Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 68249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“All right,” I said and scooched past my best friend. “Should we talk here? Or would you prefer to sit down? Here being the bathroom door.”
She didn’t laugh. OK, so it’d probably been a lame joke, but Ron usually laughed at any of those I made, partly because she had the same sense of humor as me. Something was seriously wrong.
“My bedroom,” Ron said. “Nessy’s watching Paw Patrol in the living room.”
“Oh god, miss me with that kid’s shit,” I replied, and Ron did crack a smile then. Neither of us were huge fans of any of Nessy’s favorite kids shows, but we could probably recite the main plot line for any given one in our sleep.
I followed Veronica to her bedroom and was pleasantly surprised—it was super clean in here, her sheets neatly made, and her clothes folded on the end of the bed, ready to be packed away. She’d themed the whole room a dusty rose color. It was sweet and girly, but the dumbbells in the corner gave it a tough undertone.
She gestured to the bed, and I walked over to it, smiling at the picture of her and Nessy on the bedside table. She was such a good mother. The fact that she could do this on her own made me feel better about my situation.
If push came to shove and Jax wanted out, at least I was confident it was possible to be in this situation and make good. To bring joy into my son or daughter’s life, no matter the circumstances.
“Seriously, sit down,” Veronica said, and clicked her bedroom door shut.
“OK, sheesh. Relax, Mom.” I plonked down on the mattress, next to her neatly folded clothes, and smiled up at her. Nothing returned. Tough crowd. “OK, so what’s up? Everything OK at work? Oh god, you didn’t get fired, did you? That Jeremy creep hit on you again?” One of the regulars at the restaurant Veronica worked in was a total freak—he hit on her whenever he got the chance, and I’d witnessed it firsthand a couple days ago when I’d gone there to hand in my resume.
“No, nothing like that.” Veronica walked to her dresser, scraped open the top drawer and sighed again. “Before I talk to you, I want you to know that this happened totally by accident, that I didn’t go snooping around or anything like that. I was just—OK, I’m seriously nervous.”
“Now, you’re making me nervous,” I said. “What’s going on, Ron?”
She reached into her dresser, her back to me, and sighed. Finally, she turned to face me. She lifted a stick and held it out. Even from my spot on the bed, I could make out the words:
Pregnant
3+
“Oh,” I managed.
“I found it in the trash in the bathroom, under like a bajillion sheets of tissue paper when I took it out this morning. Riley, is this yours?”
“Yes,” I said.
Veronica held the pregnancy test out at arm’s length. “You’re pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“Oh. My. God.”
“Yes.”
She trembled, and I got up from the bed, hurried over to her and took the stick before she dropped it. “Ron, calm down. You’d swear you were the one who just found out she was pregnant.”
“I—I can’t believe this.”
“And I can’t believe you kept a stick I peed on in your dresser drawer,” I replied, smiling. “But hey, shit happens.” It came out breezy, even though I’d been on edge ever since the night I’d found out. Ever since Jax had turned up on the doorstep and offered me my dream on a platter with strings attached. There would always be strings attached with him—that was just how he operated.
“It’s my brother’s, isn’t it?” Veronica asked.
I took a minute to stall answering that. I walked over to the trash can in the corner and dropped the stick into it. It clanged on the metal bottom—and stay there this time. “Well, given that I haven’t slept with anyone other than him and that it’s highly unlikely that it was an immaculate conception, the answer would be yes.”
“Cole’s baby.”
“Jax,” I corrected. “He changed his name, Ron.” I wouldn’t defend him to her in any other sense, but it was weird for me to hear a different name from her lips, referring to a man I’d been so intimate with in so many ways.
“I can’t—I don’t—I—what? How?”
“I’m not going into detail, if that’s what you’re asking,” I replied.
“Riley, this is unbelievable. I don’t understand how this happened. I mean, I know you’re careful when it comes to this type of thing, you always have been, so how did this even happen?” Veronica’s tone was a little too accusatory for my liking.
“Excuse me?”
“How did it happen?” She repeated and folded her arms across her blouse. “You’re smarter than this, Riley.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said. “Who are you to tell me I’m smarter than this when you’re a single mother yourself? Nessy’s the best thing that’s happened to you.”