“But they weren’t.”
Slowly, I shook my head. “Not hardly. They were pissed that I hadn’t told them about you and I and what happened that night. They said I’d lied to them by letting them believe that you’d only given me a ride home. And they said—” I swallowed over a lump in my throat. This part was harder. “They said now maybe I’d stop being so high-and-mighty around them, that I wasn’t any better than the friends they had there in Crowder. Because it turned out I could get knocked up just like any other woman, even if I had a masters’ degree.”
“Shit.” Dean’s expression was thunderous. “Willow, I hate to say it, but those aren’t friends. Those are girls who you used to hang around with. Friends don’t treat you like absolute crap at one of the most vulnerable times of your life.”
“That has occurred to me,” I retorted with just the hint of a smile. “I ended the call quickly, and I haven’t spoken to them since.”
“Probably a good idea.” This time, it was Dean stretching his hand toward mine, just for a moment. “Okay, let’s change the subject, because the thought of those girls treating you like that is pissing me off. I have another question, if you don’t mind?”
I tilted my head. “Proceed.”
“You said you’d been to the doctor. Is . . . is everything okay with you and the baby? What did she say about how you’re doing?”
“Oh.” I cast my eyes upward, thinking. “Well, she said I’m very healthy. The baby is measuring exactly where it should be, according to the ultrasound.”
“Wait a minute. You saw the baby?” Dean’s eyes grew wide. “What did it look like?”
I smiled. “The first time I went, it was hard to tell. It looked like a blob on the screen. But this last one . . .” I reached for my phone in my pocket and scrolled through my photos. “It looks like a person. Or like person-to-be, I guess.”
I passed the phone to Dean, who took it from me with something akin to wonder on his face. “Oh, wow. God.” He breathed out the words. “It really does look like a baby.” His attention shifted to my stomach. “And that’s inside you right now?”
“Yep. Currently making sure that very few of my clothes fit and that I’m ravenously hungry almost all of the time.” I held out my hand for my phone, and Dean gave it back to me almost reluctantly.
“Can you send me that picture?” he asked, his voice low. “Would it be okay?”
I hesitated. “Dean, do you think that’s a good idea? What if someone saw it? Wouldn’t they wonder why a cadet has an ultrasound photo on his phone?”
He exhaled a long breath. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” Turning his head to glance at me, he added, “But will you show me when you have the next ultrasound done?”
“Sure.” I was oddly touched by his reaction to the picture, which was probably why I confessed my own feelings. “When I had the first one done, when I saw the blob on the screen, I thought to myself that I didn’t have any attachment to it. It was just a thing inside me, something making me sicker than I’d ever felt. I was actually kind of mad.” I shook my head. “But when I saw this one, it was completely different. The baby’s profile . . . it sort of reminds me of you. And while the tech was moving around the wand on my stomach, we could see the baby sucking its thumb.”
Dean’s face split into a wide grin. “Really? I was a big-time thumb sucker, or so my mom told me.”
“Well, there you go.” I found myself smiling, too. “I’m still not sure what I want to do at the end of my pregnancy. After the baby is born. But I see it now as . . . someone. Not just a big, life-interrupting inconvenience.”
“Did the doctor say when that’s going to happen? When the baby will be born, I mean?” Dean asked.
“Yep. End of May, it looks like. It was fairly easy to figure that out, since I know exactly when I conceived.” I rolled my eyes. “One benefit of getting pregnant from a one-night stand, I guess.”
“End of May . . . that’s when I graduate.” Dean looked thoughtful. “If the baby comes after graduation, I could be there for you. Once I’m not a cadet, they can’t kick me out for getting you pregnant.”
“Dean.” I bit my lip. “I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. Let’s not make plans that far out. Because I’m still leaning hard toward adoption. I don’t want you to—you know, get attached—if it’s just to hand the baby to its real parents. The people who will raise it.”
“I understand. But even so, maybe you’ll need a friend, someone who you can talk to about that whole process. If I can do it, Willow, I want to be part of this. As much as I can.”
As I gazed up into his earnest face, at those blue eyes that were so clear and steadfast, my heart melted a little more. I felt as though I was standing on the edge of a crumbling precipice.
And it wasn’t going to take much of a push to make me fall head over heels off that cliff into the dangerous valley below.
ChapterTwelve
Willow
“Iwant to go on record as saying that I don’t think this was a good idea.”
In the driver’s seat next to me, my mother sighed and rolled her eyes. “Since when is there a record? But if there were, believe me, darling daughter of mine, it would be duly noted that you have voiced your concerns about coming with Daddy and me to the Army-Navy game.”
“Hmph.” I stared out the window, craning my neck to take in the skyline of Philadelphia. “I’m glad you’re getting such a kick out of this. But when we’re with the other coaches and athletic department staff and all of their wives and families, and I’m here sporting this—” I tapped my burgeoning belly, now resplendent in maternity clothes that my mom had insisted I needed. “—how are you and Dad going to feel?”
