My father got his laptop and started making a list of items Rawling and I would need. Awww, he didn’t care that I’d madea mess of things, just that his son-in-law and grandchild were being looked after. When he needed to, he stepped up.
Dad asked how we were going to bring a baby up at college. I hadn’t considered any of this because my mate despised me, or at least what I’d done.
“With Rawlins as his father figure, your mate must be a good man.”
I couldn’t fight back the tears, and they spilled down my cheeks as great hacking sobs wracked my chest.
“I love him and our baby.”
We discussed what to do if Rawling didn’t reply, and Father thought maybe they could make overtures to him. But we were back where we started, pushing my mate into accepting me and my family.
But the phone dinged, and we all jumped.
I’m not ready to talk, but thanks for the photo.
It was from him, and while it wasn’t much, we all cheered.
I decided to chance one more text.
My folks would love to meet you, but I told them to wait. But they want to send you a food delivery. Would that be okay?
Yes, was his reply.
That was better than silence, and knowing my folks, they’d send enough supplies for a month.
Maybe we could overcome what I’d done and have a future together, but I’d have to be content with sending him scrumptious treats.
THREE
JACK
Ever since entering high school, I’d always spent my summer vacations playing soccer, with the goal of being able to afford college. And it worked. I got the scholarship. But because of soccer, I never really had any downtime during those breaks between practice and part-time jobs. Going back to school was more relaxing.
This summer was different. High school leagues and college leagues were not on the same wavelength when it came to summer training. A lot of athletes paid for fancy intensives, and that was well and good but also so far outside of my price range. Other than kicking the ball around and running, I wasn’t going to be doing much of anything sports-related.
That left me with free time I wasn’t used to, and I wasn’t really sure what to do with it. My part-time jobs were enough to keep me from becoming a slug on my couch, but not enough to keep my days and nights filled. Maybe I needed a third job.
If the year had been a typical one, it would’ve been different, but it hadn’t been. And the last day of school? Everything went haywire. It was only the first Sunday of vacation, and I was already wanting to be back at Sombertooth to try to figure outhow everything went wrong, and attempt to find a way I could help.
Rawling left school without saying goodbye. At first I thought he’d contact me the next day. Nope. Not only that, he let me know he wanted to be left alone.
I got it. He was spiraling. How could he not be after looking down at those two little lines? And on top of that, Phelan had mated him. Normally that would be considered good news. If you had to be knocked up at nineteen, having a mate meant you weren’t alone. In this case, I feared for Rawling. Phelan seemed like he cared about Rawling, and I was sure if he was asked, he’d say he loved him. Problem being, he didn’t know Rawling, not really.
It was one thing to mate a latent. It was looked down upon nearly universally in shifter circles. Only Rawling wasn’t latent, he was human, and I wasn’t sure how Phelan, and more importantly his family, would respond to that. Shifters had been disowned for far less than being with a human. It was one thing to love your mate and another to be willing to give up everything for them.
Rawling had to be beyond terrified, knowing that the person who mated you could easily detest you over that one little fact. Adding the family’s reaction to the mix only made it worse.
I didn’t know if Phelan knew about the pregnancy yet. I’d like to think that if he did, he’d be stepping up, but college kids were college kids, so it was hard to say. The more I thought about it, the more I worried about my friend. For all I knew, I was the only one who knew he was pregnant.
If there was no one who was going to be able to take care of him, I needed to do it. I grabbed my phone and ordered some prenatals delivered to him, and it recommended a book about what being pregnant was like, so I popped that in as well. Itwasn’t a lot, but it was something. Unlike me, he had no family. He was completely alone.
No. He had me. I was going to make sure he knew that.
My two summer jobs were enough to cover what my scholarships didn’t and both started tomorrow. I was looking forward to it, loving that I would have something to distract me from all the what-ifs playing in my mind.
Knox had called a few times and sent a couple messages since school got out. I tried to get myself excited that the cute boy from school was still paying attention to me, but the truth was, I liked him fine enough. He was pretty fabulous, especially the way he treated me. Did I love him? No. But could I? That wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. I justified staying with him, telling myself I wasn’t leading him on, telling him he was my one and forever… that he knew the score.
Still, there was guilt, especially when I thought about how the sex with him was good, only to have memories of Atticus’s well-endowed body flashing through my mind. That was a problem for a different day, thanks to my phone ringing.
