What I couldn’t believe was when Trey walked in.  I mean he strolled in with this huge grin on his face, like he was the proud papa.  Like he was right there for me all along.  “I saw her,” he told me.  “She’s beautiful!” 

Well, like that was a surprise.  They are no ugly folks in my family.  “Mom tried to call you last night,” I said accusingly.

“Mrs. Winston told me this morning.  I was hangin’ out with Keith last night.”

“Whatever.”  I was much too tired to fight with him at that moment.  He knew now that he had a daughter, and he could do whatever he wanted to with that information. 

“I just saw the baby.  I came here straight from work.”

That I could have guessed from the bright white Navy uniform complete with big black tie and bell bottoms.  Not the least bit flattering to anyone I’d ever seen it on.

“Candi?”

“What.”

“I want her to have my last name.”

“What?!”

“If she has my last name, the Navy will let me set up an allotment for her.”

“An allotment.”

“Yeah.  They can deposit the money directly into your bank account.  You know, for child support.”

Oh, yeah.  You show no interest in me or the baby for four months, and now you want to give me child support.  “You wanna give me child support?”  I eyed him suspiciously.

“Yeah,” he said grinning.  “I took one look at her, and I knew she was mine.  She looks just like the pictures of me when I was a baby.  I just wanted to make sure it was my baby.  Now that I know, I wanna do all I can for her.  She is so precious.”

“You wanted to make sure it was yours?!”  I said as loud as I dared to, seeing as I was in a hospital.  I thought, you son-of-a-bitch, I told you it was yours!  I hadn’t been at all sure myself, but he had some nerve implying that I was sleeping around.  He had no proof of what I did.  Even if he did, he had a lot a nerve considering he could have given me crabs. 

“I had to be sure, Candi,” he said in a loud whisper in an attempt to get me to quiet down, no doubt.

“Get the hell outta my room, Trey.”

“Just make sure you give her my last name when you fill out the papers for the birth certificate,” he said as he turned to leave.  “Without that, I can’t do anything for you.”

“You’ve done enough already,” I said under my breath.