“We’re going to get a pregnancy test from the convenience store across the road.”
“I can’t be pregnant.”
I brought us to a halt on the sidewalk outside and turned to face her. She looked beyond lost under the hotel lights, like her brain had up and left, and she was just a shell that continued to exist.
“Are you sure that you can’t be pregnant? Have you had your period recently? Used a condom? Every. Single. Time?”
Something on the pavement must have been fascinating because she stared at it. “No,” she mumbled.
“No what? Which question were you answering?”
“No.”
“Okaaaaay.” I spun on my heel, my dress billowing around me as I shook my head in bewilderment. “Let’s go.”
I was a woman on a mission. The pregnancy test was slammed on the store counter within a matter of minutes. Gabby was still dazed and confused behind me. She really was something else.
“You can wipe that look off your face, Jeremy,” I warned the obnoxious seventeen-year-old sales clerk who’d been working there for years. He was a chubby, greasy perv, and he was in no position to judge. “Just bag it and mind your business.”
I pushed Gabby inside the women’s restroom on the lobby floor of the hotel. There was a plush waiting sofa and a wall of stalls. The marble floors gleamed and the white sinks were immaculate. There was nothing worse than hotel toilets that weren’t cared for.
“You take this and go pee on it, now,” I ordered, pulling the test out of the paper bag and aggressively discarding the plastic film that surrounded the box.
I let the rubbish fall to the floor and practically threw the box over my shoulder before I uncapped the stick and placed it in Gabby’s hand.
“There, I’ve done everything I can, save for pissing on the stick myself. That’s all you.” I steered her toward a stall, but she stopped at the threshold and turned around with wide eyes.
“What if I’m pregnant?”
“We’ll talk about the what ifs when you know for sure, okay? There’s no point talking about it when you can get a definitive answer right now.”
She nodded and took a deep breath before she slipped inside and shut the door. I felt a little dizzy when I finally took a minute to be still. The whole situation was overwhelming, but I’d shut out the reality of it while I whizzed around and babied my best friend. Pun intended.
I picked up the discarded wrappers and paper bag, throwing them into the bin before I sat down on the sofa. I remembered that I’d felt my phone vibrating while I’d been in the convenience store, so I fished it out of my cleavage and unlocked it, seeing a message from Drayton.
Everything okay baby? Josh said you two took off.
It’s all good. Just helping Gabs with something downstairs. I’ll explain later. Be back up soon.
“It’s negative.” She shrugged her shoulders and dropped down beside me. She grunted when the silk of her dress pulled taut around her middle.
I watched her, wondering why she wasn’t throwing a damn party. Her life could have been turned upside down in a matter of moments. I was a little surprised that I’d misread the symptoms, but I supposed there could be other reasons for nausea and barely there weight gain.
“You’re happy about that, right?”
“Yeah—I mean, it wouldn’t have been ideal.” She sat forward, resting her chin in her hand and her elbow on her knee. I was worried about the seams of her dress splitting. “But it’s weird. I feel—almost disappointed.”
“I get that,” I admitted, smiling at her confusion. “I’ve read about lots of woman who say that even if they absolutely didn’t want it to be positive, they feel disappointed when it’s negative. It’s a weird emotion. Especially considering you aren’t the most maternal person I know.”
“That’s why it’s even weirder to feel disappointed. I don’t know what to do with kids. But maybe it would have been different with my own.”
“You’d hope so.”
“You would,” she huffed and stood up, the test swinging from her hand.
“Wait, give me that,” I snapped, standing up. I rushed toward her before she could discard the test in the bin.
“Gabby! You said this was negative!” I practically screamed, staring at the white stick in my hands. “This has two lines! Two very red lines!”
“I thought two lines was negative,” she shouted back, ripping the test out of my hand so that she could stare at it.
“No! Two lines is positive. You’re pregnant!”
“I’m pregnant?”
“Yes!”
“Yes?”
“Yes!”
She gasped. “Holy shit!”
“Holy shit,” a third, more masculine voice joined us and we whipped our heads in the direction of the door, where Josh watched us with ghost-white skin. Drayton stood behind him, similar shock on his face.
Josh looked like he was going to throw up. He stared at the test in Gabby’s hand and she stammered with panic, not able to get a coherent word out.
“You two should talk.” I walked toward the door, my heels clacking on the marble floors, providing the only noise among the awkward silence.
“This is the women’s restroom?” Gabby mumbled as I pushed Josh into the bathroom, giving him a shove so that he snapped out of his stupor.
“Who gives a shit,” I told her and pulled the door shut, shoving Drayton out of the way with my butt. “Talk!”
Emily won the crown for prom queen. Drayton was announced as king and I was named a princess. There was no king and queen dance, and I did not end up on stage to get a tiara because we weren’t there. Emily didn’t care about her first dance. She was just pleased to have the crown.
Instead of being at the end of our prom night, Drayton and I were consoling our friends who were soon to be parents. We found out all of this information about winners and dances from Melissa, who called me at midnight last night to fill me in.
“Ooh, girl you should have seen her up on that stage, acting like she won a damn Golden Globe …
“… The whole damn room was out with their Nancy Drew sleuth kits looking for Drayton. You better know what conclusion was made, girl. You two were getting smack on in a hotel room. Nasties. That’s what they said. Not me …
“… I didn’t set them straight, though. I thought so too …”
The conversation went on for quite some time, but I didn’t once mention the real reason that we weren’t there for Drayton to receive his crown. I let her believe that we were doing what we were accused of.
Which, once we had safely delivered Gabby and Josh to her house, we did do. In the back of the car.
And then again when we got to his house.
Gabby knew that she needed to tell her mom. As terrified as she was to have her ass handed to her, she knew it was what she had to do. Josh refused to let her go it alone, which made me proud.
Drayton and I were in his kitchen. His parents were out for the day, which I was quietly relieved about. The midmorning sun was coming through the glass doors and it was relaxing to sit on the sofa and absorb the beams of vitamin D without enduring the chill. My hair was still curled from the salon, but it was up in a knot on top of my head and I was wearing shorts and a camisole.
Drayton sat at the other end of the sofa in nothing but his boxer shorts. The sunshine illuminated his olive skin. He glowed. My feet rested in his lap and he ran his hands over my legs while I read a text message from Gabby.
Been up all night with Mom. She’s cried SO MUCH. Threatened to murder Josh. Apologized for being violent. Cried some more. Told me I’m a dumbass. But we pulled through. Still a lot to figure out. I’m buzzing. But we’re doing this.
“I can’t believe Gabby is having a baby.” I put the phone down and picked up the coffee beside the couch. I rubbed the inner corner of my eye to get out the morning sleep.
Drayton nodded. “Josh sent me a text. He’s shitting bricks but he’s in it.�
��
“So he should be.” I stared at the black goop on my fingertip and winced. I could have sworn that I’d washed my face properly last night. I swiped under my eyes. “He had a part in it. If he ditches her, I will beat him the fuck up.”
“Damn,” he laughed. “You know how to turn a man on.”
My lips curled upward as I wrapped them around the cup rim and sipped on hot caffeine. What a long night.
“You want to do that one day?” He rested an arm along the back of the sofa and watched me. His stubble was coming in; he looked good with a bit of scruff.
“Do what?”
“Have my babies?”
“I wouldn’t mind having a couple of little athletes.” We stared at each other and I wondered if he felt as confident as I did. Or if he was just messing around.
He slid over, and his hand moved up my thigh as he half lay on top of me. “We should practice. A lot. Just to be sure that we get it right.”
“Sure,” I murmured, smiling, as he shifted so that I was encased beneath him. He held the back of the sofa and knelt on either side of me. His kiss was soft and gentle as his free hand slipped under my back and pulled me upward.
“Cheer,” he mumbled against my mouth. “I mean it—it doesn’t matter where we go from here. I see a future with you.”
I leaned back, tingling from head to toe as his hips moved against mine. “I do too.”
“Even if I end up at Baylor? You’ll still love me? Call me every night? Let me sleep on your little dorm bed when I come and visit? Get naked on FaceTime?”
I scoffed with amusement. “We’ll talk about the FaceTime.” I held his neck, my fingers clasped at the back of his head. “But of course, Drayton. I said that before. I’m in this.”
Chapter 25
Gabby was twelve weeks pregnant, to the day, when we graduated. She was due at the beginning of December. So far, her top complaints were weight gain, nausea, the fact that she was going to have to push a human being out of her vagina, and that she could no longer drink.
Perhaps not in that particular order.
Ellie, understanding of what it was to be a teen parent, was quick to offer whatever help she could. Much to Josh’s disappointment, though, Ellie would not be the one to break the news to Josh’s parents in Canada. That was up to him. But, even though Josh wasn’t her son, she welcomed Gabby and offered that Gabby live with them.
But Camilla wasn’t in favor of Gabby leaving home. She wanted to support her daughter through the pregnancy. Not that it was surprising—she had never been in a rush for Gabby to move out. She was handling it all better than some mothers would, but she was still upset. Camilla had given Gabby her freedom and trusted her because Gabby was intelligent, and then Gabby went and got herself knocked up.
All of those involved had sort of adopted a what’s-done-is-done attitude.
“What about Han for a boy?” Josh tapped the edge of his beer bottle, the condensation sliding down the glass edge and falling into the swimming pool. “Like Han Solo? From Star Wars.”
Gabby, living out the last days that she’d get to wear a bikini in the water beside him, glared at his beer while she scowled at the suggestion.
“We are not naming our child after an alien.”
Josh fretted. He stuttered and waved his hand in disbelief. “An alien? What—are—have you even been watching the movies when I’ve put them on?”
“No,” Gabby said. “Sort of how you don’t watch The Vampire Diaries with me.”
Drayton looked at me with boredom. We were sitting on the edge of the pool. He was in his swim shorts, dark blue, with his cap on backward. I was in a bikini and lace beach shorts.
We’d graduated that morning. The three of us. No more school. No more cheerleading. No more homework. It was a surreal feeling, knowing that we wouldn’t be back. But I was excited for the next chapter in what life had to offer.
Drayton was kind enough to offer up his home for a graduation pool party. His mom was super pleased—sarcasm—but it was sort of a bargain in exchange for Drayton agreeing to a walk-on tryout at Baylor. Things had been tense between his father and me. In truth, I hadn’t spent a lot of time around the house, and if I was here, I was upstairs.
Students from school were all over the back garden. In the pool. In the cabana. Ellie might not have loved the idea of her home being used to celebrate—she was none the wiser to Drayton’s birthday antics—but she would never risk being labeled as a bad hostess. There were tables on the deck, catering tables covered in hot food, cold beverages, and dessert platters.
Before Drayton could suggest that he and I bounce and leave these two parents-to-be arguing over which names were awful and which were worse, his teammates demanded his attention.
“I’m just suggesting that we consider Luke or Leia. Those aren’t super unusual names, Gabs.”
I sighed and stood up, my feet padding through puddles beside the pool edge as I wandered toward the deck. Inside, I chewed on a piece of watermelon that I snatched from the table and wandered through the kitchen. It was quiet in here. No one was allowed in the house unless it was to use the bathroom. I was the exception of course, and I found Ellie on a barstool with a glass of wine.
“Keeping guard?” I sat down beside her, tossing my curled hair behind my shoulder.
She swallowed her Cabernet Sauvignon. “Mhmm. I know that girls like to go the bathroom in groups. But seven at once seems excessive.”
I laughed.
Ellie looked beautiful in a floor-length maxi dress. The pattern and colors were peacock. Blues and greens. Her sun-kissed shoulders were freckled and her green eyes were the same as Drayton’s.
Suddenly, Leroy appeared. He wandered in, dressed casually in a T-shirt and shorts. Ellie smiled as he stood behind her and kissed the top of her head. I might not have seen them, but he must have had some loveable qualities. Ellie was successful. She had her own income. She wouldn’t have remained married to this man if he was a total asshole.
“You look beautiful,” he mumbled beside her ear as he leaned around her and picked up the wine from the countertop. I didn’t think that I was meant to hear him. But I did.
He filled her glass while she grinned and then he looked at me. “Hello, Dallas.”
“Hey.”
He set the bottle down. Ellie sipped on her fresh beverage and he slipped his hands into his pockets. “Can we please talk for a moment?”
I quickly stood up. “I’ll leave you two alone.”
“No,” he almost chuckled. Almost. “You and me, Dallas. Can we please talk for a moment?”
I stood, staring with uncertainty. Ellie didn’t offer much in the way of assurance, but she did smile and nod when I looked at her for help. It wasn’t that I hated Leroy. I wasn’t scared of him. I just preferred not to be shouted at.
But I agreed with a timid nod and followed him out of the kitchen. We didn’t go far. We crossed the foyer, passing the staircase and front door. He stopped in the living room, his shoulders rising and falling with a deep breath.
“I want to apologize,” he stated. It was matter of fact and to the point as he stared out of the front window. A new car full of graduates pulled up. “I said things that I’m not proud of. Things that I would hate to hear another adult saying to my son. Or daughter if sh—”
There was a hitch in his voice, and I felt more awkward than I knew how to deal with. But I also felt a pang in my chest at the pain that crossed his features.
“The point is,” he continued, a quick shrug in his shoulders brushing off the sorrow. “I shouldn’t have blamed you for Drayton’s choices. What I said was out of line.”
Part of me wondered if he was just apologizing because he’d got his way.
“I hope that you can forgive me, and we can move past this.” He finally turned to look at me. “Drayton’s happiness is what is most important to his mother and me.”
Don’t say it. Don’t. Don’t do it. “Must help that he chose
Baylor.”
Well done, Dallas.
Instead of scowling or shouting, he laughed. I had never seen him laugh like that before. He seemed so amused. “You’re perfect for him.”
“Uh—”
“Enjoy the party, Dallas.”
He nodded and stepped around me. I twisted, watching as he left the room and Drayton entered. His attention moved from his father to me and back again, the level of confusion growing deeper with each passing moment.
They came to a stop in front of each other. Drayton’s frown was intimidating as he watched his dad, not that I could blame him for being cautious. But Leroy laughed—he was doing that a lot this afternoon—and gave him a slap on the bare shoulder. “It’s fine, Son. Relax.”
Drayton was so protective of me.
When his dad was gone, Drayton sauntered toward me and pointed a thumb over his shoulder. “What was that about?”
“He was apologizing.”
“Ha.” Drayton folded his arms. His chest was delectable. “Took him long enough.”
“It’s fine.” I waved off his mild frustration. I didn’t see the need to hang on to the argument. Some things still bothered me. The fact that he hadn’t stopped throwing a tantrum until after Drayton chose Baylor was one of them. But I didn’t voice it. It wasn’t worth putting back whatever progress Drayton had made with Leroy.
“Come upstairs.” He nodded his head upward and held his hand out. I took it. “I have a graduation gift for you.”
“What!” I attempted to plant my feet flat so that he couldn’t pull me upstairs. It didn’t work in the slightest. “Dray, we said no graduation gifts. I didn’t get you anything.”
“Are you well today? Feeling okay? Are you happy?”
“Yes,” I mumbled, not entirely sure where the twenty questions had come from. “ To all of it.”
“Then you’ve given me everything that I need.”
I don’t think that he realized that he couldn’t just spit that sort of stuff out and then leave me to deal with the fact that I was a swooning mess. He kicked his bedroom door closed after us, and I was attempting to focus on the fact that we’d come up here for a reason, because after that adorable confession, I was feeling all sorts of aroused.
The QB Bad Boy and Me Page 32