“Sorry. I can’t. I have stuff to do when we get back.”
“Uh huh, right.” He looks at Ella beyond me. “Stuff to do, I got ya,” he jokes.
I nudge him. “Don’t,” I threaten.
“Easy, I’m kidding. Good Lord,” he mutters with a laugh and walks away.
Ella reaches for my arm. “Can we just leave? I don’t want to stick around.”
I nod, grabbing our Bibles and Ella’s hand, and we walk out to my truck. My thoughts are scattered about last night. The recklessness of it, the sermon this morning, Ella feeling regretful, me feeling regretful. It’soverwhelming.
“You know you could’ve tried to keep your cool with Cody. He—”
“Ella, you don’t think I got you pregnant, right?” I swallow hard. Memories from the past flare up. We had a similar conversation like this once before—a pregnancy scare. Although it turned out fine, it was terrifying.
Elevenyears ago
Ella hasn’t talked to me for a week. I don’t know what’s wrong with her, I didn’t do anything. At least, I don’t think I did.
It’s summertime now; we just got done with junior year of high school two weeks ago. I haven’t seen her since last weekend at a party we were both at, though.
She hasn’t been completely ignoring me, we’ve been texting, but she seems to have an excuse every time I bring up seeing her. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t starting to worry me. My brain automatically goes to the thought of her wanting to break up with me and this is her trying to push me away so it doesn’t hurt as much or something. But I don’t know why she would, we’re solid. We’d been looking forward to summer break for months. Late nights, bonfires with friends, park the truck in the middle of nowhere, just her and me, lose track of time kinda stuff.
I keep thinking back to the party. I don’t think I did anything to make her mad—I didn’t even drink that much. She, on the other hand, was the drunk one. She’s such a lightweight.
Taking matters into my own hands, I go to her house and basically demand to see her. Nicely. Once she agrees, we get in my truck and go for a drive. She is not herself; she’s distracted by something.
“Okay.” I put my truck in park. I pulled off the side of a back road nobody should be coming down. “Tell me what’s wrong,” I say.
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t know what?”
She shakes her head, still refusing to even look at me.
I take a hard swallow. “Are you unhappy? Do you not want to be with me?” My voice is low and somber. I’m afraid of her answer. Nothing could prepare me to hear her say yes.
“No, no.”
“Then what? Did I do something?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? Ella. Please, baby, just talk to me.”
Her eyes shut tighter, releasing a gush of tears down her cheeks. My stomach knots and a weight settles in my chest. I do not like to see her cry. I lift the center console up and slide across the seat to give her a hug, my heart thumping in my ears.
I drop my voice to a whisper. “Ella Kate.”
I feel her body take in a deep breath before she speaks. “I think I’m pregnant.”
“Really?” I swallow hard. For some reason, I’m not as surprised as you’d think I’d be. I’m just glad she doesn’t want to break up with me.
She lifts her head up to look at me and nods. I wipe away her tears with my thumb before I say anything.
“It’ll be okay.”
“No, it won’t.” She pushes away.
