Not even for Piper. He was too messed up for that.

“Erik, are you sure? We’ll help you any way we can,” Cooper stressed.

Erik nodded as he smiled.

“Everything is fine. It’s new and maybe I wasn’t ready to settle down before, but I am now. We are going to be fine; we are going to raise our child and we are going to be happy. If it doesn’t work out, at least we tried, and I know that we’ll always be friends.”

Alla shook her head before saying, “Oh, Erik, I’m so proud of you right now.”

She then wrapped Erik up in her arms and gave him a loud kiss on the cheek.

Guilt washed over Erik as he held Alla. He was a dirty, despicable man for lying to the three people who loved him unconditionally, but before he could even think of telling them the truth, Alla said, “Well, thank God we are moving here, huh, Cooper?”

“You are moving here?” Erik asked.

“Yup, Cooper is retiring and of course we wanted to be close to you boys and Ally. We were going to tell everyone inside but I’m not even sure I am welcomed in this house,” Alla said. “I can tell that the Allens are not very happy with you, but that will all change in time. They’ll love you just as much as we do.”

Cooper nodded as Jakob stood shaking his head. Jakob saw right through Erik, and that made him nervous, but he had bigger things to worry about. Alla and Cooper were moving to Nashville. Fuck, now more than ever, Erik needed this to work. He also needed to keep clear of Jakob because Erik couldn’t risk Elli ever finding out the truth.

Bottom line: He owed it to Alla and Cooper to at least try, but most of all, he owed it to the kid. It wasn’t the kid’s fault he came into all this, or that Erik was f**ked in every way imaginable in the parenting department. No, the kid was an innocent little person who was going to have a great mom, two great sets of grandparents, and a bundle of aunts and uncles, but what kind of dad would Erik be?

He wanted to laugh, because he had thought this was all going to be so f**king easy.

What a bunch of bull hockey.

Chapter 7

“Why’d you tell everyone that you knew about the baby for the last six months?”

Piper was looking out the car window as the question left her lips. She watched as the bright green trees passed by quickly. Erik was driving at his normal speed, which was bat-out-of-hell fast. It didn’t bother her, though; she was too busy replaying the whole dinner with her family. It had gone as disastrously as expected and then some. Her father didn’t say two words to her, while her mother gave her a look of extreme disappointment the whole time.

At twenty-six Piper thought her life would have been more stable, in her job and in her relationship, but things weren’t horrible. The illustrating was coming along nicely and she was going to be the best mom she could be. The relationship would either work or not, and she was going to do everything she could to make it last. Everyone needed to get over it; people younger than her had babies and got married every day. Hell, Piper’s mother was nineteen when she had Harper. Why the double standard for her daughter?

Maybe it was Erik. No one talked to him after their announcement. But then again, no one really talked at all except for Alla and Erik; they had a wonderful conversation while everyone else just sat and ate. Alla was completely fine with their marriage and the pregnancy. She was asking questions and wanted to know everything. Piper played her part well but enjoyed discussing the little things, like when she was due, and what she was hoping to have, a boy or girl. It bothered her that her mother and sisters didn’t ask her about the baby at all. They should have been the ones asking, but they weren’t.

Even with all that happened tonight, all Piper really cared about was why Erik had lied. He had no reason to lie, so why did he cover up for her? When she glanced over at him, he was looking straight ahead, his fingers dancing on the wheel as he drove. He had unbuttoned the first couple of buttons to his green shirt, and she could see a little of the tattoo that stretched from his shoulder across his chest. She wished she could see the whole thing, but soon she was distracted by him shrugging his shoulders and clearing his throat.

“Why does it matter?”

“Because I want to know.”

He glanced over at her and then back at the road as he let out a long breath.

“When this is all said and done, I want everyone to hate me. Not you. You’ve helped me out tremendously, even after I put you through hell, and when this is over, it isn’t going to be easy. People are going to take sides and I’m okay with everyone hating me.”

Her eyes widened at his answer. She found herself kind of speechless. Erik was hard to read so she never expected that answer and that was probably the sweetest thing he could have said, in a f**ked-up sort of way. Before she could say anything, even though she had no clue what she was going to say, her phone rang. By the “Party in the USA” ringtone, she knew it was Audrey, and that meant Audrey was back in town.

“Hello, Ms. Parker!” Piper cooed.

“Blah, I hate that name. I want to be Mrs. Oooooder so bad!” Audrey whined, causing Piper to laugh out loud. “But hey! Don’t distract me! How dare you email me that you are pregnant and then not answer the hundred emails I sent you back!”

“I figured we’d talk when you got home. You were supposed to be enjoying your trip!”

“Oh, I did. I was with Tate, for goodness sakes!” she said with a girly giggle. “But I still worried about you.”