An Unexpected Husband (4 page)

*              *              *

Shaun walked up the wide front steps of his palatial old family home and smiled. He could smell fresh cookies. He’d called his Mom along the way to tell her he was coming. He heard her rattling pans as they spoke. He knew she’d have something fresh waiting for him when he got there.

*              *              *

“Hi Mom,” he said as he stepped through the back door and grabbed up the small woman in a hug.

Brenda Collins narrowed her eyes. “Hi yourself.” Her son was nervous and excited. Something was up, she could sense it. “Have a seat. I’ll pour you some coffee. Will you stay for lunch?” She never got to see her son enough. When she finally had him in her clutches, all she could think of was feeding him and trying to make him stay longer.

“Thanks Mom but I don’t have time. I have to be somewhere this afternoon.”

“Ok…so what’s this piece of news that you had to drive all this way to tell me?”

“I think you’ll think it’s good.”

“Why don’t you tell me and we’ll both see.”

Shaun took a deep breath.

“Remember in the winter when I went on that vacation?”

“Yes.”

“Well I met someone there. A girl.”

That’s nice but there was obviously more. “Is this a special person? Are you still seeing her?”

“That’s the thing. It was a special few days then I had to come home. I gave her my number but she either lost it or threw it away, I don’t know. All I know is that I’d given up hope of seeing her again.”

Brenda frowned. She didn’t really approve of the way these young people threw around their bodies like it was nothing. “I take it you’ve seen her again?”

“Yes. That’s the thing. Mom she works at the school where I went to have a tour this morning.”

“And?”

“She’s pregnant, with my baby.”

“Well!” was all she could say. You could have knocked her over with a feather, she hadn’t seen that coming. “I’m going to be a grandmother?”

“Yeah.”

She jumped to her feet and threw her arms around his neck. “Oh Shaun, this is so exciting. You can have the wedding here on the back lawn.”

“Um Mom? You’re jumping the gun a little. Don’t get me wrong, I’d marry her tomorrow but I don’t know if she’s ready. In fact I know she’s not.”

Brenda frowned and did some math, it must run in the family. “But if she fell pregnant while you were on vacation, she must be about six months along.”

“About.”

“Well you need to do something about that young man, and fast.”

Shaun grinned. “I’ll do my best Mom.”

“And you need to bring her to visit.”

“I’ll try.”

“Don’t try. Shaun. Do it. She needs to know that we’ll make her feel welcome.”

Shaun smiled. “Thanks Mom,” he said. “This was just what I needed, someone to make me feel like all this can be simple.”

“It can,” she said.

*              *              *

Finally the bell rang signalling the end of the day and Skye was grateful. She’d started her day early and hadn’t really stopped. Shaun turning up had churned her up even more. She was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go home and curl up in bed for a couple of hours. She’d have some cereal or get something delivered for dinner when she woke up. She packed up as many of the presents as she could carry and staggered out to the car. She’d have to do it in several trips. She’d also gotten quite a haul from her kids.

*              *              *

Shaun was sitting on the hood of her car when Skye staggered out the front door sideways laden down with gifts.

“What in the hell?” he said with frustration as he jogged up to her and snagged as many parcels and bags as he could.

“I’m loading my car. What’s it look like?”

“Are there more?” He was disturbed by her pale face and dark circles. She wasn’t that pale when he saw her in the morning. Is this what a day at work did for a Mommy-to-be?

“Yes. I’m fine though, I’ll get them.”

“No you’re not. Go get in your car and I’ll fetch them for you.”

“No. I said I was fine, you don’t need to boss me around.”

“I’m not bossing you around,” he said trying to gentle his tone. He was as much, more really, angry with himself. It was HIS baby in there, that he’d put there, and here she was working her fingers to the bone to support it and herself. Well no more. Whether she wanted him or not she had him now. They both did. “I’m helping. You’re obviously exhausted and I’m here, perfectly capable of lightening your load.”

She sighed. “Ok. You can help, they’re in my room.”

He smiled and couldn’t resist giving her a light peck. “Go rest in your car, I’ll put these in the trunk and then go get the rest.”

“I’ll just put these in my car and then I’ll follow you. When we get to your house I’ll carry them in.”

She nodded.

Apparently the power to argue with him had left her completely.

*              *              *

She propped herself against her apartment door that she held open for him as he brought in the last load, her eyes almost drifting closed.

“Right. We’re done,” he said, shutting the door behind him.

“Thanks,” she said with a yawn. “I’ll call you.” She opened up the door again for him to leave.

“Nope. I’m not leaving until we’ve talked. But you’re tired, so why don’t you take a nap while I cook dinner for us.”

“No. It’s ok. I’ll probably just order a pizza or something if I wake up later.”

He frowned. “How often do you eat take out?”

She shrugged.

He made a mental note to do some research on healthy eating habits for pregnant women.

“I dunno, when I’m tired or really hungry,” she said.

She’s pregnant, he thought, that was probably a lot of nights. “Go get some rest.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

He shook his head. She had to be the most stubborn brat. He scooped her up and ignoring her protests, took her through to her bedroom, making sure to sidestep the presents he’d put in there a while ago. He gently placed her on the unmade bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. “Sweet dreams,” he said.

She was fast asleep within seconds.

It wouldn’t hurt to look up how a damn good spanking would affect her while she was pregnant either, he thought. He had a feeling it was going to be information that he needed a lot.

*              *              *

Shaun set about cleaning up a little. Miss Scarlett or whatever the hell her name was, wasn’t a natural housekeeper, either that or she’d just had too much on her plate. Probably the latter. This place was small, that didn’t make it any easier. Well with a bit of luck she’d agree to being a family and she could come and live at his place.

Even though he also earned a teacher’s salary, he had his share of the family business coming in all the time and he’d invested it well. He also had a very nice four bedroom home in a nice area. He bought it with the thought that one day he might like to raise a family.

After packing the presents into a pile he vacuumed and cleaned the bathroom and kitchen, although the kitchen was probably the cleanest room. Interesting he thought, it obviously didn’t see much activity. He opened the fridge to see what she had to work with for him to make dinner. Not much. There was a tub of yogurt past it’s date, some mouldy cheese and a brown apple. There were a couple of large bottles of diet soda and a carton of chocolate milk. At least her thirst was taken care of she thought. Sort of. There was a large pizza box. He lifted the lid, empty.

He picked up the things that needed to be thrown away and went to toss them in the trash but when he opened the lid, it was already full. He could see what she ate. There were candy wrappers, chip packets and old McDonald sacks. Junk. This woman was living on junk. She was feeding his baby junk food. He wasn’t a fanatic, a little junk never hurt anyone in moderation but this was ridiculous. The woman had diet coke running through her veins.

Shaun rustled through the cabinets looking for a large trash bag. As the door squeaked open a whole pile of letters and unopened bills fell out. As he gathered them back into a pile, a single piece of paper fluttered down and landed on the counter in front of him. He realized immediately what it was. The scrap of paper he’d given Scarlett with his phone number. That was the final straw. She’d lied about lots of things he was pretty sure but lying about this one thing, meant that she could have told him about the baby and she hadn’t. She’d chosen for him to not find out about the baby at all. He was sure she would have made up some crack pot reason in her head why that was ok but it wasn’t and he was going to show her EXACTLY what he thought about lies. They were also going to have a chat about not paying bills.

He found the trash bag and made good use of it before snatching up his keys and leaving for the supermarket. Things around here were going to change, starting with dinner.

*              *              *

Skye opened her eyes and sniffed. It wasn’t a smell she was used to here. It was almost like being at home, her parents’ home. She loved opening her eyes after an afternoon nap to the smell of home cooking. It’d been a while since she visited them, she thought guiltily. Sooner or later she was going to have to deal with that. It’d just seemed at first, easier somehow to leave it, not say anything. Now she’d left it so long she couldn’t really tell them. What would she say? Hi Mom guess what? You’re going to be a grandmother, in about three months, forgot to mention it. Yeah. No, wasn’t going to happen.

Her tummy grumbled loudly. She wished she was eating whatever her neighbours were eating. Oh well, time to call for a pizza or some Chinese food. She couldn’t be bothered going out to a drive thru though.

She padded out into her living room and stopped. It was tidy and clean and she realized now that the delicious smell was coming from her own kitchen.

The gifts from school had all been neatly stacked by the sofa. The small table had been set for dinner, for two. Uh oh, she thought. He’s still here. She walked into the kitchen to find Shaun merrily stirring a pot.

“You’re still here,” she said quietly. “Thanks for cleaning up. I know it was a bit of a mess. I’ve been tired.”

“I told you I wasn’t going anywhere before we talked and I meant it. As for the cleaning? I wanted to help. You don’t have to explain the mess to me. This is your place. You’ve had a lot to deal with. Alone.”

“Yeah,” she said.

“Of course you could have rung me and told me and then you wouldn’t have been alone,” he said still stirring the pot.

There was something in his expression that made her tummy flutter, and it wasn’t the baby moving. “I couldn’t, I told you, I didn’t have the number.” She saw him delving in his pocket and she gasped as he held a scrap of paper in the air to silence her.

“Wow! I thought I lost that,” she tried.

“Really,” he said.

She couldn’t meet his eyes and she knew he knew that she’d lied. She could see it in his eyes. “I, it was a holiday thing. I was going back to my normal life.”

“I do get it,” he said. “But now I know and we WILL talk about it later. Right now, we need to eat.”

“I’m starving,” she said, glad to change the subject, and she was starving, that was no lie.

“Good.” He passed her a bowl of salad. “Would you mind putting this on the table? I’ll get the chicken.”

Skye piled her plate with the chicken and garlic potatoes. “This is delicious,” she said taking a forkful.

He’d poured them both a glass of juice and a glass of water. “You need to have some salad,” he said.

“No. I’m not really into rabbit food. Never have been.”

“It’s good for you,” he said.

Skye smiled. “So’s the chicken and the potatoes,” she said.

“We need to spend some time together. Get to know each other properly.”

“Would you like to know my real name?” Skye teased.

“That would be a start,” he said.

“Skye.”

“That’s pretty. Why’d you lie?”

Skye shrugged. “I dunno. I guess I just wanted to be someone else for a while. Someone exciting. My whole life I’ve been ordinary.”

“You think that being an actress made you more exciting than being a teacher?” he asked.

“It did.”

“No it didn’t. That person was still you.”

“I guess it was.”

“What about your family?”

“My parents have been married for nearly thirty years, house in the suburbs, two kids, conservative.”

“Nothing wrong with that.”

“I wanted to be different, just for a while.”

“What do your folks think about all this? Who do they think is the father?”

Skye started eating with gusto, ignoring the salad that Shaun pushed discretely towards her.

“They do know, don’t they?”

Skye rolled her eyes. “Not exactly.”

“How could you NOT tell them? Do you speak?”

“Yes, of course we speak. I didn’t want to disappoint them. It just seemed easier.”

Shaun’s eyes were wide and disbelieving. “What were you planning to do? Put the baby in a kennel every Christmas like a puppy so they never found out?”

“I don’t know alright. I know it was stupid not to tell them and I KNOW I have to do that soon. It’s just hard now because I’ve left it so long. I didn’t think it through.”

He shook his head. “You little girl, need to learn a few things. Like how to NOT use the truth so loosely and how to face up to things and act like a grown up.”

“I do face up to things. Just because I didn’t tell my parents yet doesn’t make me a child.”

“I didn’t say you were a child, I said you ACTED like one. There’s a difference.”

“I do not!”

“Uh huh. So you didn’t put off telling your folks you were pregnant for a whole six months? You didn’t go to an island and pretend to be a different person? You don’t have a pile of bills in the cabinet that you haven’t even bothered to open? You decided it was easier to keep your child from having a father rather than to own up to the lies you told? Skye whenever anything gets difficult you run. That isn’t what an adult does.”