This would be funny as hell if it weren’t my life.
Penny's eyes flutter like she's trying to blink herself out of a nightmare. “Um…Hi, Mrs. Kingston?”
When I glance back at Ma, it's rainbows and butterflies, bridal gowns and baby strollers in her eyes. The rest of the girls jam themselves around my mother, their wide-ass grins crowding up the doorway.
Oh, god.
This'll be a hard one to explain.
24
Walker
Thankfully, I managed to pry Ma off of my doorjamb and escort her back to the guesthouse before she did something dramatic. Like call up her minister and order him to clear out his weekend schedule to squeeze in the Walker and Penny wedding she’s been planning the last twenty-something years.
Now, my mother is standing at the prep counter in the kitchen of the family guesthouse. Her eyes glitter blissfully at the ball of pie dough in front of her.
Yes, she’s making pie. I cringe.
“You and Penny are adults," she declares. Her words are diplomatic but her voice practically twinkles with enthusiasm. "If you two have decided to start up a relationship, it's none of my business. You don't owe me an explanation. You don't need to justify it. You are perfectly entitled to be together.” She’s still avoiding eye contact because she knows that if we make eye contact, she won’t be able to hide her excitement.
Dad leans against the sink with his coffee mug in hand, his mouth in a grim line as he glares at my head. He’s been glaring at me since Mom skip-hopped into the house a few minutes ago and ‘casually’ mentioned that Penny spent the night at my house.
He knows what I know. Once Ma discovers what’s really going on between my friend and me, a whole lot of drama is about to go down.
Lying would probably be easier but Ma has always been able to see through my bullshit. My brothers say I'm the worst liar of us all. I guess they're right. In any case, I’m a grown-ass man and my family’s just going to have to accept the decision I’ve made, even if they don't like it.
I pull in a breath. "Penny and I..." I search for the right words. "Penny and I aren't in a relationship.”
The woman waggles her brows. “Well, sometimes a little something-something leads to everything, if you know what I mean." There's so much hope on her face it breaks my heart.
Dad and I share a look.
Mom’s been trying to match-make for years. However, the vulgar reality is nowhere near the fairytale she has been trying to wish into existence.
"It's not like that, Ma. Penny isn't interested in me that way.” I sigh.
Now, she's glaring at me, too. “Are you really going to lie to me, Walker Edward Kingston? I'm not crazy. I know what I saw."
"Yeah, I'm not denying that Penny and I..." I glance to my father for help but all I get from him is a stony expression. "...spent the night together."
Ma’s smile widens with glee.
"But it's a lot more complicated than that," I continue. "I'm doing her a favor...I'm helping her get pregnant."
Ma stops the dough-rolling. She blinks. "You're helping her get what?"
"Penny wants a baby and I volunteered to help her."
Her expression is slathered with suspicion. "You volunteered to get Penny pregnant?"
"Yeah, Ma."
My mother looks utterly confused by the words I'm saying to her. "And when she does get pregnant, then you'll be in a relationship?"
I hate having to break this to her. "There won't be a relationship. Penny will raise the child as a single mom. We've met with a lawyer. I've already signed my parental rights away."
The rolling pin tumbles from her fingers and spills over the edge of the counter to hit the floor with a crack. "You did what now?!"
"Penny wants a baby. She was going to head down to the sperm bank and grab a vial of some stranger's DNA. I couldn't let that happen. So, I offered to father her child."
Mom is frighteningly still. She doesn't breathe. She doesn't blink.
And then, she explodes into action. She swoops up the dirty rolling pin off the kitchen floor and she gets to rolling. My mother is beating that pie dough with a level of aggression I've never seen before.
Dad and I both flinch. She's pissed. Silently, I wonder if my brothers will ever forgive me if our mother has an aneurysm over this.
My father sets down his cup and ambles over to her. He cups his palms on her shoulders. "I think you should sit down for a minute, Snowflake."
She shakes her head vigorously. "I'm fine."
"Diana..." he insists.
"No, I'm fine. Really." She keeps on hate-rolling the dough. "Walker is an adult. And so is Penny. And they have decided to do this 'thing' and if that makes them happy then, what can I say? Y'know? What can I say?" A moment later, her shoulders start shaking. Heaving sounds escape her. She breaks down sobbing. "But Lucas, are you hearing this? He's getting her pregnant? He signed his rights away?"
Dad braces her by the shoulders. “Diana, even though we don’t approve of their decision, we have to accept it.”
She pulls back and wipes her eyes on her sleeves. “I know I seem overbearing and I really don’t mean to be. It’s just…” Her gaze darts over to me. “It’s just that, after everything we went through when you were a child, after everything your father and I had to do to protect you and keep this family together, after all that, hearing that you signed your rights away? Hearing that you are okay with walking away from your own child? It guts me, Walker.”
Fuck—Those words are like an elbow pressing directly into my emotional sore spot. Ma really does know how to make a guy feel like shit. I hate that she’s trying to make me feel guilty about this. I’m just trying to help my friend make her dream come true. I’m not the bad guy here…
Or am I?
My dad sighs. “I tried telling him all that. He wouldn't listen.”
When my father says those words, Ma's eyes snap up to his. “Wait—you tried telling him that? When?” She takes a
