Different Roads

Chapter 5: Two Pink Lines

I found out I was pregnant at two in the morning, holding a gas station pregnancy test over my bathroom sink while silently negotiating with God and my own bladder.

The fluorescent light above the mirror flickered like it was also stressed.

“Please be broken,” I whispered to the test.

It was not broken.

Two pink lines stared back at me immediately.

Not faint.

Not questionable.

Not “maybe if I tilt it toward the light.”

Very aggressively pregnant.

For a full thirty seconds, I just stood there blinking at the stick like it had personally betrayed me.

Then I started laughing.

Not because anything was funny.

Mostly because panic and excitement apparently felt identical inside my body.

I grabbed my phone so fast I almost dropped it in the sink.

Kade answered on the second ring, sounding half asleep.

“Baby?”

“I think I just ruined our lives.”

Silence.

Then…

“…what?”

“I’m pregnant.”

Another pause.

Then suddenly—

“Wait. Are you serious?”

I looked down at the test again.

“Unless this thing is picking up spiritual activity, yeah.”

I expected panic.

Confusion.

At least one curse word.

Instead, Kade laughed.

Not nervous laughter either.

Real laughter.

Bright.

Happy.

“Are you serious?” he asked again, fully awake now.

“Yes!”

“Oh my God.”

I could hear him moving around quickly on the other end of the phone.

“I’m coming over.”

“Kade, it’s literally two in the morning.”

“I don’t care.”

Twenty minutes later, he showed up wearing sweatpants, mismatched socks, and the biggest smile I’d ever seen on another human being.

The second I opened the door, he picked me up so fast I squealed.

“We’re having a baby,” he said, like he still couldn’t believe it.

His entire face looked different.

Softer somehow.

Brighter.

For a moment, everything felt easy.

Simple.

Like the future had suddenly opened up in front of us.

We sat on my bed for almost an hour, talking in circles about baby names, tiny clothes, and all the things we definitely knew nothing about.

“Kane’s gonna teach this kid terrible habits,” Kade said.

“Your entire family has terrible habits.”

“That’s fair.”

At some point, he looked over at me smiling.

“I hope it’s a boy.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Oh really?”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “I wanna take him fishing and hunting and teach him baseball and stuff.”

“You know girls can do those things too, right?”

Kade paused.

Then slowly smiled.

“You’re right.”

He leaned back against the wall, thinking quietly for a second.

“I think I just wanna be like my dad was with me and Kane.”

Something about the way he said it made my chest ache.

Because underneath all the jokes and flirting and chaos, Kade loved deeply.

Family meant everything to him.

And sitting there beside him, I could suddenly picture the things he’d talked about before.

Him holding our baby.

Him teaching them baseball.

Him taking them fishing.

Him making ridiculous memories.

Him being the dad he had always wanted to be.

I rested my head against his shoulder while he absentmindedly rubbed circles against my hand.

Outside, rain tapped softly against the windows while Las Oleas slept around us.

“You think the baby’s gonna get your attitude?” he asked.

“You mean my sparkling personality?”

“I mean your ability to start arguments in under thirty seconds.”

I gasped dramatically.

“Kade.”

“I’m just saying, if this kid comes out threatening people over chicken nuggets, we’ll know where it came from.”

I laughed so hard I nearly snorted.

“Meanwhile your genetics are out here eating dog treats voluntarily.”

“That happened one time.”

“Three times.”

“You counted?”

“I was concerned.”

He laughed and kissed the top of my head.

Then he looked down at my stomach.

There wasn’t even anything to see yet.

Just me.

Just him.

Just the tiniest beginning of something that would change both of our lives forever.

He placed his hand gently against my stomach anyway.

“Hey, baby,” he whispered.

I smiled.

“You know it can’t hear you yet, right?”

“I don’t care.”

And that was Kade.

He didn’t need to wait for the right moment.

He loved things before they were ready to love him back.

At the time, we still thought love was enough to protect us from whatever came next.

We thought we had time.

We thought there would be birthdays and first steps and scraped knees.

We thought there would be Christmas mornings, school pictures, baseball games, late-night talks, and a million ordinary days in between.

We didn’t know yet how quickly happiness could turn fragile.

We didn’t know how much one night, two pink lines, and a gas-station pregnancy test would eventually mean to me.

All we knew was that there was a baby on the way.

And for that night…

that was enough.