Page 91 of Stuck with my Mountain Daddies

“Okay,” she said. “I’m going to get some work done at The Brewed Bean. But call me if you need me.”

She waited a beat longer, then crossed the space between us and pressed a kiss to the top of my head. Her hand lingered on my shoulder for a second, grounding me again like only she could.

Then she was gone. And I was alone.

The silence after the door clicked shut felt louder than anything.

I sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the floor. My coat was still on. My shoes, too.

Pregnant.

I whispered the word aloud, only to see how it sounded in the air instead of just in my head.

It didn’t sound real. It sounded like it belonged to someone else.

I pressed a hand to my stomach. There was nothing to feel. No sign. No proof. Only that word, floating in the space between me and whatever came next.

I lay back slowly, curling toward the wall, pulling the blanket over me as if it could protect me from the weight of it all.

But it didn’t. Nothing could.

I was in shock.

So much shock that I did something Ineverthought I would.

I picked up my phone and called my parents.

My thumb hovered over the screen for a full minute before I finally pressed the button.

A part of me hoped it would go to voicemail. But of course, it didn’t.

“Riley.” My mother’s voice was crisp and surprised. “This is unexpected.”

Of course it was.

“I…” My voice cracked. I swallowed, tried again. “I didn’t know who else to call.”

There was a pause on her end. I could hear the faint clinking of glass and the low hum of music in the background.

Some kind of event, probably. They were always at some event.

Then she sighed. I was already exhausting her. “Are you in troubleagain?”

That word,again, landed like a slap. All the years I’d spent trying to build something for myself, something real, and that one word reduced it all to a mistake I hadn’t even made yet.

“I’m pregnant,” I said.

The silence that followed hollowed me out.

Then, measured and flat: “Is it that horrible gym boy’s baby?”

Huh?Who was she even talking about?

She really had no idea about my life, did she?

“No,” I whispered. “It’s not.”

Another pause. I heard my father’s voice in the background, impatiently asking who was on the phone.

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