Page 9 of Until Delilah

“Really?” Kari leans forward, placing her elbows on top of the table as she gives me her full attention. “Where did you used to live?”

Shit. I should have known there would be questions. I try to hide the panic of lying to them. I realize I should be able to tell them a little about myself without giving too much away. “I grew up in Los Angeles.”

“Wow, I haven’t even been out of Tennessee.” Kari leans the side of her face on her hand. “Is traffic really as bad as they make it seem?”

“It’s pretty bad all the time, but you get used to it. My parents moved out of the city when I was young, but we still went into LA quite a bit.”

Max leans forward, his piercing blue eyes trained on me. “Do you miss it?”

“LA? No,” I shake my head. “I do miss my parents though.”

Earlier in the day, I sent my sister, Ava, a text letting her know we’re alive, and then promptly turned off my new phone in case Bradley has her phone bugged or any type of software on there where he can read her messages.

After I turned off my phone before she could respond, I sat and cried for a solid twenty minutes before I cleaned myself up and went out looking for a job. With red, bloodshot, and puffy eyes, I hadn’t landed any of the positions I applied for.

“Hey,” Kari put her hand on top of mine, “are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I barely say as I blink back tears. Pregnancy hormones are no joke. My emotions are all over the place and thinking about how long it will likely be until I get to see my family doesn’t help matters either.

From under the table, Max drops his hand on my knee and squeezes it while he stares down at me. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, it’s these damn pregnancy hormones. They make me cry at the drop of a hat,” I say as I try to play it off.

Kari’s eyes get wide as she blinks back her surprise. “You’re pregnant?”

I nod. I hadn’t meant to blurt it out like that, but it’s for the best for everyone to know now instead of them finding it out later.

“Well, how far along are you and where’s the dad?”

“Kari,” Max scolds, “not everyone is an open book like you are.”

Kari pays no attention to Max and looks at me. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but if you don’t, the rumor mill will fill in the gaps once they find out you’re pregnant.”

Max gives me a reassuring smile, giving me the courage to give her a half-answer. “I’m not far along. I only just found out recently I’m pregnant. It wasn’t planned.”

“Where’s Beckham’s father?” Max blurts.

“He’s dead. He died not long after I gave birth to Beckham while he was serving in the military. I should have gone home after that, but I was too depressed to do anything but sit at home and take care of my baby.” I’m not sure if I say the last part out loud or to myself.

“So, you have a new man?” Kari looks to my left hand obviously looking for a ring.

“Not anymore. It didn’t work out, so I decided it was time for Beckham and me to move on. I didn’t know where I was going, but when I saw Murfreesboro, I liked its charm and thought it might be where we should set up house.”

Luckily, in that moment, a server comes by to take our order. She tells us the pizzas the boys have ordered and asks if their orders are ok. I’ve never been to a buffet style place where you pay when you walk in and order your pizza from the table. They give you two slices of what you order, and you can keep ordering more. It’s doesn’t make sense, but I kind of like it. I order a couple of slices of barbecue chicken pizza while Max orders a supreme and Kari orders taco. It doesn’t take long before we’ve each got our slices in front of us.

“Don’t look now, but it seems the other moms are jealous we get the coach to ourselves tonight,” Kari whispers from across the table.

Max doesn’t look up, but he does smirk at her comment.

The other moms glare our way from across the room. I’m sure they’re dying to know what we’re talking about over here.

“Are they always like that?” I don’t really need to get on the bad side of a group of jealous women.

“Can’t say. Normally coach sits with a group of guys, but I guess they aren’t coming tonight.” Kari looks over to Max and then back to me.

“They couldn’t make it tonight.” He eyes me. “If you don’t want to sit by me, I understand. I can get up and move elsewhere.”

“Don’t go,” Kari nearly shrieks. “We didn’t mean anything by it. I was only stating facts.”

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