Page 25 of Say You'll Stay

“She give you hell?”

“No, she was perfect.”

Chapter15

Lucas

I still haven’t told Katrina about Jadon, and I’m waiting for the right time. Now is definitely not the right time. She got into a fight with her parents for wrecking another one of her cars.

In the year that we have officially been together, she has been in three car accidents. Two, in which she has totaled her cars. Never injured, thankfully, other than a few bruises. Yesterday her father told her he wouldn’t be buying her another car if she wrecks this one and he will cut her off if she doesn’t either get a job or finish school.

I had to go pick her up from her parents’ house and break up the argument. When I got there, I looked out at the dock on the lake behind their house, and then to the spot in the driveway where I parked that night. Funny how things turn out. Definitely won’t be sharing that part of how Allie and I got together with Kat.

Hey, I made my kid in your driveway because you blacked out drunk and I needed to fuck something.

After I got Kat out of the argument with her father, Mark, she stormed upstairs to go pack some clothes to bring to my place and announced she was moving in permanently. She technically still lives with her parents, even though she spends most nights at my house. Her parents have an image to maintain with her father’s business, and Mark keeps a close eye on what she does.

He shook his head for her behavior, apologized to me and then wished me luck with the newest tantrum she was about to throw. Kat stormed out the door and slammed it behind her when she heard that. When we got back to my house, I unloaded her stuff into the bedroom while she fixed herself a drink.

“Hey,” I say slowly, walking up to her. “Wanna wait before you start? I have something to tell you.”

Maybe I can ease into it to distract her from all this.

“Ugh, what Lucas?” She says it like I was the one who cut her off from her family’s fortune.

“You know what, never mind.” Probably for the best.

“Good,” she stirs her glass with a finger. “I’ve had such a rough two days. I can’t help it if people want to drive like turtles, and Daddy suddenly wants to make my life miserable with these rules he’s just now coming up with.”

She takes a drink.

“Seriously? Work for him? I’d have to wear one of those suits. That’s not for me. And why the hell would I go back to school? I’d have to start all over.”

She complains about her unfair life while I bite my tongue. She’s never had to worry about budgeting and has both of her parents who adore her. Perspective, I guess. I lost my mom when I was five and spent every day of my childhood in my dad’s garage because he couldn’t pay for a sitter. It didn’t matter, because I love my dad and got to spend time with him and learned a lot. Even as a small family, it was important to us to keep a strong relationship. And we weren’t poor, but my sixteenth birthday wasn’t a three-day party on a yacht like Kat’s.

Mark already ordered Kat a new car that will be delivered in the morning.

It’s always the same lines with her, so I have learned to tune it out because it’s hard to see things from another’s perspective for some people. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for Allie to be some pregnant kid trying to be responsible, driving to a doctor’s appointment, then suddenly get hit and have to be rushed to the hospital, not knowing if her child was going to survive. Seeing how much she cares about Jadon, she had to be terrified. I wouldn’t call Allie a control freak, but she wants things a certain way, and I don’t blame her after hearing what she went through.

I can’t help but wonder about the driver. What kind of person hits a pregnant teenager and then drives off? That’s just horrible. I mean, I may have done some horrible things in my life, but I would neverhitsomeone and then drive off. I would need to know that person was okay.

Also, there’s the entire responsibility of hitting another car. I mean, would it even matter with street cameras and such anymore? I’d assume they would catch the person no matter what.

I make a mental note to ask Tom about the accident and the location when he’s less spiteful toward me. The past couple of days, he wasn’t as warm toward me at work, but he wasn’t hateful at all. If Allie told him I’m paying for the daycare, I wouldn’t assume that changes anything, but hope that it’s the start. I don’t plan to pay for only that. It’s my only contribution so far, and I desperately need more because, as fun as Allie is, I really want to know Jadon. I’ll start looking for ways to help since Allie won’t just give up any information without a little verbal sparring.

At some point, she’ll let me hang out with him on my own time, right? I don’t mind if she’s there, but she probably wants a break once in a while.

When she explained all her reasons for picking that daycare for Jadon, I realized she definitely has her shit together. Sure, plenty of girls have babies young, but Allie is a pro. She knows how to communicate with Jadon and lets him be a kid.

I laugh to myself thinking about the argument we got into today when I asked if I could drive them to the daycare in my car and she freaked out telling me the specifics about the safety of my car and that her Civic was more up to par. If she wasn’t Jadon’s gatekeeper, I’d call her out for being a nerd.

A cute one.

“Are you even listening to me?” Kat’s shrill voice drags me back while she fixes herself another drink.

“Of course I am. You’re right, your dad is being unfair to you for establishing rules this late in life.”

“Lucas!” she scoffs. Great, what now? “Are you serious? You’ve been sitting there with this stupid grin on your face while I’m dealing with actual problems, and you’re not even listening to me.”

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