Too Far 02 - Never Too Far

deal with my mother and sister for the past four hours. Kicking Georgianna out of the house and informing her and Nan I intend to ask Blaire to marry me isn’t exactly an easy battle. So forgive me if I need a little help remembering where Blaire is!”
    Bethy thumped the bottle of water down on the bar and her angry snarl became more of a disgusted frown. I’d thought once she heard I was going to propose to Blaire that she’d be happy. Apparently not.
    “I hope you didn’t buy a ring,” was her only response.
    I was tired of her games. “Tell me where she is,” I roared.
    Bethy put both her hands on the bar and leaned forward giving me a furious scowl I didn’t know the girl was capable of. “Go. To. Hell.”
    Fuck. What had I done?
    The door opened and Blaire came walking in smiling until her eyes met mine. Then her smile faltered. She was mad at me too. Not good.
    “Blaire,” I said as I walked toward her and she started backing up.
    “Don’t,” she replied, holding up both her hands to stop me from coming closer.
    She was holding something. It looked like pictures. What the hell did she have pictures of? Was it something from my past? Was she pissed about some girl I’d done something with once?
    “Is that what I think it is?” Bethy asked pushing past me and running to Blaire.
    Blaire nodded and handed her the pictures. Bethy covered her mouth. “Oh my God. Did you hear the heartbeat?”
    At the words “heartbeat” my chest felt as if it had just been ripped wide open. Understanding dawned on me. Today was Thursday. It was Blaire’s doctor’s appointment. She’d called to remind me and I’d hung up on her.
    “Blaire, shit baby, I am so sorry. I was dealing with my—”
    “Your family. I know. Nan told me when I called back. I don’t want to hear your excuses. I just want you to leave.” Her voice was flat. There was no emotion in it.
    She turned her attention back to the pictures and pointed to something. “Right there. Can you believe that’s inside me?”
    Bethy turned her hateful scowl from me to the picture and a soft smile touched her face. “It’s amazing.”
    They were standing there looking at pictures of my baby. Blaire had heard his heartbeat today. Alone. Without me.
“Can I see?” I asked, scared she’d tell me no or worse, ignore me.
    Instead, she took the pictures from Bethy and handed them to me. “The little thing that looks like a pea. That’s… our baby,” she finished. She had been reluctant to call it our baby. I couldn’t blame her.
    “Was its heart okay? I mean, did it beat properly and everything?” I asked, staring down at the picture in my hand.
    “Yes. They said everything was perfect,” she replied. “If you want it you can keep that one. I have three. But I’d like for you to leave now.”
    I wasn’t leaving. Bethy standing guard wasn’t going to stop me either. I would say all this in front of Bethy if I had to but I refused to leave this condo.
    “My mother and your father showed up unannounced today. Nan leaves for college Monday. Mom thought I’d be leaving too so she was back to move in for the year. I informed her I wasn’t leaving and she’d need to find another home. I also informed them that I was staying until you decided you wanted us to move somewhere else. That I intended to ask you to marry me,” I paused and watched as her face paled. Not the reaction I was hoping for. “It didn’t go over well. There was a lot of yelling. Hours of screaming and threats. When you called me I had just announced to the three of them that I was going to marry you. All hell had broken loose. I was going to call you back once I had my mother and Abe back in their car and headed out of town. I didn’t want you to have to face either of them. But my mother doesn’t go down without a fight. Nan packed up and left for school this evening. She is refusing to ever speak to me again.” I stopped and took a breath.
“I can never tell you how sorry I am. The fact I forgot about today’s appointment is unforgivable. I keep having to apologize to you. I wish I could stop fucking everything up.”
    “You weren’t going to have lunch with your family?” she asked.
    “My family? What? No!”
    The rigid stance of her posture relaxed. “Oh,” she said in a sigh.
    “Why did you think I’d go to lunch with them? I wouldn’t hang up on you to go spend time with them.”
    “Nan,” she replied with a sad smile.
    “Nan? When the hell did