Overtime(124)

“Maybe I should wait till after his mom comes?”

But she was already shaking her head. “No, you tell him as soon as he gets home. Don’t do it on the phone. He’s gonna wanna kiss and love on you.”

Bringing her lip between her teeth, she shrugged. “But all this at once? His mom is gonna be here in a week’s time.”

“So? He’s got this; you’ve said that yourself.”

She had.

And she had to believe that, or like the therapist, Karson, and everyone else said, she’d be the one to ruin them.

“Does he want this, Kacey?” she asked, and Kacey looked up. “I mean, obviously, since you guys weren’t using protection, he had to know this could happen.”

She nodded. “Yeah, it was mentioned a while back after the first time we hooked up again. But I brushed it off because I trusted the IUD that I don’t have in me.”

She smiled. “That’s kinda funny.”

“To who?” she asked and Lacey smiled.

“I guess just me,” she said offhandedly, but then she shrugged. “Do you want this?”

“You know I do.”

“Then what’s the problem? If it all comes crashing down and Jordie relapses, at least you’ll have the baby you wanted. And it will be with the man you love.”

“But can’t even have,” she said, and Lacey looked away. “I’d stay because I love him so much and he’d ruin me. I really didn’t f*cking think this through.”

Her tears came faster as she slowly shook her head. “I rushed into this, jumped in bed with him, and just f*cking loved him. I didn’t think through what would happen if he failed because I wanted to believe he wouldn’t. I wanted to think he’d beat this and be the man I want.”

“Then believe it!” Lacey yelled, getting the attention of most of the clients in the salon. “Stop doubting him.”

“I don’t doubt him!” Kacey yelled back and Lacey glared.

“Obviously, you do or you wouldn’t be saying all this,” she pointed out. And this time, Kacey was glaring.

“I’m scared out of my mind, Lacey. I want to trust my gut and know that I made the right decision. But what if I was thinking with my heart and not my brain?”

“You did!” she yelled, her eyes wide. “With all your heart, and that’s okay. Because if it ends, at least you know you’ve tried and you’ll regret nothing.”

“I’m sorry, but y’all are distracting the customers,” the salon owner said and Kacey turned, her breathing labored as she glared.

“I have salt and sugar at home, but I’m paying eighty bucks to have y’all rub it on my feet. If I want to yell at my sister-in-law about that fact that I just found out I am pregnant, and how my boyfriend, the recovering alcoholic, is still fragile and I don’t know if he’ll make it, whether I’m going to miscarry like I did before, and a whole other list of shit, like, hell, I don’t know, what I’m gonna be when I grow up, then I will! And maybe, just maybe, for the eighty bucks you’re charging me, I can yell a bit.”

The woman only blinked as Lacey snickered beside her. “Keep it down and congratulations.”

“Thanks, and I’ll try,” Kacey said as the woman walked away. She then turned to Lacey, who was fully laughing at this point. “Really? This is not funny.”

“Oh, I’m cracking up because if you’re already this emotional and bitchy, God help us all once you reach the third trimester.”

“If I get to that,” she muttered and Lacey smacked her hard in the arm. “Ow!”

“Stop talking like that. You’re gonna keep this baby. Our children will grow up a year apart, and Jordie is gonna be fine. I just know it.”

But Kacey shook her head. “Doesn’t it seem unreal though?”

“No,” Lacey answered automatically. “It sounds right. It sounds like what is going to happen.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I am,” she said confidently. “It’s going to be fine.”

But as much as Kacey wanted to believe her, she couldn’t find it in her to do that.

It all just seemed so impossible.

And unreal.

But man, how badly she wanted it all to be true.





“Are you sure about this?”

Jordie looked over his shoulder at Karson and nodded. “Yeah.”

“Don’t you think you should ask Kacey first?”

“I’m getting it for her.”

“I understand that, but that’s a big commitment.”

“I know that,” he said, giving him an annoyed look. “I’m not a dumbass.”

“That’s debatable,” Karson muttered while Jordie glared. “I don’t know, maybe she’d want to be here?”

“No, I want her to be surprised. She’s gonna flip.”

Karson nodded. “She sure is.”

They both looked down at where the little beagle puppy was looking up at them, his tail wagging with a little happy dog smile. Jordie knew that Kacey would have liked to be there, but like he had told Karson, he really wanted to surprise her. She had been so lonely lately, and he had plenty of road trips coming up, so it was the perfect idea to get her a little furry companion. He remembered way back when, before Christmas, when she lay in bed with him and told him that she wanted a white picket fence that would hold in a bunch of kids and a couple of beagle dogs. He may have acted like he wasn’t listening, but he’d heard her loud and clear.