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“Millie, spit it out!” Trista cries, her voice shrill. She shoves me over and swipes her fingers right in Millie’s mouth, causing her to gag and bleat in a way I’ve never heard before. “Shit!”
“What is it?” I demand again, my tone angry because it seems an awful lot like Trista gave my goat something bad for her. “What did you do to my girl?”
“I didn’t do anything to her!” she snaps at me as she continues thrusting her finger in her mouth. “God, why do goats have to eat everything?”
Finally, a big chunk of plastic falls out of her mouth and lands inthe dirt. I stare down, my eyes seeing double for a second as I reach down and pick up the familiar-looking object. I turn it over and see on the other side a little control window that says the word PREGNANT.
“Reggie, get out of there!” Trista snaps, sitting on the ground to block her pig from eating the scraps that just came from my goat’s mouth.
“What is it?” Everly asks, and I struggle to find my own voice to tell her.
“It’s a pregnancy test,” Trista answers, flustered and out of breath as she sits crisscross in the dirt, hugging her sixty-pound pig to her body. “I’m pregnant.”
“Oh my God!” Everly exclaims, leaping over the fence to join the chaos all around me. She squats beside me and takes the plastic chunk out of my hand to inspect it herself. “Uncle Wyatt, you’re having a baby!”
I remain frozen, my eyes fixed off in the distance as I adjust to this life-changing bit of information.
“I attached the pregnancy test to Millie’s halter to reveal the news, but she must have gotten it off somehow.” She grabs Reggie’s snout to pull his face to hers. “Reginald, did you pull it off Millie’s collar, you naughty boy?”
A series of grunts indicates God knows what because I don’t speak fucking pig. I’m not sure I even speak English right now.Holy. Fuck. She’s pregnant?
My eyes finally find Trista’s, and I can’t hide the catch in my voice as I whisper, “It actually worked?”
She smiles warmly at me, and it feels so fucking good it makes my eyes sting. Her voice is soft and knowing as she replies, “Finally popped up positive this morning. Ranch cups and children’s Tylenol defied the laws of science. Who woulda thought?”
“What?” Everly asks, her head snapping back and forth between mine and Trista’s in confusion.
Without thinking, I leap to my feet and grab Trista, yanking her off the ground and away from her squealing pig. I wrap my arms around her and crush her body to mine in a tight hug as I spin her ina circle. My entire chest vibrates with overwhelming emotion that I can’t put into words.
Words have never been my thing.
“Someone is certainly happy!” she exclaims with a laugh as I set her down. She holds on to my arms and locks eyes with me before she says, “Congratulations, Wyatt.”
My brows furrow at that response. It’s very cordial. And professional. And if I’m being honest…a little distant. I know being a single father is what I wanted, but this didn’t happen on my own. I couldn’t have done this without the woman in my arms.
“Thank you, Trista.” My voice is gravelly and full of confusion, happiness, and a million other emotions someone might feel when they’ve just found out their whole life is about to change.
We pull apart, and I glance to see Everly watching us with a knowing look. She bounds over, wrapping us both in a hug, and murmurs against my shoulder, “I’m so happy for you guys!”
And it’s at that moment that I realize there isn’t a “you guys.” This is just me. Yes, Trista’s role in this is vital and necessary and still highly important for the next nine months. But I’m the only one whose life will change after all this. And that’s a staggering realization.
WeeksPregnant:5
AnimalsonMountain:2
My stomach churns as I muck out Reginald’s pen while he goes to town on some leftover watermelon rinds that I dumped into his trough. I’m usually not such a marshmallow about the smell of manure, so I don’t quite understand why I’m struggling so much today. Honestly, cleaning out a stable is a hell of a lot easier than the litter box with the side cut out that I trained Reggie to eliminate in at my old apartment. That was always a mess, so I wasn’t surprised when the landlord gave me the boot.
When I’m all done, I glance around the barn and feel a sense of relief that I get to continue calling this place my home for the foreseeable future. The anxiety I had last week over not knowing if I was pregnant or not was next-level. I must have peed on ten tests in total that week. And I know the contract said we could try for several months, but Wyatt doesn’t exactly strike me as a patient man. And like it or not, I kind of need this job. And this barn.
My phone pings in my pocket, and I pull it out to see a text from Avery.
Avery: Hey, I’m going to be vaccinating a herd of lambs tomorrow. Wanna join?
Me: Ewe know I do. ;)
Avery: I’ll text you the time when I get it confirmed. How are you feeling?
Me: Can morning sickness happen at only five weeks pregnant?
