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“I called Fletcher.”
“What? He isn’t coming here, is he?” I struggled up. My head still hurt, but it didn’t throb like before. It had relegated itself to a dull ache on the left side.
“I don’t know. I left a message.”
Thank God I hadn’t called Julian last night like I wanted to before sleep reclaimed me. The thought of him and Fletcher meeting over my bedside made me feel faint with horror. “Call him back and tell him not to come,” I begged.
A frown tugged at my mom’s lips. “I thought you two were getting closer.”
I thought about the bomb I’d planted in his plans. Earlier in the week, he’d called to tell me that the pitch deck was on its way to Callum. I was expecting the explosion any day now. “We’ll never be close, Mom.”
I could tell she didn’t know how to feel about that. On one hand, she’d told me from the beginning that I could have as much time with him as I wanted, or none at all. On the other, she knew how much it had hurt when he was the one who wanted none at all. Without knowing the dark underpinnings of our deal, she’d been happy when I told her he’d helped me get a job. Hoped it meant we were in a new phase.
And we were, but not the kind of phase she thought.
I had to get out of here.
My mom went down to grab a snack and call Fletcher back. I sat with my phone in my hands–it came through the accident completely unscathed–trying to decide what to tell Julian. I couldn’t tell him where I was and risk him running into Fletcher, but I didn’t want to lie to him either. He’d sent increasingly tense messages.
Miller keeping you late?
Hey, everything okay?
Laurier, I’m getting worried over here. Call me back.
I couldn’t call him. Much as I wanted to hear his voice, I knew I didn’t sound like myself yet. Finally, I settled for texting him back.
I’m fine–will explain everything tonight.
Surely, they’d let me leave soon. I had a headache, but otherwise I felt totally fine.
My mom came back a few minutes later, followed by the doctor. Doctor Girardi was a tall woman with flawless skin and a friendly smile. I relaxed. She wouldn’t be smiling at me like that if everything wasn’t fine, right?
“Can I leave?” I asked her the second that introductions were over. She laughed and said I had to wait on the results of a few tests. They’d check my vision again. They’d make sure my brain wasn’t swelling, that my pupils weren’t dilating. “Once we’re sure you’re both fine, I’ll sign those discharge papers,” she said, patting my leg cheerfully.
I looked at my mom, confused. Did the doctor think that we’d both been in an accident?
My mom shrugged back at me, equally uncertain.
The doctor looked back and forth between us, and then said, “Oh.”
“Oh what?” I asked the doctor, then I looked at my mom again. “Ohwhat?”
They looked at each other. I saw the question in my mom’s eyes, the answer in the doctor’s. And then they both turned to me, but I knew before anyone said anything out loud.
Despite my best intentions, history had repeated itself after all.
I was pregnant.
26
JULIAN
When Willow was late, I blamed Miller. Then, as the clock creeped up on eleven, I got worried. I called her again, then tried to think of someone else to call. That was the problem with doing this relationship Willow’s way though, I didn’t have anyone else to call. If Camper had had a phone, I might have had his number, but I had no way to get in touch with her parents or her friends. I could call Miller, though, and when midnight came and went without her, I did.
I woke him up.
“You’re not working?” I asked to his groggy, disbelievingwhat the fuck, Lewis?
