’s get you inside. Promise me nothing hurts. There’s no twinges?”
I leaned into him, letting him take my weight and pull me deep into his frame. He was protecting me like a lion was going to leap out of nowhere and attack me. “I’m good, just bruised my ass bone.”
“I’ll never forgive myself if I’ve hurt our kids.”
“Jack, stop.”
“I’ll love you better,” he whispered and planted a kiss on my lips.
Everyone around us was taking it all in. They’d never seen us this way so it was a bit of a shock to them. When we finally pulled apart, my mom was waiting to talk to me, and my dad was still frozen to the spot. “We need to talk, but I think we all need to calm down. Especially him.” She shrugged in my dad’s direction. “Would you and Jack come over tomorrow afternoon so we can discuss this properly?”
“Okay.”
Finally, she took me in her arms. “We’ll get through this, I promise.”
My grandpa Oli came to me next and took me in his arms. “Well, this is a shock. I’ll say congratulations again when the pot has simmered down a bit.”
“Don’t get involved, Oli. This isn’t your business.” My dad, although shocked, was still intent on letting his pride win out.
“Interesting,” Oli began. “I remember when you turned up at my home and begged me for a chance to be with Lacey. She’d been through so much because of you already. Letting it happen was like hacking out my heart.” We all stopped and listened to his words. That time in my mom’s life wasn’t one we talked about. She’d nearly died and I knew my dad blamed himself to that day for that. Not only did they lose an unborn baby, they also nearly lost each other. “If you hadn’t manned up, if you’d never fallen in love and been accepted into our family, where would you be now? I know where I’d be. I wouldn’t have those kids of yours in my family, and what’s even worse is neither would you. You need to go home and think on that before you go making wild statements you’ll regret later, Tommy. Why won’t this relationship work just brilliantly like yours did? Those babies in her belly are part of you, too.”
I watched as Lottie took Oli’s hand and squeezed. One of them was going to have their say on what was happening and my money would have been on her and not Oli. My mom walked over to my father and looked him sternly in the eyes. He still hadn’t said anything after Oli’s little speech and I think it was because he didn’t trust himself, at least not until he’d reined his anger or disappointment in. I prayed desperately that my mom would be able to talk some sense into him. After all, history was repeating itself and as Oli had pointed out, they owed me the same chance that everyone else had given them.
I felt Jack’s family breathe a sigh of relief when my parents had finally gone. We all knew it could have been so much worse. Lottie gently stroked my cheek with affection before leaving me. She’d seen so much at the kids home and I knew it was in her nature to accept everyone no matter the situation. Lottie had played such a part in making my mom the strong woman she was that I was thankful she was going to be in the lives of my kids, too.
Jonas was the first to break the silence. “The cabin is ready. Congratulations. I can’t decide whether more twins in this family is a blessing or a curse.” He kissed me gently on the side of the head, then shook Jack’s hand before pulling him in for a man hug.
“If they’re like your monsters then we’re looking at the curse category,” Jack told him.
“And my twins only get their wicked ways from the big uncles who claim to have taught them everything they know.”
Dolly, had who been to take my brother and sister to my parent’s car, appeared next. “Yay! Someone to share all my twin birthing horror stories with.”
“Oh, god no. Please. We’ve already been treated to that at the hospital from Mrs. Hemorrhoid-bollock killer,” Jake told her.
“The grapes of hell are the worst,” she laughed.
“So, it’s already been confirmed?” Jack’s mom was next, reinserting herself into the conversation.
“Yeah, we’ve had our first OB/GYN appointment and it was very enlightening.” I was trying to pay attention to her excited chatter, but saw Jack approach his twin brother and wife, Rebecca. They’d not spoken to me since Jake had caught us together in the throes of donut passion before my finals. Things looked tense until Rebecca slapped Jake up the back of his head and made him congratulate his brother. Eventually, they all made their way over.
“Are you okay?” Jake asked me.
“I am now.”
“I see my brother has roped you into some crazy ass shit. I guess you’ve replaced me as his sidekick.”
I laughed. This was the Uncle Jake I’d always known. Although now he was my brother-in-law, and going to become a real uncle to my kids. “What can I say? I am a sucker for Griggs craziness.”
Rebecca gave me a huge hug next. “Does this mean I need to look for a new studio manager?”
“Oh no. I still want the job. We need it.”
Jack finally came to stand beside me. We were presenting a united front. “I gave notice on my job,” he confirmed. “And until I find something else, Carly is the main provider. So the cabin is a temporary necessity.”
“It’s yours as long as you need it,” said Dolly.
This.
This was how my news should have been received by my family. Sure, we were unconventional and what we had started was not the norm, but neither were these guys.
The Griggs-Drakeson family had turned the unconventional into unconditional and that was the world I wanted to raise my babies in.
Families were about acceptance and love, and anything less, wasn’t a true family.