Chapter 5: Wait Until After the Party

Bridget lived on the fourth floor of a brick building on Main Street, and she opened the door before we knocked.

"There are my two favorite people in the world," she said. "Plus a pirate."

Effie ran past her legs and into the living room, where Bridget kept a basket of toys for exactly this.

Bridget looked at Rhett, then at me.

"Why are you both standing like that?"

"We need to talk," I said.

"Oh, no." She put a hand on her chest. "Is it Grandma?"

"Nobody's sick," Rhett said. "Sit down, Bridget."

She sat on the arm of the couch with her wine, and she crossed her ankles and waited.

I had practiced the sentence for two days in my head.

It came out in a rush anyway.

"Effie is Rhett's daughter."

Bridget did not move.

Rhett took the printout from his jacket and put it in her hand.

She read it.

I watched her eyes go down the page and stop at the percentage, and I watched them go back to the top.

The wine glass tilted, and a thin red line ran down the side and onto her wrist.

She did not seem to notice it.

"Oh my God," she said.

Her mouth shook.

"Oh my God. Oh my God, Rhett."

She put the glass on the floor and stood up and threw her arms around his neck, and then she dragged me in with her other arm.

She was crying, a lot, with her face in my shoulder.

"I knew," she said. "I mean, I always said she had a look. I didn't know what I knew. I'm an aunt. I'm a real aunt!"

"You've always been her aunt," I said.

"Not like this." She pulled back and wiped under her eyes with both thumbs. "How long have you known?"

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Night I Gave My Best Friend's Brother a Child from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.