Page 3 of Hold ‘Em Tight (Solidarity Academy #4)

CHAPTER THREE

L oving Rylee has got to be one of the easiest things I’ve ever done. It’s everything else in her life that’s hard to be around.

I know she loves the others, but it’s so fucking difficult to sit back when all they’ve done is hurt her.

She says they’ve made up for it, showed that they love her, that they want to do better by her.

But isn’t that what Lennox said too? And what did he do? Turn around and shack up with the very person who has sought to make his girlfriend's life a living hell.

The only reason I haven’t found that bastard, and beat his ass like I really want to, is because I don’t want to cause Rylee any more pain than she’s already in. Plus, the risk of getting arrested isn’t worth being away from her.

My girl needs me, and I plan on being by her side the whole time.

The past few days haven’t been easy. It physically hurts me to see Rylee in pain. She’s depressed, that much is obvious.

I’ve been doing what I can, but with the cheer house being packed, and the other guys so far up Rylee’s ass, it’s been causing some fights.

So, as much as it pained me, I stepped back to give them all some space.

Unable to go another day without seeing my girl, I get in my car and head down to the cheer house.

“Hey,” Serenity greets me, a sad smile on her face.

“Hi.” I give her a forced one back. “How’s our girl?”

Tears fill her eyes, letting me know it’s not good.

Nodding, I leave her and head up the stairs, straight to Rylee’s room.

I don’t stop until I’m pushing the door open, not bothering to knock.

She’s been avoiding my text messages. Though, from what Alex has said in his texts, she's avoiding everyone.

They’ve been here with her, keeping her company, but she’s not really there. It's like her mind’s not present.

“Fucking hell, baby.” My voice cracks when I see her sitting up in bed, her arms wrapped around a pillow, as she stares blankly out the window.

Stepping into the room, I shut the door behind me, my heart breaking at the sight of my girl like this.

There's dark circles under her eyes, like she hasn’t truly slept in days, and her hair’s a tangled, greasy mess.

Where the fuck have the other guys been? They should have been fucking taking care of her.

Anger surges inside me as I make my way over to her. “Hi, baby,” I murmur, leaning forward to place a kiss on her forehead. “I missed you.”

She says nothing, another pang to the heart. Sighing heavily, I brush some hair off her face, as tears prick the back of my eyes. “I got you, Rylee,” I promise, pressing another kiss to the top of her head, before taking off into the ensuite.

I run her a warm bath, then grab a big, soft towel to set on the sink before finding her a change of clothes.

When the tub is filled, I wordlessly walk back into the room, scoop Rylee into my arms, where she goes without complaint, and bring her into the bathroom.

Sitting her on the closed toilet seat, I start to undress her before helping her into the tub.

Every second, as I clean her body and wash her hair, I feel a piece of me break. It kills me to see her like this.

“Talk to me, baby. Tell me how you’re feeling. I want to help you so badly,” I murmur, dunking a cup under the water, before bringing it to her head, to rinse out the shampoo.

Her eyes are closed, but I see her squint them tighter. She can hear me. I know I haven’t truly lost her.

“Tell me what's wrong.”

A sob wracks her chest. “Everything.”

“Fuck,” I growl. Tossing the cup to the side, I pull her out of the tub and into my arms, not caring about getting wet. “I got you, baby.”

I want to tell her everything is going to be fine, but I can’t. I don’t know how to handle any of this. And seeing how none of the others are here, I don’t think they’re handling it very well either.

She doesn’t burst into tears, only a few sniffles, as if she has nothing left to give. After a moment of holding her, I finish drying her off with the towel, before getting her into the change of clothes, and taking her back to the bed.

I take one look at the bedding before shaking my head. “Sit here, baby.” I sit her over on the windowsill. “I’m gonna change the sheets, okay?”

She looks at me and shakes her head. “You don’t have to.”

“I want to.” I smile, pressing a kiss to the tip of her nose. I can tell she wants to argue with me, but she doesn’t. She doesn't seem to have the energy to do it.

Rylee takes a seat by the window, and I get to work cleaning up her room. After I’m done making the bed, I go into the bathroom and grab her hamper of dirty clothes.

“I’m gonna be right back. I'm just gonna go throw these into the wash, okay?”

“You don’t have to,” she says softly, biting her lower lip as she brings her knees up to wrap her arms around them.

“I want to,” I insist, trying my best to smile, but it’s hard when all I want to do is go find that asshole and kick his ass for hurting my girl. “I’ll be right back.”

Thankfully, no one in the basement is using the washer, so I start by shoving the dirty sheets into the machine, before grabbing her clothes from the basket.

When I pull more clothes out, something clatters to the ground.

Frowning, I bend down to pick it up. “What the fuck?” I whisper, my eyes widening when I see a plastic stick. A pregnancy test. Why would Rylee have one of these?

My heart beats dangerously slow as I turn the test over and see that it says positive. “Holy fucking shit,” I whisper, my heart picking up speed until it's at full force, thundering in my chest so hard it’s nearly painful.

Is this Rylee’s? Maybe it’s one of the other girls. They could have used her bathroom and tossed it in the laundry.

Rylee keeps her door locked for the most part, so the only girl who would have used it, other than her, would have been Serenity.

Yet, as I stare down at the test, I know in my heart that it’s not Serenity’s.

This would explain the way she's been feeling for the last few weeks. She thought it was the flu… we all did.

Could it have been morning sickness?

“Fuck,” I groan, closing my eyes as I try to settle my breathing.

For the life of me, I hope this pregnancy test is Serenity’s.

Not because I don’t want Rylee to be pregnant.

If she is, I’ll be thrilled. I’ll take care of her and the baby, even though there's a good chance the baby isn’t mine.

It doesn’t matter to me though, because it will be hers, and I’ll love it just like it is my own flesh and blood.

No, I’m hoping it’s not because Rylee already has so much shit going on in her life. The last thing she needs is to be pregnant while one of the men she loves is having a baby with another woman.

“This is all so fucked,” I growl, shoving the test into my back pocket, so I can finish putting the clothes in the machine. After starting it, I head back upstairs to Rylee’s room.

I need to know if this test is hers, then we can go from there.

Finding her in the same place she was before, I grab her shoes and go over to her. “Let me put these on you,” I tell her, taking her foot gently in my hand, to slip on her shoes.

“What are you doing?”

“We’re going out for some fresh air.” I smile up at her.

“Trevor,” she whispers. “I don’t wanna go anywhere.”

“Come on. Please, for me.” I pout. “You’ve been stuck inside this house. You need some air.”

She looks like she wants to argue with me, but she doesn’t. She sighs and takes my outstretched hand when I get to my feet. “Okay.”

The answer sounds so defeated, but I take it as a win. Some air will do her good, some food will be even better.

And if she is pregnant, I plan on making sure everything is fine with her and the baby.

We’ve been sitting here for a little while, and I’m unsure how to bring up the question. What if I’m wrong, and I make things awkward? Or what if I’m right, and she has a breakdown because this isn’t something she wants?

I’ll be there to hold her up and be the strength she needs, but still, it’s something I have no knowledge of. Because if she is pregnant, I need to make sure both of them are healthy.

“Rylee.” I mumble her name against the top of her head from where we sit, cuddled together, watching the people outside who are walking past the coffee shop window.

I wanted to bring her some place she felt comfortable, so I brought her to the cafe she works at. Her boss took one look at her and knew exactly why she hadn't been into work for awhile.

She gave me a sad smile and told me that the food and drink were on the house.

Rylee hasn’t touched a bite of her croissant, and it’s taken everything in me not to press her to eat something, because I doubt she’s had a real meal since everything blew up.

“Mhhmm?” She hums her response, and I let out a sigh of relief that she heard me. It means she’s not as dejected as she was before.

“When I was doing the laundry earlier, I found something in the hamper from your bathroom,” I start, waiting to see what she does.

She says nothing for a few moments, but then her body goes stiff.

“Yeah?” she finally answers.

“Yeah.” I kiss her shoulder, nodding my head. “Any idea what it could have been?”

“No.” Her voice cracks, giving away her lie. My arms wrap around her tighter, trying to let her know that I’m not going anywhere.

“It’s okay, you know,” I say softly. “I’m here for you, baby.”

Rylee breaks down, full sobs ripping from her throat as she turns around in my arms, straddling my lap, so she can bury her face into my neck. I wrap my arms around her again, stroking her back and hair as she cries.

“It’s not going to be okay.” She sniffs. “Nothing about this is going to be okay.”

She pulls back, her eyes red and puffy from crying. “You're not alone, Rylee,” I reassure her, reaching up to brush some of the hair from her face. “You have me. You have Donny, Mateo, and Colton. And your friends. You're not alone.”

Letting out a sad laugh, she shakes her head.

“It’s not only me who’s broken, Trevor. All three of them have their own things going on in their lives that has nothing to do with what happened with Lennox.

Now add that on top of it, and everything is a fucking mess.

I’m a mess. What am I going to do with a baby?

That's the last thing they need to worry about right now.”

“So, you don’t want this?” I ask, making sure my question doesn’t come off as accusatory or judgemental.

I believe Rylee has the right to do with her body as she pleases.

If this baby isn’t what she wants, I’ll support her decision, but I believe she needs to talk to all of the guys before making a big choice like that.

In the end, though, it’s her right to choose, but this is big. Keeping this baby, or not, isn’t something to decide lightly.

She claps my face between her tiny cold hands. “That’s the thing, Trevor. I want this baby so badly that it hurts.” Tears roll down her cheeks, and I use my hands to brush them away. Fuck, seeing her like this guts me.

“There’s nothing fucked up about that Rylee.” I smile up at her, moving my head to the side to kiss her lips. “You're allowed to want this, to be happy about it.”

“How?” The question comes out broken. “How can I be happy when everything inside of me is broken? I can’t even take care of the ones I love, how can I take care of a baby?”

“You have me. I’m here for you, for anything you need, Rylee. I’m gonna be right by your side. We’ll get through this. I’ll do what I can to help the guys, but my main focus is you and this baby.” I lower my hand down to her flat belly, a surge of emotion filling my every cell.

“But, why? This baby might not even be yours. Depending on how far along I am.” She sniffs.

“Because.” I chuckle softly, reaching up with my free hand to lace my fingers into the hair at the back of her head, gently pulling her down to me. “I love you. I love every part of you. And this baby is half you. So I’m already in love.”

“Fuck,” she chokes out. “I don’t deserve you.”

“Nah, baby.” I press a soft kiss to her lips. “It’s me who doesn’t deserve you.”

We stay like this for a while, just locked in one another’s embrace.

“I don’t know where to go from here,” she admits softly.

“I think we start by getting a blood test and confirming the pregnancy. Then we’ll tell the guys, together.”

“You’d do that for me? Tell them with me?” She pulls back, searching my eyes for the truth.

“Rylee, baby, there’s just about nothing on this Earth I wouldn’t do for you.”

“Okay.” The soft smile that curves up her lips makes me feel like I’ve won the damn lottery. “We do this. Together.”

“Together.” I nod, smiling back.

“You don’t think I should tell the guys first?” She chews on her lower lip nervously as she plays with the hair at the back of my neck.

“You can, if you really want to. But I think they have so much going on right now, we should check with the doctor to make sure first.”

“Yeah,” she agrees, nodding her head, then wipes at her eyes with the back of her hands. “I don’t want to give them something to get worked up over if there’s nothing.”

“Come on.” I cup her ass, sliding us out of the booth and getting to my feet, keeping her legs locked around my waist and her arms around my neck. “Let’s go to the walk-in clinic.”

“Now?” she asks, her eyes brighter than I’ve seen in days.

“Of course.” I grin. “I need to make sure my babies are okay.”

Her face falls before she crashes her lips to mine, crying into the kiss. “I fucking love you.”

“And I fucking love you, too.”

No matter what happens, I’ll be right by Rylee’s side.

Now I just have to get the others on the same page as me. Because something I know for sure, Rylee is going to need all of us.