An Unexpected Baby (2 page)

Emma was in a daze.

“Honey, what are you doing with those things again? Didn’t you take the test yesterday or the day before?” he said with a heavy voice that sounded more like annoyance.

Emma slid down to the floor. Evan dropped his folder on the floor and reached over to his wife before it was too late. “Emma! What’s wrong? What’s gotten into you?”

Emma shook her head. “Nothing, baby. I’m just. We’re…” She smiled. “Look!”

He took the test strip from her. “And? What does this mean?”

“Honey, we’re pregnant!!!”

Evan froze. “We are?”

Okay, not good! “We are?” should have been “We are!!!”

Evan got up and shoved his hands in the pockets of his executive dark grey suit. He just stood there. His entire body stiffened at the news. Dazed. Lacking expression. Didn’t he want to have kids? Oh great, this was not the best time to find out now, was it?

“Honey, aren’t…you…happy?” she said weakly. Still was still dazed and in shock. Truth was, Emma really didn’t know if she
could
get pregnant and there it was—the thin pink line as bright as ever. Not faint like before. Not clear. Pink and strong. She
was
pregnant. She was having a baby.

Evan picked up the test stick and looked at it. Tears misted his dark sexy eyes. Okay, she’d never seen him cry before. Ever! What was going on now?

He thinned his lips and held his head back. After he drew a breath his lips curled into one heck of a grin. He reached over to Emma and picked her up and carried her out of the bathroom and laid her on their  plush king size custom made bed.

“You, my dear, have made me the happiest man in the world!”

“What? You…you’re happy!?”

She was a huge fan of Tom Cruise and he knew it. So when he gave this Tom-Cruise-on-Oprah-show-couch-jumping excitement she knew he really meant it! He was excited to have this baby.

“Gosh, Evan. I’m so happy that you’re happy.”

“Honey, I didn’t want to tell you this before with all the pressure that’s going on but, guys like me, there’s always a doubt when we get to a certain age and we haven’t had kids. No guy is going to admit they can’t produce. It’s like a sacred part of their manhood, you know.”

Okay, Evan was opening up to her in a way he hadn’t before. This was good. No, this was great, wasn’t it?

“I really thought I couldn’t do it!” he continued. “But, honey, you just gave me the best gift in the world!”

“I did?”

“Yup. You and being a daddy! Yes!!!” He pumped his arm up and down in a victory  cheer. Again, the Tom-Cruise-effect. It was delightful to watch because up to that point, Evan had been more quiet, reserved, businesslike. Distant. She loved this side of him. They both cried and hugged each other as excitement overcame them.

“Did I  hear something about having a baby?” It was Gramps with a huge grin on his face. He was in his wheelchair in the large corridor outside their bedroom, the personal support worker, Lina, behind him holding the handles to the wheelchair.

“Yes, Gramps! Your granddaughter is going to have a
baby
!” Emma hugged and kissed her grandfather on the forehead while Evan stood beside her, hugging her waist lovingly.

“Oh, miss, that’s so wonderful. Congratulations,” Lina said as she joined in the group hug. The moment was tearfully emotional. It was just…perfect.

“Honey, the director for that cancer care video is calling me anytime now. I’m going to tell him the good news. We can incorporate the news in the video they’re filming about my living with cancer and having been given more time to enjoy life. This is perfect. I can now live to see my great-grandchild come into the world.”

“Gramps, that’s nine months, you know!”

“Doc says I may have up to twelve months. So that’s perfect,” he said with his chin up and a smug grin. Lina wheeled him over to the other side of the corridor towards the veranda where he'd enjoy some fresh air and overlook the other side of their large garden. His usual daytime routine.

Evan reached over and hugged Emma again, his soft lips brushing hers so gently. Ripples of desire shot through her body like she hadn’t experienced in so long. It was funny how stress could make you change in your love-making ability. He was clearly nowhere near the tenseness he had before the good news!

“Oh, baby. I want you right, now,” he said moaning into her neck, gently sliding his soft lips on her neck while still cradling her belly with both hands. “You are so beautiful, honey.”

Emma moaned as she leaned back into Evan’s firm muscular chest. “I love you, too, sweetie. So much.” She didn’t want to bring up about how she was glad he was coming around again. Why spoil the moment? Besides, he had business to take care of.

“Evan!”

“Yeah, baby?” he murmured still kissing her neck and gently moving his lips down her back.

“Your meeting in Dallas. You’re going to be taking over that steakhouse remember and opening up another….oh, that feels so good…agency,” she trailed off with delight.

“Forget it!”

“Huh? What?” Emma turned around, confused. “But you have your meeting.”

“Baby, that was before I found out I’m going to be a daddy. This changes everything.”

“Everything?”

“Yeah, baby. I’m not leaving town again. That can wait.”

“But, honey, you’ve been talking about it so long. If you can buy out that steakhouse and clinch the deal on going 50-50 with that small agency you planned on taking over that could be huge!!!”

“Honey, having a baby, bringing a child into the world is huge!”

Emma’s eyes moistened and she swallowed hard. The emotion was so great inside her.

“I want to spend every second I can with the mother of my unborn child. You have no idea how much this means to me. I’m going to be a daddy. That is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Thank you for making me feel like a real man.”

Shocked and delighted, Emma reached over to hug him. What could she possibly say in response to those words? She made him feel like a real man!

***

“Gina, you will never guess what happened to me this morning,” Emma said later in the afternoon as she spoke to her best friend on the phone.

“Oh, no! What is it now, Emma?”

“I’m going to be seeing my OBGYN in the near future.”

“What? For your annual Pap smear?”

“No, silly! I’m pregnant!!!”

Emma heard glass shatter on the floor on the other end of the phone line. “Gina, are you okay?”

Her friend screamed into the phone. “No freaking way! Honey, that’s huge! That’s great! Congratulations! How did you find out?”

“That new ODS test stick. It’s really neat. When I saw the thick pink line…”

“You mean two…”

“Huh?”

“ODS test sticks are two pink lines for pregnancy and one pink line for not pregnant.”

Emma felt the contents of her stomach about to make an unwelcome appearance on the floor of her bedroom. The blood drained from her face.

2.
Evan leaned back in the brown leather executive chair in his den. A wide grin curled his lips as he peered out at the rose garden through the glass double doors. Yes, life was looking rosy, wasn’t it?  
Emma’s pregnant!

She’s really pregnant.

I’m going to be a daddy.

Though the words whirled in his mind, he could hardly believe it. So he
could
produce children after all. This had always been a fear of his. Not being able to conceive. Most of the friends he’d grown up with had children by the time they were thirty. Here he was married at thirty-four for six months and Emma kept having negative pregnancy test results, one right after another. It tore him apart inside to see the look of sadness and disappointment in her beautiful brown eyes when she told him it was a false alarm. Almost every week, she swore her breasts were swollen and tender—a sign of early pregnancy. She also swore she was having morning sickness and every time she rushed with joy to take one of her home pregnancy tests, her spirit took a nose dive as if she’d lost a child she’d never had. Six months wasn’t a long time, but he had read somewhere that couples who try to conceive for six months without success could need fertility counselling. That terrified him, too. It was as if he was admitting he was faulty.

Of course, he didn’t let Emma know about his concerns. He had his sperm count checked and everything seemed okay but during their first six months of marriage he thought he may not be able to give her the family she’d always talked about having and this terrified him to the core but he could never admit that to her. Now, he wouldn’t have to.

She was pregnant. She was really having his baby.

He was paranoid as hell right now that something would go wrong if he wasn’t around her so he decided it was best to stay in town while his vice-president and long time friend, Dale Thomas, took charge and did the out-of-town visit into Dallas. No way was he going to leave her side. He was determined to be within minutes of her if she needed him during the entire forty weeks of pregnancy, if he could help it. She was carrying his bloodline inside her beautiful, precious body. That meant the world to him.

Evan leaned forward and hit the speaker on his phone and speed dialed another extension in the house. He was calling his long-time  housekeeper, June,  who spent years looking after his father before his readmission back into the Dan Baker Center for the Mentally Ill. That was something he wished he could have controlled. He wished he could tell his father about his new unborn child. Well, he could but his father had reached such an advanced stage of dementia that he probably wouldn’t know. But that didn’t stop Evan from seeing him every day. It didn’t matter to him that his father didn’t know who he was—as long as he remembered who his daddy was. That was important.

“Yes, Evan?” June’s lovely voice sounded through the speaker.

“June, before you go shopping I need you to do me a favor.”

“Sure, what is it?”

“I’ve been reading up on prenatal diets and I want to make sure that Emma gets everything that she needs on the list, including the prenatal vitamins.”

“Sure thing, Daddy!”

Evan grinned.

“Congrats, again, Evan. I’m so happy for both of you.”

“Thanks, June. Oh, and don’t forget to send the daily usual to Pops for me.”

“Sure thing, Evan. A nice gourmet meal that is specially pureed and an order of fresh flowers.”

“Yes, and please let his nurse know that I’ll be in tomorrow or the day after.”

“Sure thing. And, Evan?”

“Yeah?”

“You know, you’ve been a good son to your dad. Practically visiting him every day and working long hours at the office. You know you can only do so much. Don’t overdo it. You’re going to be a daddy soon.”

“I know, June. Thanks for looking out for me.”

“You’re a good man, Evan. You’re not perfect. You irritate the hell out of me sometimes, but you’re like a son to me and your father is family. Everything will be alright.”

“Thanks, June.”

After Evan got off the phone he felt a sickly feeling come over him. He didn’t know why. He should be on top of the world. But his father was always on about the Fletcher curse with women, marriage and kids. Well, he was determined to shove it out of his head this time. He was going to be a father and that was that! Nothing was going to trash his dream or his hopes this time. Nothing. So help him God!

3.

“Oh, God! What did I just do?” Emma cried into the phone.

“What? What are you talking about, Ems?”

“Oh, nothing.” Emma’s voice trailed off.

“Nothing? Emma? Emma, I know you all too well. You didn’t tell anyone about this yet, did you? I mean, until you got confirmation from the doctor with a proper blood test.”

Emma’s throat closed up. She could feel her heart pounding hard and fast in her chest. She also felt one of her migraines coming on.

“Emma?”

Emma sighed. “Listen, I…I’ve got to tell Evan to go ahead with his trip.”

“What are you talking about, girlfriend?”

Emma told Gina about Evan’s reaction to the baby news and how he was planning to change his entire plans to expand his business or at least put it on hold. She also told her about the whole Tom-Cruise-couch-jumping reaction, minus the couch-jumping. And how he’d transformed to being all sweet and warm, not cool and distant as he’d been during the last few months. Not to mention the whole “feel like a real man” talk.

“I mean, I’m over thirty now and I don’t have kids. It’s a disgrace where I come from.”

“Not really. Look at Oprah! Everyone respects her and she doesn’t have children.”

“Yeah but she just saves the world every day. I’m not her, Gina! And besides, Oprah
can
conceive. She had a baby boy when she was younger, remember? But he died when he was a baby. At least she knows what it’s like to produce children or at least get pregnant.”

“That’s true! Well, what about the Jolie-Pitts? They adopt kids from all over the world. Maybe you and Evan can be like them.”

“Nice try, Gina! Angelina has three biological children of her own with Brad in addition to all the kids she has adopted.”

“Okay, girlfriend. I tried!”

“Sorry for being so snappy, Gina. It’s just that…Oh, my God! What am I going to say to Evan? I mean, he told me that he feels like a real man now. I just can’t yank the plug on his real-man-feeling emotion, can I? I mean, not now. Ugh. Talk about bad timing. After I told him he went and called his assistant at work to cancel his travel plans and reschedule the meeting he had planned at Ma Rae’s Steakhouse.”