The Baby Pact (Babies and Billions #5) - Holly Rayner Page 0,9

an intrinsic part of her life that it was impossible to imagine being on campus without him.

In her pocket, her phone vibrated, and for a moment she allowed herself to believe that Zach was somehow calling her back up to his room to tell her he had changed his mind.

But the call was from her father. She accepted it. “Hey, Dad.”

“Rhea?” There was an edge in his voice that surprised her. “Where are you?”

“I’m on campus. Why?”

“Are you in your dorm?”

“I’m on my way there,” she said. “I was hanging out with Zach.”

No need to go into all the details of what had happened. She didn’t feel ready to discuss her feelings about it, and she certainly didn’t want word getting back to Stephen. All she needed was for him to have more ammunition to make fun of her.

Her father was quiet for a long moment. “The boy we met at your birthday dinner?” he asked.

She was surprised by his need to clarify. It wasn’t like she had a lot of other friends that she called home to talk about.

“Yeah, that’s right,” she said. “We watch TV together on Thursdays.”

When her father spoke again, his voice was stern. “I don’t want you to associate with him anymore, Rhea.”

The words were an icepick through her heart.

“What?” she said.

“His family aren’t our kind of people.”

She sputtered for a moment, unable to articulate her indignation.

“You mean because they don’t have money?” she demanded. This was too much, coming on the heels of what Zach had just told her up in his room. “They’re perfectly good people, Dad!”

“You don’t know what people like that are capable of,” her father said. “I don’t want you having anything more to do with that boy.”

“Yeah, well, I’m twenty-one years old,” she snapped. “You can’t choose my friends.”

“I can choose to stop paying your tuition, if I need to,” her father barked. “I don’t want to take you out of the school you chose and send you to one I pick for you, Rhea, but I will if you force my hand.”

She couldn’t stand it. She disconnected the call, shoved the phone back in her pocket, and took off running toward the dorm, ignoring the vibration that indicated her father calling her back.

Her world was falling apart, and at the moment, there was no one at all she wanted to talk to.

Chapter 4

Zach

Though it was the last thing in the world he wanted to do, Zach spent the rest of the semester avoiding Rhea as much as he could.

It was awful. He wanted to soak up his last few weeks living near her. He had meant what he’d said about the two of them taking the time to visit one another and staying in touch on video chat, but he also knew that she was right to suggest that things would never be the same once he left. Philadelphia was only a few hours away, but they were used to being able to meet up whenever they wanted to. It would change everything.

So he wanted to spend all his time with her now.

But he couldn’t. Lying to her was just too difficult and painful.

For one thing, he was almost sure that she was onto him. He’d told her that he had lost his scholarship, but she had immediately shot back that that couldn’t be true. Zach didn’t think Rhea had suspected him of lying, exactly. He thought she’d assumed that there was some kind of mistake. Because what possible motive could he have to lie to her?

He wasn’t about to tell her the truth—that his father had lost his job.

What could he say? How could he tell his best friend that her father had terminated his contract with Zach’s father’s company, and that Zach’s father had been blamed? Rhea would feel responsible. She would try to do something about it. And Zach was too embarrassed. Even the thought of her calling her father and asking him to give his father another chance was too much to take.

Zach’s father had found a new job in Philadelphia, and he had insisted that Zach transfer to the community college there to finish out his education. Though he hadn’t said it, Zach couldn’t help but wonder if part of the reason he was so insistent about having Zach move had to do with Rhea herself. Maybe it was too painful to think of his son rubbing shoulders with the wealthy daughter of the man who had fired him.

And I guess I can