by Maria Geraci
Zeke sure as hell didn’t want her feeling sorry for him.
It had taken everything he had not to beg her to change her mind.
“You’re right, I guess it doesn’t make sense to stay together,” he’d said stoically.
She’d stood on tiptoe and kissed him goodbye on the cheek and whispered in his ear, “Do something big, Zeke. I know you have it in you to be so much more than what you are right now.”
The girl knew how to gut a guy, that’s for sure.
In the four months since he’d last seen her, he’d not only given up the dope, but he’d managed to save most of his paycheck. He’d looked into student loans and the military, and in the end he’d chosen the military because it was the fastest way to get to where he needed to be. Only, this thing with Buela had come up and he couldn’t abandon her. Not when he was all the family she and Allie had.
He stared at Mimi’s car.
What was she doing in Panama City? She’d graduated from high school last week. He knew that because, living in Whispering Bay, you knew that kind of stuff. He wondered what she was doing for the summer. Maybe she’d gotten a job or maybe she’d be doing a gig as a summer counselor at one of those fancy camps in North Carolina. She’d talked about doing that. This could be his last opportunity to see her for a long time. Maybe forever.
He watched from a distance as the driver side door opened, but instead of Mimi, it was her brother Luke who got out of the car. Zeke had gone to high school with him. They’d shared a few classes together but they’d never been close friends. What was he doing with Mimi’s car? Technically, though, the car didn’t belong to her, it belonged to her parents. Maybe now that Luke was home from school for the summer he was driving it instead of Mimi.
Zeke followed him a couple doors down from the recruitment office into a doughnut shop. Luke was about to order when he turned around and spotted Zeke behind him in line. He looked a lot like his sister, dark hair, blue eyes, and Zeke automatically went to shake hands with him, until he saw the way those blue eyes went ice cold with anger.
“What the fuck are you doing in here? Are you following me?” Luke didn’t bother to lower his voice, causing several of the doughnut shop patrons to turn and stare at them.
Zeke shook his head, confused by Luke’s hostility. Yeah, he’d been following him, but it was because he was hoping to hear how Mimi was doing. “Take it easy, man. I don’t have any problems with you.”
“Well, I have a problem with you. Let’s go outside and have a little talk.” He nodded his head to indicate the parking lot.
What the hell was Powers so pissed off about? Maybe he’d found out his little sister had lost her cherry to him and he wasn’t happy about it. Having a little sister of his own, Zeke could sympathize. Okay, so he’d let Luke chew him out, maybe he’d even let him get a punch in if it made him feel better.
They’d barely made the parking lot when the punch came. Fast and furious and with a lot more heat than Zeke expected.
He rubbed his right cheek. “Damn. You feel better now, Powers?”
“I’m never going to feel better about you, dickhead.”
“Look, I realize you’re upset, but I cared for Mimi. She meant a lot to me. And I wasn’t the one to break things off.”
“Who gives a fuck what you feel? You’re not the one who has to listen to her cry every night. Do you know how much pressure my parents are putting on her to give up this baby?”
Zeke felt like he’d been punched again. Only this time it was in the gut and he couldn’t get a breath in. “What the fuck are you talking about? What baby?”
“Are you shitting me? You must be one hell of an actor to pull off that off innocent act. My sister’s six months pregnant. Like you didn’t know.”
Mimi was pregnant.
The realization took a few more seconds to sink in. He’d been careful to use a condom each and every time they’d been together. Obviously, not careful enough, though.
Had she known when she’d broken up with him? He did a few mental calculations. She’d been acting strange in the couple of weeks before she’d called it quits. One time, they’d gone to get fries at Burger World (Mimi’s favorite were the chili-cheese) and she’d gotten sick in the ladies’ restroom. She’d told him it was a stomach bug, but it all made sense now. Why hadn’t she told him?
“I swear to you I didn’t know. Where’s Mimi now? Is she still at home? I need to see her.”
Luke studied him, like he was wasn’t sure whether or not to believe him. “Mom said you didn’t know about the baby, but I didn’t think you were that stupid. I guess she was right.”
Zeke curled his hand in a fist, careful to keep it close to his side. He didn’t want to hit Luke Powers. But if he didn’t tell him what he wanted to know right now…
“This is my baby, too. I have rights.”
It was the wrong thing to say. Luke’s face hardened. “If you’re going to harass her you can forget about it. You might have a couple of inches on me but I swear to God, I’ll take you down before I let you hurt my sister again.”
Zeke might be taller than Luke, but Mimi’s brother looked like he was all muscle. Not that he’d consider fighting him. The guy had every right to call him out. Frankly, he was surprised Luke had left this to a chance encounter. If he was in Luke’s position, he would have dragged heaven and hell looking for the guy who’d knocked up his little sister.
“I just want to make sure she’s okay. And to offer whatever help she’ll let me. Please, man, you got to believe I only want what’s best for Mimi.”
After a few minutes of deliberation, Luke told him what he wanted to know. Mimi was currently at home. But not for long. She and her mother were leaving first thing in the morning to go hide out in some cabin in North Carolina. Zeke thanked Luke and jumped on his bike. He was careful to keep to just ten miles over the speed limit but it was hard. The urge to fly down the highway and get to her before her mother got wind he was on his way nearly choked him. Patience had never been his strong suit.
He pulled his bike into the Powers family driveway. Mimi’s mother was distantly related to Earl Handy, the grandson (or was it great grandson) of Cyrus Handy, Whispering Bay’s founding father. Some of the Handys were loaded. Some weren’t. Mimi’s mom fell on the ‘weren’t’ side of the family, although they still did better than okay. Her dad owned a couple of Ace Hardware stores, including the one in town, and her mom was an elementary school teacher. Luke had just finished his sophomore year at Duke, the Powers family alma mater. Mimi had told him it was always expected that she would go there, too.
He pressed the ringer and kept his finger on it. He didn’t give a shit if he was being obnoxious, he only knew he had to see her now.
Mimi flung the door open. “What the?” Her blue eyes went wide. “Zeke…what are you doing here?”
She didn’t look much different from the last time he’d seen her. Her long brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her face was scrubbed clean, making the tiny freckles across her nose stand out. She wore shorts and her long slender legs were pale, like she hadn’t been out in the sun for ages. His gaze zeroed in on her stomach. She wasn’t big pregnant, like some women he’d seen, but it was there all right, in the form of a strange looking bump in her tummy.
His hands, his mouth, his soul…all those parts of him knew every square inch of her body. This part was new, but it was a part of him, too.
He laid the palm of his hand over her stomach. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I…” She shook her head and opened the door wide. “Come in, Zeke.” Her voice sounded shaky, like she was frightened. Of him? He’d never given her any reason to fear him before. Even when she’d broken up with him, he’d taken it like a man. But maybe she was right to be leery. A part of him wanted to scream at her. To take her by the shoulders and shake her until she came to her senses. But a bigger part of him wanted to grab her into his arms and tell her he’d do whatever it took to
make it all better, like he was some kind of big human Band-Aid.
The overwhelming urge to protect her and to protect the baby growing inside her came flooding through him. The hell with her parents and whatever it was they wanted for her.
All he cared about was what she wanted for herself.
They sat down on the living room couch, but he was careful not to sit too close. Even with no makeup and her hair all pulled back wearing that loose T-shirt and shorts, she still had the power to take his breath away. He wondered if he would ever feel different about her. In that moment, he didn’t think he ever could.
“I should have told you, I know, but…” she shrugged, “there’s nothing you could have done about it, so what was the point?”
“Did you know? When you broke up with me?”
She avoided his gaze. “I didn’t know for sure, I mean, I hadn’t done a pregnancy test. I kept putting it off, but…deep down, I knew. I know, it was stupid, but I was so scared.”
“Scared of what?” he whispered.
She glanced up at him. “I think I was afraid if I told anyone, that they would make me…”
“Get rid of it?” he finished for her.
She nodded.
He struggled to keep his voice calm. “Your brother says you’re giving the baby up for adoption.” At the mention of Luke, her eyes flared with a rare anger he’d never seen before. “Don’t be mad at him, he thought I knew.”
She looked away and sighed, all trace of her anger already gone. “I’m not mad at him.”
“Is it true? About the adoption?”
“My parents think it’s for the best. I can take a couple of months off after the baby is born and start school in January.”
His throat felt thick with emotion. When he spoke, he hardly recognized his own voice. “Is it a done deal then?”
She shrugged, and it was the only sign he needed. “What do you want, Mimi? Do you want to give up our baby?”
She was so quiet he had to strain to hear her answer. “No. I want to keep her.”
Her. He had a daughter. He was going to be a father. Correction: he was already a father. Now he needed to act like one.
“Then you’re going to keep her. We’re going to keep her.”
Her gaze shot straight to his. “But…how, Zeke? What can we offer her? I have a high school education and you live in a one bedroom apartment off the beach.”
The rest of her sentence went unspoken but he didn’t have to hear the words to know what she was thinking.
“I don’t smoke anymore. And I’m enrolled in the community college. I was going to join the army, but Buela isn’t as young as she used to be, so…I really need to stick around here to help out. Bert’s is just temporary. I’ll get a good job. Hell, I’ll work three jobs if I have to, to take care of you and the baby.”
She laughed, but it was a sad laugh. “Zeke, that’s…sweet of you. But you don’t have to give up your life for me. I don’t expect you to do that.”
“You don’t expect me to do what? To take responsibility for my actions? Like it or not, Mimi, you and this baby belong to me now.” He reached out to take her hands in his. They felt small and vulnerable. “We’ll get married. I’ll take care of you. I can make you happy. You know I can.”
The front door opened and Ann and Alex Powers walked in. “What’s going on here?” her mother demanded.
Zeke stood, taking Mimi with him. He placed an arm around her shoulder and pulled her in close to him. “Mr. and Mrs. Powers, I’m sorry we haven’t had the chance to meet properly before this, but I want you to know that I’ve come here to do the right thing.”
Alex Powers looked weary. “Young man, I appreciate you coming by, but—”
“Mimi and I are getting married.” Her mother opened her mouth to speak but Zeke cut her off. “If I remember correctly, her birthday was two weeks ago, so she’s eighteen now. She’s legally an adult and old enough to make her own decisions. You can’t force her to do anything she doesn’t want to.”
“Mimi, we’ve been through this a thousand times already,” her mother pleaded. “Don’t ruin your life! We can get past this. I know it all seems incredibly sad right now, but you’ll see, a year from now this will all be some distant memory. You’ll be happy again, darling. You’ll be a Duke co-ed. You’re a beautiful, smart young woman and you’ll have the world at your feet.”
The room went eerily still, like someone had pushed a pause button on their lives.
For a second, Zeke thought Mimi was going to let go of his hand. He could see the indecision on her face as she went from looking at her parents to looking at him. He wanted to plead his case again. Only this time with more eloquence. He wanted to toss her over his shoulder and run out of her parents’ house and never look back.
But it wasn’t up to him.
It was all up her.
He had never felt more helpless in his life.
“Zeke and I are getting married,” he heard her say. It wasn’t until then that he realized he’d been holding his breath the entire time.
“Why do I have to tag along?” Claire asked, staring out the minivan window like she was being driven to the guillotine. “No one in town is even up yet!” Cameron had awakened at the crack of dawn, but Mimi had had to practically pull Claire out of bed to get them here in time to meet Zeke at the animal shelter. She knew it was normal for teenagers to sleep in, but she still hated it.
“It’s not like the dog is even going to be mine,” Claire mumbled.
“She’ll belong to the family,” Mimi said, trying to assuage her petulant daughter. “Won’t that be fun? To finally get a dog?”
“In seven months I’ll be away at college, so it’s really not fair to either the dog or me to get too attached.”
“So, you’ve heard back from some schools?” Mimi said, taking this opportunity to jump onto the subject.
“Not yet,” Claire said.
Mimi struggled to keep her mouth shut. She was tired of constantly haranguing Claire for a college update, so she’d quit asking a few days ago. But it was almost mid-February and Claire had applied to schools back in the fall. Shouldn’t she have heard from some of them by now?
“I thought this was going to be my dog,” Cameron said. “Who cares what Claire thinks?”
“It’s going to be seventy-five percent your dog since you’re going to take care of it, and twenty-five percent ours,” Mimi said. “It’s not like it’s going to live in your room. The dog should like all of us.”
“Even Dad?”
“Of course the dog should like your dad.”
“How much longer is Dad gonna stay away? If you guys get divorced, are you gonna split me fifty-fifty?” Cameron asked.
It was the first time either of the kids had inquired into the family’s future living arrangements. Mimi hadn’t been surprised by Claire’s lack of interest; the truth was she wasn’t interested in much these days, but she’d wondered when Cameron would bring it up.
“Split you fifty-fifty? Where did you hear that? And no one’s talking divorce here,” she reminded him.
“That’s how some of the kids at school do things with their divorced parents. Most live with their moms and visit their dads on weekends, that kind of stuff. Except for Henry. He stays with his dad a lot.”
Lauren and Tom had an enviable post-divorce relationship. Henry stayed with Lauren most of the time, but Tom picked him up from school, allowing Lauren to put more time into Baby Got Bump.
“There are a lot of things your dad and I have to discuss,” Mimi said cautiously. “Nothing’s decided either way.”
They hadn’t discussed anything yet, but whatever arrangements they did make, she was sure Zeke would want to keep things amiable. For the kids’ sake, if nothing else. If their time out went on much longer they’d have to sit down and work something out.
She cringed when she thought about the last time she saw him. She’d gotten skunk drunk on those margaritas and, alt
hough she didn’t remember an awful lot, the parts she did remember made her think she was never going to drink again. Shea and Pilar (those traitors!) had called Zeke to drive her home. She was grateful no one had let her drive drunk, but they didn’t have to call him. Allie would have been happy to come get her, and Mimi wouldn’t be racking her brain trying to remember what on earth she’d said to him.
They pulled into the parking lot of the Whispering Bay Animal Shelter. She searched for Zeke’s police cruiser, but instead found a lone motorcycle parked near the shelter entrance.
Mimi swallowed hard.
She hadn’t seen that bike in years. Zeke had refused to sell it. Instead, he’d put it in storage, claiming that one day it would come in handy. It seemed like one day was finally here. Most of the time Zeke either drove his police cruiser or they were in the minivan together, but Zeke preferred to not drive the cruiser when he wasn’t on duty. They’d talked about buying a second car, but at the time it had been an unnecessary expense. When eventually they did buy another car, it had been for Claire. Now that they were separated, Zeke’s old motorcycle did seem like a practical solution to their transportation problem.
Seeing it again, though, also brought back memories.
An image flashed through her brain—one of her at seventeen straddling that motorcycle as she clung to Zeke’s hard back, the wind cutting through her thin T-shirt. She’d never been an adrenaline junkie. But then, she’d never met any boy before Zeke who’d inspired her to do something as terrifying as getting on the back of a motorcycle.
They’d driven along the highway with the gulf on one side, laughing, like they had all the time in the world to be young and carefree. They’d been dating for over a month. Secretly, of course, because no way would Ann and Alex Powers ever have approved of Zeke Grant. No parents in their right mind would. He was trouble with a capital T. Sex on a stick. And every other bad boy cliché you could think of. He smoked pot and drank beer and had a tattoo, all of which seemed thrilling to a seventeen-year-old girl who’d never even let a boy get to second base before.
