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Tara wraps her arms around me. "Everything will be okay, Lindy. I could be wrong."

"You think?"

She takes in a deep breath. "There is only one way to find out for sure."

*****

Tara and I drive all the way to Mobile to get a pregnancy test. I didn’t want to take a chance of anyone in Warrington seeing me buy it. There’s already enough rumors flying around. I end up buying four different tests just to be sure of the results. We drive straight back to her and Daniel’s house, and I rush into the bathroom.

I pee on all four
tests and lay them by the sink while I sit on the edge of the tub and wait. Thoughts of diapers, baby puke, and crying run through my head. After five minutes, I stand up and pick up the first stick. It has two lines running across it. I pick up the second and the little window that was white is now blue. I pick up the third, and it has a big plus sign on it. So, does the fourth.

I toss all the tests in the trash can and walk out of the bathroom. As soon as I get to the living room, Tara and Daniel turn to me. I don’t even wait for them to ask. I just nod my head yes and head home.

CHAPTER TWELVE

"Why do you always carry that doll around?"

"I’m practicing," Lindy explains.

"For what?" Lucas asks.

"For when I’m a mommy."

LUCAS

As soon as Lindy walks in the door, I know that she is still upset. She has been crying, and I know that it’s because of me. Fuck. I’ve made her cry enough through the years. I should have thought more about what I was going to say before I opened my damn mouth.

I walk over to her and wrap my arms around her. "I’m sorry, baby."

She places her cheek against my chest, wraps her arms around my waist and starts to cry harder. I should have just kept my mouth shut. "Fuck, baby. Please stop crying. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings."

She squeezes me. "I am not crying because you were an ass earlier."

"Then what’s wrong?"

She shakes her head, pulls out of my arms and moves towards to sofa. As soon as she sits down, she looks over at me. "Come sit down. We need to talk."

Oh, shit. Something bad must have happened. It better not have been Kelsey or her fucking father either. I walk over and sit down beside her, pulling her into my lap. "What’s wrong, Lindy Lou?"

She leans her head on my shoulder and whispers, "I think I’m pregnant."

My heart starts to pound so hard that it feels like it’s going to jump out of my chest. "What did you just say?"

"I think that I am going to have a baby." Her voice, still a whisper, has an edge to it now.

"What do you mean, you think?"

She licks her lips and looks into my eyes. "I took some tests, and they were all positive."

I give her a tight squeeze. "How many tests did you take?"

"Four."

"You’re having my baby?" It’s my turn to whisper.

She nods her head. "Yeah. I’m pretty sure."

I cannot explain the excitement I feel. It’s pure fucking joy. I am just about to jump up and carry Lindy’s ass to the bed when I hear her sniffle. "You were crying because you are going to have a baby, my baby?"

"We are not ready for this, Lucas." She’s serious. The tone of voice, half-strangled, tells me that. As does the look on her face.

I place my hands on her cheeks and pull her face to mine. "When is anyone ever really ready to have a kid? There is no way to prepare for a child. Not really. It’s not fucking possible. We love each other, and we will love our baby. That is the only damn thing that matters."

"What about the money?" she asks. "Babies cost a lot of money. There are diapers, formula, and doctor bills. There are a lot of things that cost a ton of money. I may not even have a job much longer. What happens then?"

I can’t hold in my chuckle. "Shit, baby. I have enough money to take care of us, even if you lose your job."

She looks confused. "How is that?"

"I may be just a mechanic, but I am one of the top mechanics in a custom motorcycle shop. It’s also the only shop in south Alabama that is qualified to work on classic bikes. People come from all over the place to bring their bikes to us. And believe me, they pay for the privilege." She smiles a little. "So, our baby will not run out of diapers?"

"No, our baby won’t run out of anything." I can’t keep the joy out of my voice.

She leans back into my shoulder and kisses my neck. "I’m not sad because I’m having a baby. I just wanted to wait a while is all. I wanted to be married and have a house of our own first."

"Well, we can start house shopping tomorrow. I have enough money saved up to put a nice-sized down payment on something."

She smiles. "Really?"

I nod. "Really, baby. We can’t get a fucking mansion, but we can get a nice place. The house across from your mom’s went on the market last spring. It still hasn’t sold. It’s just been sitting there empty for months. We could probably get it for a steal."

"That
would be wonderful. Wanda and Mom would be right across the street to help with the baby, and I have always loved that house." Excitement fills her voice.

"We could also get married." I feel her body start to grow tense again, but I plow on. "Not because of the baby or those dickheads in town. Just because I love you and you love me. I want us to be a family before the baby is born. Lindy, please marry me."

She relaxes into me once more. "Are you sure that this is what you really want?"

"Shit, Lindy Lou. This is what I’ve wanted since the day that shark went after you."

She is quiet for a few minutes and then she says the most beautiful words that I have ever heard. "Yes, I will marry you."

LINDY

Lucas wasted no time telling everyone that we were getting married, but I wouldn’t let him tell anyone about the baby yet. I want to see the doctor first. I know that four tests are probably not wrong, but I want to make sure. I am pretty sure anyway. My stomach is starting to round a little, and just yesterday I thought I felt a few kicks.

It took me nearly three weeks to get into the gynecologist. We are sitting in the waiting room now. We have been here for over an hour, and Lucas is starting to get frustrated. "What the fuck is taking so long?"

I shake my head and explain the delay again. "He had to deliver a baby, so we have to wait until he gets done."

"We have been in this office for more than a damn hour. How long could it take to have a baby?" he asks.

"It can take hours. I have even heard of women that are in labor for an entire day."

He looks horrified at the thought. "You better not do that shit to me. I would fucking worry myself to death."

I reach over and pat his arm. "I’ll do my best to be as quick as possible."

Another hour passes before I am called back. The nurse makes me pee in a cup and takes us to an exam room. She hands me a paper gown and leaves the room. I just get the gown on when the doctor walks in.

"Hello, Melinda. I didn’t expect to see you back so soon. Especially not for this reason, but these things happen. As I told you, when you were here before, no form of birth control is a hundred percent effective. Other than abstinence," he says, as he shakes my hand.

The doctor sits down on his little stool and motions for me to get onto the exam table. "Well, it looks like the urine test is positive. So, we can assume you are pregnant. Can you tell me the first day of your last menstrual cycle?"

"It was June fourteenth. I got my Depo-Provera shot on the seventeenth."

"If you were on your cycle when you got your first injection, then I would not have ordered a pregnancy test. Was your flow particularly light that month?"

I nod at the doctor. "Yes, it was."

"Some women have a light cycle during the first few months of pregnancy. It doesn’t happen often, but I have seen it a few times. So, you may have been pregnant at the time you received your injection." He looks over my file.

"I don’t think I was pregnant then. I had only had sex four days before my period started, so I wouldn’t have been fertile."

The doctor chuckles. "Melinda, if every woman only ovulated on schedule there would be a lot less babies in this world. Plus, what you thought was your menstrual cycle was probably implantation spotting."

I move my eyes from the doctor to Lucas. "I didn’t know. I really thought it was okay."

Lucas grabs my hands. "It’s more than okay. It’s perfect."

"I am a bit concerned about you taking Depo-Provera while pregnant. The risks are minimal, but they are there. I would feel better if we did an ultrasound right away. Just to make sure that everything is going along as it should."

The doctor’s words send a chill down my spine. I am just about to ask what he is talking about, when Lucas asks, "What type of risks?"

"The most common is low birth weight, but there have been cases of miscarriage that are believed to be linked to the injection. However, that has not been proven."

"Oh my God!" I whisper, while squeezing Lucas’ hand.

The doctor pats my leg. "Don’t worry, dear. If your pregnancy has progressed as far as I believe it has, then your risks should be minimal. Let’s just get the ultrasound to make sure that everything is fine."

Within minutes, he has the machine pulled up to the exam table and is running some sort of device over my stomach. I can hear a whooshing sound. Its sounds like the waves crashing onto shore. "What is that sound?"

The doctor smiles at me. "That is your baby’s heartbeat."

He starts to click buttons on the machine and, all of a sudden, I see an image on the screen. He points to it. "You see that little flutter?"

Lucas and I both nod.

"That is your baby’s heart." He moves his finger. "Here is the head."

I can see its profile now. It actually looks like a baby. I can see little feet moving and tiny hands balled up. I look up at Lucas. "That’s the baby."

He looks down to me with tears in his eyes, then bends down and gives me a gentle kiss. "Our baby."

"Do you want to know if you are having a boy or a girl?"

I look toward the doctor. "You can tell what we are having already?"

He nods his head. "If the baby will cooperate, we should be able to tell."

"Do you want to know?" I ask Lucas.

"Hell, yeah!"

I nod my head toward the doctor.

He starts to move the device around my belly. After a few minutes, he stops and pushes a button on the machine. He points to the screen. "Do you see those three parallel lines?"

Lucas and I both nod.

"Those lines tell us that you are having a little girl," he says with a smile.

I look up at Lucas and burst into tears. "We are having a baby girl."

He grabs my hand and gives it a squeeze. "Now I will have two Lindy Lou’s."

The doctor turns off the machine and scoots his chair back. "You are right at eightteen weeks. You’re estimated due date is February eighteenth. Most importantly, everything looks fine."

We talk for a few minutes more, then the doctor leaves the room. As soon as the door shuts, Lucas pulls me off the table and into his arms. "I love you so fucking much," he says as his mouth crashes down on mine.

LUCAS

Lindy and I are having everyone come over for dinner. We decided to tell all the parents and Chris and Abbie about the baby at once. Daniel and Tara are coming too. They already know, but we wanted them here for the announcement. Lindy is mashing potatoes, when I walk into the kitchen. I stop right behind her, wrap my arms around her waist, and place my hand over our baby. "I can’t wait until I can feel her kick."

"I was looking online last night, and it said that you should be able to feel her between twenty-five and thirty weeks, so you have a
bout two more months to wait," she says with a smile.

"That long?"

She turns to face me and wraps her arms around my neck. "Well, there was one woman who said that her husband felt the baby move around twenty weeks, so you never know. You may feel her in just a few weeks."

I smile and bend my head to give her a kiss. As soon as my lips touch hers, I hear the front door open. I whisper into her mouth, "It’s time, baby."

I turn to see my parents and Maggie come in. Chris and Abbie follow close behind them. We all make small talk, until Daniel and Tara show up a few minutes later.

Before long, everyone is grabbing a plate. We are all just sitting down to eat when Maggie starts to talk about the wedding. "What do you think about having a Valentine’s Day wedding? It falls on a Saturday this year, so it would be perfect. You could use red and white as your colors. It would be really pretty."

"I like that idea," Ma says.

"Oh, yeah! I look awesome in red," Tara adds.

Abbie shakes her head. "No one will be looking at you anyway. All eyes will be on Melinda."

"Actually, we were thinking about getting married next month," Lindy says and all the women at the table look at her like she is crazy.

"You can’t do that. That’s not enough time to put a wedding together," Ma says.

"It will take months just to find your dress," Abbie adds.

"You will never be able to get the church that soon," Maggie pipes in.

"Well, we were thinking of getting married in your back yard," Lindy tells her mom.

Ma looks shocked. "In the back yard? I know Maggie’s yard is beautiful, but it will never hold enough people."

"Lucas and I really only want family to be there, and maybe some of the guys from the shop. Definitely Roger." Lindy looks towards dad. "Paul, you know that I wish Dad could be here to give me away, but that’s not possible. I can’t think of anyone I would rather have stand in for him, other than you. Would you do that for me?"