Chapter 14: Expecting

"I'm not pregnant, ma'am," I said.

The booth was so quiet I could hear the pie case humming.

"Oh," she said, and her voice shrank. "Oh, honey, you don't have to be embarrassed. Santino said you were scared."

"I'm not scared and I'm not pregnant. Your son told you that because it explained why I left."

"He wouldn't lie to me about a baby."

"He told me my grandmother's house was sold. It wasn't."

She breathed in, and didn't answer.

"You're coming to his party Friday," I said. "Come early. Stand near the dock, and bring your reading glasses."

"Tegan, I don't understand."

"You will."

I hung up, and my hand was steady, and my stomach was not.

"Well," Dee said. "That's a new one. Pregnant. He's really reaching for the sympathy vote."

We went out into the cold, all five of us, and the couple stopped on the sidewalk.

The streetlight over the hardware store was papered with a flier.

It had my face on it, from the paper-crown dinner.

MISSING. TEGAN MCGOVERN, 22. SHE MAY BE CONFUSED AND IS EXPECTING A CHILD. IF YOU SEE HER, CALL SANTINO.

There was a phone number, and a heart.

Rowan peeled it off the pole and folded it once.

"The next pole has one," he said. "So does the one by the post office."

"He did the whole town."

"He did two towns." Rowan looked up the street. "The diner owner has one in the window."

The woman from the couple tore down the next one with both hands.

"I'll do the rest," she said. "I'll do every pole between here and Larkin."

"You don't have to."

"I do," she said.

Dee leaned against her car and tapped her chin.

"Okay," she said. "So here's the thing. We could kill this tonight. A post, a photo, a statement, done."

"And he says he made a mistake and everyone forgives him," I said.

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