"I, Katie... Wait."
"What?" She looked up at me, her gaze inquisitive. "You are ready to have a baby, aren't you?"
"Yeah, yes I am. There's just... I don't know how to tell you this." I had to tell her before we started trying to have our own child.
"Harrison, what's wrong? Oh, God, did you lose your job? Are your parents sick? Is it Veronica? Is she not handling the breakup with Lyla very well?"
"No, no, my family's fine... I mean, Ronnie's as okay as she can be and my parents are experiencing the normal woes of growing older, but other than that, they're fine." I took a deep breath, attempting to figure out how to tell her. "This afternoon, I... I got this message on Facebook. From a girl that I hooked up with."
"No, no! It was eleven years ago. Before I began my junior year, before I met you. I'd never cheat on, I love you and our life, I'd never be so crass, so inconsiderate, so stupid to ruin that, to do that to you." This news may ruin our life together. I hoped it didn't. "Look, I just want you to remember: I love you."
"I love you, too." She sighed, gazing steadily at me. "Can I read the messages?" I nodded, handing her my phone.
"You... You have a son?"
"I, I do... I was foolish and drunk and twenty-one and she was eighteen and then I went back to college and she moved to South Carolina for college and I just want to do what's right. I want to have a child with you, but I also have a child with her, apparently, and I don't want to isolate him. I want to be a father to him, if you're okay with that. I know, it's rash, we'll do a paternity test first... He's ten. I missed out on a decade of his life and I don't want to miss out on anymore. I'm sorry."
"Harrison... I love you. It's, it's... You'll do a paternity test first?" I nodded. "Promise?"
"Promise."
"And will they fly here to meet you?"
"I'm sure they can." I could tell she was thinking, her husband had just announced he already had a child and he wanted to meet up with him and his one night stand. Our marriage was already strained; we were living in a state neither of had a connection to, because of my job, Katie was having difficulty finding a job, I'd been procrastinating having a kid, because I was worried we might move again and I wanted to know we could settle in and raise a family here, I had just been a real asshat about her adopting Romy, now I was throwing in another twist. "Look, Katie, I know this is insane, it's a complete bombshell, so whatever you want to do, we can. If you want to meet them in Barcelona, I'm down, I just want you to be happy and be able to meet Colin."
"Barcelona? I've heard Spain's lovely this time of year..." She smirked, leaning closer. "Harrison, I'm not going to keep you from meeting you son... My step-son..."
"Thank you. God, you don't know how much this means to me."
"I might, after we have our own child..."
"You know, we can't have our own child if we don't..." I leaned forward, slowly kissing her lips. I wrapped my arms around her, lifting her onto the dryer. Our clothes fell onto the floor, carelessly cast aside. It didn't matter how many barriers we faced, it didn't matter how stressed we were, we still loved each other after ten years of marriage and we had enough love to welcome a new soul into the world, into our happy little family.
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