Page 11

CHAPTER 11

HARLOWE

T wo days before Brooks came back to town and my little reprieve from having to see him was almost over. There was no doubt in my mind he’d be around wanting to know why I’d blocked him. He would find me, probably be angry, then get pissed when I told him why.

Telling him I was pregnant was not appealing to me at all, but I was going to enjoy what time I had left before that happened. All this stress couldn’t be good for the baby and I wouldn’t lie as to why I had blocked him.

He’d been a dick to me and I’d let him know that. If nothing else, he had to at least be civil because we were going to raise a kid together because there was zero doubt that he’d want to be involved with his kid.

What Camden had said rung in my ears like a church bell that I stood too close to.

“Hello!” a feminine voice called out from the front of the place. It was a voice that I could place anywhere. Camden was here. After hanging out with her and the girlfriends two nights ago, I hadn’t seen her, but we didn’t see each other every day.

“What’re you doing here?” I asked as I came through the door that led to the kitchen. No one else was in yet and I’d been doing some ordering this morning.

“Don’t you keep the door locked when you’re here alone?” She had her hands on her hips like she was ready to chastise me depending on how I answered that question.

“Usually, I do,” I told her. “I must’ve forgotten.”

She shook her head at me like a disappointed parent. “That’s not good, Harlowe. I could’ve been some kind of weirdo.”

I snorted. “You are some kind of weirdo. What’re you doing here?”

“I was out and about.” She slid onto a stool at the bar. “Thought I’d stop to check in on you. How are you feeling?”

“Good, actually. I haven’t actually thrown up since I got the fluids. My stomach doesn’t always feel great, but I can deal with it.”

“Well, you don’t even look pregnant.”

A laugh burst from my chest. “I would hope not. I’m, like, eight weeks or something. Could you imagine if I were showing?” I shook my head. “That would be awful.”

“Right. Can I get a water?” she asked, but when I moved to get it for her she slid off her stool and hopped in front of me. “I know where to get it. I didn’t mean for you to be the one to do it.”

I held my hands up in front of myself. “Sorry.”

Camden would be a good aunt. Hell, she would probably be more excited about the prospect of a baby than anyone else would be. Of course, she’d be excited anyway because it was my kid.

After getting her glass of water, she settled back in on the same stool she’d occupied before. I climbed up onto the one next to her. If I knew Camden—which I did—she had something on her mind.

“What’s going on?” I asked her as I set my hand on her arm. “You look like there’s something on your mind. Is it one of your brothers?” After swallowing hard, I added, “The knee thing?” I didn’t want to say his name right now, like if I did, something terrible would happen.

I was keeping my little happy place.

“Oh, no.” She waved me off. “I mean, my brothers have said that Brooks has been in a foul mood, but it isn’t his knee. That might get sore after a long game, but barely and it’s nothing he hasn’t worked through before.”

“That’s good. I assumed he’d be fine. That was a couple of months ago and everything. So I know something is bugging you—tell me. Before I drag it out of you.”

Camden grinned. “As if you could.”

“Try me.”

Her smiled fell as she traced a finger over the glass of water in front of her. “I’m just wondering if you’re ever going to tell me who your baby daddy is. I’m dying to know and you’ve known a month.”

I let out a long sigh. “I’ll tell you eventually. I promise, you’ll know soon enough. And remember, we are allowed a little bit of secrecy Miss I Hate Baseball Players But Won’t Tell Anyone Why.”

She rolled her eyes in an exaggerated way because that was my one weapon against her. The one reason she had to understand why I might not want to tell her yet. “Can you at least tell me if I know him? Then I can start a murder board and figure it out myself.”

I covered my mouth as I snickered. “You do know him,” I told her. “But you’re not going to figure it out.”

“And you’re sure you’re not going to tell me?”

As I gave her a stern look, I said, “Not yet. Soon. Sooner than you want me to, I promise.”

“Unlikely.” She hopped off the stool and headed to the door, turning so she was walking backward. “I don’t really care, I guess, because I’m going to be this kid’s favorite aunt no matter who else she’s related to.”

Then she left the restaurant.

My stomach was in knots because Camden had meant “her” favorite aunt because she was my best friend and thought the baby was a girl. Not because she knew she would actually be my baby’s aunt.

But I knew that she was going to be pissed as hell at me and probably at her brother too. No, not probably. Definitely.

There were no delusions of white picket fences and happily-ever-afters here. Not where Brooks was concerned, so I didn’t care much about how he was going to react. Which was a total lie that I was telling myself.

Camden, on the other hand… I could lose my oldest friend over this. She had a real complex about friends with her brothers. As in, in the past once they were with one of her brothers, they weren’t really her friends anymore. The breakups made that a given. The question was… would that apply to me?

I suppose you could say that the universe was trying to help me not obsess about my baby situation by having my mother call me right when I needed the distraction.

“Hey, Mom,” I answered and realized that I still hadn’t decided fully if I should tell my parents about the baby.

“Hi, Harlowe.” She had an edge in her voice that told me I wasn’t going to like whatever came next. “Do you have time to come over today?”

I blew out a quick breath as I quickly ran through the schedule for today in my mind. “No,” I told her. “Today is bad.” One too many servers needed today off and while I needed to get better at limiting how many could be off at a time, I hadn’t done that yet. So I was going to be slammed. “I’m closing tonight. Why? What’s up?”

She covered the phone and while I could hear her talking to someone—my dad, most likely—I couldn’t make out what she was saying. “How about tomorrow? After lunch?” Because they were not nor had they ever been early risers.

“Sure,” I promised. Tomorrow, I was off anyway. Actually, I’d planned myself three days off in a row. Another thing I was trying to be better at because the further I got in this pregnancy, the more I was going to need it.

“All right.” Though she didn’t sound any happier about this than I did. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Mom,” I stopped her. “What’s going on? Why do you want me to come over?”

“We’ll talk about it tomorrow, Harlowe.”

“All right.” We said goodbye , then I ended the call.

My only hunch was that it was about Cleats & Kegs. Most deep conversation made my mom nervous, but that was the thing I was focused on and I couldn’t think of anything else.

So I spent the night worrying while delivering food to tables and taking care of the place I hoped to own one day. I even tossed and turned that night and it wasn’t all about the bar and grill. After tomorrow, Brooks would be back in town and hopefully, he’d continue to avoid me, but the closer we got to that time, the more I felt it was unlikely.

In the morning, I didn’t rush, but I got myself together to go to my parents’ house. She’d said after lunch, but what the hell did that mean? My lunch or theirs?

Not wanting to worry about it, I spent my morning grocery shopping then went to their house around one. I’d gotten the groceries put away first and cleaned up a little.

My stomach was absolutely ablaze trying to scorch me from the inside. There were too many things that could go wrong in my life right now and if I didn’t figure out a way to stop worrying about every single thing, I was going to be completely gray before I was twenty-five.

Dad answered the door and let me in. After the normal greetings, I sat down on the couch where I usually did and let my hands fall into my lap as the toes on my right foot tapped an SOS on the carpet.

“So,” I started. “What’s up? What couldn’t we talk about over the phone?”

“Are you feeling all right?” Mom eyed me suspiciously. “You don’t look too well.”

“I’m fine,” I said right away. Maybe now would be a good time to tell them I was pregnant. They wouldn’t take it well and it could be a practice run for telling Brooks since I didn’t think he was going to react well, either.

“Maybe the restaurant is too much for you,” she said, making it hard for me not to roll my eyes.

“It’s not,” I countered. “I was sick a couple of weeks ago. Still recovering.

“All right,” Dad said, cutting in so Mom would lay off how I looked, most likely. “We got the information about selling. Wanted to talk to you about it in person.”

He handed over an envelope, which I tore into. When I saw the first page, I almost vomited again, though this time not from morning sickness.

“Are you serious right now?” I asked, fighting tears, which was so unlike me. Stupid hormones. Not only were they making me horny as hell, but they were also going to turn me into a crier? I didn’t think so.

“Now, honey.” Dad held his hand up like he was trying to hold back a flood of something. Emotion, probably. “This is the fair appraisal.”

And me being their daughter didn’t qualify me for any kind of discount. That, I had expected. This asking price… I had not.

“It’s always busy. It makes good income and profit,” Mom added, as if she knew almost anything about the place. Sure, she had been in the place, but never once, to my knowledge, had she looked at the books.

“And we need to get it on the market,” Dad continued. “We need to be out from under it.”

Because they were ready to live their next life and that was fine. I just didn’t understand why they refused to just go and reap the rewards while I saved up the money.

But… realistically, how quickly would that be now that I was going to have a baby? There was no doubt in my mind that Brooks would support his kid. Of course he would. But that didn’t include me and I also had to support my kid. It wasn’t all on him, even if he had more money than he’d ever know what to do with.

He had his millions-of-dollars-a-year contract with no sign of retiring. His next contract would probably be bigger. But he also had an inheritance from his grandmother and when his grandfather died, he’d have even more. Not that anyone wanted that to happen. His grandpa was a good guy. Funny—and he always treated me like one of his grandkids.

“I don’t have this much. I don’t have enough to bring to the table for a loan yet.”

Dad’s face softened, but Mom’s didn’t. “We figured that, sweetheart, but we really do have to sell as soon as possible.”

A tear slipped down my cheek. This was the one thing I’d been working toward since before I’d graduated high school. Now, it was just going to be gone. There wasn’t even a guarantee that whoever bought the place would keep me on, which would mean I’d be pregnant and looking for a job.

Fuck my life right now.

It was all happening at once and my heart was hurting. Every plan I’d had was just evaporating into thin air.

“Why can’t you wait?” My voice cracked as I asked the question, but anger was quickly replacing the sadness. “Why can’t you wait?” This time, I was stronger. “I’m not super far away from having the upfront costs to get a loan. With this valuation, it’ll be a little longer, but not long. I just don’t have the credit history to get the loan without the big down payment.”

They weren’t just selling the business, but the building it was in as well. Grandpa had bought it when he’d opened it and given the cost of real estate in that area, it was a huge part of the cost. How in the hell were you supposed to have a long credit history when you had only been allowed to get credit three years ago?

“You could just go,” I said, finally looking up at them. “Just go. Leave everything to me. I’ll make sure the taxes get paid. You won’t have to do anything. You can just get profit and go wherever the hell you want to go.”

I hated that it sounded like I was begging, but in reality, I kind of was.

“What about a partner?” Dad suggested. “Someone to take on part of the financial burden.”

“Oh. Camden.” Suddenly, Mom’s eyes lit up at her idea. To her, Camden would be perfect because she came from a rich family. It was one of the things Mom liked most about my best friend. “It’s not like she wouldn’t have the money. Her dad made a lot as a player and her mom’s family has been wealthy for generations.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I have to do this on my own.”

In part because I needed stability for myself and in part because I’d never in my life asked Camden for any kind of money and I never would. Our friendship wasn’t based on the fact that her parents had money or that she did now that she’d turned twenty-one and inherited her trust fund from her grandmother.

“Well, there’s just no more time left,” Dad said. “We’re going to list it at the beginning of next week and I think it’ll go rather quickly. If you can figure out something before we get a decent offer, it can be yours, but this is what we’re doing.”

Nodding absently, I pushed to my feet with the papers in hand. I hadn’t even looked at the second page or any after that. There wasn’t a point. I couldn’t afford this and reading anything else wasn’t going to change that.

Then I left their house, holding in my tears until I got to my car.

The only thing left to do was start looking for a new job. Everyone else would mostly get to stay, I assumed, but I was the former owner’s kid, whom they might think was slightly overpaid. Plus, I didn’t want to work in a bar and grill for the rest of my life. I wanted to own it.

It was time to do something else, I supposed.

After wiping away my tears, I started my car and got the hell away from my parents. It wasn’t until I was halfway home that I realized I hadn’t bothered to tell them I was pregnant. It didn’t matter. They wouldn’t be happy or excited. In fact, my mother would’ve probably told me that I’d ruined my life just like she had. The fact that I didn’t have a man to show for it would only further prove her point, though she’d be ecstatic to hear that Brooks Briggs was the baby’s father. That would get her attention.

No. I was better that I hadn’t told them.

At this point, I was thinking that I never would. If they lived the nomad life that they wanted to, there’d be no reason for me to cross paths with them again.