Page 11 of Not Since Ewe
“Me too,” I admitted. “I was afraid you might change your mind about wanting to meet me.”
Her laugh was soft and restrained. “I was afraidyoumight changeyourmind.”
“But here we are—both of us early and neither of us having changed our minds.” My smile felt awkward.
“I guess we really are related.”
There went my heart puppies again, cavorting all over the place.
I draped my jacket over the chair opposite Erin’s. “I’m going to go get a drink. Do you want anything while I’m up there?”
She declined my offer, and I went to the counter, grateful for the opportunity to regroup and compose myself. The last thing my jangling nerves needed right now was caffeine, so I ordered myself a bottle of water and carried it back to the table where Erin waited for me.
We regarded each other silently for a moment after I sat down. I detected wariness in her expression, but also curiosity. Curiosity was good. I could work with curiosity. And it was a heck of a lot better than the resentment I’d anticipated.
“You look just like your birth father,” I said, because I knew she was interested to know more about him.
As expected, her interest piqued. “I do?”
“He has a twin sister who looks exactly like him, and you’re the spitting image of her.”
Erin’s eyes widened at this information. “He’s a twin?”
“Dizygotic twins are twice as common as monozygotic twins and more likely to run in families, so that’s probably something you should be aware of if you plan to have children.” I looked at Erin. “Do you have any children?”
She hesitated as if she was reluctant to answer.
“You don’t have to tell me,” I said quickly. “I completely understand if you’d rather not share too much personal information with me.”
“It’s not that.” Her eyes dropped to her coffee mug. It wasn’t coffee, I noticed. It was herbal tea. “I’m pregnant, actually.”
I blinked, momentarily rendered speechless.
The baby I’d had was going to have a baby. Which meant…I was going to be a grandmother.A grandmother. Holy smokes.
“It’s my first,” Erin continued, filling my shocked silence. “I’m only ten weeks along, so we haven’t told that many people yet.”
I finally recovered my wits. “Wow. That’s wonderful. Congratulations.”
“Thank you. We’re pretty excited.”
“You’re married?”
“Yes.” She toyed with the string on her herbal tea. “He actually tried to talk me out of messaging you.”
“He did?”
“Ever since we found out about the baby, he’s been a little overprotective. He was worried it might be too stressful.”
I nodded in understanding. The circumstances of Erin’s conception were pretty innocuous, but how many people went searching for their birth parents only to discover they were the result of infidelity or something even worse like sexual assault? I could only imagine how upsetting that would be.
“It must have been a little scary, not knowing what you’d discover or who we’d turn out to be.”
She offered me a smile. “It hasn’t been too bad so far—as long as you’re not about to tell me my birth father is a serial killer or something.”
I laughed. “No, just a lawyer. His name is Donal Larkin. I talked to him, and he gave me permission to share his contact information with you. He’d like to meet you when you’re ready. And he wanted you to know you have an eighteen-year-old half-sister and a fifteen-year-old half-brother.”
Erin’s mouth tugged into a small smile as she took this information in. It looked so much like Donal’s smile it made my chest hurt. “What are their names?”
