Just One Kiss: A Black Alcove Novel (The Black Alcove Series Book 1) (18 page)

“Did you miss— Oh my gosh, what’s wrong?”
Her smile drops and she pulls me in for a hug.

“I think I’m pregnant,” I blurt out, but you
can hardly understand me over the sobs. If only it was that easy
for me to tell Ethan.

“What? How? Who?” She fires the questions at
me, but I don’t answer as I walk past her to the sink. I dig around
in the medicine cabinet, looking for that stupid box.

“I thought we had a test in here,” I say,
trying to pull myself together. She shuffles her feet, avoiding eye
contact.

“I had to use it before I left.”

“What! Why didn’t you tell
me?” What a pair we make. Wait no… scratch that. What an
irresponsible
pair we
make.

“It doesn’t matter. It was a false alarm. We
have more important things to worry about now.” She pulls me to my
feet and we leave for the store.

Sara offers to act like it
is her test and I let her.
Real mature,
Kelsey.
I’m pretty sure the clerk knows the
truth though, seeing as I am the one with bloodshot, tear-stained
eyes. Sara looked calm as ever. When we get back to the apartment,
I rush to the bathroom. I’m so happy Sara is here. She must have
had some friend radar telling her that I needed her. It’s probably
just stress, but once this is over, I’ll have to remember to ask
her the real reason she’s back.

Kelsey

Positive.

That can’t be right.

The purple box I dreaded buying for fear of
the results is sitting on the white marble bathroom sink, and when
I grab it to re-read the instructions I nearly crumple it into a
ball with my grip.

“Minus, minus means not pregnant, plus sign
minus means pregnant.” I repeat this to myself until it’s branded
into my brain.

I hold the small stick in
front of my face once again to see the results. I squint my eyes
and pull it closer under the impression this will help me find an
error. There is a plus sign and a minus sign.
Shit.
Pregnant.
My heart leaps into my throat, the temperature in the room
raises a hundred degrees, and
I feel like
I’m going to be sick.

I groan loudly, covering my
face with my hands and sit on the edge of the tub, silently
freaking out. I’m going to cry.
Breathe,
Kelsey, just
breathe.
Yep, there’s no holding the tears back. What am I going to do?
This can’t be happening.

I can’t be pregnant. I’m only twenty-two. I
don’t have a full-time job or insurance. I’m a bartender paying for
college. I live in a small, two-bedroom apartment with my best
friend because I can’t afford a place on my own. I can’t afford a
baby. Clearly this test is a dud. I’d better take another to be
sure.

“Kelsey? What’s taking so long?” Sara asks
from the behind the bathroom door. “I’m ready to crack this bottle
of wine open and celebrate the fact we have overactive
imaginations!”

Her voice startles me into motion and I
stand quickly to open the second test. We went to the store solely
to buy pregnancy tests but ended up purchasing two bottles of
Moscoto as well. We had high hopes this was just a really bad case
of food poisoning.

“Oh, I uh...” Crap. Sara may be acting fully
supportive now, but I know she will freak out as much as I am if
tell her I am definitely pregnant – with her cousin’s baby, no
less. I never answered her questions earlier, and she won’t waste
time asking them again. She will drink both bottles right in front
of me after I give her the answers.

I can’t think fast enough for an excuse.
Wiping away the tears that managed to sneak out with the back of my
hand, I turn the sink on, letting the water run on full blast to
hide my sniffles. “I just turned some water on, hopefully that will
give my body some encouragement,” I tell her, hoping she believes
me.

“I told you to drink lots of water first!
Did you listen to me? Noooo, you were too anxious to take the
test.” She pauses and neither of us says anything. She must have
grown tired of waiting because she tells me to yell if I need her
before I hear the sound of her bare feet against the tile floor
fade as she leaves.

The fact that I can’t even bring myself to
tell my best friend that the first test is positive tells me that
if the second one matches, I have a lot of growing up to do and I
better do it fast.

How am I going to tell Ethan?

I turn the water off after I’ve taken care
of business and set the stick on the counter as I wait for the
longest three minutes of my life to pass.

Ethan

My father is riding my ass more and more
lately. I avoid his calls and keep the ones we do have to a
minimum, telling him only what he wants to hear, like all the other
times. I can’t keep lying to him because he’s smart. I think he’s
already on to me and I need to tell someone. I need someone to tell
me how to fix this mess I’ve made. My left leg bounces
uncontrollably as I drive to the gym.

“Can I ask you something?” Logan looks at me
curiously.

“Sure,” I say, turning onto the gym’s
road.

“Why do you want to buy a house here? You
always hated this place.”

“Things change. People change. I have a
reason to stay here now.”

“Yeah, but you started the paperwork on the
house before you and Kelsey hooked up. What’s going on with you
two? Because I’ll beat your ass if you hurt her,” he says in a firm
voice. I like knowing that she has had someone in her life who
looks out for her, but he doesn’t have to do that anymore. I’m not
going anywhere, but if I want him to trust me, I need to tell him
everything.

“Okay. So hear me out before you say
anything and try to keep your fists out of my face until I’m done,”
I say, pulling into the gym’s parking lot and turning off my
truck.

“My dad wants to take the BA from Sara and
her father.” Logan snaps his head at me. The look in his eye is a
good warning for how I need to word the next part. “I thought I
wanted to help, but not anymore.” His jaw twitches. “I didn’t mean
for anything to happen with Kelsey, but it did, and she means more
to me than what my father wants. I’ve been lying to him and
pretending I’m helping him when I haven’t been doing anything more
than what Sara asked of me. She is smart when it comes to that
place, and I don’t believe anyone could run it better. But now my
dad is on to me, and I have this bad feeling everything is about to
blow up in my face.”

“Is that why you started things with Kelsey?
To get dirt on Sara for your father?” he asks. “Because if you’re
still looking, you’re not going to find anything.”

“No. Everything that has happened between
Kelsey and me has nothing to do with my father. And I want Sara and
my uncle to keep the bar. Grandpa gave it to them for reason; my
father doesn’t deserve it. I just … Kelsey doesn’t know any of this
and I don’t know how to tell her.”

“Well, you better tell Kelsey soon because
if she finds out what you’re up to from anyone else, she won’t see
things clearly and she won’t be as calm as I am. Now if you’re done
being a girl and causing a whole lot of drama in my life, let’s go
kick some ass on the court. Oh, and grow a fucking pair. Tell your
dad to go to hell,” he says, getting out and slamming the door
shut.

He’s right. Max Connelly can fuck off.
Kelsey is more important, and it’s time I started acting like it.
I’ll tell her everything tonight. If she feels that same about me
as I do about her, she’ll understand.

* * *

I pick Kelsey up for dinner and ever since
she got in my truck, she’s been acting weird. She hasn’t spoken
much, and every restaurant I mention, she’s against it. It started
to snow first thing this morning and the roads are getting icy. I
hadn’t wanted to drive far, but now we’re driving down the road
with no specific destination in mind.

I plan to take her any place she wants
tonight. I trust that she will believe me, but having her in a good
mood when I tell her why I originally came to help Sara with the
bar will help.

My hands are sweaty as I grip the steering
wheel. I can’t wait any longer. I need to just tell her. I glance
over to see her eyes are glazed over as if she is about to cry.

“Are you sure everything’s okay?” I ask her
for the hundredth time. Last time she snapped at me, but I don’t
know what else to say.

She lets out a frustrated sigh that sounds
exaggerated.

“Yes, I’m fine, Now will you please stop
asking me that?”

“You’re very snappy, and to me that means
you’re not fine.”

“Snappy,” she huffs. “That’s a polite way of
calling me a bitch.” She crosses her arms. Her eyes narrow as she
fixes them on me, and I’m quickly regretting what I said.

“I don’t mean it like that, You’re just …
acting standoffish. That’s all.”

“Let’s just drop it, okay? We can just go to
the BA or something. It doesn’t need to be a special night,” she
says and her body freezes. “Wait, never mind. Go wherever you
want.”

If she wants to go the BA, I’ll take her to
the BA. I don’t like it when she isn’t happy, and I will do
anything to change that.

She doesn’t say anything as we find a
parking spot. Nor does she say anything when we join Logan at one
of the tables inside. She just sits in silence, staring off into
space, and I really wish I knew what she is thinking right now. I
reach my hand under the table to give her thigh a light squeeze. If
I knew what was wrong, maybe I could fix it.

Whatever mood she’s in, it isn’t giving me
the encouragement I need to tell her about my dad. I don’t want to
make her even more upset, and right now that seems to be all I’m
doing. Tonight is definitely not the night I tell her, but fuck,
I’d better do it before it’s too late.

Kelsey

“Ethan,”

The deep boom of a man’s voice causes us all
to jump. Standing next to our table is a man whose presence
instantly makes my skin crawl. He stands tall, with dark hair and
even darker eyes. He scans the table, pausing briefly on each one
of us with those disapproving eyes. When his eyes reach Ethan they
immediately turn to disgust.

Who is this man?

“So, this is what you’ve been up to.” He
stretches his arms to his sides and twists slightly. “And here I
thought my son was successfully running a business.”

Son.

Ethan sits still with his
head hanging in front of him. He slowly withdraws his hand from
mine, and his father watches him the entire time. Now is probably
not the best time to make my announcement.
Oh hey, you’re Ethan’s father, nice to meet you. Guess what?
Ethan’s going to be a father. Congrats, Grandpa.

“Ahhh, and this, I assume, is the reason you
haven’t been returning my calls,” his father says, raising an
eyebrow directly at me.

I swallow hard and take a breath. Ethan
hasn’t moved. An awkward silence falls over the table, and Logan
slides out of his chair without saying a word. What could Ethan’s
father be so upset about? Ethan’s only covering until Sara comes
back— it’s not like he’s preparing to take over. And if my father
spoke to me that way, I wouldn’t return his calls either.

“Don’t be a coward, Ethan. Look me in the
eye when I’m speaking to you.”

Ethan slowly lifts his head. His eyes
briefly meet mine before he looks directly at his father.

“Better. Now get off that stool and follow
me to the office,” he demands.

Ethan doesn’t say a word. He just nods and
obeys.

I don’t move from my seat until the office
door is closed completely. The way Ethan is acting is completely
strange. Why would he be afraid of his father? I spring off my
stool and quickly make my way to the back room to find Logan.
Something is going on and I am going to find out what it is.

“Logan, where are you?”

“Geez, I’m right here, Kels, so stop
yelling,” he says, stepping out from behind the linen rack. I
position my body right in front of him, putting my hand on my hips
with my elbows out. I block any chance he has of getting by.

“What’s going on? What’s Mr. Connelly doing
here?” I shout. “And don’t tell me you don’t know, because you
slipped away from the table so fast, I know you know what’s going
on.”

Logan shakes his head and tries to take a
step around me, but I shove my hip into his. “Tell me what’s going
on, please, Logan. I’ve never seen Ethan act that way around
anyone, and I’m worried.” My voice is beginning to sound desperate,
and when a tear sneaks its way out, Logan releases a breath.

“It’s not my place to say anything, Kelsey.
Ethan will tell you when the time is right, and with his dad here,
I’m guessing that time is pretty close. Just wait till his dad
leaves, okay?”

Logan squeezes past
me.
Wait till his father
leaves
. What does that mean? His father
just got here.

Ethan wouldn’t even look at me. It was like
I didn’t exist.

I storm out of the storage room, marching
right past Logan, heading straight for the office. Someone’s going
to give me answers and they’re going to do it right this minute. My
patience has completely disappeared. I intentionally ignore Logan
as he begs me to wait with him. What part of “I don’t want to wait”
doesn’t he understand?

I raise my fist to knock on the door and
stop midair as the yelling on the other side startles me.

“What in the hell were you thinking?”
Ethan’s father’s voice gets louder. “Getting involved with an
employee nonetheless. Your actions are disappointing. I thought you
were better than this.”

Deciding it might be best to wait a minute,
I do the next best thing. I eavesdrop. I lean my ear as close as I
can to hear the end of their conversation.