CHAPTER 10
Alicia
It had been a week since my last conversation with Zane and still, I woke up with a stomachache almost every morning.
I hated feeling so lovesick, but Zane crossed my mind at least ten times a day. No matter how busy I was, he always found a way to take over my thoughts, reminding me just how much I missed him.
I had known it was coming. Zane had constantly talked about the Savage Soldiers and how he was willing to do whatever it took to prove himself. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise.
And yet, it was.
It had knocked the wind out of me. Damn near broke me. The worst part had been his smile—like he was happy to leave me. Like our entire relationship had just been his way of passing time until his real life traveling in the military began.
Thinking about it made my stomach roll again. That morning, I’d shot out of bed and hurled myself into the bathroom, where I threw up everything in my stomach—which wasn’t much. Then I’d curled into a ball on the floor.
When Allie found me, she’d sat beside me and rubbed my back.
I rolled over to face her, knowing how pathetic I must have seemed to someone so strong.
“He’s just a boy,” I said, my voice weak. “I don’t know why it’s affecting me so much.”
“Because you love him,” she said gently.
“So what?” I argued.
“So it’s going to hurt for a while.” She paused. “But, Alicia—I don’t think that’s why you’re sick…”
“What do you mean?”
Allie sighed and reached behind her. Slowly, she laid a box down beside me and brushed my hair off my face. “I’ll be right outside if you need me.”
I frowned and watched her leave, closing the bathroom door softly behind her. When I looked down at the box, I almost screamed. I picked up the pregnancy test, feeling like it would burn a hole in my hand.
I sat up quickly, fighting another wave of nausea. The box fell onto the floor and I stared at it for a few seconds. All I knew in that moment was that she was wrong. I wasn’t pregnant. Zane and I were always careful, and I had been on the pill for two years.
Still, something tugged at the back of my mind. Particularly that one night when we’d been drunk after leaving Kellan’s…
Had we used protection that night?
I counted backward, realizing it had been about six weeks since that night and that I hadn’t had a period in almost two months.
My heart pounded as I opened the box and took the test. When I laid it down on the bathroom floor to wait, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. For every single second of those three minutes, I watched the little screen, waiting for it to tell me my fate.
When the plus sign appeared, my stomach rolled and I threw up again. Allie hurried into the bathroom to hold my hair back.
Somehow, she’d known all along.
Apparently, heartbreak wasn’t the only thing Zane Prewitt had left me behind with.
When the memories passed, I was still sitting on that curb with my head in my hands. Part of me wanted to stay there forever, but a bigger part forced me to my feet. Whether Zane was still there or not, I had to go back. My family would be worried. Plus, I knew Allie had probably already verbally accosted Zane, so I couldn’t hide forever.
Slowly, I walked through the streets until I reached Kellan’s. I went around the back so I could enter the way I left, but it didn’t matter. When I walked inside, the place was almost entirely empty. Only my mother and a few distant relatives remained.
“Where’d you go?” my mom asked as I walked up to her.
“Just had to clear my head.”
“Uh huh.” She nodded and gave me a scrutinizing look; she’d seen me leave after Zane arrived, but refrained from admitting it.
“Allie take the kids home?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Do you need any help cleaning up?”
“No, I think we’ve got it handled.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll just meet you at home then.”
I turned to leave, when I felt her fingers brush against my arm. When I looked back at her, she watched me the same way she had that morning all those years ago—the morning Allie and I told her. It was the look of concern and motherly intuition I recognized all too well.
I waited for her to speak, but she didn’t. She simply looked at me with so much understanding that it made my eyes tear up. I stepped closer to her and she wrapped her arms around me, holding me against her chest. I breathed in the familiar scent of her perfume and let myself relax for the first time since I arrived in Savage. Of all the things I missed, I didn’t realize how much I needed this.
When she let me go, I wiped my eyes and left the bar without saying goodbye. Allie and Jordan had taken the car and I didn’t want to wait for my mother, so I decided to walk home. It wasn’t far—just a couple miles—and it would give me a chance to clear my head before I saw the rest of the family.
Especially Elizabeth.