what does she want? We know what you want and we understand that, but what does she think about all this?”
Hannah jumped in, giggling. “She has no idea what he’s planning.”
She couldn’t help it as she put her left elbow on the arm of the sofa and landed her face in her hand. Yeah, she wasn’t going to admit that she had no idea what was going on beyond agreeing to marry him, and even that was a little on the sketchy side.
Dakota defended his actions the best he could. “We’ve talked about it.”
But Cally just couldn’t hold it back. “At one in the morning when I was half asleep. I had been up since five that morning and had gone to school and work.” She looked over to him and asked, “Why don’t you explain all of this to me? You know the one person here that should have a clue what you’re doing.” She knew he was surprised by her outburst, but nowhere near as surprised as she was or even half as much as she was lost in all this.
He looked her in the eye with all the seriousness the world had to offer him. “I told you that I want us to get married as soon as we can. It will be about six months before we can get base housing, but once we get it you’ll come up there with me. You can finish school up there and get a transfer to one of the stores near the base. We planned this out together.”
Okay, maybe he wasn’t nuts; he had clearly planned all this out, and it sounded somewhat familiar. She remembered arguing about school and work and him coming up with a way around every argument she threw at him until she had just given up from the exhaustion. He seemed to smile when she couldn’t do anything more than nod.
“You remember we talked about this?” he asked again, seeming to need her to agree with him.
She just nodded and quietly admitted, “Vaguely.”
His sister gave her a weird look, accusing, “You said he didn’t tell you.”
Cally looked at the girl, frustrated from all of this. “That conversation is more like a dream than anything.”
His mom’s voice changed as she asked Cally, “You didn’t agree to any of this?”
Cally shrugged, because she didn’t want to lie and couldn’t tell them she had changed her mind about all of this, so she gave the best answer that she could come up with that wasn’t a complete lie. “I did agree to marry him this afternoon.”
His father asked again, “But is this what you want to do?”
How could she say no at this point? How could she do anything that didn’t break his heart? Cally looked at Dakota, and almost like magic, that strange golden energy surrounded him again as it mesmerized her. He seemed to become pure joy and happiness and something else all at once. And yet, the expression on his face was blank. She didn’t know why she said it or even where the word came from as she heard her own voice answer, “Yes.”
“Have you told your parents?” his mom asked next.
“No.” But when they did, there was going to be a lot of yelling and screaming before they told him that there was no way that their fifteen-year-old daughter wasn’t getting married.
His father asked, “When do you plan to do this?”
“I was hoping to do it tomorrow,” Dakota answered.
She looked at him, knowing that she had told him that she had to work tomorrow but needing him to hear it again. “I have to work.”
“I’m sure you can get out of it when you explain why,” he insisted, but for some reason, it didn’t sound like they were talking about the same thing.
There was no way he was going to get this past her mother, so she didn’t have to worry about taking off work; at least, not yet. Cally’s eyes were trained on him as she said, “You know I’m fifteen and I can’t get married without my parents signing off and then jumping through legal hoops galore?”
That overconfident look on his face left a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She was so in trouble; there was no way her mother would agree to this. She just knew it deep down inside her. The overly stern and controlling woman wouldn’t agree to this, would she? There was still more to this that she didn’t quite grasp, and his overconfidence was starting to unnerve her already shaking nerves.
Cally was so focused that she hadn’t noticed Hannah had gotten up. But the voice coming from the front door was so familiar that there was no way she could miss it. It was Seth. She heard Hannah announce, “Pizza’s here.”
Dakota tried to assure her, saying, “She likes me, she’ll agree.” Like nothing else was going on in the world around them. How could he not know that Seth was there? How could Seth not know that she was here?
Cally’s face fell back into her hands as she tried to hide. There was nowhere to hide, and there was nothing she was going to be able to do if Seth saw her. She heard the door shut behind them, but she still couldn’t move. She didn’t just have to face her mother with all of this, she also had to face Seth. Seth may get angry, but at this moment, she knew he wouldn’t hurt her too much.
Cally felt Dakota turn her head toward him as he asked, “Are you all right with all of this?”
“Yeah, sure, we’ll go with that,” she answered him, even more lost and afraid than she was before.
His father was the one that said it. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. We would understand.”
Cally nodded, because she knew they would understand, but Savannah would kill her, and the way Dakota was playing this, she was going to end up on her sister’s good side by tomorrow; at least, that was what she hoped. Savannah was only worried about Dakota getting hurt, and if her mom didn’t stop this, he was going to get what he wanted, so there really wasn’t much to say.
Hannah called out that dinner was ready, and she vaguely saw his parents get up. Cally was so screwed up that she had no idea how or what had just happened. She felt him let go of her hand for the first time since they had sat down, and she couldn’t help but look at him.
“Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be fine. My parents love you, and my sister is excited about us getting married. Everything’s fine,” he tried to assure her.
Cally just nodded and stood up with him, knowing that this wasn’t over yet. He wrapped his arm around her waist as they walked into the dining room, and they sat down to eat. She hadn’t eaten all day, but for some reason, she just wasn’t hungry. When Hannah asked what kind of pizza she wanted, Cally only half answered, “I’m not hungry, thank you.”
Almost as one, they all looked at her. Cally felt her heart hit the pit of her stomach, and then the twisting and squeezing started again as her nerves went off. The bad thing was that she was starting to get used to these insanely intense feelings that seemed to overwhelm her.
His father was the one that said it first. “You said she wasn’t pregnant.”
Dakota looked at her with shock, and all she could do was shake her head. “I’m not.” It was the truth for sure, but it didn’t seem to matter. Seriously, today was her very first time, so how could they think something like that.
“Are you sure?” his mother asked.
Her eyes stayed fixed on his. “I’m not, I swear. It’s just”—she didn’t have to words, but somehow she managed to say it—“with everything that’s happened, my stomach’s in knots.”
Slowly, everyone started eating and talking as Cally sank back into her dread-filled thoughts again. She just sat back, and more than anything, she wanted that deep dark hole to hide in. She couldn’t help but cringe as everyone started talking about what was going to happen next for them. Dakota seemed to think that as soon as he could arrange it, they were going to be married, and she was going to move in here with his parents. She had no idea why he was so insistent on it, but he was. What was up with him wanting her to move out of