Her lip quivered, then the tears she’d been holding at bay started to spill forth. “I-I-I’m p-pregnant.”
The bomb had dropped.
“Joe…”
She covered her eyes with her hands and sobbed.
I reached for her and held on tight, letting her cry into the crook of my neck for long minutes before I said, “Can you tell me everything?”
She leaned back and swiped at her eyes, her mascara running.
“It’s bad, Nettie.”
My stomach seized. “Bad how?”
Please, please, don’t say what I think you’re going to say.
“My ex-boyfriend, Jetty, made me.”
My eyes closed and dread filled my insides.
“Forced you?” I asked calmly. “Did he r…”
“Not like that. At least I don’t think,” she admitted. “He wanted to. I didn’t. He kept asking, and finally I just said yes because he wouldn’t stop. It wasn’t bad. Wasn’t great. It was both of our first time. We used protection, even!”
Shit.
Shit, shit, shit.
Denver was going to lose his mind.
Boone was going to lose his mind.
Hell, even Sawyer was going to lose his damn mind.
This was going to be really bad.
“And you haven’t told anyone yet?” I guessed.
“I told Catalina and DeeDee.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’m assuming that you’re coming to me first because you want me to help you tell him?”
She nodded, looking devastated.
“Have you been to the doctor yet?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Just took a couple of tests.”
“Then here’s what we’re going to do…”
The next thirty minutes I spent on the phone with the doctor getting an appointment as soon as we could get it, which luckily was later in the day thanks to a cancellation.
The next thing I did was call Boone to tell him to forget about Arby’s and to meet me out at Denver’s place.
Boone agreed readily, knowing that something was wrong.
Then I got dressed, and we headed out to Denver’s place in Joe’s truck.
