Reed's Reckoning (5 page)

“Ari, I need you to tell me what happened.”

She sighs and tears fall down her cheeks as she starts her story.

He looks at me sincerely and I know I need to tell him. I swore I would never repeat this story for the rest of my life. But now, I want him to hear the pain and anguish.

The café he asked me to meet him at is almost empty when I take my seat at the back table. My tea is in front of me and my head reels from the doctor’s appointment I just left. God, I hope he’s serious. He says he loves me but a baby? This might send him running for the hills. He has so much going for him the next few months, what if he resents me? I started the shot shortly after we started dating and waited two months before having sex. Even then, I made him wear a condom for the first few weeks. He never complained, but the first time I told him we were safe, he jumped at the chance to go without.

Now here I am about to tell him we’re having a baby. I want him to be happy, but if he’s not, I’ll accept his decision.

“Well, well, well. Look who it is.” I barely recognize the girl. I think she was in my freshman dorm, but we’ve never really spoken. I don’t know any of the friends with her.

“Can I help you?” I ask politely taking a sip of my tea.

“Actually, I’m here to help you.” She looks over her shoulder at a beautiful girl who looks at me with venom in her eyes. “This is Reed’s girlfriend. She’s moving here for the rest of the semester and for the draft. Seeing as you have been spending so much time with him, maybe it’s time y’all met. Bailey and Reed are high school sweethearts.”

My stomach rolls and my head spins. Did she say girlfriend? I look at this girl again and she is staring through me with an icy glare.

“It’s time you step back from the fairytale you’re living and leave him alone. We’re all here to root him on and watch his dream of being an NFL player come true. He always wanted to slum for a while, but now it’s time for him to concentrate.”

“No way, you’re full of bullshit. We’ve been together far too long for me to believe a girlfriend would come conveniently out of the woodwork when he’s so close to the draft.”

“Believe it, bitch!” Bailey speaks up and her face is so full of hatred, I sit back. “He’s mine. Always has been. We may have taken a few small breaks, but I’m back in his life for good now. You need to back the fuck off.”

“Small breaks? Is that what we call breaking up nowadays? What makes you so sure he still wants you? Seems to me like what we have is pretty special.”

“Special? You call screwing a two-bit whore special? What can you offer him? I can tell you—nothing! You’re trash.”

Her words hurt but she’s just getting started. “You need to stay away from Reed starting today. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll back off.”

“And if I don’t?”

“How much do you and your precious friend Luke need your scholarships? What about your housing allowance and stipends? That’s the first to go. We’ve got influence here that you can’t even imagine, Arianna. Our connections combined could have your ass off campus before Spring Break.” Dorm girl practically hisses at me. Her friends look amused.

All I can think is that this can’t be happening. I shake my head in disbelief.

“Yeah, bitch, believe it.” She pulls out her phone and her friends do the same.

My phone starts buzzing on the table and I look to see a barrage of text messages. There are pictures of me with Sophie, Luke, and Reed all at different places at different times.

“Make a decision now. If you don’t leave Reed alone, he has given us permission to post the pictures on all social media sites claiming you’re a stalker.”

“What? Reed?”

“Ding, ding, ding, the idiot finally clues in. Of course he approves. He’s the one who sent us today. When Bailey got to town, he told her everything. Their reconciliation took hours, but we finally got her out from under him. He told us to meet you here.”

All of them laugh and my eyes well with tears but I refuse to let them get to me.

“Well, in that case, nothing to talk about. If he sent you to me, then message received. You all can kiss my ass. You can have him.” I say pointedly to Bailey.

I get up to leave and push through them.

“Oh and Ari, don’t feel bad if he told you he loved you. He’s a charmer.”

My breathing hitches but I don’t answer her. I walk to my car and slide in. I grab my phone and dial Reed but his phone goes straight to voicemail. The sound of his voice crushes me.

I hang up without leaving a message. Everything in my body is screaming to go find him, but I’ve had enough humiliation today. The next call I make is to the only two people who won’t let me down.

When I finish my story, Reed is staring at me with a mixture of hate, anguish, and sadness on his face. Just reliving the day hurts so much. I twirl my glass in my hand waiting for him to say something.

“What happened next?”

“Pardon?”

“What happened after you left the café? Where’d you go? Who’d you talk to?”

“Um, why?”

“Ari, I’m hanging on by a thread here, I want to fucking punch something. I need to know what you did and why you didn’t come straight to me.” His hands flex into fists and his knuckles turn white.

“At first, I was so hurt, I called Sophie and Luke, and they helped me get through the night. I was devastated and when they learned about the baby, they were concerned. The next day, your pictures started popping up online at a party. You were tagged several times and looked so carefree.

“I went back to my campus apartment and tried to calm down but then the sickness hit. I didn’t want anyone else to know about the pregnancy. Luke moved me in with him so he and Sophie could watch me. He took me to see a doctor that prescribed medicine to help the nausea, but my depression was so severe, they were worried. I got through classes and studied as much as possible, but I didn’t do anything else. Finally, they had an intervention and explained that my actions were hurting my baby. I’d lost so much weight and been so sick, the pregnancy was at risk.”

He blows out a breath and hangs his head.

“Luke took me to an OB and we worked on a nutrition plan. She did a sonogram and I saw the baby for the first time. Even though I was shattered, I still wanted it more than anything in the world and vowed to get better. I wanted a piece of you even if you never wanted us.”

“I still can’t understand why you didn’t come to me.” His shoulders slump and he looks at me with confusion.

“One day, I tried. I waited behind your gym but you never came. The next day Dean Harris requested a meeting with me. When I sat down with him, he told me a complaint had been made that I was stalking you. He wouldn’t let me explain our history or even listen to my side of the story. He threatened my scholarship and gave me one more chance with the stipulation I stay away from you. I was petrified and in agony. From then on, I kept as far away from you as possible.

“Why didn’t you come to me?”

“I tried. My sister was there for the week of spring break and she tried to keep me sane. When I read the note and thought you broke up with me, I went to that stupid Greek party and got drunk to numb the pain. The next day, I woke up miserable and she tried to help me. Even when I broke down begging her to go look for you, she wouldn’t leave my side. I called you and when your phone was disconnected, I went to your place. Your roommate said you were with Luke. Then when Cara finally left, I saw you on campus one day with Luke. He was holding you and you smiled up at him. I felt like a fool. I spent the next month drunk until I had to straighten up. Then things got so crazy with the draft and I found myself with an agent, a manager, and a pro NFL career.

“Now tell me, again, why didn’t you tell me about the baby?”

“My scholarship was at risk and in my mind, you dumped me for your high school sweetheart. A few weeks later, Sophie talked me into trying one more time. I had already decided to move home to have the baby, so I knew my scholarship didn’t matter anymore. That’s when I came to your place and you were having a party. We both know how that ended. When you disappeared into your bedroom with that girl, I slipped a note under your door telling you we needed to talk. You never responded. After that, I knew you didn’t want us.”

“Motherfucking hell! I’m such a jackass! You have to know she didn’t mean anything to me, I wanted to make you hurt. As soon as you walked in, all I could think about was you and Luke.”

There’s nothing I can say, because the image of them disappearing into his room with her wrapped around his waist will always be in my brain.

“I have to tell you, I was surprised it wasn’t Bailey considering she was your girlfriend.”

“I don’t even know a fucking Bailey. Never have. I have no idea who this girl was. And I never got your note.”

This trip down memory lane has left me raw and confused. Where do we go from here? Why is he here, and what does he want?

“Reed, how’d you find me?”

“I hired a private investigator the day I saw you on the beach.”

“Why?”

“Why? Because I saw Davis’s smile and it jolted me. It is so much like yours that I had to do a double take. Then when I saw you on the beach with him and realized he looked nothing like Luke, I had to know everything.” He points to the stuffed envelope on the table.

“Did you find out what you wanted to know?”

“I didn’t read it. As soon as I saw Davis Luke Williams, I knew what I needed to.”

“I’m sorry if it upsets you, but I had to.”

“I’m not upset, confused but not upset.”

“I didn’t find out the sex of the baby until he was delivered. I had names picked out for a girl and a boy. But when I saw him, I knew he was a Davis. He looked so much like you and I remembered the story you told me. It was a legacy in your family and I couldn’t be the one to break it. I tried to name him Michael or Matthew, but couldn’t. He was all I had left of you.” My voice cracks with emotion, and I don’t stop the tears that stream down my face.

“Holy shit.” His voice cracks a little too. “Jesus Christ, who would do this to us?”

“I don’t know about you, but some girl named Bailey and her cohorts did this to me.”

“I don’t even know what to say. All this time…all this time you thought I didn’t want you? Didn’t want Davis? I would have been thrilled. Did you have that little faith in me? Even if that bullshit were true, you didn’t think I deserved to know about my own kid?”

“Reed, you don’t understand. We never talked about kids. Everything was so confusing. I was twenty-one, pregnant, hormonal, scared, and devastated. The only man I ever loved was the campus hotshot who dumped me. I didn’t want to be more of a laughing stock than I already was. You knew what path you were taking, I didn’t. It wasn’t about faith in you anymore; it was about protecting my baby.”

“Our baby!”

His outburst shocks me and I scoot back on the sofa. He notices and stands up. Pacing and running his hands through his hair, nervously breathing in and out loudly.

“I want to know everything. I want to meet him. What’s his birthday? Favorite toy? Does he like football? Has he ever seen me play? Jesus Christ, I can’t believe I have a son that I don’t even know.”

The moment stands still and I’m transported back in time to when Reed heard he might be heading to four different teams. He paced around his room and threw out question after question trying to get a grasp on the news.

“Ari, do you know what this means? Where could I end up? What sort of team will I be a part of? Will I be second string? I could be in any corner of the country. Each team has a strong need for receivers and quarterbacks. But this is tricky, with trades and top picks, you never know.” Reed stops pacing to look at me with concern.

“Sweetheart, I don’t know what any of that means. Can you explain it?” I ask.

He grins slightly and chuckles. “Are you ever going to learn about football, Ari? It’s going to be a huge part of your life, especially when we find out where I end up.”

I smile and love the fact that he is making plans for my life with his. “I think I have done a pretty good job, considering I knew nothing at the beginning of the season. I’m pretty proud of myself.”

His eyes soften and he stalks to me. I try to scoot back on his bed, but he grabs my ankles and pulls me to him forcing me to lie back on my elbows. His face is inches from mine and I can smell the mixture of his cologne and body wash. Instantly, my body reacts, and I wrap my legs around his waist.

“I’m proud of you too, babe, I’m just scared if I get picked by a team on the West Coast, you’ll change your mind about coming with me.” He moves my hair to the side and kisses along my exposed jaw line to my earlobe.

“Reed, I told you. Once we know where you’re going, we’ll come up with a plan. I’m staying here this summer to complete as many credits as possible. Then I’ll apply to a college wherever you are. It may not happen immediately, but we’ll work through the details.”