Sherryl Woods - Seaview Inn

Though she could hear the low murmur of voices from the kitchen while she was in the bathroom, the second she crossed the threshold, silence fell. Obviously they’d been talking about her. She hoped her mother hadn’t filled her great-grandmother in on the news of her pregnancy yet. Grandma Jenny was going to have a lot to say about it and Kelsey didn’t want to hear any of it. She’d made a mistake. She knew it. She was going to deal with it. What more was there to say?

Even her mom had known there was little to be said on the subject, because she’d been silent and withdrawn all the way from the airport to Seaview. Despite the careful silence, Kelsey had felt her judgmental stare every few minutes throughout the ride.

Now, as she glanced from her mom to Grandma Jenny, she caught a glimpse of someone else in the room who hadn’t been there a minute ago. She turned to get a good look at the man hovering near the sink. He seemed intense. Dark and good-looking, but definitely intense.

“Kelsey, this is Luke Stevens,” her mother said. “He’s staying here right now. We were friends when we were kids.”

Kelsey studied him curiously. All her visits to Seaview had been rushed and she’d rarely ever met anyone who’d known her mom years ago. As far as she knew, no one ever stuck around the island if they could get away. To hear her mom tell it, only losers stayed behind, but this guy didn’t look like a loser.

“Nice to meet you,” Luke said. “Seems as if you all have a lot to catch up on, so I’ll just fix myself a plate and head up to my room.”

“No,” Kelsey said, as did both her mother and Grandma Jenny.

“Besides, you went out and brought home all that ice cream,” Grandma Jenny added. “You need to sit right here and eat it with us.”

Luke stared at them with amusement. “Gee, I’ve never felt so wanted.”

Kelsey grinned, despite her lousy mood. “Every family needs a good buffer.”

“Nice to know I can fill a niche around here.” He stared pointedly at Grandma Jenny. “Though I thought I was here to do odd jobs for a couple of weeks.”

Grandma Jenny shrugged. “I’d say being a mediator for the three of us fits that, wouldn’t you?”

“Just warn me ahead of time if I’m going to need a weapon or body armor,” he said dryly.

Kelsey noted that even her mother had to fight a grin at that. As she munched on a handful of Saltines she’d managed to find in a cupboard, the rest of them dove into dinner. A few minutes later, Kelsey risked a little mac and cheese, then a chicken wing.

She looked around the table and suddenly felt the knot in her stomach ease for the first time since she’d found out about the baby. Maybe, like dinner, her life was going to turn out okay, after all.

Suddenly, acid burned the back of her throat and she bolted from the table.

As she wiped her face with a damp cloth after throwing up her dinner, she corrected herself. She was going to spend nine months heaving her guts out, the baby was going to arrive, and then things were going to get complicated, especially if Jeff refused to back away from his demand that they get married and keep this baby. In no scenario she could imagine would her life ever be okay again.

Chapter 5

Luke didn’t have to have a medical degree to know what was going on with Kelsey and why she’d come to Florida in the middle of the school year. She was pregnant. Hannah obviously knew it, which was why there’d been a pinched expression on her face when Kelsey had bolted for the bathroom for the second time since they’d arrived home from the airport. If Grandma Jenny knew, she wasn’t giving anything away. She just poured a glass of ginger ale, set it down on the table at Kelsey’s place and announced she was going to her room.

“Something tells me you and your daughter need to talk,” she said to Hannah, then looked pointedly at Luke. “They could probably use some privacy, too.”

Luke acknowledged the suggestion with a nod and stood up.

“That was subtle,” Hannah murmured after she’d gone. “Are you sure you want to stick around here after tonight? I told you it was going to get messy.”

“Do you want me to go?” he asked, studying Hannah’s expression. “I mean now. Earlier both you and Kelsey seemed anxious to have a buffer. Maybe an impartial third party could help.”

Hannah looked relieved. “To tell you the truth, I don’t want to get into any of this tonight and I imagine Kelsey would rather postpone it indefinitely. Stay, please.”

Luke acquiesced and sat back down, though not without some trepidation. “Does your grandmother know about the baby?”

“I haven’t told her, if that’s what you mean,” she said, not bothering to deny that her daughter was pregnant. “But she knows. I’m sure she noticed the handful of crackers that Kelsey grabbed earlier. That’s why she left that glass of ginger ale, too.”

“You okay?”

She gave him a wry look. “I’m not the one who’s still more than a year away from graduating from college and about to have a baby.”

“No, but you are the mother of a young woman who’s about to have one, and apparently without a husband, or am I wrong about that? Is there a wedding on the horizon?”

“Not that I’m aware of.” She regarded him sheepishly. “Then, again, apparently I’m the last to know a lot of things. I didn’t even know there was a man in her life.”

“Maybe there’s not,” he said, phrasing his words carefully.

“Oh, I’d say a man’s involved in this,” Hannah retorted.

He grinned at the evidence that she hadn’t entirely lost her sense of humor. “I meant anyone she’s serious about.”

“Are you suggesting she was just casually sleeping around?” she asked, her indignation stirring. “No way. I may not know much else, but I know that.” She sighed. “Truthfully, we haven’t broached the daddy factor yet. I just found out about this myself the night before last, right after I got down here. Kelsey flew here because I insisted. She’s not thinking very clearly right now. She wants to quit school and move back to New York.”

“And you disapprove?” He could read it in the set of her jaw and the tone of her voice.

“Strongly. Am I wrong?”

She gave him a surprisingly helpless look that made Luke want to fix this for her. He hardly had the right to even offer a suggestion, though. “Honestly, I don’t know,” he said eventually.

“Me, neither,” she admitted. “I don’t know if I have the right to push her to stay in school, or if it’s even the right thing to do. I’m out of my league with all this.”

“I don’t think any parent’s ever prepared for this moment.”

“Do you have kids?”

“Two, but they’re a lot younger than Kelsey. Thank God, I don’t have to worry about something like this for a long time.”

“Trust me, the time passes before you know it. A part of me still thinks of Kelsey in a frilly party dress, blowing out candles on a birthday cake, surrounded by a bunch of other toddlers. Instead, she’s this amazing young woman whose life is about to be turned upside down. If she were a different girl, if she’d been flighty or reckless, I could understand how this could happen, but she’s not. She’s always been very much in control of everything.”

The bathroom door opened and they fell silent. Kelsey looked pale and drawn, but she managed a wobbly smile.

“Sorry,” she said. She spotted the ginger ale and took a tentative sip. “Where’s Grandma Jenny?”

“She went upstairs,” Hannah told her.

“I think I will, too,” Kelsey said, avoiding Hannah’s gaze. “I know it’s early, but I’m beat. I’d like to sleep for a week.”

Hannah regarded her with disappointment. “I thought we could talk,” she said, though it sounded halfhearted.