Chapter 26 Nora
NORA
I curl up on Abby’s couch, praying that the wave of nausea passes.
I must have caught something from my parents during their visit, which couldn’t have been better timing, honestly.
After my disastrous breakup—real breakup—with Brett and what happened with the boys, I hadn’t realized how much I needed my parents. So I told them about Brett, the best way I could.
I heard through the grapevine gossip chain that Brett had gotten traded to a Canadian team, and not a week after our official disbanding he put the house up for sale.
And I also heard that he completely ghosted his family—including his brothers—but I didn’t feel the need to comment on that.
I know he wasn’t close with them—save for Freddie—but I felt like it was my fault nonetheless. I felt like a damn homewrecker, even though Abby assured me I wasn’t. That Brett was the destroyer of worlds, not me.
Still, I can’t help but feel like everything would be different if I hadn’t gotten out of work early that day all those weeks ago.
I pull the blanket up to my chin. Michael offered to let me stay with him until I found a new place, but being in his house—with the memories of Freddie—felt like salt on a fresh wound.
Not one of the Sterling brothers has reached out to me, though Abby says Tommy comes by the shop every couple of days, asking when I’ll be in.
After I came back to Abby’s, I planned to take a few days to actually recover and process things, but then a few days went by and Michael was home, and Mom and Dad came, and Pam told me to take the time to spend with them. So I did, and now…
Now I’m sick as a damn dog, and I feel like there’s no end in sight. Talk about bad luck.
“You uh…you start your period, yet?” Abby asks casually as she sweeps by to tidy up the coffee table, which is littered with cans of ginger ale and half-open packs of saltines.
“Huh?” I ask, her words hitting me.
“I mean, usually you’re right after me, and I had mine last week.”
I shake my head. “No, why?”
Abby sits next to me, and I notice the box in her hand. It’s a box of pregnancy tests.
My eyes widen as I look at the box, then at her.
“I mean, couldn’t hurt to check, right?” she says.
“I can’t be pregnant,” I say, pushing the box away. “I’m on the pill.”
She gives me a frown. “Yeah, but you have like…six pills left from your last pack.”
“What?” I tense as I look at her.
That can’t be right, I—
“I counted before I bought the test,” she says and I feel the panic hit me.
“You counted my pills.”
“Call it women’s intuition,” she says, carefully offering me the box. “I might be wrong, but…” She sighs. “Only one way to find out.”
I think I’m going to throw up again.
I manage to stuff the nausea down and take the box with a shaking hand.
“To rule it out,” I say.
She gives me a nod.
I pace in the bathroom for what feels like hours before I suck up the courage to pee on the damn stick.
And then I sit, staring at the little space, waiting for those lines.
It feels like forever until they start to form.
I double-check the box to make sure I’m reading it correctly. Two lines means I’m pregnant.
Two lines.
Two thin pink lines appear, and my heart stops.
I hurriedly grab another test from the box, hurrying to squeeze out what pee I have left in me, telling myself there’s no way, it has to be a false positive. I can’t be pregnant, I just…
But sure enough, the second test is the same. Two bold-faced pink lines.
There is no denying the truth.
I’m pregnant.
Tears fall from my face as I process the information. I’m pregnant and I have no clue who the father is, except that it’s not Brett. And I only know it’s not because we hadn’t had sex since before he left for his last game, the one before he came home and cheated on me.
Which means that this baby can only belong to one of his brothers. It could be any of theirs.
Freddie’s.
Rush’s.
Tommy’s.
The thought of Tommy and the night we made love resurfaces in my brain. He told me then he was prepared if something happened.
If I got pregnant.
Would he feel the same way now after what I did to them? After how I treated them and left them that night?
And what would Rush say? Would he be like Tommy and embrace a child? Or would he find a way to say this baby can’t be his?
And Freddie…
I think of Freddie and his heart, his need to provide. Would he open his heart to a child? My child? And me? Or would he cast me aside and say I’m not worth it? Would he let us go?
I stare at those pink lines.
So many nights I prayed Brett would change his mind. That he would tell me he was ready for this. For a family, with me.
But life has a strange way of giving you what you want, I guess.
I know there’s no questioning that this is fate. This is everything I’ve wanted.
Abby knocks on the door, and a moment later steps inside. I look up at her and the tears start to fall. I barely get the words out. She rushes to me, pulling me into her arms.
“We’re going to get through this,” she says, and I have to believe her.
Because for the first time in my life, I don’t know what to do.