"Do you mind looking up the skate park in Syracuse to see if it's opened this weekend?" Lexi looked up at me briefly as she worked on her skateboard.

"Sure." I pulled up my phone and typed in the name of the skate park. A moment later, their website loaded with a bolded heading between asterisks at the top.

I frowned and turned to Lexi. "Looks like they'll be closed until the beginning of January."

"What?" Lexi asked. "Why?"

"It says there was some sort of family emergency."

Her face fell. "Oh no. I hope everything’s okay with Kent."

Kent was the owner of the skatepark and pretty much lived there, or so it seemed since he was always there when we'd gone last summer.

"I hope he's okay too," I said. But at least it saved me from having to come up with an excuse for why I couldn't skateboard.

Lexi set her tool on the table. "Guess I don't really need to be fixing this now, do I?"

I sighed and pushed my phone back into my pocket.

"I'm sure we'll figure out something else to do for fun this weekend," I said.

Her eyes brightened. "I heard Ridgewater Peak has a new hill this year. Maybe we can go snowboarding instead."

Oh, even better. There's nothing like careening down a hill as fast as lightning to put a fetus in danger. I might not be ready to be a mother, but I didn't want to do anything that could hurt the baby.

I forced a smile on my face. "That sounds fun."

"I think Noah said something about his dad having a cabin up there. Maybe we could just make a whole day of it."

"You really don't need to invite me to everything you want to do with your boyfriend. I'm okay to spend time by myself," I said.

"We can invite Easton. Then the guys can have fun together and we can have fun together."

Yeah, way to make me want to go even less.

I was about to turn her down again when she pouted her lip and gave me her sad face.

"Please, Juliette. It’ll be fun. Like old times."

I sighed. I was never great at saying no to my friend to her face. I'd just have to call her that morning to tell her I was sick.

"Okay, fine. I'll come."

She laughed. "Well, don't sound too excited about it."

I smiled again, wishing I could tell her what was really going on.

She knew how hard it was to have a baby in high school. She'd watched her sister go through the same thing and done her fair share of staying up with the crying baby.

I shook the thought away. She was Easton's sister. She could slip up so easily and tell Easton the truth.

"Well, I should probably jet. My mom’s expecting me for dinner."

"Thanks for coming over. It's so great to have you back again. I missed you so much."

"I missed you, too."

"We'll have to plan our snowboarding trip with the guys tomorrow at school or something," she said.

"Oh, I didn't tell you," I said, feeling my cheeks heat up. "I'm not going back until after New Year's." It was a lie since I wasn't going back at all this year. But we were hoping to make my stay at Grandma Irene's house seem like a sudden thing, so lying was a necessary evil right now.

"What? You're not coming to school?" Her eyebrows shot up.

I rubbed at a spot on the table. "I already finished my first semester in Paris."

And the thought of anyone at school seeing how big I was getting and saying something about it gave me hives. At least with Lexi, she was nice enough not to say anything about it if she had noticed.

"You're so lucky." Lexi zipped her tools back into her kit. "Well, I guess we'll just have to make our plans after school then."

"Sure."

"Although I think I remember Easton saying something about hanging out with Mercedes. So it might be better to wait till he can be there."

"He'll be with Mercedes?" I knew they were dating, but it kind of felt like a knife was stabbed into my chest at the thought of him kissing another girl.

She smiled, like she understood the sullen look on my face. "I don't think they're that serious, though. So I'm sure we can still get my plan to work."

"What plan was this again?"

"Remember what I said earlier..." After quickly glancing around the room, she leaned closer and lowered her voice to just above a whisper. "My plan about you two dating."

My fingers went all tingly as a nervous flash of energy coursed through me. I swallowed. "I wouldn't put too much stock in that ever happening."

Her eyes widened. "But you think he's cute, right?"

Did humans need oxygen? Was Antarctica cold? Of course I thought he was cute! He was movie-star material. Greek-god material. Sneak-into-his-tent-and-forget-about-your-values-because-you-want-one-last-long-night-together material.

I cleared my throat. "I guess he's okay to look at."

"I saw the way you were looking at him during brunch. You think my brother is hot."

My cheeks got even hotter. "I don't want you to play matchmaker. I'm taking a break from guys right now."

She tilted her head to the side and gave me a look that told me she didn't believe me. "We'll see about that."

"No, Lexi. I really am."

She shrugged. "Okay, fine. Let's meet after school anyway, and if Easton can make it, then great. If not, then I won't try to play matchmaker."

"Okay."

"But remember, if he shows up, that’ll just be even more proof that you and my brother are meant to be."

I rolled my eyes. "You're delusional, you know that?"

She laughed. "That's what I thought when I liked Noah. And just look at me now."

I was putting on my polka-dotted coat and walking out the Stevens's front door when I noticed Easton enter the living room behind me.

"Hey, Juliette," he called.

My heart picked up speed as I panicked for something to do. Would it be so bad if I pretended I couldn't hear him? If Lexi saw us talking, she'd get even more ideas in that weird matchmaking brain of hers.

I kept my gaze focused on the sidewalk that led away from their house and continued down the front porch steps.

"Juliette!" His voice sounded closer.

I froze a moment too long because his hand was on my shoulder a second later.

I turned around slowly to look at him with my most surprised expression.

"H-hey, Easton."

He looked at me, and I couldn't be sure but there seemed to be nervousness in his eyes. "Can I talk to you real quick?"

I blinked, trying to come up with an excuse. "I'm kind of in a hurry right now. My mom wanted me home for dinner and I'm already late."

"It'll just take a second."

I looked around to see if anyone noticed we were together, a reflex from sneaking around this past summer.

Easton glanced around too, frustration evident on his face. "Can I walk you home? I really just want to say something real quick."

My stomach muscles tightened at the thought of being alone with him. How was it possible that I could want to be with him and want to run away from him at the same time?

"I really do need to hurry," I finally said, the logical part of my brain winning for once.

The hopefulness that had been in his eyes disappeared when I turned him down again.

What did he want to talk about so badly?

Before I could let my curiosity get the better of me, I remembered he had a girlfriend.

"I don't think Mercedes would really want us to talk, anyway."

"She won't mind. We aren't serious. We've only been on a few dates."

It wasn't serious? So there was a...

I shook my head. There was not a chance for Easton and me to get back together. Things had not ended well. I was trying to keep the fact that I was pregnant with his child a secret from him, for goodness' sake. I couldn't spend time with him. I needed to go away.

"Please." His blue eyes pleaded with me, and I couldn't help but think that whatever he had to say must be important.

"Okay, you can walk me home."

"Thank you." He darted back into his house and came back out a second later with his dark gray coat.

"What was it you needed to talk about?" I asked as he zipped up. I needed to get this conversation over with. My hands felt clammy, so I wiped them on the lining inside my coat pockets.

He ran a hand through his hair. "I—" He released a long sigh. "I just wanted to apologize to you." He eyed me cautiously. "I know that before you left for Paris, things kind of went differently than either of us had probably expected. And I kind of freaked out and said a lot of things I didn't really mean." He looked down. "Anyway, I just really want to try to forget about what happened. I was hoping that you can forgive me and that we can maybe move forward without any hard feelings."

I stared down at my boots and swallowed. "T-thanks for saying that." I forced my gaze up to meet his blue eyes. "And I'm sorry, too. I know you didn't mean everything you said that night."

The logical side of my brain had known, anyway. My heart still didn't quite believe it. And my heart also knew that if I told him what the consequences were for that night, he would just probably freak out on me all over again.

He cleared his throat. "I’ll probably tell my dad tonight."

I felt the blood drain from my face. "You’re going to tell him about us?"

"I'm just going to say I broke his rules," he hurried to say. "I won't say who it was with. You don't have to worry about that."

I sighed, my chest loosening with relief. "Thanks." Then I had another thought. "Do you really have to tell him, though? I mean, you're almost eighteen. It doesn't seem like that should be his concern anymore?"

"But he’ll go and pay for my college tuition if I don’t tell him, and that would be like stealing from him. As tempting as it sounds, I can't take that money."

"I'm sorry." What else could I say to that? My mom had never put any kind of stipulation on her paying for my college tuition. Though, come to think of it, she was shipping me off to my grandma's house for the next six months.

I must've looked really distraught or something, because Easton reached over and touched my shoulder. And I was stupid enough to wish I could feel his hand through the thick fabric of my coat because I was still so unbelievably attracted to him.

"It's not your fault," he said. "It was a two-person decision. I was there, too. I chose to do what I did, and this is just a consequence of that choice."

I swallowed, and he removed his hand.

He was being so sweet right now. In all the scenarios I'd run through in my head, he'd always been just as upset as he'd been that night. He'd always looked at me with fear and anger in his eyes. Never like this.

A thought flashed through my mind—maybe it would be okay to tell him about the baby. Maybe he could handle it better than I thought.

But no. Having your college tuition taken away from you was one thing. Being told that you would become a daddy a month before high school graduation was a whole different thing. I couldn't take that from him, too.

"I appreciate you saying that," I said, pulling my coat tighter across my stomach. It wouldn't be long before I couldn't tie it shut anymore. "I'm sure you'll figure things out. You always do."

His gaze lingered down to my arms hugging my midsection for a moment too long. Did he just look at my stomach? Could he know?

I needed to cross the street and get inside my house now.

But he spoke before I could bolt. "Well, I just wanted to apologize. I know we'll be seeing a lot of each other since you're best friends with Lexi, and I didn't want things to keep being awkward between us."

I nodded and tried not to think about how I wished things could go back to the way they were before everything went down the drain.

"Well, I better get home now."

He touched my hand to stop me from stepping into the street. My skin burned at his touch. "It's good to have you back, Juliette." His gaze was more intense than it had been the second before, almost like he was trying to see into my soul.

I studied him, unable to form a coherent response. He really looked like he meant what he was saying—kind of like he was hopeful about something.

"It's good to be back," I finally managed to say, glancing at our hands. I wanted so badly to entwine my fingers with his and pretend like the past never happened.

When he noticed what he was doing, he let go before backing up on one foot. "I'll see you tomorrow at school."

I nodded and stepped off the curb to walk across the street, not having it in me to tell him I wouldn't be showing up for any of his senior year.

"See you later, Easton."