Easton and I ended up at the bowling alley ten minutes later, not talking as we drove. We ordered food from the same guy who’d been working the grill last time, and then sat in our regular booth.

Easton sighed and slouched against the faded red booth, letting his head rest against the top of the seat. "I'll probably have to tell my dad tonight, now that the whole school knows, huh?"

He looked so lost right now that I wished I could make him feel better. But there was really nothing I could do. We had made our bed, and now it was time to sleep in it—no matter how messy it was.

"Do you want me to come with you?" I offered.

He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I don't think he'll like having an audience when I drain the life out of him."

I dipped a fry in the nacho cheese sauce, imagining Mr. Stevens when Easton told him. This would kill him. I could just see that big man collapsing onto their living room couch when Easton told him the news.

"You sure you don't want me there?"

He sighed and sat up straight again, taking one of my fries.

"No, I'll do it myself."

"I guess that means I'll have to tell my mom who the real father is."

We locked gazes for a moment, each of us probably picturing how our separate conversations would go. I had a feeling mine would probably go a lot better than his. For him, his dad would get the bombshell that another one of his children had made a baby. For my mom, she was just going to find out who my partner in crime actually was.

Maybe she'd be relieved—if Easton came around to my plan, we wouldn't have to deal with the thirty-day waiting period before someone could adopt the baby. He'd be able to sign his rights as soon as possible.

Unless he convinced me to keep the baby...which I had a feeling he would not give up on anytime soon.

"So, do you want to go back to school after this?" Easton asked as I took a bite of my pastrami burger.

I chewed and swallowed. "I don't know. We kind of made a big scene back there."

He set his soda down on the table. "Chance Clemont is a jerk."

"Yep."

"I can't believe he had the gall to say that stuff to you. He's lucky I didn't throw him down."

I smiled at the image that came to my mind of Easton tossing Chance to the floor. Chance was a couple inches taller than Easton. But Easton was built like his dad and had muscles to go along with his height where Chance was still a bean pole.

"I bet you could take him," I said.

He returned my smile and held up his hand with his finger and thumb an inch apart. "I was this close to doing it."

I took a sip of my water. "Thanks for stepping in for me. I appreciate it."

He nodded, his expression going more solemn. "I couldn't stand by and let them talk to you that way, especially when I knew none of what they were saying was true."

I dipped my head down, having a hard time meeting his gaze. He was such a great guy. He’d risked his reputation to save mine. "Well, I appreciate it."

We both reached for a fry and electricity crackled where our fingers touched.

I looked shyly away as I dipped my fry in the cheese sauce.

Easton cleared his throat. "Now we have to smooth things out with Lexi and Noah."

I released a long breath as the image of Lexi's betrayed face came to mind. "I think we really hurt her."

He balled up his hamburger's wrapper and tossed it on his plate. "She'll get over it."

He said it like it was a sure thing, but I didn't know. I had betrayed her trust and lied to her so many times already. Could I really hope she'd be willing to forgive me again?

I checked the time on my phone. Lunch period was long over, and it was already fifteen minutes into the next period.

"Do you want to head back to school? Or do you think the bowling alley is a sufficient enough lesson on the laws of physics for today?" I asked.

He glanced at the bowling lanes and then back to me. "I think bowling might just be the lesson I need today." He gathered up our trash. "We can worry about facing the new rumors at school tomorrow."

Easton and I stopped by Emrie's on our way back to the school so we could pick up a pint of Lexi's favorite ice cream. I figured that if I was going to beg for forgiveness, it might be a good idea to show up with some ammo.

I waited for Lexi at her locker, holding the ice cream in front of me. "I'm sorry, Lexi."

Her eyes stopped on the ice cream for a minute before she pulled some books out and dropped them in her backpack. Then, as if I was invisible, she shouldered her bag, shut her locker, and turned to walk toward the parking lot.

I hurried after her. "Are you not even going to acknowledge me now?"

She shrugged as I got in step with her—thankfully, she was short and didn't have as long of a stride as I did.

"I don't know why you're so worried about me talking to you now. Apparently, you haven't been so keen on talking to me about stuff for the past six months. Not the important life-altering type of things, anyway."

I groaned and put my hand on her arm to stop her. "Please, just talk to me."

She turned to face me, her arms crossed and her toe tapping on the shiny tile floor impatiently.

"You have any more lies you want me to hear?"

I wanted to roll my eyes but didn't, because I knew I deserved it.

"Can I just give you a ride home and talk to you for a few minutes? I promise I won't bother you after that. I just need to explain."

She pursed her lips. Then she grabbed the ice cream and spoon from my hands and said, "Fine. But not until after I've eaten this entire thing."

I gave her a small smile. "Thank you."

Lexi was true to her word. She didn't say anything until she had eaten the entire pint of ice cream.

For a girl who was so small, it was amazing how much she could pound down when she wanted to.

I pulled up to the curb in front of her house and she opened her door to climb out. Was she going to just take her ice cream and run?

But she turned toward me and said, "You might as well come inside and talk. That ice cream made me thirsty."

So I followed her into her house.

Lexi grabbed herself a glass of water, and then we went downstairs to talk in their family room. She looked like she had a lot of questions for me, but instead of asking any of them, she just stared at her glass of water and rubbed the condensation off the sides.

I cleared my throat and decided it was probably best to just get started. "So I pretty much wanted to tell you that I'm really sorry that I never told you about Easton and me dating."

She nodded. "Yeah, that is quite interesting. And I've been wondering all afternoon, when exactly did you and Easton date? He was always either at work or with Noah or us together. There aren't that many spare hours in a day."

"It started last July."

I didn't say anything more, but then she looked at me like I was stupid. So I continued, "And as for how, I guess I just have to say we were really good at sneaking around right beneath everyone's noses. It's not as hard when everyone thinks you hate each other."

"But that still doesn't tell me when you actually had the time."

I looked down and picked at a loose string on the couch cushion. "Remember how I didn't have a job and my mom was always working, and you spent a lot of time babysitting Grant?"

"Yeah."

"Well, on one of those bored-out-of-my-mind days, I decided to get some ice cream and see how annoying I could be to Easton while he worked."

"So you started secretly dating Easton behind my back just because you wanted to annoy him?"

I shook my head. "No, that's not what it was like. Yes, I did want to see how far I could push his buttons while he was at work, because I knew he couldn't treat a paying customer rudely and still hope to keep his job. But, I don't know, after a while it was just fun hanging out with him."

"Why didn't you have me tag along with you?"

"Part of me just wanted to get used to doing things on my own for a change. I knew I'd be in Paris soon, and so I wanted to get used to being more independent."

"Except you weren't really by yourself, were you? You just replaced me with my brother."

Wow, she really was mad at me. I had never seen her like this before. Usually she was so nice to everyone, always going out of her way to make things better for people.

"I can see why you'd say that."

"So, was sleeping with my brother part of your endgame? Were you trying to see how far you could take things before you went off to Paris?"

What? Did she seriously think that?

My mouth hung open for a moment before I could respond. "Do you really think that about me, Lexi?"

She shrugged one shoulder, a frustrated look on her face. "I don't really know what to think about you anymore, Juliette. You've told me so many lies."

My jaw tensed, and tears pricked behind my eyes. "It was nothing like that. Yes, we did sneak around behind everyone's backs, and I regret that. I wish I could go back and do things the right way, but the fact is that I can't. All I have is now. Which is why I’m trying to fix things."

"Only because you got caught though, huh?"

"Maybe this was a mistake," I said, readying to stand.

Lexi set her glass on the side table. "Juliette, wait. I'm sorry, I didn't really mean any of those things. I'm just mad right now."

I stared at her, not understanding what was happening. Finally, I swallowed and said, "I'm really sorry for all the lies I told you. I can't say enough how sorry I am."

She looked at my stomach and her expression softened. "I know, Juliette. I'm sorry that I'm being so mean right now."

I nodded. I could understand some of that. Hurting people hurt people. I had hurt her, and so she wanted to hurt me back.

"So from what I'm hearing," Lexi said. "You and Easton had this super-secret forbidden relationship that was exciting, and you just wanted to keep it that way because it was fun?"

"Yeah."

She nodded. "I guess I can't really fault you too much for that, since I kind of did the same thing with Noah just a few months ago."

"Except you didn't keep it a secret from me." That was how we were different.

She was nice enough not to say "well, duh" to me.

Instead, she asked, "Did Easton know all along that the baby was his?"

I shook my head. "He just found out on Saturday. I had hoped to quietly have the baby and not ruin anyone's lives in the process."

"And are you two secretly dating again?"

I shook my head again. "We pretty much broke up when this happened." I pointed to my stomach to show that we'd taken things too far and the guilt afterward had ruined us.

She nodded her head solemnly. "But do you wish that you were still together?"

She watched me for my reaction, and I knew what was written all over my face. I still cared about her brother. And yes, I wished we could be together.

"I’ll take that sad look on your face as a yes, you’re still in love with my brother."

I nodded, a wave of emotion rushing over me. I missed Easton. I missed us. I missed how I felt when we were together. I missed how he used to look at me, and hold me, and kiss me. I wanted that so much.

But things were so messy between us it was hard to think that they could ever work out.

So I changed the subject.

"On a scale from one to ten, how badly do you think your dad will react when he finds out he has another grandchild on the way?"

Lexi sighed. "I'm thinking a ten, though seventeen might be more accurate."

I bent over and put my hands on my face, rubbing up and down it to relieve some tension. "That's what I was afraid of."

"Yeah, pretty sure he'll put me on birth control after this. Even though Noah and I have no plans of needing it in the foreseeable future."

"Sorry about that."

She nodded. "Yeah, I guess we can just thank my dad and my mom's amazingly fertile genetics."

I couldn't help but wonder if my parents would've had more children if my dad hadn't died so young, since apparently, I was super fertile, too.

Guess I'll never know.

"How many times did you and Easton..." She didn't finish her sentence; her cheeks turned pink instead.

"Just once."

"And how was it?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Do you really want to know?"

Her cheeks turned darker. "I guess I probably don't. It’s better not to know some things about your brother."