Looking over Alla’s shoulder, Piper noticed her parents had entered the room, with Harper close behind them. Reese was there, too, with Ally on her hip, and Jakob was leaning against the wall with a grin on his face.

Isn’t this convenient, she thought with a sigh.

Alla pulled back with a puzzled look and glanced down at Piper’s growing midsection.

She then looked up at Piper’s face and asked, “Honey?”

Piper gave her a nervous smile.

“Yeah, there is a baby in there,” she said with a laugh.

Alla turned looking for Piper’s mom, Rowan, and said, “She’s pregnant? You didn’t tell me that!”

With a tight smile, Rowan said, “We just found out the other day.”

“Oh,” Alla said with a “whoops” sort of look on her face.

Piper bit into her lip when all the eyes fell on her. She felt stupid and knew that her whole family and now Alla and Cooper were looking at her as if she had f**ked up again. She wanted to burst out in tears but before she could even do anything, she felt someone come up behind her, and then a hand rested on her stomach. Looking up, she met Erik’s dark eyes. He looked just as nervous as she did but for some reason, she felt comforted by him.

Erik turned from her and was about to address their families. Piper watched as a smile crossed his face and he told them, “We are excited. It was unplanned and a complete surprise but we are happy.”

Piper wanted to laugh at his lie, but she remembered that she was a part of it. She put on a smile of her own, then noticed everyone looking at them with shocked faces.

“Whoa, excuse me?” Harper asked as Jakob came off the wall and to her side. Up until now Harper knew that Piper was pregnant; Piper just never told her sister it was Erik’s baby.

“Erik?” Jakob asked as Erik chuckled.

“Guys, come on, don’t act so surprised,” Erik said. “You must have noticed Piper and I had a thing for one another.”

Rowan’s mouth was moving but no words were coming out. Harper’s face was red with anger as Jakob stood with a silly grin on his face, “Stop playing, Erik. What is going on?”

Erik massaged Piper’s shoulders. “We are having a baby. It’s due in September, right, gorgeous?”

Piper looked up at him with what she hoped he saw as a warning look. He was laying it on pretty thick and no one was going to believe this shit.

“Yes, the twenty-first.”

They gave each other fake smiles before looking back at their family. Rowan was still blinking uncontrollably, her mouth moving, while Piper’s father, Blake, stood beside her, his eyes locked on Erik. Piper looked over at her twin to see Reese glaring at Erik, too. Alla and Cooper looked shocked as well, and Piper was starting to feel self-conscious. This was bad. They should have done this another way.

“I remember everyone being a little happier when Harper and Jakob announced Ally,” Erik added, hugging Piper close to his body.

She loved when he’d hugged her all those months ago but it felt different now since she knew that he didn’t mean it.

“Um, you’re six months, Piper, and we are just finding out about this?” Alla asked. “Erik, why didn’t you tell us?”

“We weren’t sure how we were going to do this,” Erik lied. “I wasn’t sure if I was ready to be a father and kind of freaked for a while. We broke up but then I decided I couldn’t be without Piper any longer and asked her to marry me yesterday and she said yes.”

“You’re married?” Harper, Rowan, and Reese yelled all at once.

Erik laughed. “Surprise!”

Piper elbowed him as she nodded.

“We’re in love. We want to be a family.”

“This is insane,” Harper said, looking over at Jakob.

“Oh, Piper,” Rowan said, shaking her head as she held her hand over her mouth. There it was. The ultimate disappointed look from her mother.

“Piper, baby, why didn’t you tell us?” Blake asked, but Piper couldn’t look at her father. She couldn’t look into his eyes and lie.

She couldn’t.

“It was all so sudden, Daddy.”

Minutes passed with only Ally making a noise. Piper’s heart was pounding against her ribs and she could feel Erik’s hands trembling. Talk about uncomfortable moments.

Finally Cooper cleared his throat before saying, “I think we need to talk, son, outside. Piper, no offense to you, sweetie, don’t think that we aren’t happy to have you in our family, and having our grandchild, but I need to talk to Erik.”

Nodding her head, since she didn’t feel at all offended, she said, “Yes, I understand.”

She glanced back at her family as Erik pressed his lips to her temple. Her traitorous eyes fell shut at his gentle touch, and when his lips fell to her ear, she took in a deep breath as he whispered, “Stay strong, stick to the story, and everything will be fine.”

He gave her one last kiss on the cheek and followed Alla and Cooper out the door. Jakob was close behind and when the door shut, Harper started yelling. “Are you f**king crazy? You don’t love him! He sleeps with everything that walks!”

“Piper, sweetie, what have you done?” Rowan asked.

Piper took in another deep breath and ran her hands through her hair.

“Is it really that crazy for you all to believe that I love him?”

“Yes!” Harper and Reese and what seemed like the entire room cried out together.