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“I didn’t have a mom, so how do I know how to be one?” She gasped in a breath. “I’m still in school. I’m only twenty-one. Hell, I don’t know anything about babies. I don’t know how this happened. I don’t know which one of you is the father. I don’t know what to do now. This baby changes everything, Jesse!” She began to cry again.
“Sh, sh, sh.” Jesse rocked her in his arms. “And here I thought you were going to say getting big and fat or giving birth.”
She sniffed. “Well, that too.”
“You are going to be a fantastic mother. I don’t know much about babies either but the three of us will figure it out together.” He rubbed her tummy. “I can’t wait to be a dad.”
“What if you aren’t…the baby’s father?”
“But I am.”
“You don’t know that. It could be Taylor’s.”
He smiled. “It doesn’t matter whose sperm penetrated the egg. The three of us made this baby together. I’m his father. Taylor’s his father. It’s our baby. Understand?”
She released a slow exhale and nodded. “Where’s Taylor? Is he mad?”
“He’s…”
“I’m right here, love.”
Taylor stood under the soft light of the foyer, his arms laden with foil pans of Thanksgiving leftovers. Jesse hadn’t even heard him come in. He dropped off the food on the kitchen island and came to sit beside them on the floor.
He put his arm around them both. “And I’m not mad. A bit stunned—right, a lot stunned. But I’m not mad about it, little bird.” He leaned over and kissed her hair. “How pregnant are you?”
“I don’t know.” She sat up. “I stopped getting a period with the IUD and…” She started to cry again.
“Shh, babe. It’s okay.”
She shook her head. “No, it isn’t. I looked it up…”
Jesse wasn’t going to let her go down that path. “Chloe. Look at me.” She looked. “It’s going to be okay, I promise.”
He only hoped it was a promise he’d be able to keep.
Black Friday. It was a day most people in the city reserved for Christmas shopping, decorating a tree, and eating leftovers. Not that Jesse had any interest in fighting throngs of crazed holiday shoppers to snag a flat-screen television on sale for fifty percent off, it’s just that never in a million years did he expect to be sitting in a hospital waiting room today.
Chloe fidgeted in the seat between him and Taylor. She gave him a small smile, putting on a brave face, but he knew she was scared. He was too. When she called the doctor’s office that morning to make an appointment the nurse told her to come here to be seen right away. That meant it could be serious, right?
“Jesse?”
Monica Peters, a clinical psychologist and a friend of Brendan’s, rushed through the waiting room to greet him. Jesse knew her from the club, but he hadn’t seen her or her wife there in almost a year. He thought Brendan mentioned they were expecting a baby and considering where they were maybe they were expecting it to come today.
He stood and hugged her. “Monica! How are you?”
“Danielle is being induced today, so fantastic!” Then she glanced down at the chairs. “Taylor! What are you guys doing here?”
If there was any person on the earth that he trusted to understand, it was her. “Monica, I’d like you to meet our girlfriend, Chloe. We just found out yesterday that we’re going to have a baby and the doctor wanted her to come in to get checked out.” Then he took Chloe’s hand in his. “Babe, this is Monica Peters, she’s a good friend.”
Monica took Chloe’s hand and smiled. She had the warmest smile. It put you at ease right away. “Congratulations! I’m so happy for the three of you!”
She bent down and kissed Taylor on the cheek. “You’re going to be an amazing dad!” Then she hugged him again. “And you are too!”
Impending parenthood certainly agreed with her—she was beaming. “I only have a minute, just getting a cup of coffee, but keep me posted, okay? The babies can go on playdates!”
“We will, Monica, and congrats to you too! Give my best to Danielle.”
