Southern Chance - Natasha Madison Page 0,7

looking first at Savannah and then at me, and my eyes avoided hers. I couldn’t look at her. “What’s going on?” Her voice was frantic at one point, and she called my name. “Jacob.” I knew then and there my life would change. I just didn’t know if I would survive it.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, and it was as if she knew that her life would be changed also. Her body started to shake, and I called her name. “Kallie.” I took a step forward, but she just took a step backward away from me. “I can explain.”

I watched her eyes go blank. I watched her shut down in front of me, and then I heard Beau shouting. I looked at him, and for one second, I wished he got here first. That he was the one who Savannah went to. “Someone had better say something and something fast.” He wrapped his arm around Kallie as she started to shake.

“Say it.” She looked at me, so broken, so helpless. It was like I was looking in a mirror.

“She’s pregnant.” I said the words that would forever change the path of my life. She looked at me, waiting for me to tell her that it wasn’t mine and assure her that I would never do that to her. I thought she would know. I thought she would have had enough faith in me and our love to automatically know that wasn’t true. I prayed that she saw what was in my eyes. That I loved her all the way down to my soul. “I’m so sorry.”

“Oh my God,” she said, her knees buckling under her, and she got sick on the sidewalk. The tears rushed out of me as my heart broke and my chest got tight, so tight I didn’t think I would be able to breathe.

“Kallie. Please, baby,” I pleaded with her while she looked up and shouted.

“No!” Her hand shot up and blocked me from her.

“Kallie, let me take you somewhere, and I can explain.” I almost got on my knees and begged her, and all she could do was look at Savannah, who stood there crying.

“How could you?” Kallie asked Savannah with hatred in her voice, and she had every reason to.

“It’s not what you think,” Savannah tried to tell her, but the sob ripped right through her.

“You’re wrong.” She stood up and tried to hold her shoulders high. My brave, brave girl. “It’s worse than I think.” She ignored me and looked at Beau. “Can you take me home?”

“Kallie.” I stepped forward to put my hand on her, and she ripped her arm away from my touch, so I let my hand fall to my side. “Please let me explain.” I wanted to rip my hair out. I wanted to shout the truth and tell her that it wasn’t true. Nothing about this was true.

“You slept with her while you told me you loved me!” she shouted at me, each word like a knife to my heart as tears poured down both of our cheeks. Every dream I’d ever had of us getting married and having children together was erased, like it never was. “You slept with her while you made plans with me about the future. Our future.” Her voice was so loud that I finally spotted a crowd around us. The pain ripped through me, gutting me, leaving me hollow. I just had to get her alone so I could explain it to her.

“Kallie.” Beau said her name, and she turned her anger on him also.

“You knew.” Kallie pointed at him. “You had to have known. You guys are the three musketeers.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. He looked as gutted as Kallie looked right now. “I didn’t know.”

“I don’t believe you,” she hissed, and then she looked at me. “I hope she’s worth it.” She turned and walked through the crowd, and my eyes followed her, my feet stuck to the ground. As I looked around, the crowd just looked at me. Some with disgust and others with sorrow.

She got into Casey’s truck, and he peeled off. She was leaving me, and I ran, I ran so fast after the truck. I pushed myself, calling her name over and over until my voice was raw. I ran until my legs burned and my knees buckled, leaving me in the middle of the road with the sight of the red taillights fading.

The phone rings, bringing me back to the present. My chest hurts