“Let’s get you inside,” said my mother. “I’m going to call your father, so that we can discuss everything.”

I simply nodded, climbed out of the car and followed my mother inside. I made us both some tea, and waited at the breakfast bar in the kitchen while she phoned my father.

“You need to come home now, Erik,” I heard her say. She was in the living room, presumably to speak to my father without upsetting me, but I could still hear her.

“No,” she snapped. “Conseguir su culo en un puto avión ahora mismo y venir a casa, Erik.”

Get your ass on a fucking plane right now and come home, Erik.

I couldn’t help the small smile tugging at my lips. My mother only spoke fluent Spanish to my father when she was angry with him. I was surprised he understood her, but then again, he should have after twenty-five years of marriage. They were polar opposites in every way – my father with his tall, pale willowy frame and light hair, and my mother with her short-ish frame, olive skin, dark hair and a fiery disposition like mine. Somehow though, they worked. My father adored my mother, and he’d instilled in me the desire to experience that, to have a man carry me on his hands the way my father did my mother. I wanted that, but I wanted it with Reid, and I was so sure I’d done everything possible to fuck it up.

I rested my hand on my stomach, and looked down. Things were going to change. Again. And I knew Reid and I had to sit down and talk. I couldn’t keep this from him.

“Your father is on his way.”

My head snapped up, and my mother tossed the phone onto the counter with a sigh. “I’m going to cancel the rest of my appointments this week,” she continued. “Then - ”

“No mama,” I cut her off. “That won’t be necessary. I’ll be fine here on my own until classes start again.”

“But I can’t leave you, not now.”

I pushed away from the breakfast bar, and stood next to my mother. “It’s fine, really. You can’t cancel all your trips this week for me.”

With pursed lips, my mother gave in, if a little reluctantly. “Fine, but I’m cutting back as of May. You can come and stay here for the holidays where I can look after you. We can convert the adjoining bedroom next to yours into a nursery...”

The look on my face made her stop talking.

“You’re not going to make me give the baby up for adoption?” I asked.

My mother closed the small gap between us, and wrapped her arm around my waist. “Not in a million years, Niño. I agree that you are a little young, and you will finish school after the baby comes, but this baby is a blessing.”

My throat constricted. I’d had so many concerns about what happened next, and my mother had laid them all to rest with that one statement.

“We will figure it all out,” she added, kissing me on the forehead. “You have nothing to worry about.”

I rested my head on her shoulder, and took in deep breath. She was wrong about the last part – not having anything to worry about – because I still had to tell Reid he was going to be a dad.

I just didn’t know how he was going to take it, and the thought of him not wanting anything to do with me or our baby made my stomach drop.

He wouldn’t abandon us would he?

No, I thought. Reid would take care of his responsibilities.

But there in was the problem.

I didn’t want to be just another responsibility.

I wanted us – me and our baby – to be his everything.

Chapter 6

Jade

I’m gonna love her for both of us

My father stood across from me, and I was grateful for the large island in the kitchen that separated me from his anger. I don’t ever remember seeing him so angry before - and all because my mother had dropped the ‘our twenty year old daughter is pregnant’ bombshell. Yeah. He wasn’t taking it so well.

“What were you thinking?” He half-shouts, barely containing his anger. The vein in his neck pulsed, sending all his blood to his face. “You are twenty years old with your entire life ahead of you, and you screw it up by screwing around?”

I flinched, not only at his abrasive tone, but also at his insinuation that I slept around.

“Cálmese!” My mother admonishes, urging my father to calm down while her own temper is rising. “There is no need to yell at her like that, she’s not a child.”

“Oh but she is,” my father snaps, glaring at my mother. “Adults do not make such stupid mistakes like getting knocked up while in college.”

I stood still, watching him have it out with my mother. I felt strangely removed from the entire situation, and couldn’t muster up the need to argue with him. There wasn’t much point since my father was the ‘if I want your opinion I’ll give it to you’ type. His response surprised me, especially his anger, because until now he’d always been very supportive of everything I’d done, mistakes included. He’d never shouted, lost his temper, or made me feel stupid. Then again, none of my other mistakes had ever been so...consequential.

“Sleeping around? You make it sound like our child is a whore!” My mother snarled.

“Does she know who the father is?” Asked my father. He turned towards me, his expression tight. “Do you?”

I jumped at the hardness in his voice, and felt my own indignation simmering below the surface of my skin. I flexed my fingers at my side, struggling to stay composed.

“Yes,” I replied, keeping my voice even despite the slight tremor. “It’s Reid.”

My father’s head snapped back. “Reid?”

I nodded once, my eyes darting between my parents.

“Well where is he? Why isn’t he here?”

I opened my mouth to reply, but then stopped when I realized that my answer wasn’t as simple as I’d thought. It wasn’t black and white, and telling my father the truth would only add fuel to an already volatile fire.

“If you won’t tell me, I’ll find him myself!”

My father started for the front door, and I raced after him in a panic.

“Don’t!” I grabbed his forearm, and pulled him back. He turned, his tall figure looming over me.

“Why not? He should be here with you, telling us he’s the one responsible for this!”

“Erik -” my mother started but I cut her off.

“He doesn’t know.” The first tear slipped over my eyelid, and I flicked it away quickly. I hated showing emotion, but for some reason my chest was tight, and filled to the brim with everything I was feeling.

With pinched brows, and a taut expression, my father looked at my mother and then back at me. “Do you think he’ll stick around once he does know? He is no more prepared to be a father than you are a mother, Jade. He’ll run the moment he finds out, and then what?”

“Then I’ll love her enough for the both of us!” I cried. “Reid can make his decision once I tell him, but either way, this baby” – I flattened my palm against my still flat belly – “will be loved by me.”

I will love her. I already do.

We had yet to find out the gender, but I had a feeling in my gut that it was a little girl. My little blessing.

“So you’re going to throw away your future, your dreams for this child?” My father barked. “You can’t be that reckless! You’re not ready to be a parent!”

I straightened my shoulders, and stood tall. “What would you know about being a parent?” I asked through gritted teeth. “You’re never here.”

My fathers’ face remained stoic, but his reaction to my words reflected back at me through his eyes, contrition shining the brightest.

“This was not part of my plan,” I said, swallowing back the emotion clogging my throat. “And neither was falling in love with my best friend,” – my fathers’ eyes widened at that – “but plans change, and I will adjust. With or without yours and moms help.”

I turned on my heel, and ran up the stairs. My mother called after me but I needed out. I heard her say something to my father, but the words were muted the closer I got to my bedroom.