Free The Saint by Kathleen O`Brien

usually—they have relationships. Most people who end up in this situation know each other well, have a history, have plans for a future. They’re usually in—”
    â€œIn love.” Her voice cracked on the word, and she tightened her throat to avoid breaking down. “I know. It’s awkward. I wish being in love were a requirement for making babies, but apparently it isn’t. Apparently even people who have an utterly meaningless one-night encounter can still end up pregnant.”
    â€œI—I put that wrong. I didn’t mean it like that.”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter. What matters is that we are going to have a child. A real, living, breathing person is going to enter this world. I don’t want any stigma attached to his name. I want him to have a name.”
    â€œStigma?” He frowned. “That’s pretty old-fashioned thinking, isn’t it? I mean, in this day and age, do people really—”
    â€œYes. People really do.” She thought of Mrs. Straine, who everyone whispered had bought her own wedding ring and sent herself flowers on an imaginary anniversary. She thought of her own mother, who had invented a marriage, then invented a divorce and cried into her pillow at night.
    â€œI work at a very old-fashioned parochial school. I teach middle-school girls, who are becoming sexually aware themselves. I’m already on probation there for the sin of teaching them Hamlet. That’s how repressed the environment is. Believe me, my principal would never allow an unmarried mother to be their teacher.”
    â€œEven so, there must be other schools, schools with more tolerant—”
    â€œPerhaps. But I don’t want to be chased out of my job, Kieran. I worked hard to get that position.And I won’t create an imaginary husband, either. My mother lived that lie for twenty years. I won’t go through that, and neither will my child.”
    He didn’t pretend to be surprised. Obviously he had heard about her mother’s little charade. It had been the most pitiful farce. At home, for their mother’s sake, Claire and Steve had pretended that the fiction remained intact, but everyone had known.”
    â€œBut marriage.” He shook his head. “Have you thought this through, Claire? Have you thought about—”
    â€œOf course I have.” She’d thought of nothing else since she’d found out. It had been an intensely lonely, agonizing mental struggle. She had no one to give her advice, no one who would help her sort through the pros and cons, help her put it all in perspective.
    No one to help her step back, as Steve might have, and say, but it’s a baby! Surely that should be a happy thing.
    â€œThis isn’t some crazed plan I cooked up on the plane. I’ve thought through all the details. I’m not suggesting we stay married forever. I know neither of us wants that. But if we married right away, I could live in Heyday for the summer. Then, when school starts in the fall, I’d naturally have to go back to teach. If you were willing to visit a few times, meet everyone, establish the authenticity of the marriage—”
    She took another deep breath. “Then we could officially separate, citing the problems of a long-distance relationship. And after the baby was born, we could get a divorce.”
    He didn’t answer right away. He was staring, apparently right through her. She wondered what he saw. She wondered what he was thinking. Nothing happy, that much was certain. She’d never seen the charming Kieran McClintock look so devoid of all expression.
    â€œWhen is that?” A muscle was moving in his jaw. “When exactly is the baby due?”
    â€œThe doctor said just after the new year. Working from…the dates I gave him, he said maybe early January.”
    â€œJanuary.” He seemed to roll the word around in his mind. He tried to smile, but she almost wished he