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The gasps and shock hit all four of them at the same time, collectively. Kallie and Emily both put their hands to their mouths. Ethan steps forward first, going to Gabriel, putting his hand on his shoulder, and the smile slowly fills his face. “Well, then…” He pulls his son into him and hugs him, slapping him on the back as he whispers something in Gabriel’s ear before turning to me. “Welcome to the family,” he says, pulling me in his arms. The sob escapes me before I even realize it.
“Dad, you’re making her cry,” Gabriel hisses, pushing him away from me and taking me in his arms.
“He’s not,” I mumble to his chest. “It’s the hormones.”
“It’s a girl,” Gabriel tells them, and I push him away from me in time to see his mother coming to him. “I can feel it.”
“My baby is having another baby.” She smiles through the tears. “I’m so proud of you.”
I look around, trying to see if my parents are close so I can get them over here and they can see how it’s done with normal families. “Zara,” Emily says, pulling me into her arms, “thank you for the wonderful gift.”
“No.” I shake my head. “Thank you for making an almost perfect man.” I look over at Gabriel, who is hugging his grandparents at the same time.
“Almost perfect,” Emily adds, “is pretty much perfect.” She laughs, and then my parents join us.
“Congratulations, Grandpa,” Ethan says to my father, who just nods.
“It’s a surprise, that is for sure,” he replies, looking at me and then at Gabriel, “but I’m sure Gabriel will take good care of her.” I raise my eyebrows at him and side-eye Gabriel.
“Of course, he will,” Ethan assures my father, who smiles at me.
“He better,” my mother mumbles. “That’s my baby girl.”
“He better,” Ethan says, “or else I’ll help you kick his ass.”
“Well, this is fun,” Gabriel murmurs to me. “At least they are getting along.” I wrap my arms around his stomach. “Mr. and Mrs. Petrov,” he calls to my parents, “I’d like to introduce you to my son.” He lets go of me to walk with my parents, who are followed by his parents and then his grandparents, as they go and meet Colson.
I follow and see my father reaching out his hand to shake Colson’s. “You know how to skate?” he asks, and I put my hand to my chest, knowing it’ll be fine.
* * *
I walk up the steps to my house, putting my key in the door and opening it before walking in and dumping my bag. The phone rings from my purse, and I fish it out, seeing it’s Gabriel calling me. “Hey, Cowboy,” I answer, kicking my boots off before walking up the stairs with my bag toward my bed.
“You didn’t call me when you landed,” he scolds, and my chest tightens at his voice.
“I figured I would call you when I got home and unpacked.” Even though I don’t want to unpack my bag nor do I want to be here.
“I thought we discussed this,” he says, and I hear my phone ringing and see he’s trying to FaceTime me. I press the connect button. “Hey, Sweetheart.” The smile on his face is everything, and I have to blink away the tears that are threatening to come.
“Hey, Cowboy.” I put the bag down in my closet before walking over to the bed and lying down on it.
“You didn’t call me,” he reminds me as I lay my head on the pillow he used and I smell him, making me feel a bit better, but then I miss him a bit more. “We discussed this and said we were going to work on communication,” he starts, “and this meant you would call me at your every move.”
I laugh. “That wasn’t the discussion at all. There wasn’t even a discussion; it was more along the lines of you call me when you get in.”
“And you said yes, so that means we discussed it,” he explains, and I see he’s in his office at the bar.
“I thought you were busy. You said you were behind on your paperwork since you didn’t work the whole time I was there.”
“I got most of it done.” He looks around. “I just have to take inventory, but I can do that after.”
“I miss you.” The words come out before I can stop them.
“I miss you too, Sweetheart.” Even though he says the words, I would give anything for him to be here and give me a hug. “I told you to stay.”
“I can’t just stay, Gabriel. I have an in-person meeting tomorrow,” I remind him, “and in person means I have to show up and not Zoom it in.”
“Okay, but then when are you free?” he asks me.
