Normally, I was all for giving each other shit, but right now, all I wanted was to be alone. I grabbed my phone off the side table.
“Where are you going?” Frankie asked.
“Bed.”
Frankie’s jaw dropped. “Uh, you do know it’s like five, right? Even Brook’s ninety-year-old grandma doesn’t go to bed this early.”
“He’s getting used to bedtime for the baby when it comes,” Remy suggested.
“Just tired. I’ll see you guys in the morning.”
Remy and Frankie cracked jokes about going to bed so early, and I closed my bedroom door to drown them out.
Frankie and Remy didn’t just have their world rocked on its head.
Everything was still the same for them.
Nothing was going to be the same for me anymore.
I hadn’t gotten the test results yet, but I had believed Delaney when she told me I was the only guy she had been with before.
I was going to be a dad, and I was terrified.
*
Chapter Four
Delaney
99.9%
Jay was the father.
I never doubted it, but seeing it in black and white in front of me made everything more real.
Two hundred dollars, a mouth swab, and a blood draw. That was all it took to change everything.
It had been two days since I had spoken to Jay, and I was sitting in the parking lot of the private lab that had done the test with my phone in one hand and the test in the other. I needed to call Jay and set up a time to meet, but I just couldn’t dial the number. We had agreed that the lab would contact me when they got the results just in case Jay was out of town.
I know he didn’t want the baby.
He sure as hell didn’t want me, either, but I honestly wasn’t worried about that. I knew the score when Jay and I had hooked up. He was a player in every sense of the word.
A player who didn’t have his sights set on being a dad.
I had gotten his phone number when I had dropped the bombshell on him two nights ago, and now, I was trying to muster up the guts to call him.
My phone buzzed in my hand, and I about jumped out of my skin.
“Dear, Jesus,” I whispered. I swiped to connect the call and pressed my hand to my chest. “You just scared the living crap out of me, Mom.”
“Well, hello to you, too,” she laughed.
“Hi, Mom. I didn’t expect you to be calling.”
“Do I need to schedule a time to call you?” she huffed.
“What? No. I was just holding my phone, and I was surprised you called.” And I was lost in my own head trying to get the courage up to call Jay.
“Are you going to be home for dinner tonight?”
“Uh, I should be. Why?”
“I’m going out of town with Christy the next three weeks.”
“Uh, following the race team?” I may live with my mom, but between school, clinicals, and work, I was barely at the house except to sleep.
She tsked. “No. Christy is hellbent on going to Florida to visit her sister, and wouldn’t you know it, my ass needs to go with her. You know how I am in the heat.”
I did know exactly how my mom was in the heat. She claimed she was melting the whole time and was absolutely miserable in weather hotter than seventy. She really was going to melt if she went to Florida in June. “Make sure you drink water and stay away from the booze if it’s really hot out.” Three weeks was a hell of a long time. Maybe Mom would actually get used to the heat.
“Gonna buy stock in baby power for my damn chafing.”
Or not. “Mom,” I laughed. “I think that qualifies as too much information.”
“Bull,” she scoffed. “You and I both know you are straight to the point just as much as I am. My thighs chafe in the heat, and the only thing that makes it bearable is baby powder.”
“I’ll make sure to have a care package for you before you leave.”
“I leave day after tomorrow. Better get on it.”
Leave it to my mother to help take my mind off my life that was a complete wreck right now. “I will,” I promised.
“You can also get your butt home for dinner tonight so I can see you before I leave. Seems to be all I see of you is ten minutes in the morning before I head out the door.”
“I know you gotta work, Mom.”
“And I know you’ve got clinicals, too. Just saying, I wish I could see my baby girl a little bit more.”
She was going to see quite a bit of me when I had the baby. I figured I would take six weeks off school which would set me back, but I knew I needed to do it. Tonight was going to be as good of a night as it got to let her know she was going to be a grandma.
Mom had always said she couldn’t wait to be a grandmother, but I don’t think she ever thought I would be the one to make her one.
“You cooking, or do you want me to grab something?”
“I’ve got the rest of the day off since Christy is going to need me all day tomorrow. Just get your butt home by six.”
“All right, Mama.”
I hung up and went back to staring at my phone.
Now, I not only had to worry about calling Jay, I also had to worry about telling my mom I was pregnant. I was ninety percent positive she was going to shit a brick.
My phone rang again, and this time, it was Jay calling.
Dammit. I wasn’t going to be able to gather my thoughts before I talked to him. Not that I was doing a good job of it before.
“Uh, hi?”
“Delaney?”
I cleared my throat. “Yup, you have her.”
“I had a message on my phone the test results came in.”
Of course the lab had called Jay. I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of that. “Uh, yeah. I’ve got them.”
“And?” he drawled.
“Um, did you want to meet for coffee or something?” Why was I delaying the inevitable? I never beat around the bush, and yet, here I was, trying to put off telling Jay he was the father.
“I’m at work right now. I won’t be off until after seven.”
Crap. By that time, I would have told my mom everything. “Oh. I didn’t realize you worked that late.”
“We’re heading out tomorrow. We need to get the car and trailers loaded up. It’s always a late night before.”
Oh. I didn’t know that. I didn’t know anything about Jay and what he did. “When will you be back?” Maybe I could put this off until he got back.
“Monday,” he sighed. “Just tell me what the test said, Delaney.”
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. “The baby is yours.” Spoken out loud, those words solidified everything. They terrified me, but they also empowered me.
I was pregnant.
Jay was the father.
But everything was going to be okay.
It had to be.
*
Jay
All air rushed from my lungs, and I struggled to breathe. I thought I had come to terms with the idea of having a baby, but it was like Delaney had told me all over again.
“And this is for sure?” I croaked.
“Ninety-nine percent positive according to the test. One hundred percent positive according to me.”