She was planning to marry a doctor and be a college professor herself.
‘I mean,’ Mary Kate went on, speaking faster now, clearly sensing her mother’s horror, ‘you always said “the more the merrier”, that a noisy home makes you happy, that you’d have had more children if we’d been richer.’
‘Right, but we’re not,’ Kate stated bluntly. ‘Your father and I barely finished paying off our own college loans in time for your brothers to start college, and now with the twins there and you next year – but you won’t be going to college if you have a baby, will you? How can you be an English professor without a college degree – without a graduate degree?’
‘I’ll get one. It just may take a little longer.’
Kate couldn’t believe what her smart daughter was saying. ‘May just take a little longer?’
‘And in the meantime I’ll have Jacob’s baby.’
‘Where? How? Jacob’s dad drives a PC truck, and his mom teaches first grade. They’re as strapped as we are. If Jacob loves you like he says, he’s going to want to be with you and the baby, but his parents can’t support the three of you.’
‘I’d never ask them to,’ Mary Kate said. ‘Besides, I don’t want to marry Jacob yet. I want to stay here.’
‘So we can support you and the baby?’
‘Fine,’ the girl said. ‘Then I’ll move out.’
Kate grabbed her daughter’s shoulders. ‘You will not move out, Mary Kate. That isn’t an option.’
‘Neither is abortion.’
‘I agree, but there are other choices.’
‘Like adoption? I’m not giving my baby to someone else.’ She plucked at her sweater. ‘See this? It was Sara’s, and these jeans were Lissie’s, but this baby is mine.’ The hand on her middle was pale but protective.
Yes, Kate acknowledged. Mary Kate often got clothes from the twins – okay, usually got clothes from the twins – but didn’t large families do that? She was a hand-me-down child in everything but love. Kate had always thought that would make it okay. ‘Your sisters outgrew those things,’ she argued. ‘They were good clothes.’
‘That’s not the point, Mom. This baby’s mine.’
‘Just like you and your brothers and sisters are mine,’ said Kate. ‘When I was a kid, I dreamed of being a vet. I love animals. But I loved your father more, and then you kids came along really fast, and I loved you all so much that I wanted to be a full-time mom, which was lucky, because there was so much to do for the five of you that our house was chaotic even without my having an outside job. And by the time you all were in school, we didn’t have the money for me to train to be a vet. Do you think I work just for kicks?’
Mary Kate was subdued. ‘You love your work.’
‘Yes, but I couldn’t do it if it didn’t pay. We need every extra cent.’
‘My baby won’t cost much,’ the girl said meekly.
Kate took her shoulders again, holding onto a dream that was fading fast. ‘It isn’t the money,’ she pleaded softly. ‘I want things to be easier for you when you have kids. I want your children to have rooms of their own. I don’t want you to have to choose between music lessons or ballet because you can’t pay for both.’
The door opened, and Kate looked up, fully expecting it to be Lissie. But it was Will. Who had worked his way from the PC shipping dock to foreman of the department, losing hair and gaining girth, but remaining Kate’s rock.
She always felt a weight lift from her shoulders when Will came home, but her relief had never been greater than it was now. ‘Here’s your dad. Will, we have something to discuss.’
Five blocks away, Sunny Barros was nowhere near as relieved when her husband came home from work. ‘She’s what?’ Dan asked her. Their daughter stood nearby, but he was looking at Sunny, who was absolutely beside herself.
‘Pregnant,’ Sunny mouthed. She couldn’t say the word again.
‘Jessica?’ he asked and turned to the girl. ‘Is this true?’
She nodded.
‘Who’s the boy?’
‘You don’t know him, Dad.’
Dan looked at his wife. ‘Who is he?’
Sunny shook her head and pressed her mouth shut. It was either that, or scream.
‘Mom’s angry,’ Jessica said calmly. ‘I’ve been telling her that it’s fine. People have been having babies since Adam and Eve. She’s convinced it’s the end of the world.’
‘Excuse me, Jessica,’ Sunny cried, but stopped when her ten-year-old daughter skipped into the room. ‘Darcy.’ She pointed upstairs. ‘Violin practice. Ten more minutes.’
The child looked wounded. ‘I’m just saying hi to Daddy. Hi, Dad.’
Sunny pointed again, waiting only until the child left before eying Jessica. ‘Tell him what else you told me.’ She looked at Dan. ‘Jessica planned this.’
‘Planned to get pregnant?’
‘Decided she wanted a baby,’ Sunny specified. If the girl had gone looking for the one thing that would dismantle the tidy life Sunny had so carefully crafted, she had found it.
‘Is this true, Jessica?’ Dan asked.
Jessica eyed him levelly. A tall girl with long brown hair and Dan’s verbal skill, she spoke with confidence. ‘Bringing a child into the world is the most important thing a person can do. I want to leave my mark.’
‘At seventeen?’
‘Age doesn’t matter. It’s what’s inside. I’ll be the best mom ever.’
‘At seventeen,’ Dan repeated. Looking at Sunny, he scratched his head. ‘Where did this come from?’
Sunny didn’t answer. Folding her arms against the coming storm, she waited. Dan was smart, well beyond the contracts he negotiated for Perry & Cass. He saw cause and effect, and was eminently predictable. Sunny had always loved that about him, but it was about to work against her.
To his credit, he considered other options first. Looking at Jessica again, he said, ‘Is it school pressure? Fear of college?’
Jessica smiled smugly. ‘My grades are great. That’s one of the reasons I knew I could do this.’
She had her father’s brains – tenth in her class without much effort – but this had nothing to do with grades, or apparently with brains, Sunny decided. ‘Do you have any idea—’ she began, but stopped when Darcy whipped back in.
‘My lamp just blew out. It needs a new bulb.’
‘I’ll
