The Fireman's Baby: A BWWM Pregnancy Romance (9 page)

“Stacy,” Daniel continued patiently. “I slept with one woman. Once. A year ago when you stormed out on me and said we were done. I didn't cheat on you, but I did sleep with this woman when we weren't together and I didn't see her again before I went to Colorado. When I got back she ran into me at a café and she had a baby with her.”

“Oh, let me guess,” Stacy seethed, “It's yours? If you screw a woman like that, Danny, you've got no idea whose it is. It's probably not yours at all. She's probably just some cheap little gold digger who goes out with every man who shows up on the street.”

A sudden anger rose up in Daniel for Laura and he raised his voice to answer Stacy. “Don't you talk about her like that!” he warned. “She is not cheap. She is not a slut. She is a kind, decent woman that I let down, but not anymore. I have a child now, Stacy. I can't be playing these games with you anymore.”

“Are you dumping me?” Stacy asked him disbelievingly. “Forget it, Danny, because I'm ending this right now. I will not be your piece on the side while you're out screwing every woman you come across ‘fighting fires.’ You go have fun with your little slice and enjoy raising someone else's kid, because I'm done with all of this and I'm done with you.”

“Thank God!” Daniel replied. “I can't believe I put up with you this long. You're paranoid, Stacy and you're insecure and you're childish.”

“
You got another woman pregnant!
” Stacy hissed. “So yes, I'm insecure.”

“Oh, you love it,” Daniel accused. “From day one, you've been waiting for me to trip up; pushing me and pushing me, just willing me to go over the edge. Well, congratulations! You won. I was with someone else and I didn't regret it for a moment. You were right to be suspicious. I'm a terrible, cheating man.”

Stacy stopped and stared at him and finally stopped her hysterics. She became quiet and collected herself.

“I know we fought a lot, Danny, but I really thought we had something.”

Daniel shook his head. “There might have been a time when we were good for each other, but it was a long time ago.”

The angry young woman let go of her fury and walked over to the door, pulling it open to indicate that Daniel should leave.

“I think you should go, Daniel,” she told him coldly. “This is the last time we have this fight. This time I mean it. We're done.”

For once, Daniel didn't stick around long enough for her to change her mind and he left her apartment quickly. For years, he had put off truly ending things with that girl, from fear or loneliness or duty, he didn't even know any more, but now that it was all over, all he felt was relief and freedom at last.

He felt hopeful, too. He thought of Laura with hopeful expectation, imagining a life with her, not that he could imagine that she'd want him now. After all, he'd knocked her up and left the state for months. She'd been so kind and gracious since he'd returned, but that was because she was the type of woman he'd never encountered before and he wasn't really sure where to go from here.

He called on Sam and Michael for a drink to talk it out with friends who knew him well. He told them about ending things with Stacy.

“Thank the heavens!” Sam sung. “That girl was a nightmare.”

Daniel looked to Michael for his opinion and his other friend nodded too.

“She had some serious issues, Dan.”

“So, what are you going to do about this other girl and her baby?” Sam pressed him. “Are you all just going to play happy family now?”

“I don't know,” Daniel sighed. “I haven't known her long, but she's not like anyone else I've ever met. Maybe I've just been with Stacy too long, I don't know. When you get a woman pregnant and return months later, you expect there to be hell to pay, but she'd just pulled herself together and made a life for herself and when I came back, she didn't ask for anything or blame me for anything. She just invited me to be a part of a family that she'd worked hard to build. You've got to respect that.”

“She seems like a really nice girl,” Michael said. “And it was clear that there was something special between you two. When we saw you together that day we came by, there were definite sparks flying. You never looked at Stacy that way.”

“You should have seen how Laura was looking at you when you weren't looking at her,” Sam added. “You don't look that way at someone if you’re not interested.” “Do you think?” Daniel asked hopefully. “I mean, I know it's a weird situation, but I think in time I could have something real with this girl.”

“Give her a bit of space at first,” Sam advised. “You've been gone for a long time.”

“Yeah,” Michael agreed. “Don't rush in. Make it about the kid and see where it goes with the girl.”

*

Daniel took their advice and even though everything about Laura was incredible to him, he tried to keep his distance, because he hadn't earned her yet. Perhaps she wouldn't want him at all. Perhaps if he really got to know her, he'd find that she wasn't as perfect as she seemed to him when he only saw her occasionally.

After all, Laura had already shown him that there were two very different sides to her: the sexy, uninhibited and wild side he'd discovered on their first night together, and the tender, quiet side that he'd seen in her as a mother.

Over the weeks and months that followed, their time together gradually increased. It began with sharing in Annie's big moments: her first words, her first steps, her first professional photos. Then it crept into family barbeques with Daniel's parents and social drinks with Sophie, Sam and Michael. Soon play dates with the twins were creeping in and then the two needed to plan Annie's first birthday party together.

Annie's first birthday was a happy event. It marked the start of so many things and the end of so many others. When Laura looked around and saw everyone gathered together; Sophie, Sam and Michael, her parents and Daniel's, neighbors and friends, she felt like everything had come to together in the most unexpected and remarkable way.

She saw not just an unplanned child, but an unplanned family which had somehow sprung up from the chaos. It was the end, too, of the uncertain year. Laura wasn't afraid anymore that she was going to be on her own or ever struggle to take care of Annie. Daniel had been true to his word and looked after her and Annie in whatever way was needed.

Often it was the financial help that Laura needed and he would make sure that Annie was always clothed and fed and surrounded by toys, but it was also the emotional support that a new mother desperately requires. He would listen to her talk about her day with Annie and she would tell him all her concerns and frustrations. He would listen with quiet patience and reassure her that it was all going to be all right.

He loved his daughter. The first time that Laura had let him take Annie out on his own, she had been terrified to let her little girl out of her sight, but Annie had returned all smiles and tuckered out and when Daniel  told Laura excitedly all about their day out at the fair, she felt all over again the fondness she had begun to feel for him. They tried to keep their distance at first, because this was new to them both. It was sudden, unexpected, and a little strange, but as life brought them closer together, they both stopped fighting the currents and fell into a routine more suited to a couple than two people who had been thrown together by a surprise baby.

Daniel kept waiting to see the side of Laura that he didn't like; her possessive side, or her sulky side, or her selfish side, but it never came. In fact, he only saw a hundred new sides to her that had been hidden in the haste of their union. Laura had the patience of a saint. He could only marvel when he arrived at the gift card shop to pick Annie up and saw Laura explain to a little old lady at least a dozen times that you couldn't buy a Christmas card in February.

She was fun. Laura made him laugh without even trying. It was the fact that she amused him without any effort that made him enjoy her company so much. She was a wonderful listener. When he came to pick up Annie with stories about a hard day at work or a difficult co-worker, she would listen with genuine interest and sound advice. And, of course, she was a wonderful mother. Watching how she raised his daughter with such honest love and affection made his feelings for her run deep.

His affections were not unreturned. Laura thought it was all a dream when Daniel returned and stepped into her life again, but the man just became more and more wonderful the more time she spent with him.

When she'd first met him, she had believed him to be a wonder to women everywhere; a confident, sexy man who was way out of her league. As time went by, she found him to actually be a little on the shy side and sensitive and incredibly funny. Far from being with any number of women, she came to learn that he had been with one woman on and off for years until he ended it all to be there for her and Annie.

Laura found that Daniel was attentive and kind and thoughtful in a way that she thought the movies made up. He always seemed to know just when a cup of coffee could save her life and he wasn't afraid to do the dishes every now and then. He was dependable. Laura never had to chase him to come and pick up Annie or remind him of the things she needed. Daniel was simply there.

It amazed her that they could spend so much time together and never argue. They stepped into their respective roles as parents with ease and pleasure, as though everything was exactly as it was meant to be.

Laura came to understand that plans could change and that sometimes the new, unscripted plan was the best kind of all. When Sophie told her all that time ago that the key to contentment was letting loose, she thought her friend was a little crazy, but Sophie was  right. Laura's one moment of carefree insanity had allowed her whole life to fall into place, much better than any plan.

Her time as a mother started unexpectedly, but Laura quickly found that being a mother was what she was meant to do. Between Annie, her gift card shop and Daniel just around the corner, Laura didn't think that life could get any better. She felt complete.

Laura  and Daniel were growing closer as the months passed, but she didn't want to take anything between them for granted or put something fragile under pressure, so she never questioned where they were headed or asked any of the big and scary questions. Instead, she threw away the plan and let each day surprise her. She found that life was good that way.

Spending days with Daniel and Annie in the park or at the pool were moments of pure joy in Laura's life. She loved nothing more than to watch Daniel fuss over their daughter and the day he presented their now two-year-old with a little red fire truck. She thought with fondness back to a time when he had told her how he'd imagined giving his child such a toy. In a way, both their plans were coming to fruition. It was simply that neither of them ever had the foresight to realize that they were the missing part to the other's plan.

Everything came together so perfectly as they stepped into their roles as parents. Daniel's family loved Laura and, when Laura finally introduced Daniel to her own family, they loved him too. Even her brother, whom she'd once said she'd never tell about her night with Daniel, gave a handshake to the man when he met him at last and he was happy to be another one of the boys in Daniel's group alongside Michael and Sam, who also loved Laura. Laura thought the world of them too.

Both of Daniel's firefighter friends were like part of their family now. It wasn't unusual for Sam to swing by with a present for Annie, or for Michael to stop in just to complain to Laura about his wife. These little interactions were part of the pace of life now and Laura loved every second. Their two families were slowly intertwining in a way that made it impossible for Daniel and Laura to not open up more of their lives to one another.

Even Sophie came around to liking Daniel in time. At first, the protective friend had been wary of the absent firefighter, who so surely must have had some fault for her wayward best friend to   fall for him. But, in time, Sophie came to find that Daniel had no secret past or hidden vices, and was simply a nice guy, who, like Laura, only managed to find a different type of girl when he'd stepped outside his comfort zone.

Everybody around them could see the love growing between the pair as Annie grew month by month. Both were incredible parents who doted on their little girl and were kind and considerate to each other. The long and loving looks that passed between them didn't go unnoticed by those around them.

“For heaven's sake, Laura,” her mother told her one day. “What is it going to take for you and that man to admit that you're in love?”

“It's not that easy, Mom,” Laura laughed shyly. “We rushed in the first time, so now we're just taking it slowly. He loves Annie. He's not going anywhere.”

Sophie too, urged Laura to act upon the strong emotions that she so clearly held for the father of her child.

“What are you doing, Laura?” she asked her exasperatedly. “You spend so much time looking for the perfect guy and when he finally appears you start to play it cool. You've already had a kid together. Isn't the hard part done?”

Laura didn't know what to tell them. Just as she and Daniel both knew on that hot afternoon a long time ago, that they needed each other in a carnal and wild way, they both understood now that their needs had changed. As so many things were between them, this too was unspoken, but Laura knew that Daniel was looking for a woman who would love him as he was and trust him implicitly.  Daniel knew that Laura was looking for a man who would respect her for who she was, and stand by her side. Both became the person the other needed without needing to be asked, and it was this unspoken understanding that made the love between them so easily grow.