As if you really care, I thought with a roll of my eyes. My mom was ready to marry me off to my ex right out of high school. She was determined for me to become a rich, lazy housewife just like her. I knew I’d disappointed her with my plans. She could never understand the fact that I wanted to work for a living and have a career of my own. “It’s going fine,” I said, pacing the length of the bedroom slowly. “Listen, I’m going to come for a visit this weekend. Labor Day is Monday, so I’ll have a few days off. I’m bringing a friend.”
She squealed with excitement on the other end and I imagined her implants jiggling obscenely in whatever tight get-up she was wearing as she bounced up and down. “Oh my God, Chloe, is it a guy?”
I didn’t want to lie. “Yes,” I said. “I want you to meet him and also … there’s something I want to tell you and Dad. Will he be there?”
“He’s in California on business for the week, but he will be home Saturday morning. His yacht club is having a Labor Day celebration Sunday evening and of course we’ll be going. Oh, you should bring your friend!”
Forcing Chase to mingle with a group of people who pretty much stand for everything he’s against doesn’t sound like a lot of fun for either of us. “Sure,” I agreed, hoping we could find a way out of it once we got there. “We’ll be there late Friday night, okay?”
“Okay, baby. Oh, I’m so excited to meet your gentleman friend! We’ll have to show him off to all our friends!”
Yeah that should be fun when he shows up wearing one of his environmental slogan T-shirts and ten dollar shoes.
“Sounds great, Mom. See you this weekend.”
“Bye, baby!”
Hanging up, I sank onto my bed with a sigh of relief. I’d already decided to have this baby; the part with all the explaining and talking couldn’t be over fast enough for me. I would only be able to hide it for so long anyway. I was leaving it up to Chase to tell his own family, but the sooner my parents found out and got over it, the better. Especially since I was going to have to strongly oppose their interference. My dad never saw a problem he couldn’t throw a check at, and I knew he’d handle this situation the same way. I would draw my strength from Chase. He had a steady sort of presence that made it easier to weather this. I guess if I was going to be an unwed mother I couldn’t have picked a better guy to have a one-night stand with.
After the phone call I went down to the kitchen and made a sandwich, taking it back up to my room to nibble on while I did some internet surfing on pregnancy. Aside from high school health class, I didn’t have a lot of knowledge on pregnancy and childbirth. By the time Chase returned from work and class six hours later, I was an absolute wreck.
I practically attacked him on the landing of the stairs when I realized it was him coming up. “Did you know that stretch marks are genetic?” I practically screamed at him. Before he could answer, I continued on. “That means if a woman’s mother had them, she’s probably going to have them, too. Do you know what that means?”
Chase’s eyebrows shot up as he entered his room with me hot on his heels, dropping his satchel onto the bed. “No more crop tops?” he quipped with a smirk.
“Don’t be a smartass,” I snapped. “I’ve been reading articles all afternoon and I’m on the edge. It means that no matter how much vitamin E or cocoa butter I use, I’m probably going to get the damn things anyway. Freaking stretch marks, Chase! Oh, and did you know that pregnancy causes hemorrhoids and increased flatulence? Because I sure didn’t!”
He was laughing now, and not even trying to stifle or hide it. His shoulders quivered, his chuckles loud and boisterous as they echoed from the ceilings. Crossing my arms over my chest, I gave him the stink eye.
“Oh, I’m glad you find this amusing. You get to keep your eight pack abs and I’m going to get stretched out like a rubber band.”
Still snickering, Chase came toward me and grabbed my shoulders. “Listen, princess,” he said with a wide grin, “you’re going to be the hottest mom on the planet. You don’t have anything to worry about. Besides, there’s always plastic surgery, right? Isn’t that some kind of ritual your people all perform at some point in life to preserve themselves?”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “My people? Chase, that’s just racist.”
Now we were both laughing. “Yeah, because rich people have been discriminated against for centuries.”
I shrugged. “Fine, when this is over you owe me a tummy tuck, okay?”
“You got it,” he said playfully. “I’ll even throw in a pair of boobs to go with it.”
“My boobs are fantastic, thank you very much.”
His eyes slid over my figure suggestively. “You don’t have to tell me.” Those cool green eyes rose up to meet mine again and the fire roaring in them was unmistakable. No, I didn’t have to tell him. He’d seen them … touched them … tasted them. I shivered at the memory.
My breath caught in my throat as he came closer, one hand reaching for me. I stiffened a bit, but relaxed when I realized he was reaching toward my stomach. His hand rested there, his palm flat over my belly, one of his thumbs resting on my hipbone. His eyes never left mine. “I’m going to be a dad,” he said. “Wow.”
I gave him a little smile. “You’ll be good at it. You’ll be a better parent than me. You’ll feed Blob all that organic crap and teach him to love the planet.”
He laughed. “Well, someone has to teach the kid how to dress. Nothing off the rack, right?”
“If he even steps foot inside a Wal-Mart, I’ll kill him.”
“I think you’ll be better than you think,” he reassured me.”
“I don’t know about that. I don’t know the first thing about babies.”
“I know slightly more than you, and what I don’t know, we’ll learn together. There are books, and magazines, and classes we can take. We’ll be ready.”
I nudged him playfully. “Leave it to a Boy Scout to come up with a plan.”
He grinned, his steps bringing him even closer to me, his hand shifting from flat on my stomach to holding my waist. His free hand came up to the other side, pulling me against him.
“Chase,” I whispered, pressing my hands to his chest. I wasn’t sure if I was trying to push him away, or if I just wanted to touch him. A little bit of both, I guess.
“Please, just …” He lowered his head toward mine. “Just let me have this moment. You gotta give me something, Chloe.”
“I’m giving you a baby,” I joked. “That’s like the biggest present ever.”
“That takes nine months to get here. For now, I’ll settle for your lips on mine.”
He was so close now, there was no way I could deny him. You’d think a guy who worked in a lab all day would smell like antiseptic, but Chase smelled musky and spicy, like the outdoors and sandalwood. I melted against him, the hypnotic flames dancing in his eyes combining with his scent to render me powerless. Just like before, I couldn’t resist him. God, I was in so much trouble when it came to this guy. The sad thing was, we both knew it.
“Kiss me, Chloe,” he whispered, his lips hovering over mine.
Without thinking, I stood on my tiptoes and let my mouth brush his before lowering myself and backing away quickly. Chase groaned, echoing the same disappointment I felt. There was no way I could go there, not now when I was so unsure about everything. This morning I’d been ready to have an abortion; less than twelve hours later, I had decided to have this baby. Chase and I barely knew each other, and much as I liked and wanted him, I didn’t want to make any rash decisions, especially now that there was a third person hanging in the balance.
“I want it, too,” I confessed, putting my hands in my pockets to keep from touching him again. It had been hard enough the first time to tear myself away. “But there’s so much going on. I think we should concentrate on the baby for now and maybe try to get to know each other better. I don’t want to be wishy washy or lead you on or anything.”
“Thus the cousinly kiss you
just gave me,” he said with a dry laugh. “I get it, okay? I don’t like it, but I get it.”
“I’m right and you know it.”
He shrugged. “Why do you think I don’t like it? I hate it when other people are right. But if friendship and taking it slow are what you want, then you got it. You know, after I knock a woman up that’s generally when I like to start taking things slow anyway.”
I nudged him with my shoulder. “Now who’s being a smartass?”
“Blob will have the best sense of humor in his Kindergarten class.”
“Speaking of Blob … I was going to ask if you have plans for Labor Day weekend.”
He shook his head. “Just hanging out at home. I’m working Friday, but then I’m off Saturday through Monday. I was going to spend some time with my mom and brother.”
I fiddled with the hem of my shirt. “Yeah, about that …”
Chapter 6
My eleventh week of pregnancy passed in the same way the tenth week did—with frequent trips to the bathroom to puke and pee, weird cravings, mood swings, and the all too scary realization that this was really happening. Concentrating on class was damn hard, but my classes this semester were difficult, leaving me no room for screwing up. I hadn’t told anyone about the trip to Dallas for the weekend, or the fact that Chase was coming with me. Knowing my friends, they were going to be filled with questions about what was going on between us. An explanation was going to have to happen, especially since I knew they’d noticed some of the changes already.
Christian thought I had food poisoning after seeing three consecutive trips to the bathroom and hearing me gag from the other side of the door. Of course, one of those times I’d had to bellow at Kinsley to vacate the damn bathroom so I could get in there. No one knew what that girl was doing, spending so much time in there. Hell, maybe she was pregnant, too. It would explain a lot of her weird behavior. If she was, I hoped she came out with her secret; it was clearly making her miserable.
The time came for me to lead by example on Friday when I dragged my rolling suitcase to the top of the stairs. Christian was on his way down, football helmet under his arm, when he saw me with the bag. Taking it from me and lifting it like it weighed no more than a pencil, he started down the stairs behind me.
“I didn’t know you were going home this weekend,” he remarked.
“Yeah, well, I haven’t been in a while.”
Christian probably knew me better than anyone in the house, mainly because we were two sides of the same coin. “You hate going home,” he said as we reached the bottom floor. “Besides, we just went on vacation with your parents like two months ago.”
I cringed, realizing that he was right. There wasn’t much I could do to avoid telling the truth now.
“Chloe’s going home?”
I sighed when I turned and found Jenn, Luke, and Kinsley in the living room, sitting on the floor around a coffee table covered in Jack-in-the-Box tacos and empty wrappers. Great. An audience, with all eyes on me.
Lucy, you got some ’splaining to do.
“Yeah, I’m going home,” I muttered. “Big deal.”
“But you hate going home,” Luke said, his mouth full of half a taco.
“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” I snapped. “So do you.”
Luke swallowed and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, which is why I never go there. What gives, Chloe?”
Just then, Chase—who had gone to gas up my car for me—poked his head through the front door. “Ready?”
Christian’s frown deepened. “Wait a minute. Chase is going with you?”
“Told you they had something going on,” Kinsley whispered to Jenn.
“There is nothing going on!” I cried, exasperated.
“Actually, there kind of is,” Chase piped up. Shrugging in the face of my murderous glare, he closed the front door behind him. “Well, you want me to lie to them?”
Running a hand over of my face, I groaned. “Is it too much to ask for people to mind their own damn business around here?”
“Of course it is,” said Christian. “What gives?”
“Okay, fine,” I said, coming further into the living room. “You guys are going to find out eventually, so I guess now is as good a time as any to tell you.”
Noting the seriousness of my tone, they fell silent, their faces fixed in various degrees of concern and curiosity.
“Is everything okay?” Jenn asked, dropping her half-empty soda cup onto the table.
I shrugged. “Well … it’s kind of a big deal.”
Chase came up behind me and rested his hands on my shoulders. “It’s okay,” he whispered.
Pulling on him for strength again, I took a deep breath and plunged in. “I’m pregnant,” I said quickly, the words coming out on a swift breath.
You could have heard a pin drop in the room after that. Kinsley’s jaw dropped, Jenn’s eyes widened, and Luke almost choked on a taco. Christian merely watched me closely, his brow furrowed as if he didn’t know how to take the news.
“It’s Chase’s baby, by the way,” I added when no one spoke.
“Yeah, we gathered that,” Kinsley replied.
“Well, no one was talking,” I mumbled, staring down at my shoes.
“We’re too busy picking our brains off the floor,” Luke said. “Minds, blown.”
“Go ahead and ask questions, loser,” I said, glaring up at him. “I know you have some.”
“Only one,” Luke said, standing and eyeing Chase over my shoulder. “Do you have a plan?”
I shook my head. “We did, but the plan changed. We’re figuring it out, though. Don’t worry.”
“Does this mean you’re moving out?” Christian asked. “I mean, with a baby and all—”
“How do you know she’s even having the baby?” Kinsley asked. “You’re not, right? You can’t have a baby. How will you finish school?”
I bit my lower lip. I wasn’t as prepared for this as I’d thought. “The termination route isn’t as easy as it seems. Look, guys, I know I said you could ask questions, but there aren’t a lot of answers right now. Just know that Chase is here for me every step of the way, and we’re going to do whatever is best for little Blob.”
Jenn rose a dark eyebrow. “Blob?”
Reaching into my back pocket, I pulled out the little ultrasound picture I’d taken from the clinic. “Well, look at it. What else am I supposed to call him?”
Jenn practically swooned over the tiny little peanut-shaped blip on the paper. “Oh my God!” she exclaimed, snatching it from my hand. “Look how cute! Luke, look, isn’t this cute?”
“Don’t go getting any ideas,” he grumbled, standing as well to glance over Jenn’s shoulder at the picture. “That’s a good lookin’ kid,” he said.
“Don’t lie, that thing looks like an alien,” Christian joked.
“Wow,” Kinsley whispered, joining the others in staring at the photo. “You’re going to be a mom.”
I shrugged. “Looks like it.”
“Well, my room is still empty,” Jenn said tentatively. “You don’t have to move out. That room is tiny, but we could paint it a pretty color and put up some pictures and curtains. It’s just big enough for a crib and maybe a little changing table.”
Tears filled my eyes as I turned to Jenn, who is pretty much the glue holding our little group of friends together. She was the first person in the house to attempt to be my friend and I have always loved her for it. “You’d do that for me?”
Christian’s hand came up to my shoulder. “Of course we would. Look, we don’t really need the fifth portion of the rent. We barely pay anything as it is; the fifth portion can be split between the four of us. That can be Blob’s room.”
The tears were here now, flowing so rapidly I couldn’t stop them. “You guys, I can’t ask you to put up with that. Babies disrupt everything. They’re loud, they cry, poop, and put things in their mouth.”
“So we’ll buy some air fresheners and ear plugs,”
Kinsley insisted. “And Luke will stop leaving his guitar picks lying around. Once you have Blob, there won’t be much left of the school year anyway. You can still finish.”
“We’ll help,” Jenn volunteered. “I’ll arrange my classes and clinicals around yours so I can babysit.”
“And I’ll baby-proof the apartment,” Christian added.
“We’ll decorate the room together,” Kinsley said. “Everything will be fine.”
Chase wrapped an arm around my shoulders as a sob escaped, causing me to tremble. Never could I have imagined I’d be surrounded by so much support while going through this. “You guys are the best,” I said with a hiccup, swiping at mascara-stained tears. “I can’t believe you’d do all of this for me.”
“Hey, you might be a spoiled, stuck-up snob,” Jenn said with a laugh, “but you’re our snob. We’re going to take care of you. With Chase’s help of course,” she added.
“Thanks,” Chase said. “I know I’m a newbie here, but you guys have been awesome. We’re happy to have you helping us through this.”
“No problem, man,” Christian said, clapping him on the shoulder.
Accepting a tissue from the box that materialized in Kinsley’s hand, I dabbed at my running make-up with several sniffles. “Okay, enough. My face is a mess.”
“You look fine,” Chase said. “We better go, though, if we want to avoid traffic.”
“Good luck,” Christian said. He turned to Chase. “If her dad starts talking about boats, just nod and smile. Her mom gets handsy after too many drinks, so don’t turn your back to her.”
Chase’s jaw dropped. “Really?”
Luke nodded solemnly. “Oh yeah. She likes to pinch. My ass felt like a pin cushion when we went to their Christmas party last year.”
I glared at him, but he ignored me, raising his eyebrows at Chase and making a pinching motion with his fingers. Chase laughed. “Boats, and watch my ass. I think I got it,” he said good-naturedly. “Come on, Chloe.”
He led the way to the door and I followed, taking a second to smack Luke on the back of the head before leaving the apartment. I left him rubbing his dome and glaring daggers at Kinsley, who laughed, and Jenn, who was trying really hard not to.
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