Her eyes cut to me, taking in my chilly, soaked form. “I told him you haven’t been feeling well.”
“Oh.”
“And he was worried.”
“Oh?” I perked up again.
“He asked if he could bring you soup.”
A smile crept over my lips at his attentiveness to my imagined sickness. “He’s so sweet.”
“Guess if you’re into that.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I told him it wasn’t a good idea. I figured you didn’t want him to see you like this anyway.”
“Oh,” I breathed, suddenly aware of my shivering form.
“But he really looked concerned, T.”
I bit down on my lip, eyes hanging heavy on hers.
“I was going to lie, wasn’t even going to say a thing,” she said quickly. “But then I came home and found you like that.” Her eyes swept up and down me. “Geez, you’d think you were the one jilted by her baby daddy.”
I slumped down into the chair, processing her words through the wine fog. “Wait.” My head pounded, awareness chugging just out of reach. “Baby daddy?”
Her grin softened, and she stepped closer, sliding a little white stick out of her pocket and across the counter to me.
“Pregnant.” She shrugged, eyes watery with emotion.
“Oh my God.” I leaped from the stool, throwing my arms around Lucy’s small form. “I’m so happy for you.”
“Really?” She sobbed against my shoulder. “I didn’t know what to think. I mean, I had a feeling, but I didn’t have the money to buy the pregnancy test until today, so I just found out.”
“Lucy…” Tears sprang to my eyes. “Gosh, I would have given you the money for the test. Oh my God, a baby!”
Lucy pulled away, hands cupping the imagined swell of her abdomen. “I know I shouldn’t be happy. I know bringing a baby into my situation, well, it’s not really ideal. But, Tressa—” her eyes locked with mine, dark irises swimming with real tears “—I’m so happy.”
We both burst into smiles, tears sliding down our cheeks as we hugged again. “You should be happy. You made a life.”
Silence slipped between us, the last unspoken question hanging in the air.
“Is he the father, the guy you were talking to on the steps that night?”
Lucy nodded, swiping at her eyes before turning back to the salad on the counter and tearing apart lettuce with new determination. “Yes.”
I didn’t say anything else, knowing it wasn’t my place to probe any further.
“Lucy, I—”
Three loudboomsrattled the door frame.
Lucy slipped across the kitchen, opening the front door before her eyes widened and she looked to me and then away. “I’m… I think I left my phone in the day care room. It’ll probably take me a while to find it, so just…take your time. Talking. Or whatever.”
Confusion still slowed my brain before Lucy was gone and a tall, dark figure was walking across the room, his aim, me.
“Tressa.” His tone was a command.
“What?”
Father Bastien’s eyes narrowed on my bottom lip, then slipped down my throat, before hovering at my chest.
