Chapter 40
Lauren
I squinted against the sun, turning toward the road when I heard the growl of a motorcycle.
“Jackson!” I called, grinning.
He pulled up and parked at the front of the yard. I set my watering can on the steps and watched him swing off the bike.
My eyes lit up when I spotted the takeout bag in his hand, and my stomach rumbled at the thought of food.
He handed it over with a pleased little smile. “For the lovely lady.”
I breathed it in. “God, that smells amazing.”
“Can’t go wrong with a Jackson special.”
“You’re a lifesaver. I’ve been craving this all day.”
“Yeah? Baby demanding BBQ again?”
“Among other things.” I shifted my weight. “Yesterday it was pickles and ice cream.”
“Jesus.” He grinned. “How’s Kevin surviving?”
“Barely.” I headed for the front door. “Are you staying? I have beer in the fridge.”
He rubbed the back of his neck and glanced toward the road. “I could make time for free beer.”
I let him follow me inside.
In the kitchen, I pulled a beer from the fridge and handed it to him. Jackson slid onto a stool at the island and took it with a nod.
“Thank you.”
His gaze dropped to my belly as he took a swig. “How’s the little one doing?”
I rested a hand on my stomach. “Good. She should be here any day now.”
“Any day, huh?” He set down his beer. “You nervous?”
“Terrified,” I admitted.
“You’ll be fine. You’re tough.”
“I’m not tough. I’m nine months pregnant and I cry at dog food commercials.”
He laughed. “Fair point.”
“Did you guys finish the nursery?” Jackson asked.
The question pulled me back to the day everything changed.
Months earlier
I stared at the pregnancy test in my shaking hands.
Two pink lines.
I sat on the bathroom floor with my back against the tub, trying to understand what that meant.
We’d found our rhythm. Kevin’s house most nights, Jackson’s apartment above the bar on weekends. Shared meals, a shared bed, and a shared love that felt so natural now I almost couldn’t remember what life had been like before.
The town had talked, just like Jackson said it would. But Kevin’s patients hadn’t abandoned him, and Jackson’s bar kept thriving.
We’d weathered the whispers and the stares and built something real anyway.
Footsteps sounded on the stairs. Kevin’s firm tread, Jackson’s lighter step. They always came home together on Tuesdays.
“Lauren?” Kevin called. “You here?”
“Bathroom,” I managed.
The door opened. Kevin appeared first, concern already crossing his face. Jackson was right behind him.
“What’s wrong?” Kevin knelt beside me, doctor mode clicking into place. “Are you hurt?”
I held up the test.
Kevin stared at it. Jackson’s eyes went wide.
“You’re…” Kevin started.
“Pregnant,” I finished. “Yes.”
Silence filled the bathroom. My heart hammered.
“Say something,” I whispered. “Please.”
Kevin’s face broke into the biggest smile I’d ever seen. “We’re having a baby.”
“We don’t know.” I looked between them. “I mean, it could be yours or Jackson’s. We won’t know without a test.”
“Does it matter?” Jackson asked quietly.
I looked at him. “What?”
Jackson sat down on my other side. “Does it matter which one of us is the biological father?”
“I…” I hadn’t thought about it that way.
“Because it doesn’t matter to me,” Jackson said. “That baby is ours. All of ours. We’re in this together.”
Kevin nodded. “He’s right. We don’t need a paternity test. We’re a family. That makes this our baby.”
My eyes filled with tears. “You’re sure? Both of you?”
“Completely sure,” Kevin said firmly.
Jackson took my hand. “How do you feel about it? Do you want this?”
I put my free hand on my stomach. A baby. Their baby.
“Yes,” I said, surprised by how sure I sounded. “I want this.”
“Then we’re going to do this,” Kevin said. “All three of us.”
We stayed there on the bathroom floor, talking until Kevin’s knees gave out and Jackson made everyone move to the couch.
They were always by my side.
Kevin with his steady hands and quiet checklists. Jackson with his jokes, which got worse the more nervous he was. Both of them watching me like I might break, even though I kept telling them pregnant women had been doing this since the beginning of time and I was not, in fact, made of glass.
Fairview had opinions, always had. There were weeks of cold shoulders at the grocery store, whispers that died the second I turned into an aisle, and one Sunday when Pastor Williams suggested Kevin might want to think about the example he was setting.
Kevin told him he was setting one just fine.
Jackson heard about it later and laughed so hard he had to sit down.
There were harder nights too. Nights when one of us went quiet and the other two had to figure out whether to push or leave it alone. Nights when old hurt came back up, even after we thought we talked it to death. We never pretended the start didn’t matter. It did. But we stayed anyway.
By the time my belly started showing, Fairview had moved on to bigger gossip, and the whispers mostly stopped.
The baby could be Kevin’s. She could be Jackson’s.
None of us wanted a test.
“Why would we need one?” Kevin had said one night, his hand resting low on my stomach while Jackson sat beside him, pretending he wasn’t waiting for the answer.
“Because people will ask,” I said.
Jackson snorted. “People ask stupid shit all the time.”
Kevin looked at him, then back at me. “She has two fathers who already love her.”
Jackson went quiet after that. Then he reached over and covered Kevin’s hand with his.
There was no big speech, no perfect moment, just the three of us sitting there with the TV on too loud, my feet swollen, and this tiny life moving under their hands.