The Bookstore on the Beach - Brenda Novak Page 0,134

be Oliver’s baby. His father will kill him!”

Taylor cringed as Mimi and her mother exchanged a worried look.

“I hope he won’t be that upset,” Autumn continued. “There’s no need for things to get ugly. After all, what’s done is done.”

“That’s not how his father will look at it.”

“I know it’s not good news, but we’d like to talk about this as calmly as possible and...and figure out the best path to take—together.”

“One minute,” she said, after which they could hear her calling for Oliver.

A few seconds later Mrs. Hancock put her phone on speaker, too. “Oliver, shut the door. The Divacs are on the line. They claim you and Caden’s sister... That you’re responsible for...for getting his older sister pregnant.”

Jill had to put in the older part, as if one year made Taylor more to blame. Taylor knew there would be other people who’d make a big deal of that, too.

Oliver didn’t answer. At least, he didn’t say anything they could hear. After a stretch of nothing, his mother started crying, which made Taylor feel even worse. “What are we going to tell your father?” she asked him.

That part they could hear.

“Do we have to tell him?” Oliver’s voice was tight with emotion. “There are...there are other options. I’ve been talking to Taylor about some of them.”

“He’s been trying to convince Taylor to get an abortion,” Autumn explained. “Is that really what he wants? Is that what you all want?”

Jill didn’t answer right away. She seemed to be thinking. Eventually, they could hear Oliver pleading with her, telling her that it was the only way, that he couldn’t support a child at sixteen.

“Just think what Dad will do,” he said. “We can’t tell him.”

When tears started to roll down Taylor’s cheeks, her grandmother gave her a sympathetic look, but it was Caden, sitting next to her, who attempted to comfort her. Not wanting the Hancocks to hear her crying, she stifled a sniff as her brother’s bigger hand enveloped hers.

“Is that an option?” his mother asked at length.

Autumn rubbed her forehead. “Would you be supportive of that?”

There was another brief pause, but then she said softly, “Yes. Yes, we would.”

“You’re positive. Would you like some time to talk it over and decide?”

“No,” she replied immediately. “Can you think of a better way for this to end?”

Taylor pictured her mother driving her to an abortion clinic—and all that would happen there, if she agreed to it, and felt weak and shaky.

“Fortunately, I can,” Autumn said.

Taylor, who’d been staring down at her lap while trying to hold herself together, looked up. Caden seemed surprised, too.

Jill’s voice came through the phone again. “What is it?”

“That’s something I need to discuss with my own family, so I’ll have to call you back.”

“Please text me before you call so I can...so I can find a private spot where we can talk.”

They were going to try to keep the pregnancy from Oliver’s father, if they could. Taylor didn’t need her to say it. That was obvious.

“I will,” Autumn said and hung up.

Caden let go of Taylor’s hand. “So...what are we going to do?”

Their mother gave him a searching look. “That depends on you.”

“On me?” he said. “I don’t have anything to do with this.”

“But I love you, too.”

“What does that mean?”

Taylor was wondering the same thing.

“Quinn has asked us to stay here, where...where he and I can take care of the baby while Taylor goes off to college.”

“He has?” Taylor wiped the tears from her face. “So we’d keep the baby?”

“I can’t stand the thought of any other alternative,” her mother said. “Can you?”

“No,” Taylor admitted. “But if we stay in Sable Beach...” She turned to Caden. “You’d have to change schools, and it might mess up your chances for a scholarship.”

His eyebrows knitted as he looked from her to their mother and then Mimi. “You all want this,” he said.

“We can go back to Tampa and wait for you to graduate,” their mother said. “Your goals and happiness matter, too.”

“But then Taylor would have to face the humiliation of being pregnant, chances are good Oliver’s father will find out and you’d have to take care of the baby alone for the next two years. Maybe you and Quinn wouldn’t be able to outlast the separation.”

“I feel like I owe you these two years, Caden,” Autumn said, “so I’m willing to go back in spite of everything.”

Caden’s knee began to jiggle.

“You don’t have to move,” Taylor said. “It wouldn’t be fair. This is my fault, not