“He can handle anything.”
I nodded in agreement. It was true. We might be young, but I knew there wasn’t another guy in the world like him.
There were a lot of old families on Gull island. Families who had passed down family businesses from generation to generation. Sometimes it was fishing. Sometimes it was a local store, but for the Wyatts it was boat building. Blake had something in his family I didn’t have—roots.
Even though Aunt Lindy had told me the history of the house and about all of the years her father and uncles had served in the Coast Guard, I still didn’t know where I fit into that.
I picked up the stick and stuffed it in the paper bag from the store. Emily had driven with me off the island to buy the test. The last thing I needed was some nosey neighbor finding out I thought I was pregnant. Aunt Lindy and Blake’s dad would have heard about it before I even had the test results if we hadn’t moved the shopping trip off the island.
Emily had been brave enough to hand the cashier a wad of bills when I thought I’d pass out from the embarrassment.
“Where are you going?” she asked. “Are you ok? You’re looking a little pale.”
“I’m going to tell him.”
“Now?” Her eyes widened and her brunette curls bounced.
“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.