by Nikki Ashton
“Well I do,” I finally replied. “I do want to be single. I want to do this alone.”
Carter swung around to face me, his eyes as big as saucers. “Like hell you will.”
“Can’t stop me,” I said defiantly. “Not unless you kidnap me and hold me hostage in your apartment.”
“Yeah well,” he cried, stamping a foot. “I may just do that.”
“Like to see you try.”
“Don’t tempt me, Lollipop.”
We weren’t getting anywhere, and I knew that knowing us as I did, we could end up arguing until Hunter’s rooster crowed. I wanted Carter gone before my mom and youngest brother, Austen, got home from visiting with my Aunt Willoughby – yeah, my mom got her love of the classics from Grandma who named both her daughters after Jane Austen heroes no less. And, for all I’d said about telling them, I actually wasn’t ready to tell my parents, or anyone, about the baby.
“Listen,” I said, knowing that I needed to placate Carter. “I think we both need to sleep on this. I’m not going to tell my folks yet, I’m only nine weeks, so anything could happen.”
Carter’s eyes went immediately to my belly where my hands rested. “You’re being careful though?”
“Yes, Carter, I’m being careful.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, suddenly feeling more tired than I ever remembered. “Let’s just keep it between us for now.”
“And what about us?” he asked, straightening to his full height and pulling back his shoulders.
I had to be honest with him, but I also had to think about what was to come. “You know how I feel about you, but it’s not just me now. I need to think of the baby.”
“And you don’t think I will,” he answered.
I shrugged. “We’ve been having fun and while it was going somewhere, me moving in may not be an option any longer. It won’t just be me, so I need you to be sure that you’re okay with that.”
Carter silently contemplated what I’d said and then nodded. “Okay. You win, for now, but I’ll prove to you this is something I’m committed to.”
I breathed out a relieved sigh. “Good. That’s all I want.”
He watched me carefully and rubbed at his chin.
“What?”
“So, while we’re taking things slow, do we still get to have sex? Because I’ve got to tell you Lollipop your tits look a-maz-ing.”
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I worried that Carter Maples wasn’t up to the job of being my baby daddy.
Nursing my bottle of beer, I sighed heavily until Hunter punctuated it with a groan.
“What?” I snapped my head up and gave him the dead eye.
“I’m just sick of hearing you sighing instead of doing something about the fact she dumped you.”
“There’s nothing that can be done, dickhead.”
“Well, if you damn well told me why she dumped you, I might be able to help.”
The door to an almost empty Stars & Stripes swung open and Jacob Crowne walked in, looking even more downcast than I did. Hunter and I were sitting at the bar in easy view and Jacob gave us a chin lift as he walked over.
“Hey, guys.”
Hunter and I replied in kind as Penny approached Jacob.
“Usual?”
Jacob nodded solemnly.
“Don’t often see you in here on a Saturday afternoon, you’re usually busy at the shop,” she said as she pulled him a draft of beer.
“Yeah, well.” His nostrils flared with a heavy breath. “Let’s just say it’s women problems.”
Penny arched her brows and took the money that Jacob was offering to her.
“You should hook up with Carter,” Hunter said. “He’s got problems with his better half too.”
“I can assure you, without wanting to sound like a douche, there is nothing better about my wife.”
I winced. “That bad, huh?”
“Yep. That bad.” Jacob then proceeded to gulp down more than half his drink. Finally, he slammed his glass down and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Guess you may as well be the first in town to know, Lydia has pretty much moved out and we are no longer together.”
“Shit,” Hunter replied. “I’m so sorry, Jacob.”
“Don’t be. It’s been a long time coming.”
Penny patted Jacob’s hand. “You want another, honey?”
He shook his head. “No, I was just giving her long enough to get the last of her shit out of my house. I need to collect JJ from his play date soon.”
“The last of her shit?” I asked. “So, this has been coming a while.”
“Christmas was kind of the breaking point. Don’t want to go into too much detail, I have JJ to think of, but let’s say she’s not the woman, wife or mother, I thought she was. My son is my priority, so me and her are done. JJ is staying with me.”
Hunter and I watched him silently as he drained the rest of his glass. He then got up, gave us another chin lift and left.
“Shit,” I groaned. “Being an adult kind of stinks. I don’t think I want to be one.”
Hunter laughed. “Well, I’m pretty sure there’s not much you can do about it.”
Thinking of Bronte and the baby growing inside of her, I had to agree with him. I loved my life, it was carefree and fun, even working twelve-hour days like I regularly did never seemed much of a chore. As for me and Bronte, well we were just getting started and having a child was certainly going to change all that. While I loved her and wanted us to be together, no matter what, I also realized that our lives were going to change drastically. They were going to get a lot harder. That thought had my stomach roiling and set my nerves jangling.
“Bronte’s pregnant,” I blurted out.
Hunter dropped his bottle of beer with a thud on the bar and reared back. “Say what?”
“You heard me.” I swallowed hard. “That’s why she’s pissed at me.”
“You’re having a baby,” he hissed, chancing a glance at Penny who was cleaning down at the other end of the bar. “Are you fucking insane? Actually no, scratch that, is she fucking insane?”
I shrugged. “She’s kind of insane and angry. In fact, I’m petrified of her because she's so damn angry. She actually hit me with her mom’s broom when she threw me out last night for suggesting we still have sex even though we broke up.”
“So, she let you in after we left?” Hunter asked.
“Yeah, well she kind of had to.” I scratched at the scruff on my cheek and grimaced. “I passed out when she told me.”
There was a moment, just a tiny moment, when I thought Hunt was being sympathetic and a good friend. That moment didn’t last before he almost busted his guts by letting out a huge roar of laughter.
“Not funny, man.” I punched him in his shoulder, but he was too busy laughing to notice. “I mean it, shut the fuck up.”
“You fainted. Wait until I tell Ellie, she’ll piss her pants.”
“No,” I cried, grabbing hold of his arm. “You can’t tell her. Bronte swore me to secrecy.”
“I won’t tell her why, just that you did.” He slapped my back. “If you think I’m wasting that little fucking nugget you are so wrong my friend.”
“Why the hell are you my best friend?” I threw my hands into the air. “Actually, you know what, you don’t need to be any longer. I’ll get someone else. I’ll ask Alaska.”
That made Hunter laugh even louder. “You can’t interview for the job and when did you develop a stammer.”
Frowning, I shrugged. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You’ll ask Alaska,” he repeated, but I looked at him blankly. “Do you not realize how funny that is; you’ll ask Alaska. I’ll ask her, get it?”
“But he’s a guy,” I replied, frowning.
“Yeah, but it’s still fucking funny,” Hunter replied, almost doubled over laughing at his own shit joke.
I breathed out through my nose and wondered why everyone thought Hunter was the sensible one in our f
riendship. “I don’t have the energy to tell you what an absolute dick you are. Just don’t you dare tell Ellie about…” I looked around and then moved closer to whisper, “…the baby.”
Rubbing at his chest, Hunter retrieved his bottle of beer and took a quick drink. “I don’t have secrets from her,” he announced.
“You’ve only been together like two months, of course you have secrets.”
“Nine weeks and two days to be precise.”
What the…
“You know exactly how long you’ve been together?” Damn I really was shit at the boyfriend thing. I could hazard a guess that Bronte and I had been together around five months—or so—but not the exact amount of time.
“What? You don’t know when you started dating Bronte?” Hunter asked, a smug look on his face.
I shrugged. “It’s difficult to say. We were just messing around to start with. I do know the first time we had sex was Karaoke night in here, on Minnesota’s birthday.”
Hunter scratched his head and frowned.
“Remember Bronte disappeared and texted Ellie to say she had a headache?”
“Yeah, vaguely.”
“And then I had that emergency.”
“Oh yeah, you left me having to watch Dominic the dick with his hands all over my woman.”
I rolled my eyes. “Ellie wasn’t your woman then. She wasn’t even on your radar.”
Hunter grinned and shook his head. “I think she’s always been on my radar, but I was just too stupid to realize.”
“Whatever. The point I’m making is she didn’t have a headache and there was no emergency. I’d already kissed her outside the bathrooms, so we agreed I’d leave first and then she’d follow me ten minutes later.”
Hunter looked shocked. “One kiss, after years of hating each other, caused you to hook up?”
“Judgy much, says you who did exactly the same with my sister.”
“We had two kisses,” Hunter growled with narrow eyes on me. “Belinda’s party and then singles night. Admittedly the kiss on singles night was on the way to store closet where we had sex, but that’s just splitting hairs.” Ignoring him, I nodded to Penny for two more beers. “And it doesn’t change the fact you don’t know how long you’ve been with your girlfriend,” he carried on, “which kind of explains why she dumped you.”
I swung around on my stool to face him. “She dumped me because I impregnated her, and she thinks I don’t want to be a dad and won’t manage the responsibility.”
Hunter’s head tilted to one side as he examined me. “Do you? Will you?”
My pause must have said too much because Hunter groaned and scrubbed a hand down his face.
“You need to step up man,” he said, glancing at Penny who was holding out two beers.
I took them both and handed one to Hunter and then waited for Penny to leave. When she moved back to the other end of the bar, I let out a sigh.
“It was a shock. We both need to get used to it, so swear you won’t say anything to Ellie. Please, Hunt. I don’t want my folks to know until Bronte and I have had a chance to get our heads sorted.”
“Fuck, Carter, I hate lying to her.”
“You won’t be lying, just keeping a secret. Bronte will kill me if she knows I told you.”
Finally, after a few seconds of watching me, Hunter nodded. “Fine, but if Ellie finds out I knew and didn’t tell her, it’ll be your balls I’ll be using to replace the ones I lose.”
Breathing out a sigh of relief, we lapsed into silence which was rudely broken by the door swinging open and landing hard against the wall. I half expected to see Jacob again, so I was surprised when in walked my sister and Bronte.
“Ah shit,” Bronte cried as soon as she saw us. “As if my day couldn’t get any shitter.”
Ellie pulled up short and threw an anxious glance at Hunter.
“I thought you were going to the Mall,” he said getting up and kissing her cheek.
“We were but Bronte decided she wanted some of Penny’s pot pie instead.” Ellie turned back to Bronte. “You want to go?”
My eyes drank Bronte in as she considered her options. Her hair was tied up in some weird bun things on each side of her head and her eye make-up was purple and blue to match her hair. She looked so damn beautiful it made my stomach hurt.
I couldn’t stop staring at her, taking in every inch of her. It was then I noticed the sky-high shoes she was wearing.
“What the hell are those?”
Bronte looked to where I was pointing. “Shoes. Shoes that you’ve seen me wear many times.”
She was right, I’d seen her wear the bright pink shoes on many occasions, often in my bed, but never when she was pregnant.
“Are you crazy?” I cried. “You could fall off those heels.”
The way her eyebrows shot up I knew she thought I was the one who was crazy, not her.
“You want me to hit you with one of them?” Bronte asked, her hands going to her hips.
“No, I want you to sit down before you fall down.” I leaned in closer to her. “Don’t high shoes give you those big fat blue veins when you’re you know?” I nodded toward Bronte’s stomach.
“Oh, for God’s sake, Carter.” My sister sighed. “She’s pregnant, not forty-five.”
My head shot up as Bronte gasped.
“You said we couldn’t tell anyone,” I hissed.
“She’s my best friend.” Bronte’s cheeks went pink as she glared at Ellie.
“Oh, my goodness,” Hunter whispered, sounding like some sort of robot on crack. “Are you pregnant?”
I looked up at the ceiling and groaned.
“You told Hunter?” Bronte asked, bringing my gaze back to her.
“No, I had no idea.” Hunter gasped a little too loudly and Penny’s head shot up from cleaning the other end of bar. She stared at us staring at her and when no one spoke, she shrugged and went back to work.
Ellie burst out laughing and leaned into his side. “Oh baby, you are so shit at acting.”
“I’m a great actor,” he protested. “Be honest, you had no damn clue, did you?”
All three of our gazes snapped to him, each one of us totally shocked he’d even have an inkling of a thought that he was a good actor.
“Dude, you stink. No wonder Jeremy Anderson took your part as Joseph in the nativity.”
Hunter hit my stomach with the back of his hand. “We were six you dick.”
“Okay so you were six and shit.” I turned back to Bronte. “I’m sorry I told Hunter, but you told Ellie and she has the biggest mouth.”
“I do not,” Ellie argued. “I can keep a secret.”
“No, you can’t,” Bronte leaned closer to Ellie and whispered, “You just told Carter that I was pregnant.”
Ellie gave me a withering stare. “It’s not like he didn’t know. He was the one who stuck his thing inside of you and made a baby.” My sister grimaced and shook herself.
Turning from Ellie and back to me, Bronte sighed.
“This has to go no further than the four of us for now. I don’t want anyone else to know.”
Her chin wobbled and she took a deep breath as she glanced over to Penny, who was still busy at the other end of the bar. I knew she was worried, but if she’d just let me be there for her and help to take the strain.
“Lollipop, please just let us go back to my apartment and talk about it.”
Bronte shook her head. “Nuh uh. I know you, Carter Maples. You’ll get me in that apartment and then dazzle me with that penis of yours.”
“Ugh, please.” Ellie gagged which made Hunter chuckle.
“Do you two think you could leave us for a few minutes?” I asked, getting more frustrated by the minute.
“They don’t need to.” Bronte breathed out. “I told you. You need to be sure that you’re okay with this.”
“I am.” I took a step closer to her, desperate to touch her. Anxious to take her into my arms and tell her it would all be
okay.
“You fainted when I told you and accused me of lying. How is that being okay with it?”
“You’re shitting me,” Ellie cried around a laugh. “Please tell me that’s true.”
“Oh yeah it’s true alright,” Hunter offered. “He told me himself.”
Bronte, clearly having had her fill of the shit talking, snatched up her purse and turned for the door.
“I’m going home. Ellie, you need a ride?”
Ellie grinned at Hunter and then turned back to Bronte. “I’ll go with Hunt.”
“Bronte, please,” I pleaded. “Come back to the apartment. I swear we’ll just talk.”
She hesitated for a moment, but then with a tired smile shook her head. “I’ll call you tomorrow, Carter. I just need sleep right now.”
“Are you okay? Is it the shoes, are they making your legs ache? Is the baby lying on your bladder?”
The look she gave me would have killed a lesser man. Even so, it did make me shiver with fear.
“How the hell did you get to be a veterinarian?” she asked. “You really are stupid.”
With that she turned on the damn heels and stormed toward the door. I also noticed she had a couple of extra pounds on her ass, which I had to say looked mighty fine. Maybe complimenting her was a way back into her good books.
“Hey, Lollipop?”
She stopped abruptly and I saw her shoulders heave. “What?”
“Your ass looks amazing with a little baby weight.”
I swear, if I’d have seen the shoe coming, I would have ducked, but hey the scar on my head would be something to tell the kid about when it was older.
If there was one day when I didn’t want to be waxing ladies’ cooches, today was the day. My argument with Carter the night before was playing on my mind and I could barely concentrate.
I knew he wanted to do what was right, but the right thing wasn’t always the best thing.
Of course, I loved Carter, much as I hated admitting it; but the Carter I loved was carefree, fun and spontaneous. It certainly wasn’t the grouchy, foul-mouthed, self-centered dick that he was to Ellie, his friends and sometimes his folks. He was different with me, but would he be able to step up and add sensible and responsible to his character? I wasn’t so sure.
