Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 125866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 629(@200wpm)___ 503(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 629(@200wpm)___ 503(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
I gaped at the screen.
“He… what?”
Mom nodded, letting out a long sigh. “It all happened so fast after that. Kyle stepped in, trying to get his dad to calm down and go upstairs.” She paled. “Michael wound up and hit him right in the jaw with all of us watching. I can still hear it.”
She covered her lips with her fingertips, and I mirrored her, shaking my head.
When he came to school on Monday, he had a split lip that was crusted over and healing. I remembered it now, that detail that I had catalogued before being overrun with heartbreak when he’d turned away from me.
“Everyone was up in arms. We threatened to call the cops if Michael didn’t go upstairs and sleep it off.”
“Did you? Call the cops, I mean?”
“We weren’t going to originally, but later, we just couldn’t stand it. We got home and couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened. But when your dad called, I guessed someone else had beat us to it. The cops were already on their way, showed up about an hour after the party ended, according to the Moores.”
The Moores had lived across the street from Kyle.
I blinked, wetting my lips and trying to process it all. “What happened when they came?”
“No one knows. Clearly, Michael wasn’t arrested. No one pressed charges, or anything. But we were all pissed — obviously. We had plans to talk to Michael and Lynette about stepping down from their positions in the church and with the PTA. But then…”
“They left.”
She nodded, her brows softening as she watched me take it all in.
Oh, God.
My eyes welled with tears. “Mom, what if… what if Kyle never knew I was pregnant?”
She frowned at that. “Honey, you told him you were.”
“No,” I said, the word wet and garbled. “I told his parents.”
Mom’s face slackened. “What? But you—”
“Told you I’d told him, I know. Because I thought I did. I showed up that morning, I knocked on the door, and Michael and Lynette answered. They said Kyle was sleeping but they saw how upset I was and I… I told them.” My eyes were blurring more and more by the second. “Mrs. Robbins hugged me. She told me it would all be okay. She told me they’d tell him as soon as he woke up and have him come to the house.”
I sucked in a breath, my heart racing.
“But he didn’t. And he didn’t answer my calls. And when I saw him on Monday, he looked like he hated me. He… he turned away from me like I’d hurt him. But what if that wasn’t about the baby? What if it was because I wasn’t there for him, because I hadn’t…”
I could barely keep up with how fast my brain was working.
“What if he didn’t know?”
My mom leaned toward the camera, but Sebastian came barreling out of his room and down the hall, doing his battle cry that usually led to him running into my legs full-force and wrapping his little arms around them.
Mom painted on a smile at the same time I did, and Sebastian leapt into her lap.
“I’m ready! And look, I tied my shoes up just how you showed me!”
He leaned back far enough to kick his feet into the air, and Mom and I shared a look before we both smiled at him.
“Wow, you sure did!” Mom said. “Okay, blow Mommy a kiss and then go use the restroom and we’ll get going.”
“Can I get a bag of rocks at the gift shop?!”
If it weren’t for the lump in my throat, I would have laughed at that.
“We’ll see how good you are,” Mom said.
Sebastian blew me a kiss, which I caught with as much focus as I could, pressing it to my cheek with a smile. He leapt up and ran toward the bathroom, and Mom turned to me.
“Okay, here’s what you are going to do,” she said calmly. “You’re going to hang up this phone, take a deep breath, wash your face, and lie down on the floor for ten minutes.”
“Mo—”
“Ten. Minutes,” she repeated, holding up a finger. “And then, you can gather your thoughts, and talk to him.”
I nodded, my eyes filling with tears again. Kyle had gone to golf and brunch with the guys before the wedding. I likely wouldn’t see him until it was time for both of us to get dressed and go. I couldn’t drop this on him right when we were supposed to walk out this door, fend off the media, and be happy for one of his best friend’s wedding.
It would have to wait until tonight.
And just like last night, a sickening realization washed over me.
Because I knew before it even happened that this conversation would change everything.
Kyle
“Shit.”
I hooked an arm around Madelyn’s waist, pulling her back into the elevator before anyone realized we had even stepped off.