Bodyguard's Secret Baby

by Vivian Ward

  “No dad,” I shook my head and waved my hand. “I can handle things.”

  Lord knows I didn’t want his blood pressure to get too high again. The doctor said his risk for a heart attack had more than doubled since his lab work showed his blood pressure had skyrocketed.

  “You’re my baby, and if he’s making you do things that you don’t want to do, I won’t stand for it. You and Bentley come first, and always will.”

  “Really. It’s fine.”

  I didn’t want to upset him anymore and was done talking about it.

  “You know,” he looked around, making sure Damon wasn’t within earshot. “He tried to talk your mother and me into leaving the house and land too, but we wouldn’t do it. I’ve spent my whole life building up this place, making it a success so that I have something to hand down to you. I’m not about to walk out on it, and I don’t think you should either.”

  “Dad, have you ever thought that maybe he’s right? Maybe getting out of here is the best thing? With everything out in those woods, I’m scared. It’s too dangerous to stay here. Listening to him might be the only thing that keeps us alive.”

  I could tell that he wasn’t buying it, but it was the truth; even if it was only a half-truth.

  “I’ve got to think about Bentley and what’s best for him. If someone were to come in here threatening us, he’d be completely vulnerable if they grabbed him. If someone came at you or me, we could run away or shoot at them. Bentley would be a sitting duck in his crib.”

  He studied my face and realized that I had a point.

  “And I’m thinking about cutting back on my hours, too.”

  The look of shock and pain on his face was more than I could handle. His eyes had so much hurt behind them that I couldn’t bare to look at him any longer. I did the only thing I could do and started backpedaling as fast as I could.

  “Unless you need me. I mean, if business—”

  He waved on with his hand and shook his head with tears forming in the corners of his sad eyes.

  “Don’t try to patronize me. I know that’s not what you want to do.” He had shaken his head before he blew out a breath of air, “Heh,” he slapped the opposite knee that Bentley was sitting on. “You’re just like your mother. Hard-headed, but you know exactly what you want.”

  I should have known that he’d see right through me. He’s always been able to; he learned how to see through mom and according to him, I was the spitting image of her in both looks and personality.

  “You know I’ll always be your little girl dad, but I’ve got to think about Bentley and his mother—me. If I put him in harm’s way, I could never live with myself, and if anything ever happened to me because of my stupidity, I’d hate myself forever for leaving him without a mom. When things get back to normal around here, we can get back to normal too.”

  Leaning down, I hugged him the hardest I’d probably hugged him since I was a tiny girl and it felt good.

  Suddenly, we heard the moving truck backfire as it snorted to life and Damon popped his head in the kitchen doorway.

  “You ready? We won’t have much more sunlight, and Lee needs to get back to the hotel to do some stuff for Mr. Turner.”

  I wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t asking me anything; he was politely demanding it. Probably because my dad was in front of him.

  “Yeah,” I answered him before I looked at my dad and Bentley.

  “Mommy loves you, baby,” I kissed Bentley on top of his head. “I’ll see you tomorrow, mom and dad. I love you.”

  “Love you too, darlin’.”

  With Damon’s jeep packed to the brim, we followed the small moving truck that Lee was driving to the house that would be our new home.

  When we pulled up to the house, I started to help unload the truck, but Damon refused to let me help.

  “Uh-huh. Your job is all of the unpacking. I won’t have time to help you do that because I’ve got work to do, so you’ll be on your own. With your parents keeping the kid, you might as well make the best of your time until he comes home tomorrow.”

  “Damon, I can help unload some of this stuff. I’m not an invalid, you know?”

  “I mean it. You start getting this place set up and let us men do the rest of the work. If you want something moved to a certain spot, let us know, and we’ll move it for you.”

  With that being said, I helped grab a few boxes out of the jeep and carried them inside and sat them on the kitchen counter while they guys started carrying the baby furniture into Bentley’s room.

  Figuring that room was the most important, I started in there because as tired as I was going to be, I’d be able to sleep almost anywhere, but Bentley would know the difference.

  As they were carrying the last of the boxes off of the truck, I stopped him and pulled him to the side.

  “You know what we don’t have?”

  His eyes scanned mine, searching for an answer.

  “What?”

  “Toilet paper. Toilet paper, food, and dishes. We can’t use the bathroom or eat.”

  He looked around the house and realized he never carried any boxes into the kitchen, just Bentley’s highchair.

  “Shit,” he ran his hand through his hair, frustrated. “Okay. Tell you what, for the night; we’ll run to the store and grab some shit tickets and we’ll hit a drive-thru for dinner. Tomorrow, we’ll buy some real damned food and get some proper dishes.”

  “Shit tickets?” I asked, utterly confused.

  “Yeah, shit tickets,” he studied my face. “Toilet paper? You know, shit tickets?”

  “What the hell?” I laughed.

  Honestly, it was the first and only thing that he’d said since I’d ran into him that made me even remotely smile.

  “Yeah. You know? You can’t take a shit without ‘em; they’re kind of like movie tickets. You can’t get into the movies without a ticket, and you can’t shit without toilet paper, so they’re shit tickets,” he tried to explain.

  “Yeah, okay.”

  He rolled his eyes. “It’s just a little humor, lighten up. It’s not gonna be so bad, babe,” he stepped in closer to me, invading my personal space. “Me, you, and the kid?” He slid his arms around me, resting his hands on the kitchen counter. All I could concentrate on were how huge his muscles were and how fucking amazing he smelled, even after moving for an entire day. “We’re gonna be a good little family.”

  He was playing a dangerous game of chicken with me, but before I could reply, Lee walked into the kitchen. As awkward as things were around him, I was glad he was there.

  Whew! Saved by the friend.

  “Sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt, but if you guys are good here, I’m going to head back to the hotel to catch up on any leads that might give us any details on Mask.”

  Damon stood tall, obstructing me from Lee’s view as his massive body acted like a total eclipse protecting me from any wandering eyes that he might still have for me.

  “We’re good. I’m going to crash here tonight, and I’ll meet up with you in the morning. If you find anything important, give me a call—I don’t care what time it is.”

  I heard the door click shut and that’s when the reality sat in.

  We were all alone. In this empty house. Aside from unpacking, what the hell else were we supposed to do? We couldn’t just unpack all night.

  I sure as hell hope that he doesn’t plan on consummating our new little family or christening this house.

  Thankfully, my dad let us take the old sofa that we had moved into the front family room when we replaced all the living room furniture a couple of years ago because I sure as hell wasn’t sleeping with him.

  The look in his eyes said that he was hungry—hungry for panties and pussy, neither of which I was offering up.

  “Let’s finish getting as much done tonight as we can,” I started toward the bedrooms. “I’m sure we’ve still got plenty to do, and if you’re not going to be around tomorrow, I’d like a little help from you to
night.”

  “Okay,” he said.

  I couldn’t believe he went down without a fight.

  “I put his crib together earlier, and I can do his dresser tomorrow. That’s just putting all the drawers on their tracks and sliding them back in before I put his clothes away. Think you can help me do my bed? The box spring and mattress are a little big for me to handle,” I added, not wanting to give him the wrong impression.

  “Here, let me,” he took the bed rails from me and started setting them up. “I heard what you said to your old man. Did you mean it?” he looked up at me, waiting for an answer.

  Shit. Which part did he hear?

  “What do you mean?”

  “About cutting back your hours. You really gonna do that?”

  All I could do was watch his muscles flex and pop out as he worked on putting the bed together.

  Sweet baby Jesus!

  My body’s primal instincts kicked in, and I felt a tingling down below, and suddenly remembered why I had slept with him. I didn’t take my eyes off of him until he stopped turning the wrench and looked up at me when I didn’t immediately answer him.

  “Um,” I swallowed. “Yeah. Unless you need me to work, I can work more. It’s just that I don’t feel safe with—”

  “No, it’s fine; I’d rather have you here at home taking care of him than having your mom raise my boy, but we’ve got to do something about his name—and yours too.”

  “What?”

  I almost couldn’t believe what he’d said.

  “You heard me. He’s a Miller, and his name should reflect that,” he started turning the wrench again. “And yours too. We’ll fix it all once everything is settled down.”

  “Nobody said that I wanted to marry you, and we can discuss changing his name but I think I need some time for that.”

  He hurried to his feet and stood an inch away from me.

  “Time? You need some time? Time is what’s kept me away from my flesh and blood, Julie!” he snapped.

  He was right. I’d kept them apart for nearly fifteen months, and I could see all the hurt in his eyes, just like my dad had earlier before I left the house.

  If only he hadn’t walked away like he did. If he had waited another two weeks to leave, he would have found out right along with me that I was pregnant. He was the first person I wanted to tell, the first person I wanted to comfort me but he was gone.

  If only he wouldn’t have come back, and only if we hadn't found all that stuff on our property, he still wouldn’t know. If only I hadn’t kissed Lee, he would have never come in and discovered the secret I’d been keeping from him.

  I was the shittiest person on earth. Who keeps a son away from his father? The hot tears stung my eyes as they threatened to spill down my cheeks.

  I couldn’t imagine my mother keeping me from my father.

  I could feel the heat building in my cheeks as the knot in my throat got tighter.

  “Hey,” he put his hand on my face. “You all right, babe?”

  He wiped away a tear that had fallen from my eye. “I didn’t mean to snap at you like that. It’s just that,” he threw his arms up behind his head in frustration. “I’ve got so much damned time to make up with him that I don’t even know where to start.”

  He looked like he might cry too. My heart dropped to my feet.

  “Damn it, Julie. I missed his first steps, his first tooth, his first words. Does he even know how to say dad?”

  The pain in his eyes was killing me, but I felt worse as I slowly shook my head no.

  “Fuck it. It doesn’t matter. I’ll teach the boy everything he needs to know.”

  After a long, awkward silence, he finally broke it.

  “You hungry? We could go get dinner, and you can fill me in on all the stuff my kid likes.”

  “Yeah, let’s do that,” I said, honestly eager to tell him all about our son.

  He drove us to a little greasy spoon restaurant near the edge of town where we sat in an illicit corner booth, hidden away from most of the other patrons. I ordered a cheeseburger with fries while he asked for a brisket sandwich smothered in BBQ sauce with jalapenos and a side of hash browns.

  The conversation was quiet and awkward for the first part of dinner while we inhaled our plates of food. I don’t think either one of us had eaten very much since we’d started moving and we were famished.

  After our bellies had finally started to feel full, I brought out my pocketbook and started showing him some of my wallet pictures from when Bentley was a newborn all the way up until now.

  “I can’t believe how much he still looks the same. He’s the spitting image of me when I was that age.”

  “Yeah, he doesn’t look much like any of my family,” I sighed, admiring my handsome boy in all of his different pictures.

  “He has your eyes. Hopefully, he’ll have your personality. Lord knows I”m full of piss and vinegar as it is,” he threw his head back and laughed.

  “For sure.” I looked over the table of food, noticing that I’d eaten all of mine, and he looked like he was near finished. “We can go whenever you want. I’m stuffed and beat.”

  “I hear ya. I’m ready to crash myself,” he took some cash out of his wallet and left the tip on the table. “Let’s call it a night. I want to make sure we’re at your dad’s place early to pick up Bentley because after that, I’ve got to meet up with Lee and I wanted to swing back by your place before it gets dark and check the woods around your property.”

  I changed into an oversized t-shirt and brushed my teeth before I opened the bathroom door and turned off the light. From the doorway, I could hear humming.

  Tiptoeing down the hall, I saw him draping a sheet over the sofa in the living room and ruffling up his pillow. He spotted me out of the corner of his eye.

  Part of me was relieved that he wasn’t going to try to sleep in the same bed as I, but the other part was sad and disappointed.

  “Well, I see you’re all ready for bed,” he said. “I figured I’d sleep here until…,” his voice trailed off as his eyes fell to the floor.

  “That’s fine,” I intervened. I wanted the awkward moment over just as bad as he did. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “G’night,” he replied.

  “Good night.”

  As soon as I climbed into my bed, I couldn’t help but break down. The waterworks turned on and before I knew it, my eyes were already swollen double their size, and my nose was running like a faucet. I pulled the covers tighter, encompassing myself in them like a cocoon until I finally fell asleep.

  When morning came, I woke up refreshed. The last few days had been so long and tiresome, and I needed a deep sleep where I didn’t have to worry about waking up to Bentley and feeding—oh no! Bentley!

  I looked at my watch and saw that it was almost 8:30; he’s normally awake by 6:30. I flung the covers off of me and shot up out of bed, grabbing my aching back in the process because I’d slept so stiff that my whole body felt like it was bonded by concrete.

  Wobbling out of the bedroom, I noticed that Damon was already gone; he’d even folded his bedsheets in a neat pile before he left.

  Damn. I wished I would have driven my car over here.

  Picking up my cell phone, I called Damon, but it only went to voicemail. I started to call my dad but hung up as I heard a car pulling up to the house.

  Running over to the window, I saw Damon pulling Bentley out of his car seat before guiding him up to the house. Watching the two of them walk hand in hand down the driveway tugged at my heart.

  They looked so cute together. Bentley looked like his daddy’s little shadow as they walked next to one another.

  “Morning,” he said, pushing the door open for Bentley to walk through. “I thought I’d let you get some rest and went and picked him up from your parent’s house.”

  “Thank you,” I picked him up and kissed his tiny cheeks. “I’ll need my car so I can do some shopping today.”

  �
�I’ve already got you covered on that. I’m picking Lee up in about fifteen minutes; he’s going to drive your car over here and drop it off for you.” He reached into his back pocket and retrieved his wallet. “Here’s some cash; if you need more just let me know,” he shoved it into my hand.

  It was a thick wad.

  “What’s this for?” I asked, dumbfounded.

  “Groceries, dishes, diapers. Whatever you think we need.”

  “How much is here?” the words left my mouth before I could stop them. I hadn’t meant to ask out loud, but I couldn’t help it.

  “There should be fifteen hundred there. If you need more, let me know.”

  Why did I get the feeling this money was dirty?

  We stared at each other for a moment.

  “We cool?” he asked, putting his hand on the doorknob.

  “Where did this come from and why are you giving me so much money?”

  “Julie, I’m not the asshole that you think I am. I earned this money working for my boss. He covers my rent back in California and with it just being me, my living expenses are minimal. The way I see it, I haven’t paid a single red cent of my son’s life, and I owe you for all of the diapers, formula, clothes, shoes and food that the kid’s been eating while I was away, and this is just the start of things. Take the money, buy whatever groceries we need and anything else we need or the baby needs and let me take care of things from here on out.”

  I stared in awe as his words registered in my mind.

  “Like I said, we’re going to get through this whether you like it or not, but one way or another, I am taking care of my family.”

  Unable to articulate words, I looked on as he turned the handle and told Bentley that he loved him before he disappeared out the door. Bentley clung to my hip, babbling as he looked around at all the boxes and the mess all over the place.

  I’ve got to get this house in order.

  “Come on, baby. Let’s get some of this house picked up until we can go to the store.”

  I genuinely wanted to make him happy even though it seemed like we were still living in separate worlds under the same roof. First, I’d start by getting some food in the house so I could make him a nice home cooked dinner when he came home and then I’d try to unpack and tidy up as much as possible.