And each year, she thought, this is the year Rourke will change. He’ll be geeky or have pimples or B.O. or he’ll turn into a jerk. But each year, he proved her wrong. He just got better looking and more self-confident. And nice enough that, when she told him she and Nina needed a favor today, he hadn’t batted an eye.
The truth was, she kept looking for reasons not to like him, because there were so many reasons she shouldn’t, including the fact that he would never like her back. She always failed, though. Although Rourke acted all serious and gruff, he was as kind as he was good-looking.
Enough, she told herself. Her obsessive thoughts about Rourke McKnight were getting downright scary. He was Prince Charming, too good to be true, and as unreachable as the moon. Now, Joey was the real thing: funny and down-to-earth, the son of the McKnights’ driver who dared to dream of a bigger life for himself. Joey was the kind of guy a girl could introduce to her family and it wouldn’t be awkward. If Rourke was the type a girl dreamed about marrying, Joey was the type she actually married.
She reached across the seat and patted Nina’s leg. “You okay?” she asked.
Nina looked up, pale and flustered. “I’m totally freaked out, that’s how I am,” she said. “I can hear everybody now—‘She was such a smart girl from such a wonderful family. She had so much going for her…’”
“And now you’ve got even more going for you,” Jenny said, scrambling to find something positive to say. “You’re smart, you’ve got a great family and you’re going to have a baby. My grandmother says babies are proof that God exists.”
“Listen, that’s really sweet, but I’m not kidding myself. This is not going to be a picnic.”
Jenny couldn’t agree more, but didn’t let herself say so. She also didn’t bring up the plans she and Nina had been making for years. They were supposed to see the world after high school. Then Jenny planned to get a fabulous job and a loft in the city and hang out like the Mad About You people. Nina planned to return to Avalon and buy the Inn at Willow Lake, a once-grand hotel she’d always dreamed of owning. Jenny would take all her vacations at the inn, where she would work on her novel. Now, of course, none of that was going to happen, and Jenny felt an unbidden sting of anger at Nina for messing up their plans. Then she felt disloyal and forced a smile. “Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.”
“I have to tell Laurence,” Nina said. “He’s going to hate this.”
Joey turned around, hooking his elbow over the back of the seat. “Want us to kick his ass for you?”
“No. God, Joey. You’d never be able to kick his ass anyway. He knows self-defense. He goes to West Point.”
Jenny had met Laurence once—a tall, broad-shouldered African-American, he was intimidating with his shaved head and military bearing.
“Then what the hell is he doing dating a high-school girl?” Rourke asked.
“He’s only seventeen, same age as you guys.”
“Yeah, and you don’t see us knocking you up,” Joey said, cluelessly trying to be helpful and earning a slug on the arm from Rourke.
“It’s his first year at the Academy. And besides, I told him I was eighteen,” Nina said.
Jenny could easily see how Laurence Jeffries had been duped. Nina, with her dark-eyed beauty and killer figure, had a knack for making herself look older than her age. To his credit, Laurence had immediately dropped her when he found out how young she was.
“If I tell him about this,” Nina said, “and he abides by the honor code, he’ll have to tell his superiors and then he’ll be expelled. So maybe I won’t say anything at all.”
The suggestion sent a chill through Jenny. “All my life, I’ve wished my father knew about me. I keep thinking everything would be different if my mother had told him.” If, in fact, that was the case. She didn’t know for certain. Maybe she had a father somewhere who did know about her but didn’t care enough to step forward.
“Why would you want anything different?” Rourke asked.
Good question. It was funny, how he looked at her and thought she had the perfect life. “I’d just like to know, is all,” she said.
“So am I driving up to West Point now?” he asked Nina.
“No,” Nina said. “I need to go home. I’ve got some thinking to do.” She was quiet the rest of the way, idly paging through the information they’d given her at the clinic. Amy Grant’s “Baby Baby” drifted from the radio now.
Before long, they reached a sign marking Avalon city limits near the covered bridge.
“You’d better pull over,” Nina said. “I’m going to puke.”
She staggered out of the car but she didn’t puke. She took a deep breath and made a visible effort to conquer the nausea.
“Are you all right?” asked Jenny, getting out of the car.
“Yes.” Nina collected her bag and a packet from the clinic. “I want to walk the rest of the way home.”
“I’ll drive you,” said Rourke.
“It’s just a few blocks,” Nina pointed out. “I need to clear my head before I drop the bomb on my parents.”
“Fair enough.”
Nina looked pale but resolute. “You guys are the best friends ever. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
After she left, Jenny, Joey and Rourke lingered by the river. It was one of the prettiest spots in Avalon, an old-fashioned covered bridge with weathered siding spanning the Schuyler River.
“It’s peaceful here,” Joey said. “You’re lucky to live in a place like this.”
“Huh. I can’t wait to get
