by L. P. Maxa
Like hell I was going to wake up my sleeping baby momma and make her walk down the hall to a cold, empty bed. But she didn’t need to know that. She’d figure it out in the morning when she woke up and we were still here, side by side. Which was totally acceptable since we were co-parenting.
Chapter Forty-Three
Kasen
Ems and I did wake up together. My mom had come to tell me breakfast was ready. I opened my eyes to her smiling at us like a maniacal person. I shook my head, slowly, trying to silently convey that this wasn’t what it looked like. I hadn’t touched Ems, other than the kisses to her belly and the massage. We were still friends, still co-parents. Nothing more.
After breakfast, we spent the day exploring the ranch with my parents. We took a long walk, showing Ems the stables and the woods I’d played in as a child. We had lunch and Ems took a nap on the couch, her head resting in my mom’s lap while she slept. I’d grabbed my camera from my bag, snapping a few pictures of how peaceful and happy Emmie looked, how sweet the moment was.
Now the sun was setting, and my dad was preparing to grill us some burgers out on the back patio. Ems was on the floor, doing prenatal yoga with my mom. It was hot as hell, and I was plenty content to sit my ass on the couch and watch. Ems. Not my mom.
“Hey, kid, why don’t you come outside and help me get the grill started?”
“Uh, because it’s a gas grill and all you do is turn the knob?” And I wasn’t about to miss Ems’s perfect long legs in the air.
“Okay, how ’bout get your ass outside so I can talk to you for a bit? Now.”
I tore my eyes away from the mother of my child, glaring at my father. “Sure, Dad.”
Reluctantly, I followed him out back, starting the grill with the flick of a switch. Maybe if I could get this little chat over with, I could make it back inside to see the end of that yoga session. I couldn’t fuck her, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t visually enjoy her stellar body. Ems. Not my mom.
“Did you and Emmie stay together last night?” My dad held his hand over the grill, checking the temperature.
That’s what the talk was about? My mom had narc’d on the fact that I’d been in bed with Ems this morning? This could have definitely waited until yoga was over. “We slept in the same bed if that’s what you’re asking.”
He used the spatula to place the patties on the grill, closing the lid. “I thought you two were friends and co-parents, not bed buddies.”
“Bed buddies? Are you asking me if I’m having sex with the mother of my child?”
He turned to me, his hands on his hips. “Are you?”
“Not since the night I put that kid in there.” I grinned, blinking at him innocently.
“I know that when babies get involved, emotions run high.” He chose to ignore my inappropriate humor, something he’d been doing for most of my life. “Emmie is a beautiful girl and…”
“Right?” He wasn’t wrong, and there was no use denying it. He’d only call me out on it, prolonging this father/son talk. “And it’s like being pregnant has made her even hotter. I didn’t even know that was possible.”
“Well of course you’d think so, that’s your baby she’s carrying. There’s something acutely visceral about it. But because your hormones are running high doesn’t mean—”
“My hormones?” I cut him off, wincing when I realized I’d picked up a bad habit from all those Devil’s Spawn fuckers. “I don’t think that’s how that works, old man.”
“Okay fine, your libido and her hormones.” He lifted the lid, flipping the burgers. “Pregnant chicks can get, well, sometimes their hormones can make them want, um, companionship?”
Companionship? For crying out loud. This was getting embarrassing for him. “Are you talking about sex again? If you’re talking about sex, why don’t you come right out and say it?”
“Emmie is an eighteen-year-old ballerina who’s carrying my granddaughter. It seems inappropriate to put it so bluntly.” He closed the lid again, waving away my question with the spatula in his hand.
“She’s not a virgin.” I licked my lips, fucking with him for the hell of it. “And to be honest, even when she was that girl, she had a bit of kink hiding behind that proper bun of hers.”
“I can’t believe you’re going to be a father.”
I nodded. “I know, right?”
“Anyway.” He sighed, rubbing his temples like I was giving him a headache. “If Emmie asks for more, I hope you’ll keep a level head because she may not be thinking clearly. This situation between you two is already complicated enough without throwing sex into the mix.”
“So you’re saying that the pregnancy hormones are going to make Ems want my dick? And you want to make sure that I plan on keeping it in my pants?” Would I be able to keep it in my pants if Ems jumped me? I snorted out a laugh at the notion. Ems was not going to demand I fuck her. Both of us were in this for the long haul, and we both understood what it would take for our unconventional little family to work.
“I feel like you’re being difficult on purpose,” he grumbled.
“I am.” I clapped a hand on his back. “Dad, you don’t have anything to worry about, okay? I care about Ems, and I care about our baby. I’m not stupid. I know that blurring the lines we’ve established would be a terrible decision. I promise I’m going to go out of my way not to mess this up.”
And that was the truth.
“That helps.” He smiled, looking incredibly relieved. “I’m glad we had this talk.”
“And it’s not like pregnancy hormones are going to turn her into a sex addict or anything. I mean, come on.”
He opened the lid one more time, removing the hamburger patties and placing them on the clean plate he’d brought out with him. “You’d be surprised, kid. When your mom was pregnant with you, I could barely keep up.”
I put my fingers in my ears, not caring how immature I was being. “Ew. Dad. Stop. No. No sir. Not okay.”
He held one hand out, the other holding the platter of our dinner. “Fine. Fine. All I’m saying is that hormones make you do crazy things. You know her emotions are all over the place.”
“Wait.” He wasn’t wrong. She cried a lot. And last night she’d called me stupid hot. “What if Ems does get like that? What if she wants some dick? If I don’t give her mine, will she look for someone else? Benson? I bet Benson would bang her in a fucking heartbeat.” And Cash would love that, wouldn’t he? His best friend dating his cousin. It would be a dream come true for that asshole brother-in-law of mine. “That stupid backwoods hick. He’d hang his cowboy hat on her bed and… No. She can’t have sex with Benson.”
“Who is Benson?” My dad paused on his way to the back door.
“This friend of Cash’s who wanted her number and checks up on her all the time.”
His eyebrows rose to his hairline. Geez, when had he gotten so many wrinkles? “Does he know she’s pregnant?”
“Yeah.” I nodded, my stomach in knots thinking about Ems and Benson getting married this summer. “They grew up together. He doesn’t see the baby as a reason to stay away. He cares about her. Holy shit. Emmie is going to have sex with Benson. Benson’s sperm is going to go whizzing by my kid’s head.”
“I don’t think that’s the way that works, son.”
“That stupid motherfucker.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Emmie
I was living with Katie, taking a heavy course load of online classes, my belly was growing, and so was my appetite. I ate nonstop, always hungry. But I felt better than I had in months. I did yoga every day, the way Kase’s mom had showed me. Sometimes she Face-timed me and we did a session together.
Visiting Kase’s parents had made everything a little more…bearable. I didn’t feel so weighted down by my own parents’ disappointment. For the first time in a long time, I felt capable. I felt like I was going to be okay, and so was my daughter.
I smiled when my cell dinged from its place on the co
ffee table. I knew it was Kase. It was always Kase. He checked on us every day.
Kasen: Twenty-four weeks.
Emmie: Twenty-four weeks and three finals to study for.
I adjusted the laptop on my thighs, the heat from it making me want to toss it across the room.
Kasen: Sleeping any better?
Emmie: Until two am hits and she starts doing laps.
Kasen: You want to hear the sappiest most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard?
Emmie: Of course I do.
Kasen: I recorded the song. And I emailed it to you.
Emmie: Are you telling me you recorded yourself singing and playing the guitar so that I can play it for our unborn daughter when she wakes up in the middle of the night?
Kasen: Yes. Told you it was the sappiest.
Emmie: And by sappy you mean sexy right?
Oh wow. Did I actually send those words? Pregnancy was frying my brain. I’d called him stupid hot when we were lying in his bed. And now I’d called him sexy. Fantastic.
Kasen: Did you just call me sexy? Stupid hot, and sexy.
Might as well own it, and try like hell to deflect.
Emmie: Kase. You are an actual male model, who plays the guitar and sings like a fallen angel. And you made a recording of it for your unborn baby girl. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? People write romance novels about guys like you.
Kasen: Thanks? I think. I’m not there for her, or for you. And since, you know, you’re carrying her, I wanted to help.
Emmie: I’ll try it tonight. Thank you Kase.
Kasen: You’re welcome.
Emmie: No, I mean it. Thank you, for the song, for wanting to help. For all of it.
Kasen: It’s the least I can do. After all, I’m the one that put her in there.
Emmie: If only my dad could punch through text.
Kasen: He still being a dick?
Emmie: He pretty much ignores me. My mom has come around a bit though. She asked if I wanted to go to lunch together tomorrow.
Kasen: Progress, huh?
Emmie: Progress.
I was nervous to have lunch with my mom, but I was excited as well. I wanted things between us to be better. I wanted her to know her granddaughter. I wanted her to be proud of me. I wanted her to see that I could do this.
Having a baby before my nineteenth birthday was never how I saw my life turning out. But Kase, his parents, my cousins…they’d all made me see that I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t deserve to be punished by my parents, not like this.
Chapter Forty-Five
Kase
Emmie: You want to hear the sappiest most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard.
Kasen: Very much.
Emmie: The song worked.
Kasen: Are you serious?
Emmie: Yeah, I grabbed some headphones, put them on my belly and played it on repeat. She fell back asleep like three minutes later.
Kasen: Daddy’s girl already,
Emmie: Looks that way, the tiny traitor.
Kasen: You have lunch with your mom today?
Emmie: Wish me luck.
Kasen: Luck.
I was wishing Ems more than luck. I spent all morning throwing it out there to the universe, sending good vibes and everything else I could think of. Emmie didn’t need her parents to hold her up or pay for anything. It wasn’t like that. But I knew that she wanted them to be there for her, wanted their love and approval.
And I wanted it for her.
***
I threw the pile of clothes I was packing to the floor, searching for my cell phone. It’d been ringing for the last three minutes and I couldn’t find it anywhere. I was preparing for a two-week trip to the northeast, and I had shit scattered all over my room.
Dammit.
I pulled the covers off my bed, finally spotting it under my pillow.
“Hey, Katie Bug, what’s up?” I paused, trying to get my breathing under control while looking for my phone had been like running sprints. “Cash comes home in a few days. You two keep it down while you’re…reuniting.”
“Kase.”
Her tone wasn’t right. “What’s wrong?”
“Emmie has been crying in her room for like an hour. Did you do something? Did you, like, change your mind about the baby or, like, I don’t know, hurt her somehow?”
“What? Of course not.” I put my phone on speaker, checking to make sure I hadn’t missed any text from her while my cell had been buried under a mound of clothes and pillows. “I talked to her this morning, she said she was having lunch with her mom.”
“Oh. Okay. Then maybe it’s hormones or something?”
I sat on the edge of my bed, worry churning in my gut. “Did you try to go in there and check on her?”
“I knocked, but she said she was fine.”
“And you believed her?” When Ems said she was fine, it meant that she didn’t want to bother anyone else with her shit. “She’s fucking six months pregnant and crying loud enough for you to hear her. Go in there.”
“You’re right. I’ll go check on her and then call you back.”
“No. Do it now. I’ll stay on the phone.”
“Em?” There was a pause, and then the sound of her bedroom door squeaking open. “Oh Emmie, what’s wrong?” My heart dropped down through my stomach and landed at my feet. My sister’s tone went from concerned to distraught.
“I’m fine.”
Ems. At least she was able to talk, able to lie. Silently, I urged my sister to call bullshit, to dig deeper and find out what the hell happened.
“Your eyes are all red and puffy, and you’re crying so hard you’re hiccupping. You’re not fine. Tell me what’s going on. Do you want me to call Evie? Or your mom?”
“No. Not my mom.” There was a brief moment of silence and I strained to hear everything that was happening hundreds of miles away. “We had lunch today, and I thought maybe she was coming around about the baby. I thought maybe… It doesn’t matter. I was wrong.”
Her mom. Her own mother had made her that upset? What the hell was wrong with her fucking parents?
“What happened?”
“She brought a friend of hers, someone who runs an adoption agency. She said she wanted me to understand my options.” Her words kind of cut off at the end, the sound of her crying coming through the line, shattering the heart that was already lying at my feet.
“Sit tight. I’m going to go get you some water. I’ll be right back and we can talk this out.” I waited while Katie left the room, shutting the door behind her. I was already making moves in my mind. I’d had enough. “Did you hear all that?’
“Yep. I’m on my way.” I started tossing all my clothes into my giant suitcase.
“What? Aren’t you headed to like, Maine, for some watch shoot or something?”
“Doesn’t matter.” I grabbed my toiletry bag off the top of my dresser, throwing it into the pile of stuff I hadn’t bothered to re-fold. “I’m tired of her parents’ bullshit. I thought moving her into your house would give them the time and space they needed. But what her mom pulled today? Is not okay. Keep Ems calm. I’ll be there soon.”
“Kase, do you really think that’s necessary? I can take care of her, and like you said, Cash will be home soon. I’m sure he’ll know what to do and he can get Beau over—”
I cut my sister off, not having dropped that bad habit I’d picked up from the Devils. “That’s not Cash’s baby her mom is trying to make her give up. It’s not Beau’s. It’s not yours. That’s my kid, and that’s my…Ems. Don’t let her go anywhere. And stop fucking trying to stop me.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Kase
I took the plane, and I was pulling up in front of Emmie’s parents’ house ninety minutes later. I’d cancelled my watch campaign, tarnishing my record for the first time in my career. I never cancelled. But then again, I’d never had a reason to before.
I slammed the door on my rental car, tugging my jacket tighter around me when t
he wind whipped across the Jameses’ front walk. I took a deep, fortifying breath, then banged on their door. It wasn’t a nice knock. I wasn’t in a nice fucking mood.
Smith opened the door, jerking back in shock. “Kasen? What the flying fuck are you doing here?”
“I need to speak with you and your wife now.”
He scoffed, going to shut the door in my face. “Too bad.”
I put my hand out, stopping him. “I’m not fucking around, Smith.” I met his eyes, letting him see the anger in mine. “And I’m not leaving until you both hear what I have to say. I’ll call my dad. I’ll call Dash. I’ll get the whole fucking RiffRaff family involved in this bullshit if I have to.”
“Smith? What’s going on? Who was at the door?” Dylan, Emmie’s mom, came to stand beside her husband, her face paling when she realized it was me. “Kasen?”
“He says he needs to talk to us, and he’s not leaving until we hear him out.” Smith opened the door wider, not to invite me in, but to gain momentum so he could slam it shut. “But I say, who the hell cares what he has to say.”
“Let him speak, Smith.”
“Seriously?” Smith glanced down at his wife, but when she didn’t back down, he sighed, checking his watch. “Fine. You have three minutes, asshole.”
Three minutes? Perfect. I didn’t want to be in their presence any longer than that anyway.
“I never intended to fuck up Emmie’s life, or to fuck up your happy little family. This baby threw me for a loop too, you know? This wasn’t the way I saw my future panning out, but I’m here, and I’m in it, and I would do just about anything for my daughter. And right now, that includes taking care of her mom.”
I pointed at them. “You two are stressing Ems the fuck out. Why the hell do you think she moved out of here? She wasn’t sleeping. She was losing weight, and she felt abandoned. It’s one thing to ignore her, it’s one thing to be disappointed in her choices.” I shook my head, my eyes zeroing in on her mom. “But what you did today? That’s something altogether different.”
