Jayme & Tripp (Game Wardens 1)

Mallory laughed. “Did he put you out of your misery?”

“Eventually, yes.”

“I think you’re going to make a great dad, Jayme.”

He snorted. “I think you’re crazy for thinking that, but thanks.”

Mallory reached across the table and placed her hand over his. “Are you sure you don’t want to try and work things out between us? We could be a family.”

He shook his head and pulled his hand out from under hers. “No, Mallory. We’re too damaged to go back. We can still be a family without us being together.”

She nodded sadly. “Yeah, okay.”

“All right. I’m gonna go. I need to get a new phone.”

“What happened to the old one?”

“I smashed it.” He smirked.

“Ohh, is that how we got disconnected the other night?”

“Yeahhh,” he drawled and stood from the table.

Mallory followed him to the door. “Oh, the due date is January 28th. My first ultrasound appointment is next week.”

“I’ll text you when I get my new phone and you can send me the date and time.”

“Okay,” she said with a sweet smile.

He gave her a peck on the cheek then walked out to his truck feeling lighter. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as he’d imagined. He was sure his parents would be happy. They don’t have any grandchildren yet, he was sure they were going to be ecstatic.

He stopped by the AT&T store and got a new phone. Luckily, they were able to pull his contacts off his destroyed phone and put them on the new one; and he also got to keep his phone number. As soon as he was back in his truck, he called his mom to give her the news.

“Hello?” His mom answered.

“Hey, Mom.”

“Oh, Jayme! Hi, sweetie. How are you?”

“I’m...okay. I have some news for you.”

“Okay? What is it?”

“You’re gonna be a grandma. Mallory’s pregnant.”

“Oh my gosh! Really?!” she squealed.

Jayme chuckled. “Yeah, really.”

“But I thought you didn’t want kids? And you two going to get back together now?”

Why did everyone keep asking that?

“Well, it wasn’t planned, and no, we’re still getting divorced.”

“Oh. You’ll be sharing custody then?”

“Most likely. We didn’t really talk about that yet.”

After a moment of silence, she asked, “Are you happy about this?”

He sighed. “I can’t say that I’m exactly happy about it. But I'm trying to be okay with it.”

“Jayme, let me tell you, once you see that little baby’s face, you won’t even be able to comprehend how happy you’ll be.”

He hummed. He couldn’t imagine feeling that way, but he guessed it was possible. He talked with his mom a little more before hanging up. He called his brothers and let them know too. He then headed home, hoping maybe he could get some lovin’ from his partner.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Jayme

JAYME SAT nervously as he and Mallory waited for the ultrasound tech to arrive. Mallory was lying on the table next to the ultrasound machine looking cool, calm, and collected. Like she’d done it a million times.

The tech arrived, giving them both a warm smile. “Hey, guys! I’m Tracy.”

Mallory shook her hand, while Jayme gave her a small wave and a muttered hello. The tech went about getting the machine ready, then had Mallory lift her shirt and push her yoga pants down a little bit. She put some gel on the wand and placed it on Mallory’s belly. Mallory giggled saying that it was cold.

The tech moved the wand around and clicked away at the machine with her other hand. She then hit a button and froze the screen. “Here's your baby,” Tracy said, pointing to a little bean looking thing on the screen.

“That’s it?” he blurted.

Both Tracy and Mallory laughed.

“Yep. Right now, that’s it,” Tracy said.

“It looks like a lima bean,” he said.

“It's a bit bigger than that, but you're close,” Tracy chuckled.

“That’s going to grow into a baby?” he asked skeptically.

“Yes, it is,” Tracy answered, then went about clicking away again.

When she was done, she wiped off Mallory’s belly, and printed out some pictures from the ultrasound and handed them to Mallory. She and Jayme then left the office and headed out into the parking lot where they had both driven their own cars. Jayme had left work a little early to make the appointment.

Mallory held out one of the pictures to him. “Do you want one?”

“Sure.” He took the picture from her and looked down at it. “Sooo, this is our baby.”

“Yep,” she chirped, looking extremely happy.

He wished he could be as happy as she was, but he just wasn’t, not yet.

“Thanks for coming today, Jayme.”

He gave her a tight smile and a nod.

“I’ll let you know when the next appointment is.”

“Okay,” he agreed. “Sounds good. I’m gonna go home and get a shower.”

“Okay. I’ll talk to you soon.”

He nodded and gave her a small hug before getting in his truck and heading home. When he got there, he walked in the front door and noticed an empty car seat and a diaper bag off to the right.