Jess is waiting for me in the parlor, toying with the end of her ponytail. She looks up at my approach, sees my face, and asks, “Everything okay?”
“’S’all peaches and cream. Come on, we’re outtie.” We already said our goodbyes to the fam, so there’s nothing stopping me from taking her arm and dragging her toward the truck.
“Chill out,” she grumbles, shrugging my hand off. “I know how to walk by myself.”
I practically fling myself into the driver’s seat and have the engine running and the gearshift in drive before Jess has even buckled up. Her seatbelt snaps into place as I leave my parents’ house in my dust.
The sight of my childhood home in the rearview mirror pisses me off. I love that house. It’s mine. Total bullshit right there, that Molly is driving me away from my own house.
“Blake, slow down. You’re going too fast.”
I ease up on the accelerator. Shit, I’m all riled up. Riley’d up, if you will. I chuckle at the new phrase I’ve coined. Or maybe it’s not a chuckle so much as hysterical laughter.
“Okay, now you’re just freaking me out,” Jess announces. “Pull over. I mean it.”
I do it. Maybe it’s her tone of voice. It’s sharp and commanding, like when my mom used to order me to clean my room or else she’d stop paying for my hockey gear.
I park at the curb and stare straight ahead. We’re at the end of my parents’ street, and I hope nobody from the party drives by and stops to ask what the hell we’re doing.
“Get out,” Jess orders. “I’m driving.”
Again, I listen to the lady. And I don’t even ask if she’s capable of driving such a powerful machine, because I’m not so far gone that I don’t realize she’d slap me silly for being sexist.
We switch seats, but Jess doesn’t start the engine. She studies me silently before letting out a heavy breath. “I know what’s going on here, so you don’t have to pretend.”
I furrow my brow. “What are you talking about?”
“I know why you’re upset,” she clarifies.
“Sorry, babe, but I doubt it.”
Jess stubbornly juts her chin. “I do know. Or at least some of it.” A sheepish look crosses her face. “I overheard Brenna and Molly talking in the kitchen.”
Every inch of me goes rigid. Including my neck, which suddenly throbs with pain. Damn it, why won’t that goddamn kink go away? I asked the team trainer to work on it after last practice, but it’s still sore as hell.
“What did you hear?”
“Not much,” she admits. “But enough to put a few of the pieces together. She, um, got pregnant, huh? When you two were together?”
I clench my teeth.
“And then she lost the baby.” Jess’s tone softens with sympathy. She reaches for my hand and squeezes it gently. “I’m sorry. I can’t even begin to imagine what you two went through.”
Another choked laugh flies out, making her eyes widen in alarm. Then they turn to thunderclouds.
“You think it’s funny?” She releases my hand and stares at me in disapproval. “What the hell is the matter with you?”
“Jess.” I clear my throat a couple of times. “Look. I appreciate your concern. And the sympathy. I know it’s coming from a good place, but trust me, it’s misguided.”
“Misguided?” she echoes. “Your ex-girlfriend lost your baby and my sympathy is misguided?”
“There was no baby!” I shout.
She freezes. Silence falls between us, a long, tense silence during which I want to smack myself for opening my big mouth. Fucking hell. Why’d I have to go and say that?
Maybe she didn’t hear?
Yeah, dumbass, she didn’t hear the Godzilla roar that just rocked the Hum-hum.
“What do you mean, there wasn’t a baby?” Confusion etches her pretty features. “But…I heard your sister say that your baby would have been four next month. And how Brenna’s kid and Molly’s kid would have been cousins. I swear I didn’t mishear that, Blake.”
I exhale slowly. “You heard right, okay? But you heard wrong.”
“Is that a riddle?” She sounds exasperated. “I don’t understand. Why would—” Jess gasps so loudly that I actually jump in my seat. “Oh my God! She’s lying to your family?”
“Can we please drop this?” I lean over and tap the steering wheel. “Just drive us home already.”
Jess isn’t listening to me. She looks aghast, biting her bottom lip as she studies my face. “Why does your family think you and your ex were going to have a baby?”
“You’re really not gonna let this go?”
“No.”
I clench my fists against my knees. “They think it because that’s what Molly told them. Because that's what she told me. The start of my rookie year in the pros, she told me she was pregnant.” I fix my gaze out the windshield. “And she lied, okay? She wasn’t preggers, but she said she was three months along, and, you know, that’s when you’re allowed to start shouting it from the rooftops, so I told my family right after I found out. Mol and I were engaged at that point, so they were as thrilled as I was.”
“You were engaged?” Jess blurts out.
“Had a date set and everything.” I snort. “But I guess that wasn’t enough of a commitment. Not to her.”