Page 62 of Secret Baby for Mr. Grump

TWENTY-THREE

ALLIE

I didn’t know if Marcus heard “deathly ill” when the doctor announced I was pregnant, but if he did, that would explain his behavior for the rest of the week.

The man was treating me like fine china. Like I would crack if my legs even touched the ground.

Literally.

On the day of the hospital visit, after he’d accepted all the congratulations from my family and had the doctor make sure everything was okay, he carried me out of the hospital, cinderella-style. I protested, a little embarrassed because we drew everyone’s attention, but Marcus ignored all my protests. I finally relented, looking at Caleb being carried by Athena, who walked beside us.

I reached out to her to hold my little boy's hand, at least. I wasn’t sure if he knew what was going on, and I wanted to make sure he was okay with everything.

It was still sinking in for me.

I guessed it made sense, although it was a little humiliating that the two times in my life I’d had unprotected sex, I became pregnant. It didn’t say good things about my sexual education and sense of responsibility. Of course, it could simply be that Marcus had the effect of shutting down my thinking capabilities altogether. Both times, everything had happened way too fast for me to even consider condoms. I’d taken the morning-after pill, but then I must have been ovulating already because it hadn’t helped.

Oh well, I thought.There was nothing I could do about it now.

To my surprise, I wasn’t at all sad or mad about the fact that I was pregnant with another child. I wasn’t even anxious about it like I was when I found out I was pregnant with Caleb. I knew, whatever happened, we would be okay because I would make sure we were okay.

And now, I had Marcus on my side too.

As we stopped at the car, Marcus gently placed me down on the seat, carefully buckling me in.

Then, Athena placed Caleb on my lap, and he immediately tucked himself against my chest. My father came around to the side, holding out his hand to me.

“Hi, sweetie,” he said, and there were tears in his eyes as he spoke.

“Hi, Daddy.” I took his hand, feeling overwhelmed with emotion. My dad shook his head, and I knew he was feeling it too.

My dad got emotional when I was pregnant with Caleb. He’d doted on me then, too, always coming to visit and using the excuse that my mother wanted to check on me. Sometimes, he would call me at odd hours in the night just to reminisce about my childhood and remind me that I would always be his little girl and that he would love whatever came out of me regardless.

I always suspected he knew Caleb wasn’t really Ken’s son, but he hadn’t given me the impression that he cared anyway. All he’d said was that he was very proud of me no matter what, and I loved him even more for that.

My mother was standing behind him, beaming as well. I smiled back at her while holding Marcus’ hand with one hand and my father’s with another. Caleb was on my lap, and the four of us shared a moment that was precious and tangible.

Adam broke it by clearing his throat and saying, “Uh, guys, we’re kind of holding up the line here.”

And then we all looked to the side to see a woman looking very annoyed because we blocked her from pulling out.

“Sorry, Mrs. Bennington!” I called out as we cleared out of her path, and she zoomed away.

“Bet she’s going to bring that up in church,” Adam mused, but he looked more amused by the prospect than anything.

“The sermon will be on being more considerate of others,” I quipped, and we smiled at each other.

“Take care of her,” Adam told Marcus, and Marcus gave him a get-real look. Adam smirked in response.

I didn’t know what passed between them, but I think my brother and Marcus had come to a sort of understanding.

It seemed he’d come to an understanding with my entire family as well because they were smiling at him, too, congratulating him. There was none of the animosity or tension that was there in my parents’ dining room. Just awkward acceptance and happiness.

Something had changed within the last few hours.

I glanced at Athena in question, and she only winked at me, not divulging. I supposed I could ask her later. Before Marcus got in the car, he carried Caleb from my lap to the back seat and then got into the driver’s seat. After which, we were on our way with a final round of waving from my family.

The whole drive home was quiet. I guessed we were both lost in our thoughts.

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