Pretty and Pregnant by Madison Johns

who just entered the room Kimberly said, “The dress is so beautiful. Thank you all so much.”
    “You are a vision in pink for sure,” Mrs. Peacock said.
    “I don’t think we have ever seen you wear anything but pink before,” Mrs. Canary added, dabbing at a tear with a tissue.
    “Hey now, no crying or I’m gonna cry and the bride isn’t supposed to cry at her own wedding.” Kimberly stomped a foot. “Where is Weenie?”
    Kimberly looked out the window where she spotted Weenie on the lawn, and in that moment, was doing what dogs do best. Poop on the lawn. Kimberly’s jaw jacked open. “Oh, will someone go get him before anyone sees what he’s doing out there?” she pointed toward the window.
    Mrs. Peacock ambled out the door with Mrs. Canary hot on her heels. Weenie was supposed to be the ring bearer for the wedding and Jeremy’s niece Katie, who was five, was the flower girl. She skipped into the room just then dressed in a white floor length satin dress. Her dark hair was pulled up into a ponytail atop her head and her curls cascaded downward resting on her shoulders.
    Katie slapped her round cheeks with both hands. “You’re so beautiful.”
    “Thanks, Katie.”
    Katie skipped back out of the room and Jeremy’s sister Betsy, entered with an older couple she hadn’t met yet. Betsy was also dressed in a white satin gown as she agreed to be the maid of honor. The truth was, most of Kimberly’s friends had all gone off to college last fall and they had lost touch. When Kimberly found out she was pregnant, she kept herself closer to home when she wasn’t working.
    The man in a grey tweed suit introduced himself. “I’m Martin Preston, Jeremy’s father.” He rubbed a hand over his grey receding hairline and motioned toward the stunning older female who accompanied him. “This is my wife and Jeremy’s mother, Frances.”
    She clasped her hands with Kimberly’s and gazed down at her abdomen in wonder, and then met Kimberly’s eyes. “Jeremy told us, well, about everything and I think it’s great.”
    “Jeremy has always been a stand up guy,” Martin added. “He’d take in every lost puppy in town if he could when he was a kid.”
    Kimberly’s cheeks reddened.
    “Ignore him. He’s an old fool,” Frances began. “Jeremy loves you and that’s all that matters.”
    Martin’s words, although unintended to be harsh, felt that way to Kimberly. Why had he told them? Then again, how could he not since they might presume that her baby was his.
    “I love him too, but I did try to tell him we could wait until after the baby is born to wed.”
    Frances waved a hand in the air. “Nonsense, you’ll be way too busy then, honey. I remember the moment when Betsy was born, she was so beautiful that I cried.”
    “I thought Jeremy was adopted?”
    “He was, but then I got pregnant with Betsy a few years later. I was shocked.”
    Martin cut in with, “We never treated Jeremy any different from Betsy. He’s just as much our son as Betsy is our daughter.”
    Kimberly swallowed a lump that formed . How sweet was that? If Jeremy had been treated that way as a child, surly he’d treat her baby like his ow n , thought Kimberly.
    “Jeremy is going to be thunderstruck when he sees you at the alter.” Francis added. They excused themselves and Kimberly strolled back to the mirror. She gazed at her image and wished she wasn’t pregnant for a minute, but then the baby moved and tears dotted her eyes. She was happy that she was having a baby and couldn’t wait until she met him or her.
    A male voice broke into her thoughts and as she turned, she saw Clive who snapped a picture. He went to her side and pressed a bottle of lotion into her hands. “Pretty and Pregnant” it said in curvy bold lettering with a picture of a cartoon girl with long flowing blond hair and pregnant looking abdomen leaning against a deck. And the image looked just like her. “How?” Kimberly gasped.
    “I used one of the test shots