by L. P. Maxa
“Thanks, Talon, you’re a good guy.”
The holo-image blinked out, and Talon shoved his phone back in his pocket then grabbed his messenger bag from the top of the studio’s piano. “All right, bro. See ya later.” He maneuvered the long, worn leather strap over his head and onto his shoulder.
“Where are you going?” I stepped to the right, blocking his path to the exit.
“Uh, I’m going to check on Landry like Luke asked me to.” He moved to the left, attempting to get around me.
“Like hell you are.” I blocked him again and he sighed in annoyance.
“Get out of my way, Brody. Luke asked me to check on his niece, and I’m going to do it. You heard him. She took a sick day. Obviously she’s not doing real well right now. She needs a friend, she needs someone to be there for her, and I’m not going to leave her hanging.”
“No way.” I shook my head. “If any man is going to ‘be there’ for my girl, it’s going to be me.”
Talon cocked a brow. “Really? But what if the baby isn’t yours? I mean you still don’t know how you feel about that whole situation.”
“I’m not going for the baby, I’m going for Landry.”
“Oh.” Talon rolled his eyes, smacking himself in the forehead. “That makes sense. Being there for Landry while she’s going through some rough shit doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not you’re her kid’s father.”
“Asshole.” I nodded, grabbing my backpack from the floor and tossing it over my shoulder. “Exactly.”
He scoffed and I was pretty sure he called me a dumb prick under his breath. I followed him out, waving to the security guard, letting him know we were the last ones and he could lock up.
When we got to the parking lot Talon’s car door opened on its own then started up. “What are you going to say to her? After last night, she might not let you in.”
I sighed as I tossed my backpack onto my passenger seat. “I don’t know. I guess I need to convince her that I’ll be there for her. That she can count on me.”
“Can she?”
“I should’ve never left last night. I didn’t want to go. I was confused and in shock. I did everything wrong.” I hopped in my car. “But I know how to make it right.”
I’d never be anyone’s first choice for their daughter, or their niece. And I was fine with that. Generally, I was happy with who I was. But hearing Luke ask Talon to check on Landry, to be the friend she needed, had pissed me off. No doubt, Talon was a great guy. Responsible, kind, and easy-going.
But Landry was my girl.
And I’d be damned if I was going to let Luke push her into someone else’s arms.
Chapter Thirteen
Landry
I’d thrown up most of the ice cream I’d eaten throughout the day, and was lying on the floor in my living room waiting for my Chinese food delivery. There had to be some food out there that this baby would tolerate. I hadn’t tried Chinese yet.
I rested my hands on my stomach and closed my eyes. I was so tired. Emotionally and physically exhausted. I felt narcoleptic, constantly falling asleep all day without warning. I’d talked to both my parents, binged watched an entire season of some inane TV show, and texted with my Uncle Luke. Everyone was worried about me, everyone was checking in. Except the one person I longed to hear from.
Brody was as unplanned as my pregnancy. And like the baby, now that he was here, I wanted him to stay. I hadn’t meant to fall for him, to start to count on him being in my life. But he’d wormed his weird little way into my heart.
I sat up when I heard someone bounding up my stairs. That delivery man was on a mission, which was good because my empty stomach was crying for some food.
“Baby cakes?”
“Brody?” I got to my feet, peering around the corner. “What are you doing here? How did you even get in?” I’d wanted nothing more than for him to show up at my door since the moment he left last night. But now that he was here, standing in front of me in his faded jeans and threadbare shirt, his messy blond hair wild from the wind…wait, where was I going with that?
“I still have your key.” He held it up and then shoved it back in his pocket, crossing the room and taking my face in his hands. “And I’m playing the odds like they’re in my favor.”
“What?”
He smiled, his eyes searching mine. “You told me to play the odds like they weren’t in my favor, and that’s bullshit. I’m doing what I feel. I’ve got a fifty-fifty shot that the baby is mine.”
I broke eye contact, looking down at the floor. “I told you that so you’d be okay about leaving. You don’t have to do this.”
“I want you.” He put his hand under my chin, making me meet his gaze. “I want to be here for you. It doesn’t matter who the baby’s father is. You’re its mom, and you’re my girl. So. I’m here. I should have never left last night. I should have never let you push me away. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Wait. You aren’t going on tour? That’s ridiculous.”
“No, I’m going on tour. I meant like metaphorically, I’m not leaving.” He took a few steps back, studying his well-worn Chucks for a minute. Like he was gathering the right words, rehearsing them in his head. “Look. Baby cakes, I’m not going to lie to you. I don’t know yet how I feel about the pregnancy, or the fact that the baby might not be mine.”
“And it was unfair of me to ask you that question last night.” I pushed my hair back from my face. “You found out I was pregnant, found out I’d lied to you, and then found out the baby could possibly be someone else’s all in a matter of minutes. I shouldn’t have pushed. I shouldn’t have asked you what you’d do if the baby wasn’t yours. You’d barely had time to process and I was making things harder.” I’d felt guilty from the moment he’d walked out. I’d been trying to push him away, trying to scare him. It wasn’t his fault that it’d worked.
“I shouldn’t have left. I should have stood my ground. I should have told you exactly how I was feeling.” He sat down and pulled me into his lap. “The only thing I’m sure of is you. We always had an expiration date, but I was never really going to be able to give you up cold turkey. Somewhere between fucking you in a supply closet and sitting here with you now, I started to fall for you.”
I rested my head on his shoulder. “Oddly sweet.”
“I can’t predict the future. And I can’t tell you how I’ll feel if the baby isn’t mine, at least not right now. But what I can tell you is, I’m here for you. I’ll fuck you to sleep every night and hold your hair back while you puke every morning. You mean the world to me, baby cakes. Let me prove it to you. Please?”
I nodded. What he was saying, the way he was looking at me, it was like a scene out of a movie. And at that moment, it was everything I needed. “Okay.”
“Okay?” When I nodded again, he kissed me. His arms snaked around my waist and pulled me flush against his body. I knew that there were still so many things about us that were up in the air. But at that moment, all that mattered was that Brody was here, holding me like he still wanted me. “Baby cakes, it’s been…” He stopped talking when there was a knock at the door. “If that’s Talon, I swear on my surfboard I’ll kill him.”
“Why would Talon be here?” I wiggled out of his arms and grabbed my wallet from the entry table. “I ordered Chinese food before you showed up.” I paid the delivery man and set the large bag of takeout on the coffee table. “Hungry?”
Brody put his arms around me, and whispered in my ear, “I’m fucking starving, baby cakes.” He growled against my neck and sent chills down my body. “You eat, and then I will.”
And just like that, things went back to normal.
Or more like, things went back to our new normal.
Chapter Fourteen
Brody
“Are you done?” I held my hand out, helping Landry to her feet. She’d eaten, and then right when we’d started to get naked, she’d thrown up. “You want some water or anything?”
<
br /> She went straight to the sink, grabbed her electric toothbrush and slapped some toothpaste on it. She started to brush and talk at the same time. It was something she always did, and I found it adorable every damn time. “I’m so sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing? You’re pregnant. Pregnant chicks puke.” I assumed. I really had no comparisons to base my statement on. “I told you that I was here and that I’d hold your hair back, and I meant it.” And I did. Although we can all agree that vomit is pretty gross, Landry’s just made me want to help her. Not gag.
“Puke isn’t sexy, Brody.”
I snorted. “No, it’s not.” Why was she telling me that?
She spit in the sink and then whirled around to face me, a little bit of toothpaste on her cheek. “We were fooling around, and I had to get up and run to the bathroom.” She stopped talking while I reached out and wiped the minty foam from her face. “I know you said you’d be here…but please don’t feel like you need to stay for the gross stuff.”
“You’re sexy.” She cut her eyes at me, which made me smile and grab her by her hips. “It doesn’t matter if you throw up a million times, baby cakes.” I pulled her closer, letting her feel my dick start to swell. “I want you all day every day. Puke or no puke. I’ll never not want to fuck you.”
That got a small smile out of her.
“I’m going to need you to be honest with me about the way you’re feeling though.” I dipped down and kissed the column of her neck. “If you’re tired, or sick, tell me.” I kissed under her ear, wrapping my hands around her body to grab her tight little ass. “If you’re horny…”
“You’ll be the first to know.” She put her hands on my shoulder and jumped into my arms, kissing my lips and threading her fingers in my hair.
I carried her back into her dark bedroom. “You feeling okay now?”
She nodded. “I usually get at least an hour reprieve before I start to feel bad again.”
“Do you know what I can do with an hour, bad girl?” I laid her down on her bed, stripping her lounge pants off and tossing them to the floor. She wasn’t wearing any panties. I wrapped my hands around her ankles, picking her legs up and spreading them wide. “Don’t move.” I planted her feet on the bed and then put my hands under her bare ass, moving her down the end toward me. I got on my knees. “I’m not stopping until you make me.”
***
Landry was asleep in my arms. I had my hand on her stomach, my palm flush against her bare skin. There was a baby in there, and it might not be mine. I was honest with her; I told her I didn’t know how I felt about that fact. I’d never been a dad—I’d never even been a brother. I was an only child, and the only family I had beside my parents was my band. I knew that blood didn’t mean much when it came to the people you called your own. But that seemed to be as far as my brain could process at this stage in the game. Landry seemed to be okay with that, so I was going to try to follow her lead.
When my cell vibrated on the nightstand, I carefully reached over, grabbing it before it could disturb her sleep. Her parents had been correct; she didn’t look her best. When I’d gotten to her that evening, she looked tired and stressed. And too thin. She needed rest. I dimmed the light on the screen before I opened Talon’s text.
Talon: How’s Landry? Luke is asking.
Brody: She’s got a stomach full of Chinese food and I made her come until she passed out.
Talon: Right. I’ll just report back that she seems better.
Talon: I’m sorry that I was such a dick to you today.
Brody: Nah man, don’t apologize. If anyone was going to be able to get through to me, it was gonna be you. You’re a good friend.
Talon: I know I am.
Brody: I think I’m going to be spending most of my time here, at least until we leave on tour. I don’t think she’s taking care of herself, not like she should be anyway.
Talon: Already packed your suitcase, bro.
Brody: I love you man.
Talon: Don’t be weird.
***
“Baby cakes, that’s a lot of puke.” I had Landry’s hair in one hand and was re-wetting her rag with the other. Multi-tasking like a mother fucking pro. “I’m pretty sure you’ve thrown up every bit of food you ate last night.”
She wiped her mouth with the white cloth. “I know. This baby hates me and wants me to die of starvation.”
I doubted the kid hated her, but I wasn’t a baby doctor. “Is this amount of puke normal?”
She shrugged and sat back against the wall, putting her elbow on the edge of her bathtub. “I don’t know. I feel like it’s getting worse.” She tossed the rag across the room, making it into the sink. “My first appointment is the day after tomorrow. I’ll see that they say.”
“We.” I corrected her as I got on the floor, sitting beside her. “We’ll see what they say. I want to come with you.”
“Brody, that’s really sweet. But I don’t want you to do anything you aren’t comfortable with. I know you’re here for me, but this appointment has to do with the baby. The baby that might not be—”
“Nope.” I held my hand up, cutting her off. “I’m coming with you, so text me the time and the place. It’s a date.”
She snorted. “Our first date is my OB appointment?” She sounded tired again, defeated. The baby was draining the life out of her, which pointed to it being her ex’s for sure.
“We’ve gone on dates before.” I put my arm around her, pulling her toward me, making her rest her head on my shoulder.
“No we haven’t.”
I scoffed, and added lots of outrage to my voice. “We most certainly have, young lady.” I wanted to make her laugh, I wanted to make her smile and feel better.
“Name one. Name two and I’ll blow you, right here right now.”
“Challenge accepted, bad girl.” I closed my eyes thinking back over the last month or so of us seeing each other. “Uh, the first time you came to a party at my place. The beach bonfire. Remember? I fingered you under the blanket.”
“Brody. The fact that you think fingering me at party, at your house, counts as a date is making me a little nauseous.”
I put my other hand, the one that wasn’t around her, on the baby. “No, that’s all the tummy bug, don’t go blaming that on me.” I kissed the top of her head. “But I’ll try again.” I dug deeper, going through all our moments together, reliving her every laugh. “The sand castle competition?”
“I met you there, we didn’t have dinner, and then we fucked in your Scout. In your garage, with the top down.”
“Sounds like a date to me.” She snorted, shaking her head in disgust. “Fine. You win.” I picked her up, her body lighter than it was on the night we met, then sat her in my lap. “You know what, baby cakes?”
“Hm?” She was falling back asleep.
I put my mouth next to her ear, whispering softly. “I’ll try harder.” And I would. I’d do whatever it took to make her feel special, to make her happy. She was fading away before my eyes. I didn’t know how I didn’t see it before, but this pregnancy was really taking a toll on her. She’d thrown up like six times in the last hour. Who knew how many times she’d been sick before I got here.
I glanced at my watch. She had two hours before I’d need to wake her for work. I leaned my head against the wall, covering us both with a towel. “It’s okay, I’ve got you, baby.”
Chapter Fifteen
Landry
My first OB appointment was in thirty minutes; Brody was meeting me there. He’d shown up yesterday after band rehearsal with a suitcase and his surfboard. He said there was no use fighting him, that he was going to stay with me until he left on tour. Then he spent an hour online looking at every healthy pregnancy meal plan he could find. Soon after that, three hundred dollars’ worth of groceries were delivered to my apartment. He even made dinner. But he burnt it, so then Talon came over and helped him try again.
It was adorable. And I’d managed to keep at
least some of it down.
“Dr. Cole.” Ugh, gag me with a spoon. Every day, I hated my ex more and more. The sound of my name coming from his mouth made my skin crawl. What the hell was I going to do if the baby was his? I couldn’t spend eighteen years being nice to the prick.
“Dr. French.” After he cheated, I was embarrassed and then angry. But now that I was pregnant, and there was a chance the baby was his, I was pissed. He didn’t deserve me, and he sure as shit didn’t deserve this baby.
“The Westons are asking for you.”
I mustered as polite an expression as I could, finally glancing up from my tablet. “Is something wrong?”
“I don’t know. I went in there to check on them, to see if they needed something, and they asked where you were. Mr. Weston said he would prefer to talk to his doctor.” Travis’s tone made clear his irritation at being dismissed. It also let me know he was going to turn all this around to be a negative thing in three…two… “If you aren’t making yourself available to them, then perhaps you should put someone else on the case. They had Dr. Meyers yesterday while you were off, they seemed to like him.”
“First of all, I wasn’t off yesterday, I was at home puking my guts up. Remember? You’re the one who demanded I leave.” He took a small step back, like he’d remembered I’d vomited on him and was afraid I’d do it again. “Second of all, the reason they asked for me when you walked in is because you’re a preten—”
“Baby cakes.” Brody was walking toward me, biting his lips together as if trying to hold back his laughter. Apparently I was talking louder than I’d thought. And I’d been one syllable away from telling my boss he was a pretentious asshole.
“Hey, you, you’re a little early.”
He shook his head as he slipped his hands around my waist. “Seems to me I’m right on time, bad girl.” He kissed me, twice, and then straightened and held his hand out to Travis. “Hi, Brody Frost.”
“Dr. Travis French.”
I rolled my eyes while Brody kept one hand on my hip as he looked Travis up and down, nodding in recognition. “So you’re the cheating ex.”
