“I’ll make sure to be home.”
Once I put my key in the ignition, this was it. Our lives would never be the same. I hopped behind the wheel of my Jeep. I pressed my palm to my stomach. It was still flat. You would never know looking at me I was six-weeks pregnant. There was no more time to hesitate. I backed out of the driveway and raced to Blake’s house.
I pulled up in front of the boat storage building where Blake’s dad and uncle worked. The family business was boat building, but not for Blake. He had a football scholarship. A full ride. He only had a month left before practice and school started.
A month wasn’t long to figure this all out. But we were going to college together. We had planned out everything. Everything except a baby.
I stepped from the Jeep just as Mr. Wyatt appeared.
“Looking for Blake?”
I shoved the paper bag behind my back. “He said he was going to help you with one of the boats today.”
Mr. Wyatt and I had never gotten along. I didn’t know if it was because the only family I had on this island was my aunt, or he just wasn’t going to like anyone his son dated.
I knew he thought I interfered with Blake’s dedication to the game. I liked to think we proved him wrong. Blake was going to be Saints College’s starting quarterback, and I was headed to journalism school. We may have given each other every free second we had, but we also worked hard and had something to prove for it. My Wyatt owed me that much. The man needed to cut me some slack.
“I’ll tell him you stopped by.”
“But is he here?” I tried to peer around the older man.
I wondered if Blake would look like his father when he was older. There was a striking resemblance. The same piercing gray-blue eyes, a strong jaw, and wide shoulders. The only difference was Mr. Wyatt’s son towered over him by a good four or five inches.
“He ran to the store for me.”
“Ok.” I felt the pit in my stomach. I wanted to tell Blake. I needed to tell him. “I can wait.”
“I don’t think so. We have a lot of work to get finished.”
He was always trying to get rid of me. It was one of the things I was looking forward to in college. The Wyatt parents couldn’t hover over us anymore. College seemed like a dream—complete freedom.
“What if I just sit in my Jeep?” I offered.
“Fine. But he can’t go off with you. He’s got a long list of stuff to get done before he heads out for school.”
“I understand, Mr. Wyatt.”
But as I reached in my pocket to retrieve my keys I lost my grip on the bag and it dropped to the grass.
“No!” I screeched as I hurried to reach for it, but I was too late.
Blake’s dad scooped down to pick it up as the pregnancy test rolled into the tall blades of grass. He clasped it between his gnarled knuckles as I stared in horror.
“What the hell is this?”
I couldn’t find any words to answer him.
“Are you pregnant, Sierra?”
I wanted to vomit. Again, not sure if it was from the baby or the terrible situation.
“Please don’t tell Blake. Please, I just need to talk to him.”
His eyes flared. “You’re pregnant?”
“I thought we had been careful,” I eked out a stupid defense. Now wasn’t the time to talk about how many time we had skipped the condoms in the heat of the moment. I never even thought it was possible for this to happen. We had been mostly responsible, but not enough.
He shook his head. “Unbelievable. Trapping my son with a baby.”