by Vivian Ward
“I can’t believe you. If you think we’re going to be happy living with a crazed lunatic, you’ve got another thing coming.”
He continued packing until my bag was full.
“Don’t move a muscle. I’m heading to the kids room to pack her bag next.”
I watched in stunned amazement as he grabbed the other duffel bag off my bed and went to Nikki’s room. I wanted to yell, scream and call him every name in the book, but I was scared and didn’t want to upset Nikki. If he was crazy enough to come in here and start packing bags and demand that we’re going to live with him, there’s no telling what else he’s capable of.
“Momma, what’s going on?” Nikki asked as her round, caramel eyes fluttered their long lashes up at me.
What am I supposed to say to her? “It’s okay baby; we’re going to stay with mommy’s…friend, Blake.”
“Why are we going to do that?” her innocent face looked at me quizzically.
“You ready?” Blake popped his head in the doorway. “I’ve got everything packed. If there’s anything I’ve forgotten, we can pick it up after you’re both settled in.”
Holy shit! He’s fucking serious.
“Come on, let’s go.”
“Wait! I have to put Nikki’s coat and shoes on and grab my pocket book.”
“Hurry up. I want to see the baby since I’m already down here.”
“We’re gonna see the baby?” Nikki gloated. “I wanna see the baby!”
“You bet we are!” Blake said as he picked her up. “Don’t keep me waiting. I’ll start putting her in the car.”
“You don’t even have a car seat! I’ll have to get mine out of my car.”
Outside in the wicked cold, I got Nikki’s car seat out of my backseat and handed it to Blake. Once she was buckled in, we started heading toward the hospital to see Carter.
I wonder what Nikki’s reaction will be when she sees him. I bet she’ll be so excited, and how in the hell did I end up in this mess? I can’t even believe I’m going with him—not that he left me with much of a choice in the matter.
“I’ll call my lawyer to set up a meeting for early next week after we’ve had an opportunity to discuss things. I’d like to come to an agreement before then, so we don’t waste his time and my money.”
I remained silent. My patience was wearing thin, and I didn’t want to fight in front of Nikki, but when we get alone, all bets are off. I’m not shadow boxing with the lightweights; I’m hitting the heavy bags.
If he thinks he’s going to boss me around, he’s wrong. I’ll play his game for a little bit, but he can’t seriously expect us to be happy living in his house against our will.
At the hospital, we all went to see Carter. Nikki bounded down the hall as we grew closer to the nursery, excited to see the new baby.
“Can I hold him?” she asked before we got there.
“No, I’m afraid, not baby girl. He’s still really sick and very small, but you can look at him.”
He wasn’t in the nursery when we got there, alarmed I asked one of the nurses where he was.
“Oh, they took him down for testing. The respiratory therapist wanted to do some testing on his lungs. His apnea seems to be going away so they’re measuring how well he can breathe on his own. I’ll call down there and see when they’ll be bringing him back up.”
Blake was being very quiet, which I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. There’s no telling what’s going on in that mind of his. Hopefully, he’s not planning anything else that will piss me off.
Nikki was busy cooing over all the other babies in their bassinets as we waited behind the glass wall. They’d had quite a few births since I’d left the hospital.
“He won’t be back from testing for at least another hour, but you’re welcome to hang around if you’d like,” the nurse informed us.
“What do you want to do?” Blake asked me.
“Do I have a say in it this time?” I pressed my lips into a fine line, wanting him to see how much I disapproved of his behavior and choices.
“Don’t give me that. Come on, we’ll look around the gift shop for a little bit. Maybe Nikki will find something for her baby brother that she’d like to give to him.”
“My baby brother?” her eyes bulged with excitement. She turned to me, “Did he say my baby brother? Huh? Did he? Did he?”
That’s it, Blake! Keep pissing me off. It would’ve been nice to tell my daughter that she has a baby brother.
“Yes, your baby brother.”
“I thought you said we couldn’t keep him?” her little eyes twinkled as a wrinkle appeared on her forehead.
“We’ll talk about this later. Let’s go to the gift shop as he said,” I mocked him as I directed Nikki toward the elevators.
I’m getting tired of his shit. He thinks he fucking owns me since I had his baby. The baby that I didn’t sign up to keep.
The baby I wanted. Why do things always have to be so complicated? I wish they would’ve told me about this possibility before I agreed to the implantation of the embryo.
If I had known there was even a slight chance that her egg could dissolve once it was inside my uterus, I would have said no. I didn’t want any more kids, especially not with a jerk like him.
In the gift shop, Nikki picked out a gray stuffed elephant that had a blue bow tied around its neck. It was a cute little toy. Blake picked out a white onesie that said, “Little Brother” on it.
Oh, how touching!
Gag me. He’s not the family man he thinks he is. A family man wouldn’t hold a mother and daughter hostage for his personal amusement. After the old woman behind the counter had checked us out, we headed back up to the fourth floor to see if Carter was back from his testing.
After we saw the baby, we headed to Blake’s house—I’m sorry, our new home. Pulling up to the outside of the house, I was impressed. It was nothing like living on the south end in New Bedford.
The two-story house was painted white with matching pillars on the enormous front porch, and the windows fancied black trim. It looked like something out of the movies. As we made our way down the drive, he parked inside the three-car garage.
Walking up a few stairs, we stepped inside the immaculate kitchen. Rows upon rows of rich, oak cabinets lined the walls all the way around the kitchen, and the center island was to die for.
Black and gray slate countertops shined so bright that you could see your reflection in them. It was much nicer than the thin, cheap Formica counters in my small apartment. In fact, I’m almost sure his kitchen is the size of my apartment. It was like stepping into a kitchen out of a magazine.
As he gave us the tour, I wondered if I would get lost in the house. There were so many rooms, and they were all so big. The first rooms we went through were the living room, dining room, entertainment room and his study before we went upstairs.
Climbing the top of the stairs, we were in the center of a huge hallway, which featured a few bedrooms and a bathroom. The first room we went to was the spare guest bedroom, from there he showed us two more bedrooms that Nikki could choose from to claim as her own. She picked the bigger of the two rooms, and then he showed us the master bedroom.
“And this is our bedroom, you’ll see that—”
“Nope, not happening.” I stopped him before he could even finish his sentence.
“What? What’s not happening?”
“This. I’m not sleeping in here, and I’m not sleeping with you.”
“Then where do you plan on sleeping? This is your home too.”
“You showed us the guest room; I’ll stay in there.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You don’t have to make this harder than it already is. Like you said to me earlier, I don’t bite. It would be silly for you to sleep in that bed; it’s not very comfortable.”
“You were never worried about me being comfortable before, so I don’t know why you suddenly care now. I’ll be fine sleeping in there—alone.”<
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He’s straight up tripping if he thinks I’m sharing a bed with his egotistical ass.
I don’t care what I have to do, but I’ll go to great lengths to show him that this won’t work, contrary to what he believes. My momma always told me not to be nobody’s fool, and I sure as hell ain’t going to be his.
I’m going to do whatever I can to prove to him that this is a mistake. He’ll have to share custody of this baby with me one way or the other, regardless what his plans are.
Blake
Tasha’s daughter was floored to see baby Carter. Her eyes twinkled and danced like Christmas lights as we showed her the baby for the first time. She seems like she’s a pretty good kid; very well-behaved and polite.
Her mother, on the other hand, is a completely different story. I could tell from the day I met her that she has a spitfire attitude, but I had no clue how much of a firecracker she is until she moved into my house.
They’ve only been here a week, and she’s been nothing but spiteful, hot-tempered and challenging. Every time I ask her something, she has a wicked comeback for an answer. I’ve always been a strong man, but putting up with her has been quite the handful. I do have to say that she is a good mother, though.
While I’m usually busy working in my study on new advertising material, she keeps Nikki entertained while they play together. She’s very tentative to her needs. We’ve been at the hospital every day since she came to live with me, and I know she’s absolutely in love with Carter.
I just have to find her sweet spot to get back into her good graces and figure out what makes her tick. Before all of this happened, I would’ve never dreamed of having another woman living in my house and trying to start a relationship, but she’s a good woman.
God may have done this to bring us together by putting her in my life when I least suspected it. It’s difficult trying to talk to her since she tends to give me the cold shoulder, and I know I haven’t exactly been Prince Charming either. She’ll learn how to see things my way; I’ll make sure of that.
Carter’s been growing stronger each day. They took him off of the oxygen yesterday and to our knowledge, he hasn’t had any episodes where he stops breathing. He’s a fighter—just like his old man.
I love that little boy with every fiber of my being. Even though he’s going through a lot and still has a long journey ahead of him, he fights every day. The neonatologist thinks he’ll be able to start eating on his own soon. Tasha started pumping after we discovered that she was the mother and plans on breastfeeding as soon as the baby’s strong enough.
The doctors and nurses all agreed that it would be best to breastfeed rather than bottle feed because of his weakened immune system. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that. I had always imagined feeding my baby, cradling him in my arms as I rocked him to sleep.
That’s something that Tasha and I have been fighting over. Not that I don’t want her to breastfeed him, but I feel as though it’ll rob me of some of the bonding experience. She’s assured me, though, that she’ll pump extra so I have the chance to bottle feed him some of her breast milk.
Nikki can’t wait for her baby brother to come home. She’s adjusting quite well here. Most days, she’ll come to my study to see what I’m doing.
She’s interested in everything, and nothing gets by her. Tasha usually comes in and takes her out, but the truth is, that little girl’s growing on me quite a bit. I love having her around. She’s a funny little thing, and I know she’ll make an excellent big sister to Carter.
Needing a break from everything, I decided to go for a drive. I told the girls—yes, I’ve taken to calling them my girls—that I’d be home in a while because I needed to run some errands.
It was no surprise that Tasha was happy to see me go, but Nikki acted sadly. The truth is, I don’t have any errands to run. I just couldn’t stand the tension in the house anymore. With each passing day, Tasha has grown more distant.
Maybe it was wrong of me to make her come live with me and try to be a family, but what else am I supposed to do? Driving around Freetown, I sat in silence, debating how I can make things better. It’s been a week, and she’s still sleeping in that damned spare bedroom. Just to be an ass, I even turned the thermostat down hoping that she would get cold and come into the master bedroom, but it hasn’t worked so far.
One morning I woke up before her and went to ask her if Nikki could go to breakfast with me. When I opened the door, my cock instantly got hard when I saw her laying there, sleeping in a pink silk nightgown. Her ass looked amazing and her smooth legs…I’d like to have them wrapped around my neck.
Jesus, Blake! Look at you! You should be ashamed of yourself for thinking like this.
I know I shouldn’t have been looking at her like that—at least not yet, but she’s so damned hot. Just thinking about her long legs and creamy honey-colored skin was making my cock throb. There has to be some way, somehow that I can make her soften up.
I’m not handling this mess in court. I’m going to make it work. I called my attorney the day after they moved in with me and told him that we were working things out on our own and that I would no longer need his services. His legal advice was that I should haul her ass into court and take her for custody, but that’s not what I want to do.
Before, I realized that I was bringing a baby into this world with no mother. A baby that would only have me, but when I learned he had a mother—one that is alive—I couldn’t take him away from that. Every child deserves a mother, and she’s a damned good one.
Remembering that I never gave her flowers when she delivered Carter, I stopped by a florist shop to pick her up a bouquet.
I felt like a complete ass when the woman behind the counter asked me what her favorite color was, and I didn’t have a clue what to say. I did notice that she seems to wear a lot of yellow and purple.
“Can you make an arrangement out of something that’s yellow and purple? I think she likes those colors, she wears them a lot.”
“Hmm, I can do either an arrangement of purple and yellow roses, or I have yellow daisies that I can mix with purple roses. How does either of those sound?”
“Let’s do the yellow daisies and purple roses, I think she’ll like that.”
“Do you want to get a card?” the florist smiled sweetly as she nodded her head toward a rack of cards.
“Sure, let me go through them and pick one out.”
While she busied herself with cutting the flowers for the bouquet, I browsed through the cards. They were all blank!
Why in the hell are they all blank? I’m not good at writing sentimental things.
This is why I never buy stuff like this. Choosing a colorful card off the rack, I thought about what I should write.
“I’m all done here. Are you finished with your card?”
Way to put me on the spot, lady.
“I don’t know what I want it to say.”
“Is this a first date, anniversary, birthday? What’s the special occasion?”
“There is no special occasion. I’m in the doghouse, and I’m trying to get on her good side. She gave birth to my son.”
“Oh? Is this your wife? What’d you do?”
I bet you’d love to hear the gossip. In Tasha’s words, “It ain’t happening.”
“No, she’s, uh, my girlfriend, and I’ve not been the greatest, uh, boyfriend. I guess you could say.”
“Oh. Well how about writing something like you’re sorry, or you’ll be a better boyfriend?”
If I use the word boyfriend to her, she’s liable to cut me in my sleep.
“Thanks, give me a minute.” Placing the card on the counter, I scribbled a short, sweet apology. Well, kind of. It was my way of apologizing, anyway.
After paying for the flowers, I headed back home. During the drive, I started rehearsing what I was going to say when I gave her the bouquet. It didn’t matter how many times I thought of things to say, nothing sounded right.
Gue
ss we’ll see how it goes when I get there.
When I walked into the house, I smelled cookies baking but she wasn’t in the kitchen. I found her and Nikki curled up on the couch, reading a book together.
“It smells good in the kitchen. Here, I got these for you.” I held out the floral arrangement for her to take.
“Thanks.” She went back to reading the book with Nikki.
Okay, that didn’t go the way I expected it to.
I took the flowers into the kitchen and started filling a vase with water to put them in. The timer on the stove beeped as I placed the arrangement on the counter top. Reaching for the oven mitt, she walked in and stopped me.
“I’ll get those.”
“It’s okay. I can take them out for you. Go back to reading your book. That’s what you want to do anyway, isn’t it?”
“What is your problem?” she rolled her eyes.
“What’s your problem? Ever since you got here, you’ve been so…angry, distant and cold. I’ve tried to be nice, but I’m sick of it!”
“You’re sick of it? How would you feel if someone forced you out of your home and made you live somewhere you didn’t want to live?”
“Tasha, you live in the ghetto of New Bedford. Nobody in their right mind would go into your neighborhood unless they live there and have to. Your apartment is wicked small and the guys hanging out in front of your building are the shadiest crew I’ve ever seen. I’m doing you, Nikki, and Carter all a favor!”
“Gee, thanks for some wicked favor that you’re trying to do for all of us. I appreciate it.” She mocked me as she sat the cookies on the counter, “And you know what? You’re a completely thoughtless jerk!”
“A thoughtless jerk? I brought you flowers, for giving my son birth! I bet your other baby daddy didn’t do that! What’s his name? Tony or Troy or something?”
“Troy and you’re right. He didn’t bring me flowers, but he also didn’t act like a jerk, either!”
“He probably didn’t have the chance to act like a jerk considering he was never around, or maybe you ran him off. You know, since you’re so sweet and all.”
