I'm Yours (Bold As Love) (10 page)

I slide my hands up and down her sides, relishing in the feel of her. “I love you Jake. I’m so happy that I met you. I’m so lucky that you were there to save me. It’s just that I’ve been thinking about our future and what your uncle said.”

I stop her and say, “Sweetness, don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

She sits up and looks at me. “I’m not. I’m just trying to figure everything out. I’m trying to figure out how we are going to take both of our dreams and put them together so we are both happy.”

“
What do you want to do Sweetness?”

“
I want to be a dentist.”

“
Do you have any place in mind that you want to go to?” She shakes her head. “Then just come to Charlotte with me. I’m sure there’s a school there for you. See? Easy peasy.”

“
You sure? You want me to come to Charlotte with you?”

“
Of course. Why wouldn’t I want you there? I love you, Sweetness.”

A smile covers her face and she leans in to give me a kiss. “Sorry, it’s just one of those nights,” she says, referring to when she doubts herself. She rests her head back in the crook of my neck and kisses a spot over and over. “You don’t ever have to doubt yourself with me Emily. I’m always going to want you. I’m always going to want to love you, kiss you, and have you with me. I’m always going to want to hold my sweetness. Always.”

I feel her smile as she gives me another kiss. “Can I stay with you tonight?”

“
Of course.”

She stands and hold out her hand. I intertwine our fingers and kiss her knuckles. We walk back to my house and sneak up to my room. Emily slips into my bed as I take off my hoodie and shoes. I set my alarm for 5:30 so she’ll have time to get home before her dad wakes up and climb in beside her. She cuddles up to me and I wrap my arms around her. In seconds, she’s asleep.

Over the next three weeks, Emily sleeps over every night. I ask her if there was an particular reason why, not that I minded. She said no. She just wanted to be close to me. I loved waking up every morning to see her sweet, beautiful sleeping face.

Drake and I spent more time together. Lately, I had been spending all my time with Emily, but since Drake mentioned hanging out, I had been spending more time with him. Dad doesn’t say much since our little encounter, but it doesn’t bother me.

Prom was tonight and I was beyond ecstatic to see Emily in her dress again. I wore the same tux and same purple tie. I ended up getting a plain purple mask too. I was waiting in the living room with Mike. What was taking her so long?! Finally, I hear the door to her room creak open and I pop up from my seat. So beautiful. She had ringlets of curls in her hair, the pretty mask, and perfect dress. “Wow,” is all I can manage.

Emily gives me a sly smile and I hear Mike let out a whistle. “You look beautiful honey,” he says walking over to kiss her cheek.

“
Thank you Daddy.”

I walk over and stare into those beautiful brown eyes while I slip on her corsage. “You look amazing, Em.” A blush makes it’s way to her cheeks and I give her a kiss on the lips.

Mike takes a few pictures of us, but I keep messing them up by looking over to gaze at Emily. Finally, we get a good one. I usher Emily outside and open the door for her. She gets in and I rush to the other side. I slide into my seat and head to the prom, which is lamely being held in the gym. I keep stealing glances at Emily and finally, she turns to me and asks, “What?”

“
You just look amazing. I can’t not look at you.”

A shy smile flits across her lips and she takes my hand. Soon we arrive at the school and I’m excited to show off my girl. We hand the teacher our tickets and she grants us entrance. Inside, I’m surprised at how the gym looks. It’s breathtaking and looks nothing like a gym with its soft lights and decorations. Bobby, one of my friends, catches sight of Emily and walks over with his mouth hanging open.

“
Who is your date Jake? Where’s Emily?”

I wrap my arm around Emily’s waist and smile. “This is Emily, Bobby. Quit drooling,” I chuckle. Bobby blinks and continues to look Emily up and down. “You look beautiful Emily. Not that you didn’t before, but wow.”

“
Thanks Bobby,” Emily says with a blush. A few of the guys make their way over and say hi along with their dates. When Claire comes up with her date, Henry, Emily just rests her head on my shoulder. The guys talk about their upcoming plans for college. Emily kept quiet, but would occasionally say something.

“
Excuse me fellas, but I’ve got to dance with Emily.” I lead her to the dance floor and bring her close to me. “How’s it going Sweetness?”

“
Wonderful,” she says placing her head in her favorite spot. We sway to the music, even when it changes to faster paced song. Emily kisses my neck and looks up at me with a smile. “I love you Jake Benson.”

“
I love you Emily Johnson,” I say, placing a kiss upon her lips. We leave the dance floor to chat some more with the guys and Emily joins the conversation that the girls are having. Soon, prom is over and we are heading to the after party.

“
Jake?” Emily questions as we walk up the steps to the house.

“
Yeah?”

“
Just a warning that I feel like partying. I know you haven’t seen this side of me yet, so be prepared for just about anything.” I chuckle and loosen my tie as we walk through the doors. Emily finds her way around easily as she goes to the kitchen to fix her a glass of vodka and cranberry juice. I follow her to get a beer. She chugs her drink and fixes another, but this time it’s tequila instead of vodka.

After that drink and another beer for me, Emily has really loosened up and drags me to where everyone is dancing. I never knew Emily could move the way she was. She must have felt how excited I was because she led me upstairs, full of giggles. She takes my beer and finishes it off before handing it back to me. I smile as she checks the rooms, mumbling sorry until she finds an empty one.

She pushes me back on the bed and takes charge of the situation. She slips out of her dress and soon she has me wrapped around her little finger so tightly that I would do just about anything to have her right that second. Who knew she was such a tease!

Emily

I haven’t felt particularly good today. Talk about being nauseous and just bleh. Probably didn’t help that we partied last night after prom. I didn’t get home until early this morning. I had a headache from my hangover. After me and Jake had some fun of our own, we went back downstairs and partied some more. We got a friend of Jake’s, who was sober, to drive us home. Jake was hanging out with the guys today and would go back to get his car.

I roll over and look at the date on my phone to see that it was April 30
^th
around noon. Shit. I was two weeks late. No. That couldn’t be right. I bit my lip as fear rose high. I couldn’t be pregnant. We used condoms every single time.

Shit. Not the first time. But still, I was on birth control. If I was, what would happen to the baby since I drank like a sailor last night? Oh my. If I was pregnant, I was already acting like my mom. I would have already harmed the baby because of alcohol. My hands began to shake as I grabbed my keys from the nightstand. I walked down the hall and into the living room where my dad was watching TV. “Dad, I’m going out for a while.”

“
Okay, honey.”

I walked through the kitchen and into the garage. It took three times to get my key in the ignition. I opened the garage and backed out. I didn’t want to go to a store around here. Too many people would be curious about me. I drove the hour drive to Jacksonville. I stopped at the Target, which was one of the first stores that would have the test.

I grabbed my wallet from the console and hurried inside. Oh my god. Please. This can not be happening. I found the pregnancy tests easy enough and grabbed one of each brand. I had to be certain. The woman at the register gave me a look full of sorrow as she rang me up. I paid and went straight to the bathroom. I couldn’t do this at home. Twenty minutes and five tests later, I knew my answer.

Jake

Around five, I pull up at my house from a day with the boys. Emily is sitting on my steps and I’m so happy to see her. As I get out of my car and walk towards her, she looks up and tears are in her eyes. I sit beside her and pull her to me. “Sweetness, what’s the matter? What happened?” She just kept crying. I try to sooth her, but to no avail. “Emily, please. Tell me what’s going on?”

“
I’m pregnant.”

I froze. My heart might as well have stopped beating. What? How? Images of our first time together smashed into me. Emily’s broken voice brought me to reality. “Jake, say something.” I looked at her and gulped. What was I supposed to say? The only thing I knew was that I couldn’t just leave her.

“
Are you sure?”

“
Five tests sure,” she answers.

“
We’ll figure this out. I promise.”

I held her to me as she continued to soak my shirt with her tears. What were we going to do? I wasn’t ready to raise a baby. I wanted to go to college and play in the NHL. How in the hell could I do that with a baby? How could Emily accomplish her goals with a baby? Would we get an abortion? My throat constricted at the thought of killing an unborn baby. Would we give it up for adoption so we could go to college?

“
Jake, what are we going to do?” Emily’s voice was desperate as she searched my eyes for answers.

“
We need to go somewhere and talk, just us,” I tell her. I pull her up and take her over to my car. I have no clue where we will go. I just drive. Almost two hours later, we arrive at the beach where our first date took place. We get out and walk down the beach. “Jake, abortion is not an option,” Emily starts. “I just can’t do that.”

“
Me neither. There’s so much to think about Emily. If we keep it, we have to think about school and money. If we don’t, we have to think about adoption. I don’t know what to think, Sweetness,” I confide.

Emily’s hand touch her stomach. “I don’t know if I can give the baby up, Jake. How can I give up this little life inside of me after spending nine months with it? I don’t think I can do that. I will completely understand if you rather go to college instead of dealing with this.”

That stops me dead in my tracks. I turn her towards me and keep my arms on hers. “Sweetness, this is
our
baby. No matter what we decide, I’m going to be there. I promise.”

“
Okay.” She still doesn’t seem convinced to me, but I let it drop for now. “So what are we going to do?”

“
I don’t know. I think we need to talk to our dads.” At that, Emily frowns. I can’t help but chuckle. “It’ll be fine. I’ll be right there with you.”

She nods. We walk along the beach in silence for a while before turning around to head home. This wasn’t going to go well.

We decided to tell our parents together. Drake went to a friend’s house for the time being. Mike and my dad were sitting across from us at the kitchen table at Emily’s. I held her hand in reassurance. Emily said she wanted to tell her dad. She was scared to death though. So was I. I never expected this to happen. Emily drew in a deep breath and looked down at our hands. “I’m pregnant,” she whispers.

Our dads sit still in shock. After a minute, Mike gets up and starts pacing. “What the hell?! Emily, you know better than to have sex unprotected!”

“
I’ve been on birth control for years. There was only once that we didn’t use a condom,” she says softly. The fact that she has been on birth control for a long time surprised me, although, I guess it shouldn’t. My dad covers his face with his hands and then ran them through his thinning hair. “You two have really fucked up,” is all he manages to say.

You think? I’m tempted to say it aloud, but I know better than to throw gasoline on a fire. Mike finishes his pacing as Emily’s tears start again. Mike walks over to her and pulls her up to hug her. “There are options, honey. We just need to discuss them,” he sooths while she sobs into his chest. My heart breaks at her tears and at what is certain to be our lost future.

After ten minutes, Emily has calmed down and they return to their seats. “You could have an abortion,” my dad says.

“
No way,” Emily says quickly.

My dad nods.

“
You do know that if you keep this baby, you will lose a normal college experience, if you go. Not to mention the fact that Jake is going to college to play hockey,” Mike says.

“
Daddy, I don’t know if I can give my baby up after going through the pregnancy for so long. I’m already attached to it,” she says.

Our fathers sigh. “A baby costs a lot of money, Emily. Not to mention that neither of you have jobs. You are living off of us. Sure, we could help out, but if you guys are going to be parents, you need to be adults and get jobs. Trying to go to college, work, and take care of a baby is going to be way too much. I think you should really think about adoption,” my dad says.

Emily bites her lip and I squeeze her hand. “Okay. We’ll think about it,” she finally says.

“
I’ll call tomorrow to get you set up with an appointment and take off work to go with you,” Mike says.

“
I’m coming,” I state. “Emily isn’t going through this without me.”

Mike and my dad just nod. “I want to talk with Mike about this. You two go to her room,” my dad instructs. We walk in silence down the hall. Emily flops onto her bad, laying on her back with her feet dangling off the bed. “Jake, I’m scared.”