Knitted Hearts by Amber Kelly
Foster
“I’m going to be an uncle?” Truett asks.
“Yep.”
He removes his ball cap and scratches his head. “I’m going to be an uncle. Shit. I’m going to have to get way cooler really fast.”
“I think you have a little time,” I assure him.
He whistles. “Got to tell you, brother, this was not the news I thought I’d hear this morning. When you said you had something to tell me, I honestly thought you had bought Sonia a ring or something like that.”
I throw the shovel in the back of the truck and slam the tailgate shut. “That’s not going to happen.”
“Why not?” he asks.
“She got spooked.”
“Ah, man, about the baby?” he asks.
“Yep,” I say.
We climb into the truck and head back to the ranch.
“Give her time. She’ll sort herself out,” he says.
I scoff, “I don’t think so. She made that clear when she told me to leave last night.”
“So, you’re just going to give up? I thought you loved her,” he presses.
“It’s complicated now,” I tell him.
Shit, I haven’t even had time to process the past twenty-four hours, and the last thing I need is my little brother trying to give me advice.
“I get that. It isn’t very easy. Put yourself in her shoes. What would you have done if she had told you that she was five months pregnant with her ex-husband’s kid? I bet you wouldn’t have jumped up and down in glee either. That’s a lot to chew on. But Sonia is a good woman, and if she loves you, then once she has time to think things through, she’ll come around, and you two can figure it out together.”
I start mulling what he said over in my mind. How would I react if she were pregnant? That would be different, right? She’d be carrying a baby in her body. That would be a completely different scenario.
No, it wouldn’t.
Fuck, Truett is right. It is the same thing.
“You look like shit, by the way,” he adds. And he’s back.
“It’s not like I got any sleep last night, Truett.”
“Why not? I don’t see how being an irritable ass is going to help the situation. You might as well get some rest, and then maybe you’ll be in a proper state of mind to know what to do,” he snaps.
He turns to the window, and I know he’s pouting.
I elbow his side, and he scowls at me.
“An irritable ass, huh?”
“Well, you’re not exactly a ray of sunshine at the moment.”
That makes me laugh.
“Stop being a rational voice of reason. It’s freaking me out,” I tell him.
“To be honest, it’s freaking me out too,” he admits.
Myer and I spend the afternoon removing a couple of dead trees that were in danger of falling and taking out the ranch’s loafing shed.
I take all my frustrations out with a chain saw and ax.
“You want to talk about it?” Myer asks as he throws more branches into the wood chipper.
“Talk about what?” I ask.
“Whatever has you going all Leatherface on those trees.”
“Not really.”
“Okay, I can respect that. Just try not to take out any of your limbs—or mine—with that thing,” he says before pulling his goggles back down and heading for the second tree.
“Wendy’s pregnant,” I blurt out.
He stops and turns back to me.
“Come again?”
“It’s mine.”
“Oh shit. How did you take that news?” he asks.
I shrug.
“You’re going to be a father. Surely, you have some thoughts on that,” he says.
“I don’t hate the idea. I’ve always wanted kids. It just wasn’t a part of the plan yet.”
“I bet. For what it’s worth, I’m of the babies are always a blessing school of thought myself,” he offers.
“Yeah, well, it’s not an ideal situation to be dragging a kid into.”
“Kids are resilient. They don’t need perfection. They just need to be loved,” he assures me.
“I can do that.”
“And Sonia?” he asks.
“Not so sure she can do it,” I tell him.
“That’s a tough one. She’s had a lot of her own shit to deal with the past couple of years. I’m sure, in her eyes, it seemed like it was just another thing coming at her.”
“I know. It broke my heart to tell her. The look on her face—it was something I never imagined me causing. Raw pain,” I confess.
“Give her time. Sonia’s a smart and compassionate woman. She’ll come around. Do you need a couple of days off to deal with all that shit?” he asks.
He’s a fucking good boss.
“Nah, man. It’s better for me to be out here, busting up trees, than sitting around, stuck in my own head.”
“If that changes, you just say the word.”
“Thanks, man.”