I spun around and walked away as I heard her suck in a breath of air.
“Scott…no. Please don’t walk away from me.”
It sounded like she was crying, but I didn’t care. I needed to get away from him…and her. I made my way back into the lobby and into the bar. I saw Lark still talking to the girl who he had followed into the bar.
I walked up to him and smiled at her. “Excuse me. Lark, I’m leaving, and I have no idea how to get back to the house.”
“Oh no, dude. Did you find her?”
I nodded and looked away. “Yeah, can we just head back? I’ll pay you double to take me back to Texas.”
Lark stood up and reached for his wallet. He pulled out some cash and threw it onto the bar as he said his good-byes to the girl.
As we made our way out of the bar, I saw Jessie standing there.
“Scott, please don’t leave me. Please.”
She walked up to me, and as she reached out to touch me, I took a step away from her.
She instantly threw her hands up to her mouth and started crying as she shook her head. “He’s just a friend. Please don’t do this. Please forgive me for running away. Scott, I thought that was you with Chelsea, and I just—”
“So, you know it wasn’t me?” I asked her, watching as the tears rolled down her face.
She nodded.
“Your dad told you?”
She shook her head. “It just finally hit me. It couldn’t have been you because I know you love me too much, and…the more I played it over and over in my head, the more I realized it wasn’t your voice I’d heard calling out after me. I think I knew it all along in my heart. It just took my head a bit longer to catch up.”
“I’ll say, Jessie. It’s been over a month. What about the postcard you sent to your dad? You said you’d met someone.”
She started shaking her head again as she began crying harder. “No…oh god, no. I didn’t mean it like that, Scott. I didn’t mean that I’d found someone else. It’s just…Trey was here because his fiancée had left him at the altar, and we started up a friendship. We both helped each other forget the hurt for a little while.”
I felt the tears burning my eyes, and I did everything I could to hold them back. “How did he help you forget the hurt, Jessie? Did you go for walks along the beach? Or maybe romantic dinners out each night? What about a little bit of dancing under the stars? That should have been you and me, Jessie, not you and him.”
The moment she looked into my eyes, I knew she felt more for this guy than she was admitting. I felt sick when I saw that look on her face. I turned and headed toward the car.
“Scott, stop!”
I kept going, but then Lark grabbed my arm to stop me.
“Dude, if you leave, make sure you know what you’re walking away from.”
I shook my head and went to move again when I heard Jessie trying to say something through her crying.
“Scott, I’m…I’m…pregnant.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. What? Pregnant? Oh. My. God.
My legs started to buckle out from underneath me. Lark reached out and grabbed me as I tried to get my legs to work.
“Scott…oh my god!” Jessie called out.
I felt my legs go out, and Lark slowly let me go down to the ground.
She’s pregnant. With my child or…
Jessie ran up to me and dropped to her knees. “Scott, are you okay?”