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will get better.”
    Jessica relaxed, and it got better. By the end she was clutching him, lost in the experience, and they fell asleep together afterward, curled up like puppies.
    Jack woke first, in the thin light of a late autumn dawn. When he realized where he was he shot off the bed, startling Jessica awake. She stared at him in confusion as he wrestled into his clothes.
    “Time is it?” she muttered, stretching lazily. She felt wonderful.
    “It’s six o’clock,” he replied, jamming his left leg into his jeans, “and if your father wakes up and finds me here you’re going to be exiled to Siberia. When does he go to work?”
    Jessica struggled to a sitting position, pulling her robe from the foot of the bed and clutching it to her breasts. As her mind cleared she came rapidly to the same conclusion Jack had already reached. He had to leave immediately.
    “He usually has breakfast around seven-thirty,” she answered, admiring the view as Jack turned to snatch up the rest of his clothes. She hadn’t seen him clearly the night before in the faint glow from her table lamp. As she had always suspected, he was gorgeous.
    “Are you okay?” he asked anxiously, thrusting his arms into his shirt and jacket at the same time. “You’re not sorry or anything?”
    She smiled at him, and it was a mature, satisfied woman’s smile. “I’m not sorry or anything,” she assured him. “I love you.”
    He seized her face between his hands and kissed her swiftly on the mouth. “I love you too. Now will you get me the hell out of here?”
    Jessica got up and slipped into her robe. She held her finger to her lips and opened the door to the hall. All was silent.
    She gestured for him to follow her and they descended to the first floor like wraiths, not pausing until they were in the kitchen.
    “Will they miss you at home?” Jessica asked, as Jack opened the side door to admit a blast of arctic air.
    He shook his head. “Mom won’t get back for another hour, and the old man shouldn’t wake up until the afternoon. I’ll just take a shower and change for school. Meet me in the gym after the last bell, okay?”
    Jessica nodded, wrapping her arms around her torso and shivering as he stepped out onto the porch.
    “Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked again, glancing back at her.
    “I’m fine. Get going. You’ll have to run to make the bus.”
    He grinned. “It will keep me warm.” He still stared at her, and she shoved him in the direction of the sidewalk. Taking the hint, he jogged off into the rising sun, and Jessica went back inside, smiling to herself.
    That morning was the last perfect happiness she was to know for a long time.
    * * * *
    For the next two months, Jack and Jessica met at Maddy’s house whenever her parents were gone. With the inherent cunning of secret lovers, they managed to get together at unlikely times and places, but the relative security of their previous relationship was gone. They were never alone for very long, snatching minutes here and there, but they planned incessantly for the day when the situation would change and they could admit their love openly. That thought kept them going, and with the natural optimism of the very young, they really believed that things would work out because they had to, because they must.
    It was January before Jessica realized that she was pregnant. She had been feeling nauseous and dizzy, and in her innocence went to see her family doctor, thinking she had the flu. The man took one look at her and knew the truth.
    “But we only did it once,” she murmured dazedly when the doctor told her the news.
    “That’s all it takes,” the doctor replied grimly.
    Overwhelmed by the enormity of it, she begged him to keep the news confidential. On the way home Jessica formulated one desperate plan after another, discarding them as fast as they took shape in her mind. She could not tell Jack; she had known that immediately. He would want to get married, and she