Free ROMANCE: Country Club Affair (Pregnancy Secret Baby Short Stories) (Second Chances New Adult Contemporary) by Jane Price

Country Club Affair: Secret Baby
     
    Camden moved through the room like she had a hundred times before. It seemed like nothing had changed. The old world glamour of the stately looking décor, the women outfitted in lovely dresses, the smell of cigar smoke wafting in from the veranda, it was all like she left it. She loved this place and the memories it held. She used to come to this country club almost every weekend with her parents, but it seemed like the grandeur of this place shone even brighter now in her absence.
     
    It felt like ages since she had been here, though it had only been two years. So much had changed in that time, though. When she was last here it was with the naivety of youth on her side, the carefree attitude that only exists when you have no real burdens. When she was here last she didn’t realize she wouldn’t be back, didn’t realize she would be leaving behind so many regrets.
     
    The dining room was filling up, patrons filing in after having finished their round of golf. Camden made her way across the room to her parents table. The jovial smile slid from her father’s face as she approached the table and sat. He turned his attention from her, back to Mr. Weston. She could feel the cold radiating off of him from where she sat. He was still upset with her. Still disowned her I suppose. She wouldn’t have come tonight if she realized he still felt that way. Her mother had convinced her on the phone that he missed her; that he wanted her to come to the club tonight.
     
    Camden sighed. She should have guessed her father wouldn’t have bent so easily. When she left he told her he would never forgive her. He was a man of his word, too. From beside her, Camden’s mom leaned over and patted her hand.
     
    “Don’t look so fretful, dear. Aren’t you having a good time?” Her mother looked at her with kind eyes and Camden couldn’t help but smile at her. She loved her mother and had missed her. She couldn’t count the number of times she wished she could call her mother and ask her advice or opinion. Tonight was a gift. The first crack in the stone wall they had thrown in her face.
     
    Her family had been surprised when she told them she was pregnant, but they were supportive. When she wouldn’t tell them who the father was, though, they had shut her out. They couldn’t understand why she didn’t want his money, his ring, his future. At the very least his child support. She could have raised her baby with the same luxuries she had grown accustomed, if only she would be reasonable . And if she wasn’t going to use the fathers’ money to raise her child, she wasn’t going to be able to use theirs, either. But she had made her choice and she wasn’t going to back down.
     
    “I’m having a lovely time, mother. It feels good to be here again.”
     
    Her mother smiled and nodded her head. It was her mother who had called, who had convinced her father to reserve an extra spot at their table, who wanted to see her grandchild. Isla was already a year and a half old and had no one in the world but Camden. No matter how cold her father was being, she didn’t want to rob her mother of that opportunity. She didn’t want to rob Isla of that opportunity.
     
    “Good, I was hoping you would feel that way. You always loved this place. When you were little you would beg to come with us, and cry if ever you weren’t able. It seemed fitting to meet here, and I wanted us to meet on neutral territory. So we all felt comfortable.”
     
    “It doesn’t seem like dad is feeling very comfortable.”
     
    “Oh you know him. It takes a lot to make him change his mind. Just wait until after dinner, he’ll be in a better mood then.” She gave Camden’s hand another pat before turning back to the Westons.
     
    The Westons had been their regular dinner companions for as long as they had been coming to the country club. Camden’s father was an accountant and by anyone else’s standards he wouldn’t have