Hello to the second chapter
and many thanks to everyone who reads my story. I would especially like to thank Joy48. I was very happy about your review and am glad that you took the time to give me feedback. It has motivated me to continue.

Chapter 2

George was bewildered when he heard the soft knock on his door. It was the middle of the day, but he didn't know who might want something from him. He hurried to the door to check. When he saw that his unexpected visitor was none other than Lemon, he couldn't help but smile. "Hey Lemon! Nice to see you. What are you doing here?" he greeted her cheerfully.

Lemon didn't exactly look happy, however. She averted her eyes from him as she replied. "I... I really need to talk to you."

George frowned. Lemon looked completely upset. He also had the feeling that Lemon didn't want to look him in the eye. Something wasn't right.

"Of course. Come in."

George led Lemon into his houseboat and sat down on the sofa. Lemon, meanwhile, stopped at the kitchen counter and leaned back against it. George watched her with irritation.

She seemed strangely out of place in his small apartment. Very different from when she had been here a few months ago. Although it was also possible that George had had too much alcohol on his mind back then to notice Lemon's not-fitting-in. George shook his head briefly to get rid of the thoughts of that night. If he thought about it, he would hardly be able to concentrate on the conversation. George was all the more surprised when Lemon took a deep breath and brought up the very same night.

"I think you remember the last time I spent a night on your boat. The amount of alcohol and everything else that happened." Lemon looked visibly uncomfortable as she spoke.

"Um. Yes, I remember." George replied uncertainly.

"Well, that was just over eight weeks ago." Lemon's eyes met his briefly and George had the impression that Lemon was trying to make him understand what it was about without continuing. Then Lemon quickly turned away again, as if she couldn't bear to look at him any longer. George was starting to get a pretty bad feeling.

"It turns out that this night has more consequences than we thought. Consequences none of us expected." Lemon took a deep breath and seemed to force herself to look George in the face as she continued. "I'm going to have a baby. A baby of yours."

George felt like all the air had gone out of his lungs. Lemon was pregnant. She was going to be a mother. And he would be a father. An incredible euphoria began to spread through him. Lemon and he were going to have a child together!

Seconds later, however, the feeling of happiness was dampened by his next thoughts. Lemon was, as he finally remembered, with someone else. And for her, having a child with her ex-fiancé was probably the last thing she wanted. George had to swallow. Lemon was still staring at him, waiting for his reaction.

"Have you told your... have you told Henry yet? he asked haltingly.

"Henry left a few hours ago. We were never really together; we were just pretending because of my grandmother...But that doesn't really matter now."

George had to pull himself together not to burst into cheers. Lemon had never been with this strange guy. At the same time, she didn't necessarily seem happy. But they were going to be parents and that was just great. That meant they would be spending a lot of time together. And maybe it could also turn into a second chance for their relationship... Except...

"But you want to keep the baby, don't you?"

The thought that this might not be the case made George feel sick. But no matter how happy he was about the baby; he didn't want Lemon to be unhappy. She shouldn't feel that he was forcing her to do anything. He hastily added: "Well, I mean, it's your decision - after all, it's your child and your life."

George knew immediately that he had worded it completely unfavorably. Even if he hadn't realized it himself, he would have noticed it from Lemon's reaction at the latest. She clung to the counter with her hands and hurriedly lowered her eyes to the floor.

"I just mean..." George's head suddenly went blank. "Well, if you don't want the kid, that's fine with me."

Shit. He was only making it worse. Desperately, George searched for words to explain himself.

Lemon felt like someone was hitting her. So now she had held her conversation with the father. Now she knew that he wasn't interested about the baby at all. He didn't care if she aborted or not, but if she didn't, she would have to take care of it on her own, after all, it was her child.

Lemon wavered. She had hoped that she would feel better after her talk with George. She felt tears welling up in her eyes.

"Lemon. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to... I didn't..." But George never finished his sentences.

Lemon blinked against the tears. Her eyes met George's for a split second. Immediately, she had to wonder if her child would inherit his sweet blue eyes. Or his smile with which he took women's hearts by storm...

She couldn't breathe. Lemon turned on her heel. She had to get out of here. Away from George. As she let go of the kitchen counter, the room spun around her. Nevertheless, Lemon kept walking. She staggered to the door as her vision blurred from the tears in her eyes.

George called after her, but the blood was rushing in Lemon's ears so loudly that she couldn't hear anything else. She didn't stop to listen to him. Instead, she quickened her steps until she was almost running away from his boat. She realized George wasn't following her. Lemon didn't even know if she was happy or disappointed about it. She only stopped when she knew she was out of George's sight.

Gasping for air, Lemon leaned against a tree as a wave of nausea washed over her. It was hard to tell if the nausea was from the conversation or just the pregnancy. Probably a bit of both.

Convulsively, Lemon put a hand on her stomach. "It's going to be okay." She promised the unborn child in it, and somehow also herself.

Lemon was sitting on the sofa at home in her apartment. She felt depleted and exhausted. There was a slight throbbing in her head from all the thoughts circling back and forth. So when she heard her cell phone ring, she didn't even bother to get up at first. Unfortunately, the ringing didn't stop - whoever was calling had probably taken it very seriously. Finally, Lemon got up with a sigh and went to see who the caller was.

Wade. She could have guessed that. After what she had told him this morning, she could hardly ignore his call. She took a breath; Wade had already had to endure enough emotional chaos on her part today. Then she took his call.

"Hi, what's up?"

"Actually, I called to ask you that. Is everything okay? So I mean how are you feeling?"

Lemon smiled to herself. Wade could be really cute. He was worried about her. From the looks of it, he was the only one.

"I'm managing," Lemon answered his question. "The nausea is usually worst in the morning. Other than that, I haven't had any problems yet."

"Good." There was a short pause. "Well, I also wanted to know how your conversation with George went." Wade finally admitted, even though Lemon could have almost certainly said what he was going to ask beforehand.

"Not good. More like very bad." Lemon stated.

"That's what I thought." Lemon could hear Wade expelling air through his teeth. "George was in earlier. He looked pretty beat and ordered himself a scotch. But he left after an hour or so. I was hoping he'd be back to see you."

"Well, he's not," Lemon replied.

"And are you going to tell me how the conversation went?" Wade followed up.

"George basically said that he didn't care what I did with the baby." Lemon had to swallow. "He said it's my child so it's my decision. Like he had nothing to do with it at all."

"Oh God. Oh Lemon, I'm sorry about that." Wade was obviously upset.

"But I'm going to keep the baby." Lemon didn't know when she had decided this, but as she told Wade now, she knew it was the right decision. "No matter what George says, I'm going to have this baby. Even if that means I'm going to raise it alone."

Wade remained silent for a moment. Then he replied. "Well then, congratulations."

"Thank you, Wade." Lemon replied, touched.

"But you need to know one thing. Even without George, you're definitely not alone. We are in Bluebell. You have your father and a whole lot of friends to support you. And even though I may not be the most reliable person in the world: I swear I'll take care of you and the baby as best I can."

Lemon smiled. "I can't think of anyone who could be a better friend to me than you. You clearly need to stop putting yourself in a bad light." She explained reprovingly to Wade. "I'm sure when Zoe and you have kids, you'll be a great father."

Lemon knew that Wade and Zoe hadn't gotten back together after Zoe's touching speech, but she was absolutely certain that they would find their way back to each other. Anyone could see that these two idiots were meant to be together, except for themselves. In any case, Wade didn't disagree with her, which proved to Lemon that in his deepest heart, he shared her opinion.

Instead of responding to her mention of Zoe, he continued the conversation in a different way. "Maybe George only reacted so impossibly because he was overwhelmed. I mean, the news came completely out of the blue for him. He was probably just in shock and once he's got his head together, you two can sort it out."

"I hope you're right." Lemon sighed.
"You know, I realize that you can end a business relationship. And also that you can call off a wedding. But I would have thought that none of that would work with a baby. Now I know I was wrong. With a baby, you can just stay out of it. At least as a father." She now said with clear bitterness and barely suppressed anger. Although Lemon was actually glad about the anger. Better than crying again.

Wade was speechless and there was an awkward silence. Damn, Lemon hadn't really wanted to make Wade deal with her feelings again.

"I'm sorry," she began, but Wade interrupted her.

"You don't have to be sorry. You have every right to be angry with George. If he hasn't gotten back to you tomorrow, I'm going to have to have a stern word with him.

"Actually, I wanted to apologize for dragging you into this." Lemon explained.

"I guess it's too late for that in any case." Wade replied and Lemon could hear the laughter in his voice. "But hey, I'm happy to help you. I know you'd do the same for me."

"Yeah, so if you get pregnant: I'm always here for you." Lemon laughed.

"You know exactly what I meant by that." Said Wade, also laughing. "Anyway, you can always call me if you need someone to, I don't know, cook for you or something. Well, I don't really know what a woman in your state needs," Wade said a little awkwardly.

Lemon smiled. "I don't know much about my state either. But thank you for your help."

"All right. Then I'll get back to work now. And Lemon, take care of yourself, okay?"

"I will." Lemon promised before they finally ended the call.

As Lemon glanced at the screen of her cell phone, she noticed a message on her calendar that popped up. The appointment at the hospital in Mobile for an initial check-up was tomorrow. She had almost forgotten about it because of all her other worries. As it stood, she would probably have to go there alone tomorrow.

Lemon knew that if she asked Wade, he would come with her, but it wasn't his job. If she decided to have the baby, she couldn't expect Wade to help her with everything, even though he would certainly be a great support. No matter what a good friend Wade was, he shouldn't feel like he had to replace the child's father. He couldn't do that. Because Wade wasn't George. And all that would actually be George's job.

Lemon sighed, if she continued to think like this, the whole thing was going to get her completely down.

Just as Lemon decided to put her worries on hold until tomorrow, when they would almost certainly come up again at the check-up, she heard a knock at the front door.

Hesitantly, Lemon went into the hallway and opened the door. It was George. Of course it was George.

"Lemon I'm so incredibly sorry." George began before Lemon had a chance to say anything. "Can I come in, please."

Lemon wanted nothing more than not to have to have this conversation. But putting it off wouldn't make it any more fun. So she nodded and wordlessly took a step back. George took a deep breath and walked past her into the apartment. Lemon closed the door behind him.