“Is anyone ever one hundred per cent ready? I’m going to be fine. I’m not doing this on my own.” She looked at me, although she hardly needed confirmation.
“I get why you’re worried. I’ve not exactly been the most mature person since I split with Abby, but I would never walk out and leave Holly to do this by herself. I’m going to be there every step of the way.” I looked down at Holly. “I’m here for whatever you need.”
She smiled up at me. “I know that.”
Brad cleared his throat, and we both looked at him.
“Is there something between you two?”
“Just a baby,” I replied.
The indecision in Brad’s eyes was clear. He didn’t want there to be more to it, but he also did. No one wanted to think their sister wasn’t wanted by the man that got her pregnant.
“Just a baby,” he repeated.
“Mate, like you said, I’ve only been separated from my wife for five minutes. I’d turn down Katy Perry at the minute.”
“And I’m not desperate for a relationship,” Holly said. “Women are fine to be by themselves these days, you know!”
Brad rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t being sexist. I want to know if my little sister is going to be okay.”
“I will be.”
“Uni?”
“Taking a year out.”
Brad was too calm. If we were alone, I’d have a black eye by now.
“Yeah,” I said. “I’ve been thinking about that.”
She looked up at me with an I-dare-you-to-disagree-with-me expression.
“Hear me out.” I sat down, pulling her with me. “The baby is due in April when you’ll already be halfway through your final year. If you go back and take a few weeks off after the birth, we’ll figure out childcare.
“Jasper, missing a few weeks is huge.”
“I know.” Well I didn’t. I had no clue about university really, only what I’d looked up on her uni’s website to see if we could work it, so she didn’t have to miss a year. “But you could catch up, you’re the smartest person I know. I’ll have the baby as much as I can so you can study, and I know my mum and your parents will too.”
“Listen to him, Hol,” Brad said.
The front door opened, and we all froze. Their parents were home. Time to tell them too.
“Alright?” their mum, Sylvie said. “Oh, hi, Jasper.”
“Hey.”
My pulse raced. I didn’t want them to hate me for having a baby with their daughter. A daughter that everyone still seemed to think of as a young girl. She was anything but a child.
“What’re you two up to then?” their dad, Carl asked, referring to me and Brad of course.
Holly licked her bottom lip. “Um. Well, actually Jasper was here with me.”
They both cocked their head to the side, perfectly in tune with each other.
“Oh?” Sylvie asked.
“Not like that exactly.” Holly took a deep breath. “Jasper is the baby’s dad.”
In tune again, their mouths dropped open, and I was sure Carl stopped breathing.
Okay, so she was going in for the kill too.
“What?” Carl asked, staring at us dumbfounded. “How is Jasper the father?”
“We’re happy about it,” she said, hoping to diffuse the situation. “I know it’s sudden and I’m still young, but we can do this. It’s going to be fine.”
“Fine! You’re going into your last year of university soon and now pregnant by a twenty-seven-year-old man that’s not even divorced from his wife yet! How is that fine?”
Holly glared. “I understand you’re upset, Dad, but I’m an adult.”
His eyes teared up, and she leapt to her feet, hugging his waist tightly.
“I know I’ve always been the youngest, and everyone has treated me differently because of that, but I’m a grown woman now, and I can make my own decisions. And I can have a baby.”
They pulled away.
“When’s the wedding?”
My eyes practically fell out of their sockets.
“Very funny, Dad.”
“I’m not happy with you,” he said, his eyes tightening as he looked at me.
“I understand that. But you know I’ll be here for them both,” I reassured him.
He shook his head. “This is…”
Holly shrugged. “I know. Jasper was probably the last guy you suspected.”
Sylvie came out of the daze she’d seemed to slip into, and she hugged Holly.
“You’re not too disappointed in me, Mum, are you?”
“No, sweetheart. Can’t lie; I wish the circumstances were different, but I think you’ll both make wonderful parents. And at least we know where Jasper lives.”
“So I’m not getting kneecapped?” I asked, grinning.
Holly slapped my shoulder. “You have to ruin it!”
I laughed. “Seriously though, you don’t have to worry about an absent dad, I’ll be here so much you’ll be sick of me.” I needed her to know I would never let her down.
“I know,” she whispered, smiling.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Holly