The Right Reason To Marry

Liam went back to Astoria and had breakfast at a homey little diner he liked. From there, he went on to his office at the Warrenton terminal and put in a half day of work.

That evening, he drove the few miles to Valentine Bay and stopped at the Sea Breeze on Beach Street for a beer. His baby sister Grace was behind the bar. She served him his favorite IPA and asked him if something was bothering him.

“It’s all good,” he lied and Gracie left him alone except to give him a refill when he signaled for it. He sat there sipping his beer, feeling kind of gloomy, going back and forth over whether or not to just tell his youngest sister that he was about to be a dad. At some point, he would have to break the big news to the whole family.

Soon, actually. The baby would be here in no time at all.

It all felt so strange. Completely unreal. He still had no clue how he was going to do it—be a dad.

But he wasn’t giving up. Uh-uh. Karin and her sad eyes weren’t keeping him away. He would be there for her and for his kid whether she wanted him around or not.

“Is Liam your boyfriend, Mommy?” Coco took a big sip of her milk and then set the glass carefully down. She picked up her fork and speared a clump of mac and cheese with ham.

Karin and her dad shared a glance across the dinner table. Otto lifted one bushy eyebrow. Karin read that look: it’s as good a time as any.

She cast a sideways glance at Ben. He was watching her, wearing what she always thought of as his Little Professor look. Serious. Thoughtful. Ben never just burst out with things the way Coco did. He watched. He waited. He made carefully considered, responsible decisions.

“As a matter of fact,” Karin said to her daughter, “I’ve been meaning to talk to both you and Ben about Liam.”

“I like Liam!” Coco speared a green bean and stuck it in her mouth.

Dear God. Where to even start? “I like Liam, too,” Karin said, trying to sound relaxed and natural and feeling anything but. “And several months ago, I...went out with him.”

Ben’s forehead scrunched up the way it always did when some complex math problem didn’t compute. “You were dating Liam?”

Not dating, exactly. “Uh, yes. I was. We’re not, um, dating anymore, though. But we are friends. And that’s a good thing. Because, as it turns out...” Was she blowing this? Most likely. She forged on anyway. “We will all probably be seeing a lot more of Liam because he is the new baby’s father.”

Ben said nothing.

Coco was incredulous. She set down her fork. “Our baby’s father?”

“Yes.” It was official. She was a terrible mother who needed lessons in how to share awkward, confusing information with her own children. “Liam is our baby’s dad.”

Coco frowned. “Is he going to come and live in our house?”

“No, honey.”

“But doesn’t he want to be with the baby?”

“Yes. Yes, he does. And he will be here often to see the baby. And when the baby gets older, the baby will probably stay with Liam some of the time.”

“Oh,” said Coco, and picked up her fork again. “Okay.” She stabbed herself another big bite of mac and cheese.

Karin glanced across at her dad again. He gave her a shrug and a reassuring smile.

Ben, who understood the mechanics of reproduction, asked the question she’d been dreading. “How come you didn’t say who the baby’s dad was when I asked you before?” He’d asked several months ago, not long after she’d made the announcement that he and Coco would have a new brother or sister.

Because I’m a lily-livered scaredy-cat, she thought. She said, “Well, sweetheart, as I said then, I wanted to talk to the baby’s dad first.”

“You took a long time to talk to him.”

Ouch. “Yes, I did. I’m sorry about that, I really am.”

Ben tipped his head to the side, pondering. “Why? Were you nervous, to tell him?”

Understatement of the decade. “I was, yes.”

“But now he knows and he’s happy that he’ll be a dad?”

“I haven’t asked him that question. But he seems very determined to be a good dad.”

Ben was still looking kind of troubled over the whole situation.

But Coco wasn’t. “Our baby will like having Liam for a dad,” she declared. “Liam’s nice—and I finished my dinner. What’s for dessert?”

Otto chuckled. “I think there might be a full carton of chocolate ice cream in the freezer.”

Karin brushed Ben’s arm. “Want to go talk about this in the other room, just the two of us?”

Ben shook his head. “Thanks, Mom. I’d rather just have some dessert.”

On Sunday, Karin went in to work at Larson Boatworks, the boat-building and refitting company her dad had started thirty-five years before. Karin ran the office.

That day, her dad kept an eye on the kids at home so she could spend several hours tying up loose ends on the job before the baby came. When she got back to the Cove late that afternoon, her dad reported that Liam had dropped by.

“Should I call him?” she asked.

“He didn’t say to ask you to.”

“Did he mention what he needed to talk to me about?”

Her dad gave her a look, indulgent and full of wry humor. “I’m not sure he knows what he needs to talk to you about.”

For the rest of that day and into the evening, she kept thinking that she probably ought to call Liam, check in, ask him if he had any questions or anything. Somehow, though, she never quite got around to picking up the phone.

Monday, her leave from work began. Her dad dropped the kids at the bus stop and then went on to work.

It was nice, having the house to herself. She took a half hour just deciding what to wear and ended up settling on a giant purple T-shirt dress with an asymmetrical hem.

Really, she didn’t want jeans or leggings wrapped around her balloon of a belly today, so she settled on thigh-high socks in royal blue with her oldest, comfiest pair of Doc Martens boots on her feet.

Once she was dressed, she felt suddenly energized, so she vacuumed and dusted and rechecked the baby’s room for the umpteenth time, making sure everything was ready. Around eleven, just as she finished assembling two large baking dishes of lasagna and sticking them in the freezer to reheat when needed, she heard the doorbell ring.

It was Liam. He had a pink teddy bear in one hand and a blue bear in the other.

“I forgot to ask. What are we having?” He smiled that killer smile of his, and she felt way too glad to see him.

She laughed. “It’s a boy.”