The Lakes

Chapter 15

       

15

            All the way to Waves she tried to keep her mind off him and that kiss but it was impossible.  She knew there were more important things she needed to be focused on, like the anniversary of Travis' death, and more promptly the pending "pregnancy" of a girl Tommy had said he'd only received from.

            It was around 4:15 when she pulled into the parking lot; Tommy's old Jeep was there.  When she went in the servers were getting tables prepared for the dinner rush.  Monday night was also pretty busy with it being the first full day of vacations.  It was slowing down of course with summer winding to a close but she felt sure they'd still be busy at least this week.

            She walked towards the bar as Tommy was coming out with a case of beer.

            "Hey beautiful," he said with a little less enthusiasm than normal.

            "Hey Tommy."

            "You're here early," he said setting the box down and looking at his watch.  "Did you get fired already?"

            "No," she said laughing with him, "I had to work through lunch so he let me leave at four."

            "Cool, what's up?"

            "That's what I want to know," she said eyeing him.

            "Let's go out to the dock," he said inclining his head towards the kitchen door.

            She went around the bar and followed him.  To her surprise he grabbed her hand and held it as they walked the distance of the dock.  He swung it a little smiling, as if they were young kids, she thought he might start skipping as she smiled back at him.

He seemed to be in a fairly good mood, just a lot on his mind, which hopefully was a good sign.  They sat down at the end of the old dock.  She positioned herself carefully so as to not catch the material of her work pants in any of the possible loose wood or nails.  She removed her heels and let her feet touch the cooling water.

            "So?"

            "So, Adrian and I talked, a lot.  Basically what happened was she came down here on vacation, knowing she was pregnant by some guy who had just broken up with her when he found out.  He went all crazy on her, told her it wasn't his, that she was a slut... awful stuff like that. 

"She came down with some friends of hers, none of them knew about any of this apparently.  The trip had already been planned and she said she really just wanted to get away and forget about all her problems back home.

"Anyway she said she saw me and 'fell in love' and knew she wanted me to be the father of her child.  She was hoping that she could convince me that I was the father and that I would want to do the right thing and marry her.

"I explained to her how crazy that sounded and she agreed.  She was very apologetic, to me and you, she wanted me to tell you she was sorry for starting this in the first place and that she was especially sorry for putting you in the middle of it."

            "Wow," was all Chris could say.

            "Yeah and to think I served her alcohol!  I never would've done that if I'd known she was pregnant."

            Chris rubbed his back soothingly and said, "Don't get yourself down about that.  She made that choice, you didn't know."

            "Yeah," he said looking up and gazing out to the water.