I was alone at home and bored. I’d been looking at college options—local ones—but there was only so long I could keep it up. At least, when I did it at Adele’s place, I could look up and see her sitting not too far away from me.She was the whole reason I was going through with this, after all. Having my motivation right there was usually enough to keep me going.Of course, I wasn’t doing it just for her. I was doing it for us, for our future. For the baby. I was still keeping it under wraps while trying to find the best time to tell Adele this good piece of news. That I might be going to the same college she would, so we wouldn’t have to be separated. At least, not for too long if she ended up waiting until after she had the baby to go. And then, we could raise him or her together.She’d been going to the doctors. Lately, I thought to myself. Is it still too early for an ultrasound? Then we could find out if the baby is a boy or a girl…I wasn’t sure that was something she’d want to

I figured Dad would be sitting at the dinner table when I finally made my way to the kitchen. I’d been dragging my feet, practically crawling, so by the time I did walk in there; it had probably been a whole minute when it was only a few steps away. Instead, he was at the stove.My eyebrows arched, and I just stood there awkwardly, until Dad glanced at me. “Are you going to sit down, or what? I was already making lunch before you came back, so don’t think this is just for you.”I nodded in understanding. Even though it was a little late for lunch, Dad and Laurie looked like they’d been arguing for a while before we arrived, and that was probably when he’d started making the food, then forgotten it and just left it on the table. No, he was just gazing at it.“Will that be safe to eat?” I asked tentatively.“It’s fine,” he said, waving a hand at me. “I was worried it would take a while, when… Laurie said she wanted to talk. So I turned the stove off. It’s not like I would have left it

The drive wasn’t even that long, but on the way back, I didn’t feel like I was in a hurry, so we were going slower that before. I’d been right, too. Now and then, everything would hit me again, and my eyes would blur with tears. I’d remove a hand from the wheel to wipe my eyes, and go on driving.“Why don’t we stop somewhere on the way?” Adele was the one to make the suggestion.I glanced over at her. “You think it’s a good idea?” I asked, not feeling against it.“I think so. You need some time to calm down, at least, and you can't do that while you’re driving. An hour won’t put us out too much, right? We’ll get back on the road before it gets too dark. We passed a small hotel on the way; we could see if they do hourly rates…”There was no argument from me, and when the hotel came into view, I got off the road. We were lucky; they did do hourly rates. We didn’t pay any less if we stayed under the hour, but if we were over by a minute, there were extra fees. I didn’t even care, paying

The car came to a stop, and I took a look out the window.“Are you sure it’s fine to be out here?” I asked, glancing over at Liam.He shrugged his shoulders. “I mean, we’ve been out here in the dark before. And it’s a relatively safe town, no wild animals running around, so it should still be fine, right?”I bit down on my lip, watching anxiously as he stepped out of the car. A second later, I sighed and stepped out as well. He was right; we’d been out here in the dark before. How could I not remember that night? I’d been at home, and out of nowhere, Liam had been outside my window, throwing pebbles. I snuck out, and we spent the night out.“Help me out with this,” Liam called out.He had the trunk open, and he was pulling some stuff out. He held a blanket out to me, moving closer so he could keep whatever else he still had in the trunk a secret. Tonight was a lot like that night. I’d been home, and he’d come to pick me up. Only, this time, he knocked on the door. Mom was out, she and

After our little rest, it was back to packing things up. The blanket and candles would be last to go, so I just sat back as I watched him carefully arrange everything in his bags. He had his back to me, so I couldn’t see exactly what was going on, just his limbs moving as he worked. I was feeling lazy and sated, so I didn’t even offer to help, though I was the one that distracted him in the first place.“How did you think to come out here?” I asked, feeling curious.“Hmm?” He glanced at me over his shoulder. “I don’t know. I figured doing it at either of our places was a bit risky, and I didn’t want to share tonight with anyone else. And then it just hit me, that somehow, we had plenty of highlights in our relationship right here, so why not add one more?”I snickered. “We’ve had sex here before, though,” I reminded him. “So I don’t think that counts.”Liam chuckled. “I guess there’s that, huh.”His voice sounded a little odd as he said it, though, and it was enough to get me to stop