Page 33 of What If We Break?
“I think he should propose this year,” I heard my mother say and a moment later, Colin burst out into laughter.
My head shot up just in time to see Lily slap my brother to shut him up, but he only grasped her hand in his, brought it to his mouth, and kissed her knuckles before he continued to laugh.
Colin was off for another week because Kieran came down with a bad cold which he caught, sohe didn’t have to go to practice tonight. Suddenly, I wished his doctor let him go back to work already.
“Mamá, Reece is still a kid himself,” Colin said, still laughing.
Kieran looked up from his book. His eyes wandered around the entire table, not saying a single word before he looked back down and continued reading. It was a miracle he even wanted to be here.
If Colin knew I had already spoken to Miles about proposing to Brooke, he would’ve freaked out, as it seemed. I didn’t actually plan to ask Brooke to marry me for another few months, but I already had a ring.
I’d been waiting for a good time to propose—a time when we hadn’t been arguing the entire week before that proposal.
Was it so hard to believe we’d ever get married, or was this just Colin being a brother and having to tease me? I wasn’t thirteen anymore, and even Brooke’s dad thought it was a cute idea to propose before we turned twenty-one next year.
Sure, we were young… but a lot of people got engaged and married young, right?
I wasn’t a kid anymore.
“That’s not true. Look at him.” Mom gestured toward me. “He’s turning twenty in a couple of days. That’s old enough to get married. Especially to someone he’s been dating for years. If they got married next year, they could have their first baby by?—”
“Woah there,” I stopped her. When did our conversations go from ‘How have you been doing?’ to ‘It’s about time you knock up your girlfriend’? “Slow down, Mamá. Don’t you have enough grandkids?”
It wasn’t that I didn’t want kids with Brooke, and I knew Brooke was already making lists with baby names, butdespite thinking I was old enough for marriage, kids weren’tanywhereon my mind yet. Colin didn’t get married until he was twenty-four, and he didn’t have his first kid until he was twenty-seven.
Yes, our parents were older now than they were when Kieran was born, but they should’ve thought of that before they had me seventeen years after Colin. Just because they were getting older didn’t mean they had to rush me into things that I should’ve been discussing with Brooke, not them.
I was going to propose to Brooke whenIwanted to. And we were going to have kids whenwedecided to have some.
“Hardly.” She rolled her eyes, then smiled at Kayden, who looked at his grandma a little dumbstruck.
“Good luck explaining to Miles why your son knocked up his daughter at twenty,” Colin said.
“Like he has room to talk,” Dad countered. “If I remember correctly, your dearest friend Miles came to hockey practice attwenty-twowith a four-year-old in tow.”
Yet neither my dad nor my brother took me to Colin and Miles’ practice to entertain my best friend. Quite rude of them, if you asked me.
“What does knocked up mean, Daddy?” Kayden asked, jumping off his chair to make his way over to his father.
“It means getting someone pregnant,” Kieran answered, not bothering to look up from his book. “Grammy wants Reece and Brooke to have a baby.”
Kayden’s face scrunched up with disgust. “Like… a human one?” He looked over at his mother, waiting for an answer.
“Yes, a human one.” Kieran sighed, flipping to the next page of his book. “Now, stop asking stupid questions so I can read my book.”
“Kieran…” Lily reached for his face, lifting it to meet her eyes. He immediately smiled at his mother. “We know it’s really hard for you to be here, and you know we’re all so endlessly proud of you for trying, but that doesn’t mean you get to be rude, okay?”
“I’m sorry.” He closed his book and gave it to Lily so she could put it away. “But I agree with Dad. Reece’s Cups is too young for marriage.”
Oh, man, I thought he forgot about that nickname.
And again with thattoo young. I wasn’t too young to marry my best friend—someone I’d grown up with and known myentirelife. But what did Kieran know? He wasn’t even eleven yet.
My phone screen lit up, and I immediately checked out the notification.
Mi Princesa
I’m outside
