Paroled

Chapter 9

Taking a few days to lay low, Eva finally came out of hiding to meet Tara for lunch at a small cafe by Saint Thomas. They sat and chatted, Piney's and Abel's health and some other minor topics before Eva decided to broach a more important topic.

"Do you know if Saint Thomas has any nursing spots opening soon?"

Tara drew her head back and looked at Eva with a surprised, but suspicious, smile. "What? Why?"

"Piney won't need much longer," Eva laughed. "Once he's really fully recovered he'll be feeling so much better, you know that, and he's not gonna need a nurse. I'm mostly a maid now anyway."

Tara nodded, "Cushy gig though," she said with a laugh.

"I need more than cushy," Eva admitted. "I fucked up, I was seeing this guy and I was smitten, like let's get matching tattoos smitten. It burned out like they usually do, and I'm stuck now."

"Stuck?"

"I'm pregnant," Eva huffed. "I don't even know what I'm going to do but it kind of made the whole health insurance and sick time and paid vacations more important than they've ever seemed."

"Wow," Tara was truly taken aback. "I didn't know you were seeing anyone, Eva. Who is he?"

Eva shook her head. "Just a guy and I didn't tell anyone because," she sighed. "Because I didn't want to. I think I knew deep down it wasn't more than an intense fling."

"A baby," Tara said with a smile. "Whatever you want to do I will support you, you know that."

"I know," she nodded. "I appreciate it. My biggest issue now is how much I wish I didn't need to make a decision. I wouldn't mind having his baby, I'd be thrilled to be honest if things were still the way they were before."

"How do you think he'd react?"

Eva cocked her head to the side. "I don't know, he has kids already so he's not totally anti-child but we never got into a future discussion, you know? We just kind of -"

"Had sex?" Tara asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah," Eva laughed.

"It's your decision but maybe if he knew things would seem different? Maybe he'd want to try to have a future?"

"No. Way." Eva was very clearly adamant. "He is so emotional and he's kind of in shit right now, I think it would send him into some existential crisis and just make shit worse for everybody."

"It's Opie," Tara said, the realization hitting her over the head out of nowhere.

"Opie?" Eva laughed, very clearly trying to convince Tara she was wrong. "No way."

"Yes," Tara was convinced but not in the direction Eva had hoped. "There's no one more dramatic and stuck in his own head than Opie, things were hot and heavy until Piney went in the hospital and Donna started coming around more. You both seemed way too cheerful for a few weeks too."

Eva's eyes glistened with tears. "It's not Opie, Tara."

"Then who? What's his name?"

Refusing to meet her stare, Eva kept her head down as she tried desperately not to cry. "I really wish you would have kept your guess to yourself."

"I'm sorry," Tara said quickly. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"I know," Eva huffed. "You cannot tell Jax. I am so fucking serious, Tara. You can't."

"I won't," she promised. "We both know he would go right to Opie."

Eva nodded. "Exactly."

"I'll see if they're any openings coming up," Tara told her. "We'll get you another job, somehow. For what it's worth, Opie and Donna will never actually work, they'll split again, he's so clearly miserable."