‘Over the phone? Don’t you want to tell him in person?’
‘I will. When I go back there.’ I pop a piece of cantaloupe in my mouth so I’ll be too busy chewing to answer the million questions I know are coming.
She leans toward me across the table. ‘Please tell me you are not going to the wedding with him.’
I point to my mouth as I eat the cantaloupe.
She leans back, folding her arms over her chest and stares at me. ‘You’re leaving, Mia. You’re going back to Boston. Why would you get involved with this guy knowing it’ll never work out? You were supposed to go there, tell him about the baby, and discuss what to do going forward. That’s it. And now you’re going to be his date for his brother’s wedding?’
After dabbing my mouth with my napkin, I lean toward her and lower my voice. ‘It’s not a date. I’m going to the wedding as a favor to Jason. Some crazy girl at his apartment was pressuring him to take her to the wedding so he told her he was going with me. Then when we were having breakfast with Jason’s family, his brother said the crazy girl’s mom would be catering the wedding, so obviously, she’d know Jason lied if he showed up alone.’
‘Okay, wait.’ She puts her hand up and takes a deep breath. ‘You had breakfast with his family?’
‘Yes, and it was so good. His mom is the best cook. Her food is even better than here, and you know how much I love this place. Jason’s parents live in this adorable farmhouse way up on a hill next to the orchard. His brother Nick runs the orchard and gave me a tour of it and the barn where they host events.’
‘Wait.’ She puts her hand up again. ‘We’ll go back to the whole barn-breakfast thing. First, let’s talk about this girl at his apartment. Were you there? At his apartment?’
‘I stayed there,’ I say like it’s not a big deal, but I know Nora will make it one.
Her brows rise. ‘You stayed at his apartment? You said you were getting a hotel.’
‘There’s only two hotels in town and one of them was doing renovations, which could’ve been loud. So Jason offered to let me stay at his apartment.’
‘You had sex with him, didn’t you?’ she says, raising her voice again. The older couple next to us gives us an annoyed look.
‘Sorry,’ Nora says to them, pointing at me. ‘She’s practically deaf. I have to shout for her to hear me. She has a hearing aid, but she refuses to wear it.’
‘They make ones you can barely see,’ the old man says to me. ‘Show her, dear.’
The old lady moves her gray hair aside to show me her hearing aid. ‘I got it at the place at the mall.’ She says it’s really loud and enunciates each word.
‘I’ll take her there later today,’ Nora says. ‘Thank you.’
They nod, then get up from the table to leave.
‘Are you done?’ I point to Nora’s plate. ‘We need to get out of here before you embarrass me even more.’
‘We can go, but we’re not done talking about this.’
When we’re back at my apartment, Nora starts in again. ‘You said you wanted to keep your distance from this guy. And I agree. That’s the best thing for both of you. If you start having feelings for each other, it’ll be that much harder when you leave.’
I sink down on the couch. ‘I already have feelings for him. I had feelings for him the night of the wedding.’
‘You said it was just sex.’
‘Yeah, well, I might’ve lied about that.’
She sighs. ‘Mia, why are you doing this? Staying at his apartment? Hanging out with his family?’ She sits beside me, facing me. ‘You know this isn’t going to end well.’
‘I’m not just doing this for me. I’m doing it for the baby. I have to get to know my baby’s father. He or she is going to be spending time with him and I have to know I can trust him and that he’ll be a good dad.’
She pauses a moment. ‘Okay, you make a good point. But you can get to know him without having sex with him.’
‘I didn’t—’
‘You did. Don’t even try to lie about it. You don’t have the hots for some guy and spend the night at his place and have nothing happen.’
‘It didn’t happen at night. I got sick during the night. Jason woke up and found me in the bathroom. It was disgusting. Trust me, we were not having sex that night.’
