Rugged Daddy

“I’m not at my apartment,” I said. “I’ll drive to meet you somewhere.”

“Wait, you’re driving?”

“Like I said, it’s been a whirlwind.”

I hopped into Cameron’s truck and drove while talking with Nikki. She kept prying me for details, but I figured the least I could do was tell her all this in person. I pulled up to the coffee shop she frequented and got out, watching as her eyes locked with mine through the window of the shop. She gawked at the truck as I hung up the phone, and then I walked inside where she threw her arms around me.

“Never in a million years did I picture you as a truck girl,” she said.

“It’s not my truck,” I said. “It’s—”

Her eyebrows shot up. What name did I give her?

“It’s Andrew’s,” I said.

She narrowed her eyes at me as I drew in a deep breath.

“Are you still doing that surrogacy thing?”

“Not exactly,” I said.

“What does that mean?”

“Can we sit down for this?”

“Come on. I’ll get you a cup of coffee.”

“I can’t have it,” I said.

Her eyes whipped over to me as I flopped down into a chair. “You’re pregnant.”

“I feel like it’s been weeks since we talked,” I said.

“Because it has been. Damn near over a month now. Though part of that is my fault. Work took me out of town for the past couple of weeks. But still. If you’re not doing the surrogacy thing but you’re pregnant, does that mean you and Andrew worked things out?”

I couldn’t help the smile that slid across my face despite the path he and I were hurtling toward.

“Oh my gosh. You worked things out with him! Tell me everything, Heather. Now.”

“There really isn’t much to tell,” I said. “We abandoned the surrogacy thing because I told him I was getting too attached and that made him feel uncomfortable. Then, he came into the shop apologizing and talking about how he didn’t want to leave things like that between us.”

“Oh, I bet he didn’t,” she said with a grin.

“Things happened and … yeah. I’m pregnant. The same deal is in place. He’s covering everything and things like that. I’m staying at his place a lot so he can make sure I’m okay. My morning sickness is kicking my ass, and he wants to have a hand in helping me through everything.”

“Heather. That’s so awesome. That means you might not have to give up your child,” she said. “Are the two of you dating? Together? In a relationship? What are you?”

“I’m not sure,” I said. “But it also doesn’t worry me. He’s made it very clear he wants to be there for me and the baby, and that’s good enough for me for now.”

“So there’s still a chance you’re handing the child over to him before walking away.”

“I don’t think so, no. It’s all been a whirlwind. I mean all of this happened in the span of two weeks. The second I told him I was pregnant, he was excited and insisted I stay with him more so he could look after me. We haven’t had a lot of chances to talk about it, but what we have talked about is good.”

Nikki rose up from her seat and bent over to give me a hug. “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“I know. I promise, I’m keeping guarded as much as I can. But that’s not all that’s happened since we last talked.”

She pulled back and scooted her chair closer to me as I drew in a deep breath.