Don't Lie (Don't 2)

“Yes. Now. If I don’t, I might talk myself out of it. And this isn’t one of those times I can talk myself out of it, right?”

She nodded with a soft smile. “Of course you have to tell him. Go. Talk to him.”

Emily had moved at the beginning of our senior year from Charlotte. From the start, we’d had that instant girl thing where we could finish each other’s sentences. Sometimes I swore we could even read each other’s thoughts. I don’t know how I’d manage to exist before she showed up.

“Ok. Good luck. Call me after. Ok?”

I hugged my best friend. “I will.” I needed that hug. It seemed hard to believe I had only known her a year.

I rushed down the spiral staircase. Aunt Lindy was in the kitchen working on dinner.

“When are you coming back, honey?” she asked.

“For dinner.” I smiled. I wasn’t sure how I was going to break the news to her either. First the daddy. Then I could worry about everyone else.

“I’m working on roasting a chicken.”

I grabbed at my stomach. For the past week, any mention of poultry had made my stomach queasy. I smiled meekly.

“I’ll make sure to be home.”

Once I put my key in the ignition, this was it. Our lives would never be the same. I hopped behind the wheel of my Jeep. I pressed my palm to my stomach. It was still flat. You would never know looking at me I was six-weeks pregnant. There was no more time to hesitate. I backed out of the driveway and raced to Blake’s house.

I pulled up in front of the boat storage building where Blake’s dad and uncle worked. The family business was boat building, but not for Blake. He had a football scholarship. A full ride. He only had a month left before practice and school started.

A month wasn’t long to figure this all out. But we were going to college together. We had planned out everything. Everything except a baby.

I stepped from the Jeep just as Mr. Wyatt appeared.

“Looking for Blake?”

I shoved the paper bag behind my back. “He said he was going to help you with one of the boats today.”

Mr. Wyatt and I had never gotten along. I didn’t know if it was because the only family I had on this island was my aunt, or he just wasn’t going to like anyone his son dated.

I knew he thought I interfered with Blake’s dedication to the game. I liked to think we proved him wrong. Blake was going to be Saints College’s starting quarterback, and I was headed to journalism school. We may have given each other every free second we had, but we also worked hard and had something to prove for it. My Wyatt owed me that much. The man needed to cut me some slack.

“I’ll tell him you stopped by.”

“But is he here?” I tried to peer around the older man.

I wondered if Blake would look like his father when he was older. There was a striking resemblance. The same piercing gray-blue eyes, a strong jaw, and wide shoulders. The only difference was Mr. Wyatt’s son towered over him by a good four or five inches.

“He ran to the store for me.”

“Ok.” I felt the pit in my stomach. I wanted to tell Blake. I needed to tell him. “I can wait.”

“I don’t think so. We have a lot of work to get finished.”

He was always trying to get rid of me. It was one of the things I was looking forward to in college. The Wyatt parents couldn’t hover over us anymore. College seemed like a dream—complete freedom.

“What if I just sit in my Jeep?” I offered.

“Fine. But he can’t go off with you. He’s got a long list of stuff to get done before he heads out for school.”

“I understand, Mr. Wyatt.”

But as I reached in my pocket to retrieve my keys I lost my grip on the bag and it dropped to the grass.