An Unexpected Baby Read Free Page B

agency?”
    “Yep.”
    “Oh, girl! That’s huge. He really is into this baby thing.”
    “I know,” she murmured under her breath.
    Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Why did she open up her big gob before getting verification from the doctor? Everyone knew that home pregnancy tests were like condoms, they’re only ninety-nine percent accurate. Ugh.
    Her spirit felt so deflated it was as if someone had taken a pin and popped her happy birthday balloon.
    “Girl, you can’t lie to him. I mean, remember what happened last time?”
    “Yeah, I know. Don’t remind me.” Emma remembered when she told her grandfather she was getting married when he was supposedly on his death bed at the Palliative Care Center. She just wanted him to stop crying and feeling sorry that she was still single and he would never live to see her happily married. So naturally, she told him she was engaged. Of course, she hadn’t counted on him asking her then and there who the lucky guy was. Since she’d worked with Evan so long and they had a good working relationship and she secretly fantasized about him being her soul mate since she’d had a crush on him from day one—it seemed to be the only logical name to come to mind. Then of course, Gramps had to ask to see him in person. Ugh. Boy, was she stuck in a bad place between a lie and deception. To make matters worse, Evan was gamo-phobic—which meant fear of commitment or marriage. Then there was this whole Fletcher curse that ran in his family, too. It was a mess. But somehow they made it happened. He only warned her not to ever lie or deceive him again. What was she to do? Break his heart and risk him second-guessing his manhood and resenting her? Or lie a teeny bit to spare his feelings until—well, until she got pregnant for real this time.
    “That’s it!”
    “What’s it, hon?”
    “I won’t tell him now. I’ll just fake it until I can make it! A baby, I mean.”
    “Emma, what if you or Evan can’t really have children? What will you do then? You can only fake pregnancy for so long. Have you lost your mind, girl?” She wanted to add AGAIN, but she refrained.
    “Nope. But if I lose Evan emotionally over this, I think I just might.”
“Emma, please listen to yourself, girl. You’re not the world’s greatest liar, you know. And that husband of yours seems like he can be really unforgiving if he’s bitten twice.”
    “You know, Gina, you’re right.”
    “You’re not just saying that, are you?”
    “Nope. I can’t go through another deception. He’ll just have to understand. I will tell him when he gets back home. He just went out to the bank to do some personal transactions.”
    “Oh?”
    “Yep. I will confront him with the news then.” Emma had never felt so lost, so hopeless. If only she could pray for a miracle. While on the phone with her friend, she’d taken the liberty to sit on the bed and Google ODP pregnancy test on her iPad. And sure enough, one strip was a negative. That would teach her to buy so many different brands. Why couldn’t they all be consistent with their results? Some test sticks tell you that two lines was affirmative, for others it was one line, some had a plus sign and some were digital. Ugh. She really got in over her head again, didn’t she? Telling Evan the truth was going to crush him. But what other choice did she have, right now?
    She closed her iPad case and closed her eyes.  She laid back on the bed feeling a mixture of anger and pain following her phone call with Gina. Her best friend was right. She had to come clean. As potentially devastating as it would be. Why was it so much easier to lie to spare someone’s feelings than to hurt him with the truth? She wished she had an answer for that. One of those “human nature” annoyances. Confrontation. Nobody really liked it. She was living in a culture that was afraid of “offending people” and afraid of “losing affection” from those close to us.
    Wishing this was all a terrible