A Promise for the Baby. Jennifer Lohmann

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      “Where’s your father and why doesn’t he have the bird?”

      “Um...” She looked at the window.

      “There’s probably bird shit on my kitchen counter. You can at least tell me where your father is.”

      She looked back at him. “I’ll clean up Xìnyùn’s mess. I’ve been cleaning it all week.”

      Of course. He hadn’t been home all week. The bird could’ve been dancing on his pillow for all he knew.

      “And my father said he couldn’t keep the bird right now. I came home from work one day to find Xìnyùn in my apartment, along with a note.” She said all that while looking at him, but then she looked out the window. There was more to the story of her father. “But I wanted to talk to you about our child.”

      She sat at the table across from him, and the bird hopped down her arm, landing on the belly of the pregnant woman on the cover of the book.

      “Should you be around a bird while pregnant?” He really should know more about pregnancy than that Vivian shouldn’t have caffeine or alcohol.

      “It’s fine. I wear gloves when I clean up after him and wash my hands often, but that’s one of the things I wanted to talk with you about. I need to find a doctor.”

      “Are you sick?”

      She pulled her chin back into her neck and gave him a funny look. “I’m pregnant.”

      Karl’s throat tried to choke him and he coughed. “This is all new to me.”

      “It’s new to me, too. I’ve not had much more time to get used to the idea than you have.” She patted his hand like he was a child. Her hand was warm. “I need to start having regular checkups for myself and the baby. Would you like to go with me to the first visit?” When he turned his hand palm up, she grasped it and squeezed. “Maybe it will help this all be real to you.”

      It’s not as though he hadn’t imagined having a pregnant wife before. When he’d believed their marriage to be happy, he’d roll over in bed to look at Jessica and wonder what their children would look like. But with Jessica everything would’ve been planned. There would have been a calendar tracking when she was fertile, the best OB-GYN practice in Chicago already chosen and she would have picked out the crib she wanted before they even stopped using birth control. Jessica organized everything.

      And he would’ve been a better partner to Jessica. Despite their arguments, Jessica wouldn’t have questioned whether he would be around to discuss the pregnancy. She would have assumed.

      Vivian was a stranger, but legally she was his wife and—until he knew for certain otherwise—she was carrying their child. He should be no less a partner to Vivian just because she and the baby were inconvenient. Pregnancy was hardly convenient for Vivian, either. Whatever had driven her out of Vegas, she’d had a life there.

      He squeezed her hand in return. “Yes. I would like to go to the first prenatal visit. I’m not sure I can make all of them, but I’ll make the ones I can, so long as you want me to.”

      “I dropped in on your doorstep with no warning and you’ve taken me in. You’ve been great, considering. Really.”

      “You’re a bad liar.” She looked out the window, but he saw the lie in the way her nostrils curled. “I didn’t kick a pregnant woman out on the streets, which means I’m not a jerk. It doesn’t make me great. We don’t know each other now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t eventually become friends. Friendship would be a better place to start than many people having a baby together.”

      “Friends.” She turned her head back to face him. She was wearing the same pink sweater she’d worn when she’d first arrived. At the time he’d been too overwhelmed by the situation to concentrate on anything other than small details of her features and the haze of his memories. Looking at her now, face-to-face and with his mind open to his changing circumstances, he could see how pretty she was. Simple and without fuss, like a sunrise over the lake. “I’d like that.”

      Neither of them noticed they were still holding hands until the bird climbed from the cover of the book to stand on Vivian’s middle finger and whistle.

      She blushed and eased her hand out from his grip, the bird still carefully balanced on her finger. “I need to go to bed. This is past my pregnancy bedtime. I’ll clean up Xìnyùn’s mess in the morning.”

      “Don’t worry about it,” he said to her back as she slumped off to the bedroom. Cleaning up after a parrot would give him something to think about, other than his suddenly empty hand.

      CHAPTER FOUR

      “I’M SORRY, DAD....”

      Karl eased the front door closed, not wanting to disturb Vivian’s conversation, and if he was being honest with himself, because he wanted to hear what she had to say to her father. She was in her bedroom, but the door was open so she couldn’t have an expectation of privacy.

      That she probably still expected him to be out getting their breakfast made that argument a bit specious—a technicality he was willing to ignore to learn more about his mysterious bride. Vivian wasn’t forthcoming with information.

      “...but I’m not going to tell you anything about what’s happened to me if you’re not going to tell me where you are.”

      Interesting. Not knowing her father’s whereabouts was very different than his being unavailable.

      “You always say it’s important, Dad, but me telling you that I’m fine is all you need to know right now.”

      He slipped his shoes off and walked to the door of the guest bedroom in his socks, indecision an unfamiliar and uncomfortable feeling.

      “No, nothing much in my life has changed since I last saw you.” The sarcasm in her voice cut through the door and Karl was certain her father was bleeding on the other end of the call, though it sounded as though her dad didn’t know why she was being so cutting. Hell, Karl didn’t know why she was being so cutting.

      When had she last seen her father? She’d said he wasn’t available—a bit of an overstatement—but did he even know she was pregnant? That she’d lost her job? Based on the present conversation, Karl was willing to bet the answer to all those questions was no. For all her dad knew, Vivian was still in Vegas, dealing, single and with an empty uterus.

      Vivian sighed. “Yes, you’re my father and you care about my well-being, but maybe you can see how that doesn’t mean very much to me right now.”

      Clearly she didn’t want her father to know about the upheaval in her life, but why? Was she lying about the pregnancy? He shook the second question from his head. She would be a fool to lie about a pregnancy and invite him to the doctor’s office. He pulled his hand back from knocking at the door. It was unethical to eavesdrop and he now had more questions than answers—a punishment the Greek gods could have devised.

      “I’ve been in Sin City for sixteen years and you were never so interested in my well-being before.” One short thunk came from the room. “I will continue to take care of myself, and it will be easier without wondering if you’ll show up on my doorstep.”

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