Page 94 of Best Man
“I know, Paulie,” Piper whispered. “I’m sure it’s completely frightening. But listen, I’m here for you,always. Understand?”
Paulina sniffled and nodded her head.
“And hey, the silver lining? We’ll both go through this process together,” Piper said, stroking her sister’s hair. “We can support each other. You won’t be alone.”
“But I will be alone,” Paulina said, “because he won’t want to be with me anymore.”
Piper gasped, appalled. “Paulie! How can you say that? You don’t know that!”
“We’ve been long-distance dating forsix weeks.You really think he wanted to have a baby with me already?”
Even Piper had to admit, “Well, no, I doubt he was ready for that. But—”
Still struggling to come to terms with this news, Paulina was jerked right back into denial. “Wait. Maybe it was a false positive? I mean, how could I bepregnant?! I’m on the pill! It doesn’t make sense! The pill is ninety-nine percent accurate, right?”
Piper spoke slowly and carefully as the voice of reason. “Well, yes, ninety-nine percent effective with perfect use. Which means one woman out of a hundred will still get pregnant. If useisn’tperfect, though, that number drops down to about ninety percent. Ten percent isn’t a huge chance, but it’s still way bigger than zero.”
“Yeah, but I almostnevermiss a pill,” Paulina said.
“Maybe not …” Piper trailed off. “But remember. The morning of the wedding. Youdidpuke that morning’s pill up in my toilet, did you not?”
“Oh my God.” Paulina gulped. “You’re right. I did. I didn’t eventhinkof that. Holy shit.”
“And then later that night, you had unprotected sex.”
“And he came inside me, too,” Paulina said, slapping her forehead as reality struck a second time. “Holy shit, Pip. I might actually be pregnant.”
Piper nodded. “Yeah, um, I think you might be.”
“Wait. I’ve been taking birth control pills this whole time,” Paulina said gravely. “Is the baby even going to be okay or did I mess it up?!” She picked up her phone and frantically started googling her question, but Piper already had the answer.
“I researched this a few months back when I was curious about the same thing,” she said. “First of all, it happens far more often than you’d think, since almost half of all pregnancies aren’t planned.”
“But will it mess the baby up, Pip?”
Piper shook her head. “There’s no link to suggest any major risk for birth abnormalities. But you should stop taking the pill from here on out.”
Paulina breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay. I will. Hopefully, it’ll be healthy.” With that concern out of the way, she was flung right back into depression. “But even so, Sasha won’t want anything to do with this baby—”
“You shush.” Piper had heard enough, and now she spoke with a firm voice. “Listen to me. Helovesyou, Paulie. He does. It’s so, so obvious—not just to me, but to the other girls, to Jax, and to all the boys on the team, too. When you see him again, trust me, your worries will melt away because you’ll know it in your heart—what you have together is real. I’m telling you, I think he’ll surprise you. I think he’ll welcome this.”
“But what if he doesn’t?”
“If he doesn’t …” Piper trailed off with a heavy sigh. “Then you take his ass to family court and make sure you get the support you need.”
“I don’t want that!” Paulina whimpered. She was on the verge of tears. “I wanthim!Not his money!”
“I know. I don’t want that, either. I want Sasha to be one proud papa. I want him to be the world’s greatest dad. But all I’m saying is, if the absolute worst-case scenario happens and Niko turns into a world-class douchebag on you—just remember: you’re still going to be taken care of. No matter what. And Jax and I will be here to help you every step of the way. Okay?”
“Okay … thank you …” she managed in a meager voice.
“I know this is a lot to process right now,” Piper said gently, “but you should probably see a doctor ASAP to get tested and make sure everything’s fine. Do you want me to call my doctor and get you an appointment?”
Paulina nodded. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”
Piper fetched her phone and made a call. Paulina listened in as she arranged an appointment in a half-hour. Everything was happening so fast … everything was changing so quickly. But that was her reality now.
Piper hung up. “She can jam you in if we leave right now. We can grab breakfast on the way.”
