Baby For The Mountain Man

“Here,” I said.

She fluttered her eyes down to the mug before she reached for it. I got a good look at her hands. How battered and bruised and swollen they were. I grabbed her wrist, setting my mug of coffee down as I slowly slipped her long-sleeved shirt up her arm. There were bruises ricocheting up her forearms. Lashes and welts that could only be dealt by a ruler or a stick of some sort.

My blood was boiling in my vision as I released her wrist.

“What happened?” I asked.

Ava was staring into her mug of coffee, but she wasn’t drinking it.

“You can have whatever you want here. You know that,” I said.

“I just don’t think it’s wise to be drinking it,” she said.

“Why not?” I asked. “Because your aunt said so?”

“No,” she said. “Because I’m pregnant.”

My entire world slowed down as her words punched me in the gut. Pregnant? Ava was pregnant?

“You’re… how far…?”

“Four months,” she said as she looked over at me. “I’m four months pregnant, Travis.”

The gravity of the situation left me light-headed. Ava was pregnant. With my child. This beautiful young woman who had opened herself up to me and given me a part of her she could never give to anyone else was…

“Pregnant?” I asked.

“I know things didn’t turn out well between us, but I couldn’t get rid of this child,” she said. “I just couldn’t. The thought just… made me cry. I concealed it from my Aunt as long as I could, but once she tried to put me in a corset the secret came out.”

“Where did those marks on your arms come from?” I asked.

“That was just her way of punishing me. Corporal punishment when I didn’t fall in line with what she wanted.”

I would never hit a woman, but I’d kill her Aunt if I ever got the chance to meet her.

“I don’t expect you to stand by me and I sure as hell don’t expect you to accept me back. But you deserved to know what was going on.”

My eyes raked down her form, noticing how baggy her shirt was on her. I took the mug of coffee from between her fingers and slowly laid her back into the cushions of the couch. My hand ran up her thigh, my eyes watching her as my fingers slid up her shirt.

I felt my palm descend around the small bump protruding behind her belly button as my world came to a stop.

I was going to be a father.

My eyes connected with Ava and I could see how scared she was. How panicked she looked and how young she seemed again. Her marred hands were trembling but her skin was puckering at my touch. I saw a heat drift along her cheeks, painting her skin a beautiful pink as I leaned towards her stomach.

My lips pressed into her stomach as her breath hitched, the warmth of my lips penetrating her cold skin.

“Hello there, little one. I’m your father,” I said.

I kissed Ava’s stomach one last time before I rose my face to settle in front of hers.

“What are you doing?” Ava asked breathlessly.

“I need you to listen to me closely, okay?” I asked.

Ava nodded as a tear escaped the corner of her eye, traveling down her cheek and finding its death on her shoulder.

“Do you have your stuff in your car?” I asked.