28

He hung up the phone when he saw me walking towards the car with the cart, my expression is blank.

"Sorry, the phone call took longer than expected." he got out of the car and started helping me put the bags into the boot.

"Its fine, you don't need to explain yourself to me." Its not like we're together anyways. The thought made my heart hurt and my stomach clench.

"No I should've at least tried to come in and help."

Why are we even fighting over this?

"Look, lets not even fight about this. Lets just go home."

"Okay." we both got into the car and he drove to his apartment with the only noise coming from the radio.

Back at his apartment we unloaded the groceries in silence, Lucas did most of the lifting but whatever. I go into the kitchen and start unloading the food and putting aside what I'm going to use to make my triple chocolate cake with a vanilla frosting.

As I pop the batter into the oven Lucas walks in the kitchen.

"Jess can I ask you something?"

"Shoot." I lean against the counter trying to look nonchalant.

"Um, a-are you, you're happy right?" he runs a hand through his hair showing his nervousness.

"Of course I'm happy, why what's up?"

"Well, you've been living here for about a month, " six weeks not that I'm counting. "and we have grown closer so I was wondering if you would like to move your stuff into my room."

"Oh." that is not what I thought he was going to say.

"You don't have to though if you don't want to, it was just a suggestion." he rubs the back of his neck.

"Sure I'll move my stuff in with yours Lucas." I smile relieving him of his awkwardness even though it was kind of fun seeing him squirm.

"Awesome." he smiles kissing my temple.

After our conversation I took the cake out of the oven, let it cool and started to put the icing on it. I left it on the counter and went to change for the dinner at his parents house. An hour later we were at Lucas' parents front door.

Knock Knock Knock.

The door is opened to reveal a smiling Lisa, with John not to far behind.

"Hello, come in. It's getting cold now isn't it." she states

"Well mum it is almost December so it's bound to be cold."

"Don't sas me boy." she walks down the half into the kitchen and we follow. "Lucas, Jess this is Lucas' cousin Maggie, she's going to be staying with us for a while."

"Maggie! It's so good to see you." I waddled over and gave her a hug, "And you re-dyed your hair." I look at the now dark blue hair.

"Jess it's good to see you too."

"You two know each other?"

"Yeah I met her when I went to visit my mother."

We feel into a pleasant conversation as the night went on, soon enough dinner was served and we were all eating at the table. Half way through dinner the doorbell rang.

DING DONG

"Excuse me for a minute." John said pushing his chair.

We continued to eat. It had been around ten minutes before Lucas decided to go and see what was taking his dad so long.

Lisa, Maggie and I ended up finishing dinner alone, we put their meals in the microwave and started to get desert ready in the kitchen. A few minutes later John comes in looking panic stricken with Lucas trailing not to far behind, the only difference was that he was now holding a baby carrier in one hand and a manila tag envelope in the other.

"Lucas, what did you do?" Lisa asks.

"A girl I was with from before, she was at the door, she was pregnant." he looks at me, "Jess, I swear I had no idea."

All I could bring myself to do was nod numbly.

"Well why do you have the baby? Where is she?" Lisa asks walking over to Lucas, taking the carrier and setting it on the table.

"She said that she couldn't do this anymore and now he's my responsibility." he sits on a chair running a hand through his hair.

"Well did she tell you his name?" Maggie pipes up from one of the bar stools before putting more cake in her mouth.

"Jake, his name is Jake."

I can tell that they're expecting me to be upset. But I can't, they don't know that I was only a one night stand, if the situation were any different and Lucas and I were in an actual relationship then maybe I would've had a different reaction then I did.

"Poor little guy." I whisper walking over to the carrier where he was sleeping. I pick him up from the carrier, "Little cutie." I bounced the sleeping baby on my shoulder walking around the kitchen, ignoring the stares his family was giving me.

"You're really calm about this." Lisa states. I look up at stare everyone in the eyes. Lucas looks relieved, Lisa looks surprised and confused, John looks content and Maggie has a knowing look on her face.

"Well there isn't anything to really be upset about I und-" Lisa interrupts me.

"Nothing to be upset about? Jess some random women just left her baby on the door step claiming it's Lucas' and you aren't even upset." she bursts

"If anything I'm just disappointed that she isn't in her child life and just gave him to Lucas." it's not like I really can be anyways.

After that Lucas and I headed for home with Jake, but not before stopping at the grocery store for some formula and other baby necessities. Walking into the penthouse I went straight to the living room to rest the carrier on one of the couches and Lucas went to the kitchen to put away the groceries.

Setting it down I noticed that Jake was awake, his big blue-gray eyes, the same colour as his father, were staring up at me in curiosity.

"Hello cutie." I coo, "Hi, I'm Jess." I talk to him as if he can actually understand me.

His eyes follow me as I talk. Lucas walks into the living room, puts the carrier on the floor and sits down on the couch beside me.

"So I've been doing some research on six week old babies and it says their 'sensory perception' is improving, we need to do something called tummy time, we need to set a schedule, we have to buy a crib and everything he's gonna need along with things for the twins-" he rambles on.

I rest Jake's head on my shoulder and walk over to Lucas, "Calm down, take deep breaths." I stare into his eyes willing for him to calm down.

"I'm just so worried, I was actually able to prepare for the twins." he sighs, "Hell I still had six months to prepare before Lacey left Jake with me." he runs his hands down his face.

The girl I met in the waiting room.

"I met her you know." I said walking back to the couch I was previously on, lying down on my back with Jake lying on my chest.

"Who?"

"Lacey, in the waiting room, while you were in the bathroom." I rub Jakes back.

"I'm so afraid that I'm going to mess up." he goes back to our previous conversation, not wanting to talk about Lacey.

"I'm sure you will be fine." I try to reassure him.

"How do you know that? I just found out I'm a father to a six month old baby boy and I have a set of twins on the way. How is everything going to be okay?"

"Well you have me silly and your mom and your sisters and your dad." I smile at him and he smiles back. "But what are we going to do about Jake's sleeping arrangement."

"I have no idea, no baby stores would be open right now."

Suddenly Jake starts crying.

"Uh oh."

"What do we do? why is he crying?" Lucas starts to freak out.

"Calm down, his diaper doesn't smell so he's probably just hungry." I say slowly getting up from the couch, bouncing Jake.

"Here I'll take him." Lucas takes Jake out of my arms and walks toward the kitchen. It was quite a scene seeing such a big man holding such a small being.

I got the formula out of the cabinet, put in some water and started to heat it up by putting it under hot water seeing as we didn't think to buy a bottle warmer.

"Why don't you just pop it in the microwave? Wouldn't that be quicker?" he asks bouncing Jake gently while walking around the kitchen.

"Yes it would be faster but there's also that fact of microwaves and his immune system or any of his vital organs shouldn't be exposed to that especially at such an early stage when everything is still developing." I state Taking the bottle out from under the tap, shaking it. "Plus you're not really supposed to put plastic in the microwave."

Lucas stares at me bewildered, "When did you learn all this?" I hand him the bottle after testing a drop on my wrist.

"I took a course in high school, I read when I get bored and my sister used to make me take care of Jason when she wanted alone time with Michael, her husband." I smile watching him feed Jake.

"What do you read?"

"Anything available really. Though I'm not a big fan of non-fiction and horror."

"Why, scare easy?" he smirks a little

"Not really, just whenever I read I paint a picture in my head and as I've said before I have a very active imagination."

He chuckles a little and puts his attention on Jake.

"Do you have a clean dish towel or something?

"Yeah bottom drawer why?"

"When you burp him he might spit up a little bit so unless you don't mind a little baby vomit you might want this." I hand him the towel and he puts it over his shoulder.

Three minutes and one burped and bathed baby later, Lucas and I were lying in his bed with Jake in his carrier sleeping on the floor, but not close enough to the bed so when we step out it isn't on him.

I was lying on my side facing Lucas both of us lost in thought, a few minutes have passed before either of us speak, "We have to go shopping tomorrow." I state.

"Yeah and change the guest room into a bedroom for Jake and then another one for the twins." he turns so he's on his side facing me.

"Why don't we put them all in one room for now?" I ask only because it would be easier to have all three in one room.

"Well Jake will be around seven and a half months by the time they're born and two newborn crying babies might ruin his sleep schedule." he reasons

"That's still pretty young though."

"I guess so, we can finish this conversation in the morning but now lets sleep." he closed his eyes and started to dose off.

"But if we dealt with it now we could just get everything done in the morning." I say.

"Shh, sleep."

"But it wo-" he puts a finger against my lips quieting me.

"Sleep." he whispers.

And eventually I do.

*****

"So we need a stroller, a crib, baby monitor, bibs, binky, baby blankets, clothes, soon he's gonna need a highchair, maybe a few toys to keep him entertained, bottles, a bottle warmer, diapers, a changing station, a baby bath and a gate for the stairs for when he starts crawling." Lisa lists' off as Lucas and I sit on the couch with Jake in his carrier.

"Did I miss anything?" she asks us.

"I don't think so but mom how did you know we were going shopping today?"

"Well there's a baby in a house with no baby things, if you weren't going shopping today I would've made you come with me anyways." she tucks he list into her purse. "Now lets get a move on, so much to do so little time."

"C'mon Jess, she won't let out let's just get this over with." Lucas says pulling me up from the couch and taking Jake's carrier in his hand.

Five hours, three baby stores, one lunch break and one sleeping baby later we were back at the penthouse with a mountain of things for Jake and some for the twins. The crib was going to be delivered later today along with the changing station, the only other thing that needs to be done is getting Jake's room ready by taking out the old furniture, painting and putting in the new furniture.

Lisa decided that she was going to cook us dinner, Lucas stayed in the living room with a napping Jake and I went into the kitchen to help Lisa.

"Anything I can do to help?"

"Could you cut up some vegetables for me please?" she said getting a pot ready.

"Sure. What are you making?" I ask getting out the carrots, celery, broccoli and cauliflower.

"Some good ol' stir fry."

After cutting up the vegetables, I took out some peanut butter and dipped the remaining in it. Oddly it tasted really good.

"So how are you Jess?"

"I've been pretty good even though I have odd cravings, I feel like my bladder is the size of a peanut and my back hurts sometimes but all in all I've been pretty good." I reply taking a bit out of the peanut butter covered carrot.

"That's not what I meant. I was talking about with Jake being here and all." she dumps the vegetables into the wok pot with the already cooked chicken

"Oh, well that's fine to I guess, I don't think I know what you mean."

"How are you coping? I mean there's a new baby in the house that isn't even yours and your pregnant with twins, I don't think any woman can handle that all easily. There's already a lot on your plate."

"I'm fine with it. Jake happened before Lucas and I were even an item, I don't really have a reason to be mad. Yes there is another child in this house who just so happens not to be mine, but I would never treat him differently because of that. It isn't his fault that all of this is happening, he's an innocent baby, the only person I could even be slightly upset with is his mother."

"You are going to make an amazing mother." Lisa smiles at me.

"Thanks Lisa. I appreciate that." I smile and we get back to finishing the stir fry.

Soon enough we were done cooking and shared out the food into bowls, bringing them into the living room where Lucas and Jake were waiting. Lisa decided to take hers home along with some for John, to let us have some alone time.

I make a bottle for Jake and put it in the bottle warmer. When it was finished I shook is, tested the temperature on my wrist and brought it out to the living room where he and Lucas were, along with the food.

The TV was play some movie that I couldn't remember the name to, but it seemed to be good to be able to catch and hold both Lucas and Jake's attention. I set the food down on the coffee table and take Jake into my arms.

"Oh no it's fine I'll feed him, you eat." he said reaching out for Jake again.

"No you eat, I feed him. I'm fine I was eating while we made this anyways." I say putting the nipple of the bottle in Jake's awaiting mouth.

I fed Jake then myself, after we finished eating Lucas put the dishes in the dishwasher and followed me upstairs to put Jake to bed. The furniture was delivered but we decided to do that another day so Jake was still in the carrier in the room.

When Jake fell asleep we went into Lucas' room and started getting ready for bed; I showered in his bathroom and he generously took the guest bathroom. When I walked out of the steam filled bathroom I saw Lucas lying down on the bed reading a book in only his pyjama pants that were hanging dangerously low on his hips.

My hormones are not helping me right now.

I get under the covers and Lucas puts his book on the night side table and got under the covers with me. He turned off the lamp so I could only barely see the outline of his body.

I turned my body so my back was facing his front.

"Today was a very productive day." I whisper..

"Yeah it was good, even though mom was the one buying practically everything." his minty breath fanned the nape of my neck.

"Yeah, but she was only trying to help. It was very nice of your mom to come and help us like that."

"Yeah, she can be pushy and overbearing sometimes, but I love her nevertheless." his arm goes over my waist and I snuggle my body into his.

"We should get some sleep. It's going to be a long day tomorrow, getting Jake's room together and everything."

"Okay, goodnight." I whisper closing my eyes letting sleep take over.

The last thing I remember before falling asleep was a soft peck on my shoulder.

*****