Beautiful Misery

glad they were here. No way could I have done this alone.

Once Connie was setup she shut the light off and squirted more goo on my belly. “Let’s find that little baby of yours, shall we?”

Was I really ready to see my baby? To make this all real? Was I ready to be a mom? Could I be a mom?

Giving her a small smile I nodded.

“Ok, sweetie, just look at the screen in front of you. See this little spot?” Connie used the arrow on the screen to point to a blobby looking thing.

“Yes.”

“That’s your baby. Baby is measuring nine weeks, two days. Does that sound correct to you?”

Counting back in my head, nine weeks ago was Evie’s birthday party.

Gage was the father.

I was having a baby with the NFL’s playboy. The guy that was in love with Jenna. The guy I told we would have one night and go our separate ways. How the hell do I tell him this? Oh, hey Gage. Remember opening night of your bar? Well, gotcha! I was just kidding about the one night thing. Guess what…you’re going to be a dad! One night just turned into eighteen years! Jokes on you, buddy!

Staring at the screen, at the tiny little blob I slowly nodded my head. “Gage and I are having a baby.”

Jenna squeezed my hand, tears sliding down her face. “He’s going to make an amazing father.”

Connie moved her wand around until the room was filled with the swishing sound again. “That’s your baby’s heartbeat, a strong one hundred and seventy six.

Handing me a few paper towels Connie instructed me to clean up then handed me five little pictures of my baby.

“Dr. Fleming would like to see you in four weeks. Before you leave just stop at the front desk and they can schedule your appointment.”

“Ok, thank you.”

Seeing my baby made everything real. Made my baby real. Made what happened between Gage and me real.

How do I tell Gage that I’m having his baby?

I made my appointment and walked to my mom’s car in a daze. Before I realized we were pulling into the driveway.

Before telling Gage, I somehow had to tell my over protective brother what was going on. I have never been afraid of my brother. Until now. I wasn’t sure how he would react.

Walking into my house I saw Larkin sitting on the couch with a sleeping Evie.

Looking up Larkin smiled. “You going to tell me why we had to fly all the way out here, now?”

Avoiding eye contact I sat down across from him. Mom and Jenna sat beside him, each one on either side. Almost as if they knew he was going to explode and wanted to be there to hold him down. To stop him from killing me.

I just needed to tell him, get it over with. Just rip the Band-Aid off. “I’m pregnant,” I mumbled.

Nothing. I looked up and saw his dark brown eyes glaring at me. “You’re what?”

I had already said it. I didn’t need to say it again. “I know you heard me. I don’t need to repeat myself. You’re not an idiot.”

Larkin drew his hands into tight fists and stood quickly. “I swear to fucking God, Cobie Renea Nayler, if Bray got you pregnant I’m going to kill him.”

“It wasn’t Bray so shut the fuck up. I’m not with him anymore. I really never was.” I shot my eyes to my loud mouth mom. I knew she would tell him I had been with him.

“Cobie, you better tell me right now who knocked you up. I’m going to fucking kill him and I swear if you weren’t pregnant I would seriously consider knocking you out.”

Narrowing my eyes to tiny slits, I yelled, “I’m not five years old Larkin! In case you forgot you got Jenna pregnant when she was the same age as I am. Did you forget that? It wasn’t like I did this on purpose.”

Larkin gritted his teeth. “This is fucking different. You’re my damn baby sister. Now who the fuck was it?”

Standing, I threw my hands up and said, “It was Gage, you ass. Your freaking best friend knocked your sister up. You really going to go and kill one of your best friends?”

6

Gage

Using the towel flung around my neck I wiped the sweat running down my forehead and opened the refrigerator door. Grabbing a bottle of water I twisted the lid off and let the ice cold liquid run down my throat, cooling me off.

I heard pounding on my door before a very angry sounding Larkin yelled, “Open the fucking door!”

What the fuck was his problem? Slowly shutting the refrigerator I made my way down the hall and into the foyer. Larkin was still knocking hard and yelling.

Unlocking the door I opened it just enough for Larkin to shove his way in. A scared and worried looking Jenna following him. I was about to shut the door when I saw Cobie slowly walking towards my door.

Holding the door I turned to look at Larkin. I could see the anger in his eyes.

Larkin didn’t wait for me to shut the door before he started yelling.

“What the fuck where you thinking? Do you know what the fuck you did? How could you fucking do this? I thought you were my best friend, fuck man. I would never do this shit to you.” Larkin stopped, taking a deep breath.

I took that moment to speak up. “What the hell are you talking about?”

I looked at Jenna. Jenna looked at Cobie. Cobie looked at Larkin. Larkin glared at me. He had murder in his eyes.

Jenna ran her hand down Larkin’s arm. “You promised it wouldn’t be like this. Either calm the hell down or we are leaving. This isn’t between us.”

“The hell it ain’t. That is my fucking baby sister.”

Shit.

Why the hell did Cobie tell her brother what we did?

I could see a tear roll down Cobie’s face. God dammit. I can’t take girls crying.

Taking a step toward Larkin I said, “Dude, calm down. You’re pissing your wife off and making your sister cry.”

Jenna moved away from Larkin and placed her arm on Cobie’s shoulder, whispering something. She shook her head before finally looking at me.

She looked like she was on the verge on vomiting and bursting into tears.

Larkin gritted his teeth and looked at Jenna. He slowly took a few deep breaths and shut his eyes.

Just when I was about to ask why we were having this lovely reunion Cobie choked out, “Gage, can we um…can we talk. Alone?”

Shifting my eyes from Larkin to Jenna they both nodded.

Dafuq is goin on?

Bringing my eyes to Cobie I said, “Sure. We can go to my room.” Turning I started walking back down the hall, not looking to see if she was following. Pushing my bedroom door open I took a few steps in before stopping to make sure Cobie was in the room with me. She was just inside my bedroom door. Her hands twisted in a knot in front of her. She looked like she could bolt at any minute. Or break into hysterics.

Trying to sound as nice as possible I asked, “What the hell was that about?” I motioned toward the way we had just come. The room holding Larkin, who at any minute, I was sure was going to come barreling down my hallway and beat the shit outta me.

Looking all around my room, looking everywhere but at me Cobie shrugged.