Yard Sale

Once again, the room is quiet, everyone seemingly confused—not excluding myself—but knowing something significant is going down.

“Okay,” Briar drawls, yanking a baffled Adrian up by the back of his hoodie. “This is our cue to leave.”

The guy behind Cam moves around him, with a pizza box in one arm, and everyone makes their way up the stairs, except Sutton, who hangs back for a minute.

“I didn’t know,” she says, sincerely, her eyes begging me to believe her. “I swear.”

“It’s okay,” I tell her, because this moment has been a long time coming. It might be a bit more dramatic than I’d have liked it to be, but it needs to happen nonetheless.

Once we’re left alone, Cam kicks the door closed behind him and walks to the fridge, helping himself to a beer. Weirdly, I wonder how close of friends he is with these people. Obviously comfortable enough to walk in without knocking and raid Dare’s fridge. What are the odds? And why me?

“I wanted to tell you,” I say again, not having any idea where to start.

“I don’t think there’s anything to say, really,” he says with a shrug.

My eyebrows cinch together in confusion. “Can you let me explain?”

“What is there to explain? You let me kiss you when you’re pregnant. Now, I’m not the fucking moral police, but that seems a little fucked up to kiss another man when you’re pregnant, even for me. I’m sure your boyfriend super appreciates it.”

What? Is that what he thinks? That it’s Tucker’s?

“Cam—” I try again, but he interrupts me.

“And not only did you hide it from me, but then I walk in to find my friend’s hands all over you. Just how many guys have you let have a piece of that pie, Mollie Mabey?”

I can’t begin to explain the anger that ripples through me in waves. In the short time I’ve spent with him, I’ve seen fun, cocky Cam, I’ve seen moody, guarded Cam, but I’ve never seen this mean side before.

“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” I seethe, walking past him to grab my sweater and stuff off the hook. “Sutton!” I yell. “I’ll be in the car.”

Mollie storms out of the house, slamming the door behind her. Unfuckingbelievable. How did I not notice it before? I think back to the few times I ran into her, and she always had a jacket or a loose shirt to camouflage her stomach. I think about how she always seemed to position her purse in front of her, and how she reacted the way she did in the lobby.

But why? Why did she care what I thought?

Mollie’s friend comes barreling down the stairs after her and stops in front of me, parking her fists on her hips.

“You and Mollie hooked up like four months ago, right?”

I nod my confirmation, as a sinking feeling hits my gut.

“Weird, because she’s four months pregnant,” she says, sarcasm dripping from every word. “Do the math, asshole. It’s yours.”

I stand here, feeling the color drain from my face. And then she’s shoving past me, too, shoulder checking me on her way out.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. The condom. It slipped off inside her, but she said she was on birth control. I remember asking, specifically. And she’s just now telling me? How long would she have waited if I hadn’t found out inadvertently? We never exchanged numbers, but she knows my name. She clearly knows my fucking friends. Tracking me down would be a no-brainer. Would she have told me at all? Would I ever know that I fathered a child? Is this even my kid? So many thoughts bombard me at once, and I drop down onto the bottom step, holding my head in my hands.

I hear someone coming down the stairs a moment later, and then Cord plops down next to me.

“Was she telling the truth?” he asks, probably having eavesdropped on the whole thing.

I blow out a breath, scrubbing a hand over my stubble. “I think so,” I admit. I can’t be sure, and I barely know the girl, but my gut tells me she wouldn’t lie about something like that.

“Then, what the fuck are you doing? Go,” Cordell says, jerking his chin toward the front door. Fuck. He’s right. At the very least, we need to talk.

“You good?” I ask as I stand.

“I’ll get a ride back. I might even crash here tonight.”

I give him a nod, retrieve my forgotten keys from the floor, and then I’m hauling ass through the snow back to The Pines.