[Fifty States of Love 01] • Pregnant in Pennsylvania

When you’re from a place like Clayton, PA, you either leave as soon as you can, or you never leave. We can’t even say we’re a one-stoplight town, because we don’t have a stoplight, just a traffic circle on a minor local highway. Here in Clayton, everyone knows everyone, and gossip and rumors are a way of life.

So, when my high school sweetheart leaves our son and me for a woman in another state, it’s the talk of the town for months, if not years. Even my motor-mouthed, wild child of a best friend, Cora, can’t rustle up enough trouble to keep my name off their lips for more than a week or two.

So, when I meet a handsome, single man not from Clayton, I assume he’s just passing through.

It was just supposed to be a night of fun with my BFF before school starts—one last hurrah before lesson plans and homework and packing lunches and school pickup lines take over everything. It wasn’t supposed to lead to an intense, sizzling connection—an attraction which despite my most vehement denials goes far beyond the physical.

The real question now is…will it end in another heartbreak for me and my son, or could it become a Happily Ever After?