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“He says he does,” she admitted.
Her mother was silent for a long moment. “I could kill Stan Lewis.”
Laurel gave a short laugh. “You’d have to find him first.”
“This is all his fault. You can’t let what he did ruin what you have with Zack.”
“I’m not. I haven’t totally ruled out marriage. But I have to be sure.” Not only sure of Zack, but sure of her own judgment as well.
Her parents didn’t know the whole story. No one knew it. Laurel had nearly told her mother about Stan’s addiction, but she’d decided it wouldn’t be fair to expect her mom to keep that secret. And God only knew what might have happened if her brothers and her father had found out the truth about Stan. No, that was a secret she wasn’t sharing with anyone.
Before, when Stan was still around, she’d been petrified of what her brothers would do to him if they found out the extent of what he’d done. But Stan was long gone, so why was she so determined not to tell her family the truth?
Because she was ashamed. Ashamed that she’d been so blind. And so naive as to believe Stan would get clean if she asked him to and stood by him. She’d wasted a lot of time and tears hoping against hope that Stan would do the right thing. He never did.
Laurel asked Harlan and Savannah and Travis and Tobi to come over after dinner on Saturday. Tobi, Travis’s girlfriend who was a doctor at the Urgent Care clinic, said she had to work that day but she’d be off that evening. She suggested they meet at her house for pizza. Laurel agreed and asked one of her teenage neighbors to stay with the kids. This wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have in front of them and they’d never go to sleep at Tobi’s with all the people and activity.
She’d told Zack of her plans last night. His only comment was to rub his jaw where Travis had hit him the morning he’d found them together at Zack’s in a compromising position.
“Are you nervous?” she asked Zack on the way over to Tobi’s.
“No, not at all,” he said cheerfully. “I’m sure I’ll enjoy being strung up and castrated by your brothers when they hear we aren’t getting married.”
Laurel couldn’t help laughing. “They’re not that bad.”
He shot her a sharp glance. “Wanna bet?”
Castration was an exaggeration, but she could totally see Travis, at the least, punching Zack. Harlan would probably be more restrained. Probably. “I’ll explain it to them.”
“No you won’t. I’ll take care of it. I don’t hide behind women.”
Laurel argued with him but he was adamant that he could handle her brothers.
The evening started off fine. Tobi and Travis had moved in together fairly recently but as far as Laurel knew, hadn’t made wedding plans. During dinner the talk centered around Savannah’s pregnancy. After dinner, once the leftover pizza was stowed away and Lucky, Tobi’s dog, had been let out of purgatory, Travis said, “Are you going to tell us why you called this meeting, Laurel?”
She drew in a deep breath and reached for Zack’s hand. “Zack and I have something to tell you. I’m pregnant.”
“That’s wonderful,” Savannah said and jumped up to hug her. Tobi did too. Then her brothers had to hug her and shake Zack’s hand.
Zack said, “That’s not all. She’s having twins. Identical twins.”
That of course caused even more commotion. Once everyone settled down Travis asked, “When’s the wedding?”
“There isn’t going to be one,” Zack said.
There was a stunned silence.
“What the fuck?” Travis said.
“Don’t get mad at Zack,” Laurel said. “It’s my choice not to get married.”
“That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard,” Travis told her. “Zack, outside.”
“You read my mind,” Zack said.
Harlan, Travis and Zack left the room and they heard the back door bang shut.
“That was interesting,” Tobi said once the men were gone.
