I took in a deep breath. “Promise me that if you decide to call Kevin, you’ll do it when I’m around.”
She looked at me for a long moment, her eyes seeming to look for something in mine, as if she were trying to read something in them. But then her other hand came to my other cheek and she said, “I haven’t decided whether or not I’m going to call him, but if I do, I promise I’ll do it with you.” Her thumbs stroked my jaw. “I don’t think I could do it without you,” she added, her voice quieter.
“You’re so strong,” I whispered, pulling her closer to me. “But you’ve been through more than one person should have to endure, and I want to make sure I’m here to hold your hand if you need it.” Her hands moved to the back of my neck as her face moved closer to mine again.
“I don’t know how I got so lucky to find you, Riot Bentley, but I’m never going to let you go.”
She pressed her mouth to mine in a soft kiss, her arms wrapping around my neck and her breasts pressing against my chest. I let her give me that comfort, hoping she was taking the same from me.
The day progressed without much more drama, but I was on high alert. I imagined worst-case scenarios. Someone had given Kevin her address before, that same person could have given him the address to her new place. What if he showed up? I didn’t know what was going through her mind, but I wondered how long it would take her to realize her father’s phone number had an area code based two hours away. And even if she did figure it out, I couldn’t tell which direction that would send her in. I wondered if it would make her want to talk to him more, or do the opposite and make her reject him.
I had no idea. And I felt helpless.
So, I did what I could.
I met her for lunch at our coffee shop. I made sure she was all right, and she seemed to be doing fine. I didn’t press her about calling her father and she didn’t mention it either. It seemed as though I was the only one torn up about it. So I tried to let it go, tried to pretend that everything wasn’t balancing on some tightrope dangling over a large crevasse. If Kalli was cool, I’d be cool too.
That was, until I got a call from Halah over dinner.
Kalli and I were sitting on her couch, eating Chinese takeout, watching her favorite show, and when my phone rang and I saw it was Halah, something in my gut told me it was the call.
“Shit,” I whispered, swiping my finger across my phone to answer the call. “Hello?”
“Riot?” Halah’s voice came through the phone and I could tell she was crying.
“Hal? What’s wrong?” I figured I knew what was wrong, but hearing her in tears made my heart rate spike regardless.
She gave a little laugh at my question, but then resumed crying.
“Everything’s wrong, Ri.” I heard her take in a shaky and stuttered breath, and then she continued. “I’m pregnant.”
I’d known it. I’d known she was pregnant ever since Kalli had dropped the bomb on me, but hearing her say the words didn’t make it any easier to take. Halah was twenty-five. She wasn’t too young to have a baby, but she hadn’t really grown up yet. She’d been living on a freaking cruise ship most of her adult life and hadn’t really been introduced to the real world. She was about to get a pretty drastic reality check.
I had no idea what to say to her and that had never happened before.
“Ask her if she’s okay.” Those words were whispered from Kalli and I couldn’t have been more grateful. She turned toward me, bringing her legs up on the couch and scooting closer, resting her hand on my thigh. Then she motioned toward the phone, pushing me to ask the question of Hal.
“Are you all right?”
“I mean, technically, yeah. I’m pregnant, though. I’m fine physically, but I don’t know what to do…” Her voice trailed off and I imagined all the things running through her mind.
“You’ve got lots of options,” I offered, not sure, again, what to say. All I heard on the other end of the line was sniffling. She was crying a lot and I was hours away. “Are you at home? Is Ma there?” Surely my mother could make her stop crying, or at least hug her or something. My arms itched to wrap around her. Instead, I brought my hand up and rubbed it on the underside of my chin. It had been there just seconds when Kalli captured it with her own hand and threaded her fingers through mine.
“Can you put her on speaker?” Kalli asked.
I nodded and did as she asked. “Hal, you’re on speaker and Kalli’s here, okay?”
“Okay,” she mumbled through a cry.
“Hey, Hal,” Kalli said softly. “How far along are you?”
“About fourteen weeks.”
“Hmm, that’s still pretty early. Have you been to see a doctor yet?”
“I saw a doctor in Florida about a month ago when we docked after a run.”
“And the doctor said everything looked fine? The baby’s healthy?”
“Yeah,” she replied, sounding a little bit calmer with every answer.
“And you’re taking vitamins?”