Ethan and Ava (Redwood Falls 4)

God, she was so beautiful—her eyes were even more beautiful than usual. He loved her so much. Did she know that he'd die without her? And as crazy as it seemed, because he'd only known for sure for a few hours, he was beginning to think he'd die without their baby, too. "I love you, you know that."

"Yeah," she nodded, holding his gaze with tears swimming in her eyes. "And that's the only thing keeping me sane at the moment."

"I'm only a phone call away."

Her mouth quivered as she nodded her head again, mouthing the words, "I love you, too."

He kissed her gently on the lips and searched her eyes once again. He tried with everything he had to make her smile. He clasped her left hand and raised it to his lips, then placed it against his chest. "There's going to come a day when I put a wedding ring on your finger. You're going to be crazy-happy—I'm going to make damn sure of that." Reaching down, he placed his hand on her stomach and tried out a smile himself. "And there's going to be this little guy, holding our hands while he skips along between us." He paused a moment, while her eyes clung to his as if he were her only savior in a world gone crazy. "And it's going to be so fucking perfect that one kid won't be enough. Three. I think we should have at least three, what do you think?"

Just as he'd meant them to do, her lips lifted into a smile, even if it was only half-heartedly. "Three sounds nice."

Ethan kissed her on the forehead. "Don't worry about anything. Just rest, babe. Ty will be here, and he'll keep your parents away. I'm going to figure this out, Ava—I promise."

Making a grab for his hands, she asked, "How? How are you going to figure it out?" Her voice broke. "I'm so embarrassed about my parents, humiliated even. Your parents were perfect! I'm ashamed of my mom right now. I know she loves me, but I'm ashamed about the way she's acting."

Ethan wanted to strangle the older woman so badly he almost couldn't think straight. "Don't worry about her. They can't make you do something you don't want to do." He slid his hands to her shoulders and searched her eyes. "I'm going to get a job—a real job, full-time."

"You can't do that!" she exclaimed with horror.

"Baby, I have no other choice. I've got to be able to support you and the baby. It's going to be expensive. We need a place to live—"

She interrupted again with a shake of her head. "No, Ethan. No! You have to go to school as planned—you can't give up your scholarship! You just can't. You have to have that degree, you have to have it for our future. Not going to college can't be an option."

"I can't leave you here by yourself," he argued, remembering the malice that bled from her mother. "Maybe you can come with me?"

"Where would we live? I can't drop out of school. I have to have my diploma."

"You can enroll in school and finish there."

She let out a sigh of frustration. "They won't let me go, I can tell you that right now."

"They can't hold you prisoner forever. They can't make you give the baby away—I'm pretty damn sure that as the father, I have rights. The worst-case scenario is we get married on your birthday, but I know waiting 'til April won't be easy. But understand me, Ava. Nobody is getting rid of our baby, okay? And nobody, nobody on this planet will ever be able to keep me away from you."

"Promise," she whispered, biting into her lip.

"I promise," he answered as firmly as he could manage.

As her eyes filled with tears yet again, the hardest thing Ethan had ever done in his life was to kiss her one more time before turning and walking out the door.

****

Ava cried the rest of the day after locking herself in her bedroom. She slept very little that night. When she did manage to sleep, crazy dreams kept creeping in and taking over her subconscious. One minute she and Ethan were married, living in the house next door to her parents and her mother was holding the baby and kissing its forehead.

The next dream was nothing but a nightmare. Against her will, she was strapped on a gurney and a needle was being inserted into her vein while she screamed at the top of her lungs for Ethan, but he never came.

It went like that back and forth in her dreams, all night long.

She woke up completely ravaged the next day—and still pregnant. So, unfortunately, not all of it had been a dream. Hannah came over (at Ethan's request, God love him) and her friend stoically listened to her, held her as she cried even more, and did everything she could to make Ava feel better.

One thing Ava loved so much about Hannah was that her friend didn't have a judgmental bone in her body. Although Ava knew, she just knew, that Josh and Hannah weren't sexually active yet, her friend in no way judged her for what she and Ethan had done, or how they'd screwed up so royally. Hannah was a true friend and Ava would love her for it, always.

With the way her mother was acting, you'd think that she and Ethan had committed mass-murder. Her mom was inconsolable and she made everything about her and what they'd done to her. She'd laid down the law immediately. Ava had to agree to give the baby up for adoption or she wouldn't allow her to see Ethan anymore. Ava felt like she had no other choice than to let her mother think she was winning. After all, the baby was safely tucked away in her belly for now. Later on, she'd take on her parents, their church, the entire town, and the whole freaking world if she had to. Nobody was taking their baby away from them.

Over the next five days, Ava saw Ethan only sporadically. Their communication was via cell phone, both text and talking. She'd really worried about him for several days. He was taking the brunt of the responsibility on his shoulders and it had taken everything she had to convince him he had to stick to his plan. He had to leave for school, play football, and get his degree. Thank God Ty and Josh had her back on this. They agreed completely and all but forced Ethan to stick to his original plan.

Although it had gone against what he thought was right, he'd given in, and a very short five days after they'd broken the news to their parents, Ethan left for college. Although she'd desperately wanted to go to help and see where he'd be living, her mother hadn't let her go, but Ty had gone and so had Ethan's parents. And guess what? Ty was suddenly turning into a real human being, a stand-up brother. He'd taken tons of pictures of Ethan and his dorm and texted them to her. Funny pictures, silly pictures of him and Ethan and of Ethan's parents. The pictures had made Ava laugh at a time when her eyes were still so sore from crying that they literally ached.

As the days slipped away, more symptoms of her pregnancy began to make an appearance. Her breasts became even fuller and they ached so bad it wasn't funny. And wouldn't you know it? Just about the time that school started, she started having morning sickness. Starting what was now her senior year, simply sucked pure shit. She was sick in the mornings, vomiting violently. She barely made it to school on time and the second she arrived she'd make her way to the girl's restroom and lock herself inside a stall. And there, she'd be ill again.

She was so sick and so tired that she didn't understand how women knowingly be

came pregnant a second time. How could a woman willingly put herself through the hell she was going through?

She knew she wasn't easy to be around. She was thankful every day that she had Hannah to lean on. Her own mother was no help; the woman was still so angry that the last thing Ava wanted to do was lean on her emotionally.

But Hannah was fantastic and she had her own car. With Ava's parents at work, Hannah usually offered to take Ava to her home, the Bar M Ranch, for a few hours just to get away from everything. And Ava appreciated the respite from her own house more than she could believe.

Her mother knew where Ava went most days after school, and she seemed ready to let Ava hang out with her friend, as long as it was at Hannah's house and not in town, where someone, God forbid, might find out that Ava was pregnant. That was fine with Ava. She didn't want to be in town at all. Just getting through the school day was horrible. She was so ill, so tired and weak, that all she wanted to do was curl up in a bed somewhere. And when she wasn't forced to be at home or at school, since she couldn't be with Ethan, the place she craved was Hannah's house.

Mrs. McIntyre was a godsend. Ava had no idea why Hannah had been blessed with such an awesome mom when hers basically sucked under pressure, but thankfully, Mrs. McIntyre seemed to have no problem spreading her love around. No wonder Mr. McIntyre adored her.

And Ava had no problem accepting that love; she desperately needed it. The more time she spent at Hannah's house, the more she wanted to live there semi-permanently. The McIntyre family seemed to know exactly what she needed, and for the time being, at least, they'd made it clear that the guestroom was hers. She began staying there most weekends.

The guestroom had an attached bathroom, which was a huge treat for Ava. Her house was very modest, but Hannah's house was amazing. Ava could take naps in peace, and she could use the private facilities when she wasn't feeling well without her own mother standing over her to castigate her with vicious declarations for her stupidity.