Beautiful Misery (The Beautiful Series) (6 page)

Mom pursed her lips. “Pregnancy is amazing but it is also pure hell. Get used to it.”

Huffing, I yanked down my skirt and panties, not caring
if my mom and Jenna saw.

Hopping onto the exam table,
I yanked the sheet and covered my legs. Just as I got the sheet in place there was a single knock on my door before it was opening and my doctor was saying, “Hello, Miss Nayler, I’m Dr. Fleming. How are you?”

Putting on a fake smile, I stuck my hand out, “Hi. I would be great if it wasn’t for feeling like I got hit by a truck.”

I could see the humor in his eyes. “Yes, well it’s all part of the process but I have been told once you’re holding your baby you forget all about feeling bad.”

“I hope. This sucks,” I said truthfully.

Dr. Fleming chuckled. “Well, we will see if we can get you some medicine to help you feel better.”

“Thank you.”

“I’m going to have you go ahead and lay back, letting your legs drop as far apart as you can. You may feel some discomfort but I’m just checking to see how far along you are.”

Dr. Fleming looked up at me and said, “You feel to be a day or two over nine weeks. We should be able to hear the heartbeat and then I will send you to ultrasound to get a definite due date.”

Chewing on the inside of my cheek I nodded. “Ok.”

I was going to hear my ba
by. I was going to see my baby.

Holy shit.

Dr. Fleming pulled out a small radio looking thing with a rod hooked to it at one end. Grabbing a small bottle he said, “This gel may be a little cold, sorry.”

He pulled my shirt up, exposing my belly and squirted the cold jelly on my belly, giving me a cold chill.

I shut my eyes and waited. Then, I heard it. The most amazing sound in the world. The sound of my baby.

Feeling a tear slide down my face I reached up and swiped it away. Opening my eyes I looked at my mom who had tears filling her eyes.
Jenna was smiling ear to ear.

I raised up on my elbows and asked, “Does it sound good?”

Dr. Fleming brought his eyes to mine and said, “Your baby sounds perfect. Now let’s get you set up across the hall so we can see your little baby and get you a due date.”

Dr. Fleming
left so I could get dressed and my nurse walked us across the hall to the where ultrasound technician was waiting for us.

“Hi, Cobie. My na
me is Connie. Go ahead and take a seat on the table, raising your shirt for me.”

After I was laying on the table my mom grabbed my left hand and Jenna grabbed my right hand. I was so glad they were here. No way could I have done this alone.

Once Connie was setup she shut the light off and squirted more goo on my belly. “Let’s find that little baby of yours, shall we?”

Was I really ready to see my baby? To make this all real? Was I ready to be a mom?
Could I be a mom?

Giving her a small smile I nodded.

“Ok, sweetie, just look at the screen in front of you. See this little spot?” Connie used the arrow on the screen to point to a blobby looking thing.

“Yes.”

“That’s your baby. Baby is measuring nine weeks, two days. Does that sound correct to you?”

Counting back in my head, nine weeks ago was Evie’s birthday party.

Gage was the father.

I was having a baby with the NFL’s playboy. The guy that was in love with Jenna. The guy I told we would have one night and go our separate ways. How the hell do I tell him this? Oh, hey Gage. Remember opening night of your bar
? Well, gotcha! I was just kidding about the one night thing. Guess what…you’re going to be a dad! One night just turned into eighteen years! Jokes on you, buddy!

Staring at the screen, at the tiny little blob I slowly nodded my head. “Gage and I are having a baby.”

Jenna squeezed my hand, tears sliding down her face. “He’s going to make an amazing father.”

Conni
e moved her wand around until the room was filled with the swishing sound again. “That’s your baby’s heartbeat, a strong one hundred and seventy six.

Handing me a few paper towels Connie instructed me to clean up then handed me five little pictures of my baby.

“Dr. Fleming would like to see you in four weeks. Before you leave just stop at the front desk and they can schedule your appointment.”

“Ok, thank you.”

Seeing my baby made everything real. Made my baby real. Made what happened between Gage and me real.

How do I tell Gage that I’m having his baby?

I made my appointment and walked to my mom’s car in a daze. Before I realized we were pulling into the driveway.

Before telling Gage, I somehow had to tell my over protective brother what was going on. I have never been afraid of my brother. Until now. I wasn’t sure how he would react.

Walking into my house I saw Larkin sitting on the couch with a sleeping Evie.

Looking up Larkin smiled. “You going to tell me why we had to fly all the way out here, now?”

Avoiding eye contact I sat down across from him. Mom and Jenna sat beside him, each one on either side. Almost as if they knew he was going to explode and wanted to be there to hold him down. To stop him from killing me.

I just needed to tell hi
m, get it over with. Just rip the Band-Aid off. “I’m pregnant,” I mumbled.

Nothing
. I looked up and saw his dark brown eyes glaring at me. “You’re what?”

I had already said it. I didn’t need to say it again. “I know you heard me. I don’t need to repeat myself. You’re not an idiot.”

Larkin drew his hands into tight fists and stood quickly. “I swear to fucking God, Cobie Renea Nayler, if Bray got you pregnant I’m going to kill him.”

“It wasn’t Bray so shut the fuck up. I’m not with him anymore
. I really never was.” I shot my eyes to my loud mouth mom. I knew she would tell him I had been with him.

“Cobie, you better tell me right now who knocked you up
. I’m going to fucking kill him and I swear if you weren’t pregnant I would seriously consider knocking you out.”

Narrowing my eyes
to tiny slits, I yelled, “I’m not five years old Larkin! In case you forgot you got Jenna pregnant when she was the same age as I am. Did you forget that? It wasn’t like I did this on purpose.”

Larkin gritted his teeth. “This is fucking different. You’re my damn baby sister. Now who the fuck was it?”

Standing, I threw my hands up and said, “It was Gage, you ass. Your freaking best friend knocked your sister up. You really going to go and kill one of your best friends?”

6

Gage

U
sing the towel flung around my neck I wiped the sweat running down my forehead and opened the refrigerator door. Grabbing a bottle of water I twisted the lid off and let the ice cold liquid run down my throat, cooling me off.

I heard pounding on my door before a very angry sounding Larkin yelled,
“Open the fucking door!”

What the fuck was his problem? Slowly shutting the refrigerator
I made my way down the hall and into the foyer. Larkin was still knocking hard and yelling.

Unlocking the door I opened it just enough for Larkin to shove his way in. A scared and worried looking Jenna following him. I was about to shut the door when I saw Cobie slowly walking towards my door.

Holding the door I turned to look at Larkin. I could see the anger in his eyes.

Larkin didn’t wait for me to shut the door before he started yelling.

“What the fuck where you thinking? Do you know what the fuck you did? How could you fucking do this? I thought you were my best friend, fuck man. I would never do this shit to you.” Larkin stopped, taking a deep breath.

I took that moment to speak up. “What the hell are you talking about?”

I looked at Jenna. Jenna looked at Cobie. Cobie looked at Larkin. Larkin glared at me. He had murder in his eyes.

Jenna ran her hand down Larkin’s arm. “You promised it wouldn’t be like this. Either calm the hell down or we are leaving. This isn’t between us.”

“The hell it ain’t. That is my fucking baby sister.”

Shit.

Why the hell did Cobie tell her brother what we did?

I could see a tear roll down Cobie’s face. God dammit. I can’t take girls crying.

Taking a step toward Larkin I said, “Dude, calm down. You’re pissing your wife off and making your sister cry.”

Jenna moved away from Larkin and placed her arm on Cobie’s shoul
der, whispering something. She shook her head before finally looking at me.

She looked like she was on the verge on vomiting and bursting into tears.

Larkin gritted his teeth and looked at Jenna. He slowly took a few deep breaths and shut his eyes.

Just when I was about to ask why we were having this lovely reunion Cobie choked out, “Gage, can we um…can we talk. Alone?”

Shifting my eyes from Larkin to Jenna they both nodded.

Dafuq is goin on?

Bringing my eyes to Cobie I said, “Sure. We can go to my room.” Turning I started walking back down the hall, not looking to see if she was following. Pushing my bedroom door open I took a few steps in before stopping to make sure Cobie was in the room with me. She was just inside my bedroom door. Her hands twisted in a knot in front of her. She looked like she could bolt at any minute. Or break into hysterics.

Trying to sound as nice as possible I asked, “What the hell was that about?” I motioned toward the way we had just come.
The room holding Larkin, who at any minute, I was sure was going to come barreling down my hallway and beat the shit outta me.

Looking all around my room, looking everywhere but at me Cobie shrugged.

“Bullshit Cobie. You knew shit would hit the fan if your brother ever found out what happened. Why the fuck would you tell him?” I took a step toward her, wanting her to look at me.

Keeping her
eyes from looking at me her voice cracked when she said, “I had to tell him.”

Feeling my temper rise. I angrily
bit out, “What? Why the hell would you have to tell him? Are you fucking Catholic, did you have to repent your sins and he was the priest? There is not one goddamn reason he needed to know.”

Cobie finally looked me in the eye
s. Her dark brown eyes filled with tears. Barely speaking she said, “I’m pregnant.”

I felt my throat tightening, it was hard to breath. I stared at her
. She was pregnant? Just because she was pregnant doesn’t mean I’m the father. Right?

“What does that have to do w
ith me?” I asked, feigning ignorance.

Letting a few tears escape
she narrowed her eyes and venomously said, “You’re the fucking father, Gage. What the hell do you think? You really think I would tell my brother we fucked for the hell of it? That night I walked away with a little more than a sexy memory. I got pregnant. By you.”

I was the father?
I was going to be a father. Talking more to myself than Cobie I said, “Holy shit. I’m having a baby?”

Blinking a few times I stared at Cobie’s stomach. My baby was in there. Without thinking I started reaching out to touch her stomach.

Cobie flinched as my hand rested on her still flat stomach. Her tears falling freely now she muttered, “We’re having a baby.”

Taking two steps so
I was standing flush with her, I pulled her head into my chest and wrapped my arms around her tiny body.

Cobie cried, “It was supposed to be one night. One night just turned into eighteen years. How can we be parents, Gage? We’re not together, hell we’re not even friends.”

Rubbing her back I said, “We will get through it. No, we’re not together but we will make it work.”

“I always pictured myself being married before having a baby. Not getting pregnant by my brothers best friend while I was still in college. This isn’t how my life was supposed to be.”
Cobie sobbed, soaking my shirt.

Sighing I mumbled, “Nothing in life is what we planned.
Life is misery.”

She
sniffed and wiped under her eyes. Using her hands she pushed away from me. “Gage, I never meant for this to happen. I swear. If this is going to make you miserable, you don’t have to do it. I can do this on my own.”

Gripping both her shoulders, I leaned down and looked her in the eyes. “Cobie, I helped put you in this mess. I won’t walk away from it. I’m in this with you. This baby is the furthest thing from misery. Hell, this baby is the first thing to happen in my life lately that isn’t miserable. This is you and me for
the next eighteen years, got it?”

T
aking a deep breath she nodded. A small smile forming on her face. “Are you sure? I don’t want you to jump in not thinking then turn and run. I want our baby to have a daddy but more than that I want you to want to be a daddy. I don’t want you to feel forced.”

“Shut up. Just shut up. I want to be her daddy.”

This time I got a full blown smile when Cobie asked, “Did you just say her?”

Laughing I said, “
Yep, I sure did.”

Lifting her hands she wrapped them around my back. “This is crazy
, but right now I feel like everything will be okay. In some weird way we will find our own and be a family.”

Kissing her forehead I placed my hands on her waist. “We won’t be the normal Jones family but we will be us.
I want to buy a house in Ohio for our family. A place our baby can call home. Our little girl, yes it will be a girl, will know that we love her. That’s all that matters. Fuck the rest of the world.”

Resting my head on hers we both shut our eyes.

“So I guess this means I won’t kick your ass?” Larkin asked. I could still here the anger and hurt in his voice. Cracking my eyes open I saw the forced half smile on his face.

She
and I broke apart. Both of us taking a few steps away from each other. Jenna was slowly walking down the hall keeping her eyes on Larkin who was still standing in the doorway.

Cobie cleared her throat and fixed her brother with a pointed stare. “You can stop with the big brother shit. I told you I could handle this. I’m not your six year old little sister anymore. I’m having a baby, I’m growing up. You have to let me handle my life now.”

Holy shit. Was that tears in Larkin Nayler’s eyes?

Larkin furrowed his brows and said, “Cobie, I will always see you as my baby sister. I will always want to protect you.” Letting out a sigh he shut his eyes before continuing, “Cobie
, you should know by now that I would kill to protect you. I wanted you to have every option in the world open to you. I didn’t want you to have to let go of your dreams because of some sillyass mistake.”

Jenna was standing at Larkin’s side, her left hand resting on her swollen stomach, the light from my room reflecting off her diamond ring. The ring Larkin had given her to replace the one that I had at given her when I promised her my forever. And damn if it didn’t still hurt.

Cobie took a deep, shaky breath. “I know you want to protect me and I’m glad. And when I was fourteen I needed your protection. But I’ve grown up.” She took a step closer to me, brushing my hand. “What Gage and I did, I could never call that a mistake because out of that we created our baby. I’m not giving up my dreams. Simply creating new ones. When you found out about Evie a few years ago, weren’t you the one that told me you would do anything, even give up football to be her father. But look, you didn’t have to give up your dream to be a daddy. You created a new dream that included your family. That’s what I will do.”

“Do you think I would let her give up her dream just because I got her pregnant? That’s not who I am. I know she wants to be a doctor and I will make sure that happens. Even if that means I get up at three in the morning to feed our baby. I would do it. This situation isn’t ideal but its reality. It happened and now we deal with it and move on. We have our baby and raise her together, even if we aren’t together. This is Cobie and I and we got this shit under control.” Looking from face to face I stopped when my eyes landed on Cobie. “I won’t let you give up your dream.
I can get a house in Ohio and we will raise our baby there so you can finish school. When I can’t be there I will make sure someone is always there to help.”

“I swear man if you fuck up and hurt her or this baby not even Jenna can keep you safe. Hear me?” Larkin fixed his eyes on me.

Giving him a hard nod I said, “Heard.”

Now he is getting a little taste of what I went through three years ago.

W
alking up to house number four of the day, Cobie and I were both getting tired and irritated. Hopefully this one had the ‘IT’ factor.

Outside it was nice. There was a long, gated drive surrounded by mature oak trees and wild flowers. The house
itself was a traditional brick Tudor. Just off the side of the house was a large tree with a tire swing. I could picture myself pushing my little girl on the swing when she was older.

…”And this one is only five hundred and twenty thousand.” My relator’s, Colleen’s voice broke through my day dream. “So very much under what you wanted to spend.”

Smiling at her I asked, “How many bedrooms?”

“Five bedrooms with four and a half baths. There is also a pool slash guest h
ouse and a barn with six stalls.

Cobie’s eyes lit up when she heard stalls. She loved horses.
I had learned that over the last two weeks. We had learned a lot about each other. She wasn’t just that girl I fucked in my office. She was the mother of my child. She had hopes and dreams. She was scared and insecure. She was funny and when she was nervous she would nibble her bottom lip. Sarcasm was her second language. She’s an amazing person and if things were different I could see myself falling in love with her.

But
, things weren’t different and this was life. We would be friends and we would raise our baby. In a way I found myself loving her but something different from the way I love Jenna.

Cobie nudged my arm. “We could get the baby a horse, Gage!” She sounded so hopeful and excited.

Shaking my head I said, “Yep, we could. But first, let’s find a house for our baby to live in. Don’t really feel like pullin’ some Mary and Joseph, having a baby in the barn shit.”

“Good point,” Cobie laughed as she followed Colleen into the house.

It was large and open. I’m no girl and houses don’t excite me but this place was beautiful.

Marble floors welcomed us in the foyer along with cascading stairs leading to the second floor. The marble continued down the hall and into the kitchen. The large living room was a dark hardwood with wall to wall windows over- looking the backyard and the barn. There was a stone fireplace in one corner and a built-in bookcase in the other.
The kitchen had dark wood cabinets with black granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. There was a half bath on the first floor just off the kitchen along with the formal dining room. A small alcove was adjacent to the kitchen, perfect for a playroom.