Mr Reluctant Billionaire || BWWM

Sixty-five

Josh catches up to me before I reach the house, he offers me a smile, I shrug. None of this is his fault. We take a seat by the kitchen window, staring at the trio seated inside the gazebo. From our position here, we can’t see their lips moving but I can’t help wishing they will start a conversation. Talk to each other even if it ends in a screaming bout.

“Do you think they will reconcile?”

Josh snickers. He hops to the fridge like he pays rent and returns with a huge chunk of cake. The leftover I had saved to munch on later because I can’t resist anything sugary and his family didn’t let me enjoy it. Fleeting anger surges through me, I close my eyes.

“Nope. Not a chance,” he says. I turn to see him dragging another stool close to me.

The poise and gracefulness he was forced to adapt when we were outside vanish when he gobbles the cake. I smile foolishly, this is the Josh I know. Slapping his knee, I motion for him to look out the window to see Brandon leaning over the table with anger rolling off him in waves. I can picture him telling his parents to never step foot into our house again and I am surprised to find myself relieved at the possibility of that happening.

I don’t want them here again, we can discuss somewhere far from here. They snuff out the air in a room and that’s saying something since we were outdoor.

A good daughter-in-law should try hard to reconnect her mother-in-law to her son but a good mother—parent will be more resolute in seeking reconciliation with her child after five years. I had to convince them to honour my invitation and that was my mistake.

Moving forward, my husband and baby are my priorities and stress is not good for us. To think their presence might have caused a rift between me and Brandon makes me want to go out there and whip both of them until they begin to act like the adults they are. They need to do better or the closest thing to a relationship they will have with their grandbaby is online, glimpses of her on social media. If Brandon lets it happen.

Brandon might be a bad man but he certainly knows how to be a good parent. He is a good father. He will break his back if Brianna is involved and I cannot understand why his parents didn’t do the same. Why they haven’t tried to reach out to him before now.

Granted, that man is stubborn as hell, a trait he inherited from them but he has his strengths. He’s human and he needs a bit of patience and a lot of dark chocolates.

“What about you,” I say to Josh who steals another slice of cake, eating it shamelessly. I ignore the smudges on his lips. “Will you talk to Brandon?” Before he opens his mouth, I can already tell he will answer in the negative so I add, “Please.” Rubbing my bump, I say, “I know she will be a girl but if she’s a boy, he will have Joshua as his middle name.”

The proposal puts him on the spot, he turns his back to me to drop the empty saucer on the island. “Have you checked the gender?” I shake my head and he scowls. “Why not?”

I shrug. We are curious but not enough to ask for a reveal. “He wants it to be a boy,” I whisper like I am telling a secret. “I want it to be a girl.” The people in the gazebo are forgotten as I join him on a high stool by the island. “What do you think? Girl or boy?”

“Easy. You are carrying a miniature Joshua.”

We burst out laughing, I nudge his rib with my elbow, failing to mention how much my baby already envisions having a Brandon Junior. “Does that mean you will talk to him?”

“Maybe.”

“What did he do?” Knowing he won’t answer me, I sigh and say, “Can’t you forgive him?”