Love Songs And Lullabies

“Well,” Dean said, taking the napkin off his lap and setting it beside his half-eaten plate of food, “I guess all that’s left to say is congratulations.”

He stood up and walked around the table to give Piper a hug.

“Thank you, Dean,” Piper whispered.

“Marriage or no marriage, this baby makes you family,” he said. “And the Stratton family is a good one, I promise.”

Piper’s eyes watered. “Thank you.”

“I think it’s time everyone goes,” Heath said. “Piper and I have some things to discuss before we meet with the tour company and inform them we will only be signing on for a six-month tour. She also needs to call her mother and tell her the...news.”

Piper’s face paled. She had so many more people to answer to than Sawyer did. He stood and took her by the hand.

“It’s going to be okay. And in the end, you’ll have plenty of material for a great song about the jerk who broke off your engagement.”

She managed to crack a smile for the first time since he’d arrived. “That’s one way to look at it.”

Sawyer reached up and brushed her cheek with his thumb. She leaned into his touch.

Heath cleared his throat. “I believe I said we have things to do.”

Sawyer dropped his hand to his side. When the time came, it would not be difficult to convince the world they’d broken off their engagement because of her overbearing father.

“See you soon, Heath. Betcha can’t wait. Maybe I can start calling you Dad. Yes? No?”

Heath pointed at the door. Dean grabbed Sawyer by the elbow and guided him out into the hall.

“Let’s not poke the bear, okay?”

“I can’t believe you are okay with this,” Faith said to Dean as they entered the elevator.

“I don’t think anyone was really that interested in my opinion in the first place,” he said, showing his palms.

Sawyer rubbed his forehead. “Don’t be so hard on him. It’s not like he knew we were going to drop a bomb on him.”

“Well...” Faith cringed. “That’s not totally true.”

“I may have been informed last night,” Dean confessed.

“You promised me you wouldn’t tell him! What if Piper hadn’t been okay with you two coming to breakfast this morning?”

“This is how I know you aren’t ready to be married,” Faith said, stepping forward. “The first rule of a good marriage is don’t keep secrets. I think Heath is wrong to keep this from his wife. Honesty is the best and only policy. Lying by omission is still lying.”

Sawyer should have expected his sister wouldn’t be able to stay quiet all night. She and Dean had been through enough because of secrets and lies. It had been wrong of him to ask her to keep him out of the loop.

She was also right about him not being ready to get married. Hopefully he’d be able to pull off playing the doting fiancé. Everyone back home would be a tough sell.

As they exited the hotel, a handful of paparazzi appeared out of nowhere. The rumors had begun and the press was dying for more to the story. Cameras were rolling and the questions were, too.

“Secret rendezvous with your girlfriend?”

“How’s Piper doing?”

“How long have you two been together?”

“Why have you been keeping this romance a secret?”

Sawyer ducked his head as the three of them ran for the car. He kept his mouth shut and could already imagine the look of dread on Piper’s face when she found out reporters were circling the place like vultures.

“What does Heath Starling think about the two of you together?” someone shouted.

Even the paps knew who was in charge of Piper’s life. Sawyer opened the passenger door for his sister and climbed into the back seat. Heath was going to do everything he could to control this situation. Sawyer needed to rise to the challenge.

CHAPTER SEVEN (#u74104fa4-2cf5-5fce-87e2-9871c226404a)

“MY ANKLE IS a little black-and-blue, but it doesn’t hurt to walk around.”

Telling her father that she was pregnant had somehow been less daunting than sharing the same news with her mother. Maybe it was the impersonal nature of a phone call. Maybe it was the fact that Piper in no way felt like she would ever be as good at being a mom as hers was.

“Good. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you so soon after we spoke last night. Is everything else all right?”

Piper glanced at her father’s bedroom door. He hadn’t said a word to her after everyone had left. He had had Lana run out and buy a home pregnancy test to be sure Piper hadn’t been misdiagnosed. When it came back positive, he had gone into his bedroom and shut the door, leaving Piper to stew about the future and obsess over the way it felt when Sawyer held her hand.

“There was one thing I needed to tell you. I should have told you last night, but I was a little bit overwhelmed.”

“Oh, sweetheart. That’s understandable. You had a crazy day yesterday. What’s going on?”

Piper crossed and uncrossed her legs. She was like the princess who could feel the pea under a hundred mattresses. No matter what she did, she could not get comfortable.

“When I was at the hospital yesterday, they had to do some blood tests before they could give me an X-ray.” The other end of the line went dead silent. “Mom, are you there?”

“I’m here. Please tell me you’re well. There’s nothing wrong, is there?”

“Oh, no, I mean, yes. I’m fine. No problems. But I did find out something I wasn’t exactly prepared for. They told me...I’m pregnant.”

Her mom was quiet again before bursting with laughter. “That’s a good one! I can picture your father’s face when he heard that. What kind of hospital was this? How could they have messed that up so badly?”

Piper put her mom on speaker and pressed her palms over her eyes to stop the tears. Her throat was so tight, she wasn’t sure she could get the words out.

“They didn’t mess up, Mom. I did.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that I fell in love with Sawyer Stratton and we shared a moment of weakness six weeks ago, and in less than nine months, I’ll be having a baby.”

Her hands were no match for the tears that leaked out anyway. It was horrible to have to break the news this way. She couldn’t imagine how disappointed her mother was.

“You’re pregnant? For real?”