Audrey“What I will say is, you’ve listed here that you kept a pretty strict diet as a ballerina. That may need to change while you’re pregnant,” the doctor added, consulting the forms that I had brought in. “You’ll probably find yourself having cravings for foods that you wouldn’t normally eat, and you’ll need to up your calorie intake as well.”“Yeah,” I sighed. “I just wish the thought of food didn’t make me want to hurl.” I was feeling a little bit better that day. I had to hope that maybe there was a light at the end of the tunnel and that my morning sickness would fade as I got further along. I was running out of ways to explain it to everyone who didn’t know I was pregnant.Although I knew there wouldn’t be much more hiding that fact. If I was already eleven weeks along, then it was only a matter of time before I started to show. I swallowed hard, realizing that all of those nerve-wracking conversations that I had been putting off, with Mom and with Jesse, were going to have to

AudreyJesse had basically handed me the perfect opportunity to tell him about the baby, and I still hadn’t taken it. To be fair, I had wanted to work our way up to it. Explain that I was missing Paris. Let him know why I couldn’t go back there yet, or maybe ever. I wanted to build up to it. I couldn’t seem to just come right out and tell him about it.It had seemed like the conversation was on track, just like I’d intended. He asked me about returning to dance, and I told him that things were complicated. Before I had a chance to tell him just why things were so complicated, though, he had kissed me and invited me back to his place.It wasn’t like I could say no to an invitation like that.I had stayed at his place nearly every night since I had come back from Paris, but the raw, white-hot passion that sizzled between us never seemed to cool. I knew that it had been hard to keep away from him the last time I came back home, but this time, it seemed even more impossible.Despite the f

JesseI was in the middle of a pleasant dream when I suddenly became aware of Audrey shaking my arm. “Jesse. Jesse, wake up,” she pleaded with me. I made a noise of protest, trying to wrap my arms around her and pull her close. Had she had a nightmare? What was wrong?“Jesse, stop. Wake up,” Audrey commanded, sounding tearful.I frowned, wondering if this was some sort of nightmare intruding on my dream. I couldn’t imagine a nightmare that would feature Audrey, though. I blinked my eyes open and then groped for the light on the bedside table.I was surprised to find Audrey looking close to tears. “I need to go to the hospital,” she said. “Please. I’m sorry.”I stared dumbly at her for a moment, brain still struggling to wake up. What she was saying didn’t make any sense. Other than the tears, she looked fine. Why would she need to go to the hospital so urgently?I remembered that she had been ill since she had come home, though. Maybe she had thrown up blood or something?“What’s wron

AudreyBesides, what could I really say? All my fears seemed stupid now that I was faced with the fact that I might have ruined everything by saying nothing to Jesse. If I had just opened my mouth and admitted that I was pregnant, I wouldn’t be in this position now. The only reason that I hadn’t was that I was afraid that it would drive him away, or else trap him in a loveless marriage. In saying nothing, though, I had practically forced him to turn away from me.“The doctor said you’re going to be all right,” he finally said quietly. He paused for a moment. “Both of you.”I nodded. “Yeah, they said that, uh, this is totally normal. A good idea to get it checked out, though.”Jesse nodded as well. Then, he sighed and slumped into the chair next to the door. “Why did you lie to me?” he asked, sounding as though I had torn his heart out and stomped on it.I swallowed hard. I had been expecting the question, but somehow hearing him say it hurt worse than I could have expected. “I just go

JesseI didn’t know what in the hell to say to Audrey, so it was almost a relief when she fell asleep in the truck on the way home. She had her face pressed against the passenger-side window, and at first, I thought she was just avoiding the awkward silence in the only way that she knew how. Then, her breathing evened out, and I realized she was actually sleeping.Just as well. I knew that I was exhausted, and I wasn’t the one who was pregnant. It had been a long night, and I knew that I was worn out in the post-adrenaline mode of finding out that the baby was all right. I could only imagine how she felt.I still didn’t know what to say to her. I didn’t know what I had expected her to say when I started the conversation in the exam room about her lying, but I guess there was a part of me that expected to hear her string together some sort of excuse. I guess I was expecting there to be some logical reason that she had kept the information from me.Instead, she’d babbled a bit, giving m