Short Story | Miracle Baby

B O N U S | 3

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Cason jogged around the park trail, the leash fisted in his hand.  His breaths were harsh and uneven. A sign he'd been running a while. He noticed his partners trot slowing down, so he glanced down at the four-legged creature and slowed his jog from a stop. Both of them panted for air. 

He walked to the bench and sat down. "It's hot today, huh, bud?" He asked the dog that stared off with narrowed eyes. Cason followed the dog's gaze and he instantly stood. He growled under his breath and raked a hand over his sweaty hair. 

"Damn it," He cursed silently. "Good job, boy. Always looking out for them, aren't you?" He awarded the dark with a few strokes to the ears. "Let's go, Bear. She's still too young for that, isn't she?" He jogged towards the playground, Bear basically dragging him to his sister. 

"What's going on here, Emmy?" Cason asked when he came to a complete stop next to his sister. 

His sister's cheeks blushed a deep red and she tightened her hold slightly on the baby blue bundle in her arms. She looked towards the boy her age standing in front of her. She shyly shifted on her feet.

"Um, Just talking to Keegan," She mumbled. "Go away." She whispered nearly harshly at her bothering older brother.

Cason's eyes widened slightly in amusement. He chuckled lowly and wrapped a sweaty bare arm around the boy's shoulder. He was purposely being annoying, rubbing his sweat against him.  "Just talking, huh? Not what Bear thought, right, boy?" He asked the dog. 

The dog, Bear, narrowed its eyes at Keegan. His hair stood up slightly, his lips curling into a snarl. Cason smiled widely and Emmy scoffed in disbelief.  

Keegan, however, looked like he had just seen a ghost. His face was pale, drained of most it's color. He even seemed to tremble against the weight of Cason's arm handing off his shoulder. The boy awkwardly shuffled away from Cason and sent a shy, embarrassed smile towards Emmy before speed walking away.

"Cason! Bear!" Emmy snapped and whined. She pouted and watched as the cute boy left the park. She finally turned towards the trouble-makers. She stomped her foot childishly. Emmy glared at Cason. 

"Why'd you scare him off! He was cute!" She complained. 

Cason rolled his eyes. "Your too young. Besides, it was fun watching Kevin squirm, right?" He directed the question towards Bear who gave a lazy doggy grin.

Emmy glowered at her brother. "First of all, his name was Keegan, and no-" Her sentence was cut off by a whine and gurgle coming from the tiny blue bundle in her arms. She cursed under her breath and looked up at Cason who gave a disproving look at the choice of words. 

"Hey now, it's okay little man," Cason cooed and scooped the bundle into his arms. He rocked the baby boy back and forth until he grinned widely. He made a silly face which resulted in a fit of odd laughter from the bundle.

"I bet your hungry, huh? Let's get you some food. We'll be home soon," He murmured. He handed the leash to Bear towards Emmy who grumbled as she took it. She was mad at the dog right now.

Bear followed behind with a mischievous look in his eyes.

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It was only a good ten minutes until they reached home. Cason scooped the baby boy into his arms and followed a trotting Bear into the house. He grinned down at the boy and made a silly face, causing the baby to gurgle in laughter.

"We're back!" Cason called out into the quiet house. Emmy, however, squeezed her way around her older brother and stormed up the stairs dramatically. He only scoffed and made his way into the kitchen. 

"Cason!" His mother's soft voice that usually soothed nerves, made his own spike. She was not happy at the moment, in fact, when he turned around she was on the verge of tears. He frowned and adjusted the baby boy in one of his arms and embraced his mom in the other. 

"Mama, don't cry. It'll be alright. He's only gone for one more week. Besides, you have Leo and me to cheer you up!" He coed and handed the hungry baby to his mother. 

Jaxon was on a two-week cruise.  One of his closest friends just passed away in a car accident, so Amora booked him a cruise for a two-week trip to relax. She didn't realize how hard it was going to be and forced him to go when he said he wanted to just stay home. Amora declared he needed the time for peace.

Cason started to make a bottle for Leo as his mother held him. After a few minutes, he turned back around and held the bottle out for his mom to take. He sent her a cheeky smile as she narrowed her eyes at him, her tears clearly gone. 

"Cason, Leo's your son. You feed him. I'm going to talk to Emmy, see why she was upset coming home. You didn't do something again, did you?" She warned and Cason gave her an innocent smile and simply shrugged.  

When Leo was back in his arms, he went to sit on the couch with a sigh and patted the spot net to him for Bear to lay down. The big dog jumped up and rested his head on his thigh as Cason cradled Leo, starting to feed him his bottle.

Leo was born on April eighth. The day his girlfriend had passed away, also. She didn't make it through the birth of their son. Leo wasn't supposed to survive,  it was a miracle. Cason had just graduated from high school so when his girlfriend told him she was pregnant, he was shocked, to say the least. It only made him love her more, to praise her. Sure, he is young, but he couldn't do anything about that. He was going to make the best of it, and he truly doesn't regret Leo. Addie, Leo's mother, would be proud of how he was handling her death with the birth of his son. 

Everything was good. Everything couldn't be better.

Jaxon and Amora were still deeply in love.

Cason was healing slowly, loving his baby boy. 

And Emmy, well, she has a long future ahead of her.

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