Remembering the reason I was here, I shifted from foot to foot nervously. My eyes flickered away from his. I stared down at the cement and tightened my grasp on the strap of my bag when I said, “I got kicked out. I don’t have a place to stay, and I’ve tried getting a few friends to help me out, but their parents aren’t cool with me crashing. You’re kind of the only hope I have at the moment.”

Silence.

I peered up at him, trying to decipher his mood. He wasn’t giving anything away, but his eyes were moving all over my face. I tried not to blush by the intensity of his gaze, but I failed. I may have known him almost all my life, but like he said, we weren’t close. I was always by Ryker’s side. We were inseparable. Heath was sort of just the tag along that I never liked to be left alone in a room with. Things were always awkward. We never meshed, or ever had anything in common to talk about.

Yet I was blushing like a moron because he was extremely good looking. More so than Ryker because his body was filled out to the brim in muscle and his face was rougher. Despite the eighteen month gap between the brothers, Ryker had a lot of catching up to do. So, naturally, my body seemed to have a mind of its own. I supposed that was normal for a teenage girl, though. Hormones and all that at the slightest attention from a good looking guy and our shallow minds were drinking it up.

“Why would your mother kick you out?” he asked curiously. “I’ve always thought she wasn’t that kind of person to do that.”

Again, I shifted nervously. “Do we have to talk about this here?”

“It’s either here or in the truck.”

I looked around our surroundings, making sure no one was within earshot. We were completely alone, not a peep heard from nearby.

“Homeless people will be due out soon,” I muttered. Hedley was packed with them, and many of them stuck together and prowled the streets at night, causing havoc. You didn’t want to be alone out here if they were kicking about.

“Truck it is, then.”

He unlocked the doors and I hopped into the passenger seat. I immediately wound down the window, letting whatever little breeze there was inside. Heath sat down in the driver’s seat, his face turned in my direction.

“Out with it then,” he pressed, wasting no time. Either he was genuinely concerned about me, or he wanted to get whatever was up out of the way. In that moment, I had a feeling it was the latter.

“I just need a place to stay,” I told him, looking out into the parking lot. Heath’s dark eyes were a thing to be feared. When he looked at you, he really looked at you, and it was like he could read your every freaking thought. I didn’t want him to know mine.

“It’ll only be for a couple days,” I added hastily. “I’m not looking to impede on your life for a long time. I know it’s an inconvenience –”

“I want to know why you got kicked out,” he interrupted coolly. “As far as crashing my place goes, I’m not bothered by that. It was Ryker’s place not too long ago, so the room’s practically yours. But I have to know what’s up, Allie. He promised me to look out for you, and it’s only been four weeks since he’s been gone and you’ve already been kicked out of your house. I need to know why.”

I swallowed hard. This was hard to talk about. I didn’t want to do it now. I just wanted a goddamn roof over my head. Today had been hell. A confrontation with my ultra-religious mother and I was thrown out the door with nothing but the bag on my back, told never to come home again unless I was seeking to be saved. I was the sinner. The horrible temptation that others in her community would be disgusted by.

Anxiety built inside of me as he continued to watch me. I suppressed the tears, reliving the decision I made right after she’d thrown me out. It was hard, but it was the right thing to do, and I still had to endure the pain of it soon.

“The problem is going to be taken care of,” I told him. “So it doesn’t matter.”

He shifted his body around to look at me closely. I glanced at him, shrouded in the dark with those eyes pinned to me.

“Taken care of,” he repeated slowly.

“Yeah. So don’t worry about it.”

Slowly, the realization dawned on him, and with a heavy sigh he said, “Shit. You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”

With a nod that made my chest ache, I whispered, “Yes, I am.”

Three

Allie

“Shit,” he cursed again, shaking his head. His nose flared and his eyes darkened as he ran a hand through his buzz. “I thought you were smart, Allie.”

“I was never smart,” I replied flatly.

Harsh silence filled the air. He was lost in thought, looking away from me and out the windshield. “Is it Ryker’s?” he then asked, tensing his jaw.

I fought the anger inside of me unsuccessfully. “Of course it’s Ryker’s,” I answered rudely. “He’s the only person I’ve ever been with, Heath. Everyone knows that.”

“I’m just making sure,” he retorted, casting me a bitter look. Jeez, what the hell was wrong with him?

“Look,” I said on a sigh, “like I said, it’s going to be taken care of.”

“You’re going to have an abortion, you mean?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“I booked it in for this week. I’m going down to the clinic tomorrow to see what my options are –”

“Jesus Christ,” he interrupted, huffing angrily now, “how far along are you?”

“Eight weeks.”

“And you’ve known for how long?”

“Two.”

Another painful silence. One that had me feeling ashamed. I looked down into my lap, fighting the tears that were suddenly springing in the back of my eyes. I didn’t expect a positive reaction from anyone – after all, Ryker and I were to blame for this mess – but a bit of understanding wouldn’t kill. Instead, I got kicked out of my house by my piece of shit mother who was screaming scripture at me and then being glared at by Heath like I was the biggest disappointment of all.

And maybe I was.

“Have you told Ryker?”

Panic shot through me. “No,” I said glumly. “I haven’t.”

“So you’re going to have an abortion without his say?”