by Lena Skye
She leaned up on her elbow and looked at him earnestly. “I want to keep it. I want to have this baby with you and start a family. I really… I really love you, Scott, and I want this to be everything that it could be. We are going to be parents and have a child, and I want to do that together.”
She had told him the truth. All of it. She knew that it was a risk, but she didn’t want to leave anything unsaid. She told herself that she would rather that he know all of it at once so that he could make the best decision for himself and for her and the baby, than to hold anything back from him and cause more problems later.
He closed his eyes and sighed heavily. It felt like the weight of the world was on his chest. With a deep breath, he pushed himself up to a sitting position and leaned against the pillows. “Naomi, we have to talk about this. I understand what you’re saying, but nothing has changed for me. I can’t be with you, at least not publicly.
My agent Harold is demanding that I use the publicity I’m getting from all of the newspapers and magazines that are saying I’m in a relationship with Jennifer. He wants me to really plug that and feed it. It’s good for her image and it’s good for mine. This is really important!”
She pushed herself up and lowered her brows at him. “No it’s not! Your public image is not that important! This child is!” She felt anger stirring in her.
He raked his hand through his hair and then dropped his fist onto the bed. “It’s really not that easy, Naomi! You still don’t understand! This is about a lot more than just whether or not people believe that Jennifer and I are together. It’s my career, and for her it’s her career! That’s everything right now. That’s hugely important!”
“Your career is everything right now?” she snapped at him nastily. “So this child of yours that I am carrying in my body isn’t everything? This son or daughter of yours isn’t everything? Your job is more important than your family? Is that what you’re telling me?”
He shook his head in frustration and frowned deeply. “That’s not it! Of course the baby is important to me, and so are you, but I can’t just go out in public with you and run around! Not when everyone thinks that I’m with Jennifer! It’s making a huge impact on my career; not as far as the football goes, but definitely with the commercial sponsors and my popularity!
It’s vital! Why can’t you see that? Yes, my career is important to me. I’ve worked most of my life to get where I am today, and I’m not about to lose it because I got some…” he trailed off and pursed his lips, gritting his teeth angrily.
She glared at him furiously. “Because you got some girl pregnant? Is that what you were going to say?”
His eyes shot up to meet hers. “No! That’s not what I mean. I just have to think about more than a baby right now! I have to think about my career and my future! I can’t provide a future for a child if I don’t have a future myself, can I!”
Naomi shook her head and got up off the bed, reaching for her clothes as she spoke angrily to Scott. “You are the most selfish, thoughtless, cold-hearted, self-centered bastard I have ever known. I can’t believe this. I should have realized that you would take it this way. You didn’t want me for anything more than a secret piece of ass in the privacy of your home.
I don’t know why I thought you might want you own baby any more than that. I was stupid, though; I believed that you might. I thought that you might actually care about it, and care about me, and I let myself believe for a minute that you might actually love us enough to be a family.
I’m such a fool! Why didn’t I realize that you would push your own child away just like you push me away. I’m only good for you when you want to screw me in your home, but I’m not good enough for anything else.”
Dressed, she stomped to the bedroom doorway and turned around to face him once more. “I’m tired of this, Scott. I’m done with this, and I’m done with you. I can’t take this anymore. I have my own career to think of. I have my business to think of.
I’m not putting any of that before this baby. I’m going to work my ass off to do both, which is apparently more than you can do, but this baby means something to me. It’s my child, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to put this baby first. Obviously you can’t be bothered to do that yourself. You’re a low-life bastard. I know I’ve said it before, but unless you decide that you want to be part of this baby’s life, and part of my life, I don’t ever want to hear from you again.”
He gaped at her, and she turned on her heel and walked out of his house, getting into her car and driving down out of the hills. She was too angry to cry that time. She had cried for him too many times already, and she swore to herself that she wasn’t going to give him any more of her tears. He’d gotten enough from her, and she was done giving to him. She was done giving her body to him, done giving her heart to him, done giving her love and time and grief to him; she was done.
There was nothing that she could give him that he wouldn’t walk away from, and she knew that she was worth far more than being used and disregarded by someone who didn’t really want her for more than brief moments of pleasure. She was a woman, and that made her priceless.
Scott laid back in his bed, covering his face with his hands. It seemed that no matter what he said or did with Naomi, he always wound up making the worst possible mistakes, and losing her over and over. He felt like he had just made the biggest failure of his whole life, and he had no idea how to fix it, or make it right.
He knew that he had to do something, and do it soon. There was a woman he cared for and wanted who had walked out of his life again, and she had taken his unborn child with her.
Chapter4
Naomi was sitting at her desk when Keisha looked at her with her hand on the phone. “It’s Scott Thompson. I have him on hold. Do you want to talk with him?”
She didn’t want to talk with him; she didn’t want to see him or hear from him again, but she knew that that was anger speaking in her heart, and she also knew that perhaps he had had enough time since she told him about the baby, to really consider his responsibility and come to terms with it. She hoped in the back of her mind that perhaps he had come around and was ready to face the obligation he had to his own child, and to her.
With a nod, she reached for the phone. “This is Naomi.”
“Hey… it’s Scott. I just… I wanted to call you to see if you would consider talking with me about the baby.” His voice was quiet and serious.
She felt a dim ray of hope glow in her heart. “What do you want to talk about?” she asked cautiously.
“Well, if you could come over, I think we should sit down and figure everything out. Obviously I want to be a part of the baby’s life and of yours, and I want to help in any way that I can. This is my responsibility as well. There’s a lot to talk about. What do you think? Would you please come over to talk with me about it?” He sounded sincere, and she did want to share the responsibility with him.
“All right. I’ll come over this afternoon,” she agreed. “But we’re just going to talk, and that’s it. Nothing else. Okay?” She wanted to be very clear on that point. She regretted making love with him the last two times they had fallen into one another’s arms.
“I understand. I’ll see you this afternoon,” he said quietly. “Thank you, I appreciate it.”
She bade him goodbye and hung up, wondering how their talk would change things for the future of their child, and for them. She was relieved that he was willing to discuss it. That move at least showed some forward momentum from him, which was an improvement from where he had left it when she had initially told him that she was pregnant.
A couple of hours later, she drove to his house in the hills and rang his doorbell. She had nearly finished with his house, and she planned on giving him back his keys within the week. Though it was only his screen door that was closed, and not his front door, she remained outside. Nothing had changed between them to the point that she could just walk right into his home, not even the fact that sh
e was pregnant with his child.
He answered quickly, and invited her in, leaving the front door open as it had been. “Come in.” He tried to reach for her to hug her and she turned away from him. His arms fell to his sides, and he sighed and walked her out onto the back patio by his swimming pool. They sat in chairs at the covered table there, and he offered her iced lemonade.
Taking the cold glass in her hand, she sipped from it and looked up at Scott. “So what is it that you want to talk about?”
“Well, the baby of course, and you and me, and our future.” He sounded uncertain as he took his seat and looked at her with his hands folded in front of him.
“So, have you decided that you are willing to go public with me and with your baby? That’s my biggest problem right now, Scott. You just seem bent on keeping us hidden away from the world, and I’ll be honest with you, it feels like you’re ashamed of us. That’s not okay, and that will have to change before either one of us comes back into your life again.” She was speaking with a kind voice, but with a determined sense of self.
He lifted his hand to his face and rubbed his fingertips over his forehead. “I already told you that it’s just not that simple. I want to be a part of your life, and the baby’s, but—”
She stopped him and raised her voice. “But your career comes first. Your public image comes first. I know. You told me a few times. I get it. Being your lover doesn’t qualify me to be in your public life, and being the pregnant mother of your baby doesn’t change that either! You’re just as ashamed of this baby growing in me as you are of anyone finding out that we’re lovers!”
She pushed herself up from her seat, setting the cold glass of lemonade back down on the tabletop firmly.
“Have I come at a bad time?” she heard an older male voice ask. She turned around and saw a short, fat, squatty man standing near the doorway to the house. He was wearing a terrible suit and an old beat up fedora.
Scott groaned. “Hey Harold,” he said morosely.
Harold indicated the door behind him. “Door was open. Don’t mind, do you?” He took his time walking over toward the table, and all the while his eyes were on Naomi.
“I’m Harold. I’m Scott’s agent,” he said, extending his hand to her. She took it and introduced herself grudgingly. She realized that she was looking at the man who singlehandedly influenced Scott in making the public believe that he and Jennifer Jones were a couple. Her belly tightened.
“I’m Naomi,” she said quietly.
“You’re Naomi.” He nodded, and he looked at her seriously as he pushed a half-smoked cigar into his mouth. “…and you’re here to tell Scotty that you’re pregnant with his kid. Did I hear that right?”
She lifted her chin defiantly. She definitely didn’t like him. “I am pregnant with his baby, yes. That’s his business and mine.”
Harold eyed her carefully and rolled the old cigar around in his mouth before he replied with a muffled, “Uh-huh.” He turned then, and faced Scott.
“So you got another chick knocked up. That’s two, Scotty! What in the hell are you doing? What are you trying to do to me, huh kid? I work my ass off to make sure that you’re a star, and to make sure that all of the public adores you, and that all of the sponsors want you, and what do you do?
You go around and you keep poking your willy into places it shouldn’t be, and now you got two chicks saying you’re gonna be a daddy to their kid. What in the hell am I going to do with you?” He lowered his eyebrows so far that his beady black eyes almost disappeared.
Scott’s eyes widened. “Harold,” he said in a warning voice, “we can talk about this later? This isn’t something that we should go over right now, okay?”
Naomi turned and stared at Scott. “Two women? What’s he talking about? What does he mean by saying that you got two women pregnant?” Everything in her had come to an abrupt halt.
Scott sank low in his chair and covered his eyes with one hand. “Great. Thanks, Harold. That’s just great.”
“Scott!” Naomi shouted at him angrily. “What in the hell is he talking about?”
Harold turned from him to face her. “What? He didn’t tell you? He didn’t tell you that he knocked up some other broad? Yeah. She’s pregnant too… you’re both having somebody’s kid, but I’ll be honest, I don’t know for sure that either one of you is really having Scotty’s baby, or if you’re just making up stories for the fame and fortune you want to get.” He narrowed his gaze at her suspiciously.
She shook her head. “I am not pregnant with anyone else’s baby! This is Scott’s baby, and he needs to take responsibility for it! That’s it!” She turned then, and looked at Scott, realizing that he might not have been sleeping with Jennifer Jones, but he was certainly sleeping with some other woman if he had gotten her pregnant as well.
“You lying bastard. You went on and on to me about how you and Jennifer weren’t sleeping together or seeing each other, how you’re just friends, and how I’m the only woman you’re with and the only one that you want, and now I find out from your agent that not only are you sleeping around with someone else, but you’ve gotten another woman pregnant?
No wonder you don’t want anything to do with this baby. You’re already having one with someone else!” she hollered at him.
He felt like there was a black hole where his heart had been. He couldn’t even look up at her. He couldn’t think of anything to say to her, or any kind words to speak to her. He knew that everything had gone too far then, and that no matter what he told her, she wasn’t going to believe him, and she wasn’t going to stay. He remained silent.
“I’m going. I never should have come back here, Scott. Every time you make me think that I can trust you, you go and prove to me just how wrong I am about that. Every time. It’s like I’m a sucker for every lie that falls from your mouth.
Well, not anymore. You go on ahead and date Jennifer Jones publicly, and you have your kid with whoever this other woman is, and don’t bother picking up the phone to call me or to find out about this baby, because you’re never going to see either one of us. Goodbye.” She shoved her chair in underneath the table and, giving a hot glare to Harold, she turned and blazed through the back door of the house, vanishing inside of it, determined never to go back.
Harold nodded and shook his head. “Damn broads… always so full of themselves.” He pulled the seat out that she had pushed under the table and he sat down across from Scott.
Scott looked up at him angrily. “Why did you do that? Why did you bring up the other baby in front of her?”
Harold shrugged. “Why not? It’s true, isn’t it? You banged some other broad and now she’s having your kid. You seem to be spreading your seed everywhere. We have to talk about this, Scotty. I like screwing a hot looking chick just as much as any other fella, including you, but you gotta lay off of the dames, Scotty.
Either that or get your balls snipped. Wear a condom. Something. You can’t keep knocking chicks up like you have been. That’s never going to work for your image. You can’t singlehandedly try to set an all-time high for the population of Los Angeles.”
“You’re being stupid, Scotty. You’re taking your career in your hands, and you’re being irresponsible with it. I don’t know what that Naomi chick wanted, but you aren’t doing anything with her until you get a paternity test on that kid. You don’t know who she could be out balling.
She could be pregnant with anybody’s kid, and be trying to pin it on you because you’re successful and wealthy and famous! What in the hell are you thinking?” Harold leaned forward and bit down on his cigar, blowing a thick cloud of pungent smoke from the gritted teeth in his mouth.
Scott leaned back to avoid the smoke. “You don’t know what you’re talking about! She’s not like that!” he snapped defensively.
“Yeah, I do know exactly what I’m talking about! That kid could have been fathered by anybody! Hell, it could have been fathered by me! Except I’m more careful than you are… bu
t that doesn’t change the fact that I’m not about to let you screw your life up over some dame!
Now listen to me! You make her get a paternity test, or you walk away from it. She wants to pin this kid on you? Well, fine. Make her prove it, then you can talk about what you want to do about the kid. Not until then. You got me? You savvy?” Harold opened his pudgy eyes wide.
Scott sighed. He was sure that Naomi wasn’t that way, and that she hadn’t been sleeping around, but he realized that Harold had a solid point. He’d slept around. He’d gotten another woman pregnant. There was a chance that if Naomi really was pregnant, that the baby may or may not be his. He knew that he was going to have to follow Harold’s advice.
“All right, fine. I’ll talk to her. I’ll ask her to get a paternity test,” Scott acquiesced unhappily. He looked down into his frosty lemonade glass and frowned. He had no idea how Naomi was going to take his request, and he wasn’t at all looking forward to finding out.
“Good boy,” Harold said, standing up and patting Scott’s broad shoulder. “That’s a good boy. You can give me the results if it comes out positive that it is in fact your kid. In the meantime, keep that snake in your trousers or wrap it up. We can’t afford for you to keep knocking chicks up.”
Harold turned and left without another word, and Scott sat there alone in the quiet southern California heat, wishing at that moment that he was almost anyone else.
Knowing that he had to do something about what had happened with Naomi, he gave it considerable thought and drove down to the design firm a few hours after she left. He was going to have to try to fix it one way or another.
She glared at him furiously when he walked in the door, and he could tell by Keisha’s and Malaika’s polite smiles that they probably didn’t know anything about anything that had happened between Naomi and him, though he did wonder if they weren’t curious about who her baby’s father was.
She stood up from her desk abruptly, and went straight to him.
