“How was your date?” Molly turned around as soon as I closed the door.
“She has a kid.”
“What?” Ben looked at me in the rearview mirror after he pulled away from the curb.
“She has a kid.”
“Wow, she looked so young.” Molly still hadn’t turned back around.
“She is young. She’s twenty-one.”
“How old is her—is it a boy or girl?”
“Boy. And I didn’t get a chance to ask. He looked young in the picture she showed me, but not like a baby or anything.”
“Real helpful.” Molly rolled her eyes.
“How would I know how old he is?”
“So what did you do? Are you still going to see her?”
“I don’t know.” I buried my head in my hands. It was too much to think about.
“What does that mean?”
“She left before I could even process it.”
Molly put a hand to her chest. “Oh my god. What did you say, Jake?”
“I think I just said, ‘you’ve got a kid?’”
“That’s it?” Molly asked incredulously.
“Maybe I also said, ‘when were you going to tell me?’”
Molly gritted her teeth. “You two haven’t been dating long. She didn’t have to tell you yet.”
“So what does it mean? If I keep dating her, does that mean I have to be the kid’s dad or something?”
Ben picked that moment to jump in. “I’d assume he already has a dad…”
“Oh yeah.” Great. So now I’d have to compete with the kid’s father.
“Maybe she’s a widow?” Ben suggested. “Have you thought of that?”
“At twenty-one?” I asked.
“Stranger things have happened.”
“I wonder how old he is. Do you think she had a baby in high school…” Molly thought out loud.
“No, I don’t think he’s that old. But who knows?” I leaned back and closed my eyes.
“What’s his name?” Molly said it softly. She was really fixated on the kid. It was probably because she was pregnant.
“Noah.”
“That’s a nice name.”
Ben laughed. “Are we adding it to our list?”
“It depends on whether Jake keeps seeing her. If so, we can’t use it.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because what if you married her? You don’t want cousins with the same name.”
“I don’t think you need to worry about that.” Ben put a hand on her leg. “Do you even think she’s going to speak to him again after his reaction? She probably thinks he hates kids.”
Molly fiddled with the AC. “She dated him in the first place. She’s obviously weird.”
I sat forward. “Thanks, Molly.”
“You’re welcome. I’m just keeping it real.” She turned around and stuck her tongue out at me.
“Reverting to childhood, are you?”
“You’re one to talk. A girl tells you she has a son and all you can do is mimic like a parrot?”
“It surprised me. Sue me.”
“All I know is that if you actually want to see this girl again, you need to apologize fast.”
“She’s going home to pick him up this weekend. He was staying with her parents so she could work more or something.” I stretched out my legs as much as humanly possible in the back of Molly’s Civic. At least she tried to give me leg room.
Ben turned onto the interstate. “See. I might be right. If there was a dad around, he’d have him right now.”
Molly added another fantastic suggestion. “He could be a deadbeat.”
“I don’t know which is worse…a dead husband she can’t get over, or a deadbeat that could pop back up at any time.”
“It’s only an issue if you see her again…” Ben started.
“I have to see her. She’s almost perfect.”
“Almost?”
“She likes country music.”
Molly groaned. “I’m not even going to respond to that one. When you get home, call her. Prepare to beg for forgiveness. Blame it on the pain meds.” It sounded like Molly was reading off a list.
“I’m not taking them anymore.”
“Then find something else. No woman will want a man who freaks out when she mentions her kid.”
“I can’t handle this right now.”
“So what? Are you going to just give up?”
I let out a deep breath. “No. I just need time to figure it out.”
“You don’t always get time.”
I looked out the window. “All right, let’s change the subject.”
“Fine, but don’t wait too long.”
I tried to tune Molly out for the rest of the ride. Why is it that nothing in life was ever simple?
Chapter Thirteen
Emily
Town looked exactly the way it had when I left the month before. The windy mountain roads were easy to navigate in the summer, and I rolled down my windows to enjoy the breeze.
The only thing special about Ridgeview was that it was home to the college of the same name. One of the smallest state schools in North Carolina, no one’s really heard of it. I drove past the bustling campus. Classes had recently started back up, and I watched students hugging after a summer apart. I couldn’t imagine living like that. It seemed more like a movie or book than anything real.
After getting stuck in some construction related traffic, I finally reached my parents’ street. There was always something new being built on campus. I pulled into the driveway and parked. I bolted out of the car, so excited to see Noah. I opened the door, and he nearly knocked me over running into my arms.
“Mama!”
“Hi, baby.” I held him against me for as long as he let me. I reluctantly let go so he could run around. He never stood still.
When he pulled away, my mom was standing in front of me. “You made good time.” She took Noah’s place, giving me a hug.
“There was hardly any traffic until I hit campus. It was great.”
“Are you hungry? Noah and I were making you a little something special.”
“Yeah? Did you help?” I bent down and scooped Noah up. I knew I wouldn’t want to put him down at all for days.
“Cookie.”
“Cookies? Mm, I definitely want one.” I followed my mom into the kitchen, still holding Noah.
I took an oatmeal raisin cookie right off the tray, breaking it into two and giving Noah the bigger half.
His eyes widened, and I kissed him on the top of his head before taking a bite of my portion. He had soft, brown hair that was much darker than anyone’s in my family. I loved it.
“You must be exhausted. I’m glad you’re here, but you could have slept more. You only gave yourself four hours.” Mom was just being her worrying self. Now that I was a mom, I understood it.
“I couldn’t wait any longer.” Noah squirmed so I put him down. “Is Dad awake?”
“I think so. You should go on up and see him.”
I leaned back against the counter. “I might wait.”
“You two are going to have to make up eventually.” She didn’t have to say it. I knew she was telling me that I was running out of time.
“Make up? That implies we’re in a fight. He decided to write me off.”
Mom wiped down the kitchen table even though I’m sure she’d already cleaned it. “That’s not true. He didn’t agree with your decision. That’s all it was.”
“Because marrying the father of my child was a bad idea?”
“Emily.” She looked at Noah and back at me. He wasn’t a baby anymore. I couldn’t just say anything in front of him.
“I know. I’ll go talk to him.”
I took the steps as slow as humanly possible. There had been a time when I’d been Daddy’s little girl, but that ship had sailed years ago. I stopped in front of his closed door, steadying myself before knocking.
“Come in.” His voice was gruff. It was nothing like the voice I remembered from my childhood.
I took a deep breath and pushed it open. Dad sat propped up in bed with a laptop on one of those portable desks. “Hello, Emily.”
“Hi, Dad.” I awkwardly leaned around the computer to hug him.
He patted my arm just as awkwardly. I remembered back to a time when he would have given me a bone crunching hug instead. “I didn’t think you were getting in until tonight.”
“I couldn’t wait any longer to see Noah.”
“He’s a sweet boy.” Dad glanced at his computer screen.
“I know.” I looked down. I couldn’t look Dad in the eye anymore either. I guess it was one thing we had in common.
“I appreciate you letting me spend time with him this summer.”
Why’d he have to put it that way? Like I was doing him a favor. “Of course. It worked out well. I got a lot of extra shifts in this summer that I couldn’t have otherwise.”
“That’s what your mother said. At least you haven’t lost your work ethic.” He typed a few words on the computer. Dad was still on the payroll at the college, but he wasn’t teaching any classes anymore. I think he was having a hard time letting go, and he definitely wasn’t ready to give up on his research.
I picked at my nail. “How have you been feeling?”