Page 82 of Stone Rules

By now, some of his friends are walking up behind us. “Zach,” one of them says. “You plan on playing or what, man? We’re down by one and we need you.”

“I’m coming,” he says, turning to me. “Do you mind?” He holds his hand out and I realize I’m still holding the football.

I toss it to him, relieved he’s about to turn away and walk out of our lives as quickly as he walked in.

Then one of his friends has to open his big mouth. “Hey,” he says to Charlie. “You look just like that lady who played Queen something-or-other in that movie.” He turns to another one of their friends. “Trent, doesn’t she look like her?”

The guy who must be Trent stares at Charlie. “Shit. She sure as hell does. It was Queen Dragonia, from that Enchanted Dragon series. When we were kids, my mom watched those videotapes so many times, it wore the damn things out and she had to buy them all on Blu-ray. What was her name?” he asks the other guy.

I can feel Charlie tensing up next to me. Then I see her eyes glaze over. It’s almost hard for me not to smile, because I know she’s thinking of me and the song I played for Cat.

“Catherine? Charlotte? Caroline?” he says.

“Oh, yeah,” Trent says. “Caroline. Caroline Anthony.” He turns to Charlie. “You look just like Caroline Anthony. She must be your mom. Is she your mom? Hey, I heard she died. Sorry about that.” He says something under his breath, but not quietly enough that we don’t all hear it. “Girl must be rich as shit.”

Charlie must have been listening a little, because she looks up at me with that deer-in-headlights look.

“We’d best be going,” I say to them before I pull on her elbow and lead her away.

“Wait,” I hear from behind. And then Zach walks around us, staring at Charlie’s stomach. “Exactly how pregnant are you?”

All of the oxygen is sucked out of the air surrounding me. I feel as if my world is about to crumble and there’s not a goddamn thing I can do about it.Helpless. That’s what I feel.

“That’s a very personal question,” I tell him.

“Maybe,” he says. “But considering ourhistory, I think I have the right to ask.” He puffs himself out and stands tall, expecting a fight from me after those words.

“Let’s go, Charlie,” I say, keeping her behind me.

“How pregnant are you, Charlie?” he yells.

“Dude,” one of his friends says. “What the fuck is it to you?”

Another one, I think it’s Trent, says, “My sister is knocked up. She’s about as big as her. She just found out she’s having a girl with one of those X-ray things. I think she’s like four months or something like that.”

I see Zach try to do the calculation in his head. There is no way he could know when he and Charlie were together. Based on what Melissa told me, he’s with a different girl every night.

Fuck. Based on what Melissa told me, the guy is a scam artist. And all of a sudden it becomes clear to me why he’s so interested.

“We’re leaving,” I tell him. I pull Charlie along quickly, glancing back often to make sure we’re not being followed. We aren’t. But my heart is beating so fast I feel like I just ran a marathon. I also feel like I’ve just been kicked in the gut.

When we’re out of their sight and far enough away, I find a bench and sit my panicked fiancée down on it. “It’s going to be okay, Charlie.”

She shakes her head over and over. “It’s not. He knows. That was never supposed to happen. What if he—”

“No, Charlie. You heard the guy. He doesn’t want kids. What was it he said? He won’t touch them with a ten-foot pole? The guy was just freaked out. He’s probably back there with his buddies saying how he dodged that bullet. I promise you. It’ll be fine.”

Her breaths come so quickly, I fear she’s going to hyperventilate. “Charlie, look at me. Breathe slowly. This is okay. We’re okay. It’s just you and me. Don’t worry about him. He goes through women like toilet paper. He’s a liar. A nobody. He can’t even hold down a decent job.”

She lets out a deep breath, looking at me curiously. “How do you know he’s a liar and can’t hold down a job?”

I don’t answer right away and she gets up off the bench, pacing the sidewalk in front of me. “Of course. You’re a private investigator. It’s what you do. How did you even find him? And why did you keep this from me, Ethan?”

I can see it in her eyes. I can see the trust she’d placed in me weakening. I stand up and stop her from pacing. I put my hands on her shoulders, forcing her to look at me. “The night you told me you were pregnant you gave me enough information to go on. His first name, his friend’s. The name of the club. The fact he had black hair. It took almost two months, but Melissa finally met him and found out his last name. I only know what she told me and what I found on social media. I’m still waiting for the background check to come through.”

“Two months?” she raises her voice at me. “You’ve been trying to find him for two months? When were you planning on telling me?”

“When there was something to tell, Charlie. Christ, I just found out the guy’s name yesterday. Until then, I didn’t know any more than what you told me.”

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