Page 21 of Upon an April Night

Mom took her hand and squeezed. “I love you, and I’d love to think you came home because you wanted my advice on the situation, but that’s not why you came here, is it?”

Jamie looked at her curiously.

“You left because you feel guilty.”

Nerves churned her stomach. “That’s crazy. Why would I feel guilty?”

Mom looked down her nose at Jamie. “You’re my daughter, and I know you. You left because of what Shannon said to you.”

“I didn’t … I just …”

“You couldn’t go through with ending the pregnancy in the same town as the baby’s father and aunt, especially after she said she’d adopt the baby.”

There was never any use in hiding the truth from her mother. She always figured it out with her amazing mom powers.

Yet another reason the idea of motherhood freaked her out. She just knew she’d be a horrible mother, never able to live up to the attentive, encouraging, supportive stay-at-home mom she’d been blessed with. Jamie was a young entrepreneur, busy all the time with her photography business. Her full focus could never be on a child, not like the child would need anyway.

“You’re right, Mom.”

“I love you, and I will support you, whatever you decide,” Mom said.

“You have no idea how much—”

“But I don’t agree with it.”

Jamie looked over at her. “I thought you supported a woman’s right to choose.”

Mom shrugged her shoulders. “I’m seeing things through different eyes these days. And it feels different when it’s my baby having a baby.”

“Mom.” Jamie’s heart ached again.

“And I don’t think you should do it without telling Duncan.”

Jamie’s mouth fell open a little.

“If you care about him like you say you do, if you want him to stay in your life, keeping this from him is the wrong decision. Even if he’s angry with your choice, not telling him at all is worse.” Mom patted her on the knee and stood. “And that’s all I’m going to say about that.”

Jamie watched as her mother disappeared into the house, the screen door closing with a bang. There were plenty of times growing up that she’d hated her mother’s blunt honesty and wished for one of those moms who put a cherry on top of every situation. Instead of “Everything will work out for the best” or “Don’t worry, be happy,” she got the hard truth.

Someone said something bad about you at school? That’s life. Kids can be mean sometimes. Not everybody’s going to like you.

Didn’t make the team like you wanted? Sorry, them’s the breaks.

The boy you like asked another girl to the dance? You can’t win ‘em all.

But she knew Mom’s tough love was what she needed right now. She couldn’t see the situation clearly, because she was too close to it. And thinking about Mom’s advice had all kinds of questions running through her mind.

How would Duncan react if he learned I was pregnant? What if Shannon already told him? She wouldn’t do that, would she? Maybe she would now that she realized I left town.

What if I ended the pregnancy and went home and he was there, waiting to talk about the baby, thinking I was still pregnant? What would I tell him then? Would he hate me?

Or what if … what if I kept it and went home to tell him, and he said he and Dréa would raise it together?

That thought made her sick to the stomach, so much that she jumped up and hurled over the edge of the porch into the hedges.

She groaned as she wiped her mouth and wandered around the house to turn on the spigot and hose down the mess she’d made. As she tugged the hose around the front of the house, aimed, and squeezed the handle, the weight of a hand on her shoulder startled her. She abruptly spun around, still gripping the sprayer, accidentally soaking her childhood best friend, Pam.

“Oh my gosh!” Jamie fumbled to let go of the hose, tossing it away from them as if it had morphed into a snake. “Pammy!” She threw her arms around her wet friend.

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