“I’ll have to,” I replied. I took my phone out of my purse, and turned it on. It started pinging loudly as several texts from Kennedy, Grady and Reid started coming through. Reid had called me twelve times in the last six hours, and his texts ranged from:

Where are you? to Answer your phone, please!

His last one read, I’m sorry, please talk to me.

As much as I wanted to speak to him, tell him the news, I just wasn’t ready. I needed some time.

“What do you think daddy will say?” I asked. My mother pulled into their long driveway, and stopped in front of the garage. She shut the car off, and twisted in her seat to face me.

“I think he’ll have some concerns,” she replied, fingering her car keys. “But you know we will support you, Jade.”

She looked down, and I heard her sniffle.

“Are you okay, mama?”

“Si,” she replied. “I’m just very sorry that your father and I have been too busy to see that you were going through some things.”

It was my turn to look away. I couldn’t ease her guilt because she was right. Her and my father, although both very loving and supportive, had been very absent. I was going to need them now, and I was afraid they wouldn’t be there.

My phone rang and when I looked at the screen I saw Reid’s name. I contemplated answering, but it was too soon. I switched it to silent, and just allowed it to go to voicemail.

“Let’s get you inside,” said my mother. “I’m going to call your father, so that we can discuss everything.”

I simply nodded, climbed out of the car and followed my mother inside. I made us both some tea, and waited at the breakfast bar in the kitchen while she phoned my father.

“You need to come home now, Erik,” I heard her say. She was in the living room, presumably to speak to my father without upsetting me, but I could still hear her.

“No,” she snapped. “Conseguir su culo en un puto avión ahora mismo y venir a casa, Erik.”

Get your ass on a fucking plane right now and come home, Erik.

I couldn’t help the small smile tugging at my lips. My mother only spoke fluent Spanish to my father when she was angry with him. I was surprised he understood her, but then again, he should have after twenty-five years of marriage. They were polar opposites in every way – my father with his tall, pale willowy frame and light hair, and my mother with her short-ish frame, olive skin, dark hair and a fiery disposition like mine. Somehow though, they worked. My father adored my mother, and he’d instilled in me the desire to experience that, to have a man carry me on his hands the way my father did my mother. I wanted that, but I wanted it with Reid, and I was so sure I’d done everything possible to fuck it up.

I rested my hand on my stomach, and looked down. Things were going to change. Again. And I knew Reid and I had to sit down and talk. I couldn’t keep this from him.

“Your father is on his way.”

My head snapped up, and my mother tossed the phone onto the counter with a sigh. “I’m going to cancel the rest of my appointments this week,” she continued. “Then - ”

“No mama,” I cut her off. “That won’t be necessary. I’ll be fine here on my own until classes start again.”

“But I can’t leave you, not now.”

I pushed away from the breakfast bar, and stood next to my mother. “It’s fine, really. You can’t cancel all your trips this week for me.”

With pursed lips, my mother gave in, if a little reluctantly. “Fine, but I’m cutting back as of May. You can come and stay here for the holidays where I can look after you. We can convert the adjoining bedroom next to yours into a nursery...”

The look on my face made her stop talking.

“You’re not going to make me give the baby up for adoption?” I asked.

My mother closed the small gap between us, and wrapped her arm around my waist. “Not in a million years, Niño. I agree that you are a little young, and you will finish school after the baby comes, but this baby is a blessing.”

My throat constricted. I’d had so many concerns about what happened next, and my mother had laid them all to rest with that one statement.

“We will figure it all out,” she added, kissing me on the forehead. “You have nothing to worry about.”

I rested my head on her shoulder, and took in deep breath. She was wrong about the last part – not having anything to worry about – because I still had to tell Reid he was going to be a dad.

I just didn’t know how he was going to take it, and the thought of him not wanting anything to do with me or our baby made my stomach drop.

He wouldn’t abandon us would he?

No, I thought. Reid would take care of his responsibilities.

But there in was the problem.

I didn’t want to be just another responsibility.

I wanted us – me and our baby – to be his everything.

Chapter 6

Jade

I’m gonna love her for both of us

My father stood across from me, and I was grateful for the large island in the kitchen that separated me from his anger. I don’t ever remember seeing him so angry before - and all because my mother had dropped the ‘our twenty year old daughter is pregnant’ bombshell. Yeah. He wasn’t taking it so well.

“What were you thinking?” He half-shouts, barely containing his anger. The vein in his neck pulsed, sending all his blood to his face. “You are twenty years old with your entire life ahead of you, and you screw it up by screwing around?”

I flinched, not only at his abrasive tone, but also at his insinuation that I slept around.

“Cálmese!” My mother admonishes, urging my father to calm down while her own temper is rising. “There is no need to yell at her like that, she’s not a child.”

“Oh but she is,” my father snaps, glaring at my mother. “Adults do not make such stupid mistakes like getting knocked up while in college.”

I stood still, watching him have it out with my mother. I felt strangely removed from the entire situation, and couldn’t muster up the need to argue with him. There wasn’t much point since my father was the ‘if I want your opinion I’ll give it to you’ type. His response surprised me, especially his anger, because until now he’d always been very supportive of everything I’d done, mistakes included. He’d never shouted, lost his temper, or made me feel stupid. Then again, none of my other mistakes had ever been so...consequential.

“Sleeping around? You make it sound like our child is a whore!” My mother snarled.

“Does she know who the father is?” Asked my father. He turned towards me, his expression tight. “Do you?”

I jumped at the hardness in his voice, and felt my own indignation simmering below the surface of my skin. I flexed my fingers at my side, struggling to stay composed.

“Yes,” I replied, keeping my voice even despite the slight tremor. “It’s Reid.”

My father’s head snapped back. “Reid?”

I nodded once, my eyes darting between my parents.

“Well where is he? Why isn’t he here?”

I opened my mouth to reply, but then stopped when I realized that my answer wasn’t as simple as I’d thought. It wasn’t black and white, and telling my father the truth would only add fuel to an already volatile fire.