Unexpected Series: Box Set

by S. L. Schiefer

  Where the hell did that come from? The look on his face made it seem like there was a story behind that small speech, but I’m not the person to dig for information. Clearly since I didn’t get my one night stand’s name. I could have saved myself a lot of problems if I was nosier.

  “Thanks, Kyle. That’s really nice of you to say. I could always use a friend though if you’re interested. Especially once this baby makes its arrival. I can make sure there are some poopy diapers with your name on them.” I say with a smile.

  “I’ve had my share of helping with all that when my sister was born, so no thanks doll.” He laughs at my suggestion.

  If he only knew that I wasn’t kidding. I’ve never changed a shitty diaper. Hell, I’ve never changed a diaper period. I guess I have time to get myself together. Maybe I should find someone with a baby to practice on?

  I came upstairs after the guys left. I stood in front of my full length mirror with my shirt up. Looking at my slight bump. I may not have been the skinniest girl in the world. I’m toned with some curves. I had a C cup before getting pregnant now I can fill a D. I take good care of myself because I’m not naturally toned or fit. Some people have to work at that.

  It was still hard to believe that I was pregnant. This baby was going to change my life. Give me my second chance at a family. I know Jonah and his family consider themselves my family too. But this baby is going to rely on me. That feeling that someone needs you? That’s priceless.

  I put my shirt back down and head towards my bed. Falling into bed I close my eyes and try to go to sleep. Hoping my dreams aren’t filled with a certain sexy Marine and his cockiness.

  Jayden

  I think this is the cleanest my equipment has been since we got here. I can’t be sure but I think the threat of being a father has me obsessively cleaning like this. I even cleaned up our damn tent. Jacobs walked in on me trying to clean everyone else’s areas and ended up dragging me outside. He made me go on a run to try to get rid of some of this energy. But I made his ass come with me.

  “What’s going on? I’ve never seen you like this.”

  There’s only one reason and I don’t really want to share it but he’s really the only person over here that I can talk to, “This girl is saying I fucked her right before I left and now she’s pregnant.”

  He stops running all together now, “What? Seriously, man? You’re supposed to wrap that shit up! I know someone taught you that at some point!”

  “Yeah, dickhead I know. I just don’t even remember this girl. She’s good friends with my brother now somehow. She even offered up a paternity testing.”

  “She offered the testing?” His eyebrows are almost in his hairline from that.

  “Yeah, that right there makes it seem like it’s true. Why would any women offer that if she wasn’t sure?”

  He laughs hard at that, “Any women who doesn’t know who the father is and is grasping at straws. Maybe she realized your family is one of the nicest out there and wanted to trap you guys.”

  “I seriously hope not. My mom is going to be thrilled about this news. Although, she’ll want me to marry the girl and have a happily ever after. I’m never getting married. Our futures being career Marine’s are never certain. I’m not putting that on someone for the rest of my life.”

  “If that baby is yours you already have someone counting on you for the rest of your life.” Jacobs is being very insightful today. I don’t like it.

  He turns and walks away from me leaving me standing in the middle of camp. The sun is beating down on me and I’m already sweaty from my run so I decide to go take a shower. I walk past several guys all doing their own thing. One guy is FaceTiming his wife it looks like. I stop and listen for a minute. I look at the screen and a tiny little baby fills the screen. And this dude starts crying. What the hell?

  I hear him say that he can’t wait to meet her. Meet her? Is that not his baby? He then says that he can’t believe he missed her birth. He wishes he could’ve been there to see it all and to hear her first cry. His wife then laughs and says he’ll hear plenty of crying when he comes home.

  Shaking myself out of trance I turn and heads toward my tent to grab my stuff for a shower. I keep seeing that little baby in my mind. What if the baby really is mine? I should get to know Annie so I can be a part of the baby’s life. Instead of being a dick and possibly missing the chance to be a Dad. This really isn’t how I imagined my life going at twenty-seven. But as Jacob’s said I didn’t wrap my shit so this is my fault. I just wish I remembered the sex.

  Before grabbing all my shit for my shower I pick up my iPad to send Annie a message on Facebook.

  Me: I want to be there for you and the baby if I am the father. I’m not saying that to be a douche, but I will get the paternity testing done. In the meantime please keep me updated on any appointments. And I would like to know what gender the baby is. But if it turns out to not be mine I’m done. I will not pick up the slack for someone else’s mistake.

  Nodding my head I think good enough. It sounds dickish, but what the fuck do you expect? I didn’t ask for this to happen. I didn’t ask to be a father yet. Especially when I didn’t remember the girl I knocked up.

  Annie

  What an asshole! Fine, I’ll keep him updated but that’s it. And he doesn’t need to be here for me, only his child. Fuck him. I know he’s the father. He’s going to have to pull up his big girl panties and get over himself. I know it took both of us to get here. But damn.

  I won’t message him back until after my next appointment; it’s only a couple weeks away anyways. I’ll let him stew on this for a bit. I don’t have time for his bullshit. I have other shit I need to worry about. I need to start buying stuff for my baby. I can buy the furniture now and buy other things once I know what I’m having.

  I get dressed and head to the store. I’m walking aimlessly around the baby section. I really have no idea what I need. Do I really need a changing table? What the fuck is a Boppy? Nope, I’m not doing this right now. I storm out of the store. How can I possibly be a good mom when I don’t even know what all I do or don’t need! None of my friends are moms so I can’t ask them. I could probably ask Jonah and Jayden’s mom. But she doesn’t even know yet. That’s what I need to do. I’m going over there right now. Get it over with while Jonah is on base.

  The drive over to their house is such a pretty drive. I love all the palm trees and tropical flowers. They vary in color and just seem to command attention. Momma’s yard is that way too. They have a rainbow of flowers and four big palm trees. Pulling into the driveway I turn my SUV off and hop out. Before I can even make it to the door it’s opening and Momma is standing in the doorway waiting for me.

  “What a nice surprise. What are you doing here? Did you come to keep an old gal company for a little while?” She asks with a huge smile on her face. Poor girl, her life is just filled with men and no women. She motions me inside and we go sit in the living room.

  “I guess I have some news for you.” She just smiles and looks at me curiously. “You’re going to be a grandma. Almost four months ago I met Jayden out at the bar and we, um, went back to his apartment. And well, yeah. Things happened. And here I am. I didn’t even remember his name. When I came here with Jonah for dinner I saw his picture on the mantel. It all just clicked. I’ve already told him, but he’s not very happy about it.”

  She stands up and walks over to sit next to me and gives me a hug. She pulls back and looks at me and I see tears forming in her eyes. Those better be happy tears.

  **

  Today is the day. I find out what I’m having! I’m so stinken’ excited I could jump. Actually there may have been some bouncing going on. Maybe. Not that I’ll ever admit it to anyone. Jonah told me he’d be here to get me around one thirty to make it to the office by two for my appointment. I still can’t believe he agreed to go with me. Maybe he wants to be able to tell his brother something.

  I’m rushing around, as usual, to get myse
lf ready and together. I want to be outside on the porch waiting for him when he gets here. Since I’m always late getting ready when it’s something him and I are doing. But, gah, I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it. This belly keeps running into things.

  Just as I’m walking out the front door I see the shiny Mustang pull onto my street. YES! I beat him! I bounce out to the street before he can get to my house. He rolls to a stop in front of me and I yank open the door and do a little dance and sing “I was on time” and a round of “oh yeah” then slide into the seat. I turn to look at him with a huge grin on my face.

  Yep. He is just staring at me. He turns back towards the front and shakes his head at me. I burst out in giggles. I’m in such a great mood today. He starts driving again and reaches to turn the volume up on the radio. And, oh my god, Blurred Lines comes on he goes to change the station and I smack his hand away and yell, “Don’t you dare change it!”

  “Annie I cannot possibly listen to this song again.” He glares at me.

  “Too bad, buddy.” I start dancing and singing at the top of my lungs. But peek at him out of the corner of my eye and can see a tiny smile on his face.

  The drive doesn’t take long and I’ve managed to get him to mumble along with the songs. Bonus! He’s such a bump on a log. I’ve never seen him just let loose. That might be the military in him though. His mom wanted to come but Jonah assured her that he would call her as soon as we left and tell her everything.

  We pull into the parking lot, get out and walk inside the building. I check in at the front desk and we sit and wait. I glance over at my friend, he looks so nervous being in a room with at least five pregnant women at the same time. I chuckle to myself and he looks over at me with a questioning look. I just shake my head at him with a huge grin. It isn’t too long later that my name gets called.

  We walk down the hallway and they weigh me, I shoot a warning glance at Jonah. He’s always telling me I look great and haven’t gained much weight. I’m only five months along but I already feel like a damn hippo. He smiles and turns around like a good boy. I step up and wait until the numbers pop up. Look at the nurse and she smiles for me to step down. Thank you, Jesus.

  She directs us towards the ultrasound room and tells us the tech will be in shortly. I hop up on the table to wait and Jonah stands awkwardly by me. I’m not sure what to say to him to make him chill the hell out except, “Dude, relax, this isn’t your illegitimate child. You’re only the uncle.”

  That seems to somewhat break him out of his weirdness. He smiles at me and puts his arm around me in the odd “guy one armed hug” thing they’re always doing. He does jump away from me though when there’s a knock at the door. I tell the tech come in as I give him a “what the fuck” look.

  The tech has me lay back and pull my shirt up. She puts some cold ass gel on my stomach and asks if I’m ready. I nod my head with a grin splitting my face. Squeeee! I get to see my baby today! And I get to see if I’m buying green or purple. We aren’t doing blue or pink. I want different not traditional.

  I watch the screen with complete attention. I don’t want to miss a single detail about my tiny little human. I sneak a look at Jonah to see his eyes are on the small screen too. I look back at the screen and watch as the tech moves the wand back and forth showing me different angles of my baby.

  She takes her time getting all the measurements she needs, to make sure I’m on track and everything is going the way it should be. She asks if I want to know the gender and I nod my head like one of those damn bobble head toys. I look at Jonah again and see that he has his phone out and is recording the screen. I wonder if that’s how he’s going to tell his mom.

  She moves the wand around a little bit more and then stops for a moment. I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking at, but it looks round with two things sticking out. She uses her free hand to point towards the screen. She tells me that the round part is the baby’s butt, and the legs are the two things sticking out. She then clicks the picture to freeze it and places a word on the screen and prints it out before I can see it.

  Handing me the picture she congratulates me and stands up to wipe my stomach off. My attention is on the tiny little picture. I can’t believe it. I’m having a boy. A teeny tiny little baby boy. I start crying as all the emotions just sweep through me. Then Jonah takes the ultrasound picture and takes a picture of it with his phone and then puts his phone away and hugs me.

  “Are you happy it’s a boy?’ I hear him ask through my sniffles.

  “I didn’t care either way, but a little boy? Yeah, I’m so excited.” I say back with a shaky voice full of emotion, “I hope your brother feels the same way too.”

  “Oh, I’m sure out of anything he’d be more excited over a boy. That means he has someone to follow in his footsteps. He can take him out fishing and hunting and teach him all sorts of man things. And I recorded everything to email it to him. I wanted him to see that it is real. And that you guys are what he has to look forward to when he comes home. He may not be excited right now, but I know my brother he’s going to come around. He’s going to want to put a ring on your finger at some point.”

  “Pssh, he’ll spend two days with me and be like fuck that, this bitch is crazy.” I laugh.

  He lets out a booming laugh, “Yeah you are kind of crazy, but you’re my brother’s type of crazy.”

  “Whatever, let’s get out of here and go grab some food. We need to call your mom too at some point.”

  He puts his arm around me as we walk out of the office. It’s nice having the security of his friendship. I know he doesn’t expect anything from me and has my best interests at heart. He just wants to be there for us. That’s such an awesome feeling.

  **

  It’s been a whirlwind the past couple days. Jonah has been helping me a lot. We’ve been out shopping trying to get things around for my baby boy. I mean I know I have four months left yet but I can’t contain my enthusiasm. For this little one being such a surprise he has brought so much meaning to my life.

  It’s amazing though when you go through something like this you find out who your real friends are. Brandy still texts me every once in a while to see about getting together but we never follow through. Megan and Alyssa just don’t even try. And the funny thing? I don’t even care. I have Jonah and his parents supporting me one-hundred percent.

  And possibly Jayden. He’s been talking to Jonah and from what he’s telling me Jayden is coming around to the fact that he’s going to be a father. I think the video is what really made him start coming around. How could you not care when that tiny little human on the screen is yours? I even had a message from him the day after the appointment. I was shocked by his change of attitude.

  He said he can’t wait to come home and “remeet” me. Since he still has no recollection of that night. Also, he wants to get to know me for the baby’s sake. I just hope it isn’t an act that will stop once the baby gets here. I need a full time father for my baby not a part time one.

  My Facebook message tone goes off. The only person who ever messages me is Jayden. I grab my phone from the end table. I’m sprawled out on the couch having a much needed lazy day. I open the message.

  Jayden: Hi.

  Me: Hello.

  Jayden: How are you feeling today?

  Me: Ok, the morning sickness went away after the third month. So lately I just have heartburn and I’m always tired.

  Jayden: Well, from what I’ve been reading that’s normal. Right?

  He’s been reading? He’s seriously been reading baby stuff? Wow. Picking my jaw up off the floor I go back to the message.

  Me: Yeah, it’s normal. I just hope this goes by fast. I’m so ready to not be pregnant anymore.

  Jayden: Have you thought about names at all?

  Me: I haven’t. I didn’t know if you would be interested in talking to me about any?

  Jayden: Well, I’ve been looking at baby names online when I’m not busy. I was hoping you
would stick with the J theme?

  Whoa. He’s been looking at names online. Who the hell is this guy?

  Me: I thought about that, and yeah I will.

  Jayden: And will you give the baby my last name?

  Me: Of course I will. I’m not going to deny you that. I want you in my baby’s life. I want you to get to know him.

  Jayden: What do you think of Joshua William Miller?

  I think I just swooned over this guy. How can a guy on a completely didn’t continent than me make me swoon?

  Me: I love it, I think that’s perfect.

  After a few more minutes of messaging with him, he tells me he should be home sometime in the next couple weeks. I’m so nervous to officially meet him. I’m not going to the ceremony on base. I don’t want our first conversation to be around his family and all his friends.

  I need to find something to wear. I don’t know the exact day he’s coming home. Jonah said he’ll tell me when he knows something concrete. I hope he’s still being nice to me once he gets home. And no other girls show up in the picture. I mean it’s not like we have a relationship or anything. But what if things start heading that way? I guess I’ll have to just wait and see how things go.

  Jayden

  We’ve been packing the past couple days. Trying to get all of our shit in order before we get on that plane to go back to the states. I cannot wait to set foot on American soil. This was a short deployment, but that doesn’t make it any less hard being away from your family and friends. I will tell you this, Next deployment there will be no night out beforehand. Actually, there may not be a night out like that again. I mean yeah, I’ll go out and have a couple beers with the guys but I need to keep my shit together for Joshua. That little guy needs to be my first priority.