The monitors went absolutely wild.
Everyone in the room started to panic.
And there were quite a few ‘oh, my God’s Dr. Caruso, what did you just do?’
I fucking smiled.
• • •
I walked out of that fucking hospital with a goddamn pep in my step.
There was a tad bit of guilt there, yes. But what there was also was an understanding.
Zach did it not for me, but for his girl.
And he was a better man than I was.
My phone rang in my pocket just as I was walking out of the hospital doors, a fucking smile on my face, when an unknown number flashed across the screen.
I frowned hard at it.
“Hello?” I answered, wondering who it could be.
Nobody called me anymore.
The only thing I ever got was a text because they knew I wouldn’t answer. And honestly, I wasn’t quite sure what made me answer this particular one.
“Is this Mr. Stokes?”
My stomach clenched at the mention of my old name.
Narrowing my eyes I answered, “Yes. This is him.”
“Oh,” the man murmured. “Good. Good. This is the fourth number we’ve called for you. This is Theodore Rossilini. I’m the vice president of Cryo-Fertility Bank in Longview, Texas.”
I felt my stomach clench.
I hadn’t thought about that place since before my last deployment.
“Yes?” I said, unsure what I was supposed to say to his announcement.
“I just want to inform you of a potential mix-up.” The person on the other end of the line paused. “Your sperm was used to artificially inseminate a young woman looking for your specific features. There was a glitch in the system, and your frozen sperm was listed improperly for about thirty-six hours. In that time, it was found, purchased, and sent out. I’m so, so sorry.”
“So are you saying that I have a kid on the way?” I asked carefully, something close to ferocity coursing through my veins at the thought.
The man on the other end of the line audibly swallowed. “Possibly.”
“Who is it?” I asked.
He cleared his throat, unsure of whether or not he wanted to admit what he was about to admit.
“Um,” he coughed. “Well, I’m not sure we can give this information—”
“You just told me I could potentially have a child running around out there,” I interrupted. “I’m sorry, but I think the rules are going to have to be broken. The only question is are they going to be broken now or later?”
The moment that he told me the name of the lady purchasing my sperm? I nearly fell flat the fuck out.
Not only was the lady close, in Kilgore as a matter of fact, but she was also someone I knew.
• • •
“I’m sorry, but what?” Sierra asked, blinking rapidly.
I recounted the phone call, word for fucking word, and told her everything that the man had said.
“You’re…” She paused. “I’m…” She shook her head, her mouth open wide in shock. “I actually am pregnant with your baby?”
The words ‘for now’ didn’t fall out of her lips, but they might as well have.
“Yes,” I replied softly. “I think so.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I don’t want to lose your baby.”CHAPTER 23That’s a lovely shade of ‘fuck you’ you’re wearing.-Malachi to SierraSIERRASix weeks laterSierra,
Let’s get married tomorrow. I know a guy.
Malachi
• • •
“Do you really think this is the best idea?” I asked warily as we waited outside the judge’s chambers.
Malachi looked over at me with a small grin on his face.
“I think it’s a great idea,” he informed me. “Why, don’t you?”
I did, but…
“My parents might kill me,” I admitted.
“We sent them a text.” He shrugged. “It’s not my fault if they don’t get here in time.”
“I know.” I grinned wide. “But my dad’s gonna want to walk me down the aisle.”
“Damn right I am,” Dad said as he jogged up.
He was dressed in his police uniform, and looked like he had bloodstains on his knees.
“What happened to you?” I asked curiously, eyeing him up and down.
Dad shrugged. “Guy thought it would be a great idea to run from me. Thought he could take me. He was wrong.”
“You showed him how wrong he was, right?” Malachi joked.
“Right,” Dad confirmed. “Where’s your mom?”
“I’m right here!” Mom cried as she ran in hand-in-hand with Hastings.
Hastings grinned widely at me.
“Where’s your brother and sister?” Mercy asked me.
I looked around the empty hallway. “I don’t know. Were they supposed to be here already?”
“I’m right here,” Sammy said as he came out of the bathroom. “Had to take a shit. Couldn’t make it through my sister getting married with a turtle head poking out.”
There was a long moment of silence as everyone processed his words.
“You know,” Hastings said, amusement in her tone. “There are things that you should and shouldn’t say, and I think that was one of them.”
Sammy shrugged unrepentantly. “It is what it is.”
I guess it was.
It wasn’t the first time something vulgar had come out of his mouth, and it wouldn’t be the last.