He walked into the kitchen and saw me holding the bag of ice over my inner arm. “What happened?”
Dallas spoke up for me. “She was preoccupied by what was in the front yard waiting for you and burned her arm.”
That earned everyone’s attention including Ginny’s. “What’s in the front yard?”
“Nothin’, Ginny. I’m gonna take a shower before supper.”
I was gonna explode before I got him alone to talk about that girl and what she was doin’ here.
Dallas walked up beside me where I sat. “I’m sorry. I hope that didn’t piss you off, but I wanted him to know it was his fault you got burned.”
“No, it was fine and it let him know we’ll be having a little talk as soon as I can get him alone.”
“He’s alone in the bathroom now. Dad doesn’t give a rip if you’re in there with him or not, so I’ll cover with Ginny if you wanna sneak in there to talk to him. There’s no way you’re gonna be able to sit through this meal without dying inside.”
“Won’t he have the door locked?”
“Sista, please. You think we don’t know how to pick locks around here?”
I followed her down the hall and watched her pop the lock on the door with a small screwdriver. “Open sesame.”
The shower was running and I slipped in with the agility of a thief in the night. I locked the door behind me knowing it was of little consequence in this house with all the lock pickers living here.
“Nick?”
“Payton?” He peeked around the shower curtain with shampoo in his hair. “What are you doin’ in here?”
I was standing by the door with my arms crossed. “I’m the one that answered when that girl came to the door, so I know she was wanting to see you. Since she waited in her car for you, I’m guessing she got her wish. What did she want from you?”
He ducked back behind the curtain. “Can we talk about it after supper?”
“No, we can’t because I’m freaking out here.”
“Payton, it’s complicated and I can’t explain the whole story before supper.”
Complicated. I didn’t like the way that sounded. “What is there to explain?”
The shower cut off and he reached for his towel. He got out and started drying off, but I was too terrified about what was happening to even think about looking at his naked body. “Baby, trust me. You don’t want me to start this story if I can’t finish it.”
A long story. That couldn’t be good. I felt like I was gonna puke and I considered telling Nick to move over so I could hover over the commode. I covered my mouth with my hand to convince it not to regurgitate.
“Are you okay”
“Hell, no, Nick! I’m not okay. I just sat in your house for half an hour waiting for you to come home to see a ho you screwed and now you won’t tell me what happened when you talked to her.”
He wasn’t denying he screwed her so she was one of the unidentifiable. “So, you have screwed her?”
He sighed heavily. “She says we did and I don’t have a reason to doubt her.”
“You don’t remember her?”
“No. She said it happened at a party. I remember the party, but I don’t remember her at all.”
“So, why did she come here? What did she want?”
There was a knock at the door and I heard Dallas’ voice on the other side. “Ginny is asking questions and looking for you. I can’t cover for you any longer without her guessing where you’re at.”
I looked at Nick. “We’re not even close to being done with this conversation.”
“I know.”
I opened the door and slipped out into the hall luckily without getting caught by Ginny. After I made my appearance in the kitchen, I resumed my duties but not without an inspection by Ginny. “Let me see your burn.”
“You’re lucky. It’s not gonna be a bad one and should heal nicely if you keep some aloe vera on it.”
Lucky? Is that what we were calling it these days? It sure didn’t feel like it at the moment.
Nick sat next to me at supper and reached for my hand under the table. I pulled it away although that might have been a little unfair to him. I went into this relationship knowing I might eventually run into some of the girls he had been with, but I wasn’t prepared for the way it made me feel. There was nothing he could do to change the past, but I was jealous and at the moment simply felt like being pissed.
I pushed my food around and noticed Nick did the same. That couldn’t be a good sign because he normally ate like a horse.
When everyone finished supper, I helped clear the dishes and clean the kitchen. The closer I was to talking to Nick, the more nervous I became. When I was finished, I walked into the living room and Nick motioned for me to follow him out the front door. He took my hand in his once we were outside and he led me over to the swing on the front porch we had sat on a hundred times.
He turned to face me and took my other hand in his. He squeezed them both. “I love you, Payton.”
The wild look in his eyes frightened me. “There’s something going on, isn’t there?”
He didn’t answer, but he didn’t have to because his face said it all. “You’re scaring me, Nick.”
“That girl says she got pregnant by me that night at the party. She had a baby a month ago and she says it’s mine.”
Sick. I was gonna be sick, like immediately. I jumped from the swing and heaved over the porch railing into the flowerbed. Nick sprung behind me and grabbed my hair as I leaned forward, just the way he had the first night we met.
I heaved up everything in my gut, and then some more, as I heard Nick tell me over and over how sorry he was and how much he loved me. I straightened up when I felt like there couldn’t possibly be anything left in my stomach.
He wiped away the tears rolling down my face as he talked, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying for the roaring in my ears and I recognized it as one of the first signs I usually got when I was going to pass out. “I’ve gotta lie down.”
I dropped down to the concrete porch and propped my legs up on the exterior wall of the house so I could get some blood to my head before I blacked out. I threw my arm over my eyes because I knew I was about to make the ugly cry face. “You told me you always used condoms. Always without fail.”
“I swear I did every single time. Until you.” Nick dropped down beside me and cradled my head in his lap. “Payton, I don’t remember that girl at all. The only thing I have to go on is what she says, so this baby may not even be mine. I told her I wanted to do a DNA test.”