Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94687 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94687 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Jaws dropped around the table. Eyes went wide.
“By who?” Chloe asked the question on everyone’s mind.
“I’ll tell you guys, but please keep his name within our Sawyer sister circle of trust. He was supportive of the adoption, but he didn’t want his name on the birth certificate.”
“It was Tyler Shaw, wasn’t it?” Meg asked.
I stared at her across the table. “Yes. How did you know?”
“You guys hung out a lot that year. You were at his house all the time.” She shrugged. “And he was fucking hot. Half the girls in school were in love with him.”
“Well, I wasn’t in love with him,” I said. “I was at his house all the time because I was babysitting his little sister. We were honestly just good friends. I mean, I wasn’t blind. I thought he was hot too, but he had girls throwing themselves at him all the time—literally throwing themselves. I liked that I wasn’t one of them. And I think he liked it too. He respected me.”
“So then how did it happen?” Chloe tilted her head. “Was it just a random one-time thing?”
I nodded. “Totally. It was right after we’d graduated, the night before he left. We were at someone’s graduation party—I can’t even remember whose—and he offered to drive me home. But instead of going straight there, we took a detour.”
“Where?” Frannie asked, then bit her lip. “Sorry, is this too personal?”
“No, it’s okay.” I took a breath, letting the memories from that night roll over me like ocean waves. “He wanted to drive by this old ballfield where he’d played a lot of games as a kid. It was completely deserted and dark, of course, because it was so late at night, and we just sat in the bed of his truck and talked. We’d spent a lot of time together, but that was the first time he ever really opened up to me about his feelings. He talked more about his childhood, his mom’s death, how much it meant to him to make his dad proud. And he was just so excited to get out of here and go prove himself. The only thing he was sad about was leaving his sister. He thanked me for helping out with her so much.” I took another breath. “Then he thanked me for helping him with homework.” A pause. “Then he said how he couldn’t have made it through senior year without me, and he reached over and touched my hair.”
“You do have awesome hair,” Meg said.
I laughed a little. “Next thing I knew, we were kissing, and after that, everything happened pretty fast. I mean, really fast.”
“That’s an eighteen-year-old guy for you,” Chloe said.
“So no condom?” Frannie guessed.
I shook my head. “Nope. Truth be told, that was my first time. I was mostly just terrified I was doing it wrong.”
“Even if that were possible, I doubt he’d have noticed,” said Chloe. “Eighteen, remember?”
“So what happened afterward?” Frannie asked.
“Well, immediately afterward, we sort of awkwardly laughed and he took me home. Hugged me goodbye on Mom and Dad’s front porch. He was off to Arizona the next day, and I left for college at the end of the summer.”
“Did you keep in touch?” asked Meg.
“Not really. Maybe the occasional text, but we were both on to the next chapters of our lives. It wasn’t until October that I began to suspect I might be pregnant. I’d missed a couple periods by then, but I’d figured it was stress. And I thought the weight gain was the typical freshman fifteen. But then I took a drugstore test, and it was positive.” I shuddered at the memory. “I came home at Thanksgiving and told Mom. She made me an appointment with her doctor. When the results were confirmed, we discussed the options. But she told me the decision was mine and she’d support me no matter what.”
“God,” Chloe said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe you went through all this and never said anything.”
“I was embarrassed,” I confessed. “I’d been careless and irresponsible. I didn’t want you guys to know what I’d done. You were barely out of middle school. Meg was just sixteen. And Frannie was like ten or something. I was supposed to be a good example.”
“You were, April.” Frannie leaned over and touched my shoulder. “You always put other people first. I learned that from you.”
I smiled at her. “Thanks.” Then I glanced at Sylvia. “I actually confessed everything to Sylvia that Christmas, because she found me crying in my room on Christmas Eve. But I made her promise not to tell anyone.”
“Did Dad know?” Meg asked.
I shrugged. “I asked Mom not to tell him, but I don’t know for sure if she did or not. At the time, I thought I wouldn’t be able to face him, but he probably would have been just as supportive as Mom. Anyway, I thought about it and decided I wanted to give the baby up for adoption. Mom helped me choose a family through an agency, I deferred my second semester at school, and I moved in with Grandma Russell for my last three months. Had the baby in March.”