Chapter 13: Be a Man

Friday at noon, I was walking to my car for lunch when someone said my name from behind a concrete pillar.

The company's parking structure was cold and half empty, and Brooke stood in the shadow with her arms wrapped around her middle.

She wore a gray hoodie I had bought her two Christmases ago and no makeup at all.

"Please don't walk away," she said. "Five minutes."

I stopped ten feet from her.

I had not planned what my face would do, and it did nothing.

"You've got four," I said.

"Dean hasn't answered me since Tuesday."

"That's a problem for you and Dean."

"His cousin is here." Her voice shook. "I saw how he looked at her in the tailor's shop, Warner. Like she'd walked in with a gun."

I said nothing.

She took a step closer, and her eyes were already wet.

"I'm pregnant."

The concrete under my shoes felt very far away.

"Eight weeks," she said. "It's Dean's, I know it is, don't ask me that."

"I wasn't going to."

"Mom says nobody can know until after the vows. She says a bride who shows is a bride who got caught."

She wiped her face with the heel of her hand, hard.

"But what if he doesn't come? What if he's gone Saturday and I'm standing there with a hundred and fifty people and the cake?"

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