Page 95 of The Goal

In more ways than one, but hey, I’ve got my friends and I’ve got Tucker, which is more than I thought I’d ever have and more than I probably deserve.

But I’ll take it.

25

TUCKER

The kitchen is so silent, I feel like I’m in church. Not that I’ve been to church often. Mom dragged me to a few Sunday sermons when I was a kid, until finally admitting that she’d way rather sleep in on the weekends. I was totally on board with that plan.

But right now, it’s not God and Pastor Dave passing judgment on me—it’s my closest friends.

“Why the hell didn’t you tell us sooner?” Garrett.

“You’re seriously keeping this kid?” Logan.

“Sabrina fucking James?” Dean.

I tighten my grip around my beer bottle and scowl at Dean. I blamehimfor this little powwow. Two seconds after I told him and Allie the news, he’d sent an SOS to Garrett and Logan ordering them to get their asses home. They’d been at the dorms with their girlfriends, and now I feel like a jerk for spoiling their nights.

“Guys, why don’t you let him talk instead of shouting questions at him?” Allie speaks up in a cautious tone.

I can tell she doesn’t want to be here for this, but Dean dragged her into the kitchen with us, latched his hand onto hers, and hasn’t let go since. I don’t get why he’s so pissed about this. It’s not likehe’sthe one about to become a father. And I know for a fact he’s not still into Sabrina, because he looks at Allie like she hung the damn moon. The two of them hit a rocky patch after Beau’s death, but the last couple of months they’ve been disgustingly in love.

“Tuck?” Allie prompts, tucking her blonde hair behind her ear.

I take a terse swig of my beer. “I don’t have much else to say. Sabrina and I are having a kid. End of story.”

“How long have you been seeing her?” Logan demands.

“A while.” Their frowns tell me they don’t like my response, so I add, “Early November.”

Logan looks startled. Garrett doesn’t, which makes me narrow my eyes at him in question.

“I suspected,” he admits.

The other guys swivel their heads toward him in accusation. “What do you mean, you suspected?” Logan echoes.

“It means I suspected.” Garrett glances across the table at me. “Saw you holding her hand at Beau’s memorial.”

When a flash of guilt passes through Dean’s eyes, I know he’s thinking about how he got piss-drunk in his room instead of attending the memorial service for one of his best friends.

Logan turns back to me. “So it’s serious with you two?”

Laughter sputters out. “We’re having a baby. Of course it’s serious.”

Or at least I’m planning for it to be. Sabrina still needs time, though. Time to fully get a handle on this pregnancy stuff. Time to lower her guard and realize she can trust me. Time to lower that guard even more and realize that she loves me. Because I know she does. She’s just too scared to admit or acknowledge it, to me and to herself.

“Why didn’t she get an abortion?”

Dean’s question elicits a gasp from Allie, frowns from the guys, and an angry scowl from me.

“Because we decided to keep it,” I say harshly.

Everyone flinches. I’m pretty sure they’ve never heard me snap at anyone before. Usually I don’t, but Dean is treading dangerously close to I’m-going-to-beat-him-senseless territory. I get that he doesn’t like Sabrina, but he will damn well show her respect, even when she’s not in the room.

“Hey. Let’s relax, okay?” Garrett proves why he’s our team captain by speaking in a calm, pacifying voice.

Though, I realize, he’s not Dean’s captain anymore, because Dean gotkicked off the team back in January. I think failing that drug test was one of the catalysts for his dragging himself back to the land of the sober. That, and Allie.

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