by Marla Monroe
She hadn’t realized she’d even closed her eyes, much less fallen asleep until Porter was kissing her cheek and telling her it was time to eat. She rubbed her face and looked up to find both men grinning down at her.
“What?” she asked, more than a little confused.
“You have the cutest little snore,” Edward said.
“I don’t snore,” she fussed, sitting up straight.
“Yes, you do, baby girl,” Porter agreed.
She huffed at them before standing up and walking toward the kitchen. She wasn’t about to start a discussion about whether she snored or not. She didn’t snore. It would be two against one though so she had no way to win.
They ate the warmed-up remnants of lunch and talked about how good it was, even warmed up.
“I hope I can make some of these dishes even half as good as she did. To think that all of this is from their garden or the natural plants around the planet,” she said.
“What you’ve fixed us so far has been delicious, honey. I wouldn’t worry about following the recipes she gave you,” Edward told her.
“Was everything okay outside? How does the garden look so far?” she asked.
“Everything is fine. We watered it but it still just looks like rows of dirt,” Porter said with a chuckle. “Even if it does grow fast, it will still be another few days before we get any ground breakage.”
“I can’t wait to see it come up. I used to help put up from the garden, but I never actually planted anything before,” she said. “It’s going to be fun to watch it grow.”
Porter laughed. “I always said watching the crops grow was a study in boredom, but maybe that will be different here on Alpha from what Cam and Phillip claim.”
“What do you think about what Lacy told you about the children here, Hannah?” Edward asked, suddenly changing the subject.
She bit her lower lip and took a quick sip of the tea to clear her throat and give her another second of stalling. Finally she shrugged, not looking at them.
“It’s all kind of hard to believe, but Julie is larger than she should be and can speak a lot better than I would expect at her age.”
“Did she tell you about her ability to understand the animals on the planet?” Porter asked.
Hannah could feel their eyes on her. She finally nodded. “Yeah. It’s kind of scary.”
“She’s able to know things, too, according to Phillip,” Edward said.
“Um, yeah. Lacy said that, too.” She drew in a deep breath and finally spit it out. She couldn’t keep it from them. “She told me that I’m already pregnant. I’m having a little boy.”
She heard a chair scrape against the floor then hit the ground. She jerked her head up in time to see Edward standing up at the end of the table with a look of horror on his face. Porter’s expression held utter shock as well but at least he didn’t look sick about it.
Hannah had been right. They weren’t happy about it at all. She’d have been better off not telling them right away. Why hadn’t she kept her mouth shut? Now everything would be different. They’d avoid her and worry about everything now. She jumped up and ran from the room. All she could think about was that everything had been going so well and now she’d ruined it.
She heard Porter calling after her, but Hannah ignored them and hurried up the stairs. She didn’t want to talk to them again right then. As soon as she got to the bathroom, she closed the door and locked it. Then she turned on the shower and stripped out of her clothes. By the time she’d stepped into the spray, it had warmed to a tolerable temperature. It did nothing to comfort her or stop the tears that fell. Hannah sank to the tiled floor and hugged her knees to her as she sobbed softly under the sound of the water hitting the tile.
Why couldn’t they have been happy to know that she was having their baby? Why did she have to get pregnant so soon in the first place? Everything had been going so well after they’d gotten past her deception. Now they were back at square one. How many times would they be able to forgive her before they couldn’t any longer? What would happen when that time came? Hannah wished her sister was there once again. She felt so alone.
* * * *
“Damn! What in the hell just happened?” Porter asked, standing up to stare at Edward.
“She just told us she was pregnant. It’s only been a few days! There’s no way it can be ours that fast,” he said, his face completely horrified.
Porter didn’t even think, he just punched the other man in the face, watching him stagger back but not fall.
“What in the hell did you do that for?” Edward demanded.
“Are you fucking crazy? It only takes once to do the deed, man. You’re old enough to realize that. I can’t believe you said that! Of course it’s our baby. She’s been on a fucking shuttle just like us for the last six months.” Porter just shook his head in disgust.
Edward sighed then rubbed his hands over his face. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Hell! You shouldn’t have even thought it, man. What the fuck is your problem?” Porter demanded. “She’s our wife regardless of whether we had a ceremony or not. That was Earth’s tradition anyway. On Alpha we don’t need a ceremony. The thing is that she’s our woman and we just told her that we’re not happy that she’s having our baby. That’s fucked up, man.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I panicked. Flashback to my fiancée eight years ago. I shouldn’t have compared her to Lydia, but it hit me out of the blue man.” Edward shook his head.
“I didn’t even know you’d been engaged before. You never said anything before.”
Edward shrugged. “It was a long time ago and in the past.”
“Evidently it’s not as much in the past as you thought. You reacted to Hannah based on it,” Porter said shoving his hands in his pockets.
“I had been going out with this woman for a few months when she told me she was pregnant. I was devastated. I liked her, but I wasn’t in love with her. I hadn’t really gotten to the point of thinking seriously about her when she hit me with that. I was going to do the right thing, of course, and marry her. Got her an engagement ring and she planned the wedding while I tried to find a second job. I dropped out of college to do it.”
Edward ran his hand over his face again. It was obvious that he’d buried this under a layer of skin for some time. He hadn’t once mentioned that he’d ever been that close to getting married when they’d talked on the shuttle about their past.
He started talking again. “Then, about a month later I went with her to the doctor for her first appointment and when he did the ultrasound, he congratulated us and said she was about three months along. We’d only been having sex for about five weeks. She’d had sex with someone at least twelve weeks before. The thing about it was, we’d been dating for nearly five months but had only been intimate for about the last five weeks. She’d had sex with someone while we were together then tried to pass it off as my child.”
“That’s harsh, man. I’m sorry, but Hannah is not your ex. She’s ours now and forever and she’s having our baby. A little boy, Edward,” Porter said, looking at the other man.
“What are we going to do, Porter? How can we possibly take care of Hannah, a baby, and be ready for winter when we don’t know the first thing about this place? Hell, I thought we’d have a few months to figure things out before she got pregnant,” Edward said in a raspy voice.
“Well, we don’t. That’s why Cam and Phillip wanted to meet us and tell us what to expect. They’re there for us just like the other families are. We have to work together to make it here.” Porter couldn’t believe he was having this conversation with Edward.
The man had been like a rock the entire trip to Alpha when Porter had worried about everything. Now the shoe was on the other foot, and he wasn’t sure he could be as convincing as Edward had been. His partner had the confidence that Porter had never carried before. Now it seemed that while Porter had always known he was going to be a far
mer, Edward had been in college to start with, and farming had ended up being the result of a woman’s deception. Was he going to let it continue to influence him? If he did, Hannah would be the one to suffer and Porter wasn’t going to let that happen.
“Look, man. Hannah is a good woman. She doesn’t deserve this. She’s suffered enough already. She’s probably thinking that we’re angry with her for being pregnant already. I’m sure as hell not. I’m just surprised, but happy. You need to get your act together, before you talk to her again.” Porter looked at the table, realizing that Hannah hadn’t eaten much of anything. “Clean up before you come to bed and make damn sure you’re straight with how you feel before you climb into that bed with her.”
He stomped out of the kitchen to the foot of the stairs. Porter stood there with on hand on the rail for several seconds before finally climbing to the second floor to stand outside the bedroom. She wasn’t in the bedroom but the bathroom door was closed and he could hear the shower going. As much as he wanted to join her, he knew she wouldn’t welcome him right then. Instead he took off his boots and shirt then sat on the side of the bed and waited for her.
After several long minutes, he began to worry about her. She’d been upstairs for quite a while before he’d come up. The water was bound to be getting cold by now. Just as he started to stand up, the water shut off. It didn’t take much for him to imagine her stepping from the shower with water running down her body as she reached for a towel.
He enjoyed patting her dry when they showered together. It would be even better when she was round with their child. He couldn’t wait to kiss her belly and talk to their son. He’d tell them both how much he cared about them every day. She was giving them all a chance at a new life, a new beginning. He wouldn’t let Edward’s insecurities to ruin that. They all deserved a chance at happiness, a hope for a future they hadn’t had back on Earth.
The bathroom door finally creaked open and Hannah stepped out, stopping when she saw him sitting there waiting on her.
Without looking up, she walked over to the dresser. “You’re going to want to wait a few minutes. I used up all of the hot water. I didn’t realize you’d be up so soon.”
He watched as she pulled out an old cotton gown and underwear. It hit him again that she didn’t have much with how she’d ended up on the shuttle. She deserved to have nice things to wear instead of the old things she’d brought with her.
Porter waited where he was as she dressed with her back to him. When she finally walked over to the bed to climb up, he stopped her.
“Wait, baby girl.” Porter got up and walked around to where she stood poised to climb up.
“What?” Unease spread over her face.
Porter cupped her face between his hands and slowly lowered his head until his lips brushed softly against hers. He sipped at them, licking across the seam before nipping her lower lip. Then he kissed one corner before pulling back and looking into her pretty hazel eyes. He liked how the different shades of green and brown kept you guessing as to which color would be dominant at any given time of the day.
“Thank you, Hannah,” he said.
“What?” Confusion replaced the unease he’d hated seeing.
“For giving us a son. For carrying our child inside of you and caring for it. I promise we will protect you and him with our lives.”
“You weren’t so happy a little while ago. Hell, Edward was horrified. Don’t say something you don’t really mean, Porter. I get that it’s too soon, there are too many things that we need to get done first, but I can’t help it.” Her voice broke but she didn’t start crying.
“Shh, baby. I was surprised, but not the least bit upset about it. You have to admit that it’s pretty damn shocking to know we’re going to be having a little baby boy after only knowing each other for a few days. That just doesn’t happen, or at least it didn’t happen on Earth. Here on Alpha, well, I guess with children like Julie there’s no need to wait for tests or ultrasounds to know when it’s going to happen.” He couldn’t stop the grin that took over his mouth.
“You’re really okay with it?” she asked, her eyes flicking upward to meet his before dropping once again. He hated that they’d lost the easy way they’d had between them only that morning.
“I’m really okay with it. I’m excited and scared, but happy. Everything will be fine, Hannah. Look at me, baby girl.” He lifted her chin until she had no choice but to look at him. “He’s going to be healthy and amazing.”
“I’m scared, Porter. The children here are so different. How can we take care of them when they’re different from us? Lacy said I’ll only carry him for about six or seven months at the most.” She gnawed at her lower lip.
Porter brushed his finger over where she was chewing on her lip to make her stop. Then he kissed her forehead.
“Don’t worry about that yet. Let’s get you past the morning sickness stage first. Get in bed and cover up. I’m going to take quick shower. I’ll be back in a few minutes and we’ll cuddle and talk about it.” He helped her up on the bed then covered her with the sheet. “I won’t be long.”
“Porter?” she called out to him.
“Yeah?”
“Edward’s not okay with this, is he?” she asked.
“He’s okay, Hannah. It surprised him is all. He needs to talk to you about why he got so upset, but it wasn’t because of you. He’ll be up as soon as he finishes cleaning up downstairs.”
At least Porter hoped he would. If the foolish idiot slept downstairs on the couch, he’d kick the man’s ass.
“I’ll be right back.” Porter squeezed her hand then walked into the bathroom to shower so he could climb into bed with his woman as soon as possible.
* * * *
Once the last dish was dried and put away, Edward sighed and spread the dishcloth over the edge of the sink before turning and leaning against the cabinet. He’d washed the dishes by hand instead of just putting them in the dishwasher because he needed the time to think. He’d fucked up—again. Why was he always doing that around Hannah?
All he could think when she’d said she was pregnant was that there hadn’t been enough time for her to know that. She had to have been with someone else like Lydia had to already know she was having a baby. Hell, she’d even said it was going to be a boy. He never even considered that Julie would know and tell her something like that. No, all Edward had thought about was that she had a nice round tummy he like to rub and kiss and she was telling them that she was going to have a baby.
He groaned and hung his head. She would never forgive him for this. He had no doubt that he’d looked horrified as he’d jumped up and knocked the chair over behind him. Why had he reacted like that?
Because I still blame Lydia for the fact that I’m a farmer and not the stockbroker I’d planned on being.
Then he laughed. Actually, Lydia had probably saved his life. If he’d become a stockbroker like he’d planned on becoming, he wouldn’t have had the skills needed to be chosen to come to Alpha. Who knew back then that being a lowly farmer like his dad and his granddad would be so important to him one day? He’d studied hard, strived to make it to the top of his class so he would get the scholarships it would take to go to a premier university so he could climb out of the farming family he’d been born into.
Then Lydia had come along and ruined it all for him. By the time he’d realized that the baby couldn’t be his, he had lost his scholarships and the chance to better himself. His dreams were all gone and he was right back where he’d started, a farmer. Yeah, he’d gone off the deep end for a few weeks, drinking and wallowing in misery like any normal eighteen-year-old might have done, but he’d picked himself up and accepted that it just wasn’t going to happen. He’d screwed up letting his dick control him. He never should have slept with Lydia in the first place. Then there would never have been any doubt that the child hadn’t been his.
While he’d resented losing out on the opportunity to go on to college and make
something of himself after all of the hard work he’d put into it, Edward had accepted his circumstances and poured himself into farming to be the best he could be. It had paid off when their land produced the most and best vegetables every year. Because of that, he and his brother had been chosen as suitable candidates for one of the new planets.
They had chosen not to be paired up, knowing how competitive they tended to be. It would have been a disaster trying to share a wife between them. Andrew had left three months earlier than he had for Omega. He hoped he was happy wherever he was and doing a hell of a lot better than Edward was at that moment.
For a brief moment, he thought about sleeping on the couch until he could figure out how to tell Hannah how sorry he was about the way he’d reacted. He had to admit that it would only make things worse if he didn’t go on up and admit his stupidity right away. He’d already put it off longer than he should have. He should have gone right up there and begged her to forgive him instead of hiding in the kitchen like a coward. Edward had never been a coward, but with the realization that they were about to start a family on a strange planet with even stranger animals where their children wouldn’t exactly be normal, feeling a little cowardly didn’t seem all that embarrassing.
He pushed away from the cabinet and walked straight through the living room to the stairs and climbed them without stopping. He did hesitate outside their bedroom door for a second, but forged ahead and pushed open the door to find Hannah sitting on the side of the bed with Porter next to her rubbing her back. She had on the most hideous nightgown he’d ever seen with red swollen eyes that refused to meet his when he walked into the room.
Without saying a word, Edward dropped to his knees in front of her and took her hands in his.
“I’m sorry, Hannah. I’m so, so sorry for how I reacted. It had nothing to do with you and everything to do with me. I’m happy about the baby, honey. I was reacting because of something that happened in my past but that’s no excuse. Can you forgive me?” he asked, kissing the cool fingers he held in his hands.