The doorbell rang at 6 AM.
I stumbled out of bed, half-asleep, and made it to the front door in just my boxers. Through the peephole, I saw a figure on my porch, bouncing with energy.
Valerie.
I opened the door to find her holding up a pregnancy test, tears streaming down her face.
"Look," she whispered. "Marcus, look."
Two lines.
My heart stopped. Then started again, hammering against my ribs.
"Is that—"
"Positive." She laughed through her tears. "Positive. I took three tests. All positive."
I pulled her into my arms, and we stood there in my doorway, holding each other while the sun rose over Willow Creek.
She was pregnant.
I was going to be a father.
"Oh my god," I breathed. "Valerie—"
"I know." She pulled back just enough to look at me, her warm brown eyes overflowing. "I felt different this week. Something settled in me. I just knew."
"Your intuition."
"My body." She pressed my hand to her stomach—still flat, still unchanged. "There's someone in here, Marcus. Someone we made."
The reality crashed over me like a wave. All those weeks of trying, of hoping, of wondering if it would ever happen. And now it had. Now there was a child—our child—beginning the long journey into existence.
"Come inside," I said, my voice hoarse. "We need to—I don't know. Celebrate. Process. Something."
She laughed again, that joyful, tearful laugh. "Celebrate sounds good."
* * *
We made it to the living room before we touched each other.
I kissed her the way I'd been wanting to since she showed up—deep and slow and reverent. She melted against me, her body soft and warm, her hands clutching my shoulders.
"Make love to me," she whispered. "I want to feel you inside me while I know what we've created."
I led her to the sofa—my bed seemed too far away—and laid her down on the cushions. Her sundress came off easily, flowing over her curves like water. She wasn't wearing a bra—she rarely did—and those magnificent breasts spilled free, heavy and full and beautiful.
"God," I breathed. "You're incredible."
"I'm pregnant." She said it with wonder, like she was testing how the word felt. "I'm actually pregnant."
I kissed down her body, worshiping every inch. Her throat. Her collarbone. The swell of her breasts, where I lingered, taking one dark nipple into my mouth and sucking until she moaned.
"They'll get bigger," she said, watching me. "When the baby comes. They'll fill with milk."
The image made my cock twitch. "I can't wait."
I moved lower, kissing the soft curve of her belly. Somewhere beneath my lips, cells were dividing. A child was forming. Our child.
"Hello in there," I whispered to her stomach. "I'm your father."
Valerie laughed, her fingers combing through my hair. "The baby's a clump of cells right now, Marcus. It can't hear you."
"Doesn't matter. I'm saying hello anyway."
I continued down, pulling off her panties, revealing the wet heat of her pussy. She was already soaked—had been since she got here, probably—and the scent of her arousal filled my senses.
"Please," she whispered. "I need you."
I buried my face between her thighs.
She cried out at the first stroke of my tongue, her hips bucking against my mouth. I licked her slowly, savoring her taste, exploring every fold and curve I'd memorized over weeks of intimacy. Her clit was swollen, throbbing, and when I sucked it gently, she nearly came off the sofa.
"Marcus—oh god—"
I worked her with my mouth, tongue circling her clit while my fingers slid inside her. She was tight and wet and burning hot, her walls clenching around my fingers as pleasure built.
"I'm going to come," she gasped. "Already—I'm so sensitive—"
I didn't stop. I pushed her higher, my tongue relentless, my fingers finding that spot inside her that made her see stars.
She shattered with a wail.
Her whole body convulsed, her pussy gripping my fingers, her thighs squeezing my head. I licked her through it, extending the orgasm, drawing every last wave of pleasure from her shaking body.
When she finally came down, she was panting, her skin flushed and gleaming.
"Inside me," she breathed. "I need you inside me."
I stripped off my boxers and positioned myself between her thighs. My cock was painfully hard, aching for her, the head already slick with pre-cum. I rubbed it through her wetness, coating myself in her arousal, teasing us both.
"Wait," she said. "Let me look at you first."
I paused, letting her gaze travel over my body—my chest, my abs, my cock jutting out hard and ready for her. The appreciation in her eyes made my chest swell with something I couldn't name.
"You're the father of my child," she said softly. "Do you have any idea what that means to me? Your cum is inside me right now, making our baby."
"Tell me."
"It means everything." Her voice cracked. "I've dreamed of this moment for twenty years. Since Tyler was born, I've wanted another child. And now—" She gestured between us, at my cock poised at her entrance, at her pregnant body spread open for me. "Now it's happening. With you."
"With me," I echoed.
I pushed inside her.
We both moaned at the connection. She was even wetter than usual, even more welcoming, her pregnant pussy embracing my cock like coming home. Her walls stretched to accommodate me, gripping me tight as I slid deeper, inch by inch, until I was fully buried in her scorching heat.
"Yes," she breathed. "Just like that. Fill me up. Your cock feels so good inside me."
I started to move.
The rhythm was slow at first. Long, deliberate strokes that let us feel every sensation. I pulled almost all the way out, watching my cock glisten with her arousal, then drove back in deep. Her hips rose to meet mine, her legs wrapping around my waist, her hands clutching my back.
"I can feel you so deep," she whispered. "Touching the place where our baby's growing. Your cock filling the same space where your seed already took root."
The thought made me thrust harder.
"I love watching you," I told her, driving into her faster. "The way your body moves. The way your tits bounce when I fuck you. The way your pussy grips me so tight."
"They're yours." She arched her back, presenting those massive breasts to me. "Just like the rest of me. All of me is yours now—my body, my pussy, the baby growing inside me."
I cupped her enormous breasts as I fucked her, feeling their incredible weight, their warmth, the soft give of flesh that would soon swell even fuller with milk. Her nipples were hard as pebbles against my palms, dark and prominent, and when I pinched them lightly, she cried out.
"Yes—Marcus—harder—"
I increased my pace, pounding into her now. The wet sounds of our fucking filled the room—the slap of my balls against her ass, the squelch of her soaking pussy around my cock, her moans mixing with my grunts. Obscene, perfect, beautiful.
Her pussy gripped me with every thrust, pulling me deeper, holding me inside, refusing to let go.
"I want you to come in me," she gasped. "I know I'm already pregnant, but I want to feel you fill me up anyway. I want every drop of your cum flooding my pussy. I need it."
"Valerie—"
"Come inside me, Marcus. Give me everything. I want to feel you pumping into me—"
I felt the pressure building. That familiar tightening in my balls, the heat spreading through my core. Close. So close.
"I'm close."
"Do it. Let me feel you come. Fill me up."
I thrust deep and held there, grinding my pelvis against her clit, feeling her walls flutter and clench around me. She was close too—I could see it in the way her face tightened, the way her breathing went ragged, the way her pussy was rippling around my shaft.
"Together," I told her. "I want us to—"
"Yes—I'm coming—"
I came with a groan that seemed to come from my soul.
The orgasm tore through me like wildfire, and I pumped into her again and again, each thrust driving another spurt of cum deep into her pregnant body. I could feel myself flooding her, filling her, my release mixing with the wetness already inside her. She cried out beneath me, her own climax hitting at the same moment, her pussy clamping down on me in rhythmic contractions that milked every last drop from my pulsing cock.
"Yes," she moaned. "Yes, I can feel it—so much cum—you're filling me up—don't stop—"
We rode it together, wave after wave, until finally we collapsed against each other, sweaty and breathless and complete. My cock was still inside her, still twitching with aftershocks, my cum pooling deep where our baby was growing.
"Wow," she murmured eventually. "That was..."
"I know."
"Pregnancy hormones are going to be interesting." She laughed weakly. "I'm already more sensitive than usual. My pussy is still clenching around you. By the second trimester, I might explode."
"I'm willing to find out."
We stayed tangled together for a long time, neither of us willing to break the connection. My cock was still inside her, softening slowly, and she kept her legs wrapped around me to hold me there.
"I knew it would be me first," she said eventually. "I told you."
"You did."
"My body knows things." She touched her stomach again, that unconscious gesture I was starting to recognize. "It knew this was right. That you were right."
I kissed her forehead. "We should tell the others."
"Later." She pulled me closer. "Right now, I just want to stay like this. You and me and our baby."
So we stayed.
* * *
We told Meredith and Sienna that afternoon.
I texted them both to come to my place, no explanation given. When they arrived—Meredith looking slightly worried, Sienna looking impatient—Valerie was sitting on my sofa, practically glowing.
"What's going on?" Sienna demanded. "Your text was cryptic as hell."
Valerie held up the pregnancy test.
For a moment, no one moved. Then Meredith's face broke into a smile—a genuine, unreserved smile—and she crossed the room to pull Valerie into her arms.
"Oh thank god." Meredith's voice was thick with emotion. "I knew it would happen. I knew it."
Sienna was slower to react. I watched something complex move across her face—jealousy, maybe, or disappointment that it wasn't her. But then she squared her shoulders and joined the embrace.
"You bitch," she said, her voice wavering between laughter and tears. "I told you I wanted to be first."
"You can be first at something else." Valerie pulled back to look at them both. "Maybe you'll be first to have a boy. Or first to go into labor. Or first to—"
"First to murder you for being so smug about it?"
Valerie laughed, and then they were all laughing, holding each other, the relief of positive news washing away months of tension.
I watched from a few feet away, not wanting to interrupt. Three women I loved—and yes, I realized I loved them all, each in a different way—celebrating the first success of our arrangement.
Meredith caught my eye over Valerie's shoulder. "Come here," she mouthed.
I joined them, and they made room for me in the circle. Four people, arms around each other, the beginning of something that might actually work.
"To the first baby," Sienna said eventually, pulling back to wipe her eyes. "The first of many."
"The first of three," Meredith corrected. "At minimum."
"Let's start there and see how we feel."
We opened a bottle of sparkling cider—no champagne, not with Valerie pregnant—and toasted to the future. The afternoon dissolved into celebration, planning, dreams spoken aloud for the first time.
"I want a water birth," Valerie said. "At home if possible. Something natural."
"I'm having a hospital birth with every drug available," Sienna countered. "No thank you to natural."
"Whatever gets the baby here safely," Meredith said diplomatically. "That's what matters."
They discussed due dates and prenatal vitamins and whether the nursery should be at my house or Valerie's. I listened more than I spoke, still processing the reality of it.
I was going to be a father.
In about eight months, there would be a baby. A person who shared my DNA, who would call me dad, who would need me for everything.
The responsibility should have been terrifying. Instead, it felt right. Like something I'd been preparing for without knowing it.
"You're quiet," Valerie said, finding me on the back porch later. The others were inside, still talking and planning.
"Just thinking."
"Scared?"
"Maybe a little." I pulled her against me. "But mostly just... overwhelmed. In a good way."
"I felt the same way when I was pregnant with Tyler." She leaned into my embrace. "It's a lot. A whole new life depending on you. But it's also the best thing that ever happened to me."
"Will this baby know about... everything? The arrangement?"
"Eventually. When they're old enough to understand." She looked up at me. "We'll figure it out as we go. That's how parenting works. No one has all the answers at the beginning."
"I have some answers."
"Oh? Like what?"
"Like I'm going to love this child with everything I have. And I'm going to be there—for all of it. Every doctor's appointment. Every midnight feeding. Every first day of school and skinned knee and teenage drama."
"Marcus..."
"I'm not going to be like Richard, Valerie. Absent. Distant. Too busy for what matters." I cupped her face in my hands. "I'm going to be present. I'm going to show up. I'm going to be the father I wish I'd had."
She kissed me, soft and tender.
"I believe you," she whispered. "I've always believed in you. From the first moment I saw you."
We stood there on the porch, watching the sunset paint the cul-de-sac in shades of gold and rose. Somewhere inside, Meredith and Sienna were still celebrating, still planning, still hoping.
One baby confirmed. Two more to come.
The arrangement was working.
And as Valerie leaned against me, her hand resting on her still-flat stomach, I felt something shift in my chest.
Not just hope anymore. Not just possibility.
Certainty.
This was my family.
This was my future.
And I couldn't wait to meet it.