Mace

M ace walked in to find Brooke sitting in the kitchen studying something that sat in front of her. Whatever they were, she had lined them all up, like little soldiers, and found himself curious. He leaned over her shoulder and felt sick when he realized that she was studying pregnancy tests—eight of them to be exact, and every one of them was positive.

“What’s going on, Brooke?” he asked, causing her to jump.

“I didn’t hear you come into the kitchen,” she whispered.

“That’s obvious,” he said. “What are all of those?” he said, nodding to the tests on the table.

“They are pregnancy tests,” she said. Brooke didn’t look at him and he hated that she was hiding from him. “I’m pregnant, .”

“I can see that,” he said. “Brooke, look at me,” he ordered. She turned around and stared up at him, tears rolling down her rosy cheeks. “Aww—don’t cry. You know I’m not any good at taking care of crying women.”

“I know that, but I’m worried that you’ll be angry with me,” she sobbed.

“For what?” he asked.

“For those,” she said, pointing back over her shoulder to the tests.

“I’m not angry at you for being pregnant,” insisted. “In fact, I’m happy about it.” He had never really given much thought to having a family. Hell, he never thought that he’d ever settle down with one woman, yet here he was. It felt right to be taking this next step with Brooke.

“You are?” she asked.

“I am,” he said. “I just wish that you hadn’t worried yourself about telling me, honey. You can tell me anything.”

“How was I supposed to tell you that you’re about to be a father when I can’t accept the fact that I’m going to be a mom?” Brooke asked. He pulled her up from the chair and tugged her against his body.

“You’re going to be a fantastic mother,” he assured. “And I’m going to be a fantastic father,” he joked, making her giggle.

“I know that you will be,” she agreed. “Are you sure that you’re okay with all of this?” she asked. “We’ve technically only been together for two months now. Don’t you think this is a bit sudden?”

shrugged, “Not really,” he said. “I think that this feels right, don’t you?”

Brooke shyly nodded, “I do,” she agreed. “I guess I’m going to have to come clean about the two of us to my father, once this mess blows over. I’m not sure that he’s going to be thrilled about any of it. I mean, if he didn’t like you as a client, what’s he going to say about you being the father of his grandchild?”

“I don’t give a fuck what your father has to say about any of this,” he growled. “I just know that I’m not letting you go, no matter how he feels about me.”

“Good,” she breathed snuggling against him, “I don’t want you to ever let me go either. I do need to call the office and talk to my father, though,” she said. “He was checking into something for me about Julie. I’m going to tell him about the baby.”

“Are you sure that it’s a good idea to tell him right now? What if he decides not to help us anymore?” asked. Brooke’s father was investigating Julie, and he had to admit he was grateful for the help. Brooke had lied to him and told him that it was for another case that she was working on, but could tell from the guy’s tone that he didn’t believe her. thought for sure that once she told her father that she was at a safehouse, because there was a threat to her life due to her working on ’s case, her father would write her off for good, but he didn’t.

“He’s going to find out sooner or later,” she insisted. He knew that when Brooke got that cute, stubborn look on her face, she wasn’t going to give in. It was one of the things that he loved most about her.

“Can’t we just wait for the baby to actually get here and then break the news to him?” worried that her father would go off like a loose cannon and upset Brooke and that was the last thing she needed. All the stress she was under couldn’t be good for the baby.

Brooke giggled, “No, we can’t wait until he or she gets here. I thought that you weren’t afraid of anything,” she said.

“I’m not afraid of your father, honey,” insisted, “I’m worried about him upsetting you or stressing you out. That wouldn’t be good for the baby.”

“We’ve only just found out about the baby, ,” she said. “I’m sure that it’s fine for me to have a little bit of stress in my life. Besides, I need to know if he’s found out anything about Julie’s past that might help us prove that she killed Reece. How about I promise not to get stressed out while talking to my father, and you call your father to fill him in on things?” groaned and Brooke held up her hand as if stopping him from having a full-blown fit. “Before you get pissy about calling him, I promised that we’d keep him in the loop, and we haven’t called him once in the past two months that we’ve been here.”

“Yeah, well, I never promised to keep him in the loop. If you want to update him, go for it, but I’m out. You have no idea what it was like to grow up without a father. Kids used to make fun of me for living with my grandmother, but I learned to ignore them. Finding out that my father not only had another kid but also kept tabs on me, pisses me off, Brooke. I won’t talk to him.”

“,” she breathed. Whenever she started a sentence with his name, he knew that he was in trouble. “We are going to have a baby, and while neither of our fathers are perfect, we still need to tell them about him or her. I don’t want our baby to start out in this world with his or her parents hating their fathers. Please, do it for me,” she begged. Jesus, Brooke knew that he’d do just about anything for her, and she was right.

“Fine,” he grumbled, “I’ll call James and fill him in on the case, and I’ll even tell him about the baby, but I still don’t want him to be a part of our lives. My kid doesn’t need to be disappointed by her grandfather like I was. He or she will have better than James Cooper.”

“Well, calling James is at least a step in the right direction,” she said. She picked up his cell phone from the kitchen table and handed it to him. groaned one last time and took it from her as he headed out of the kitchen.

Finding out that he was going to be a father should have been a joyous occasion; instead, it had turned out to be a crap shoot and now, he was going to have to deal with the father who abandoned him.

knew that he was making a giant fucking mistake when he agreed to call his so-called father. He knew that James would say whatever he needed to in order to get to believe that he was truly sorry, but there was nothing that could be said that would make him believe his old man.

remembered growing up without James in his life. Not only did the other school kids make fun of him, but he also had to watch his grandmother struggle to put food on the table for the two of them. Some nights, she would go without dinner so that he could eat.

As soon as was fourteen, he found a place that would hire him after school, trying to help his grandmother out the best that he could. She hated the idea of her grandson having to help her out and told him so almost every night that he came home late and hit the books to study. He was a good student back then, but things changed quickly after his grandmother got sick. He had trouble working, taking care of her, and going to school—so he gave up school. At the time, he felt like it was a good idea, but looking back, it wasn’t the best. He got into trouble with the law and by the time that he got out of juvie, his grandmother was gone. Not being there for her in the end was his biggest regret. Well, that and getting himself into juvie in the first place.

After she was gone, he was all alone, and that worked for him. found a way to find his way in the world, even earning his GED, and he thought that he had done okay—until he met Brooke. Now, with her in his life, he wanted to be more for both her and their unborn child.

“Let’s get this fucking over with,” he whispered to himself. He called the number that Brooke had given him and waited for James to answer. He went over what to say in his head, and when James finally answered, felt tongue-tied.

“Hello,” James said. “Is someone there?”

“Yeah, it’s ,” he said, clearing his throat.

“Hey,” James said. “Have you found anything new about Reece’s death?”

wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, but that wasn’t going to solve his problems. “Yes,” he said. “Julie admitted to me that she killed Reece, and also said that she was coming after Brooke, so I have her in a safehouse.”

“Wow, you moved fast,” James said.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” shouted.

“It means that you like her,” James insisted. more than liked her—he was in love with her and planned to ask her to marry him once they were out of this mess, but that wasn’t James’s business.

“That’s none of your business,” insisted. James chuckled into the other end of the phone and wanted to punch the old guy in the face. “Shut the fuck up,” shouted.

“Take it easy, . You definitely got my temper. I didn’t mean anything by it. Just forget that I said anything. Is there anything that I can do to help out with your case against the woman who killed my son?” Hearing James call Reece his son made ’s heart hurt a little bit. He wondered if James had ever referred to him as his son, but then again, he didn’t want to be disappointed if he hadn’t.

“No,” said. “I’ve got things covered.” It was a total lie, but he would never take James’s help when it came to taking are of his woman.

“Well, if you change your mind, let me know,” James offered.

“I won’t, but thanks,” said. He ended the call, saying all that he had to say. Brooke would probably be disappointed in him for not telling James about the baby, but he just wasn’t ready to share that part of his life with James. He hadn’t been ’s father for a long time now, and something as intimate as a baby wasn’t something that he wanted James to know about. He’d just have to find a way to break the news to Brooke and hope that she’d understand because he wasn’t going to change his mind about James any time soon.