Free Marine Ever After (Always a Marine) by Heather Long

wrote a prescription. “And I want to see you next month. We’ll schedule your appointments. We can do your first sonogram right now and make sure everything looks good with the baby, the uterus and make sure all our dates line up. Let you hear the baby’s heartbeat and get a good look at everything.”
    “Thanks, Trish.” She had no question about the dates. None whatsoever.
    The doctor rose and put a hand on Lillianna’s shoulder. “Congratulations, Mom. You’re having a baby.”
    I’m having a baby . Tears sparked in her eyes and she let out a watery little laugh. “I’m having a baby.”
     
    ***
     
    “How can you not tell him?” Jodi stared at her. “He’s the father.”
    “He’s a guy I hooked up with for one night. He’s career military. The last thing he needs is a call from some chick he met at a wedding letting him know that life as he knows it is over.”
    Lillianna wasn’t sure whom she sought to convince. Herself or her boss. But Jodi was a lot more than a boss, the fifty-year-old woman had been a mentor and a best friend.
    Salt and pepper sprinkled her close-cropped hair. Deep lines softened the corners of her eyes and peeked out from the corners of her mouth, which was currently turned down in disapproval. “Honey, that is about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard you say. For a smart girl, that’s just dumb. So you two had sex, does that mean you have to do all the work? And a man has a right to know—and the chance to stand up.”
    “Don’t look at me like that. Telling him makes it even more real than it is. And it’s not a conversation to have on the phone—or in an email. I don’t even really know him, do I want to be tied to him for the rest of my life?”
    Jodi gave her a very indelicate and unsympathetic snort. “Love him or hate him, you are tied to him—especially if you’re having his baby.”
    “Wow, way to be on my side in this.” The older nurse’s disapproval stung. She was the first person besides her OB who even knew Lillianna was pregnant. She lacked the courage to tell her parents yet. She tried to excuse it that they were settling in to West Point after a fairly encouraging visit to Belgium and that she would tell them later. Certainly before the baby came.
    But she had five months for that.
    Telling Jodi proved the more practical option. She needed to shorten her shifts a little. Her exhaustion levels never improved. The doctor teased her that she might be carrying a boy—they burned more calories and took a lot more energy. Or at least so she claimed.
    They would be doing a sonogram in a few days. At least the nausea seemed done, which helped because Lillianna ate everything in sight. Hunger pinched her spine and she bounced up from the bench to grab an apple out of her locker.
    “Of course I’m on your side.” The senior nurse’s voice gentled. “You’re one of my best ER nurses, practical, grounded, and dependable. This—is not you, and that’s not fair because you’re allowed to have a life. Life is messy.”
    “Everywhere except the ER.” It was their mantra, a code to live by. Messes came to them. They cleaned it up. Life might be messy, but not in the ER. “I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not.”
    It took a few days after the news sank in and the morning sickness passed for her to realize she wasn’t upset. Shocked? Absolutely. A little embarrassed. Definitely. But excitement threaded her nerves each time she touched her tummy or noticed some subtle change.
    And they were all subtle changes at the moment. Except for her boobs, which hurt.
    “You have nothing to be sorry for. I wanted to start training you for a supervisor position, groom you as it were. We’re going to cut back your hours on the floor as much as I can within reason. You can run labs, regulate patient flow, process charts, and handle the rotation of the student nurses.”
    Lillianna lifted her brows. “You know that suspiciously sounds like a heck of a lot more