The Trap (Prequel)

by Beverley Kendall

  I told her to stay out of it, which only proved to infuriate her more. When she demanded to know what happened between Paige and me and I responded, “Goodbye, Diane. I’m hanging up now,” she stopped talking to me. That lasted three weeks.

  When she started calling me again, it was either to try to guilt me into coming home and “owning up to my responsibilities” or to tell me how disappointed she was in me. She asked me what happened to me, no doubt convinced that an alien had taken over my body.

  I’ve fielded about a dozen calls from her since. She’s learned that the second she brings up Paige or the baby, I’m gone.

  Now when she calls, she asks about school and I lie and tell her everything is going fine. I can only imagine what she’d do if I told her my 3.5 GPA had fallen a whole grade point in the span of one semester. Yeah, that would go over well.

  I ask about Tess and Doug and get off the phone soon after that. The key to avoiding an argument is to keep the conversation short because if I let it go on too long it will invariably end up on Paige and talking about Paige is a deal breaker. A conversation ender. I’m not going there. And Diane knows it. But that doesn’t stop her. Nope, my sister is a bulldog when it comes to my ex and the baby.

  It’s ten days before Paige’s due date and I haven’t heard from my sister in almost a month. A coincidence? Maybe. Who knows.

  I shake my head, annoyed that I can’t get the looming date out of my head.

  When I turn the corner, I’m surprised to see Zach Pearson, our starting quarterback, standing outside the locker room. He’s wearing a heavy leather football jacket, black jeans, and has his backpack slung over his shoulder. He’s dressed and ready to go so what’s he still doing here? Coach Brighton kept me in his office for forty-five minutes after practice. I was positive all the guys would be gone by now.

  “What are you still doing here?” I ask as I approach.

  “Waiting for you,” he replies, his expression open, friendly. Pearson’s a good guy. We’ve been hanging out together a lot more since my roommate, Steve, started dating his girlfriend’s best friend four months ago. Before that, we mostly hung out when the team was on the road. I like him but we’re not tight, if you know what I mean.

  I halt in front of him. “For what?”

  With a jerk of his head toward the door, he says, “I’ll tell you when you’re done.”

  “What, you’re going to wait while I shower?” I ask with a lift of an eyebrow. What, did the coach tell him about my plummeting grades?

  Pearson laughs. “Just don’t take an hour. I’m seeing Olivia tonight.”

  From what I hear, he sees Olivia almost every night, so nothing new there.

  Shrugging, I shoulder my way into the locker room.

  Fifteen minutes later, hair still damp from being towel dried, I exit the locker room to find Pearson leaned up against the wall, his cell pressed to his ear. The second he spots me, he says, “Listen, Liv, I gotta run. I’ll see you in a few.” He laughs softly at something she says, and replies, “I’m going to hold you to that.”

  Here’s the other thing I know about our fearless quarterback, he’s totally gone over his girlfriend, just like I used to be over Paige.

  Paige.

  Fuck. I wish my mind had a steel trapdoor that worked.

  “So you gonna tell me what’s this all about? Coach say something to you?” I ask as he crosses the hall toward me.

  Shoving his cell in his coat pocket, Pearson matches my strides as we walk shoulder-to-shoulder toward the exit.

  “Olivia tells me you’re not going home during the break,” he says, angling his head toward me.

  Olivia is in my poly-sci class this semester. I got to know her through Pearson and when we were shooting the breeze in class last week, I let it slip that I wasn’t going home for Christmas.

  “Yeah, it’s not a big deal.”

  “April says your roommate is going on some kind of family-reunion cruise,” Pearson says, continuing to dig.

  I glance over at him as we walk down the short hallway that leads to the parking lot. “Yeah.” I have a feeling I know where the conversation is going.

  “Why don’t you come home with me? My mom’s complaining she won’t have enough people to bake and cook for now that my brother’s bailed on us.”

  I smile faintly to myself. More reflex than anything else. “Nah, man. That’s alright.”

  Christ, does my life ever suck. I’m officially an object of pity.

  Pearson pushes open the door and a shock of cold air hits my face. I hunch my shoulder against the wind and follow him out into the winter night. There’s a couple of inches of packed snow on the ground but at least it’s not snowing and the roads are clear. At six, it’s already dark, but the parking lot is well-lit and practically vacant, save mine and a few other cars, and Pearson’s truck.

  “You’re coming home with me.”

  I shake my head. “I’m good right here.”

  My cell rings before Pearson can press the issue. Shoving my hand into my coat pocket, I shoot a quick glance at the screen and my heart roars to a stop.

  Diane.

  I halt in my tracks and hold up my finger to Pearson, to give me a minute. He nods and continues walking. I turn my back to him.

  The second I press the phone to my ear, I hear my sister’s breathless, “Paige is having the baby.” There’s a pause and my heart is now literally in my throat, constricting my speech. “I thought you might want to know.”

  I still don’t say anything.

  I can’t. Physically can’t. It will probably take me an hour to catch my breath.

  I think she’s going to say more but with just those words, my sister ends the call and I’m left standing there. Alone. In the cold.

  A part of me, the weak part, wants to call her back. It wants to book a flight home this very second. But the other part of me knows that if I start down this road, there will be no coming back. I’ll lose everything. More than I’ve already lost.

  My parents were here one day and gone by the time I woke up the next morning. Some idiot too stupid and thoughtless to know he was too drunk to get behind the wheel of a car took their lives and irrevocably changed mine.

  After they died, I had to go and live with my sister. Not that either of us would have had it any other way, but death has a way of eliminating options. Apparently bringing a life into the world has a way of doing that too. Playing football and going to Warwick were the choices I made.

  Paige deliberately took that away from me.

  So before I weaken and do something I’ll regret later, I turn and call out to Pearson, who is taking his time getting into his truck, his gaze on me.

  I jog slowly toward him, my heart thundering in my throat, until I’m standing beside his truck. “When do we leave?” I ask.

  Pearson smiles, looking pleased. “We’re heading out Friday.”

  “Cool.” I pause. “And hey, thanks.”

  “Don’t thank me. You’re doing me a favor.”

  No, he’s doing me the favor because I know if I stay, I’ll end up caving and going home—and I’ll probably never come back.

  * * *

  Paige

  I’m gripping Erin’s hand so hard she’s probably lost all feeling in it. But she doesn’t complain, she’s my rock and my labor coach.

  Six weeks of Lamaze classes didn’t adequately prepare me for the magnitude of pain that is childbirth. And I thought menstrual cramps were their own form of torture. They have nothing on the crippling pain that takes over my body with each contraction.

  I’d vowed I wouldn’t cry or screech and wail like some of the women I’d seen in movies and in childbirth videos but I can’t hold back the tears and pained whimpers.

  It hurts. Oh God, it hurts.

  “Oh Paige, you’re doing so good.”

  I don’t have the strength or will to lift my head the couple inches required to look into Erin’s face. It’s enough that she’s here h
olding my hand—or letting me squeeze the life’s blood from hers.

  “It hurts,” I moan piteously as I feel the onset of another contraction tightening like a band around my distended stomach. God, I wish I hadn’t been such an idiot and waited so long to tell my mom and Erin I thought I was in labor. By the time they’d gotten me to the hospital, my water had broken and I was already dilated eight centimeters. The emergency room physician told me I was lucky I hadn’t given birth in the car.

  Five minutes later I was in labor and delivery in the second stages of labor, any possibility of an epidural gone. Nothing I can do now but deal with the pain the best I can.

  “Okay, Paige, I’m going to count to ten, then I want you to push.” Dressed in standard green scrubs and stationed between my widespread legs at the foot of my bed, Dr. Samuel peers at me over his bifocals and gives an encouraging nod.

  I’m hooked up to a machine that monitors my contractions and just as another one peaks, he instructs me to push.

  Gripping Erin’s hand and the cold, steel railing of the hospital bed, I push with all my might. I rest during the intervals between the contractions, and by rest, I mean panting to catch my breath and moaning to stop myself from screaming.

  Thirty minutes later, with my hair matted to my head and sweat rolling down the back of my neck, I give one last push and my baby is out.

  “No mistake about it. It’s a girl,” Dr. Samuel announces from behind his mask. I can hear the smile in his voice.

  An excited Erin is allowed to cut the cord before my doctor holds my baby up for me to see. Streaks of blood and mucus cover her and her head is decidedly elongated but she’s the most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen.

  Brianna is the name I decided on if the ultrasound was right and it was a girl.

  My breath catches in my throat when she starts to cry. Tears of relief and joy begin to fall in earnest now that I know she’s all right.

  Dr. Samuel is still working on me—delivery not quite over—when the nurse whisks my baby away to get her cleaned up, weighed and foot-printed.

  First I want to hold her and then I’ll need the day’s worth of sleep my body’s demanding. Having a baby is exhausting work.

  “Paige, she’s beautiful.”

  My head flops wearily to my right as Erin’s voice draws my attention back to her.

  She looks fresh-faced and pretty in her scrubs, her long hair in a neat ponytail. She makes me feel dumpy and in sore need of a shower. It’s a good thing I love her to death.

  “Thank you,” I say through parched lips.

  “No, thank you for letting me share this with you, I’m well aware how fierce the competition was for this job.” Despite her teasing words, her voice is thick with emotion.

  “Trent never stood a chance against you.” I’d been flattered he’d volunteered but our friendship had its limits, which in this case ended at the delivery room door.

  Erin and I share a moment, a tender smile that cements our friendship for life. She stays with me while the doctor takes care of the afterbirth and stitches me up—yes, an episiotomy was required. By the time he’s finished, the nurse returns with my swaddled baby girl, and places her in my waiting arms.

  She is beautiful. Even more so now that she’s all cleaned up. I stare at her in awe, unable to believe she came out of me. I gingerly touch the dark tuff of hair on her head. It’s silky and soft. Her eyes are closed so I don’t know the color of her eyes. I think she kind of looks like me when I was born. That’s definitely my hair.

  I didn’t think I could possibly love her more than I did when I was carrying her but holding her now, drinking in the sight of her, that love expands exponentially. It’s elastic. It’s infinite.

  Fifteen minutes later, as the nurse is helping me out of the wheelchair and into my bed, my mom and Diane burst into the room. And I do mean burst. Self-preservation has Erin immediately surrendering Brianna to her grandmother’s outstretched arms. Diane is forced to bide her time to get her hands on her niece.

  Wrenching her gaze from her granddaughter, my mom beams at me. “How’s my baby?”

  She means me.

  “Sleepy. Happy. Thankful. In love,” I reply quietly.

  “Of course you are,” she replies, her smile brimming with pride and love as she looks at me. “Oh, Rita and Trent are on their way. They should be here in a few minutes,” she says, returning her attention to her granddaughter.

  Rita is Trent’s mom and they’d been waiting all week for the call. I can’t wait for them to meet my daughter.

  Oh my God, I have a daughter.

  Mitch and I have a daughter.

  A ball of emotion forms in my throat making it hard to swallow. Tears sting the backs of my eyes and I blink rapidly to keep them at bay. I’m allowed tears of happiness not sorrow and right now both are battling for supremacy.

  When I’m able to focus my gaze, Diane is staring directly at me. It’s as if she knows I’m thinking about Mitch and knows what I want but am afraid to ask her.

  She comes to my side, concern marring the joy and happiness on her face.

  “She’s beautiful.” There’s a tinge of sorrow in her voice.

  “She is,” I agree, my voice choked.

  “You’re going to be a wonderful mother,” she says, repeating what she’s been telling me for months.

  “I hope so.” I try to smile and tamp down the urge to ask her about Mitch.

  Does he know? Is he coming? Until today, I didn’t realize how much I secretly nursed that hope.

  However, I must be as transparent as glass because her green eyes are all sympathy and regret when she whispers to me in a hushed tone, “I called and I told him you were having the baby.”

  My breath falters and my heart slams against my ribcage. After a handful of seconds, I force myself to breathe as pain, excruciating in its intensity, ravages my insides.

  I hate myself for asking, but I know she won’t give me the answer unless I do. “What did he say?”

  Tears glass her eyes. Tears of pity.

  Slowly she shakes her head, her wavy hair a soft whisper on her cream blouse.

  If I cry now, I will turn what should be one of the happiest moments in my life into something sad and sorrowful.

  I glance around the room and take in the women in my life, the women who mean the most to me. And then I look at the love of my life, my daughter, and I know I need to be strong for her. I need to be strong for me.

  I heave a breath, and grasp Diane’s hand with mine. “That’s okay. I’ll be fine. Brianna and I will be fine.”

  Diane draws a shuddering breath as she leans down and hugs me, mindful of the intravenous tube still in my right arm. “Of course you will, honey. And I will always be here for you. Whatever you need. Please don’t ever forget that.”

  “I won’t.”

  After a prolonged hug, which is discreetly being observed by my mom and best friend, Diane releases me and declares, “It seems I’m going to have to wrestle my niece from your mother.”

  Her announcement draws the expected laughs. My mother then reluctantly relinquishes her granddaughter to Diane and makes a beeline to my side.

  “You okay, sweetie?” she asks, gently cupping my cheek.

  All I can do is nod, my words choked by threatening tears.

  “I’m here for you, sweetie. I’m here for you.”

  Brianna’s cries save me from breaking down into ugly sobs.

  “I know honey,” Diane says, lovingly addressing her niece as she rounds the bed and brings her to me. “You want your mama.”

  After I have my daughter back in my arms and feel her tiny body against mine, I’m again overwhelmed by a love so profound, I give up the fight and allow the tears to fall. It is what it is, a mixture of joy and pain.

  Brianna is it. She means everything to me. And the two of us, we are going to make it together. Without Mitch.

  As I gaze down at my beautiful baby girl, her tiny little hand holding both
my finger and my heart in hers, I know that no matter how much it hurts, I have to leave the past behind.

  Mitch is my past.

  Brianna is my future.

  THE END

  To receive news on the release of TRAPPED, the rest of Mitch and Paige’s story,

  click here to sign up for Beverley Kendall's Newsletter

  The following Beverley Kendall new adult romances in the Unforgettable You series are out now!

  The first book, ONLY FOR YOU (Olivia & Zach's story)

  The novella, ALL OVER YOU (Rebecca & Scott)

  The next book, ALWAYS BEEN YOU (April & Troy's story)

  will be out late Fall 2014

  * * *

  A fan of historicals or want to give one a try?

  The following books are part of The Elusive Lords series.

  SINFUL SURRENDER

  (James & Missy)

  A TASTE OF DESIRE

  (Thomas & Amelia)

  ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE & SEDUCTION(free enovella)

  (Derek & Elizabeth)

  AN HEIR OF DECEPTION

  (Alex & Charlotte)

  Connecting series

  The Temptresses

  TWICE THE TEMPTATION

  (Lucas & Catherine)

  * * *

  On the following pages, please enjoy an excerpt of TRAPPED

  TRAPPED

  My life has turned out to be such a cliché. And not in a good way.

  It’s not exactly Sixteen and Pregnant, but at eighteen my only advantage is a high school diploma. And if that’s not enough, the father—and I use that term loosely—couldn’t have hightailed it out of my life fast enough.

  I thought I really knew him. Unfortunately, my boyfriend of three years transformed from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde once he realized his carefree, childless days would be coming to an end.