Waiting for Baby by Cathy McDavid

Author:Cathy McDavid
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2009-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

“SO, WE’RE OFFICIALLY out of the closet?”

“Yes.”

Jake pressed the phone closer to his ear and smiled. Lilly had called to say she’d finally felt comfortable enough with her pregnancy to go public, and elation rang in her voice. It was nice to hear. With each passing week, Lilly and their child became more and more important to him.

“Well, good. I guess now I can do the same.”

“You haven’t told anyone?”

He absently stirred a pot of steaming vegetables on the stove. The girls were due any minute, and he hadn’t seen much of them the last week. They’d stayed with him for ten days straight after Ellen’s New Year’s Eve wedding while she and her new husband went on their honeymoon. In exchange, he’d let her have his regular weekend. Reports from the family grapevine were that the reunion hadn’t gone well. Apparently Briana and her mother remained at odds, and none of the girls had yet to warm up to their new stepfather.

Jake allowed himself a brief feel-good moment. He was first in his daughters’ hearts, and as long as he stayed there, he could tolerate another man living in his home.

“I did tell Carolina a couple months ago,” he said to Lilly. “The day you went to the emergency room and had the ultrasound. She denies it, but I’m pretty sure she’s told her mother. And if she did, you can bet my mom knows, too.”

“What about the girls?” Lilly asked.

“I haven’t said a word to them.”

“Are you going to?”

“Yeah, soon. I may do it tonight. Ellen’s dropping them off.” Jake could only postpone the inevitable so long. Before he and Lilly could move forward, his children had to be told. Everything.

“Do you want me to be there?”

“Thanks.” Lilly’s offer and what it implied wasn’t lost on him. “But I think I’d better tackle this alone. Depending on how they handle the news, maybe we all can get together one evening next week.”

“I could make dinner. Or how about if I throw everything in a cooler and bring it over there?”

“I’d like that a lot.” He imagined Lilly and his daughters sitting around his kitchen table, the all-American blended family, talking and laughing.

The vision promptly evaporated in a puff of smoke. Unless he and Lilly conquered the hurdles facing them and won his daughters over, those family dinners were going to be stilted and possibly angry.

“Do the girls like baked ravioli?”

“If it’s cheese ravioli, yes.”

“Great!”

Jake wished he felt as hopeful as Lilly sounded. He really did want that dream of everyone at dinner to become a reality. The girls were aware he and Lilly went out sometimes. Tonight he would tell them that he and Lilly were serious. Let them get used to the idea before he broke the news about the baby. With their home life at their mother’s in such turmoil, he felt the need to proceed slowly.

He couldn’t wait too much longer, however. Payson was a small town and tongues wagged.

“I hear a car outside,” he told Lilly.

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