Chapter 7 #2
At first, Kyra shook her head. Then she thought a little more about it and nodded.
“It’s… I may have had a… little thing with my boss.
” Jasmine put her at arm’s length immediately to look right into her daughter’s eyes.
“I didn’t mean to!” Kyra assured her before her mother could say anything.
“It just kind of happened. There was flooding. We were trapped together, our clothes were wet, and the lights went out. And neither of us had planned on anything happening, so—”
“Say no more,” Jasmine said, her eyes glittering with understanding. “Have you taken a test yet?”
So she already understood. Jasmine had always been incredible at reading people. It was something her daughter had inherited from her. All Kyra could manage was a nod.
“And the results?”
Kyra chewed her lip before murmuring, “Positive. I took it this afternoon. I bought more because I didn’t believe it.” She pulled the unopened test out of her purse. “I thought maybe I’d done it wrong.”
The look of sympathy on her mother’s face told Kyra how ridiculous her denial was. Even her mother knew how unlikely it was that she had done it wrong. Kyra was a direction follower to her core. She always had been.
“Let’s sit down and talk. I’ll make us some hot chocolate. No caffeine, just in case.”
“I think we may be past just in case at this point,” Kyra sniffled.
Her mother winked at her. “Let’s do denial for a bit longer, OK? For now, we don’t know for sure. So, let’s talk about what we’ll do if it turns out to be true.”
Kyra nodded and sat at a table while her mother went back to prepare their hot chocolate. When Jasmine returned, she was carrying not only hot chocolate but a plate of sugar cookies as well.
“These were your favorite when you were little,” Jasmine said, setting the plate in the middle of the table. “I assume you lost your breakfast this morning.”
“Yeah,” Kyra began, eyes widening at how well her mother knew her. “How did you know?”
Jasmine sat down across from her and took a cookie off the plate. “Morning sickness was particularly bad for me when I was pregnant with you.” She smiled and took a bite of the cookie in her hand.
That was a believable answer that Kyra didn’t want to believe. It was one more sign that she really was pregnant. “Mom, what do I do?”
“Does the father know?” Jasmine asked.
Kyra shook her head.
“That’s going to be step one then,” Jasmine said. “You have to let him know. His response may affect your decision.” She shrugged. “Or maybe it won’t. I don’t know, but he has a right to know either way.”
From the moment she saw the results of the first test she took, Kyra had known she would need to tell Adam, and she’d been dreading it more than anything. “I… don’t know what to say.”
“It’ll come to you when you’re face-to-face with him.” Jasmine sipped her hot chocolate and gestured for Kyra to do the same. “Eat something, honey. You’re going to have to eventually. It’ll help you think more clearly.”
She was right, of course. Kyra sipped her hot chocolate and nibbled the edges of one of the sugar cookies. Then she admitted, “I’m afraid I may have messed up my whole life, Mom. I didn’t plan this, but now that it’s happened, I’m not sure what to do.”
Jasmine smiled. “I assume you want to keep the baby, but you’re scared to do it alone.”
“How do you do that?” Kyra asked. “You guess everything before I even say it.”
“I know you too well.” Jasmine sat back and folded her hands on the table. “You’ve always wanted to be a mother, and you’ve been afraid you were running out of time.”
“You know I didn’t do this on purpose, right? I don’t have any kind of a plan.”
“Of course you don’t, but neither did I when you were born. And look how beautifully things worked out.”
Kyra suddenly sat up straight. This was new information. “I was… an accident?” she said, her eyes widening at the idea.
“I wouldn’t word it that way exactly,” Jasmine said with a laugh.
“You were unplanned, is all. But sometimes, destiny has better ideas than we do. There was never any doubt in my mind that I wanted to keep you. But I won’t say it didn’t scare me, the idea of being a parent before I was completely ready.
It takes courage, so I grabbed what I had and used it.
I have no regrets at all. You are the greatest blessing in my life.
You’ve made my life richer and happier than it would have been without you. ”
Kyra stared down at her half-eaten sugar cookie. What her mother was revealing to her was comforting in a number of ways. But there was still one missing element. “But you had Dad at the time, didn’t you? I don’t—”
“You have me,” Jasmine interrupted. Then she reached across the table and took her daughter’s hand.
“No matter what happens, you will always have me. Got it? And if your baby’s father doesn’t want to be in his child’s life, you and I will be more than enough.
” She patted Kyra’s hand, tears welling up in her own eyes as well as her daughter’s.
“Now, go take that test you bought. The first one doesn’t count because I wasn’t there for the results.
And if it comes out positive this time, you and I are going to celebrate the way we should. ”