“Let me get her bag,” Peyton said, running behind us. She grabbed Clem’s purse from behind the counter and laid it in her lap as if she’d done something really important. I leaned against the door and shoved it open with my back. I didn’t head for my truck. Clem’s was newer and would actually reach the speed limit, so I walked around to the passenger’s side, popped the door open, and set her in the seat.
Peyton met me at the front bumper. “What should I do about the ten-thirty class? And four forty-five?”
“I don’t care.” Then I got in the driver’s seat and drove out of the parking lot before she could run around to talk to Clem. I didn’t care if it was mean. Peyton could figure it out or text Clem in an hour or two aftershe’d recovered.
We rode in silence for a few seconds, my teeth grinding. I had a dissertation of things I wanted to say, but none of them were nice, so I kept my mouth shut.
Clem broke the silence. “Well, I think you may have shattered Peyton’s perception of you. She actually called you a delicious Adonis.” She made a strangled sort of cackle sound.
I scowled at her weird laugh, and the fact that Peyton had compared me to a Greek god. And I hated it when women talked about men like they were food. I wasn’t a freaking Wagyu steak.
“I think she wanted you to be the father of her future children.” How could she sit here and make jokes at a time like this? My knuckles were white around the steering wheel.
She threw her hands up. “Look, I’m sorry you had to come get me. But Peyton wouldn’t let me drive, and I didn’t know who else to call. Momma’s in Honeyville bowling.”
“You think I’m mad that I had to come get you?” I pulled into the Family Dollar parking lot.
“Aren’t you?”
My mind was actually blown. “No, I’m…I just…” I pounded the steering wheel. “What were you thinking?”
“What…what do you mean?” She had her back against the door as far from me as possible. Like she was afraid of me.
Really? She was still going to act like I didn’t know she was pregnant? I forced myself to count to five. “Why didn’t you let Peyton call for the ambulance?”
She crossed her arms and lifted her chin like a defiant toddler. “Because I didn’t want Billy all up in my business. And the town doctor would definitely find out about something like that.”
I leaned my head against the steering wheel and focused on getting my temper under control. I hadn’t planned on pushing Clem about the baby—it was her business, not mine—but she wasn’t thinking straight. She wasn’t thinking at all. She was indenial and I had to break her out of it. Her life, and the baby’s, depended on it. Even if that meant Billy found out.
I glanced down, and that’s when I noticed the sandwiches I’d made for Anna and Clem, barely touched.
I threw my hands up. “No wonder you fainted? Why didn’t you eat the breakfast I made you?”
Clem pressed on her temples. It took her a few seconds to admit, “I took one bite and puked. I think it was the eggs. They hit my stomach wrong. I’m so sorry.”
She was probably super dehydrated.
I pulled back onto the road.
“Home is the other way,” Clem said, like I didn’t grow up here and drive these roads every day of my childhood.
“We’re getting some food in you. What sounds good right now?”
She bit her lip. “One of your quesadillas.”
I’d make her those five times a day if she could keep them down. “Okay. When we get back. But we need to run an errand first and you’re going to need a little energy. What can I get you right now?”
She seemed ashamed to admit, “A burger and fries.”
“Done.”
As soon as we tackled the immediate problem, we would tackle the bigger one. I could be patient a little longer. I drove toward McDonald’s.
Ten minutes later, her hands still shaky, she lifted a Quarter Pounder to her lips. I was going to make sure she ate the fries and drank the strawberry milkshake, too. And the entire large-sized cup of ice water. Christy had texted me to find out when we were FaceTiming. I responded and then checked my email while Clem got some fuel into her system.
There was one from Mrs. Serafin, with an attachment of all the reports she wanted me to go through. I’d have to open it back at the house.
When Clem was almost done with the burger, I turned to face her. “Hey.”
