Chapter 14 #2
Brad pops his head up from behind the table. His hair is sticking straight up, and he’s got dirt smeared across his forehead like war paint.
Mitch is hysterical coming out from behind the tree. “Well. We lived.”
“Barely,” I say.
“That,” Brad pants, pointing at the wreckage, “WAS AWESOME.”
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” Maddie shrieks as she comes down from the deck steps. “I SAW MY LIFE FLASH BEFORE MY EYES. I SAW MY FUNERAL SLIDESHOW!”
“DID THE BOX INSTRUCT YOU TO AIM AT PEOPLE?!” Macy shouts, and I’m laughing—because now that the adrenaline is wearing off, the whole thing is hilarious, and I wish someone would’ve been recording.
Luke walks over to the tube and nudges it with his shoe, chuckling to himself. “That was not the angle I was going for.”
Most of us start laughing harder—like, hysterically—wheezing so hard we can’t breathe.
“Luke bombed the YARD. He BOMBED US!” Brad exclaims.
“You!” Maddie is walking toward Luke, pointing. “You didn’t even try to save me?! Weren’t you worried?”
“You ran into the house, Maddie,” Luke says, laughing. “You didn’t even get a speck of dust on you.”
“I COULD HAVE,” she snaps. “That’s the point!”
All of us laughing drowns out their conversation, because that was the most ridiculous, terrifying, and funniest thing I’ve been a part of in months.
Within fifteen minutes, the firework stuff’s cleaned up and we’re all around the fire again.
“Man,” Brad says, leaning back, crossing his arms. “Can’t believe this is it. My last hurrah before Academy.”
Luke jumps in, “Yeah. Come Tuesday, you gotta act like a grown-up.”
Everyone laughs and it goes quiet for a second. You can tell everyone’s thinking about how this summer feels like the last one before everything splinters. Before college and jobs—and now, even babies—pull us all in different directions.
Mitch shifts a little closer, slow enough that it doesn’t draw too much attention. His knee brushes mine under the table. I glance at him, and he meets my eyes with that small, steady nod, like he’s silently asking, You ready?
I exhale through my nose, heart thudding, and give the tiniest nod back. He clears his throat and looks around at everyone.
“Hey,” he says. The single word cuts through the low hum of conversation. Everyone turns—lazy, curious—and my stomach flips. “So, Callie and I…we wanted to tell you guys something.”
Macy’s head snaps toward him so fast her ponytail swings. Maddie’s eyebrows lift, her gaze bouncing between me and Mitch like she’s already piecing it together.
I feel Mitch’s hand find the small of my back, his fingers brushing lightly, comforting me.
“We’ve been going out,” he says, voice confident. The words hang there for a second, heavy and weirdly unreal once they’re out loud.
Maddie and Macy’s jaws drop in perfect sync. Brad freezes midswig, and Luke looks between us with a grin that says he knew it. A collective “What?” comes out of everyone at once.
“Just for a few weeks,” I jump in quickly, my voice shaking a little. “A month, maybe.”
“A month?” Macy blurts, eyes wide.
Luke points at Mitch. “You liar! I asked you about it how many times?”
Mitch grins, guilt written all over his face. “I know, man. You did. We just wanted to keep it quiet for a while.”
“Well, I’ve suspected something since last time we were up here,” Maddie says, smirking. “But only because of what Callie told me.”
Mitch turns toward me fast. “What did you tell her?”
I laugh nervously. “That you almost kissed me.”
“What?” Luke looks to Maddie. “You didn’t tell me that!” She’s already laughing like she’s proud of herself for keeping it a secret from him.
“You didn’t tell me either!” Macy adds, pointing at Maddie now.
Before she can defend herself, Brad throws his hands up dramatically. “Hold on—I didn’t even suspect anything! How do you think I feel? I’m about to be a cop, for Pete’s sake!”
Everyone bursts out laughing. The tension that’s been building all week finally cracks open, the sound echoing through the warm summer air.
Mitch’s hand stays at my back, his thumb brushing small circles I’m not sure anyone else even notices. And for the first time all day, I feel like I can finally breathe.
But then I look at Mitch, something pulling inside me, almost a sickening feeling that I want to tell them everything and get it over with.
I take a shaky breath and look at the circle of faces lit by the orange glow of the fire. “And…there’s something else.”
The words drop out of me and the fire pops, embers crackling between us. Mitch turns toward me slowly, his expression calm but searching—like he’s making sure I really mean it. My heart’s hammering so loud I can barely hear myself when I say, “We’re having a baby.”
“What?” Brad says first, his face blank.
“Very funny,” Macy mutters with a half laugh, waiting for the punch line.
Maddie shakes her head, laughing. “Literally,” she replies to Macy.
But Luke’s the only one looking at us like he knows we’re not kidding.
I wish I were.
The silence stretches, broken only by the crackling of the fire. I keep my eyes down, afraid to see their faces, afraid of what they’ll think of me—of us. My throat burns, and I can feel tears pressing behind my eyes.
“Wait,” Macy says finally, voice soft but careful. “Mitch, are you serious?”
I look at him. He nods, his hand finding mine where it’s clenched in my lap. “Yeah. We’re serious,” he says quietly. “It was…obviously a mistake, but, ya know, stuff happens.”
“Holy crap,” Maddie says.
Brad stands, clearing his throat like he’s trying to find words. “Well,” he says finally, holding out his hand to Mitch. “Then congrats, I guess.”
Mitch lets out a breathy laugh as he stands and shakes Brad’s hand while Brad claps him on the shoulder.
Everyone else gets up too—the girls moving toward me. Macy hugs me first, favoring my left, then Maddie on my right. I fall apart in their arms, the tears spilling before I can stop them.
Macy asks how long I’ve known. I tell her it’s only been a few days, and she hugs me tighter. Maddie says something about me not drinking that makes me let out a small laugh, lightening the moment.
Luke cracks a joke about Mitch giving him grief for months over him and Maddie and now “showing him up.” Mitch laughs, but I can tell he doesn’t think it’s that funny.
We sit back down together, his hand resting just above my knee. He looks back at everyone. “We’ve been fighting feelings for a while. It just got…pretty real, pretty fast. And yeah, we’re overwhelmed. But we’ll figure it out.”
No one says anything right away. The fire pops, sending a spray of sparks into the dark. The air feels different now—lighter somehow, but still very heavily charged.
But sitting here now, beside the same fire that’s lit every summer we’ve shared, I still believe God can work in the middle of our mistakes. That He hasn’t walked away from us just because we messed up.
I glance at Mitch. The firelight flickers across his face, and even with everything that’s happened, I know what we have isn’t random. It’s love. It just got ahead of where it should’ve been.