Homecoming: A Secret Baby Romance

by Landish, Lauren

  Before I could reply, he pulled away. “Bye guys. I’ll see you before you know it.” Saluting his dad, Max walked off into the airport. It was so hard to see him go, and when he walked through the doors, I felt like I’d been sucker-punched.

  My mom wiped a tear from her cheek. “I’m going to miss him.”

  “I think we all are,” Max’s dad replied.

  She looked over at me and rubbed my shoulder as crocodile tears rolled down my cheek. “You look like you’re taking this really hard, honey.”

  What did my mom expect? I was in love with Max, but I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t breathe. My whole world was crumbling.

  “Now let’s hurry up and leave before security asks us to move the car,” Jerry urged.

  My parents scurried off into the car, but for some reason, I found myself unable to move.

  “Nikki?” my mom asked from the passenger seat while rolling her window down. “What are you doing? You can cry over Max while we drive home. Get in the car — we need to move.”

  I didn’t respond, staring at the doors Max had gone through.

  “Nikki!”

  Not bothering to respond, I took off inside the airport. I heard my mom yelling at me as I passed through the doors. “Nikki — god damn it!”

  I ran into the airport, blitzing for the security gates. Max was just about to walk through as I ran up. “Max!” I yelled.

  Max turned to look at me, surprise on his face. He turned to say something to the agent and then walked over to me.

  “Nikki?” he asked. “What are you doing?”

  “You can’t leave,” I moaned, grabbing a hold of him.

  Max let out a sigh. “We’ve already been through this, Nikki. I can’t believe you’re pulling this now, just before I leave.”

  “You have to stay,” I cried.

  “Nikki . . . I’m going to be late for my flight. Besides, I couldn’t even if I tried at this point. I've already signed.” Max wrapped his arms around me. “You’ve got to be strong for me, Nikki. I was gone all those years before and you managed. You can manage now.”

  “It was different then.”

  “You still had feelings for me then, so no, it wasn’t all that different. I need you to be strong for me. Okay?”

  I stood there in his arms for what seemed like an eternity.

  “Nikki . . .”

  “Okay,” I said finally.

  “Good.” Max gave me a quick kiss on the forehead. “I gotta go. I can’t be late for my flight.” He turned to leave.

  “Max.”

  Max turned around, his face a mask of exasperation. “What is it this time—“

  “I have something to tell you.”

  Max stared at me. “What?”

  This was it. If I told him, he had to stay. There was no way he could leave me, at least that's what I hoped. And I hoped that he could find it in his heart to forgive me.

  I took a deep breath and placed a hand over my stomach. “I’m . . .”

  Chapter 10

  “Pregnant.”

  The words left my lips like a torpedo, crossing the space between Max and I and sucker punching him in the stomach. An audible gasp escaped him as the air left his lungs and his eyes widened. His mouth opened and closed several times like a fish, with no sound coming out.

  Meanwhile, I felt sick to my stomach. I’d revealed my secret and I felt like my world was over.

  We stood there, staring at each other, Max in disbelief, and me in horrified dread. Around us, people scurried quickly about through the airport, intent on reaching their destinations. A woman’s voice rang over the intercom, reminding people of flight departures, filling the atmosphere with a sense of urgency.

  “What did you just say to me?” Max finally managed. His voice sounded hoarse, pained.

  “I’m pregnant,” I repeated, feeling absolutely nauseous.

  “And you’re just now telling me this? Right when I’m about to leave?”

  I lowered my head in shame. I couldn’t say anything. How could I? I almost let him leave without telling him he was going to be a father. Not to mention it was all my fault anyway. I’d stopped taking the pill on purpose while I was in emotional distress.

  “Hello? How is this even possible? You were on birth control.” Max demanded.

  I had to force the words out. “I didn’t want you to go.”

  “Didn’t want me to go? What exactly does that mean?”

  “It means that I was mad you were leaving. I threw them away. I went back and got more, but it was too late apparently. We’d only had sex once.”

  Max smacked himself on the forehead and spun around in a circle, causing the people walking around us to stop and stare. “Jesus Christ! Are you kidding me?” Max glared murder at me, the veins standing out on his neck and biceps. His arms looked so big, and with how angry he was, I could easily see him snapping my neck like a toothpick. “Tell me that you’re just saying this to stop me from leaving.”

  I couldn’t look at him, couldn’t even find the breath to respond. This was turning out to be my worse nightmare. When I didn’t reply, Max walked up to me and grabbed my arms, shaking me. “Tell me the truth.”

  “It’s not a joke,” I gasped finally, unable to look into the face of his wrath. “I’m pregnant. I swear.”

  I winced at the pain in my arms. Max was squeezing me with a lot of force, but I knew he was just beside himself and didn’t mean to.

  “And it’s mine?”

  The words hurt me. As if I would have slept with anyone else.

  “Of course it’s yours.” I cringed, half-expecting Max to backhand me onto the airport floor. I wouldn’t really be upset if he did. I totally deserved it.

  Max paused as people flowed through the airport around us, searching my face for lies. Each second that passed, he looked angrier. I honestly thought he was going to kill me right then and there. Finally, he reached his breaking point.

  “Fuck this!” Max released me, spun around, and began walking back to the security gate, leaving me standing alone, feeling like absolute shit and wondering if he was going to leave me anyway.

  Chapter 11

  “Where were you?” My mom demanded from the passenger seat, her head stuck out the window as I came walking back out of the airport, my arms crossed across my chest.

  I didn’t respond as I walked up to the car and hopped into the backseat. It was hard not to break down and start bawling my eyes out. I’d just fucked up everything.

  “Hello, Nikki?” My mom demanded, turning around in her seat to peer at me in the back. “What the hell was that all about? Jerry was forced to circle around the terminal four times because you wouldn’t come out and the agent told him that he had to move.”

  Jerry cut in before I could reply, his facial expression surprised. “What in the—.”

  Max appeared out of the airport doors, his face a mask of fury, carrying his luggage. “Pop the trunk,” he commanded as he walked up to the vehicle and circled behind.

  “What is he doing back here?” Jerry asked me. Of course, I didn’t reply.

  Max pounded on the back of the trunk. “Pop it!”

  Looking terribly confused, Jerry quickly reached down and I heard a click. The car shook for a moment as Max threw his bag into the trunk, and then he slammed it shut.

  When he jumped in the back with me, our parents immediately assaulted him with a bunch of questions.

  “What are you doing? Why aren’t you inside the terminal? Was your flight canceled?”

  Max pressed his fingers to his temples as they continued to berate him. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had a huge headache after the bombshell that I dropped on him.

  “Can you just drive?” Max asked loudly, cutting them off. “Before one of those asshole security guys tell us to move and I get out and do something I regret?”

  “I want to know why you aren’t on that plane.” Jerry began.

  “Just fucking drive!” Max
yelled, startling both our parents into silence and causing me to cringe at the anger in his voice. “I’m not going back to the airport so you can stop wasting your time.”

  After a stunned pause, Jerry muttered, “Okay.” He started the car and drove off just as an agent was walking up to tell him to move his vehicle.

  Chapter 12

  As soon as we cleared the airport and the surrounding area, Jerry pulled over to the side of the road and shut the engine down.

  “Now,” he said firmly. “I’m not starting this car until I know what’s going on here.”

  “Well, I guess we’ll just be sitting here then,” Max growled.

  “Max!” My mom complained. “Come on, don’t be like that with your father. He just wants to help, as do I.”

  “Exactly,” Jerry added, “I want to know why the hell you aren’t on that plane right now. Don’t you know that you can get in major trouble?”

  “I don’t need you to tell me that,” Max retorted. “I know very well what I’m getting into.”

  Jerry clenched the steering wheel and the veins stood out on his neck. I sensed an explosion about to happen, one that would probably leave Max alone on the road and hitchhiking.

  This could get really bad, I thought, anxiety twisting my stomach. And what makes it worse, is that it’s all my fault.

  Before Jerry could explode on Max, my mom turned and looked at me. “What is going on, Nikki?”

  My mouth went dry. “What do you mean?”

  Mother scowled. “Don’t play stupid with me, girl! You ran into that airport like a needy dog chasing its owner! And when you came back, Max was right behind you. What gives?”

  I glanced over at Max, who was seated behind my mother and just looking straight ahead at her headrest, his jaw clenched.

  “I didn’t do anything.”

  Mom snorted. “Do you really expect me to believe that? Who do you think you’re fooling here? Something happened.”

  I must admit, my mom was lighting a match under my ass, and my heart began to pound like crazy. “I just told him that I would miss him and I didn’t want him to go.”

  My mom stared at me suspiciously. “That’s all?” I nodded.

  She looked over pleadingly at her husband, who was still gripping the steering wheel with the grip of an iron vice. “Jerry.”

  He let out a deep breath. “Both of you need to explain yourselves. We’ll support you either way Max, we just want to know what the hell’s going on.”

  Before I could reply, Max surprised me by speaking up. “Look, I’m not going, that’s all that matters right now. We can talk about it later, but for now, just fucking drive.”

  Jerry reached back into the back seat like he was about to backhand Max, but my mother grabbed him by the hand. “Jerry don’t!” she cried desperately.

  My palms sweated and became clammy as I watched on the edge of my seat. Max’s chest was heaving, practically fuming and looking for someone to vent his rage on. Jerry would be making a huge mistake if he hit Max right now. A huge mistake.

  Jerry seemed to realize it a second later, and he angrily flung my mother’s hand away from him. Scowling with anger, he fired up the car and said as he drove back onto the road, “I don’t know what your problem is, young man, but if you don’t get your act together, the Marines won’t be the only place you won’t be coming back to.”

  Chapter 13

  “How could you do this to me, Nikki?” Max demanded as he paced the room.

  We were back home, inside of Max’s room. After a sullen discussion with our parents where I played stupid and Max refused to speak or give any reason for his return. Max had dragged me into his room to demand an explanation from me.

  He was currently berating me as quietly as he could, amazing giving the circumstances, due to our parents being downstairs and possibly eavesdropping.

  I lowered my head where I was sitting on his bed, unable to look his way. Since telling him I was pregnant, it was extremely hard to look at him or even talk to him. He was so pissed off, and rightfully so. “I couldn’t let you leave.”

  Max stopped his pacing to scowl vile anger. “You couldn’t let me leave, so you trap me? With a baby?” He shook his head. “For fucks sake! You’re fucking crazy!”

  I trembled. He was killing me with his harsh words and anger. I just wanted to leave and run from the room rather than face his wrath. “It was a mistake. I’d realized it right away.” My voice sounded frail and tiny.

  Max snorted in disbelief. “A mistake? A mistake is not what you call it when you stop taking birth control so your unsuspecting stepbrother can get you pregnant!”

  It was true. What could I say to that? Hadn’t I intentionally stopped taking birth control for the purpose of getting back at Max and giving him a reason to stay home? Granted, I had done it in a moment of extreme weakness and anger, but that didn’t make it right.

  I wanted most of all for Max to calm down. His anger was growing and I could easily see him moving on from growling to shouting and yelling, alerting our parents to our problems and possibly revealing our secret. Until he calmed down, we weren’t ready to fill them in on anything.

  “I was angry, upset,” I said, my excuse sounding lame to my ears. “I had a momentary breakdown when you said you were reenlisting in the marines. So I went off the pill . . . but it was only one time. A lot of people have to try a lot to get pregnant. I thought that I was in the clear. Apparently I was wrong.”

  “Unbelievable,” Max muttered, shaking his head while staring at me, “simply unbelievable.”

  I squirmed beneath his gaze. I felt so horrible.

  “And it would be my luck that you got pregnant simply off just one time. Fuck!” Max paused and took a deep, calming breath, which I was grateful for. “Just tell me this, Nikki, help me understand, because surely you can’t be that crazy — why would you do something like that to me after I already told you that I would do everything in my power to make our relationship work when I returned home? All you had to do was be patient and wait.”

  “But would you have really come back?” I dared ask in a shaky voice. “You already had reservations about getting into a relationship with me. What would happen if you changed your mind while you were away and I waited all that time thinking that we would be together?”

  “I don’t know what you want me to say. I just said that I had a moment of weakness. I knew the consequences, and afterward, I was thinking rationally, but in the moment, I couldn’t help myself.”

  I stepped toward Max and reached out to touch him. “Max, please stop for a second. You’re just angry and need some time to—.”

  Max shoo’d my hand away as if it was an annoying fly. “Don’t touch me,” he growled.

  I flinched, rearing back. It hurt for him to treat me this way, even though I deserved it.

  Max stared at me for a moment, shook his head in disgust and then made his way to the bedroom door.

  I immediately started after him. “Max! Where are you going?”

  He ignored me as he flung the door open and marched out into the upstairs hallway. As I trailed him down the stairs, I briefly worried that he was going to tell our parents our little secret. Half-way down, I almost tripped and tumbled down the steps, but quickly regained my balance. “Max!”

  As soon as Max hit the bottom floor, he marched past the living room, startling our parents, who were sitting on the couch, probably discussing the change in Max, and out the front the door, slamming it behind him.

  Before I could rush outside and beg Max to come back, my mother intercepted me, grabbing me firmly by the arm and getting in my face.

  “We need to talk,” she said.

  * * *

  “I think Max is suffering from PTSD,” I said to my parents.

  I was sitting on the couch in the living room. My mother was seated beside me and Jerry was standing in the middle of the room in front of the TV, his arms folded across his chest.

  When my p
arents began pressing me about what was going on between Max and me, I just blurted out the first thing that came to mind that made remotely any sense. It was a horrible lie, but what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t tell them that Max had stood up the military because I’d trapped him with a baby.

  My parents exchanged grave glances and my mother pressed her fingers to her lips in horror. “Why didn’t you tell us this earlier, Nikki?”

  “I didn’t want to disturb you guys,” I replied, trying to keep my voice even. “I wanted to believe that Max was okay, but ever since he’s been back . . . I could see . . .” I shook my head, tears coming to my eyes, unable to speak.

  I would’ve deserved an Oscar for my acting if not for the fact that my tears were genuine, spurred by how horrible I felt.

  My mother placed a comforting hand on my shoulder and I wiped at the tear sliding down my cheek. “Thank you.” I cleared my throat. “Ever since he’s been back, I could see that something was bothering him. I tried to ask him about what happened while he was away and he would get this haunted look on his face that freaked me out.”

  “And what would he say?” Jerry asked. He was staring at me intently, hanging on to my every word. “In response, I mean.”

  “He would just mumble something about that some things are better left unsaid,” I replied, trying to avoid looking Jerry in the eye so I wouldn’t crack. “Also, on the first night he was back he took me to the bar and started drinking heavily. I mean, throwing back shot after shot like he was trying to numb his pain. After a while, he was drunk enough to tell me the reason.”

  You’re such a liar. Images of Max’s big cock in front of my face flashed before my eyes.

  “It’s just so hard to accept,” mother muttered, staring off into space. “Max was so adamant that he reenlist and seemed to be enormously excited about being deployed again. He never seemed depressed or disturbed to me at all. Not only that, up until a couple of days ago, you and Max looked like you were having the time of your lives.”