“Alas, young Mia,” I said, forcing my tone to be gentle. “With pregnancy, much will be unpleasant in the coming months. But Conner deserves to see the results.”

She tossed her hair and crossed her arms on her chest. “He doesn’t deserve anything. Playing me, knocking me up and then dumping me. He doesn’t deserve crap.”

Conner had done well with being silent and not escalating matters, but with that, he was just done.

“Not sure how I could knock you up since we haven’t had sex, Mia.”

I found this interesting and a huge relief.

Because I believed him.

Completely.

“Neal,” Jake quickly put in at this juncture. “Unfortunately we got a he said, she said situation goin’ on here and there may be an easy, quick fix. I’ll go get the test. Josie can stay here with you and Mia. Conner can go in the other room. To get to town and back, Mia takes the test, we’ll know what we’re dealing with in less than twenty minutes.”

Jake said this but Neal was staring at Conner and he wasn’t exactly furious anymore (or at least, not entirely). However, I knew him not at all. Therefore, I didn’t know what he was.

Then he looked to his daughter and his face gentled. “Just take the test, honey.”

It was then I knew what he was. He was a man who was simply a man therefore was once a teenaged boy so he knew how he’d feel if a girl’s father showed up at his doorstep with this news.

Her back shot straight as her face started to pale and she snapped, “I’m not takin’ another test.”

“It’ll take no time at all and—” Neal began.

She leaned into her father, her face twisting. “I’m not takin’ another test, Dad.”

“Mia—”

Her eyes shifted around the room and she interrupted her father to announce, “I’ll take it at home.”

“I must insist you take it here,” I stated.

“Don’t know how you can insist on anything. It’s my pee. It’s my body. And you aren’t even family,” Mia fired back.

I held her eyes and, unperturbed, replied quietly, “You know why I can insist.”

“Respect, Josie, but I’m not real big on you standin’ there callin’ my daughter a liar,” Neal said with forced calm.

Before I could say anything, Conner did.

“She’s pregnant, she shouldn’t have any problem takin’ a test. Why do you have a problem with it, Mia?”

“Because you’re a dick and I can barely stand bein’ in the same room with you. I’m not gonna hang around for twenty minutes doin’ it,” she retorted.

“Now, Neal, I’m gonna have to ask you to ask your daughter to be careful,” Jake said in his quiet, angry voice.

Neal turned to his daughter. “This isn’t easy for any of us, honey. Don’t make it harder.”

“It’s hardest for me.” She leaned toward her father and jerked her thumb to herself at her last two words.

“Actually, it’s hardest for me,” Conner stated firmly and angrily and I looked to him to see his eyes slice to Mia’s father. “Mr. Earhart, I have not had sex with your daughter. I broke things off with her and she wasn’t happy about it. Josie saw her make a scene at the game and so did my sister and her friends and probably a bunch of other people. Pretty much anyone will tell you she’s made threats to the girl I’m seein’ and made more scenes than just the one at the game. But bottom line, no lie, if she’s pregnant, it’s absolutely not mine.”

After this rather well delivered speech (I thought), I turned back to Neal and saw him again studying Conner.

He did this but moments before he looked down at his daughter.

“You’re takin’ the test, Mia. Here.”

“Am not,” she spat.

His tone was deadly when he decreed, “You absolutely are.”

And when he did, Mia’s face went ashen.

Her father didn’t miss it and I knew this when he whispered, “Please tell me you did not lie to me about Conner Spear gettin’ you pregnant.”

She said nothing but visibly swallowed and her body language changed from extremely cross to exceptionally nervous.

Her father didn’t miss that either.

“You lied to me,” Neal stated, still in a whisper.

She rubbed her lips together as she rubbed her palms on her jeans.

“You’re not pregnant?” her father asked, his voice now sounding choked.

She stared into his eyes for some time before she finally jerked her head in a negative.

“What were you gonna do when that shit was found out?” her father asked incredulously, a question he probably didn’t want the answer to, but asked it anyway.

She shifted on her feet.

“Mia,” he started, his voice awful and I didn’t know him, but I felt for him. “What were you gonna do?”

“Get pregnant in the meantime, but pin it on Conner,” she whispered, voice trembling, eyes glued to her dad.

“Jesus,” Neal bit out, staring at her like he’d never seen before.

Her face screwed up and she threw out a hand Conner’s way. “We dated for three months and he just blew me off.”

Good goodness.

All of this for three months?

I was aghast.

“Go to the car.” Neal was again whispering.

She looked to Conner. “You can’t be with a girl and just blow her off.”

“Mia, go to the car,” Neal demanded, a lot louder this time.

She looked to her father. “He humiliated me. I was the second one cut!”

“Swear to Christ, Mia, you don’t go to the car right now…” Neal trailed off.

She looked to Conner and hissed, “You’re still a dick and you’ll always be a dick.”

That was when Jake was done.

“Not sure your girl is welcome in my home, Neal,” Jake said low.

“Mia—” Neal started but her bravado disintegrated as her face crumbled.

I felt no pity for her.

Lying about a pregnancy and conniving to become that way?

Unacceptable.

“You hurt me,” she whispered to Conner.

Conner said nothing.

“Car, Mia,” her father ordered but his voice was gentler, thus giving some understanding of why Mia was as Mia was. What she’d done was not suitable by any stretch of the imagination, but she showed some emotion, and her father gentled to it.

She stared at Conner with wet eyes then looked to her father and without a word or another look at anyone, she rushed by Jake, by me, by Conner and out the door.

Neal lifted a hand and ran it through his hair before he looked to Jake.

“Jake, don’t know what to say,” he murmured.

“Nothin’ to say,” Jake replied. “Kids do crazy shit. It’s done.” Jake paused as he held the man’s eyes before he finished, “Though, would appreciate it you have a word with your girl about shit she’s pullin’ with Conner’s girl, Ellie. She’s pissed at Conner, I get. Her doin’ this, I don’t get, but we’re past that. Her messin’ with Ellie, that shit isn’t right.”

Neal stared at him a moment before doing the only thing he could do at that juncture, nodding and moving. He gave a curt jerk of the chin to me and looked to Conner.

“Conner, son. Sorry.”

Conner said nothing.

Even without a response, Neal nodded to him too and walked out the door.

Conner delayed not a moment before shutting it behind him and cutting his eyes to his father.

“She told Ellie that shit. Or got someone to do it.”

She did indeed, I thought.

“Yep,” Jake said.

“That’s why Ellie’s not calling me,” Conner went on.

It certainly was, I thought.

“Yep,” Jake said.

“I gotta go to her,” Conner announced.

He absolutely did, I thought.

“Yep,” Jake said.

Conner put a hand to the door.

“Son,” Jake called.

Conner looked to his father.

“Lesson,” Jake said gently. “Man’s got the power to break a woman’s heart. Women have their own power. Learn this and in future, choose better.”

Conner’s jaw got hard then he jerked up his own chin, threw open the door and exited the room.

Jake walked to the door, closed it again and turned to me.

“How’d you know?”

“She’s an immensely unpleasant young woman and a terrible actress.”

He tipped his head to the side. “She gonna cause more problems for my boy?”

I drew in a deep breath and lowered my voice when I replied, “Unless her father successfully imparts wisdom through appropriate punishment, it’s highly likely she’ll do that every chance she gets.”

“Conner shares, not everything but we’re tight and he gives a lot to his old man,” Jake told me. “He made no promises of exclusivity to any of them, not until he told Ellie she’s the one. I’m a man so I’m gonna think this kinda punishment doesn’t fit the crime ‘cause I’m not sure he committed one.”

I said nothing.

“You got a take on that?” he prompted.

“It wasn’t like he was dating five women in a large cosmopolitan city, Jake. He was dating five girls in a small high school. This was a recipe for disaster. But, in essence, you’re correct. If he made no promises, the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. He simply chose poorly.” I paused and finished. “Very poorly.”

“And how does he deal with this girl, she keeps fuckin’ with him?”

“He gives her what she deserves,” I told him.

His brows went up as he asked, “And what’s that?”

“He ruins her.”

“Come again?” he asked, brows still high.

“I am not a man, or a teenaged boy becoming a man, and I’ve never been either. But I would guess if I was, if it was known a girl would go to these extremes simply because her non-exclusive boyfriend of three months broke up with her, she would not be high on my list of girls I’d wish to spend time with.”