When Least Expected

by Allison B Hanson

  After discussing her new boyfriend as well as her medical issues, Lexi was checked over and sent for a blood test. She waited in the waiting room, wiggling her leg until she was called back into the examining room for the results.

  “Well,” Nichole said with a big smile, “you’re pregnant. Congratulations!”

  Alexis blinked. Maybe more than once, she couldn’t be sure. Then she shook her head.

  “That’s not possible. There must be some mistake.”

  “No mistake. Tests don’t lie.” She was still smiling at Lexi.

  “But I can’t get pregnant. Especially not with the only person I’ve had sex with. We tried to get pregnant for two years and couldn’t. Now you’re telling me it just happened by accident?”

  “Yes.”

  “No.” Lexi shook her head again. “There must have been a mix-up at the lab or something. I can’t get pregnant,” she told her again, wanting this cruel trick to end.

  “Lie back on the table and we’ll take a look,” she said as she rolled out an ultrasound machine. “Do you know when you might have conceived?”

  “Uh.” Her mind was still reeling from this possibility. “The end of April.”

  “So this isn’t the hot doctor’s?” Lex shook her head. “You’d be about eight weeks. When was your last period?”

  Lexi opened her mouth to answer and couldn’t. She couldn’t remember. When Jeremy had asked, she hadn’t given it much thought.

  After a year of mapping out every gynecological move her body made, she had ditched the calendars and gone with the who-cares approach.

  “I don’t know.”

  Nichole raised her brows. “Has it been a while?”

  “Maybe.”

  She watched as the doctor adjusted her clothing and smeared some jelly on the apparatus before placing it to her stomach.

  Lexi’s eyes were glued to the screen, part of her restraining the hope, the other ready to say I told you so.

  The room was filled with a quick whooshing sound, and Nichole pointed to the screen.

  “No mistake at the lab.”

  “I’m pregnant?” Lexi said, more in amazement than doubt now. There was proof. She could let the hope and joy run unfettered. Tears of happiness ran down both cheeks. “I’m pregnant! Oh my God!”

  For about thirty seconds she was on a bit of a high from the news, then the Type A part of her brain kicked in.

  “Is everything okay? Is it healthy?” Wouldn’t this be worse? To feel this joy and then have something go wrong? “I think I had a few sips of alcohol at the bar last week.”

  She quickly flashed through the last eight weeks. What had she done that could have harmed the baby?

  “Everything looks perfectly normal. The baby’s heartbeat sounds strong.”

  Lexi pointed up to the ceiling. “That’s a heartbeat?” she said, listening closer to the whooshing sound.

  “Yes.” More tears fell as Lexi listened in amazement. “I’ll print out a picture.” Nic patted her shoulder. “If you need to talk, we can call the other girls.”

  Lexi realized she was in a hell of a situation, dating someone who wasn’t the father of her baby.

  The father. Ian. How was he going to feel about this?

  She swallowed and took the picture, staring at it for a long time.

  Their baby. They’d made a baby.

  “Everything looks good, Lex, but I’m going to classify this as a high-risk pregnancy so I want you to see your OB-GYN every two weeks. It’s more of a precaution than anything else. I’ll have a starter pack of vitamins at the desk for you when you check out. Congratulations.” Nichole gave her a hug.

  “Thank you! Thank you so much,” she said as she continued to stare at the photo.

  “Let me know if you need anything.”

  Lexi got dressed and left the office in a fog. Every movement felt like she might jostle the tiny creature and it would disappear.

  She pulled the photo out and looked at it six times on the way home. At every stop sign and every stoplight.

  When she pulled in the driveway, she didn’t know what to do first.

  Should she call Ian right away, or Roslyn or Kelly? Or—

  Jeremy.

  Oh. Hell.

  Just hours before, she’d been content to move on with Jeremy, but now everything was different. She was having a baby with Ian. This changed things. Immensely.

  She decided to wait to talk to Jeremy first. He was her current boyfriend so he deserved the respect of being told of the change in her situation first. Plus, he would probably be the easiest.

  He would also most likely be angry at her for wasting his time.

  Then she would tell Roslyn and Riley. They would be able to give her some great ideas on how to break the news to Ian. And once Ian knew, they could tell Kelly and the rest of the family together.

  It was all working out perfectly in her head.

  She should have known nothing ever went perfectly for anyone.

  Especially her.

  Dr. Younger was already waiting at the picnic table when he got there. Her office shared a parking lot and a small park with a bunch of other professional buildings. She’d called and suggested it instead of the diner because it offered more privacy, and it was a beautiful day. He brought them coffee and set hers down in front of her before he maneuvered his legs in under the bench.

  They were in the middle of Ian’s list of goals when he heard someone say his name.

  “Hey, Cooper,” Ian greeted the man as he closed the door of his BMW and walked closer.

  “I thought that was you. Hi, Suz.” Cooper addressed Dr. Younger as a friend. Maybe Ian wouldn’t need to tell him he was in a therapy session. Let him think they were just two people having coffee.

  He’d gone to school with Cooper. They’d played football together. He’d always thought Cooper was an okay guy until he ended up being Lexi’s divorce attorney.

  Not that he’d pressed for anything Ian wasn’t willing to give. Ian wanted to give Lexi everything. Cooper was still an okay guy, but knowing Cooper was the one who had finalized the end of his marriage made him a little bitter. Good thing he was already in a session so he could address that, too.

  “Hi, Cooper. Beautiful day, isn’t it?” Dr. Younger said, looking up at the sky, not mentioning anything about him being her patient.

  “It is. Too bad I have to go back inside. Enjoy!” he said and waved as he walked toward his own building.

  “Small world,” she said, and they laughed at the situation.

  When he was done with the session, he went home, happy to see the truck with the Roanoke Restoration and Reconstruction logo on the side.

  Ian sat down on the porch next to Dalton. Sam was also visiting. He worked for Dalton and had stopped over a few times when they were in town. Therapy with the guys after actual therapy.

  “You look like hell,” Dalton said, handing Ian a beer.

  “I want my ex-wife back, but she has a boyfriend.”

  Sam whistled and shook his head, while Dalton chuckled.

  “Let me go get something stronger.”

  “I don’t want something stronger. I need a game plan on how I’m supposed to get her back.”

  Dalton and Sam looked at each other. Neither of them had been married so it didn’t seem they were going to have much to offer.

  “Sometimes,” Dalton looked down at the floor and sighed, “we don’t get the girl we want.”

  Ian swallowed and looked out over the yard, not seeing anything. Of course he knew that was true. He wasn’t a complete idiot, although his current predicament might prove otherwise.

  What should he do?

  He couldn’t run to her house making promises. He’d broken all of his previous promises and she didn’t trust him anymore.

  She was dating a surgeon who seemed to care about her. Maybe they could have kids together. She would have the life she wanted and he would have . . . nothing.

  He had been
dealing with being alone, but now he knew he was kidding himself. The only reason being on his own was remotely tolerable was because all this time he’d assumed it was temporary.

  Now that it was possible this loneliness might be a permanent fixture, it felt unbearable. He needed to do something.

  Something drastic.

  He met Dr. Younger at the diner the next week. They discussed his plan, and she gave him the guidance he paid her for.

  She patted him on the arm. “You’re making a lot of progress. It’s good to go after what you want. But you need to be willing to face disappointment. It might not work out the way you plan.”

  He nodded. “I’m willing to take that chance. I’ve already made a huge mess of my life. It can’t get much worse.”

  “That’s exactly what we like to hear our patients tell us,” she said sarcastically with a laugh.

  Ian was still laughing when his eyes landed on the woman walking toward their booth.

  “Ah, shit.” Why couldn’t he catch a break?

  Kelly stopped and smiled down at them.

  “Hello there, little brother.”

  “Hey.” He wasn’t sure what would be worse, having his sister know he was in therapy or letting her think he was having lunch with a woman. If Kelly knew he was in therapy, she would tell his mother, and she would want to know where she’d gone wrong. If she was to blame for his unhappiness.

  “I should be going,” Dr. Younger said. “You can have my seat.” She stood, and Kelly sat down across from him. “Give me a call. Let me know how it goes.”

  “I will,” he said as he watched her leave. Then he turned to his sister, who was giving him a smug smile. “You won’t speak a word of this to anyone.”

  “What’s going on?” After he made it clear it wasn’t any of her concern, they had a nice lunch together.

  The next day he drove up to the cabin to meet the Realtor. It was time to get the wheels in motion. Something needed to be in motion or he was going to start sinking, and once he started sinking, he was afraid he would drown.

  Memories of that weekend with Lexi swamped him the second he walked in the door. There was still a lingering scent of sticky buns in the air, mixed with the other familiar smells he had grown to love.

  Before he had time to open all the doors and windows, a car pulled up.

  The woman looked like she was dressed to sell a fifty-story high-rise instead of a modest cabin in the woods of Virginia. Her heels were very high, and Ian worried a tour through the soggy backyard would have her stuck there until fall.

  “Mr. Montgomery.” She smiled and held out her hand. “I’m Naomi Jenson.”

  “Yes. Thanks for coming.”

  “So you’re looking to sell this or rent it?” She got right to business.

  “I guess I’d like to know how much I could get for it, and I’ll base my decision on that.”

  “All right, well, I can tell you the housing market is making a small rebound; however, vacation home sales are still suffering from the struggling economy.”

  “Sure, I understand. I inherited it from my uncle.” He had no money in it. The only thing he’d invested were memories.

  Another vehicle pulled up. A truck.

  “I hope you don’t mind, but I had my inspector come out so we could check the property over thoroughly.”

  “I don’t mind.”

  They started inside. Rich, the inspector, checked the plumbing, heat, and septic tank, and then went up in the crawl space and down under the house.

  “Real solid,” he said finally as he tucked his pen into his clipboard. “Needs a new roof. It’s not leaking or anything yet, but any buyer is going to want it done. Some other odds and ends, nothing major.” He turned to look at Naomi.

  “Inside it’s a real nice place. I would suggest a few updates, like paint, hardware on the cabinets in the kitchen, and have the floors sanded. Those are little things you can do that really bump up the appeal on the entire house.”

  That made sense. “I can do that,” Ian said.

  “Rich and I are going to go back to my office to work this up. Then I’ll give you a call with a figure we can start with.”

  “Okay. Thanks for coming,” Ian said. He stood on the small porch as they drove off.

  Something felt wrong when he walked back into the house.

  What was he doing?

  He pulled out the photo albums and looked through them. Seeing all the faces of his family in this place made him feel like he was selling his soul to the devil.

  How could he sell out his family’s memories just to get rid of his own?

  There were the photos of him and Lexi, tucked in the front of one of the books. He pulled them out and his heart seized. They were so happy once.

  He put the pictures back and slammed the book shut.

  No more. He needed to act. He was putting the wheels in motion, damn it!

  Jeremy couldn’t make it that night, or the next. He finally showed up a little after eight on Friday.

  He looked suspicious as soon as he kissed her. She tried to kiss him back but couldn’t really get into it.

  “Uh-oh. What is it?” he asked.

  “Sit down. We need to talk.”

  “Shit. Really? Talk? Already?” he said with a frown.

  “It’s not what you think,” she said.

  “Alexis, when a girl says ‘sit down, we need to talk,’ it means one of two things. She’s either breaking up with you or she’s pregnant.”

  “Okay. Then it is what you think.”

  “Is it because of my job?” he guessed. “This damn job is going to be the death of me. It won’t always be like this. I’m meeting with someone about a possible opening at a private surgical center.”

  “No. It’s not because of your job, and actually, it doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

  “Is it because you’re still in love with your ex-husband?”

  Her mouth fell open in surprise. Was it that obvious?

  “It’s complicated.” She swallowed.

  “Complicated? I see. I thought people only used that line on television and Facebook.” He laughed sadly.

  “I might still be in love with my ex-husband, but I don’t think he feels the same way. So it’s not like I’m leaving you to go be with him.”

  “Trust me, he does feel the same way. But thank you for letting me down before I really fell head over heels for you. It was only a matter of time, Alexis.”

  “I’m sorry, it’s just that . . . Well, when you said there were two reasons why a girl said ‘we need to talk,’ you were right—about both of them. I’m pregnant.”

  “When you got sick . . . ?”

  “Yes. You were right about that. I had no idea. I’m eight weeks. Obviously, it’s not yours.”

  “Obviously. I haven’t known you for eight weeks and we’ve never had sex,” he pointed out.

  “Right.”

  “So it’s Ian’s?” He gestured down toward her stomach with a confused look on his face.

  “Yes. That’s where the complicated part comes in. It was a . . . moment.” How was she supposed to explain something so unexplainable?

  “I’d say.” He shook his head. “I wish you both the best. Honestly, I do.” She didn’t doubt he meant it. He was such a nice guy. She would have been happy with him if she could ever have gotten over Ian. He leaned over and kissed her cheek and then stood up. “Yeah, it was only a matter of time before I fell for you, Alexis.”

  “I’m sorry,” she offered lamely. Stupid tears came to her eyes. She was so emotional.

  “Hey, don’t be sorry for getting what you wanted.” He brushed his hand down her cheek.

  “Thank you. You’re amazing.”

  “Thank you for the ravioli.” He smiled and she walked him out. When he was gone, she let a few tears fall for the feelings that never got the chance to become love. She could have been happy with Jeremy. They had fun together. He was attractive and everything she l
ooked for in a man. He just hadn’t been the right man for her.

  He wasn’t Ian.

  She felt better the next morning. Ready to move on to the next hurdle. She spent most of the day moving her things back into her own room. She called the plumber to come fix the faucet, which turned out to be nothing major.

  “What are you doing tonight?” she asked Roslyn.

  “Actually, I was going to call you. Riley asked me if we could get together with you. She says she needs to talk to you about something important. And I have something I need to tell you, too.”

  “Okay. I need to talk to you guys, too. Big news.”

  “Ooh. Do I get a hint?”

  “No. No hints.”

  “Then we’ll see you at Ralphy’s tonight—how about eight?”

  “Eight. See you then.” She got off the phone with Roslyn and called Kelly.

  “How is my favorite sister-in-law?” Kelly asked when she answered the phone.

  “Oh, no. What does that mean?” Something was definitely wrong if Kelly was kissing up. Maybe she needed a last-minute babysitter.

  “I have news,” Kelly said.

  “What’s wrong?” It was bad. She didn’t need to say that; Lexi could tell from her tone.

  “Remember how I was so happy that my brother dumped that little girl?”

  “Yes.” Kelly had made it sound more dramatic than it probably was. Ian had simply said they’d broken up.

  “He’s with someone else,” Kelly said with a sigh.

  “What?” Lexi gasped. This couldn’t be happening. Not now.

  “I saw them at the diner. I asked him about it, and he told me to mind my own business. Actually, he threw another word in there that I can’t say because my kid is right here.”

  “Wow.” She covered her mouth, in shock. Ian generally used hostility to deflect guilt.

  “She looked kind of stuffy,” Kelly went on. “She had her hand on his arm, but they didn’t kiss good-bye or anything.”

  “Maybe because you were looking at them?”

  “Maybe.”

  “She’s pretty?” Lex wondered.

  “She’s not as pretty as you.”

  “She’s young?”

  “Too young.” Kelly snorted.