"Hell if I know," Sherry answered. "But I swear, I never missed a day!"
Steve put his hands on her forearms and looked her in the eye. "I believe you. But how sure are you? How do you know?"
Sherry opened her desk drawer and held out a pregnancy test. He could see the plus sign. "Okay, you took a test." He paused for a moment, smiled and said, "If this were a sitcom, I'd make a joke about it being the only one you ever passed. Anyway, you used one of the major brands, and I hear they're pretty accurate."
"I made a doctor's appointment Friday morning to find out for sure."
"Do you want me to go with you?"
"Only if you want to. You don't have to. Their test takes longer than the home version."
Steve laughed as he repeated, "Home version." He pretended to read the cover of a game. "'Knock Me Up or Put Me Down?' Based on the smash Fox hit!"
"At least I know you're good on the fastest-finger questions," Sherry said wryly.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Steve asked indignantly.
"It means you know lots of ways to pleasure me," she assured him.
"Oh, I thought it was a masturbation joke." Then he got serious. "I wanna go with you. I just hope I don't give away why I'm there. I mean, I'm there for the same reason as most of the other guys, but-"
"Chances are no one'll know you're my brother, and I'll let you know if they do."
It was a little before noon. In the waiting room, Steve had caught up with his favorite websites and had gone back to his Facebook feed so he could read the articles that people linked to. He had just closed a Snopes article debunking the latest rumor about the President when Sherry put her hand on his shoulder. "Well?" he asked.
"When we're outside," she said.
Once they were around the corner from the door to her doctor's office, Sherry said, "I'm pregnant."
Steve put his arms around her, kissed her and practically jumped in the air. Although he'd made no attempt to conceal his feelings, he did keep his voice down. "I love you, Sherry."
Sherry kissed him back and told him, "I love you, too, Rabbit," but she sounded like she was trying to conceal her feelings.
"What's wrong?"
"It's weird. I was hoping I wasn't pregnant, but I'm happy you're happy about it."
Steve let go and they started walking. "So what do you wanna do?"
"I don't know yet."
"Well, do you want to have it?"
"I do, except-"
"What?"
"Okay, no matter what it sounds like I'm saying, remember I love you."
They were close to his car. He opened the doors with the remote fob and held the passenger door open for her. "I know you do, Sherry."
Once they were both in the car, Sherry explained. "You're the only reason I'm not sure about having it. Not because I don't love you, but because I'm afraid of what'll happen if they know it's yours."
Steve started the car and headed for home. "They who?"
Sherry was crying. "Take your pick. Mom and Dad. The police. Baldmoor University. I don't know a lot about Title IX, but they might not be allowed to let you enroll, 'cause technically, you're a sex offender. I mean, so am I, but we both know I'm just going through the motions at college."
"What do you mean?"
"You don't take criminal justice just for the fun of it," Sherry explained. "Aren't you switching to Baldmoor 'cause they have a good CJ department?"
"You're right, of course," Steve said. Then he asked, "So if I hadn't balked at taking the pictures, and you'd showed 'em to Adam, and
he'd/
knocked you up, you'd be planning on being fatter than the turkey come November?"
"Yeah. Probably not keeping it, but following through."
Steve sounded unhappy at the first part of her answer. "Oh," he said.
Sherry picked up on his tone. "I told you, remember I love you. I said I probably wouldn't keep it if it were Adam's, 'cause I'm assuming it wouldn't have worked out with him. You I love!"
"Well, you prefaced something by telling me to remember you love me. I'm saying this because I love you too. I want you to have the baby. It's your decision. Obviously! What I mean is, if the only reason you're considering not following through is to protect me, then don't. Don't protect me, I mean. What were you gonna tell people about the father?"
"I haven't decided. Right now I'm leaning toward saying it's a guy I met at the mall, and hoping I don't have to make up any details. I might change it to someone I met online or say it happened at a party, just so they'll believe I don't have his name."
"I hate asking you to lie."
Sherry laughed. Steve pulled into the driveway. They got out and stopped talking to avoid anyone hearing their secret. Once they were inside, she joked, "Worried my nose is gonna grow along with my belly? I already hate not telling people how sweet my boyfriend is. I'd really hate not telling my daughter how much I love her daddy."
"Wait, they can tell you that soon?"
While they hung their coats on the rack, Sherry answered, "No, that's just my imagination. When I was a little girl thinking about babies, I used to think about having another little girl to play with."
As they sat down on the couch, Steve asked, "Was this before or after you took up wrestling?"
"I said 'little' girl, dummy!" Steve was laughing. "What's so funny, Rabbit?"
"Most people, if they told you they had a son and a daughter who got scholarships for photography and wrestling, you'd assume it was the son who got the wrestling scholarship." He reminisced for a moment and added, "I remember when you first tried out for the high school team, I helped you practice your moves."
"And you're ... well, let's not sugar-coat it. Your strongest muscle is your brain, not one of your actual muscles. No offense. You were pretty easy to pin down."
"None taken. I know my limitations, but I had one limitation you didn't know about."
Sherry scoffed. "You're not gonna tell me you let me win, are you? I've seen you play Trivial Pursuit. You argued a technical question when we played three of our cousins, and none of 'em were teenagers yet."
"Not intentionally," Steve explained. "I love to win. But I love not getting beaten up even more, and I was afraid of what would happen if you felt me rubbing against your leg." He moved his legs away from hers.
Sherry put her hand on Steve's thigh, just below his dick. "You mean feel your dick? I knew you had one," she told him with a chuckle. "It wasn't exactly a revel-" His dick had expanded and was now brushing against her hand. "Oh, you mean feel how hard it was, don't you?"
Steve put his hands up. "Don't hit me! It was the first time I'd been that close to a tit since-well, since I learned the word 'tit.'"
Sherry put her hands over his forearms and brought them down. She kissed him. "I woulda thought it was gross, and I would've pushed you off me, but once I got away, that would've been the end of it."
Steve had a glimmer in his eye. "We've got a few hours before Mom and Dad come home. Do you still have the mat?"
"If we do, it's downstairs and probably moldy," Sherry answered. His expression didn't change. "But we can look."
They went to the basement. The wrestling mat wasn't there, but Steve spotted a mattress that they'd salvaged from their tent trailer after it was wrecked by a careless driver. "I have absolutely no good memories about that trip," Steve said. "At least if I'd kept my camera in the car with me, I would have had some great nature pictures, but we couldn't even salvage the memory card."
The mattress and a sheet of plywood were leaning against the wall. Sherry pushed the plywood away and started pulling on the mattress. "Get to the other side and push," she instructed.
Steve pushed her away. "I can get it myself," he insisted.
Sherry saw the look in his eye and objected. "You know, if you don't think I should be pulling a six-pound mattress, then maybe I shouldn't be wrestling either."
"But I want you to go first when we go up the stairs, and that'll be easier if I take this end of the mattress."
Sherry didn't believe him, but his show of concern pleased her too much to say anything. Together they took the mattress out to the back yard. When they laid it down, Sherry thought it needed to be cleaned off.