Dirty Game:A Secret Baby Sports Romance(5)

Eight Years Ago



Emily tapped on the door. "Sierra, you've been in there forever. When are you coming out?"

I stared at the stick on the bathroom counter. I was huddled on the floor in shock. Maybe it was a dream or rather a nightmare.

"Are you ok?" my best friend called through the door.

I rose slowly, needing the reassurance of the tile under my feet. I unlocked the door and let Emily in.

"What is it? What does it say?"

I pointed to the countertop.

She covered her mouth. "Oh my God. You're pregnant. You're actually pregnant."

I nodded in disbelief. It hadn't registered yet. I held up the two lines and looked at them again. This couldn't be happening.

I felt her arm circle me. "Are you ok?"

"I think so." I turned toward her. "What's Blake going to say?"

She squeezed me tightly. "He's going to say that whatever you need is  what he's going to do. He loves you. He totally loves you."

I bit my lip. "But a baby?" I could feel my stomach roll, but I didn't  know if it was from the nerves or from the morning sickness that had  started plaguing me.

"He can handle anything."

I nodded in agreement. It was true. We might be young, but I knew there wasn't another guy in the world like him.

There were a lot of old families on Gull island. Families who had passed  down family businesses from generation to generation. Sometimes it was  fishing. Sometimes it was a local store, but for the Wyatts it was boat  building. Blake had something in his family I didn't have-roots.                       
       
           



       

Even though Aunt Lindy had told me the history of the house and about  all of the years her father and uncles had served in the Coast Guard, I  still didn't know where I fit into that.

I picked up the stick and stuffed it in the paper bag from the store.  Emily had driven with me off the island to buy the test. The last thing I  needed was some nosey neighbor finding out I thought I was pregnant.  Aunt Lindy and Blake's dad would have heard about it before I even had  the test results if we hadn't moved the shopping trip off the island.

Emily had been brave enough to hand the cashier a wad of bills when I thought I'd pass out from the embarrassment.

"Where are you going?" she asked. "Are you ok? You're looking a little pale."

"I'm going to tell him."

"Now?" Her eyes widened and her brunette curls bounced.

"Yes. Now. If I don't, I might talk myself out of it. And this isn't one of those times I can talk myself out of it, right?"

She nodded with a soft smile. "Of course you have to tell him. Go. Talk to him."

Emily had moved at the beginning of our senior year from Charlotte. From  the start, we'd had that instant girl thing where we could finish each  other's sentences. Sometimes I swore we could even read each other's  thoughts. I don't know how I'd manage to exist before she showed up.

"Ok. Good luck. Call me after. Ok?"

I hugged my best friend. "I will." I needed that hug. It seemed hard to believe I had only known her a year.

I rushed down the spiral staircase. Aunt Lindy was in the kitchen working on dinner.

"When are you coming back, honey?" she asked.

"For dinner." I smiled. I wasn't sure how I was going to break the news  to her either. First the daddy. Then I could worry about everyone else.

"I'm working on roasting a chicken."

I grabbed at my stomach. For the past week, any mention of poultry had made my stomach queasy. I smiled meekly.

"I'll make sure to be home."

Once I put my key in the ignition, this was it. Our lives would never be  the same. I hopped behind the wheel of my Jeep. I pressed my palm to my  stomach. It was still flat. You would never know looking at me I was  six-weeks pregnant. There was no more time to hesitate. I backed out of  the driveway and raced to Blake's house.

I pulled up in front of the boat storage building where Blake's dad and  uncle worked. The family business was boat building, but not for Blake.  He had a football scholarship. A full ride. He only had a month left  before practice and school started.

A month wasn't long to figure this all out. But we were going to college  together. We had planned out everything. Everything except a baby.

I stepped from the Jeep just as Mr. Wyatt appeared.

"Looking for Blake?"

I shoved the paper bag behind my back. "He said he was going to help you with one of the boats today."

Mr. Wyatt and I had never gotten along. I didn't know if it was because  the only family I had on this island was my aunt, or he just wasn't  going to like anyone his son dated.

I knew he thought I interfered with Blake's dedication to the game. I  liked to think we proved him wrong. Blake was going to be Saints  College's starting quarterback, and I was headed to journalism school.  We may have given each other every free second we had, but we also  worked hard and had something to prove for it. My Wyatt owed me that  much. The man needed to cut me some slack.

"I'll tell him you stopped by."

"But is he here?" I tried to peer around the older man.

I wondered if Blake would look like his father when he was older. There  was a striking resemblance. The same piercing gray-blue eyes, a strong  jaw, and wide shoulders. The only difference was Mr. Wyatt's son towered  over him by a good four or five inches.

"He ran to the store for me."

"Ok." I felt the pit in my stomach. I wanted to tell Blake. I needed to tell him. "I can wait."

"I don't think so. We have a lot of work to get finished."

He was always trying to get rid of me. It was one of the things I was  looking forward to in college. The Wyatt parents couldn't hover over us  anymore. College seemed like a dream-complete freedom.

"What if I just sit in my Jeep?" I offered.

"Fine. But he can't go off with you. He's got a long list of stuff to get done before he heads out for school."

"I understand, Mr. Wyatt."

But as I reached in my pocket to retrieve my keys I lost my grip on the bag and it dropped to the grass.

"No!" I screeched as I hurried to reach for it, but I was too late.                       
       
           



       

Blake's dad scooped down to pick it up as the pregnancy test rolled into  the tall blades of grass. He clasped it between his gnarled knuckles as  I stared in horror.

"What the hell is this?"

I couldn't find any words to answer him.

"Are you pregnant, Sierra?"

I wanted to vomit. Again, not sure if it was from the baby or the terrible situation.

"Please don't tell Blake. Please, I just need to talk to him."

His eyes flared. "You're pregnant?"

"I thought we had been careful," I eked out a stupid defense. Now wasn't  the time to talk about how many time we had skipped the condoms in the  heat of the moment. I never even thought it was possible for this to  happen. We had been mostly responsible, but not enough.

He shook his head. "Unbelievable. Trapping my son with a baby."

"What? No. It's not a trap." I reached for the test, but he held it out of distance from my fingertips.

He closed his eyes for a brief second. "Here's what is going to happen,  young lady. You're going to go pack your things. Tell your aunt you were  enrolled in an early program. You start driving."

I shook my head. He was insane. "What are you talking about? No. I'm not doing that."

He grabbed me by the arm, shoving me into the front of my vehicle. "You are."

"I'm going to Saints College with Blake."

"You're going to any school but that one. I'll pay for the transfer. I'll pay for whatever I have to."

The tears welled in my eyes before I could form words. "No. He has a right to know about his baby. I'm not going anywhere."

He looked me in the eye. "What he has a right to is a future. A life of  opportunity. You think I'm going to let my only son. The only person in  this family with a real shot of leaving this village, squander it away  because he knocked up some girl? I'm not."

"I'm not some girl," I fired back.

"He'll forget about you in two weeks. That's all he needs. Two weeks to  get unbrainwashed. Football and college and you'll be a memory, Sierra."

"Why would you do this to your son? To your grandchild?" It made me sick  making that connection, but it was true. I was carrying Roger Wyatt's  grandchild. His own flesh and blood.

"Because I love him more than anything. Anything. And he's not yours. You hear me? Get your ass off this island."

"Or what?" There was nothing he could say that would make me do this.  I'd never leave Blake. I couldn't pack up and pretend school started  early. I had nowhere to go. No money. And now I was pregnant. Everything  that was happening terrified me.