Waking Up in Charleston by Sherryl Woods Page A

easily than he could live with Amanda ever knowing the truth.
    She regarded him sadly. “I wish I believed you.”
    She turned and walked away, leaving him standing there knowing that he’d just lost something that really mattered. He’d lost her trust, something he’d spent months and months trying to earn. He couldn’t help wondering if, once all the truths started coming out, he would ever get it back again.
     
    Mary Louise wished her mom and dad weren’t looking at her like that, as if she were such a terrible disappointment to them. The minute she’d told them about the baby, her mom’s eyes had filled with tears and her dad had looked as if someone had punched him in the stomach.
    “Where the hell’s Danny?” her father asked furiously. “Why isn’t he sitting here beside you? What kind of coward leaves his girl to break this kind of news alone?”
    “I didn’t want him here,” Mary Louise said, looking to Reverend Webb for support. He gave her an encouraging smile. “Danny and I talked about this and we’ve met twice with Reverend Webb. We know what we’re going to do, or I guess I should say what we’re not going to do.”
    Her mother’s hand covered a gasp. “Please don’t say he’s not going to marry you, Mary Louise.”
    “Mom, it’s for the best,” she said urgently. “Getting married now would ruin all of Danny’s plans for the future, and sooner or later he’d come to hate me and the baby. That’s the last thing I want.”
    Her father rose to his feet, his face red. “You’re going to sit here and tell me that boy is not willing to make an honest woman of you? We’ll see about that. I have a shotgun in the other room that says otherwise.”
    “That’s not an answer, Chet,” Reverend Webb said mildly. “Forcing two kids to get married when they recognize all the pitfalls won’t help anyone, least of all your grandchild.”
    Her dad scowled at Reverend Webb. “At least my grandchild would have its daddy’s name.”
    “And now it will have mine…and yours, ” Mary Louise stressed with a touch of defiance. “And that’s okay.I’ve made my peace with raising this baby on my own.” She gave her father a hard, unyielding look. “And I can do it completely on my own, if that’s the way it has to be.”
    “Oh, Mary Louise,” her mother whispered, her voice thick with tears. “Are you sure you want to do this? You could…” Her voice faltered.
    “What? Have an abortion? Give the baby away?” Mary Louise said. “No way. Neither of those is an option. This is Danny’s baby and I want to keep it.”
    Her mother turned to Reverend Webb. “Talk to her. Tell her how difficult this is going to be.”
    “I think she knows,” he said gently. “Your daughter is very mature. You should be proud of her. She hasn’t come to this decision lightly. Neither has Danny. I can vouch for that. In the end, they made the decision together. He’ll acknowledge the baby and pay what he can in support.”
    “Well, that’s mighty damn big of him,” her father blustered. “Seeing as how he’s the one who got her into this fix.”
    “We made this baby together,” Mary Louise corrected him staunchly. “Don’t blame it all on Danny. He’s a good guy. He’s just not ready to be married or to be a father.”
    “Well, ready or not, it looks as if he’s about to be a daddy. He ought to be man enough to be a husband, too,” her father insisted. “I don’t care what the rest of you say, I’m going over there to talk some sense into him. I imagine his folks will see my side of it, especially when I ask ’em how they’d feel if it was that little princess of theirs. I imagine if Cindy came to them with this news, they’d want the boy to do the right thing.”
    He stomped out of the room. Mary Louise sent a pleading look toward Reverend Webb. “Please, talk him out of this. I don’t want it to get ugly.”
    He gave her hand a squeeze. “I’ll do my best,” he promised,