Chapter Thirteen
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Grant finished another beer then reached for more pizza, but he doubted he could eat it. His sides hurt from laughing so hard. Viviana’s family was fucking hilarious, even when they didn’t mean to be.
Or I’ve had too much alcohol.
No, they’re funny.
The initially tense meal had started with Viviana explaining to her family that they’d decided to try to work things out. A brief interrogation followed that he thought he’d handled well.
What did Grant do for a living? The pointed questions his father followed up with revealed two things: Sean Sutton was an intelligent man who understood more than he let on.
How would he navigate working in Boston and dating someone three hours away? Easy. Helicopter. Saves time.
Things got a little dicey when Dylan asked him what his favorite beer was, and he explained he wasn’t a big drinker.
“That’s because you’ve never tasted our homemade brew,” Connor had said gleefully, which perhaps should have made Grant question his motives.
Instead Grant had said, “I’d love to try it.”
One beer had led to two then three. Viviana, water in hand, had warned him to slow down, but Grant had felt like he’d stepped into an improv skit where the instructions had been to one up each other with embarrassing stories. Connor did an impression of Dylan that was so spot on Grant almost spit out a mouthful of beer when he heard it. Dylan told a story about how Viviana had been tougher than Connor when they were little. When a bully had started harassing Connor in middle school, ten-year-old Viviana had confronted the boy and kicked his butt.
Which, according to Dylan, begged two questions: How tough could that bully have been if he got his ass handed to him by a ten-year-old girl, and if Connor was once that much of a pussy was he destined to always be one?
Viviana had rolled her eyes at his comment, but she didn’t seem offended by the comment. Grant had looked at Sean to see his reaction, but rather than looking disappointed as his father would have, Viviana’s father laughed as he told his son to watch his language.
Viviana had chimed in then with a retelling of the time Dylan had pretended to be too sick to go to school because a girl in his class had said she wanted to kiss him. She and Connor had high fived over the table, and Dylan glared at them for a second before laughing along.
Grant had laughed too and had another beer.
The room spun a little, but Grant was enjoying himself too much to mind. He slapped his hand down on the table and declared, “I love this family.”
Dylan laughed. “Oh, man, he really is a lightweight.”
Viviana slapped her brother’s arm. “He told you he doesn’t drink.”
“If he hugs me can I punch him?” Connor asked.
Grant chuckled at that. Yes, he knew they were talking about him like he wasn’t there, but they were just too funny.
“Touch him and you die,” Viviana threatened. “Dad, tell them to stop. He’s important to me.”
I’m important to her. Grant swayed a little in his chair and gave her a goofy smile.
Suddenly Viviana looked concerned. “Did you spike his beer with your home-brewed grain alcohol as well?” She slammed the pizza box closed. “That’s it. Party’s over. I’m leaving, and I’m taking him with me.”
Her father said, “He stays here.”
A blurry Viviana went toe to toe with her equally blurry father. “No. You’ve just proven I can’t trust you with him.”
Grant tried to tell her it was no big deal, but his words came out slurred. So this is how drunk feels. Like a child who had imbibed in too many sweets and made himself sick, Grant shared a guilty look with her brothers. “Are we in trouble? She looks pissed,” he whispered.
Dylan said, “We are, and she is.” Her brothers roared with laughter. Grant tried not to, but he joined in.
Viviana’s voice rose. “Dad, I’m serious. This isn’t a joke to me. I came home because I missed all of you, but this will never happen again.” With hands on her hips, she waved a finger at her brothers. “Never, do you hear me? No matter how things work out between us, Grant will always be the father of my child, and you will either treat him with respect or you won’t be part of our lives.”
She is so fucking beautiful when she’s angry.
And, man, is she angry.
“Now, Dad, help me get him into my car. We’ll drive him to my place and put him on the couch. And then, tomorrow morning, I want Connor and Dylan at my house apologizing.” She sniffed and suddenly looked like she might cry. “Tonight was important to me. I’m disappointed in all of you.”
Never had Grant ever felt more like an ass.
From the way her brothers hung their heads they felt the same.
“I’m sorry,” Grant mumbled. He tried to stand, but his legs wobbled beneath him. Normally he would have been upset at the idea of someone making him look foolish, but when he met her brothers’ eyes they all burst out laughing again.
One day, this might be a story they shared about him. The idea was strangely pleasing. He tried to explain that to both Viviana and her father as they drove him to her place, but neither paid much attention to what he was saying.
They sent him into the bathroom, gave him water and Tylenol, then tucked him into the couch with a blanket and pillow. Viviana took a seat in the chair across from him.
“I’m sure he’s fine, but I’ll stay up to make sure he’s okay,” she said to her father.
Grant smiled at her.
She didn’t smile back.
Her father took a seat in the chair beside her. “I’ll stay as well.”
Grant’s eyes began to flutter and close. The last thing he said before he gave in to sleep was, “Your family is awesome, and I think I might love you.”
Dinner with her family hadn’t gone at all the way Viviana had hoped it would. Disaster was an understatement.
If I were a person who believed in signs, I would say this relationship has not received the approval from above. So far my family has threatened Grant, assaulted him, and now potentially given him alcohol poisoning. He might think he loves me now, but when he wakes with a killer hangover and the clarity of a sober mind, he’ll see he doesn’t and run back to Boston. And I won’t even blame him. She sighed.
“It’s all going to be okay, baby,” her father said from the chair beside her.
Viviana crossed her arms in front of her. “No, Dad, I don’t think so. Not this time.” I might as well tell him the truth. “I hadn’t told Grant I was pregnant. I thought he wasn’t a good enough person to be part of this baby’s life. I had it all wrong. Look at us. We’ll be lucky if he doesn’t fight me for custody, and he’d have a good case for it. Why did I think I could do this? What do I know about being a mother?”
“Stop. We’re good people. Nothing that happened tonight has anything to do with your ability to be a good mother. Your brothers had a little fun hazing your new boyfriend; any man you end up with needs to be able to handle them.”
“Gerald almost broke Grant’s nose.”
Her father coughed back a laugh.
Viviana’s temper flared again. “I wish I could laugh with you. This is not Scott Mead backing out of taking me to prom because Dylan and Connor threatened to break his legs if he even held my hand. I don’t know if Grant is the man for me, but I want the chance to find out. I don’t want to have to choose between here and happiness.”
“Is that the choice you feel you’re being given?”
“Tonight, yes. I love it here, Dad, but I’m not sixteen anymore. If you’re here tonight to make sure I don’t sleep with him again, I need to tell you that’s the least of what you should be worried about.” Tears filled her eyes. “I’m ready to cry again, and you know I’m not a crier. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I’ve never felt so happy and sad at the same time. I go back and forth between hopeful and scared out of my mind. All I’m asking is for you to respect the decisions I make. I may make all the wrong ones, but even the right ones won’t work out if you all sabotage them.”
Her father said nothing for a few minutes. When he spoke his tone was deep with emotion. “I wish you could remember your mother when she was healthy. She had a way of cutting through crap and refocusing me on what’s important. I see her in you so often. Your brothers didn’t mean any harm, but I’ll talk to them. We’d all like to see you with a husband and family. Or single if that’s what you decide.”
“Thank you.”
“Just to clear the air, Connor confessed to me they went to Boston to threaten Grant. Dylan admitted he clocked him as well.”
Viviana covered her face with her hands. “Oh, my God. Grant needs to take a self-defense course just to visit me.”
“I’ve been looking into your boyfriend. I don’t think he’s not retaliating because he doesn’t know how.”
It was an odd enough comment that Viviana lowered her hands and looked over at her father. “What are you saying?”
“Not sure if it’s a good or bad thing that you don’t know.”
“I don’t understand.”
“He’s an extremely wealthy man, Viv. Money like that can be a dangerous thing. There is more to him than he’s showing us. How did the two of you meet?”
“We were both running by the Charles.” The truth, just the tamest part of it.
“Have you known him long?”
She looked away, made a face, then met her father’s gaze. “Not really.”
Her father didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to. She’d thought the same thing about a hundred times since she’d discovered she was pregnant. She looked across at the slumbering, snoring man sprawled out on her couch. “We’re giving us a chance, although I don’t know why he’s trying as hard as he is.”
“You’re not giving yourself or us much credit. If he wins your heart there are plenty in this town who will think he’s one lucky bastard.”
Viviana smiled at that. “I did get a good share of flowers today.”
Her father nodded. “Of course you did, baby. Grant is no fool. He sees the same wonderful woman the rest of the town sees. If he forgets that when he wakes up, I’ll remind him. I don’t want to be the only Sutton who hasn’t hit him.”
“Dad,” Viviana exclaimed.
Her father chuckled. “I’m kidding. Connor hasn’t yet, either.”
Viviana rolled her eyes skyward. “Not funny.”
Her father pinched the air. “Not even a little?”
“Too soon.”
“I don’t think you have to worry about Grant.” Her father relaxed deeper in his chair. “What you’ve got there is a strong man who wants to be part of this family rather than steal you away from us.”
“So strong a seventy-year-old man can almost knock him over?”
“No, so strong he let him.”
Viviana took a moment to digest that. “You like him.”
“I’m reserving my opinion for after I know him better. Your brothers are, too, but he improved the chances of us approving of him by acting the way he did tonight. I know you imagined tonight differently, but men have their own way of figuring each other out. You’ll see. Tomorrow they’ll all be friendly.”
Moments from the evening flashed in Viviana’s mind. Grant laughing along with her brothers. Him whispering to them. Them whispering back. “I hope you’re right.”
In the quiet that followed, Viviana’s eyes began to flutter and close.
“Viv?” her father prompted.
“Yeah, Dad?”
“I’m not here as a chaperone.”
“No?”
“I’m here because you said he’s important to you—that makes him important to me, too. You were right—no matter what happens between the two of you, that man will be the father of my grandbaby. He’s family now.”
Viviana let her eyes close and nodded. Family.
Her mind drifted off to a place where she and Grant were married and chasing children out the door to go to school. It was such a good dream she didn’t want to wake from it even when the sound of her apartment door opening and closing almost woke her.