Chapter 25
“Thanks for understanding, Quinn,” Megan said, using her shoulder to press the phone against her ear.
Due to financial constraints, Megan could only afford one plane ticket to Boston. Her cousin’s wedding wasn’t until the end of May, so she was skipping the bridal shower next weekend.
After dropping the three grocery bags into the trunk of her car, she slammed the lid closed. If she didn’t slam it like the Incredible Hulk, it would keep popping back open.
“Don’t even worry about it,” the bride-to-be replied. “The shower is just a formality. As long as you’re there for the wedding, that’s all that really matters.”
“I wouldn’t dream of missing the wedding.”
“And honestly,” Quinn continued, “I’m not sure why Katherine insisted on having the bridal shower so early and in the middle of March. They’re calling for snow next week!”
Megan laughed as she slid behind the wheel of her car. “Why my mother does anything is anyone’s guess.”
“I’m beginning to realize that. All right, I gotta jet. But thanks so much for calling. I’ll send you some pictures after the shower.”
“I’d love that. Take care, Quinn.”
After getting off the phone, Megan turned the key in the ignition. Click, click, click, click, click. Frowning at the dashboard, she tried again. Click, click, click, click, click.
Shit.
Sitting back in her seat, she thought for a second. It was almost six o’clock, and the sun was just starting to go down. Luckily, daylight savings time had started or it would be pitch-black by now.
After school, Megan had walked a couple blocks south to the grocery store to pick up a few things she needed for dinner. She walked because parking was always chaotic and she hadn’t planned on getting that many groceries to carry back. James had promised Cade they’d go to a basketball game, so it was just her and Calli tonight.
Remembering James had told her that their game didn’t start until eight o’clock, she quickly pulled out her phone and dialed his number. He answered on the second ring.
“Hey, sweetheart.” The sound of his low, masculine voice sent flutters up her spine.
“Hi, James. I think I have a problem with my car.”
“What’s it doing?”
“It’s clicking at me.”
She heard him laugh. “Okay. Is the car running? Not running?”
“No, it won’t start. When I turn the key, it just clicks.”
Megan tried the ignition again. Click, click, click, click, click.
“Yeah, I hear it,” he said with a sigh. “It sounds like a dead battery. Either that or it’s the alternator. Let’s hope it’s the battery.”
“What do I do? I’m still at school.”
James started to curse but stopped himself. “Cade and I are already at United Center. I’m gonna give my dad a call to see if he can come help you out.”
“All right, thank you. I was hoping to catch you before you left.”
“Sorry, babe. Cade wanted to stuff his face with pulled pork nachos so we came early.”
She smiled. “Okay. I hope you guys have tons of fun. Go team!”
“Sweetheart,” he laughed. “It’s the Bulls. Go Bulls.”
“That’s what I meant.”
“All right. I’ll call my dad. If you can’t go back inside the building, then sit in your car and lock your doors, yeah?”
“Will do. Thanks again.”
James cut the line, and Megan hit the automatic locks on her doors. She wasn’t sure how long this would take, but all she could think about right now was going home, eating dinner, and going to bed.
It had been a long week at school. The kids were starting to get cabin fever like they did every year around this time. She couldn’t really blame them. The flux in temperatures and the unpredictable forecast of sunny days and snow were wearing her down too.
She must have dozed off in the driver’s seat, because she nearly jumped through the roof when a light knock sounded from her window. She saw Abel Foley standing outside her door. Putting her hand to her chest and trying to get her racing heartbeat under control, she unlocked her car and opened the door.
“Sorry there, young lady. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s okay. I swear I just shut my eyes for a second. I must have dozed off.” She stepped out of the seat and made room for Abel to do whatever he needed to do. “Thanks so much for coming. I hope I’m not keeping you from something important.”
“Nope. I was just gonna watch the game at home.” The older man sat down in the driver’s seat and tried the key. He got the same clicking that she had. “It’s just a dead battery. I’ll give you a jump.”
Megan stepped back so Abel could get out. He’d parked his truck right in front of hers and pulled some long cables out from the extended cab. After popping both hoods and hooking up the cables, he started his truck and came back to where she stood watching the entire process.
“We’ll just give it a minute,” Abel explained.
She smiled. James looked just like his father. They were both tall and had the same angular features and similar builds. Twenty years ago, Abel probably looked just like James did now.
“Why didn’t you go to the game with James and Cade tonight?” Megan asked to make conversation.
Abel shrugged. “They needed some father and son time.”
Some guilt crept into her conscience. She and James had been spending a lot of time together over the last couple of months. If she had to guess, they saw each other at least four days out of the week. The last thing she wanted to do was monopolize his time.
“Are you feeling okay?”
Megan looked up and saw Abel’s concerned eyes fixed on her. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
She smiled at him inquisitively, wondering what the other man saw. He slowly nodded, as if he was trying to see if her nose would grow for lying.
“All right, then. Let’s see if she’ll start now.” Abel motioned to her car. “Why don’t you get in and give it a try?”
She slid back behind the wheel and turned the key. The engine sputtered to life.
“She’s alive,” Megan beamed.
Abel just smiled and strode to the front of the car, unhooking cables and shutting hoods. He walked back over to her door and bent to peer into the window. “You should be all set. You take care of yourself now, young lady.”
The smile he gave her showed the same concern she’d seen earlier. She thanked him again, and he replied with a shooing wave.
Abel threw the black and red cables into his truck and got in. He motioned for her to go ahead, so she did. At the turn where their paths parted, she waved out the window at him. He gave her a two-finger wave from his steering wheel, something James would have done.
Finally, after reaching her apartment, Megan carried the grocery bags into the elevator. Her arms were on fire, and it felt like it was way past her bedtime. If she hadn’t already agreed to make Calli dinner, she’d probably skip it altogether and go straight to bed.
Pushing open her door, Megan lugged the groceries inside and hefted them up on the kitchen island.
“It’s about damn time!” she heard Calli call from her bedroom. After a moment, she stomped out into the living room. “I’m glad you’re home. I’m starving!”
“Did you check your phone?” Megan asked, unable to muster up the energy to laugh at how ridiculous Calli looked with her hands on her hips and her faux ’hawk leaning to one side of her head.
Her roommate marched to the counter and grabbed her phone. “Calli,” she read from her screen. “Having car trouble. Be home as soon as I can.” Calli frowned and looked up at Megan. “Huh. Don’t I feel like a bitch now?”
Megan lifted one side of her mouth in an attempted smile. “It’s okay. You wanna just do ramen noodles tonight?”
“Fuck yeah. That sounds awesome. And quick.” Calli washed her hands at the kitchen sink and grabbed a couple bowls from the upper cabinet. “And after dinner, let’s both take a carton of Haagen-Dazs each and eat it on the couch. I call dibs on the chocolate chip cookie dough.”
“Should we just skip the ramen and go straight to the ice cream?”
She looked at Megan and blinked. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
Calli helped Megan put away all the now unnecessary groceries and grabbed the ice cream and spoons. After tearing the lid off hers, Megan sank down onto the couch with her carton of dulce de leche. The creamy goodness tasted amazing.
“Think we’ll feel guilty for this later?” Megan asked as she shoveled another bite into her mouth.
“Probably,” Calli replied with a shrug. “But who cares?”
They ate their ice cream in companionable silence. It had been one of the rare warm and sunny early March days in Chicago that had everyone forgetting the groundhog had seen his shadow and they were still in for some winter weather. Calli had cracked open the balcony door, and the sounds of a bustling city drifted through the screen.
“I fucking love ice cream,” Calli mumbled with her mouth full. “Why is it that when a woman is on her period, she craves sugar like it’s motherfucking calorie-free?”
Megan laughed. “Why is it that when you’re on your period, you cuss like sailor?”
“I consider it our one week every month that we have a free pass to do whatever the fuck we want. I swear and eat ice cream. What do you do?”
Megan thought about it for a second. “Clean?”
Calli snorted. “You’re so lame.”
Megan was just about ready to toss a throw pillow at her roommate when her tired, run-down brain caught on to something important. She dropped her spoon into her Haagen-Dazs and shot to her feet.
“What?” Calli asked.
Without answering, Megan ran into her bedroom and straight through to her bathroom. After slamming her ice cream carton down on the tiny sink, she rummaged around in a set of plastic drawers until she pulled out what she was looking for.
“What’s wrong?” Calli had followed her into the bathroom.
When her roommate’s eyes snagged on the pregnancy test box that Megan held in her hands, she covered her mouth. “Holy shit.”
###
Keeping rhythm with the ticking of the wall clock, Megan paced back and forth beside the kitchen island. Her head was muddled with incoherent thoughts, but if this was all a dream, then she didn’t want to wake up.
She was pregnant.
Pregnant as in there was a child growing inside her womb. Pregnant as in she was going to be a mother. Pregnant as in she was going to have a baby.
If she’d been hooked up to a machine that could show a slide show of all the thoughts that had flooded her mind when she saw the positive pregnancy test last night, viewers would have experienced sensory overload.
Calli had given Megan the time she needed to take the test and wait the three minutes for the results. And then she’d wrapped Megan up in her tattooed arms as they both sat on the floor in the tiny bathroom. Megan couldn’t stop sobbing.
For years, she’d performed the same dance. Pee on the stick, place it on a piece of toilet paper on the floor, wash her hands, and try to keep herself busy for three minutes while the test finished.
Last night, when she’d gently placed the test on the toilet paper on the floor, she knew down to the marrow in her bones it would be positive. And ironically, she’d been slightly apprehensive.
All her life she’d had a plan: go to college, get married, have children. As she’d stood over the pregnancy test with the two little pink lines staring back at her, she’d realized that Plan A was ruined. Plan B was more like go to college, get married, get divorced, have a baby out of wedlock.
This wasn’t how her life was supposed to go. But after a sleepless night and two additional positive tests later, the idea of finally being pregnant was sinking into her tired, overwrought brain.
Megan placed her hand over her flat stomach. She was going to bring a life into this world. She was going to finally be a mother. And through the fog of uncertainty and apprehension came the first bright beams of hope and happiness.
That morning, she’d called her ob-gyn and made an appointment for next week. She’d debated whether to tell James before or after the doctor’s appointment, but in the end, she hadn’t wanted this secret hanging over her head.
She’d texted James and asked him to come over when he was free. When he’d replied that he’d be over after putting Cade to bed, her short-lived excitement gave way to dread.
What if James flipped out? What if he didn’t want her to have the baby?
Their relationship was so new, and now she was about to drop a huge bomb on him. He knew how much she’d wanted kids before. What if he accused her of trapping him by getting pregnant?
Since Megan hadn’t had a chance to get on the pill, they’d used a condom every time they’d had sex. Not once had they forgotten or risked going without. But apparently, condoms were only ninety-eight percent effective when used consistently and correctly, and they had miraculously fallen into that two percent ineffective category.
Calli was working tonight but had told Megan to call her immediately if she needed anything at all. Looking back up at the clock, Megan sighed. Nine o’clock on a Saturday night. James would be there any minute.
She’d just tell him. Make sure he was sitting first and just blurt it out. He’d smile that slow, sexy grin of his and they’d hug and skip around the living room holding hands. Yep, that was exactly what would happen.
A sharp knock shattered her delusions, sending Megan spinning to face the door. She hesitated for a moment, staring at the front door. Another knock sent her shuffling forward.
Looking through the peephole, she saw James standing in the hallway with a baseball hat covering his hair. She opened the door and their eyes met. She tried to smile her normal warm greeting, but she wasn’t sure what her face actually came up with.
His eyes warmed for a split second before they narrowed and pinned her with concern. “Hey, you all right?” he asked, coming into the apartment.
She closed the door behind him. “Yeah, I’m fine. How are you?”
He frowned as he shrugged out of his coat. “Okay.”
His inflection was almost like a question…like he knew that maybe he wouldn’t be okay soon, and he was almost asking for her permission to be okay now. He watched her even as he hung his coat and hat on the coatrack. She tried to school her features.
Megan was on the verge of tears, not from being sad but from the overwhelming pressure to tell him they were going to have a baby. Once he knew, he wouldn’t be able to un-know it. She was about to change his life forever. And she didn’t like having that sort of power.
A tiny piece of her wanted them to continue on the path they’d been traveling. Figuring things out, growing closer by the day. They’d hit their stride as a couple, one that was comfortable and enjoyable, and she was about to shatter it into a million life-changing fragments.
“Want something to drink?” she asked, trying her best to sound normal.
“No, I want you to tell me what’s the matter with you. You’re freaking me out.”
His impossibly handsome face was beard free and back to just stubble. She’d been a little disappointed to see the beard go, but she loved the stubble.
Megan sighed and nodded toward the couch. “Come sit with me.”
She thought she heard him curse under his breath as he followed her to the living room and sat next to her. Realizing that she was twisting her fingers together, she stuffed them between her knees.
She bit her bottom lip and looked up into his eyes. They were pinned on her, concern dripping from his gaze.
“Sweetheart, just tell me.”
Taking a deep breath, she exhaled slowly, knowing she was about to change everything between them.
“I’m pregnant.”