Page 54 of Unexpecting

″Yes, you are!” she said gleefully, this time pulling me into a hug. “You’re pregnant! You’re having a baby! Oh, Casey, I’m so happy for you! Are you—are you maybe a little happy?” she asked when she pulled away and noticed my eyes were filled with tears. “Oh, Casey. It’s what you’ve always wanted.”

″But not like this,” I sniffed. “I thought if I ever told a guy I was pregnant, he’d be happy and excited, just like me. Or I thought lately,there wouldn’t be anyone to tell. I didn’t think it would be J.B. and he’d be so pissed with me!”

″He’s just upset. You kind of surprised him.”

″You think?” I asked bitterly. “Am I not as surprised as he is?”

″Yes, but you wanted this, and it was the last thing J.B. ever expected, so of course there might be a difference in the reactions. But I’m sure once he gets his head around it, he’ll be fine,” Morgan assured me. “He’s just freaked out.”

″And suddenly you know him so well?”

″Well, no, but we did talk a lot last night,” Morgan admitted. “When he came home, I was still awake, and we had a drink and talked. That’s all, just talk. And mostly about you.”

″Well, that won’t happen again. I’m sure J.B. won’t want to hear anything to do with me for a while.” I got up to start stalking across the room. “And he won’t be going anywhere near me with a ten-foot pole, not that I want him to. Asking if it’s really his! Asshole!” I kicked at the couch as I stomped by.

″That was rude, and I’m not taking his side, but you really blew him out of the water—and it’s not like you haven’t been involved with anyone else. He doesn’t know who you sleep with, does he? As far as he’s concerned, you might have been doing the nasty with Mike all along instead of waiting like a good little girl, and well, there’s David. You’ve been so closemouthed about that even I don’t know what’s going on there.”

I stared at Morgan with disbelief that she could consider David as the dad, but then I remembered I hadn’t told her that David is gay, or any of the other stuff. But now wasn’t the time to get into that.

″I’m sorry I thought you slept with J.B.,” I told her instead.

″Well, now I can see why you got so upset,” Morgan laughed. “I would have ripped your head off if the situation was reversed.”

″I overreacted, and I’m sorry.” I suddenly dropped back onto the couch beside her. “Still be my friend?”

She threw her arm around me. “Of course. But you still have to tell me when it happened.”

″It was after Ethan’s wedding when I caught Mike. I got drunk; I got upset—”

″You got laid. It’s completely understandable.”

″Yes, but it was the wrong person!” I laid my head back against the couch. “Even though I don’t know who the right person is.”

Morgan put her head on my shoulder. “But that doesn’t matter now, does it? You’re pregnant! Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?”

Not five minutes after Morgan left, I heard the sounds of Cooper’s footsteps coming down the stairs. Emma wasn’t with him, so this must be serious. Was he going to read me the riot act, kick me out, call me an irresponsible slut who took advantage of his best friend, or most shockingly of all, be happy for me?

“Please tell me…” Cooper began helplessly, standing in the doorway. Obviously, J.B. had gotten to him first.

I shrugged. “What do you want me to say?” I had a horrible feeling I was going to lose Cooper because of this.

″It’s true? You’re really pregnant? And J.B.—he’s really the father?”

″Given his reaction to the news, I really don’t want to call him that,” I said coolly. “But, yes, it was J.B. who got me pregnant, despite what he may think.”

″What’s that supposed to mean? He thinks he got you pregnant, and he’s flipping out.”

″Good for him.”

″Hang on a sec; I don’t think I got the whole story. Casey, what’s going on?”

″Ask the guy whose ejaculation accidentally impregnated me.” And then, of course, I began to cry again.

″C’mon,” Coop said, holding out his arms.

″No. I don’t want you to take sides, because then you’ll take J.B.’s. I don’t want you stuck in the middle.”

″I’m not going to be stuck anywhere.” He reached forward and pulled me into a hug. “I’m just going to congratulate you. You are pregnant, aren’t you? And this is what you wanted, isn’t it? So you should be celebrating, not crying. J.B.’ll come around soon enough.”

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