Right Where We Belong (Silver Springs #4)(21)

The fact that he might be having a baby seemed to be doing the same thing. Heather seemed fairly convinced he was the father. Was she right? Or was she simply feeling as though she finally had something with which to force him to commit?

Gavin pulled the tie from his hair and let it fall. They wouldn’t know the baby’s paternity for seven months.

How would he ever wait that long?

Finally, he stopped fighting the urge and called Aiyana. He hadn’t wanted to wake her. It wasn’t the thoughtful thing to do. And he considered himself too old to need her, hadn’t had to make a call like this in years. But he knew, from experience, that she wouldn’t mind. She would do anything for him. Maybe that was why her love had had the power to redeem him, to pull him out of the darkness. “Mom?” he said as soon as he heard her sleepy hello.

“Gavin?” she replied, her voice instantly filling with fear. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I mean...I’m not hurt.”

There was a slight pause, after which she sounded more lucid. “So what is it? Did something happen in Santa Barbara? Do you need me to come get you?”

“No. I’m at home. Safe.”

“Then...you’re drunk?”

“No.” He’d never had a drinking problem, but he had enjoyed some wild nights, especially when he was younger. Apparently, getting a call like this had triggered Aiyana’s memory of those days. “Haven’t had a drop.”

“Then what?”

“I shouldn’t have called, I guess. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”

“Wait,” she said. “I’m here whenever you need me. You know that.”

“I do. But now that I’m actually talking to you, I’m not sure I want to tell you what’s on my mind, so it’s a little crazy that I woke you up.”

“Say it, anyway,” she insisted. “We’ll work through it together, the way we always have.”

He couldn’t help smiling at how fast she came rushing to his rescue. She was an amazing woman, had saved so many lost boys. And he was extra lucky because he was one of the eight New Horizons students she’d officially adopted. “You remember Heather Fox?”

“Of course. You’ve brought her to many a Sunday dinner over here. But you told me she was with someone else now.”

“Scott Mullins.”

“That’s right. Is that what this is about? You haven’t been in a fight with him, have you? You told me you were glad Heather had moved on, that you were hoping she’d marry Scott. You—”

“I haven’t been in a fight.” He broke in to stop her before she could go any further down that road. “And I wasn’t lying when I said I was glad she’d moved on. That’s part of the problem.”

“So you’re not sad?”

“No.”

“Whew! Then what’s the rest of the problem?”

He didn’t see any way to break the news gently, so he blurted it out. “She’s pregnant.”

Silence. Then his mother said, “I see. But...what does that mean for you? Are you upset that she’s having a child with Scott?”

He could tell it was a leading statement. Aiyana was beginning to catch on to what this call was all about. “I’m upset that she might be having my child.”

“She told you it was yours?”

“She told me it might be. She doesn’t know for sure.”

“She slept with you both that close together?”

“She probably went straight to his house after I broke up with her. That next week, she tried hard to make me regret my decision, to evoke some jealousy. I saw them everywhere together.”

“I see. So...when will you be able to find out?”

He stared up at the ceiling. “Not until after she has the baby.”

Aiyana sighed deeply.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve run up against something that threatens my peace of mind like this,” he said, putting her sigh into words.

“You didn’t use any birth control?”

He could hear the disapproval in that statement. “Of course we used birth control, Mom. It didn’t work.” He didn’t mention why. He wasn’t going to blame Heather for what’d happened. He was fairly certain she’d believed they were safe.

“So what are you going to do? Is she still with Scott?”

“No. They broke up tonight. I can’t imagine he was happy to hear that she might be pregnant with my child.”

“I can’t, either.”

“Now she wants to get back together with me.”

“She told you that?”

“Yes. She was waiting for me here at the house when I got home from my gig tonight.”

“How do you feel about the idea?”

“Between you and me? I’m not excited about it.”

“Did you tell her that?”

“Of course not.”

She sighed again. “It’s going to be a long nine months.”

“Seven—she’s at two months already. Not knowing will be terrible. I keep hoping that all of this panic and concern will be for nothing. But if the baby is mine, I could use seven months—and then some—to prepare for such a big responsibility.”