Read Choosing Happiness Online
Authors: Melissa Stevens
Tags: #Romance, #Arizona, #suspense, #ex-military
"You all right?" Jeanie asked, starting to worry.
Andrea shook her head slightly, as if clearing it. “Yeah, I'm fine, I was just thinking."
"What are you going to do now?"
"I think I'll go fix something to eat, the nausea seems gone and usually once it's gone it doesn't come back until the next day... at least so far."
"That's not what I meant.”
Andrea left the bathroom and headed for the kitchen. "I'll tell Jake and we'll go from there."
"I take it this wasn't planned?"
"No.” She took a deep breath. “I've been on birth control for quite a while. We've actually been trying to prevent it."
"Any idea what went wrong?"
"Not off hand and I'm too stunned to start trying to figure it out right now."
"Understandable," Jeanie fell silent for a few minutes. She watched Andrea move around the kitchen, gathering the things she needed to fix herself something to eat, despite the still very limited use of her left arm. "Do you want me to hang around a while or are you okay?"
"I'm fine if you need to go, but I was going to ask you to stay for lunch. I make a mean grilled cheese and soup, even one armed." Andrea grinned as she wielded a spatula like a sword, cutting through the air as if in a battle.
Jeanie laughed. "Count me in."
B
y the time Jake made it home that evening Andrea had mostly come to terms with being pregnant, at least she was no longer in shock. She hugged him and welcomed him home.
"How was your day?" She followed him into the bedroom where he put away his weapon and changed out of his uniform.
"Uneventful." He pulled on his faded jeans and a deep green sweat shirt before pulling her into his arms again. "How was yours?"
"A bit of a surprise." She rubbed her cheek against his sweatshirt as she let him hold her.
"Oh?"
"Well, I've not been feeling great the last few days. A couple hours after you leave I've been getting sick to my stomach. I’ve not actually thrown up but I’ve been close. Then, after a couple hours it fades. At first I figured it was something I ate and didn't give it much more thought." She kept her arms around him and avoided looking at him as she spoke.
"But?"
"But it's happened every day for several days now. It’s always the same thing. About ten I start feeling like crap, I lay around and try to get past it and by two it’s passed and I'm fine. This morning I got suspicious. I called Jeanie and asked her to help me out.” She took a deep breath. “She brought me a pregnancy test."
"I take it, it was positive?" He guessed.
She nodded against his chest, grateful his arms stayed around her.
Jake took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "How do you feel about it?"
She closed her eyes and let the rumble of his voice through his chest roll through her. "I was stunned and panicked at first. I mean, we've been trying to prevent this. I was so shocked I couldn't begin to figure out how we failed."
"And now?"
"Accepting, apprehensive," she paused for a moment. "Scared."
"Why scared?"
"Mostly because I wasn’t sure how you would react. We weren't planning on this. We haven't really even discussed kids and it's so sudden." She hunched her back, ready for him to get angry and yell.
Instead, he was quiet a moment before he hugged her tighter against him then he bent and kissed the top of her head. "Well, we were going to want children eventually, it's just a little earlier than I expected."
"Are you sure you're okay with this?"
"What good would it do not to be?"
"I don't know. I just didn't expect you to take the news this well."
"What did you expect? For me to scream and yell and blame you?"
"Actually, yeah, probably. Dad and Ben always go with their gut instinct to over react, to scream and yell, then think things through and be more rational.”
He pulled away and looked her in the eyes. “I don’t yell just to vent my frustration like your brother does and I don’t see anyone at fault here so there’s no reason to lay blame. We knew it was a possibility the first time we got in bed. Birth control isn’t one hundred percent reliable and condoms break.” He pulled her back into his arms. “This happened because it was meant to happen, that’s all.
“Honestly? I can’t think of anything I’d love more than having a tiny version of you running around,” he said in her ear.
She tilted her head back and looked up at him. He placed a soft kiss on her lips.
“But I’ll tell you one thing.” His voice lost all teasing. “I may be a little old fashioned but I want to be married to her momma before my little girl gets here. So I guess we’ve got a deadline now.”
“If we weren’t already planning to get married or a big wedding was important to me, I might argue. Since we are and it doesn’t, I’ll just agree.”
“So, when do you want to do this? If we don’t do it pretty soon you’ll be showing.” He let one hand drop to rest low on her belly.
“I don’t know. I haven’t even thought that far ahead yet.”
“That’s why I brought it up... so you’ll start.”
A
few days later, Jake stopped by the shop and invited Ben to lunch. Before long, they were seated in a nearby restaurant and the waitress had brought their drinks and taken their orders.
"How's Jeanie doing?" Jake asked.
"Good, good. She wants me to invite you and Andy to dinner."
"I'm sure we can arrange something. I'll have Andrea call her and set it up."
"Good. How's Andrea doing? She having trouble with her shoulder?"
"She's doing good. Her shoulder is healing fine. She's still trying to decide what to do with the furniture in my apartment."
"Have you talked to your landlord about getting out of the lease?"
"I did. I have to pay the rent for the full lease unless I find someone to sign a new lease."
"I may have a lead on someone to move in, but I’m not sure yet."
"I'm not too concerned about it. I expected to have to pay out the term of my lease, but I'd like to get moved sooner rather than later."
"Has something changed that you want it done sooner?"
"Yeah, you could say something's changed," Jake looked down at his hands folded around his glass as he tried to find the words to tell his best friend. He decided that simple might be best. "Andrea's pregnant."
Ben blinked, a long slow blink that gave him just a moment to process. "All right, how does this change your plans?"
"Not a whole lot," Jake said. "Except I’d like to get moved as soon as I can. I want to get it over with so we can focus on what we have ahead of us."
Ben nodded. "So you plan to go ahead and marry her?"
Jake shot Ben a disgusted look. "Of course. I ought to punch you in the face for suggesting I’d do otherwise."
"If this whole thing," he motioned to the table and restaurant around them. "Isn’t to tell me you're leaving my sister heartbroken and pregnant, what's it about?"
"You know, one of these days I'm gonna knock you out over your mouth."
"Hell, Jake, we both know my mouth is one of the reasons you love me.” Ben grinned, knowing exactly how that sounded.
Jake shook his head, exasperated.
"I take it from talk about the changing of plans that this wasn't planned?" Ben asked as he gave up ribbing Jake.
"No, but we'll manage. The idea has taken a little getting used to, but I like the idea of a baby. It's terrifying, but exciting too."
"Why so terrifying? I can understand it being a little scary. I mean it's new, something you have no clue how to do. But not really terrifying."
"For you it wouldn't be. You have a good father. Charles's a good man and he's done a good job with you and Andrea, set a good example. I never had that. My dad was a shitty guy who was in jail more than he was home."
Ben nodded, seeing where Jake was coming from. "But because of him you have a long list of things you never want to do. You've seen the kind of parent not to be."
"That's true."
“Besides, you won’t be alone. We’ll all be here to help out. I’ll be happy to knock some sense into you any time you need it.” Mischief danced in Ben’s eyes.
Jake rolled his eyes.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure Dad won’t mind answering anything you want to ask. I think he’d be happy to do it. And what about your partner, Ramon right? Doesn’t he have kids?”
“Yeah, but they’re teenagers.”
“How do you think they got to be that way? You think they just turned up one day grown? Talk to him, too. You’re not alone. We’ll all help you make sure you’ll be the kind of dad you want to be.”
Jake looked at Ben a moment. He should have known his best friend would set him straight. “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
They fell silent as the waitress brought their food, made sure they had everything they needed then left.
“So.” Ben popped a fry in his mouth. “Now that you’ve knocked her up, when you planning to marry my sister and making her an honest woman?”
~~~
A
ndrea had been shopping for Christmas all year long, it was the only thing that kept her from panicking now. As she found the perfect gift for someone she’d get it, put a sticky note on it and put it in the top of the closet in one of the extra bedrooms. Now, she only had a few things left. She needed to figure out something for Jake and she had a couple more things she’d decided she wanted to get for her parents. If she’d still had to do all her holiday shopping, on top of trying to get a wedding planned, even a small one, she didn’t know if she could do it.
In reality, she wasn’t doing it all on her own. She had enlisted Jeanie’s help. After deciding that she wanted to be married before the end of January there were a lot of things to get done. Details she never would have imagined, even after having seen all the work that went into Jeanie and Ben’s wedding.
There had been a million questions and decisions to make. How many guests? How many attendants? What to serve? Did she even want a reception? She’d ended more than a few days nursing headaches from the stress.
Finally, she had most of the big decisions made, but they couldn’t finalize details until they had a date. That was the hard part. They had to find a place for it, indoors, that wasn’t already booked. It was just too cold for an outdoor wedding in January.
Frustrated, Andrea pulled out her laptop and started looking online for gifts. She still had a couple weeks. If she ordered now things should be here on time. The ones for her parents were easy, Jake was another story. Ginger lollypop in her mouth, she shopped around for more than an hour before she found something she thought he would really like. She also ordered him a new belt to wear to work, she’d noticed a few days ago that his was starting to get worn, and a couple of smaller items.
Orders made, she put the computer away and checked the clock. A quarter to one. She was supposed to meet her mom and Jeanie for lunch at two. Jeanie had told her mom she had some appointment and couldn’t get out until then so Andrea didn’t have to admit to morning sickness. Ben and Jeanie knew but they were waiting until after Christmas to tell anyone else about the pregnancy.
If she didn’t move too fast, she could get ready without making herself sick. Thankfully, she didn’t need to change clothes. That would have been a real challenge, just brush out her hair and add a touch of makeup.
Forty-five minutes later she got in Jake’s truck and headed out. She’d just backed out of the driveway when she realized she’d forgotten the notebook she kept her wedding notes in. Pulling back in, she put the truck in park but left the engine running as she hurried inside to grab it.
When she came back, the truck was gone.
“Son of a bitch.” She muttered. Turning around she went inside and called Jake.
“Babe?” He answered his phone. “What’s up, why are you calling from the house phone?”
“You’re truck’s gone.” She paused.
“What do you mean? It was in the driveway this morning.”
She told him how she’d been on her way out and forgotten her notebook. The tears started to flow and she couldn’t stop them. Before she could finish explaining she was sobbing. “I went back out and it was just gone.”
“Okay, how long has it been?”
“Maybe three minutes.” She sniffed. “I pulled back in the yard, came in, grabbed the notebook and went right back out, and it was just gone.”
“Then what did you do?”
“I came in and called you.” “
“All right, hang on a second.” His voice became muffled as if he’d covered the mouthpiece and was talking to someone else.
Andrea tried to stop the flow of tears but she couldn’t control herself. She didn’t even know why she was crying.
“Are you inside?” Jake asked, coming back on the line.
“Yeah.”
“Okay. Stay there, we’ll be right there.”
“My purse was in the truck. I was going right back out.” Her sobs came harder, until her chest ached. She sat on the kitchen floor, phone still to her ear.
“Ramon has put an APB out for the truck, we’re all looking for it. It shouldn’t be long before we find it. They can’t have gotten far.”
Andrea knew he was staying on the phone to try to calm her down and she appreciated it. She hated that she was crying, and didn’t know why she couldn’t stop.
Jake talked to her, his voice calm and patient for several minutes, until he came through the front door. “Where are you?” he asked through the phone.
“In the kitchen.” Her crying had slowed but not completely stopped.
He appeared in the doorway and she let the phone fall from her hand as he bent in front of her on one knee. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” She reached for him.
He pulled her into his arms. “Why are you on the floor?”
“I kind of fell apart on the phone and sat where I was standing.”
“You sure you’re okay?” His brow creased and he looked at her with worried eyes.
“Yeah, just stressed and tired.” She clung to him.
“Where were you headed?”
He patiently held on to her and asked several questions until she’d calmed down enough that no more tears fell. “Have you called your mom or Jeanie and let them know you’re not coming?”