The Quarterback's Love Child (A Secret Baby Sports Romance Book 1) by Stephanie Brother Page B

the last few weeks, Faith, Harmony and Carl had kept my strength up. Without their friendship I couldn’t have survived in this town. They would all soon be going to college, all three of them had opted for colleges which were far away and they all had the same mission to be as far from Stowe Peak as possible.
    If I’d had the opportunity I would have done the same. But I wasn’t allowed to apply, if I had, there was no way I would have had the funds to support myself during the four years. This was my only option.  The only blessing was the fact that I had my high school diploma.
    Maybe I could use that to go to a local college?
    But, as I rubbed my belly and thought about my fate, I realized that I would be starting a new life, not just with one child, but two.
    I grabbed Mia’s hand as she asked, “Where we going?”
    I smiled, “An adventure.” Her frown didn’t go away, so I continued to say, “A happy place.”
    She replied, “Ice cream?”
    She clapped her hands at the thought of getting one, a treat that she had rarely experienced. One that Dad had classified as being one of temptation, but Mom had given to us whenever he was away.
    “Yes, like getting an ice cream,” I replied as I took her hand once again and led her across the road. I had a backpack, which didn’t have much in, a few clothes and nothing else. I couldn’t make it look as if we had run away, that would mean that the sheriff would catch up with us if Dad alerted him straight away.
    Besides I hated my clothes, they weren’t ones for women my age. They were for beggars on the street who had to take what they wanted. Then it hit me like a flash of lightening that after today I would be on the street.
    I had a shelter to go to, but even then it wasn’t clear how long I could stay there.
    I had so many questions, but I knew that sending notes back to Harmony and Faith could result in the end of my escape.
    I had over $500 in my pocket which was more than I had ever had in my life. It may not be a lot to most people, but to me it was like winning the lottery a hundred times.
    The only time I had held money in my hand was when I’d gone to Christian camp and Mom had given me $10. I remember thinking that I didn’t want to spend the $10. The idea of having money and giving it away for the first time in my life felt like a stupid thing to do. But, as dad would say, temptation got the better of me and when we went on a trip and I was in a store, knowing that I could spend money, I didn’t hesitate in buying a little souvenir.
    It was a horse, something that I had held onto for the last four years. It was in my backpack. A reminder of where I was and where I was going to; from now on any money that I had would be needed to buy food, clothes, milk, diapers, etc.
    I would no longer have the luxury of deciding to buy something for myself. The ones that would get first dibs on what to spend it on would be my children.
    As I stood by the car and Harmony’s cousin, Ben asked, “You ready?”
    He opened the door and, as Mia dutifully sat at the back, I handed him my backpack and I smiled, “For the first time in my life, I am ready.”
    “Good.”
    I wondered if he thought that maybe I had changed my mind. I was a little late, but that was because I wanted to make sure that everyone was distracted with the party and no one knew that I was going to leave. It would only be a matter of time before mom realized that not only had I gone to Harmony’s house to get the macaroni and cheese that Harmony had purposely forgotten to bring and not returned. She would also know that Mia was gone, even though Faith had said that she would take her to the playground with the other little kids, which Faith had volunteered to do.
    They would be my backup to make sure that no one would look for me, for at least an hour or if I was lucky maybe two. By then we would have crossed the state line, no one would have a clue who with or how, not even Carl. He would be the