Bittersweet Catastrophe (Second Chances #2.5) by Maureen Mayer Read Free Book Online Page B

agree…but a first-time father of twins? Yeah, there wasn’t any way to skirt around the fear of bringing two precious lives into this world and still keep a sliver of my sanity throughout the entire process.
    Liberty was coming up on the end of her first trimester, and knowing that she had made it this far along without any complications also meant that we had less than six months left before the babies arrived. We still had so much to do, and with my long hours and Liberty working and starting up classes again next month, it didn’t leave much time for us to get everything together for the nursery. Just the thought of having to buy two of everything had my mind spinning, and it was beginning to take a toll on my focus – or lack there of – at work.
    I felt a hand crack against the back of my head, snapping me out of the stress-induced fog that had enveloped me as of late. “Son, do you plan on getting any actual work done today?”
    I looked up to find my father with a goofy smirk plastered on his face. God love him, the man didn’t have a serious bone in his body. Unless my mother was the topic of conversation, he was laughing and joking around with the best of us. “Sorry, Pops. Must have been in the zone.” Returning my gaze out toward the water, I realized we were pulling back into the marina. Shit, is it really that late?
    “Seems to be happening a lot lately. Ya got something on your mind?”
    I nodded my head, smiling. “Yeah, you could say that.”
    He maneuvered the boat into the marina, and just as we were approaching the dock, I jumped off and secured the ropes to the horn cleats that were spaced out along the old, rickety wooden boards. My father shook hands with the group of fisherman, whose names I’d never taken the time to get to know, and handed them their freshly fileted catch of the day. I was usually in charge of keeping things running smoothly on the boat, but it appeared he’d taken it upon himself to do my half of the work. I’d probably get reamed out for that later.
    They said their goodbyes, and he stepped back onto the boat, planting his feet right beside me. I started hosing off the deck, and after a few minutes of deafening silence, I caught him out of the corner of my eye, folding his arms across his chest.
    “So…how far along is she?” My father’s steady, yet gruff voice penetrated my thoughts, and my eyes snapped up to his. His aviator sunglasses were pushed down the bridge of his nose, and emerald green eyes that matched my own bore straight through me.
    “How…I never…y-you know?!” The hose fell from my hands and water began to spray in every direction. I quickly reached over the side of the boat to turn the spigot off, and when I turned around, my father was drenched from head to toe. “Shit, Pops, I’m sorry. It’s just…” I retreated to grab him a towel and took a deep breath, shaking my head in disbelief. “How the hell could you possibly know she’s pregnant?”
    The fact that he hadn’t made a move or even blinked had the hairs on my arms standing on end. I watched as droplets of water fell from the brim of his hat and hit the deck, one after another. He finally uncrossed his arms and slipped the aviators off of his beet-red face, his movements slow and calculated, putting me on edge. Oh, I’m fucked.
    With pursed lips and a murderous glare, my father did a complete one-eighty, and a hearty laugh tore through him until he was hunched forward with his hands on his knees. I must’ve missed the punch line…that or he was developing signs of early-onset dementia because he had clearly lost his mind. I chose to go with the latter.
    “Oh man,” he bellowed out, wiping the tears that brimmed his eyes, and stood tall with his hands propped up on his hips. “Son, I haven’t laughed that hard since the first time you woke up with morning wood and thought your dick was going to fall off.”
    “Jesus, Pops, why don’t you tell the whole world!” I