Stay with Me: A Second Chance Accidental Pregnancy Romance

by Lea Coll

  “I love them,” Lucy said.

  Sutton walked into the kitchen then. I smiled and threw an arm around her shoulders. “How’s the new job?”

  “Great. I love it.” Her eyes sparkled.

  “Hello, Sutton,” Lucy said.

  “Lucy. I didn’t think we’d ever see you here again.” She raised her brow.

  My mother drew in a sharp breath. “Sutton. What a thing to say. Where are your manners?”

  Sutton shrugged. “It’s surprising, that’s all. What are you doing back in town?”

  “I’m in between jobs at the moment. I was telling your parents I’m helping with Jack and Samantha’s wedding.”

  I shifted slightly behind Lucy, my hand coming to rest on her lower back for support. Sutton caught the movement and tilted her head at me as if to say—really?

  Sutton opened her mouth as if to say something else, but Mom interrupted, “Let’s go sit at the table. Wyatt, can you help me with this?”

  I felt Lucy breathe a sigh of relief that the inquisition was over for now, but I knew Sutton would not be happy with our news.

  I carried the casserole dish into the dining room.

  “Do you need help?” Lucy asked Mom.

  “Here, take the chips and guacamole in, would you dear?” she asked. “And Todd, can you carry in the margarita mix and pour for those who’d like some?”

  “Sit with me,” I told Lucy, patting the chair next to me as Dad poured everyone a glass. When she sat, I leaned over and whispered, “I’m sorry about Sutton.”

  “It’s about to get worse, I think.” Lucy smiled but I could tell she was worried.

  I felt Sutton watching us closely, but I ignored her. I appreciated her protectiveness but I was an adult.

  When everyone was seated, my mother dished out enchiladas to everyone’s plates. Talk turned to Dad’s outdoor store and the beginning of the school year in a few weeks. Mom was a schoolteacher at the elementary school.

  “These are so good, Jean.” Lucy leaned back, patting her full stomach.

  “I’m glad you liked it. I remember you liking Mexican food when you were in high school,” Mom said.

  When Mom got up and started to clear the dishes, I said, “We have something we wanted to talk to you about.”

  “What is it, dear? I had dessert I wanted to serve.” She sat back down in her seat.

  “This won’t take long.” I shifted in my seat. “Lucy and I—” I hesitated before taking Lucy’s hand in mine, “are going to have a baby.”

  “Are you serious?” Sutton asked me, standing up and throwing her cloth napkin on the table. “She moves back and you jump right back with her?”

  I winced because she was right. “Sutton—” I started to say but she interrupted, “No I’m not going to stand by and watch her destroy your life again. Do you remember how you were when she left the first time? If she has this baby she’s going to leave the baby with you, isn’t she? She’ll walk away and you’ll be on your own again. Except this time you’ll have a baby too.”

  “That’s not what’s going to happen and you’re completely out of line,” I said.

  Lucy laid a hand on my arm. “Sutton, I’m sorry you feel this way and you have every right to not trust me, but I plan on including Wyatt in everything. We’re in this together. I’m not walking away.”

  She leaned forward bracing herself on the table. “You can’t sit there and promise me you’re not leaving.”

  “Sutton, that’s enough,” my mother said.

  I was glad Mom interrupted because I couldn’t promise Lucy wouldn’t leave, even though I was positive she’d never abandon her baby.

  Sutton’s eyes paused on our joined hands. “Are you moving in together?”

  “We don’t have everything decided.” My voice was tight. I appreciated Sutton’s concern but she needed to back off. She’d taken over my announcement and I hadn’t seen my parents’ reactions.

  “There’s no rush. This is a big change and everything will come together. Let’s not worry about all of the details yet.” Mom stood and hugged both of us. “I’m so happy for you guys.”

  “I think congratulations are in order, first and foremost.” Dad raised his margarita glass and we followed suit with Lucy raising her water glass.

  Dad stared pointedly at Sutton until she sat in her chair once again and reluctantly raised her glass. “Congratulations. We couldn’t be happier for you two. You’re going to be amazing parents.”

  I smiled over at Lucy.

  Lucy

  Everyone said cheers except for Sutton, but I don’t think anyone noticed but me. I excused myself after a few minutes to go to the bathroom. I took a few minutes to take deep breaths and calm down. Sutton’s accusation that I would abandon my own child angered me. What I’d done as an eighteen-year-old leaving for college was immature, but to equate that with abandoning this child … I lifted my shirt to find the small comforting bump that proved I was pregnant with Wyatt’s baby. All that mattered was what Wyatt thought. I just hoped Sutton’s opinion didn’t negatively influence him.

  I pushed open the door to find Sutton leaning against the wall with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face. She pushed off the wall coming to stand close to me. “When you leave, leave the baby with Wyatt. He’s stable, he can support the baby. You only care about yourself.”

  I sucked in a breath at her words. “I know you don’t like me or that I broke it off with Wyatt after high school, but you don’t know me. I would never leave my own baby.”

  She snorted. “You aren’t cut out to be a mother. Mothers aren’t selfish. They don’t walk out when things are tough, moving onto the next best thing.” Then she walked away before I could respond.

  I stood there, my hands in fists at my side, pain crushing my chest. I knew I’d never leave my baby. But her words hurt more than getting fired, losing my apartment, and moving in with my parents. She’d voiced my worst fears. The one thing I’d always prided myself on was my independence and drive. How did I mesh that with being a mother?

  When I got my breathing under control, I returned to the living room, but Sutton was nowhere to be found thankfully. I sat next to Wyatt on the couch as they watched a football game on the flat screen.

  “Everything okay?” Wyatt asked.

  “Yeah.” I wasn’t able to meet his eyes, but I relaxed as the evening went on and they only talked about football and things happening in town.

  “What’s going on with that promotion you wanted?” Todd asked.

  “The decision is based on our performance evaluations and the test scores. The other applicant is from Assateague Island. I don’t know anything else about him—whether he has more experience or his performance is better or worse. The test is tomorrow.”

  I knew the test was coming up but hadn’t realized it was so soon.

  “I’m sure you’ll get it. You do such a good job and I’m sure your supervisors know that.” Jean left the room and when she came back, she held two frames in her hand. Sitting next to me on the couch, she showed them to me. One had an image of a little girl and a poem and the other one had an image of a little boy with a poem. “Wyatt had this one in his room,” she tilted the boy frame, “and Sutton had the little girl one. I’d like you to have one when you find out the gender.”

  Glancing at Wyatt and then at Jean, I said, “But shouldn’t these go to Sutton?”

  “You’re having a baby first. You can have one and she can have the other.”

  “Thank you. I’d love to hang this in the nursery.” Sutton hadn’t come back into the family room after our confrontation, but I was sure she wouldn’t like her mom offering me one of the pictures.

  “Are you about ready to head out?” Wyatt asked.

  “Yeah, I’m pretty tired.” Meeting with both of our families to tell them the news combined with being pregnant, I was emotionally drained and exhausted.

  Wyatt turned to his parents. “We’re going to go.”


  “Thanks for dinner,” I said as they got up to hug and congratulate us.

  Once we were in his Jeep, I said, “Your family didn’t ask us any questions about where we’re going to live, how we’re going to support the baby, nothing.” Sutton had her own ideas of what was going to happen, but it was surprising his parents weren’t concerned at all.

  “They know we’ll figure it out.”

  “Well, that’s refreshing. I don’t even know that.”

  “Hey, is everything okay? You seemed upset after you went to the bathroom.”

  Should I tell him what Sutton said when she’d voiced out loud my worst fears that I’d be a terrible mother? I knew I wouldn’t leave my child. But wasn’t that what I would be doing if I went back to work at eighty hours per week? What kind of a life was that for a child? To take the baby from the father? Forcing Wyatt to move for my dreams? But there was no need to add to Wyatt’s doubts. He was so confident about me—us—I didn’t want to change that. “Just worried about how we’re going to do this.”

  He reached across the console taking my hand in his. “We’ve got this.”

  “You keep saying that.”

  “We do.”

  When I noticed we weren’t heading to my parents’ house, I asked, “Where are we going?”

  “To my house.”

  “Why?” We hadn’t seen each other since our weekend in Baltimore.

  “I thought you could use some downtime—away from everyone and their questions. We can watch a movie and relax.”

  When we arrived at his home, Wyatt walked me to the door holding my hand. The last time we were here I told him I was pregnant. So much had happened since then. The baby was more real now that we’d seen the ultrasound and told our families.

  “Did you want to watch a movie?” he asked, standing in the middle of his living room watching me.

  Suddenly I wanted a distraction, something to take my mind off reality. I knew it was unfair to him but I wanted him with a fierceness I’d never felt before. “No.”

  He raised his brow. “No? Then what did you have in mind?” He moved into the kitchen. “Are you hungry?”

  “I want you.”

  “Are you sure? The last time you said it was a mistake. You said it complicated things.”

  “It does but I want you.” I’d worry about the consequences later.

  He must have been satisfied with whatever was written on my face and in my eyes because he closed the distance between us and his lips crashed down on mine. My lips separated and his tongue entered my mouth, his hands cupping my head.

  He easily lifted me, carrying me back to his room, never lifting his mouth from mine, and lowered me slowly down his body so I felt every hard ridge until I was standing. I couldn’t look away from the raw emotion in his eyes as he pulled my maxi dress over my head, leaving me in silky red panties and bra. He flicked the clasp on my bra, allowing it to drop to the floor, before he knelt in front of me dragging my panties down my legs until they were off.

  Watching my reaction, he nudged my legs apart, placing a soft kiss on my clit before sucking it hard into his mouth. I moaned at the delicious contact. He continued with his tongue and fingers until I was shaking and struggling to stand. He helped me to lie back on the bed and I was open to him. I watched beneath hooded eyelids as he slowly undressed.

  The last two times we’d hooked up had been in public. It was sexy, erotic. This time we were alone in his bed. If we did this there’d be no going back. I saw the vulnerability in Wyatt’s eyes as he pulled his shirt from his pants, slowly unbuttoning it, and shrugging it off. He never took his eyes from mine as he shucked his pants, shoes, and socks.

  He’d brought me to the brink before he’d laid me on the bed and the cool air from the whirling ceiling fan created an interesting sensation on my pussy. I held my hand out to him. “Wyatt.”

  “Are you still wet for me?” He stood between my legs, his fingers cupping me, testing my wetness, as he watched me. “I need the words.”

  “Yes,” I said, my words strangled. “Yes, I’m wet for you.” Only you. I arched into his hand seeking more friction. I wanted more.

  Two fingers entered me, as he pumped in and out as he hovered over me, kissing my neck, the shell of my ear. “If we do this, really do this, we’re all in.”

  “What?” I tilted my head to give him better access to my neck. Was he using sex to get me to decide to stay here—to be with him?

  “If we continue this I want to be in a relationship.” His voice was gruff and strained with need.

  Would a relationship with him be so bad? The niggling thought in the back of my head was what if I move? I get a job somewhere else? “That isn’t fair, Wyatt.”

  His fingers slowed. “You knew exactly what you were getting into. I told you. I don’t do one without the other because emotions are involved. You have to decide.” His eyes on mine made me uncomfortable, but I couldn’t look away from the intensity in them. He wanted me.

  It wasn’t the relationship I was scared of. It was the emotion I could see building in his eyes. This was so much more for him and I was scared to think about what it was to me.

  “Lucy.” His fingers started moving again.

  Biting my lip at the sensation, I said, “Yes. I want more with you.”

  “Don’t think you can say that and walk away tomorrow. I want everything with you. I want this baby. I want you. I want every emotion you’re hiding right now.”

  It was too much. His thumb was circling my clit driving me crazy, making it more and more difficult to think. “This isn’t fair.” I know I was repeating myself and not making sense but his fingers were driving me crazy.

  “This is the only time you listen to me. You let me in little by little until I’ll have all of you and once I have all of you I’m never letting go. Do you understand?”

  I nodded—an overwhelming feeling coming over me. The orgasm built along with something I’d never felt before. When it washed over me in waves, tears sprang to my eyes, and I closed them so he wouldn’t see what he’d done to me. I’d never felt more exposed to another person. It was in that moment that I knew—there’d never been anyone else. It had always been him. When I’d broken things off with him, I couldn’t bear the thought of getting over him so I hadn’t. I’d existed in this crazy limbo where I’d survived but I hadn’t really been living.

  He kissed each of my eyelids gently until I opened them, looking into his eyes. “Don’t hide. Let me in. Let me love you. Take care of you. Let me be everything.”

  It sounded so good. Could I allow myself to lean on him? To love him? To let all of the emotions I’d hidden for so long come to the surface again? Was it safe to do that? Was I safe with him? I’d walked away from him the first time. He’d never done that to me. He’d always been there for me.

  “Yes,” I murmured as his cock nudged my entrance and he slid in. It was a slow lovemaking, long slow thrusts, with his body flush with mine, his weight on me, holding me down, anchoring me, centering me. His breath was on my face as he whispered how much he loved me, how he’d never stopped, how he always wanted me to come back and now that I had he’d never let me go.

  It sounded amazing and I never wanted the moment to stop. The slow thrusts, grinding his pelvis on my clit, pushed me over again. A few more thrusts and then he stilled, deeper inside me than he’d ever been. When he recovered, he held his weight off of me, his face in my hair. “I love you so much,” Wyatt said, his hands cupping my head as he kissed me, his cock still inside me. It was messy, wet, beautiful.

  Every feeling I’d been pushing down since I’d walked away from him crashed into me. “I love you too, Wyatt.”

  Wyatt

  Lucy fell asleep almost immediately, her face relaxed and serene. I stroked her hair which fanned over the pillow. She was finally mine. I saw the emotion in her eyes after we made love. She couldn’t resist our physical intimacy, as much as she pushed me away otherwise. She couldn’t deny she
wanted me—she wanted us.

  Tomorrow, her brain would kick on and she’d pull away again, but I’d keeping working on our relationship. By the time the baby arrived, she’d be in so deep with me—she’d see the baby as a natural extension of our love—a family.

  I closed my eyes trying to sleep. I had the test tomorrow for my promotion. Assuming Lucy stayed here, the increase in salary would be welcome, but also I wanted to work in a supervisory position. I enjoyed what I did but fieldwork got monotonous at times.

  The next morning, Lucy kissed me awake. “Good luck on your test.”

  “Thanks, babe.”

  I opened my eyes to find her brown eyes soft and full of emotion. “Love you.”

  “Love you, too.” I brushed her hair back from her face.

  Her eyes were bright with happiness. “You’ll do fine.”

  “Thanks—it means a lot that you support me.” That she was here. I thought I was okay alone but man, was it better to have someone who had your back.

  I sat up. “I can drive you home.”

  “I already called an Uber.” She checked her phone. “Which is here. I have a wedding to plan.” With one more quick kiss she was gone. I heard her call, “See you tonight,” before the front door slammed shut.

  I got up and ready for the day running through possible test questions in my mind. I pulled into the gravel lot, hoping I looked more confident than I felt. This whole thing with Lucy and the baby had me distracted when I couldn’t afford to be. I needed to be focused on this test. If Lucy decided to stay home with the baby or start her own business—I’d be the sole provider for a while, which came with a lot of stress on my shoulders. Not that I’d tell her that.

  I walked through the glass doors eyeing the gentleman waiting in a chair by the conference room. He had to be the other applicant. He appeared to be slightly older than me. I nodded at him in greeting when Jason approached. “Are you ready?”

  He led us into a conference room and placed the test in front of me. It was nothing I hadn’t expected—questions regarding the laws and regulations with some scenarios outlined for me to explain how I’d handle the situation. When I was done, I returned the test to Jason feeling like I’d done my best. If the other guy had more experience or the colonels and majors thought he’d performed better in the field it was out of my hands.