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She’d come upstairs when they’d gotten home, exhausted and ready to sleep. She’d showered, taking her time, letting the warm water relax her tense muscles. It’d been a day. They’dseen so many kids. The male-to-female ratio was staggering, but they were seeing students from both St. Leasing and the public schools in town. St. Leasing was all boys. Although boys didn’t really seem accurate. The teens they’d seen from the private school seemed older than the public school teenagers, more muscularand confident.They had a different presence about them she couldn’t put her finger on.She’dassumedtheSt. Leasing kidsmovedback to their homes for the summer, but apparently that wasn’t always the case. A few of them chose to stay on campus, for various reasons.
She’d blushed when the first one had dropped his shorts. Before assisting Maddi at the clinic, she’d seen two penises in her entire life. Now? She’d seen dozens upon dozens. At least she was desensitized by this point. The naked male form would no longer cause her any shyness.
When she stepped out of the bathroom, steamescapedfrom the open doorway.Jasper was lying on her bedandwas playing some game on his phone, the music lowered to a quiet hum. She was glad he was here.
She shouldn’t be.
She’d promised herself she wouldn’t come to rely on him. Sheknew it would only make things harder in the end. They couldn’t hide in Haxton forever. Soon they’d go back to Greenly. Soon she’d live on her own, with their child to take care of. No one would be holding her through the night, drying her tears.
Soon, that would be her job as a mother.
“You don’t need to sleep in here.” She pulled her towel tighter, going into the closet to change into her pajamas. He’d seen her naked, but this wasn’t that.
“I know I don’t need to.I want to.”
She climbed on the bed and folded her hands in her lap, her legs tucked underneath her. “Eventually, we won’t be living together, you know? And I don’t want to get used to having someone with me all the time. Because I won’t. After the baby comes and we figure out a schedule and—”
“Callie, slow down.” He moved beside her, taking her face in his hands. “One step, one day at a time. Right now,we’resleeping across the hall from each other.I like to know you two are safe and sound. We can cross all the other scary bridges when we get to them, okay?”
She nodded, lying down and getting comfortable. “In that case, can you rub my back again?” Herrequest wassoftandtimid. Sheknew she shouldn’t ask that of him. She’d lectured him about her relying on him, and she was instantly doing it again.
“Chest down, ass out.” He clapped his hands together, chuckling at his own joke as he began to rub her lower back and her hips. “Your bones are softening or some shit, that’s why everything aches right now.”
“Ass out.” She hummed disapprovingly under her breath. “Nice.”
“I made your first doctor’s appointment today.I added it to Maddi’s calendar so she knows that I’ll be coming to get you Wednesday.”
She hummed again, this time blissed out and incapable of words.
“Are you okay with telling the rest of my family? I know Linc sort of made it sound like we didn’t have another choice, but we sure as fuck do.”
Maddi and Linc had been kind and supportive, even a little excited. She didn’t realize how nervous she’d been about people finding out until they’d been so great about it. In theory, she knew Jace, Riley, Axie and Blake all knew, but none of them attempted to talk about it with her. “Do you think everyone will be as cool as Linc and Maddi?”
“Giveortake.” They turned to face each other, the light from the bathroom shining between them. “No one is going to be an asshole about it. But they’ll all have questions and shit.”
“Like where we’re going to live, how we’re going to afford childcare, how we’ll finish school, how we’ll split custody, how—”
“Yeah, Callie. Questions like that.” Jasper had reached over and gently placed his palm on her mouth to cut off herrant. “You’re like barely pregnant. We don’t need to have all the answers tomorrow, remember?”
She nipped at his hand, not sure why she felt playful when her life choices were literally hanging over her head like gleaming knives. “I don’t want to quit school, but I know I’ll need topostponeit for a bit.” She sighed, already exhausted at the thought of trying to raise a baby and make the Dean’s List. She was going to live off coffee, a wing, and prayer.
“I have lots of money.” He chuckled when she snorted at his admission. “I’m not trying to sound like a douche, it’s a fact, okay?” She rolled her eyes and he laughed louder. “What I meant to say was, I don’t want you to have topostponeyour degree. I’ll happily pay for childcare while we finish college.” He tickled her ribs. “That sound better?”
“A little.” She rested her cheek on the back of her hands. “But I want things to be equal.”
“They will be,” heassured her, his fingers dancing up her bare arm to ruffle her hair. “I don’t got the boobs or the vag. Let me pay for childcare as an apology for what my kid is going to do to your banging body.”
She giggled, despite herself, her cheeks heating at histeasing. “Sometimes, I think we’re going to be okay.” And sometimes she was utterly terrified. It’d been a crazy few weeks full ofemotional upheavalsand changes. She was surrounded by strangerswhowere becoming friends.Everynight,she sleptnext to a gorgeous boy who wasquicklybecoming a man.
“Sometimes, I do too, Callie baby.” He heldouthis arm, and for some reason she didn’t hesitate. She let him pull her close.
Shebreathed in his scent and closed her eyes, falling asleep with a soft smile on her face.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jasper
Jace complained about having the whole pack over, about having his fortress invadedyet again. It happened every time. He’d act put out, but then he’d spend seven hours preparing a meal that belonged in a fancy restaurant. Case in point, he had in fact roasted a whole-ass chickenthe size of a turkey.Then he’d gone above and beyond, pairing it with a salad course, homemade sourdough rolls, and some sort ofherbedwild rice.
