Page 12 of His Bittersweet Regret

“Beth, that’s not fair. I’m angry with him, believe me. There’s a part of me that never wants to see that man again for what he did to me. How he left me – us.” I patted my belly as I said that. “Then there’s the part of me who never stopped loving him. Missing him. I can’t help that. It’s like he died.”

“Only he didn’t. And you know what else? None of his family has bothered to even check on you to make sure you are okay, or they might have noticed that you’re expecting his kid. You claimed that his parents liked you and never pressured him the way his brothers and that toad of a best friend did, but where are they?”

Okay, that hurt. I had expected at least a phone call from Marsh’s mom, telling me how sorry she was that things didn’t work out. When my parents moved away three years ago, she stepped up and became my surrogate mom. I wouldn’t tell Bethany this, but I had been crushed when the first couple of weeks went by and no one reached out to me. After a month, I was despondent. After two months, I wondered what in the hell was wrong with me. Why was I so damned unlovable? Why was it so easy for everyone to simply walk away and leave me behind?

Marsh was the one that left me without so much as a conversation after seven years together, yet everyone rallied around him like he was made of gold and they were waiting to chip a piece off.

“Can we not talk about this? I don’t want to date. I am not ready and there’s no way you can convince me to be ready for that before I have this baby. It’s just not possible. Please, you and Momma Vi are the only people I have to lean on, unless I want to move across the country with my parents. If I do that, my child will never know their father’s family.”

She scoffed. “Your baby probably won’t know them anyway, judging by how little – as in none at all – contact they’ve had with you.” She eyed me again for a moment. “Are you sure Marsh was the one who got the text about you being pregnant?”

“Of course, he was.”

“I never thought I’d see the day where that man could ignore the fact that he had a baby on the way, especially one that was growing in your belly.” Her eyes dropped to my stomach, which was hidden behind another baggy sweater.

“Stop staring,” I whisper-hissed.

“Sorry,” she whisper-yelled back at me. “You know, you don’t have a whole lot longer before baggy clothing isn’t going to cut it. I’m pretty sure people are already speculating about your condition.”

“Let them speculate,” I grumbled. Just as we walked past Dave’s Pizzeria, a group of teenage boys came barreling out of the place and nearly knocked me over.

“Oh, shit! Sorry!” One of them hurried to say as his hands wrapped around my arm and waist to steady me. As soon as I had my feet solidly under me again, I looked up into the bright blue eyes of Marsh’s youngest brother, Ryker. His fingers were splayed around my waist, the one that used to be tiny, but now bulged out in front.

He slowly slid his hand down, as if he was about to remove it, but then he moved it around to the front of my stomach. I watched as his eyes grew wider with the movement, when he realized I hadn’t just eaten my feelings over the past few months.

“Does he know?” He asked quietly.

“I told him.”

“What did he say?”

“He said ‘Goodbye’.” I told Ryker as I slung his hand off my belly. “I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t go blabbing my business to anyone else. It’s humiliating enough that your brother left me the way he did, considering everyone has given me their input on how wise a decision it was on his part. I’d rather not have to hear the town’s thoughts on what a fantastic decision it was for him to abandon our child too.”

I swiped angrily at the tear that fell free without permission. Just as Ryker pulled me in for a hug. When I tried to push away, he held tighter. “Trust me, keep hugging me,” I heard him say.

Just about the same time, I heard my best friend’s strong intake of breath before she came up, and made it a group hug, putting me in the middle of her and the boy I once thought would be my brother-in-law one day.

“He’s somewhere close by, isn’t he?” I whispered into Ry’s ear.

“Please, don’t ask questions. You won’t like the answers, Opal.”

That meant Marsh wasn’t just close by; he was with someone else. I didn’t think it was possible for my heart to break any more than it already had, but I was wrong. Before long, Ryker wasn’t just hugging me, he was holding me up as I sobbed into his shirt. Poor kid would be soaked by the time we were able to move.

“They’re gone,” Bethany said as she released her embrace while drawing comforting circles on my back with her fingers instead. Ryker did not let go of me.

“I’m so sorry that my brother turned out to be an asshole like the rest of them. He was always the one I looked up to, like my hero and shit,” he murmured against my ear. “I can’t even talk to him anymore because I can’t stand the thought of him leaving you behind. You’ve been in my life since I was nine years old, Opal. You were always meant to be my sister.”

“Oh, Ry,” I whimpered against his shoulder, not knowing what else to say.

“I hate him.”

“He’s your brother.”

“No, he’s an asshole.”

“He’s still your brother, Ry.”

“Can I come see you sometime? What about doctor visits? You don’t have anyone. Can I go with you?”

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