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“Hey, Chloe,” Will said.
He slid his hands into the pockets of his gray suit. His light brown, longish hair fell low over his forehead and he looked seriously handsome in a crisp white shirt and red tie. He smiled at Chloe, but she didn’t smile back. She was too busy nervously darting her eyes around at the rest of us.
“Hey,” she said offhandedly. “What’s up?”
He took a step forward, then paused, thinking the better of getting near the glass. “I … Sha
I felt Jake stiffen next to me. The blood drained out of Chloe’s face.
“Sha
“Sure.” Sha
“Not here,” Chloe said through her teeth.
She carefully stepped around the outer rim of the crash zone, took Sha
“I’ll be right back.”
Jake and Will were like roman statues as I chased the other two down. I found them in the hallway between the foyer and the living room. Chloe had practically pi
“What do you know?” she demanded as I came around the corner.
“I don’t know anything,” Sha
“Can we just drop the whole wordplay thing?” I said, walking up to them. “We’re supposed to be friends here.”
They broke eye contact with each other. Chloe turned around, chewing on her thumbnail as she paced to the opposite wall. Sha
“Chloe, we know you and Will were going out last summer,” I whispered as a round of laughter sounded from the garden room, where the adults were indulging in music, cocktails, and hors d’oeuvres.
“And it’s obvious he still likes you,” Sha
Chloe looked over her shoulder at us. I recognized the look in her eyes as hope. “You think so?”
“Dude. He refused to come here with me until I told him you wanted to see him. Guys don’t turn this down unless they’re jonesing for something else,” Sha
Chloe bit her lip and looked at the floor.
“Chloe,” I said, stepping closer to her. “Is there any possible way that Will could be the father? Because if there is, you have to tell him.”
When Chloe looked up at me, her eyes were swimming. And I knew. I just knew. My heart felt like it was suspended on a tightrope, hanging on for dear life.
“Jake has been nothing but good to you,” I whispered hoarsely. “If the baby’s not his, he deserves to know too.”
Tears spilled out onto Chloe’s cheeks and she sniffled, her nose sounding completely clogged. “Do you have any idea what my parents will do to me?” she whimpered. “Do you have any idea … the guy they hired … to work on our house. The electrician’s son? Do you have any idea—?”
“Is he the father?” I demanded, my blood starting to boil. “That’s what matters, Chloe. Is Will the father?”
Chloe covered her entire face with her hands and let out a very tortured, very wet “yes.”
My mind went weightless. Not “I don’t know.” Not “maybe.” Just “yes.” She was that certain.
Then she buckled at the waist and just cried, pressing one hand against the wall to steady her off-kilter body. Sha
Jake is not the father. Jake is not the father. Jake is not the father.
“Are you sure?” Sha
Chloe nodded into her shoulder. “I didn’t know for sure at first. I thought it was Jake’s when I first told him because of the timing, but then the doctor told me … a while ago … when the baby was conceived. I was with Will then. It was, like, a month before Jake and I—”
“How could you do this?” I said quietly, my voice shaking with rage. “How could you do this to him?”
“Ally, I’m so sorry,” Chloe said, her face streaked with mascara and eyeliner. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You didn’t know what to do other than fuck up Jake’s entire life?” I whisper-shouted.
Sha
“I just … I just … I just …”
“Just what? You wanted it to be him, right?” I said, thinking of what A
“Ally,” Sha
“And now you’re defending her?” I cried.
“No, I’m just—I’m just saying, I get what she was thinking,” Sha
“Yeah, but he’s not.”
I turned my back on both of them and tried to catch my breath. I breathed in and out, in and out, listening to Chloe’s muted crying. Listening to the sound of my own heart.
Sha
But so what? She couldn’t screw with Jake—not to mention Will—just to save face. How could she not see how wrong that was?
“You have to tell him. You have to tell both of them,” I said. “Jake has a right to know he’s free, and Will deserves a chance to be there for you.”
“She’s right, Chloe. You’ve gotta fess up,” Sha
“I’ve tried, okay?” Chloe said. “I almost told Jake a million times. And Will, he cornered me at the bonfire as soon as he heard I was pregnant and asked if it was his. I wanted to tell him the truth, but I just couldn’t. It physically wouldn’t come out of me.”
“Well, you have to make it come out,” I said firmly.
Chloe shook her head at the floor. “Everyone’s going to hate me.”
That’s what she was worried about? I wanted to scream so badly my throat hurt.
“Chloe, I swear … if you don’t tell them, I will,” I said.
“No,” Chloe responded. She took in a deep breath. “I’ll tell them. I promise.” She turned toward me and made a move to touch me, but thought better of it at the last second. Which was a good thing. Because I wasn’t sure what I would have done if she had. “Just let me do it, okay? I don’t want them hearing it from someone else.”
I glanced at Sha
“Fine,” I said with some effort.
“Promise me you won’t tell Jake,” Chloe said.
Honestly, I wanted to pound her for saying that—for thinking that she had any right to tell me what to do when it came to me and Jake. But my heart hurt just thinking about what his reaction would be. I had an awful feeling he’d be crushed. And I didn’t want to be the one to crush him. I shouldn’t have to be the one to crush him. “I promise I won’t tell Jake,” I told her flatly. “I’ll let you do it. But I swear, Chloe, if you don’t do it before New Year’s, I will.”