by Mallory Funk
“Bye mommy. Feel better,” Hale says before he gives me a hug and runs out the door.
I open the windows to get the smell of bacon out of the house since it’s still making me nauseous.
I open the fridge and am very thankful that we have ginger ale. I decide to sit on the couch and wait for Ella and Stacey.
My phone goes off with a couple texts and, when I glance at it, I see my message thread from Katy and Danielle.
They only live a town over so we are a lot closer then we used to be.
Katy: Hey girl, where have you been?
Danielle: Ya! we haven’t heard from you in weeks!
Me: Oh, a lot has been going on. I will explain more later.
Katy: Okay, how’s the new town? Make any new friends, meet any hot guys?
Me: Well, Hale’s dad for one.
Danielle: Shut up! That hottie who knocked you up?
Me: He’s only got the one dad…
Katy: Damn… Tell me he’s still fine!
Me: Even better.
Danielle: Does he have any hot friends?
Katy: Yeah, we are going to head your way next weekend! Please tell me there are more hot bikers in his club!
Me: Oh, there are quite a few that I think you would like. I can’t wait to see you guys. You have no idea how much I needed this text.
Katy: What’s going on?
Danielle: Yeah hun, you know you can tell us anything.
Me: I will explain everything next weekend. It’s honestly a long story and you won’t believe me if I told you!
Katy: Alright we will let it slide for now.
Me: Thanks, lol. What are you guys coming down for?
Danielle: Well, we are taking interviews at the hospital. Seems you guys are very understaffed.
Me: Definitely. I hope you guys get the job here! You can find a house close by and I’m sure Hale will love it.
Katy: Yeah I can’t wait to see my little man.
Me: He does miss you guys.
Danielle: Alright, tell him that we will be there next weekend. Got to head back into work. See you darling!
Katy: Bye babe!
Me: See ya girls next weekend.
By the time I put my phone down, Stacey and Ella walk into my house.
“Thanks for knocking” I say sarcastically.
Stacey snorts. “Girl, you cannot give us a text saying that you need pregnancy tests and then expect us to use our manners.”
I nod my head. “That sounds fair,” I say. Ella hands me a bag and I look at it like it’s a bomb about to go off.
“You need to take one. It will bug you until you know,” Ella says softly.
I nod my head again and still don’t take the bag.
Stacey rolls her eyes, grabs the bag, and thrusts it at me. She then proceeds to push me to the bathroom and even shuts the door.
“I’m not leaving until I hear you move!” she yells through the door.
“Fine!” I yell. “Bossy much?” I mutter to myself.
“I heard that!” she yells but she doesn’t sound mad.
“Just go! I’m taking it! I won’t be able to pee with you standing at the door,” I yell at her.
“Oh, shy bladder,” she says in a sympathetic voice like it was a terrible thing that I didn’t want to have her listen to me pee.
“Stacey, just get away from the door. Not everyone wants to have you listening to them pee,” I hear Ella scold Stacey like she was talking to a child.
I can’t help but shake my head as I sit down to take the test.
Once I’m done, I place it on the counter and clean up. I sit down on the edge of the bathtub waiting for the results.
I blow out a breath. I can’t believe that after five years I’m going through the same thing with the same man.
Part of me wants to just run out of here and never look back, but I couldn’t do that to Aiden. In the first month that we were getting to know each other, I heard how much he wished that he could have experienced the pregnancy with me.
Well, now he might just get his wish, I think to myself.
“Woman, you better come out here and tell us the results!” I hear yelled through the door.
Of course, that breaks my train of thought and I look at the test. When I get up to reach for it, I can see that my hands are shaking.
I can do this.
I suck in a breath and look down at the test.
My shaky hand grabs it because I need to look closer to see if that’s what I’m actually seeing.
Pregnant.
Fuck. I’m pregnant.
I open the door and Stacey’s mouth is open wide like she was about to yell again. I hold up the test so that they can see the result and I can’t stop the tears that start to come in my eyes.
“Oh Olivia. It’s okay. Everything will be okay,” Ella says as she puts her arm around me.
We walk over to the living room.
“You can’t say anything!” I tell them in a panic and they both nod their heads in understanding even though I’m not sure what they could understand.
“It’s just that I need to find out a way to tell him, and I’m not sure what’s going on between us, but I’d hate for him to be with me because I was pregnant, so I just need to take a couple days to think about things.”
They keep nodding their heads, not saying anything.
“I just need a couple days,” I mutter more to myself than to them.
Chapter Twenty Four
Olivia
Three weeks later
A couple days… right.
I can’t help but shake my head at myself. I still was nowhere near ready to tell Aiden about the pregnancy.
When I had felt better the next day, I told him it must have been a twenty-four hour thing and he seemed to believe me, but I’m not sure if he hears me throwing up in the day. I’ve been lucky so far where morning sickness hasn’t hit me in the middle of the night. I really hope that it doesn’t.
I have started to feel hungrier like when I was pregnant with Hale. I feel like I’m never full. Most of the days, I end up getting something before I head to work or am on my way home even though I know Aiden will have attempted to make supper or ordered it.
I say attempt because he has been trying to cook for me and it’s honestly sweet even though most of the things he cooks turn out terrible, but I don’t want to hurt his feelings.
I haven’t said anything about him sleeping in my bed. A couple mornings he was awake before me, but I would still be in his arms. I would simply move out before either one of us could say anything.
More of the brothers have been coming by and spending time with me and Hale, and I can feel the walls breaking around me. My heart wants to give in, but I’m sure that my head isn’t in it yet.
Next weekend is Hale’s birthday. There is going to be a big party at the clubhouse, and it seems that everyone is excited for it. No one had gotten to celebrate any other birthdays for Hale, and he seems to be soaking up all the attention he is getting.
I’m in my kitchen with my head in the fridge scarfing down last night’s Chinese food leftovers.
It’s my favorite and I’m so glad that it didn’t make me sick. I have a container of Chow Mein in my hands, and I grab a fork off the counter and started eating.
Aiden had gone into the shower while Hale was with Ella and D.J. for the afternoon, so I took the opportunity to take in a little food.
I place the take out container on the counter once it’s empty. I grab the sweet and sour pork and start working on that one.
I’m so lost in how amazing the food tastes even cold that I don’t hear Aiden get out of the shower. I also don’t hear him walk into the kitchen and walk up behind me.
“What are you doing?” he asks, and I jump and scream like I’m being chased down in a horror movie.
I put my hand on my chest to try and calm my racing heart. When I look at Aiden, he’s fighting hard not to laugh.
“
Holy shit, sneak up on a girl why don’t ya!” I yell at him.
“I was talking to you as soon as I entered the kitchen. I should be the one who is mad because you were ignoring me, but it seems you got lost in that container of Sweet and Sour Pork, so I can’t really blame you,” he says amused.
“I was hungry,” I say as I shrug a shoulder and close the fridge but am still holding what’s left of the food so that I can finish it now that he’s caught me.
“So it seems. We just ate an hour ago. How are you hungry?” he asks curiously.
“Can’t a woman be hungry and not have a man question it!” I say loudly and storm out of the kitchen and into the bedroom before he can say anything, but I don’t miss how his eyes widen at my outburst.
I slam the door for effect and walk over to the bed to sit in the middle and start eating the pork.
As I’m taking the second bite, I realize that I yelled at him for no reason, and I start thinking about how much of a bitch I must have seemed like. Soon the tears are flowing down my face.
I’m seriously ugly crying when Aiden walks into the room and his eyes have a look of horror in them because he slowly walks to the bed like he’s approaching a scared cat.
“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?” he says slowly.
“I’m so mean to you!” I say on a sob.
Oh My… Hormones, calm the fuck down!
“I’m so sorry I’m mean! I’m more than mean, I’m a b-b-b…” My words are caught off by a sob I can’t seem to stop.
I can’t bring myself to look at him, so I bury my face in my sweet and sour pork and start eating while I’m trying to hold it together.
Aiden ‘Steal’
What the fuck just happened?
I can’t seem to bring my jaw off the floor as I look at Olivia on our bed crying her eyes out into a container of Chinese food.
“Brother?” I hear yelled behind me. I can only raise my arm to gesture behind me for Torch to come and make sure I’m not seeing things.
I feel him behind me and he asks in a horrified whisper. “What the fuck is happening?”
I shake my head still speechless.
“I hate being so mean!” she yells and takes another bite of the pork she’s eating.
“Why is she yelling that she’s mean?” Torch whispers, sounding amused.
“I asked her why she was still hungry after we just ate lunch and she yelled at me and stormed in here. I have no idea what the fuck just happened,” I say not taking my eyes off of Olivia.
“Brother…” Torch says like he completely understands why my woman is losing it.
I finally look at him and he looks at me like I’m stupid for not realizing what’s going on.
“What?” I snap at him.
He smacks me on the side of the head. “She’s eating A LOT and CRYING! What part of this don’t you recognize?!” he yells at me.
When I still look at him confused, he shakes his head in disappointment. “Pretend that you don’t have any apple juice for fuck sakes!” he yells louder.
I stare at him for a couple more seconds until what he says clicks. Holy fucking shit! Could she really be pregnant?
“Olivia?” I ask as I slowly walk in and shut the door on Torch’s face. If she’s going to tell me she’s pregnant, I don’t need him to listen in. It’s bad enough that he realized it before I did; I just hope he doesn’t go around telling anyone, but my brother does like to gossip.
“What?” she mumbles not looking up from the now empty container.
“A-are you” I clear my throat. “Are you pregnant?”
She stills and slowly lifts her gaze to mine. Fuck, even when her face is puffy from crying she’s still so beautiful.
She nods her head slowly.
“No, I need to hear you say the words,” I tell her in a low voice.
“I’m pregnant,” she whispers but her eyes are still locked on mine. No doubt trying to gauge my reaction.
“How long?” I ask.
“Nine weeks,” she says quietly, finally dropping her gaze.
“How long have you known?” I say slowly sitting on the bed.
“About three.” She says it so quietly that I almost don’t hear it.
Fuck. I know why she didn’t tell me, and she looks so ashamed of the fact she hid it for so long.
I wish she had felt that she could tell me that she was pregnant, but I get why she didn’t and things between us have been so strained since everything that happened. I’ve been fighting like hell trying to figure out how to get her to forgive me, and then she finds out she’s pregnant with my child. Fuck. I really hope she doesn’t feel like she’s forced here now because of this.
“Are you happy about it?” I ask almost not wanting to hear the answer in case it’s not the one I want to hear, but I need to hear what she has to say.
She nods her head. “Of course I’m happy. I love being pregnant even though it makes me moody and sick and terribly hungry. I miss the days when Hale was a baby. At least you will be there this time to feel and experience everything.”
“Baby, I don’t want you to think that you need to have this baby for me. I want it, so don’t get me wrong, but I don’t want you to feel like you have to keep it because everything between us has been so wrong lately. I don’t know how to get us back to where we were,” I admit to her.
I drop my gaze to her stomach and my breath catches. I can’t believe that my child is growing inside of her.
“I won’t feel forced to stay though I will admit that there was a part of me that wanted to leave for a while, but I knew it was wrong to take Hale from you. This place is so much better for him and makes him happy. My feelings got hurt and my heart was broken, but I wasn’t going to let Hale pay for that no matter how much I just wanted to run. I felt so numb for a couple weeks that I didn’t know what to do. I want to be so mad at you and the rest of the club, but I can’t. I know I can’t be mad. You guys were protecting each other and I haven’t been a part of this life for long. I get it, I do, but it still didn’t hurt any less. I just need to find a way to move on from the ugly so that we can get back to what we had,” she says and sits up to pull me in for a hug.
I hug her so tight that I am afraid I might hurt her, but I miss the feeling of her willingly coming into my arms. Usually, when we sleep I try to hold her for as long as possible because I know that once she wakes up, or once she realizes that I’m awake, she will leave. Those minutes in the morning when I am holding her are too precious.
I pull back enough so that I can put my hands on her stomach as I look into her eyes.
“Olivia, I’m going to do whatever it takes for you to trust me. I know that you could have taken off after everything without telling me where you were going, and I would have spent my life searching, but you didn’t do that. I made a mistake and I can only hope you forgive my mistake because I do trust you. I trust you with my son, my life, my club, and now my unborn child. If I have to spend the rest of my life proving it to you then that’s what I will do. I’m so fucking happy that you’re having my baby. I think you should be prepared because Torch was the one who realized it first and I bet he’s across the street telling my dad right now,” I tell her, and she gives me an embarrassed laugh.
“Oh god, I can’t believe he saw me lose it. He’s going to think I’m crazy!” she says as her cheeks turn red from embarrassment.
I can’t help but laugh. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing that we aren’t used to. Just last night, I had to run pizza over to Ella at three in the morning because she was hungry. And don’t get me started on her apple juice.”
She lets out a little laugh and I can feel her relax against me. “Yeah, I have heard all about the apple juice. I hope that I don’t go crazy for something like that.”
We both laugh, and I feel lighter than I have in weeks. This is a stepping stone to us working out and I can feel it already getting better. The light is coming back into her eyes and I hope it wo
n’t be long before it’s completely there.
I get up off the bed and grab her hand. “Come on. I bet you want to see what else we have left over.” She laughs and nods her head.
When we make it to the kitchen, she automatically goes to the fridge, pulls out a container, and starts eating. I’m not going to bug her about using a plate or anything. I have her smiling and I don’t want to ruin it.
All of a sudden, our front door bursts open and it slams against the wall with a loud bang. When my father comes into view, I can’t help but shake my head. There are a couple brothers behind him as well as my mom, Ella, and Stacey.
“Is it true?” he pants like he ran here, and I’m guessing that he did with the slight flush on his face. He has such a hopeful look in his face that I can’t help but chuckle.
“Is what true?” I ask him innocently.
“Is Olivia pregnant?” he says excitedly.
At that moment, Olivia looks up from her food and her cheeks are so stuffed she looked like a chipmunk. I want to laugh when I see the blush on her cheeks. Her mouth moves so fucking fast because she’s trying to swallow the food so she can talk.
“I-I am,” she says nervously.
My dad smiles wide and everyone cheers. Before I know it, he has Olivia in a hug, but he’s got her arms pinned to her sides so that she can’t hug him back.
“Yes! I’m going to be a grandpa!” he yells.
“Dad, you already are a grandpa,” Ella says dryly holding D.J. in her arms and Hale on the other side of her.
“Oh, you know what I mean, baby girl. I have two more grandchildren on the way,” my dad says with so much excitement that I can’t help but laugh.
“Can I go back to my Chinese food now?” Olivia asks, still being crushed by my dad.
He pulls away quickly and looks at the counter at the left over take out food.
“Kid!” he yells.
“Yeah, boss?” he comes in from the front door. Shit, I didn’t even know he was in here.
“Go get Olivia some fresh Chinese food. My girl needs it fresh,” he says pushing Olivia to sit down at the table, and then he grabs D.J. from Ella and pushes her to sit down.
