of the problem sank in. He might have cursed in the buzz of static that followed, but when he spoke next, there was no mistaking his words. ‘Will you tell your mother?’
Tell Ellen Tate that the daughter who had disgraced her by getting pregnant at seventeen had let her own daughter do the same? More than at any time in the last week, Susan felt defeated. ‘This isn’t something I imagined sending in a newsy little update, though it might bring a response for once. She’ll totally blame me.’ She pressed the phone to her ear. She had to ask it, bluntly this time. ‘Do you?’
‘Try, blame myself,’ he said, sounding stricken. ‘I haven’t exactly been a hands-on dad. Besides, I’ve seen you in action. You’re the best mother.’
‘Whose seventeen-year-old daughter is now pregnant and unmarried.’
‘Like her mom was at seventeen. Maybe Lily’s just as stubborn as you were. I offered to marry you, and you refused.’
‘A decision for which I am grateful every time I see you on TV,’ Susan told the face on the screen. ‘You wouldn’t have had this career if you’d been saddled with a wife and child.’
He made a guttural sound. ‘Days like today, I’d have preferred the wife and child. What I do can be downright depressing.’
‘Same here,’ she cried. ‘I’m the principal of the high school, where everyone will know my teenage daughter is pregnant. How depressing is that?’
His pause was more thoughtful this time. ‘Will it cause trouble for you at work?’
Susan rubbed her forehead. ‘I don’t know. We’ll see.’
‘What can I do to help?’
‘Strangle the guy who did this to her?’ she suggested. ‘But how foolish is that? She says she seduced him. He didn’t know what he was doing.’
Rick snorted. ‘Oh, he did.’
‘You know what I mean.’
‘I used to. But this is my daughter, too. Lily has always been innocent.’
‘Tell me about it,’ Susan remarked, folding an arm across her middle.
The face on the screen was unchanged. ‘So what was he thinking? Was he coming on to her for months? Did he just wear her down? Did he ask if she was on the pill? Did he offer to use something himself?’
Touched by the spate of questions – loving him for loving her, dark side and all – she actually laughed. ‘Rick, I don’t know. I wasn’t there. And no, I didn’t ask. If the horse is already out of the barn, what’s the point?’
‘So, here’s my next line of attack. Did she pick him for a reason? Like you picked me?’
She smiled. ‘I didn’t pick you. You took me by storm. There was no forethought.’
‘No.’ His voice was soft, poignant. ‘There never is, is there?’
Lily’s cell rang at nine that night. It wasn’t the first message she’d received. Mary Kate and Jess had texted to rant about Abby, leaving Lily agitated. Half hoping Abby was calling so that she could rant herself, she tore open the phone. ‘Yes.’
‘Lily?’ came a cautious male voice.
She knew it well. Its owner was a fixture in her life – never demanding, just there. Her heart raced. ‘Hi.’
‘Is it true?’
She didn’t have to ask how he knew. Everyone at school must know. Part of her wanted to lie, to make it all go away, to take herself out of the glare. But it would only be worse when she started to show.
Lying back on the pillow, she stared at the front window and said, ‘It’s true.’
There was a pause. She imagined him looking puzzled, maybe scratching the top of his head. Finally, unsurely, he asked, ‘Is it mine?’
The question hit her the wrong way, like he was suggesting she slept with just anyone. ‘Why would it be you?’ she snapped. ‘You aren’t the only guy around.’
‘I know. But that night…’
‘Once. We were together once. Nothing happens once. Do you know what the chances are of it happening once? Do you know how long some couples have to wait before they get pregnant?’
‘You weren’t with anyone else.’
No unsureness there. Calming a little, she asked, ‘How do you know?’
‘Because I know you. And there was blood.’
‘Women bleed every month,’ she said, crawling over the foot of the bed and closing the blinds. Easier to fudge things when no one could see. ‘Really, Robbie. Don’t let your imagin ation go wild.’
‘It’s hard not to,’ he said, sounding upset. ‘I was way on the other side of the school when you got sick, but by the time I got out of English, kids were talking about it. They know we’re good friends, so they asked me. I didn’t know what to say.’
‘Just say you don’t know. That’s the truth, isn’t it?’
He didn’t reply at first. Then he said, ‘How are you feeling?’
Back on the bed again, Lily stared at the closed blind. She’d been just fine until he called. Remembering the scene at school, she felt sick again.
But everyone would be asking her this. She had to get used to it. ‘I’m really good. Happy. It’s incredible, creating a life.’ She put a hand on her belly, jiggled it a little to wake the baby up and let her know she was being talked about.
‘When are you due?’
‘Late May. The timing’s perfect,’ she rushed on. ‘I’ll finish exams, have my baby, do the mom thing over the summer, and be ready to start college in the fall.’ Mary Kate and Jess were a little behind her and would have less time to recover before classes resumed.
‘How can you do college? Who’ll take care of the baby?’
‘I’ll put her in PC KidsCare.’
‘Her? You know the sex already?’
Lily laughed. ‘No. It’s too soon. I’m just guessing it’s a girl.’ Like she was guessing that Mary Kate and Jess would have girls, too. She wanted her daughter to be best friends with theirs, a third generation of best friends. ‘Right now, my baby has hands and feet. And ears. Doesn’t that blow your mind?’
But he was still focusing on the future. ‘Isn’t PC KidsCare only for PC employees?’
‘I knit samples for PC Wool trunk shows, so technically I am one. Besides, I have an in. Mrs Perry will make it happen.’ If Lily ever spoke with Pam’s daughter Abby again, which, at that moment, was questionable.
‘I still think it’s me,’ Robbie said.
‘That’s
