Page 5 of Needing You

“I told the Walkers I might be late to Sunday dinner, but it’s fine. What’s going on?” Ellie asked. Her compassionate nurse’s voice was so heavy in her tone that she may as well have asked me where it hurt.

My head.

My heart.

Everywhere.

“I don’t even know where to start,” I admitted.

“How about the beginning?” April suggested.

When I winced, Ellie wrinkled her nose. “Or maybe just the subject, if that’s easier? We’re totally in the dark, but we want to help if we can.”

“Is it something about Jackson? Is he okay?” April asked.

“He’s fine,” I said quickly. “But yes. It’s about Jackson. He’s… um. Well, you know how I said I was only fifteen when I had him, and his father was a bad boy my parents disapproved of?”

They nodded but didn’t speak.

“Well, you know him. The father, I mean.” I took a deep breath, not intending to drag this out any longer. Better to rip off the Band-Aid. But before I did, I looked around the sparsely populated patio and kept my voice low, leaning forward so they could hear me without the whole town finding out in two seconds flat. “Jackson’s father is Will Walker.”

My confession was met with stunned silence from my friends. I waited, allowing them to process what I’d said. It was more than shocking, I knew. I’d been friends with these women for months now, and even though we’d grown quite close, I’d never once hinted that they knew my son’s father. Even worse, April’s family had a long-standing rivalry with the Walkers—not that she took part in it or anything, and Ellie was engaged to Will’s brother Jake.

Which meant…

“That would mean he’s Jake’s nephew,” Ellie whispered. Then her eyes flared. “And, I guess, mine too, after the wedding.”

I licked my lips, barely managing to nod. I didn’t try to speak, though. I wasn’t sure what would come out.

Ellie leaned back in her chair with a disbelieving shake of her head. “Wow.”

April clicked her tongue. “Wowis right.”

“I’m so sorry,” I blurted, my eyes stinging with unshed tears.

I hadn’t owed them an explanation or anything, and it wasn’t as if I’d have led with my deepest, darkest secret as soon as we’d met. My priority has always been to protect my son. But guilt still rained down on me. These two women had quickly become the best friends I’d ever had, and I’d lied to them like I’d lied to everyone else for Jackson’s entire life. I hated it.

“I’m gonna need a minute,” Ellie said in a clipped tone, letting her head fall against the back of the chair. Then she lifted it again. “Wait, who knows about this? You’re not going to ask me not to tell Jake, are you?”

I grimaced. “Do you think you could give me a chance to tell Will first?” When she scowled, I held up a hand. “If not, can you at least ask Jake to let me tell Will myself?”

Ellie let out a ragged breath and nodded, crossing her arms over her chest. “Okay, I’m sorry. I’m a little caught off guard here. Why wouldn’t you tell Will that he has a son?”

The thinly veiled disgust in her gaze felt like a knife to the chest, but at the same time, I saw it for what it was. Protectiveness. Fierce, unrelenting protectiveness over the family she loved so much. She’d grown up alongside the Walker kids, and Jenna Walker had always treated her like one of her own. I even remembered hearing about Ellie when I was with Will as a teenager. He’d been fairly certain the girl-next-door would one day marry his younger brother, and lo and behold, he’d been right.

“I guess now would be a good time to start at the beginning,” April said in a small voice, glancing between Ellie and me with a wary expression.

I felt like crap for breaking up our little girl gang with my explosive news, but hopefully once they heard my side of the story, they’d be able to forgive me for all the lies. Lies of omission, of course. But lies, nonetheless.

With a deep breath, I launched into my story about how Will and I had met at a party I’d snuck out of the house to go to. I hadn’t even liked the friends I’d gone with, but I’d been so desperate to rebel against my parents that I went anyway.

Will had stepped in, like a knight in shining armor, when a guy I didn’t know tried to convince me to go into a back bedroom together. I’d been so scared, so inexperienced and naïve, and he’d been … well, I was wrong about him being a knight in shining armor. He was a dark knight. Dark hair and eyes and clothes, and a seductive darkness in his eyes that called to me in a way I’d never felt before.

It was all very melodramatic, but we were teenagers, and everything about the night I met Will Walker seemed larger than life and full of wonder. Just like that, we launched into our star-crossed teenage love story.

“And then, after we’d been secretly dating for about a year,” I went on, my voice thick with emotion after recounting my time with Will for the first time ever, “I found out I was pregnant.”

“Then what?” April asked urgently.