by Amber Lynn
After seeing him with Rachel, she didn’t think she could keep the news from him. She couldn’t take a chance on him being angrier seeing her looking like a balloon was stuffed in her belly closer to term. It was best to get it over with and make it clear she didn’t expect anything from him.
It was hard to tell what his squeezing hand meant. He hadn’t said a word after he insisted being there when the doctor checked her out. Lacey thought it was best, because if she lost the baby, she wouldn’t have been able to tell him. The thought of it made her chest tighten and pain that she didn’t feel any of the times the doctor touched her radiated through her body. Thankfully, the doctor had stopped pushing on her, so her reaction couldn’t be tied to touch.
“I’m happy to see no pain around your ribs. You’ve healed nicely there, but of course you’re more concerned about the baby, so let’s take a look inside and verify everything is as it should be.”
Those were the words Lacey wanted to hear. Of course, hearing everything was fine was more important, but the physical exam was just wasting time to get to what she needed to hear. The most important thing to her in that moment was hearing her child’s heart still beating. She remembered too clearly the last time she’d been in the situation, and the hollow echo of emptiness she felt when nothing sounded inside of her.
Vasily gripped her hand tighter as the doctor went to work setting up the ultrasound. If she had any clear thoughts in the moment, she would’ve probably asked him to lighten up a little, because her bones couldn’t take much more, but her eyes were glued on the screen that would hopefully light up and show a flittering heartbeat.
She heard the noise before she saw it, and tears that could have stopped at some point poured out of her eyes. She felt Vasily kiss the hand he gripped, but her eyes couldn’t be drawn away from the sight.
“There he is,” the doctor said, pointing at the screen.
“It’s a boy?” Vasily asked. His voice sounded deeper, more gruff than usual.
The doctor shook her head. “Sorry, I meant that in general. It’s a little too early to tell the sex. In a few weeks, we’ll know better.” She moved the wand around a little before taking it away and hitting some buttons on the computer. “I see nothing wrong with the baby, Lacey. I know you’re worried, but just take it easy for the next few days and I don’t think there will be any issues. I also suggest not standing too close to any pick-up football games.”
“She won’t.” Vasily was quick to reply. “Is there anything else we need to do besides the rest. Any foods or supplements she needs to take? Or not take. Hold on,” he said taking is phone out with one hand and tapping on it. “I’ll make a list.”
Lacey still had her eyes where the baby had been on the screen, so she only saw movements in her peripheral vision, but Vasily’s ramble made her look in his direction. He wanted to take notes on what she should eat? Was he drunk? George only came to a couple doctor appointments and spent most of the time on his phone, not taking notes.
“I’m pretty sure Lacey knows the drill, but I’m guessing this is your first.” The doctor smiled knowingly.
Dr. Masters had been there for the prenatal and delivery of Kevin and Rachel and her doctor for the miscarriage. She’d met George and shared her opinions about his last-minute missed appointments and her questions about the fall that caused the miscarriage. There had been a question in her eyes when she saw Vasily there, but he was Vasily, and his charm was hard to disapprove.
“I’m trying not to be too obvious, but I have some catching up to do. You said we could find out the sex in a few weeks? Is that appointment scheduled?” he asked, looking to Lacey. “I want to make sure I’m available. If that’s okay.”
The end of his comment was soft, but Lacey could see some pleading in his eyes. She had to be hallucinating. She’d been ignoring him and keeping the fact that she was pregnant from him for months. He should have been pissed.
“I think I’ll let you two have a little time alone. If you need anything, you know how to get ahold of me.”
The doctor smiled and moved to leave. Lacey wasn’t sure she wanted to be alone, but she couldn’t postpone it forever. Whether Vasily felt the same way was hard to tell, but he stopped the doctor.
“Actually, I don’t know how to get ahold of you. Should I? I mean, what if something happens to Lacey or the baby and I need to help? Do I just call nine-one-one or should I call you?”
Lacey was pretty sure that hit had knocked her out and she was in a coma or something. It was a pleasant coma, but still, his reaction couldn’t be right.
“I’ll let you two discuss that. Get some rest and try to keep the stress down,” the doctor said warmly.
She left the room, leaving a silence in her wake. Lacey didn’t know what to say, since she was still pretty sure she was unconscious. Did she have to say anything? Couldn’t they just sit there and enjoy whatever calm fluttered around them.
No.
“We’re having a baby.”
Why did Vasily sound so happy about that? Maybe he got hit in the head too.
“Yes,” Lacey said hesitantly. “But I know you don’t want kids, so I’m not asking for any commitment from you as far as the baby goes. We don’t even have to tell people the baby is yours, if you don’t want.”
The words contradicted his recent actions, but those actions likely stemmed from shock. Once he had time to let it all register, he’d remember relationships and a family were not in his big picture. At least not yet. Maybe someday, he’d grow up more and decide the party life wasn’t for him.
“I’m pretty sure that cat’s out of the bag, kitten. I’m not sure about the kids, because they looked worried more than anything else, but my hand on your stomach turned the worry to glares in most of your friends’ eyes.”
“And Jake knows we slept together,” she said.
Even if she wanted to claim some kind of immaculate conception, Jake would know the timing and the truth. Vasily nodded.
“And while he seemed a little less pissed at me when we were talking earlier, I have a feeling he’s going to punch me again when the baby is confirmed.”
He winced as he spoke. If Jake was throwing punches, that was an issue. He was one of her more docile male friends. At least he seemed to be.
“You let him hit you?”
Vasily chuckled and lifted her hand for a kiss. He set it back down on the bed, and Lacey realized she should probably get up. Her push to get up was met with a cold stare that kept her in her place. That was the look she expected to see when he found out about the baby, but it wasn’t mean, just a warning.
“I deserved it at the time. He knows who both of us are and assumed I took advantage.”
“But you didn’t.” She was quick to say.
He shrugged. “I hope I didn’t. I was totally sober that night, but I felt totally out of control.”
She smiled at the thought. The image of him cooking that night made his words an exaggeration. When they came together, yes, he was wild, but he was never out of control.
“You didn’t take advantage,” she said, squeezing his hand. “And this.” She paused to wave her free hand above her stomach. “It’s not your fault either. We both got caught up in the moment of the lust and passion between us. It doesn’t have to change the way you live your life.”
The stern look was back on his face as the words hit him. She thought they’d be what he wanted to hear. Yes, there were consequences to their night together, but he didn’t have to worry about them.
“You’re right, it doesn’t. Since I haven’t been with anyone since you and have been spending most of my time with your son, things don’t have to change at all. The only thing that needs to change is we should probably go on at least one official date before we get married.”
“Wait, what?”
Lacey hadn’t gotten over the claim that he’d been celibate for months. Three months without sex? Was that even possible? For someone like Lacey, it was every
day life. But, Vasily lived a totally different life.
If that wasn’t strange enough, he said the M word. She was definitely unconscious in some kind of weird alternate reality dream world.
“Is there a certain part you need clarification on? Technically, I did not just ask you to marry me, so don’t get your blood pressure up or anything. I’m pretty sure that’s bad for the baby.”
No, there hadn’t been a question in his words. There also hadn’t been any hesitation or maybe to it.
“I don’t understand. You said you don’t want a relationship, let alone a family. I’ve been with a man who wasn’t there for us. I’m not doing that again. This baby doesn’t need a father who will only be there when he wants and run away when he finds something he wants more.”
“You honestly think I would do that to you?”
He stared in her eyes as he said the words. Lacey had been studying him, but she had no idea what to think. She had just settled on telling him about the baby. Not in her wildest dreams had this been where the conversation would go.
She couldn’t say yes to his question. Not after the way he’d been acting. That didn’t mean she easily accepted he wouldn’t just walk away someday.
“I have no idea what to think. I’ve been scared about the baby and how you’d react. I don’t know if I can deal with anything else right now.”
“And you don’t have to. I just want to make it clear that I was planning to ask you out on an official date before I found out about the baby. You can ask Jake. I told him at the barbecue. He didn’t exactly agree with the plan, but he didn’t punch me again.”
With how their conversation was shaping up, Lacey wasn’t too sure about that. She didn’t see any red marks or bruising, but the change in Vasily’s attitude could easily be explained by a hit to the head.
“Maybe you should try to stay away from him until I have a chance to think about things. I’ll talk to him about the punching and explain you aren’t to blame.”
Lacey moved to get up again, and this time Vasily didn’t halt her with a glare. He did, however, help her move painstakingly slow into a seated position. It would’ve taken her seconds on her own, but she was sure it took a full minute as he gingerly placed his hand here and there for support.
“So,” he said when her legs finally dangled over the edge of the table, “you simply want me to blow off going to any practices until you have a chance to talk to Jake. How about the other guys? Because I’m sure by now they have their own desires to kill me.”
His words were lightheartedly said, even if they spoke of his eminent demise. Lacey didn’t have any brothers, but she assumed how the guys on the team acted around her was similar. If they were her real brothers, she still wouldn’t give them any leeway. They couldn’t threaten a guy just because he slept with her, and that message needed to get out.
“Okay, so maybe you can’t avoid them,” she conceded. “I’ll call them after I assure the kids everything is fine. Can you steer clear of them for an hour or two?”
Vasily laughed and shook his head. “You don’t have to fight my battles with them. After what you went through with George, I understand where they’re coming from. Speaking of your asshole of an ex-husband, you said something earlier I wanted to ask about.”
Any signs that he had just laughed were gone from his face. Bringing up George tended to do that to a person. As he paused for a second, Lacey tried to remember what she’d said that could bring up the topic. She’d been so scared, she had no idea what she was saying.
“When I asked you about it hurting, you said it didn’t feel like before. Are you talking about when you broke your ribs?”
Lacey had stopped breathing after the first sentence. Had she really mentioned the miscarriage? No, he just knew that her ribs were broke at some point. She didn’t let out a sigh of relief, because there really wasn’t any relief to be had.
Who told him about the ribs, and what exactly did they say? The who had to be Jake or one of the kids. As far as she knew, he hadn’t been talking about her with anyone else. If it was the kids, he probably wouldn’t have mentioned George. She knew Jake and the rest of her friends thought George caused the injury.
He had, but even when he trampled her life, she had covered for him. And, none of them knew that the ribs weren’t the only injury she suffered that day.
The doctor hadn’t mentioned the previous miscarriage, but if Vasily was serious about coming to appointments, the past could bubble up. She could refuse to let him come to the appointments, but if he really wanted to be a father to the baby, she couldn’t take that away from him.
She had to tell him at least the truth of what she’d meant about the pain.
“Sort of. I was pregnant when I fell. It was early, so no one else knows, but the baby couldn’t survive the trauma.”
His eyes widened and filled with anger. It reminded her of the same look George had in his eyes before he hit her. She leaned back, trying to distance herself from it, but they were too close together and he had a hold of her.
“Did he know you were pregnant with his child when he broke your ribs?”
The menace in Vasily’s voice caused her to shiver. He was mad, furious actually, but it wasn’t directed at her.
“Yes,” she said softly, admitting a fact she hadn’t told anyone else. “Although, he didn’t believe the baby was his.”
She still defended George. She finally admitted to someone else that he caused her injuries, but she still tried to explain it in a way that made it slightly less his fault. She really was pathetic.
“Then I hope you don’t mind that I’m going to take you home and stay with you for a little while. Because if I don’t, I am hopping on a plane and going to kill that son of a bitch.”
Lacey didn’t have a chance to answer, because Vasily’s head moved in close and his lips captured hers for a searing kiss. She could feel his anger in the kiss, but as he wrapped his arms around her and picked her up, she also felt a promise. Something she’d never felt from George. She couldn’t put her finger on exactly what it meant, but it filled her with just a little hope.
Chapter 16
Not killing someone was harder than it sounded. The urge to find George and brutally pummel him lingered in the back of Vasily’s mind for days. He couldn’t get her admission out of his head. George thought his baby was someone else’s. In who’s right mind does that justify killing the baby? The guy should’ve been in jail.
Lucky for the asshole, Vasily had more important things on his mind, like proving to Lacey he wanted to be a part of their child’s life. He wanted to be apart of her life, but she seemed even more hesitant about that.
He couldn’t blame her for either of those. He’d seen how scared she got when he heard about the miscarriage. He tried to hide it, but it was one of those things that he couldn’t control.
It was no surprise that three days later he was still trying to get her to agree to a date. He’d gotten desperate enough to ask Rachel for help, so while he was at practice, she was working her magic on Lacey. He had no idea what that meant, but he hoped it worked.
“Odds were about seventy-thirty you’d show up today,” Curtis Power said as he took a seat next to him.
Vasily had arrived early to try to get out on the ice before his teammates arrived. He should’ve known it wasn’t early enough to beat the captain out there. Technically, since he was a few layers ahead of Curtis, he could beat him out there, but he doubted Curtis would let him finish getting dressed in peace.
“I had to remind Lacey I couldn’t avoid you guys. She promised she’d call and make sure everyone understands I’m not coercing her into our relationship. But, since I’ve been with her most of the last three days, I know she hasn’t made any calls.”
He hadn’t wanted her to make those calls, but he wasn’t going to stop her. Thankfully, it worked out that there were bigger things on her mind than playing telephone tree.
“Does that mean you
’ve moved yourself in and are settling in to play house?”
While his tone appeared friendly, Vasily could hear the undertone in what Curtis said. Where Jake let you know exactly what he was thinking, Curtis liked to play it cool. He lulled opponents into thinking everything would be okay, then he attacked. The only person Vasily had seen him openly hostile with was Nina, and you had to be that way with her if you didn’t want to be walked all over.
“No, I go home every night and come back every morning to help get the kids off to school.”
Curtis hadn’t been looking at him, but at those words, he glanced up from fastening his pads. Vasily was aware of how stupid it sounded. Lacey didn’t need help, neither did the kids. They were old enough to get out of bed and get their stuff together for the day. That didn’t change the fact that Vasily wanted to share the moments and try to get them used to him being around.
Lacey hadn’t told them about the baby yet. She was still worried about a delayed reaction to the hit, which was one of the reasons he wanted to stick close. He’d done some research and wasn’t sure what to believe. The more he read, the more worried he got. It was easy to understand why she wanted to wait to tell the kids.
“What’s the play here, Ox? She’s not your type, so why are you making this effort? I get the sense you know how protective we are of her.”
Vasily didn’t know how much Curtis knew. He assumed everyone knew about the baby, but maybe it hadn’t been as clear as he thought. The glares could’ve just been for his interest. He wouldn’t know for sure until he spelled it out.
“I imagine Jake had to share what he knows by now, but is it widely known she’s pregnant?”
Sitting down, Vasily worked to get his skates on. Curtis said nothing. The captain usually wasn’t at a loss for words, so Vasily glanced over at him.
Up until that point, his face had been neutral, not giving away a thing. Seeing the shock switch to anger, Vasily figured he misjudged how his actions looked at the party. They were quiet, so he hadn’t thought anyone had heard the conversation, but the way he held his hand on her stomach should’ve made it clear.
