“Donald fuck on a cracker.” In a time like this, I can’t even bring myself to smile at his choice of words. The only thing I feel is a deep-seated feeling of failure like I let him down.
I’m a Daddy’s girl, so knowing I could have let my hero down in some way is an arrow to my heart.
“I’m so sorry, Daddy!” I weep, covering my face in my cool hands. “We used protection. We did everything we were suppose—”
His thick, muscular hand slicing through the air shuts me up in an instant. “Having a baby at a young age may have worked out for us, darlin’, but that doesn’t mean it works out for everyone. The simple fact is your mom already had a ring on her finger, and she was almost seventeen when we got married. You don’t have a ring or any promises.”
“How is that bad?” I ask, twisting in my seat. “You and Mom have a fantastic marriage. You both love each other. Hunter will be there, Daddy. He will.”
He grows serious within the blink of an eye, a crestfallen expression masking his features. “It wasn’t always this easy, baby girl. Your mom and I …” He takes his lips between his teeth, softly biting on the plump piece of skin. “We weren’t always in the best of places with each other.”
I tilt my head to the side. “Lots of marriages have ups and downs, Daddy.”
He shakes his head. “Not like this. The baby I’m talking about? I know all about your mom’s abortion. I’ve just been sitting here waiting for her to tell me herself.”
My mouth falls agape. “You’ve been waiting seventeen years?”
“Eighteen,” he replies, giving me a dark look. “She got pregnant with that baby four months before she got pregnant with Duncan.”
“This whole time … you knew?”
He shoots me a look. “Of course, I knew. She couldn’t really hide an abortion when she used her insurance card to pay for it. As you know, her insurance is connected to mine through my position at work.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I ask, completely dumfounded.
Anyone who knows my dad knows without a doubt how very outspoken he is. He’s very political, doesn’t cuss unless things really bother him, and even then, he makes the curse words sound like cartoon characters to soften their intensity. He’s a hardworking man who’s always provided for his family. Never once has he asked for anything other than our health to be tip-top and for our love to overflow.
He’s a simple man with simple tastes and simple needs.
But he’s the most complex person I’ve ever met if he knew about his child and didn’t say anything.
“I figured she would tell me when she got enough courage to.”
“Or she could be hoping you never found out about it.”
He nods. “That too.” Then he goes quiet for a moment as he once more puts the truck in drive and rambles on down the street, but then he sighs and asks in the smallest voice I think I’ve ever heard from him before, “I take it you’re going to do the right by that boy, aren’t you?”
I heave a sigh. “I’m not getting an abortion, Dad, regardless of if he wants to be there or not. But yeah, I’m tellin’ him.”
After a few moments of silence, he parks in front of the Princes’ home—a three-story monstrous thing, with vines covering one side of the house, big, thick columns holding the minuscule roof that’s supposed to opt as a porch. A circular drive with a few more parked cars than usual.
“Good girl.”
His praise makes me smile. While he may be pissed about me having a kid at sixteen, he’s not when it comes to me doing the right thing. I know, even in the hardest times, that he’ll always be there for me. Just like I know Duncan will, too.
I can’t be like my mom and hide something like this from the one person who deserves to know. Hunter has done nothing wrong, and he should know—and have an opinion—about where we go from here. And while this isn’t what I would usually do, just showing up like this without texting or calling, I figured this is a serious situation that needs to be dealt with as soon as possible.
Giving my dad a kiss, I jump out of the truck and give him a thin smile. I can’t let him know how terrified I am right now. This pregnancy test is burning a hole in my purse, and the guy who should see it the most is right inside. Wonder what his reaction will be? Will he be happy? Sad? Mad?
The unknown is what gnaws at my gut the most. Hunter is such an eccentric person, hot one minute and cold the next.
I shake my head. He couldn’t go cold on me for something like this. Smiling for real, I rub my stomach, even though it’s crazy with the pregnancy being so new, and I start up his driveway just as my dad pulls away and heads home. Knowing my luck, he’ll probably venture in having that conversation with Mom tonight, and I don’t know if I’m ready to be part of that yet.
My feet squelch into the muddy grass shortly before I hit the blacktop in front of their semblance of a porch. Mustering all the courage that I can possibly can, I raise my finger, but instead of pushing down on the doorbell, my hand just slightly hovers away from it, shaking up a storm.
“Come on, you can do this, Harloe,” I murmur to myself, then force what little courage I have to the forefront, making my finger push down the button.
My throat is tight with anxiety and nerves, making it hard to swallow. Breathing becomes more erratic the longer I stand here in the blistering cold, shuffling from side to side.
An unsettling feeling churns in my stomach when I glance back at the car, seeing one in the drive that I’m not familiar with. Hopefully, they don’t have important company. I know how important Mr. Prince is, and I’d hate to interrupt anything. Wouldn’t have to if he had texted you back, my inner voice snidely comments.
Pushing it all from my head, I ring the bell again. This time, it opens almost instantly with Mrs. Prince shadowing the opening.
Her eyes widen imperceptibly. If I hadn’t been looking at her face, I would’ve never known I’d caught her off guard. But I did, and her reaction to my presence is shady as crap.
“What are you doing here, honey?” she asks a bit too sugary.
She and I haven’t always gotten along, but she does tolerate me due to my dad and her husband’s friendship. She even pretends to like my mom for Liam’s sake, when we all know she looks down her nose at her.
Also, I can’t tell her the real reason why I’m here, not before Hunter. No, I need to tell him in private, and then he can share the news however he likes. I just hope he does intend to let people know, and his thoughts don’t automatically turn toward what my mom suggested. If so, I’ll be heartbroken.
Instead, I think of a lie on the spot. “I came to give Hunter his Christmas present.” I smile, gesturing to my bag. “I know tomorrow is a bit busy for him going to both grandparents’ homes, so I was going to swap gifts earlier. But he said he had a lot to do, and so, here I am.”
“Well, darling—” She shifts uneasily in her heels. That should have been a red flag right there, but instead, like an innocent teenager, I didn’t know anything.
“Well, what?” I ask, the churning in my stomach getting worse. Especially when she looks behind the door at someone, and then brings her eyes back to mine. Her features are sad yet angry at the same time.