Page 54 of Dr. Grump's Surprise Baby

“I don’t want his money,” Emily said. “I’m doing fine. I’ll be able to provide for my kid, and what I’m not going to do is chase after this guy and beg him for anything when he was so cold to us.”

“Us,” Sara repeated. “Look at you. You’re already in mom mode.”

“Sometimes I am,” Emily said. “It’s sinking in a little bit at a time. I woke up this morning all excited about everything I was going to need to do — getting a crib, baby clothes, all of that. A couple of nights ago I was up until three in the morning writing a list of names.”

“Did you settle on any?”

“God, no. I’m nowhere close. Hopefully it will get easier as time goes on, and something will start to feel right.”

“I’m sure you’ll find the right name,” Sara agreed. “Wow, a baby! Hey, can I throw you a baby shower?”

“Are you sure?” Emily frowned.

“Of course! Why not?”

“Well, it’s just that we haven’t known each other that long,” Emily explained. “I wouldn’t have expected you to go to all that trouble.”

“Are you kidding? It won’t be trouble, it’ll be amazing. I love to throw parties. Ooh, and we can have all kinds of baby games too! We can do the one where everyone has to name a baby gift that starts with each letter of the alphabet, and we can have them decorate onesies! That’s fun!”

Emily laughed. She had been on a roller coaster of emotion since learning she was pregnant — raging at Dominic, heartbroken at the way he had treated her, frightened at the prospect of being a single mother, thrilled and overjoyed that she was going to have a baby. But she hadn’t yet laughed. It felt good to laugh. Telling Sara about this had been the right choice.

“Okay,” she said. “You can throw a shower. Just for God’s sake don’t have people play any games where they measure how big my belly is or anything like that.”

“Do I look like a monster?” Sara asked indignantly. “I promise, good fun only. But I hope you have a name picked out by then. Hey — is it a boy or a girl?”

Emily laughed harder. “You’re adoctor, Sara,” she said. “I only found out I was pregnant this week. I don’t know the sex of the baby yet. It’s way too early for that.”

“Okay,” Sara giggled. “I’m sorry. I got a little overexcited there.”

“Don’t apologize. Honestly, it’s good to be with someone who’s excited about all this. I haven’t been able to figure out my feelings, so you’re doing me a favor.”

“I hate that you don’t have the baby’s father here to help you with that,” Sara said. “Not that I mind, but he should really be the one getting excited with you about all this. Are you sure he can’t be talked into it? I mean, I can’t imagine not wanting to be involved in my baby’s life. I don’t know how anyone could deliberately make that choice.”

“Yeah, but we know people choose that every day,” Emily said. “I don’t get it either, but we know it happens. And it’s like I said. Since he’s made it clear that he doesn’t want to be involved, I’m not going to ask him again.”

“Not even for your kid’s sake? I understand not wanting to put your pride on the line, but if it’s for your kid…”

Emily sighed. “The thing is, I don’t feel like it would be the best thing for my kid,” she said. “Not right now. I keep thinking about what it would have been like for me to have a father who treated me the way he’s treating me right now, and I can’t do that to my child. This man is telling me explicitly that he doesn’t want to be in our lives. I only want my child to be exposed to people who do want to be around.”

“I can understand that,” Sara agreed. “I’d probably feel the same way if it was me. I just hate to see you going through this alone.”

“Well, I’m not alone,” Emily said with a smile. “I have you now.”

“That’s true.” Sara grinned at her. “And what about your family? Do they have your back in all this?”

“I’m sure theywill,” Emily said.

“You haven’t told them yet?”

“After the father reacted so badly, I didn’t feel up to it,” Emily admitted. “I wanted to keep it to myself, at least for a littlewhile, in case they had a bad reaction too. I don’t think they will. They’ve always supported me. But I’m sure they’ll have questions about how I got pregnant in the first place, and I honestly don’t feel up to answering those questions right now. I’ll let them know in a few weeks, once I’ve gotten used to it myself.”

“Well, I’m honored you felt like you could tell me.” Sara grabbed her hand and gave it a quick squeeze. “Don’t worry. I’ll be by your side throughout all of this. And that baby might not have an involved father, but it’s definitely going to have a cool aunt.”

Emily’s heart contracted.

She had never confided in Sara about what had happened to Ruth. She didn’t want to talk about it now, either. But for a moment, she found herself thinking about what it would have been like to share this moment with her sister instead of her new friend.

She liked Sara. She was glad to have Sara. But with Ruth… well, that would have been something else. Something really special.

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