Having My Baby

Having My Baby

by

Theresa Ragan

Kindle Edition

Copyright 2011 by Theresa Ragan

http://www.theresaragan.com/

These stories are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from Theresa Ragan.

Editor: Cathy Katz

Beta Readers: Janet Katz, Sally Chamberlain, Brittany Ragan

Formatting by LK E-Book Formatting Service

http://design.lkcampbell.com/

Proofreader: Faith Williams

http://www.theatwatergroup.com

Cover art by Dara England

www.mycoverart.wordpress.com/

For Jesse, Joey, Morgan and Brittany.

I am the luckiest Mom in the world.

About the Author

After reading my first romance novel in 1992, I knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life…write novels…fun, quirky novels that would provide busy women around the world a few hours of entertainment. I knew I was truly a writer when I was working full-time, while raising four children, and nothing could stop me from getting the words to the page.

HAVING MY BABY

Chapter One

Derrick Baylor left his mom, dad, and siblings in the backyard and headed inside his parents’ house. All he wanted was a couple of ibuprofen and a few minutes to himself, but the moment he walked through the side door, what he got instead was a high-pitched shrill that pierced his skull and made him forget all about the pain in his right knee.

Bypassing the kitchen, he made his way toward the noise, favoring his bad leg now that no one could see him. He’d been tackled by the best in the NFL: Hawk, Sims, and Lawson. A little knee injury wasn’t going to take him out of the upcoming season.

The awful sound was coming from his old bedroom. He opened the door, frowning when he saw a portable crib in the middle of the room, the room he planned to sleep in tonight. He leaned over the crib. The baby looked fine: No horrible smells. Nobody bothering it.

He’d been thinking about babies a lot lately, he realized, as he watched the squirming infant. And when he thought about babies he also thought about love and marriage and Maggie. He would be thirty soon. Women weren’t the only ones with a biological clock ticking away like a time bomb.

As he watched the baby, he found himself hoping his tiny niece would stop crying. Not because the sound bothered him, but because it scared him.
Was she in pain
?

At closer view, he realized babies were, indeed, sort of scary. They were fragile and wiggly. Hopefully somebody would come to the rescue. If he picked the kid up, he might accidentally hurt her. Footballs he could handle—babies, not so much.

“Wahhhhhhhhhh.”

Damn.

Besides wanting the ibuprofen, he’d come inside to get away from his adopted brother and supposed friend, Aaron, and Aaron’s new fiancée, Maggie: the girl Derrick was supposed to marry someday—not Aaron. Maggie had lived across the street when he was growing up. Maggie was his neighbor, his girl, his future wife—not Aaron’s.

He had learned recently that Aaron and Maggie were planning to be married before a Justice of the Peace, sooner rather than later. Apparently, they had recently moved in together too.

Derrick thought he could handle this little party his mother threw together in celebration of Aaron and Maggie’s engagement, but he was wrong. Seeing them together made him tense, made him feel things he didn’t want to feel.

“Wahhh. Wahhhhhhhh.”

Garrett, his second brother to marry so far, was the first to have a baby. Garrett was making them all look bad, making it appear as if finding a soul mate was easy. Finding a soul mate was like looking for a lost diamond on a twenty-mile stretch of crowded beach. Impossible.

Many of his friends thought they had found “their other half” and now they were divorced.

The baby continued to cry. Her name was Bailey. It could have been worse. His brother and sister-in-law could have named her Apple or Saturn. Bailey was lying on her stomach but that didn’t seem to affect her vocal cords. “There, there,” Derrick said as he reached inside the crib and lamely patted her back.

She cried harder.

“A screecher, huh?” he said as he leaned forward and looked her over, trying to figure out how he was going to pick her up. He was number five of ten kids. He’d held his share of babies before, but mostly when he was younger. He was out of practice, that’s all.

The baby’s head was the size of a large peach or maybe a really small melon. It even had light fuzz on the top of its skull. He touched the top of Bailey’s head, felt a divot, and yanked his hand back.

Her screaming increased an octave.

“I was only trying to make you feel better.” He sighed. “But don’t worry, I get it…you’re a girl and that’s what girls do best…they make lots of noise.”

“Very funny,” a female voice said from the doorway.

He looked over his shoulder, surprised to see Maggie standing there watching him with those big blue eyes of hers. Her arms were crossed in front of her, her blonde hair all shiny and soft around the top of her shoulders. He’d been avoiding her all day. And now he knew why. Looking at her made his gut twist and his heart ache.

“She won’t stop crying,” he said to get his mind on other things. “What’s wrong with her?”

Maggie’s smile made it all the way to her eyes.

“Did you try changing her diaper?” she asked.

“Now who’s the funny one?”

Maggie moved to his side, leaned over the side of the crib and picked Bailey up as if she wasn’t as fragile as she looked.

“Kris asked me to check on her. Do you want to hold her?”

He took a step back. “Do bears like to dance?”

“I’m sure they do,” she said with a smile.

“Bears do not like to dance,” he informed her. “They like to eat people.”

“Fine,” she said as she took the baby to the changing table. “Bears like to eat people. Are you going to help me change her, or are you going to go back to sulking instead of celebrating like everybody else?”

“I think I’ll go back to sulking, thanks.” He watched Maggie for a moment, remembering the good times they shared when they were kids. He and his brothers used to play flag football in the street with Maggie. She was one of the boys back then. It was hard to wrap his mind around the idea that Aaron had gone and proposed to her after they had all vowed to keep away.

Vows did not have an expiration date. Nobody could have Maggie—it was only fair.

Back then, every male within a five-mile radius had a crush on Maggie.

Derrick knew he should let it go. He was an adult, all grown up. He should be happy for his friend and adopted brother, but he wasn’t. He felt betrayed. Derrick headed for the door, but he wasn’t quick enough. Mom showed up and stopped him before he could escape.

“There you are,” Mom said. Her gaze swept past him and zeroed in on the baby. “Oh, there’s my precious itty bitty baby girl. How is she?”

“She’s just like her aunts,” Derrick said. “She’s a crybaby.”

Mom laughed and then reached out toward the baby before she realized her hands were full. “Here,” she said, handing Derrick a stack of mail as she passed by.

“What’s this?”

“Every time you move, your mail slowly trickles back here.”

Derrick shuffled through the pile of mail.

“There’s a letter from CryoCorp that came in the mail months ago,” Mom said. “I thought they had the wrong address, so I wrote ‘return to sender’ and put the envelope back in the mailbox, but the letter came back the other day.”

“What is CryoCorp?” Maggie asked.

Derrick found the envelope, put the rest of the mail to the side, and opened the letter. He was too busy reading to answer Maggie’s question.

Dear Mr. Baylor,

As you know, CryoCorp is a leading provider of human semen
…

Yeah, he knew that, but that didn’t stop his heart from skipping a beat.

Our staff is made up of professionals eager to help our clients achieve realistic family goals through an excellent semen selection and confidential, personal counseling
.

I know. I know
. He skimmed to the last paragraph as he wondered why CryoCorp would contact him after all these years. His semen couldn’t possibly still be usable, could it? Besides, years ago he had sent a letter asking to be removed as a donor. Going to CryoCorp was a stupid move on his part, something he’d done for the money before thinking things through.

Here at CryoCorp we strive to enable recipients to attain their goals. Therefore, we would like to thank you for your donation and for helping to make dreams come true.

Making dreams come true
? His heart rate kicked up another notch as he read back over part of the text.

The recipient of your sperm has met all required standards
.

“This is ridiculous,” he said aloud. “Years ago I sent CryoCorp a letter telling them to remove me from their donor list. I even sent their money back.”

His mother was too busy with the baby to notice the panic in his voice, but Maggie didn’t miss a beat. She was at his side before he could curse under his breath again. She took the letter from him and when she finished reading it, she pinned him with a look he couldn’t decipher. “You donated your sperm?”

He nodded, but he didn’t appreciate the accusing look in her eyes: as if he’d given something away that didn’t belong to him. “Do you have a problem with that?”

She opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again. “Of course not,” she said. “But obviously
you
do. Did you donate your sperm to CryoCorp, or not?”

“Maybe.”

She huffed, sending wisps of blonde hair flying about.

“Mom,” she said over her shoulder. “Would you help me get a straight answer out of him?”

Derrick frowned. “Since when do you call my mom, Mom?”

“Since forever,” she said, clearly angry with him now.

Their gazes locked and some sort of weird staring war ensued until he purposely let his gaze fall downward, past her small upturned nose and onward to her perfectly formed lips. He’d kissed those lips before. Long before any stupid vows were made, he had kissed her. But it was their last shared kiss he remembered now. He’d never forget that kiss for as long as he lived.

His mother, baby in hand, must have picked up on the tension in the room because suddenly she stepped between them. “Don’t do this, Derrick.”

He raised a hand in frustration. “What did I do this time?”

“You’re creating drama again,” his younger brother, Jake, said from the doorway.

Derrick looked over at the door and glared at Jake. “Who asked you?”

“I’ve been standing here long enough to see that you’re up to your old tricks. Maggie belongs to Aaron, your friend and mine…our brother. Remember him? They’re engaged and this is an engagement party. Maggie picked Aaron, not you. Get over it.”

“Stop it,” Maggie said. She held up the letter from CryoCorp. “Derrick has a problem.”

“Tell us something we don’t know,” Jake added in a lazy drawl.

“Now, Jake. That’s enough,” Mom said, prompting Derrick to smirk at his brother. A childish reaction he’d admit, but one he chose to blame on the fact that he was back home with all of his siblings, not to mention Maggie and Aaron, all under the same roof, everybody pretending to be perfectly fine with the way things turned out. He never should have come.

“What does the letter say?” Mom asked.

Maggie looked at Derrick. “Mind if I read this aloud?”

“Be my guest.” Growing up with a big family in a small house meant there was no such thing as privacy. No reason to try and keep secrets when he knew full well they’d all find out what was going on sooner or later.

“It appears,” Maggie said, “that years ago Derrick donated sperm. Apparently that sperm has been chosen by recipient 3516A.”

Jake snorted. “No kidding. How long does sperm last?”

“There’s no expiration on frozen sperm,” Maggie said as she skimmed the contents of the letter for a second time.

Derrick’s jaw dropped.

Jake laughed.

“I went to CryoCorp before I was drafted by the Los Angeles Condors,” Derrick explained. “I was in desperate need of cash. I also sold my blood back then.”

“Why didn’t you come to us for help?” Mom asked.