And Baby Makes Three (2 page)

“Thanks,” she mumbled. “I think I’ll go home.”

“Before you do, you may need to use this,” Ivy said.

She opened her eyes and saw Ivy holding a pregnancy test. “Why would I need…” Her eyes widened. “Oh, shit, you don’t think... Oh, no!” Ivy nodded. “You have all the symptoms, honey. This is not the flu.” Marie nodded. She felt numb as she stood and flushed the toilet and then took the test from Ivy and closed the stall door to essentially pee on a stick. Two minutes later the evidence was sitting on the edge of a sink and she paced back and forth, stopping every once in a while to look at the test again.
Two lines, two perfectly visible lines. I’m pregnant. Holy Jesus, I’m
going to have a baby.

“Do you know who the father is?” Ivy was standing close by watching. 

“Father?” Marie tried to focus her thoughts. She had not considered that at all. “Yeah, I’ve only been sleeping with… Oh, God, Brody.” Ivy’s eyes widened. “As in Rafe’s best friend?”

“Do you know any other soldier with a Southern twang named Brody?” Marie snapped, and then sighed. “Oh, Ivy, I’m so sorry. I’m on overload right now, feeling like crap and Brody and now pregnancy...”

“I know. It’s okay,” Ivy said gently. “Are you going to keep it?” Marie was staring at the test and she looked up at Ivy, her hand instantly going to her lower stomach protectively. “I am. I feel strongly that the life of a child begins at conception.” Ivy smiled but tears filled her eyes. “Me too.”

“Oh, honey, I’m sorry. This has to be hard for you. Here I am pregnant without even really trying and you—”

“Marie…” Ivy cut her off, “…I’m happy for you. Don’t ever doubt that. I will not let my problem affect my being happy for my best friend.

So, when are you going to tell Brody?”

“Um, how about never?” Marie replied instantly.

“Marie, you have to tell him. He’s the father,” Ivy prodded.

She shook her head. “You said it yourself. He’s a playboy. To be tied down with a child is certainly not what he wants. After Charlie, it’s not really what I want either.” Marie sighed. “I never told you, but I miscarried when I was with him.”

“Oh, no, why didn’t you tell me?” Ivy gasped.

“The same reason you didn’t call me when Juno showed up and broke into your house. I didn’t want to bother you.” Marie smiled. “Besides, he didn’t want it. We fought big time and he pushed me and I fell and a few hours later I was in the ER losing a child. He said he was sorry, but that was the beginning of the end. Ditzy Diana just put the final nail in the coffin. So telling Brody is not my plan. I don’t want a man to feel obligated to be in my child’s life. I can be a good single mom. Hey, I come from a long line of single mothers.” She tried to sound flippant but inside she actually hurt. She thought she would break the mold in her family and be married when the children came along. The apple not falling far from the tree quote came into her head. So she’d be a mother alone, but she’d be a damn good one.

“Marie, you really should tell him,” Ivy encouraged. “He’d do the right thing.”

Marie shook her head. “I don’t want the right thing. I don’t want me or this baby to be a burden to his life.” She took Ivy’s hand and begged.

“Please don’t tell him. Promise me as my best friend you won’t tell him.”

“I won’t tell him,” Ivy promised.

“I’m going to head home. Can you tell admin that I am sick?” Marie asked.

“Already did it.” Ivy smiled. “I actually put in for your vacation time.

You have a few weeks built up. Take it and come to terms with it all. Plus, by that time, hopefully the morning sickness will have subsided.”

“I have to make an appointment with an OBGYN. Will you go with me, whenever the appointment is?” Marie asked.

Ivy hugged her and Marie felt tears threaten. “Of course. I’m with you all the way.”

“Thanks, Ivy. I really mean that,” she said.

She gathered her things and walked out of Walter Reed into the fall sunlight. Pregnant. She was still in shock when she let herself into her house and went upstairs for a shower. She climbed into bed and tried to forget about everything by falling asleep.

Ivy pulled the decorative pillows from the bed while Rafe pulled back the blankets.

“You seem quiet tonight,” he commented.

“I know. It’s just been a long day,” Ivy said and sat down on the bed.

“Rafe, if you knew something, a secret, and you promised not to tell a certain person, can you somehow get around it by giving the information to someone else who could then pass it on to the person who was not supposed to know in the first place?”

Rafe chuckled and climbed into bed. He patted the space next to him, urging her to come closer. “Honey, I’m a bit confused. How about you explain?”

“I have a secret that I promised Marie I would not tell.” She snuggled into Rafe’s arms.

“That she and Brody have been sweating up the sheets? Honey, I already know that,” Rafe said.

She slapped him on the chest. “You didn’t tell me, you rat fink.”

“It’s the man code. You don’t tell your wife about your single friends’

love lives,” Rafe explained.

“Well, maybe I’ll keep my secret then,” Ivy said primly. She had an inkling something was going on. Marie looked a tad too pleased when Ivy had come back to work after her time off when Rafe was gone on mission.

Who knew all that time she and Brody were sleeping together?

“Does it help if I say that Brody is really into her, but Marie is the one who keeps pulling back?” Rafe said.

“Kind of, but there is something bigger in the picture now.” Ivy took a deep breath and let it out. “Marie is pregnant and she made me promise not to tell Brody,” Ivy explained. “But since I told you, you can tell Brody, and then at her first doctor appointment if he happens to show up…”

“I see where you’re going with this, you little minx. You’re using me as a messenger.” Rafe chuckled. “I love it. He is away at Pendleton for training for four weeks. I’ll call him and have a talk tomorrow.” 

“Four weeks is perfect. They won’t be able to see a heartbeat till about ten weeks anyway, so it coincides with her first appointment. I knew you’d see it my way, darling Rafe,” Ivy replied, pleased with herself.

Marie wouldn’t be happy, but in the end she hoped her friend would understand. Brody had a right to know and if he stepped aside then he would have her wrath to deal with. Ivy would not allow her friend to be hurt.

“Baby, are you okay?” Rafe asked quietly, his fingers caressing the skin of her shoulder. “Marie being pregnant and all doesn’t mean that you won’t get pregnant, sweetheart.”

She looked up and kissed his chin. “I know that, and I am honestly happy for her. Yes, I am a little sad it’s not my news, but we’ll keep trying.”

Rafe rolled over and pinned her beneath his large body. “Let’s practice right now. This may be the perfect moment to make a baby with the woman I love.”

“That sounds great to me,” Ivy said with a sigh as he trailed kisses down her neck. “Absolutely perfect.” 

“Say what now?” Brody felt like white noise started in his head. Rafe was on the phone giving him news he never expected to hear.

“Marie is pregnant. She didn’t want you to know, but Ivy told me and now I’m telling you,” Rafe repeated.

“Okay, um, why didn’t she want me to know?” Brody asked. He was trying his best to sound neutral, but inside he was literally jumping with excitement.
A baby. Marie is having my baby!

“Seems she thinks you’re a playboy and something about obligation and not wanting you to be with her because of a child,” Rafe answered.

“You have to admit, Brody, the party never stops when you’re around.”

“Didn’t you notice that when we left on mission for those three weeks I was not talking about parties?” Brody said. “We came back and I went straight to her place. I’m feeling her, man. She’s the one pushing me away.” He thought back to when they had about a week together before he left on mission and then he came back for another week or so then he left for Pendleton. “This must have happened that first time.”

“Weren’t thinking about protection, huh?” Rafe said. “It’s truly a blessing it’s Marie and not some other woman. Look what happened with Bonnie’s mother.”

Brody sighed. “Neither of us was thinking about protection. We went after each other like…never mind. The thing is, I’m happy about this. I should call her or I’ll try to leave jump school early.”

“No,” Rafe said. “You need this accreditation. Plus, Ivy tells me she won’t get a doctor’s appointment until she is around ten to twelve weeks.

You’ll be back home by then. Don’t call her and scare her off right now.

She just found out. We will keep you in the loop and tell you when the first appointment is scheduled. Both of you need a few weeks to wrap your minds around being a parent. I almost lost it when I found Bonnie on my doorstep.”

Rafe’s reasoning seemed on point, though everything in him was screaming to go to Marie. But God knows she looked like she was ready to rabbit if he did something as subtle as bring her flowers. If he just showed up or called with the news that he knew, she might skip town. He had to play it smooth and easy with her. He really liked her, couldn’t stop thinking about her. Whatever relationship she had been in in the past really screwed her over. That made him angry as hell, but Brody made a firm decision to breach those walls she’d built up long before he found out she was pregnant. A slow smile spread across his face. Oh, yeah, he was about to start a family.

“You’ve gone silent, Brody,” Rafe said. “What are you thinking?”

“That Ivy is right, Rafe. Please tell her to keep me in the loop,” Brody pleaded. These next weeks couldn’t go by fast enough in his opinion.

“She will. Focus on the training. We’ll be seeing you soon,” Rafe replied. 

“Bye, dude, and thanks.” Brody hung up and the excited feeling in his stomach overtook him. He wanted to scream his impending fatherhood from the rooftops. Impulsively, he dialed a number familiar to him. As the phone rang, he hoped his mother answered and not his father. It amazed him how he could be so close to his mother and yet his father filled him with anger and revulsion. How did she stay married to that evil… He heard someone pick up and then her gentle voice came on the line.

“Hey, Mom, how are you?” he asked.

“Brody! It’s so good to hear from you.” Susan Gillis was a petite woman of sixty years. She made the best apple pie and cupcakes in Texas.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, Mom, I’m good. I’m at Pendleton and I’m here for four weeks jump training,” Brody explained.

“Oh, baby, be careful.” His mother’s voice held worry. “I should get your father—”

“No, Mom, don’t get him. We have nothing to say to each other. I am always careful, but I called you because I have some news.” Brody grinned. “I’m going to be a dad.”

His mother screamed. “Oh, honey, that’s wonderful.”

“Woman, what’s the screaming about?”

He heard his father’s voice and gritted his teeth in anger.

“Brody has made us grandparents,” his mother said with delight.

“Bout time he pass the line along,” his father said. Woodward Gillis was a pompous blowhard preacher with a racist streak a mile long. Brody remembered getting a beating all because he brought his black friend Avery home for a play date when he was ten. His mother, on the other hand, taught him to never see color, only people. His father tried to beat prejudice into him and he certainly didn’t win. His father picked up the second line in the house. “Tell me about my new daughter-in-law.” Brody rolled his eyes. “We’re not married and trust me, I wouldn’t be bringing her home to meet you. Mom can visit, but I want you nowhere near her or my unborn child. I think you leak evil from your pores.”

“Brody, don’t speak to your father like that,” his mother admonished. 

“I’ll speak to his racist behind any way I want,” Brody said stubbornly.

“Get off the line, old man.”

“This is my damn house and if you want to speak to your mother then you speak to me,” his father roared. That voice had long ago stopped scaring him. By the time he was fifteen he stood a foot taller than dear old dad and was built. His father had come at him one day and Brody pinned him to a wall. Needless to say, after that they stayed out of each other’s way until he left to join the Marines.

“Fine,” Brody said mildly. “Mom, Marie is the woman who is pregnant with my baby. She is beautiful and a nurse at Walter Reed Hospital.”

“She sounds lovely, dear.” His mother’s voice trembled and anger surged through him. His mother hated being caught in the middle of their feuds. “What does she look like?”

“Probably a blonde. He’s like his dad, has a soft spot for tiny blondes, just like me.” His father laughed raucously.

Brody wished he could reach through the phone and strangle the man.

“You should leave Mom then and go find one since Mom has brown hair.

Don’t worry, Mom, you can come live with me.”

“If you were closer, boy, I’d—” his father began angrily.

“You’d what, be scared? Oh, please, you stopped meaning anything to me long ago. If it weren’t for Mom I’d have no reason to call your house,” Brody retorted.

“Brody, tell me about Marie,” his mother interrupted gently. It was her way of telling him to focus on her and not on him.

“She’s great, Mom. She has golden brown eyes to match her chocolate brown skin and a really amazing smile,” Brody said. He heard a gasp and then the phone dropped.

“I can’t wait to meet her…”

“Hell no, woman, you are not allowed to leave this house to meet no ni…” his father roared. 

“Say it, old man, finish the word and see how quickly I can find my way to freaking Springfield and kick your sorry racist ass.” Brody’s voice was deadly.

“You pollute my blood line and you dare threaten me.” His father’s voice was filled with rage. “You ain’t no son of mine. I would’ve ripped you from your momma’s belly if I knew what a disappointment you’d be.”

“Woodward!” his mother gasped.

“Don’t worry, Mom, it doesn’t hurt my feelings in the least,” Brody said gently. “Listen, Mom, I’ll keep you informed. You know how to reach me. The day you are ready to leave him, you come to me and live out here. You’ll like the seasons and how amazing it is at Christmas.”