I was watching television in my hotel room when the phone in my room rang. I was only receiving calls from Trent, so I jumped to answer it, picking it up on the first ring .

“Hey, there, kid,” I said, excited that he’d called me. How many other people could say that their kid brother still called to talk to them?

But that was the thing about Trent and me; we’d always been close even though I moved out when he was pretty young.

“What are you doing?”

I sighed as I faced the terrible wall paper in my room. “I’m just sitting here in my room, watching television. I don’t have much to do, remember?” I wasn’t at the ranch, where I had a list of chores to keep me busy all day. I’d already spent the past few days helping Trent settle, so there wasn’t much else left to do. “Did you want something?” I asked, my tone rising hopefully at the end.

“I wanted to meet up for lunch, if you don’t mind. I can meet you some place off campus, or—”

“That’s fine,” I said quickly. “I’ll be ready in a little bit. Just tell me where and when you want me and I’ll be there.”

“All right.” There was some hesitance in his tone. Obviously, he had no clue how bored I was because he’d been busy making friends and meeting his new professors.

I had already showered and dressed after breakfast this morning. I figured it was the least I could do so I didn’t feel like a bum as I read the paper, searching for a cheap apartment or room for rent. The last thing I wanted to do was spend money on a nightly room at the hotel. It would eat away too much of the money that I’d inherited.

Throwing on a sundress, I hurried out to where we’d be meeting because at least it would be something to alleviate some of the boredom.

Trent was already at the café when I arrived, sitting at the table he’d reserved for us. He got up to give me a warm hug before we both sat down.

“You can order what you want,” Trent offered. “It’ll be my treat.”

I looked at him worriedly. “Shouldn’t you be saving up your funds, though?”

He just waved a hand at me. “No, it’s fine. I did some odd jobs here and there, and I saved up quite a bit, at least enough to last me for the semester. I can afford to buy you one meal.”

I pressed my lips together, forming a tight line, but didn’t argue. A waitress stopped by our table a moment later, and we both gave our order. We chatted about consequential things while we waited, about how he was settling in, his new roommate, and any other new people he’d already met. Once the food was brought out, he changed the subject.

“What do you plan on doing, now that I’m in school?” he asked, curious.

“Well,” I muttered reluctantly, looking down at my food with a shrug. “I can't exactly stick around here. Staying at the hotel will eat away a lot of the money that I have and I could think of a lot better things to do with it than hand it over to the guy at the front desk.”

“There’s no point in that, and that isn’t what I meant.” I looked up to see he was intently watching me. “Are you going back to that man?”

I arched an eyebrow. “If you mean back to the ranch, where Curt currently is, then I don’t know. Haven’t made up my mind what I’m going to do,” I said, frowning. “I’m not sure if going back would be the best idea.”

When I was looking through the paper for a better option to stay at besides the hotel, I’d thought about going back to the ranch. Curt needed my help, but I also wanted to be near my brother in case he needed me. I was so torn on what to do.

“Then don’t,” Trent said bluntly.

Trent knew that we were married, though he hadn't been happy with me when I told him that.

“There might not be other options for me,” I said slowly. “I mean, the ranch is, technically, half mine. And unless I start looking for a job and manage to find something that would suit us, you know it would be stupid just to give it up.”

Trent’s brow was furrowed, his lips turned down at the edges, and I could see the harsh grip he had on his spoon. It was enough to let me know he wasn’t happy, but all I could do was offer him an apologetic smile.

“You do realize I’ll need to go back at some point,” I said, a bit more gently.

But he only seemed to grow even more unhappy. “You don’t have to, though. I wasn’t there to hear whatever it was that he said to make you mad, but that he affected you this badly is more than enough to worry me. I’ve never seen you happy whenever you talk about that guy.”

I chewed on my lip. “He’s not exactly a bad guy.”

But Trent didn’t look convinced. I couldn’t blame him with how uncertain I sounded myself. Because there was no way for me to classify Curt and his actions and words. It was always hot and cold with him or had been since we’d reunited.

It was hard to forget that we were married, though. Or that the ranch was ours, for the time being, and if we were careless, we would have it ripped out from under us. I’d come up with enough money to pay for Trent’s first semester, but there would be more, and I would need money for all of them.

Taking on a mediocre job that barely paid the bills wasn’t going to help put Trent through school, and it would only make me scramble to pay my own bills.

So, my decision was pretty simple, but that didn’t make it any easier. I’d pissed Curt off when I told him I was leaving the ranch to stay with my brother. Aside from his hostile tone, I knew that I might have hurt his feelings.

We were doing better—at least better than we’d been in a long time—but our relationship was still very strained. The thought of having a baby with him to inherit the rest of the estate had me on edge, and while it wasn’t something that I wanted to think about, it was something that we both needed to deal with.

I sighed. “I probably should just go back….” I mused to myself.

My brother made a pained groan, and I looked up to see his hand his face buried in his hands. Immediately, I frowned.

“What?”

“Do you hear yourself?” he asked, ignoring my question. “Or did you hear me when I was talking, at all?”

“Look, I’ll admit he can be a jerk sometimes,” I said defensively. “But there’s so much more to him than just that, you know.”

“Well, I’m not entirely comfortable with you going back there. I’d prefer if you figured out something else.”

I looked away from his heated eyes and looked down at my food. I’d eaten most of it during our chat, though I’d hardly noticed I was doing it.

“You know it’s not that simple,” I muttered into my food as I ate the last bits of it.

“I know,” Trent said, suddenly sounding defeated. “I know a big reason for this is me, but I don’t want that. I can work something out for myself, just worry about you, for once.”

There was no way to explain the whole thing to him, though. And no matter what he said, I felt like it was my responsibility to at least help him through college. I never got to go, but I wanted better for him.

Besides, there was still the other, unmet condition that if Curt and I were going to keep the ranch that we needed to have a baby. We hadn't talked about it yet, but we would have to soon, or we would be in trouble. It would take me nine months to pop out a child so we couldn’t waste much more time.

“Hey, Trent,” I asked, looking up at him, my voice laced with urgency. “Do you remember how long it’s been since the reading of the will? I told you the day I was going to go….”

His face scrunched up as he and I both tried to think back. It had been a while, but I was drawing a blank as to how long ago it had been. “Uh, it’s closer to two months now, I guess. Why?”

I gasped, eyes widening and my hands clamping over my mouth. No fucking way.

I couldn’t believe it had already been two months. Time had flown by.

“Would you excuse me,” I said hurriedly, getting up. I went around the table to give him a quick hug and peck on the cheek. “I just realized I have something really important I need to do, but I’ll meet up with you later.”

I rushed away before he could stop me to ask me what I needed to do. I wasn’t sure I could answer that question at the moment.

There was a pharmacy not far from my hotel. I’d passed it on my way to head to meet Trent, and I headed there then. I went to the small store quickly, picked what I wanted and rushed back to my room.

Once I had some privacy, I took the pregnancy test out of the package and went with it to the bathroom. I knew vaguely what I needed to do, and minutes later, I sat on the floor of the hotel bathroom, looking at the lines on the pregnancy test that confirmed my suspicions.

I was pregnant!