Page 89 of Stuck with my Mountain Daddies

It didn’t.

I took a breath, tried to swallow the lump in my throat, and that was when I saw her.

“Riles?” Lucy’s voice called out from across the lot, confusion quickly turning to concern as she jogged toward me. “What happened? Asher texted and said you were headed to the doctor’s.”

Damn, she looked like a dream. Fresh from a night spent wrapped in happiness. Her cheeks were pink, her hair tousled in a way that had “Nate” written all over it. She lookedloved.

I felt wrecked.

I hoped she didn’t ask mewhyI was with her brothers.

“I’m okay,” I said, even though I clearly wasn’t. “I just got sick.”

She didn’t press, she looped an arm around my shoulders. “Come on. I’ll go in with you.”

I nodded, grateful and ashamed all at once.

Behind me, I could feel her brothers watching. Still.

I didn’t look back.

The clinic felt too bright. Too sterile.

Every fluorescent light overhead buzzed like it was interrogating me, exposing truths I hadn’t said out loud, truths I wasn’t ready to name.

A nurse with kind eyes called my name. I followed her back, Lucy close behind, her hand still warm on my arm.

We moved through a narrow hallway that smelled of antiseptic and quiet dread.

Inside the exam room, I sat on the edge of the table, clinging to it, hoping it might anchor me to something solid. The paper beneath me crinkled with every breath.

The nurse asked her questions gently, but they still hit like blows.

“When was your last period?”

“Have you been under stress?”

“Is there a chance you could be pregnant?”

I laughed. A sharp, brittle sound I didn’t recognize.

She didn’t laugh back.

That was when the shaking started.

I gripped the vinyl cushion beneath me with one hand, the other fisting the hem of my sweater, trying to hold myself together by sheer will.

The clock on the wall ticked like a countdown.

Lucy sat in a plastic chair beside me, her posture stiff, hands knotted in her lap. She hadn’t looked away once.

When the door opened again, I flinched.

The doctor stepped in with a calm expression that only made my stomach drop further. She was bracing me for impact.

She didn’t bother with a lead-in.

“You’re pregnant, Riley.”

---