Page 4 of Wistful Whispers

Jake doesn’t push but instead pulls onto the road and takes us back to Fellside. I have a small cottage on the outskirts andit shouldn’t take us more than twenty minutes to get there. Especially not this late in the evening.

It’s pitch black and there are no streetlamps along the country road winding along the lake. Windermere is somewhere out there to my left but in the dark I can’t see the water's edge. I’m lost in my thoughts but Jake just lets me be. He’s good in reading me and he knows when I need to be quiet or when I want to talk. That’s one of the many things that makes him my best friend.

Eventually he turns into a small side road and parks on my drive.

“Okay, let me get changed and then I’ll tell you everything,” I suggest when I push open the door to my cottage.

“Sure. Want me to make a cuppa?” he asks.

“Oh, please!” I reply and head to my bedroom. I’m tempted to take a quick shower but that might test Jake’s patience to the max if I’ll do that. Instead, I just quickly change into my grey tracksuit bottoms and a fluffy hoody and tie back my blonde bob.

“Here you go,” Jake pushes a mug across the breakfast bar to me. I stir the tea absentmindedly. Jake’s eyes are on me but I avoid his gaze.

Go on. Tell him what an idiot you’ve been. Tell him.

“Hannah, what’s going on? You’re scaring me,” he sighs as he takes a seat on the stool across the breakfast bar.

I take a deep breath. And another one.I can do this. I look up and lock eyes with him.

“I’m pregnant.”

Chapter 2

Jake

For a second mymind goes blank.

“You’re—” I swallow hard. Hannah’s grey-blue eyes are on me and I detect fear in them, a lot of fear.

“I’m pregnant,” she whispers and wells up. The first few tears roll over her red cheeks. She rubs them away, smudging her mascara.

“Here—” I grab a piece of kitchen towel from the counter and hold it out to her. She takes it from me with shaking hands.

“Hey, come here,” I pull her gently into my arms. I can’t see her sad. I would do anything to make her smile again whenever she’s sad. She presses her face into my chest and I gently rub her back.

“Please don’t judge me,” she mumbles.Is that what she’s worried about?I pull back and make her look at me.

“Why would I judge you?”

“Because I’m a forty-year-old woman and I’m stupid enough to get pregnant from a one-night-stand,” she sniffles.

“Hanny-bee, I would never think you’re stupid. Things happen in life that we can’t control.”

“I always use a condom,” she sobs.

“Not always a guarantee.” I’m not really helping here.

“What am I going to do, Jake?” She looks at me with these big, worried eyes again. “I don’t even know the guy. I met him when I went to London at the beginning of August.” I remember it clearly. It was one of these girls’ nights out she enjoys occasionally. I hate them because I don’t trust any of the wankers she meets, but she’s a grown woman and it’s not for me to stop her or judge her. And I’m not really in a position to judge given that I’ve had plenty of one-night-stands myself in the past. Hannah and I are not relationship people.

“What do you want to do?” I can’t make this decision for her.

“I don’t know,” she slumps back onto the little bar stool and takes a sip from her mug.

I pull my stool to Hannah's side of the breakfast bar. It scrapes on the floor as I drag it closer before taking a seat.

“I think I want to keep it,” she finally whispers. An image of Hannah with a small baby flashes though my mind and I’m surprised at the feelings that thought causes. Warm feelings, happy feelings.

“Why are you smiling?” she asks.

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