Sierra pointed at the bandage on her hairline with a laugh and I continued the story for her.
“We had just left practice with the girls and ended up at the same convenience store. I was talking to Leia and saw Sierra suddenly just drop like a box of rocks. She bumped her head and needed stitches, so I called Nick and we ended up at Nicole’s office. We’ve spent the whole afternoon and evening together and now we’re here.”
“Goodness,” Reagan said as he shook his head. “When I pointed her out at practice and told you that you should ask her out, I didn’t mean club her over the head and drag her to your cave!”
The four of us laughed for a minute and Sierra turned to me, “You two were talking about me at practice?”
“Yeah. Reagan tried to convince me to get the balls to ask you out.” I shrugged and lifted up my hand to show them my spider ring. “And now, just hours later, she’s already giving me jewelry.”
“If it’s meant to be, then just roll with it.” Marcus reached over and took Reagan’s hand and the two men shared a look. “So, what do you want me to do? There's more to the story, I assume?”
“It’s a long one,” Sierra told us. “Unless you want the Cliffs Notes version.”
“You and your daughter are in danger,” Marcus shrugged. “That’s the short of it. Now give me the unabridged version.”
“Rowdy, are you driving?” Reagan asked me. When I nodded, Reagan got up and walked into the kitchen only to come back seconds later carrying a notepad, pen, a bottle of wine, a corkscrew, and three glasses. “Now, we’re ready.”
As Marcus opened the bottle of wine, Reagan settled the notepad and pen in front of him and looked up at Sierra with a smile, “You can trust my man and you can trust Rowdy and I. Let it all out girl.”
I was anxious to hear Sierra’s story and wondered if I should go ahead and tell them my idea now or wait. Sierra took that option away when she started.
“When I was 14, I met a boy at the club my parents belonged to. His parents were members, too, and they all shared the same circle of friends. He was nice and funny and he and I thought we were in love. He was a great guy, really, and I did love him. A part of me, the young part, still does and I see him in Lexi all the time. She never met him, but she has mannerisms like his sometimes and she’s got a keen mind just like he had.” Sierra took a deep breath. “Neither of us knew what the hell we were doing, but we had sex. More than once. I felt so grown up, but I never even thought of the consequences. We were both heartbroken when the summer ended and both of us had to go back to school. I went to an all-girls school in Albany, and he went to a boys prep school in Boston. We swore we would write to each other every day and we did at first. But then his letters stopped and my body started changing. One of the teachers saw something that made her curious and she sent me to the nurse. I was about six months along by then.”
“You were still 14?” Marcus asked as he took notes.
“No, I turned 15 the month I went back to school, in August.” Sierra nodded. “The sonogram showed that I got pregnant in late June.”
“Okay, what state did your parents live in? What was your home state?”
“Illinois.” Sierra must have known where he was going with his question, so she added, “She was in my legal custody from birth.”
Marcus nodded and wrote some more notes.
“What happened next?”
“It was almost Christmas break, so the nurse sent me home and told everyone I had the flu. My parents were waiting for me at the airport and to say they lost their shit doesn’t begin to describe it.” Sierra shook her head, “I mean, I’m a mom myself now, so I do understand a little better, but the way they behaved was just wrong.”
“What did they do?” Reagan asked softly.
“They tried to get me in to have an abortion and that’s when we found out how far along I was. Then, they tried to get the doctor to say it was medically necessary and he refused. I heard them talking after I was supposed to be in bed one night and they were planning to take me to Mexico and either ‘get rid’ of the baby or stay there and give it up when it was born.”
“Damn,” I said as I shook my head. “I can see how they were freaked, but still.”
“I took off as soon as they were sleeping. I got cash out of my dad’s safe and bought a bus ticket to go find Alexander. I made it to the school, but they were out for the break. I ran into a student as I was roaming around the grounds and he knew Alexander. He told me about the accident that had happened that past fall and that Alexander was dead,” Sierra said with a sigh. “That explained why he quit writing to me.”
“Did either of your parents know about the two of you?”
“I didn’t think so, but later I found out that the letters I had been sending to him were forwarded to his dad and he had been reading them. The last letter I sent to him was the day I found out I was pregnant and I had a friend at school mail the news to him before they rushed me off to the airport to go home.” Sierra took a gulp of her wine and leaned back in her
