Page 112 of How to Score Off Field

“Yeah?”

“How are you doin’?”

I should ask that, right? This isn’t all about me and how I was fucked over by my buddy, and this isn’t about her keeping this pregnancy a secret.

“I’m doing better.”

“Like, how did you know?”

“As soon as I didn’t get my period, I knew something was off. Then I took a test or five or a billion. I couldn’t sleep for days. It was pretty bad. I was freaked out.”

“I bet.” Now what do I say? “Grady told me you’d been sick.”

“Morning sickness,” she says. “He didn’t know that’s what it was, though. I hadn’t told him yet.”

“What did he say when you told him?”

“He went ballistic. He’d already been mad about us sleepin’ together, which he figured out on his own. Don’t know how. So the baby thing didn’t go over well.” She pauses. “I always thought he’d support me no matter what, but it turns out, he hasn’t.”

“What about your parents?”

“My mom cried, but honestly, she’s excited. I wasn’t planning on having kids, remember? She sees it as a blessing in disguise.”

“That’s awesome. I’m glad.”

“What about your mom?”

Er.

Uh.

“It’s complicated.”

I can’t come out and say my mother has already demanded a paternity test, lawyers, contracts, nondisclosure agreements, and wants to silence the Donahues with money.

Like, calm down, Mom.

Chill.

Tess isn’t a gold digger. I know it deep in my heart.

Tess is silent. “I imagine that to your family, this would be complicated.”

“It’ll be fine.”I won’t let them come after you…

My brother taps on the glass, shrugging his shoulders and mouthing the words, “Dude, what’s going on?” because the moron never wants to be left out of anything. But I might as well end this phone call while we’re still on good terms.

This is good. Everything is fine.

“I’ll try to get there soon.”

“How soon is soon?”

I worry my bottom lip, going over the calendar in my brain.

“Let’s see, it’s Tuesday? So…I don’t know, like this Friday maybe?”

“Oh, that is soon. I thought maybe you’d try to get here by next month.”

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