by Sam Mariano
"Middle school?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "I don't think she should date until she's at least 16."
"I don't think we need to have this discussion yet," Julie relied, chuckling. "She isn't even born yet."
"Maybe we should look into all-girls schools," he stated.
"How do you know she won't be a lesbian?"
Sighing, he said, "Oh God, this is going to be a lot harder than growing up, isn't it?"
"Watching our baby grow up instead? Oh yes."
"I'm not going to like it," he informed Julie. "We should freeze dry her while she's little."
"You figure out how and I'll think about it."
He sighed heavily and placed his hand on Julie's belly saying, "Alyssa, can you hear me? This is your father. You're not going to give me gray hair by the time you're two, right?"
Julie laughed when Alyssa seemingly responded by kicking.
"I'm going to take that as a no," Aaron replied, smiling and rubbing her belly. "You're going to be a little angel, right?"
She kicked twice and shoved one of her appendages in Julie's rib cage, causing Julie some mild discomfort for a moment.
"Oh," Julie said, rubbing the side of her stomach to try to make Alyssa move. "I'm going to take that as a definitive no; stop abusing Mommy!"
"She's trying to reassure her father right now, do you mind?" he asked jokingly.
"I will mind much less when she's here and she can kick you instead of me to communicate."
Aaron smiled mildly, dropping his hand from her stomach and wrapping his arms around Julie's waist, leaning in and giving her a little kiss. "I'll be glad when she's here, too."
Julie nodded, but getting back to the topic at hand she said, "I know it's weird for you to see Leigh moving on, but this is good for her and we need to be supportive."
"But I don't know if he's good for her."
"Well, they're not getting married, he's just helping her take magazines to her car. Trust me, if he isn't right for her she'll be the one to decide. Don't be such a control freak."
Sighing, he said, "All this change is just… I don't know, I haven't adjusted yet."
"It's still new," she said patiently, offering a cheerful smile. "We'll all get the hang of it."
"I guess it’s good. That means she's going to be okay, right?"
"Yes. And on the bright side, if she and Steve do start going out, we will all definitely be able to be friends."
"I'm going to have to have a talk with him," Aaron said decisively.
"Aaron."
"He's still married, Julie."
"He's getting divorced," Julie reasoned.
"Yeah, they're all 'getting divorced,'" he stated, rolling his eyes.
"That's not fair at all."
"Okay, okay, so Steve really is getting divorced, but he currently lives with his wife. I'm sorry, but if he's still living with his wife, you should be a little careful."
"We don't even know if Leigh likes him," Julie said reasonably. "You're jumping the gun here."
"I just don't like married men," he replied, shaking his head. "You can't trust them at all."
Trying to make light of it instead of let him think of Matt, she blurted, "Does that mean I should never expect us to get married? Even if we're together for next 40 to 60 years I'll remain Julie Kingsley?"
He looked vaguely startled that she brought marriage up, but he recovered easily enough, saying, "No, of course not. Marriage will certainly be an option for us down the road if we want to do that, but I won't be one of those married guys."
"I sure hope not. If you're a good guy all this time just so that you can be shady once you put a ring on my finger I'm going to kick your ass."
His lips curved upward. "Not a fan of false advertising, huh?"
"Not at all. And Alyssa is kicking me, so I'm thinking she's agreeing."
Shaking his head, he said, "No, I'm not going to morph into a douche bag. I’m going to fully appreciate my family once we're all together. Some people just don't realize that they take that for granted… that's something I'll never do."
Since Aaron's hand was on her belly, Julie just placed her hand over his, smiling tenderly at him. "You are an amazing guy, Aaron Turner. I don't know how I managed to snag you."
Sighing, he said gravely, "It was the pirate costume that did it. I mean, what man can resist a face-painting pirate?"
Laughing, she whacked him in the stomach and said, "Shut up, don't make fun of my old costume."
"It was sexy," he said with a little eyebrow raise.
"It definitely wasn't," she disagreed, extracting herself from his embrace and heading over to the counter where she had her cleaning supplies from before she fixed them lunch.
"What are you doing with that?" he asked, frowning.
"I'm cleaning so we can start unpacking this stuff as you bring it in. You better eat your sandwich before the bread gets hard."
"Yes, mom," he drawled.
"That's right, I'm the mom and what I say goes. Aren't you the one that told me to be a pain in your ass?"
"You've never been so obedient before," he joked.
"I have to obey sometimes; gotta keep you on your toes.”
Chapter Twenty Eight-
Once they moved into the apartment, things got a little calmer.
By Easter, Leigh was so far past the feelings she had for Aaron that she suggested that—since no one else had offered—she throw together a baby shower for Julie.
Julie was stunned, but since she had practically given up all hope of having a baby shower, she readily agreed.
The shower wasn't big, just a few of the girls from work and a couple of girls Julie had befriended at school. They had the shower at the apartment, and Leigh came over early that morning in a cute pastel dress with a little white cardigan, trying to balance a cake, a balloon bouquet, a "Baby Shower" banner, and a grocery bag that looked to be filled with decorating supplies.
"Let me help," Julie said, taking the cake and putting it down on the counter and then turning around to grab the balloon bouquet.
"I still have a box in the car with the baby bingo and some more decorations, I just couldn't carry it all." Then, rolling her eyes but betraying herself with the glowing blush, she said, "Steve was going to come help me with this stuff, but I told him no."
Smiling at Leigh, Julie said, "Steve, huh? How's that going?"
"I don't know," she replied, shaking her head. "I think it's going well, but I'm trying to take it slow and not… you know, jump in."
"Sometimes you have to jump in," Julie informed her.
"I know, but… I don't know. It's scary. It's a lot scarier this time, I don't know why."
"You mean scarier than Aaron, or scarier than… Ryan?"
"Both. Ryan was my first love, I was too young and naïve to be afraid. Aaron… he wasn't scary at all, because he was such a long shot. Honestly… this thing with Steve… it's made me wonder how I would have even reacted if Aaron would have decided to get serious with me. Steve scares me more than other guys."
"How do you mean? Just… you don't want to get hurt?"
"I guess. It's just… the guys at the restaurant, they flirt, they feed my ego and everything, but I don't really take them seriously. They don't even intend to be taken seriously. None of them are serious, they just want to have fun."
"And Steve doesn’t?" she asked, thinking that sounded like a good thing.
"I don't know," Leigh said, looking a little frustrated. "He hasn't said that or anything, it's just a feeling I get when I'm with him, it feels more real. I don't really know how to explain it. He feels so comfortable, but also so daunting. He's handsome and funny and caring and responsible and I think that I could care about him, but that's what makes him scary. I don't want to experience that all over again."
"Well, if you want my opinion—”
"Oh, you're a happily taken pregnant woman; what single girl wants your opinion?" Leigh said half-jokingly.
"Easy for you to say," Leigh said, rolling her eyes. "We were at dinner the other night and his soon-to-be-ex-wife calls him when we get our menus, he tries to rush her off the phone and apologize to me, and she continues to call for twenty minutes until he finally just shut his phone off. It was so uncomfortable."
"Ew," Julie said, grimacing. "That's less than ideal."
"No kidding. He is finally moving out though, and thank God they didn't have any kids together, so I'm thinking maybe she'll just fade out and then it won't seem so much like I'm going out with another woman's husband."
"Yeah, that's not the best feeling," Julie replied dryly, thinking of her own experience.
"I do like him though," she said thoughtfully. "I don't know. We'll see. Anyway, enough about my stupid love life—this is your day! I'm going to go get the other box and then we can get decorating."
The party was going well until it hit a rather uncomfortable snag when a surprise guest threatened to ruin the festivities.
Although he did not try to actually come inside and participate in the baby shower, Matt decided to stop by and drop off a present.
As soon as he darkened the doorstep Julie felt her heart slam forward in her chest and then immediately halt its beating.
Beside her, Aaron froze midway through the motion of putting a musical toy dragon down on the floor. Leigh, who had opened the door, scowled and looked back as if to silently ask what the hell Aaron's treacherous brother was doing at the baby shower.
When Aaron collected himself, he rose and crossed to his brother.
"Leave."
Sighing, Matt said, "Are we really not past this yet? You don't have to like me, but you can't just boot me out of your life altogether. I have a present for Julie, if you don't mind."
"I do mind," Aaron replied, raising an eyebrow. "Anything Julie and our baby needs, I will provide. You can leave."
Shifting a glance at Leigh as she stood back observing, Matt lowered his voice and said, "You know, this really isn't very subtle."
"I don't have to be subtle. For one thing, you were definitely not invited to this baby shower—”
Holding up a hand to stop his brother, Matt said, "I know, I'm not staying. Just dropping off. Really, the sooner you let me give Julie her present, the better off we'll all be."
Julie sighed irritably, shoving herself off the chair and waddling over to the door.
Matt offered a smile and held out a card. "I figured my brother wouldn't like any additional reminders of me around, so I got you a couple of gift cards."
"Thank you," she said, taking the card from him.
"No problem," he returned with an easy smile. "We're all family, right? I couldn't very well miss the opportunity to—”
"Yep, have a good day," Aaron interrupted, shutting the door quite rudely in Matt's face.
Sighing a little, Julie placed a reassuring hand on Aaron's shoulder and shot him a questioning look.
Offering her a smile, he said, "It's fine. At least he just brought gift cards, right?"
Leaning her head on his shoulder briefly, she said, "See, you're getting better."
"I draw the line at him visiting you in the hospital," Aaron stated immovably.
"We'll bring our doorman and he can guard the entrance," she teased.
"I like that idea a lot."
Julie released Aaron's arm, giving him a brief kiss and then waddling back to her seat. As she went, she glanced in Leigh's direction and was struck by the horrified look of realization that she saw there.
Looking away, Julie decided to ignore it until Leigh's shock subsided. As many months as she had spent moving past all of her mistakes, seeing the situation as Leigh was seeing it for the first time, she still felt deeply embarrassed by it.
The rest of the shower went by without incident, and once everyone cleared out it was only Leigh and Aaron cleaning up while Julie miserably did little due to the swollen ankles that decided to flare up near the end.
"It's nice of you to stay and clean up, but you don't have to, you know," Aaron remarked as he tossed a stack of paper plates into the trash can.
"Yeah, I know," Leigh murmured, putting the remainders of the cake into an airtight container. "So... Matt stopped by. That's weird, huh?"
Aaron's jaw tightened, but he didn't say anything, merely threw some more garbage away and then went to grab a washrag to clean off the table.
Glancing back at Julie—or, more accurately, at Julie's stomach—Leigh smiled slightly and then walked over closer to Aaron, remarking, "You must really love her. I never thought you'd forgive anyone for that crime; you didn't even forgive Shannon."
"Shannon was a grasping slut, they have nothing in common," Aaron returned immovably.
Although her eyebrows inched up toward her forehead, she didn't argue, merely murmured, "If you say so."
She only stayed for a few more minutes, then Leigh told them she was going to go call Steve and see if he wanted to have dinner. Julie thanked her for her help with the shower and Leigh gave a half-smiling nod in response, but it didn't feel quite as warm as it had earlier.
Once she was gone, Julie sighed and said, "Well, she thinks I'm a whore now."
"She doesn't think you're a whore," Aaron stated loyally.
"No, she does," Julie insisted. "She thinks I'm on Shannon's level."
"You couldn't reach Shannon's level if you tried. Your heart isn't black enough. Leigh's just surprised."
"No kidding. I'm going to have to send Matt a thank you note," she remarked dryly. "What the hell was he thinking?"
"About himself, naturally," was Aaron's simple response. "The only person he ever thinks about. He wanted to make his presence known at the shower, wanted to shake everything up… it's what he does, Julie, how are you still surprised?"
"I really do have half a mind to send him a thank you note in hopes that Emma will see it," she muttered, even knowing as she said it that the threat was empty.
Aaron merely smiled, a rather satisfied looking smile and said, "Don't bother, I'm sure he's already feeling the depth of our appreciation."
Glancing at Aaron a little uncertainly, she said, "What does that mean?"
Stepping closer to her and leaning in to brush a soft kiss across her lips, he said, "Nothing to concern yourself with. You look tired, why don't you take a nap while I assemble some of this stuff and get rid of the boxes?"
Since she was always tired—a state she sincerely hoped would pass when the baby was born—Julie agreed and waddled her way into bed.
---
Less than a week later Julie was sitting in a booth at the café rolling silverware and making up cups of sour cream while she kept an eye on the one and only table that Aaron allowed her to have. He had been trying to talk her into staying home for the rest of her pregnancy, but she insisted that sitting by herself at the apartment made her go stir crazy and if he loved her he would at least let her do something to help out around the café.
After her shift, Julie went home and rested on the couch for a little bit, shifting uncomfortably and begging the baby to make her entrance soon. Those women who had pregnancy addictions, she concluded, were obviously crazy. She couldn't wait to be done being pregnant. Honestly, Aaron couldn't either. He enjoyed all of the pregnancy related stuff, probably only because he had previously thought he wouldn't get to do any of it, but even he was extremely eager to meet their daughter. He already had her entire bedroom set up, complete with a fully stocked little bookshelf full of stories he planned to read to her religiously. The man had done so much parenting research that she figured their kid had a better shot than m
ost any kid in the entire world at being a baby genius.
The ringing of the phone interrupted her little rest and she shoved herself off the couch, waddling over to the phone and heaving a sigh before rubbing her back and answering.
Without even a hello, Matt said, "I want to talk to Aaron."
"Aaron is at work, and I doubt that he would want to talk to you anyway barring an emergency."
"I consider him fucking up my life an emergency," he replied shortly.
"Well, he probably didn't like when you fucked his up either, but what are you talking about?"
"He called Emma. I don't know what all he said to her, but he told her I showed up at the baby shower, greatly embellished the story, and now she's informed me that we're moving to New York or she's filing for divorce and moving there without me, and either way Anna goes with her."
Heart dropping, Julie immediately answered, "Aaron wouldn't do that."
"Yes, he would. To get me out of the way once and for all, he certainly would."
"He's not that spiteful," she insisted.
"I'm sorry, have you met my brother?"
Rolling her eyes, she said, "Well, okay, he's a little bit spiteful, but you earned it. Even if he did say something to Emma, you crashed his baby shower just like you've crashed a million other things for him—honestly, if that's the only way he feels assured that he can enjoy this baby without you butting into his life, I can't even say that I blame him. You won't bow out gracefully."
"Why should I?" Matt fired back. "You're having my baby. And I've got news for you, if Emma does leave me and take Anna, I'm taking you and Aaron to court for custody. A DNA test will prove I'm the father, not him—”
"You would not do that. You're not that evil."
"Is it evil to want to see my own kid? The more Aaron tries to push me out, the more it makes me want to fight back. Rightfully, I should be able to be present at any baby-related—”
"No, rightfully you are a married man, you asshole, and you didn't even have the right to impregnate me to begin with, but through some twist of fate that's what happened. If you had even a shred of human decency, Matt, if even a fraction of the man that I got to know that got me into this very pregnant predicament to begin with exists… you will do everyone a favor and just… just go to New York, Matt. Just go, leave us alone, let everyone move on."
