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“Your mom won’t kick you out,” Zach says with certainty. “She loves you.”
Chloe offers him a sad smile. “I’m not so sure, but I’m going to do this on my own if I have to. I won’t put it on her anyway.”
“What about the father?” I ask, and Zach cringes.
I have no idea what that’s about, but Chloe rolls her eyes at him. “Oh my God, do not start.” She looks over at me. “He goes to Big Bend.”
My jaw drops, and my eyes widen. “You’re having a Bear’s baby?”
She throws up her hands and then laughs. “You’re both idiots.”
That makes us both grin. Zach shakes his head in mock disappointment. “You could have had a Panther baby, and you chose a Bear.”
She tosses a pillow at him, and he laughs. He walks over to the bed and wraps an arm around her, and all I feel is total awe when it comes to my boyfriend. “We’re here for you. Bear Baby and all.”
She playfully shoves him, but she lets him hug her. “Why though? Honestly, Zach, I was so awful to you.”
“Because you deserve better, and it’s not your fault that you were born in this town, where women are made to believe they need to find a man,” I answer, and I have both of their attention. “You’re strong, Chloe. And you don’t need anyone else to make it. But we’ll be there for you. Okay?”
Her eyes are watery as they meet mine. “Thank you.” She looks at Zach. “Both of you. I’ll never stop regretting how I treated you.”
“You both need to forgive yourselves,” I say before Zach can say just how badly he treated her because the truth is they’ve both made mistakes. But who the hell doesn’t when they’re young?
They smile, and he hugs her to his side. “I’m starving, and I’m not even eating for two,” Zach says as he stands and holds a hand out for her.
She takes it. “Yeah, feed me.”
We all laugh and head out of the camper, walking toward the house when Zach asks, “So which Bear was it?”
She groans and covers her face with one hand. “I only know his first name. Dallas something.”
I scrunch my nose, trying to think, but I don’t know a Dallas. I avoid the Big Bend Bears as much as I can. “You going to tell him?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “I don’t know. It was a drunken mistake. It wasn’t sweet or romantic. We were both drunk out of our minds and barely introduced before we wound up fucking against a tree in the dark night.”
“Hey, nothing wrong with tree-fucking,” Zach says, and I cock my head at him. He barks out a startled laugh. “That didn’t come out right.”
She shoves him and calls him an idiot before we finish the walk to my mom’s house.
It’s so damn weird how life turns out because I’m pretty sure Chloe is our friend now, and all I feel is protective over her too.
THIRTY-THREE
ZACH
We graduated today. I’m so damn happy, I don’t even know how to deal with it. We graduated. High school is over.
My mom didn’t show, which I’m not at all surprised about at this point. How people can make babies and just forget about them is beyond me. But I was surprisingly okay with her not being there today.
I was very happy Elliot wasn’t there. So there’s that. But the Bates family cheered for me just as hard as they cheered for Adam, and I’ve never felt so loved in my life.
Mr. Bates has been showing Adam and me more and more how to run the farm over the past few months. And yesterday, we finished up the house.
It’s done. We’re moving in tonight. We don’t have much to move in. But we’ll grab some stuff, here and there, maybe at some garage sales or something. But all I really need is Adam.
Hell, I’m going to miss our little camper, I think.
“What are you grinning at?” Adam asks as he wraps his big arms around me, and we stand back, looking at the house we built together.
