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Chapter 6
Izzie
Shit.
I’m still shaking. It’s even worse than I thought it would be, trying to pretend that I don’t know Brady for who he is—the man who basically killed my sister. The man who brought a huge blessing to my family with Liam’s birth but a huge curse when Lucy died.
How the hell can I keep this up?
I slump down in my desk chair then lean forward to set all my photos upright again.Did he see the resemblance…that Liam is his Mini Me?Probably not.
Somehow, I don’t think his powers of perception are all that finely honed.
I run my fingertip down the photo of me and Lucy at graduation. Thank God he didn’t see that one. I’d need to be more careful.
For a moment I let myself think about what would happen if Brady knew he was Liam’s dad. It could make life pretty easy for Liam—a dad who was a pro football player could give him anything he wanted.
But I promised Lucy.
I touch her face, so carefree and laughing in the photo. “I miss you, Lucy,” I say. “And I’ll keep my promise not to tell Brady about Liam.” Then I giggle. “Although I guess I have to admit, I can see just a little of what you saw in him.”
I find myself thinking about Brady’s eyes, his muscles, and how my skin tingled just from brushing my arm against him. I shake my head.
Stop right there, Izzie, I think to myself. He broke Lucy’s heart, even if he never knew it. He’s bad news.
I sit back in my chair again, swiveling to look out the window and thinking about Lucy. She’d been so happy. I remember the day she told me about Brady Thomas for the first time.
“He’s amazing, Izz,” she told me that day as we sat in Brew Baker’s Café, just off campus. Her eyes had that dreamy look they always got when Lucy was in love, but somehow, this time, they sparkled even more. “Would you believe he’s an orphan like us?”
“That’s a big coincidence,” I said carefully, sipping my mocha. Lucy was always falling madly in love, then falling out of it with a thud a few weeks or months later.
“He was raised by his aunt and uncle,” Lucy continued, then frowned. “But they didn’t treat him so great, not like us with Gigi and Pappy. We were so lucky…” Her voice trailed off.
We both thought about our grandparents—about how warm and loving they’d been, even when they suddenly found themselves with two kids to raise just when they should’ve been thinking about enjoying themselves.
“Anyway,” Lucy continued, “he loves football. No, he, like,livesfor football. He’s an amazing player, and he thinks it’ll be his ticket out of his old life.”
Football. Well, at least that was good. Although Lucy had a weakness for football players in general.
Lucy gazed into her mug with a little secretive smile. “I’m totally in love with him,” she confessed. As if this was something new and different.
“C’mon, Luce,” I said, unable to help myself. “If I had a buck for every time I’ve heard you say that, I’d be friggin’ rich.”
“It’s different this time,” she said quietly. “Really different. Real love.” Then she giggled again. “I’ve pretty much been living in his room.”
“Oh my God, Lucy, you’ve been havingsex?” I said in a mock-horrified voice.
Heads turned to look at us, and Lucy turned bright red. But then we both collapsed into giggles.
“Well, I hope he’s good,” I said, and Lucy quirked her eyebrow and grinned.
I shake my head, gazing at the photo of Liam on my desk. My mind drifts, moving forward to a month later as Lucy’s sitting on her dorm room bed, wringing her hands, her face anxious.
“Look at it for me, Izzie,” she said, handing me the stick from the home pregnancy test. I take it from her with finicky fingertips—ewww—and look.
“How does this thing work?” I say, twisting the plastic stick.
“A plus or a minus. Plus yes. Minus, no.”
