Free The Quarterback's Love Child (A Secret Baby Sports Romance Book 1) by Stephanie Brother Page A

for how long.”
    That wasn't really a plan. Michelle would need time to heal. She couldn’t move in with her and then the following week or month live by herself. The old Michelle, the one that I’d fallen in love with might have, but the new one that had been broken into so many pieces…. I just couldn't see it happening. Besides, if my aunt was talking about getting married and that was the reason she wasn’t sure how long Michelle could stay. This meant that adding Mia into the equation wasn’t really an option.
    “Son, you still there?”
    I whispered, “Yes.”
    I found it hard to have a conversation, as other kids came out into the yard, I thought about getting off the phone and coming up with a plan B. Right then I couldn’t think of one and it made me sad.
    “Dad, catch you later. We can talk properly then.”
    He agreed, “Take care son.”
    To say that my relationship with my dad had grown over the last few weeks since he had started standing up to mom was an understatement. I knew that he was trying to do right not only by me, but Michelle too.
    My aunt didn’t know Michelle; it wasn’t fair to expect her to take both of them in, but I needed a solution. The more I thought about one, the more I just drew a blank and it made me so darn mad. I felt useless.
    Pathetic.
    I had nothing to offer Michelle, only my heart. There was another option, one that I knew would mean a heavy sacrifice on my part. I would have to give up going to college and maybe just get a job. I had to.
    It would be the right thing to do.
    It was about time that I thought about someone else other than myself. I loved Michelle, there was no two ways about it. I could get a job in a diner or something, and try to support her and Mia. I could do it, if I really tried.
     
     

 
    Chapter Twenty One
    Michelle
     
    The last few weeks had been so hard. I couldn’t believe that no one had suspected about my fake breakup with the girls. I must admit, I’d never thought of Faith as being an actress, but after that day whenever they walked past me they acted as if I didn’t exist.
    Mrs. Turner had even sat with me at the dining hall a couple of times, which was really unusual for a teacher to sit with a student.
    “I just wanted to make sure that you are okay,” she looked at me through her glasses as if she was trying read my mind.
    I smiled, the fake smile that I had learned over the last few weeks while practicing in the mirror. Those who knew me who would know that it was hiding the truth. Others would think I was the happiest student in the world. I adjusted my sweater and gave her what she wanted to see and hear, “Everything’s fine.” I waited for her to accept it. To take it as the truth and to move on to another subject.
    I thought that it had worked until she repeated, “Are you sure?”
    I did again, this time trying to make it more convincing, I was eating the one dish I despised as if it was the best dish in the world and I repeated, “Everything’s fine.”
    She didn’t move. She kept staring at me, and I started to get uncomfortable. She opened her mouth to speak, but then she was distracted by the Principal who came over to speak to her.
    “Mrs Turner, you know that the students eat here, and we eat over there,” Principal Hopkins pointed as if he was talking to a new teacher, not one that had been at the school before I was even born.
    She nodded, “I know, but today I thought that I would keep Michelle company.”
    He frowned as he looked at me, probably worried about what I would say. Like so many of the officials in town, he was scared of my dad. He would want to make sure that no one paid attention to me.
    Principal Hopkins wouldn’t hesitate to tell dad if I was talking to Carl. I knew his real purpose of coming over, and if Mrs. Turner was sitting with any other student it wouldn’t have bothered him.
    But, Father Roger’s daughter, that was a totally different matter. One that needed to be put in place