Beginning with Their Baby

“Well, yeah. I don’t think I’d be this stressed out if it was someone else’s.”

“Hey, when did this happen?”

Matt stared at his friend incredulously. “Excuse me?”

“Not the pregnant thing, the you-finding-out thing.”

“Oh. Yesterday.”

“So this is what you needed the gynecologist’s number for?”

“Well, it sure as hell wasn’t for me.”

“Yeah, but I figured one of your sisters was looking for a new doctor or something. It never occurred to me that you’d gotten a woman pregnant, but at least everything is making a bit more sense now.”

“I’m glad it makes sense to you, because my head is so screwed up that I can barely see straight.”

Reece reached over, clamped a hand on his shoulder. “Tell me.”

He didn’t have a clue where to start, so for the first time in his life he opened his mouth and just rambled. “I fell for her the first time I saw her. She was doing sidewalk art a few blocks from the UT stadium, keeping the fans amused as we killed time before the game.”

“I remember. You were twenty minutes late for kickoff and when you finally showed up you looked like you’d been hit in the head with a two-by-four.”

“That’s how I felt. I hung out with her for over an hour, even paid her twenty bucks to do a caricature of me.” She’d drawn him in a suit and tie, a huge briefcase clutched in one hand and an even bigger pocket watch in the other. He’d been amazed at the astuteness of her drawing, especially since he’d been dressed in faded jeans and an old UT shirt. “Then I stood around, trying to get her number as she drew a bunch of pictures for other people.