All I Need: Rod & Daisy (All Of Me Duet Book 2) A.D. Justice (short novels to read TXT) 📖

“Fuck. I feel like such an ass for this, Kevin. Can’t we just leave it alone this one time?”

“Nope. You’re my best friend. You don’t get to keep secrets from me. Spill your guts.”

“Fine. But if you let on you know, Tracy will hate me forever. You have to swear you’ll keep your trap shut and act surprised. Right now.”

“You have my word.” He motions for me to continue.

“I heard Daisy’s voice and thought it was coming from your room, so I went in there to find her. Instead, I found a present Tracy left for you on top of your shaving bag. It’s just right out in the open, so it’s not exactly my fault I saw it. In fact, I can’t believe you didn’t see it when you were just up there.”

“I only opened the door to see if Tracy was in there then closed it right back. I didn’t check the bathroom. What did you see?”

“Congratulations, brother. You’re going to be a father. The pregnancy test is positive.”

I’ve never seen a man turn so white that fast before.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Daisy

Tracy and I head upstairs as soon as we walk through the door. She stops to leave her purse in her bedroom, and I keep walking down the hall.

“The wrapping paper is in Mom’s craft room. Come back here when you’re ready.”

“Okay. Give me a minute and I’ll be right there.”

In case Rod comes looking for me, I close the door behind me and start pulling out all the rolls of festive paper. Tracy and I coordinated one of our gifts, and I can’t wait to see everyone’s faces when they open theirs. When Marlee and I were growing up, my family’s tradition was to open one gift on Christmas Eve. We all knew what it’d be, though the pattern changed every year. Tracy and I are reviving that tradition this year and including our new extended family members.

“Sorry that took so long. I tripped over the bathroom mat and dumped my purse out all over the place. I’m surprised the whole house didn’t hear all my cursing and yelling.”

“What’s with your nerves? I’m supposed to be the one freaking out.”

After a long sigh, she turns to face me. “Kevin and I aren’t getting along so well. Again.”

“What—how can that be? You two are perfect for each other. What’s going on, Trace?” I put the gift paper down and give her my full attention.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, because we love being here with you and your family. But he started questioning why I won’t take him to my family’s house for the holidays again. We’ve only had this same conversation a million times, and I’ve reassured him of my feelings for him more than that. He takes my reluctance to go back there as an insult to him. It makes him question if I’m embarrassed to be with him because he’s white since the rest of my family doesn’t exactly accept Caucasians in their circle. Except my grandmother, of course.”

“That he even questions if you’re embarrassed to be with him breaks my heart, Tracy. Look, your parents and older brothers never liked or accepted me, and I was only a little kid when you and I first met. I remember you had to lie to them to spend the night with me, saying you were at your grandmother’s house. She was the only one who wouldn’t stand for their blatant bias. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Nothing I’ve found so far. I’ve explained the entire problem with them, stressing that I’m nothing like them, until I’m blue in the face. Whether it’s the holidays or not, if we go anywhere near them, it’ll only cause more problems. Even I don’t want to have anything to do with my parents. Why would I purposely subject Kevin to them? His reasoning for wanting to visit them makes no sense to me.”

“Maybe he thinks he can change their minds if he has the chance to talk to them face to face. From what I know of him, he’s a great guy. If anyone can help them to see past the color of his skin, he’d have the best shot.”

“If my parents could change, I’d take him home to meet them in a split second. But since they’re impossibly hateful people. I won’t let them hurt him the way they did me growing up. I didn’t have a choice but to stay until we graduated. Then I got the hell out of there.

“Anyway, this is a problem we’ll have to solve another day, because we have presents to wrap today. Tomorrow morning is Christmas Eve, and I can’t wait to see them when they open their gifts. Also, we need to figure out how you’re going to handle this little surprise you have for Rod.”

She lines up the gift boxes and selects the wrapping paper for each one as she talks. It’s her way of remaining detached from the emotional toll even thinking about her family takes on her.

“We’ve talked about what I’ll do already, Tracy. Why do I get the feeling you’re secretly happy about this baby?”

“I’ve been thinking a lot about this, actually, so just remember you asked me. When you first told me you were pregnant with Landen, you didn’t share any of the details with me. Not about his father, the circumstances between the two of you, nothing. You love your son more than anything in the world, I know that, and so does Landen. But you were so cold and distant about being a mother until the first time you held him in your arms.

“You’re definitely freaked out about being pregnant again this time, but it’s as if you’re a completely different person with the pregnancy. You’re smiling, laughing, joking—you’re truly happy for the first time in years. I don’t want to see you give that up.”

“Who are you and what did