Blue Lines (Five for Fighting #2)

by Amber Lynn

  The first appointment would’ve been embarrassing with an audience. The one after that wasn’t as bad, but it didn’t seem like something Nelson would enjoy sitting through.

  “And I’m trying to tell you I don’t want to be off the hook. Do you know if it’s a boy or girl yet?” It was easy to tell by the hint of excitement in his eyes that finding out a gender was an important step for him.

  “No, I don’t. I’ll make sure you’re the first to know, though. Is there anything else we have to absolutely discuss today? I don’t think we can solve all the logistical issues standing here, and I’d prefer it if you had more than an hour to let the reality set in. You may wake up tomorrow and realize what you really want doesn’t match the words coming out of your mouth now.”

  Annie had to give him every out. Eventually she knew she’d break down and tell him how she felt, and that as far as she was concerned the baby wasn’t an accident, but chances were it would take a while for her to work up the courage.

  “Do you have somewhere you need to run off to?” Nelson pulled Annie closer to him and wrapped his arms around her. “I’m sorry if I’ve given you an impression that having a baby would be the end of the world for me, but you have to understand I’m not going to regret being a part of my child’s life. You don’t have to avoid me.”

  Annie inhaled the scent of pine that always hung around him. Even if he had just rolled out of bed, he had enough sense to dab on a little of his cologne.

  “I’m not so sure about that, but I was hoping to go home and take a little nap. I have pretty nasty morning sickness at night, and during the week I don’t have the opportunity to fall asleep at my desk. The only reason I didn’t stay home and sleep the day away was because Casey called. Sadly, she saw some sign when I showed up and convinced me that telling you when she was around for backup was smart.”

  As far as Annie was concerned, Casey had to have some kind of mind-reading abilities, because not only could she tell Annie was pregnant, but she instantly knew the baby was Nelson’s. Even if someone could read that Annie was head-over-heels in love with Nels, the chances of them creating a baby together had been slim.

  Nelson leaned down and kissed the top of Annie’s head before stepping away from her. “I won’t keep you away from your beauty sleep, but you’re not going to be able to lock me out of this. I’m here to talk about anything you want, and hold your hair if the puking gets really bad. Doesn’t the doctor have something they can give you for that?”

  There was honest concern in his eyes. Annie wished she could play the damsel in distress and let him take care of her, but her ego wouldn’t allow it.

  “Just walk me back to my car, and we’ll see how things go. I’ll probably be out for most of the day, so why don’t you stop over tomorrow morning. I don’t think we’ll figure out any more details after just a day, but I’ll tell you everything the doctor has said and we can try to make some tentative plans.”

  Her stomach had started to settle a little during the night, but chances were she’d be up at least a few times. She figured the morning part of morning sickness was a relative term.

  Nelson accepted her request and didn’t grill her as they made it to her sedan. He was kind enough to open the door, but when he tried to help her in, she slapped his hand away.

  “I’m pregnant, not broken. I’ll see you in the morning,” she said as she started the car and buckled her seatbelt.

  He had plenty to think about, while Annie tried to figure out exactly what she wanted from him. As she drove away, it was clear by his kicking of the dirt around him in the rearview mirror that he was already hard at work, which meant she had until the morning to gather her own thoughts.

  Chapter Three

  Nelson didn’t know if it was the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about how Annie was spending her night, or if it was the crazy ideas about the future going through his head that kept him up, but something made it so he only slept an hour or two. There was a time he would’ve called Annie at any hour and worked out whatever the problem was, whether it involved her or not. The baby complicated things a little. Technically, it wasn’t just the baby; it was whatever happened between them that night.

  After he’d verified she was buckled in and watched her leave, Nelson thanked Casey for whatever part she had in persuading Annie to tell him about the baby, and then headed to his apartment once he made a quick pit stop. He had a lot of thinking to do, and he preferred solitude for that.

  Instead of calling to chat, Nelson found himself at Annie’s door at seven o’clock the next morning. Not sure if Annie was awake, he knocked softly on the wooden door three floors above his own apartment. She’d moved out, but she hadn’t gone far, at least not in distance. The barrier she’d built was taller and wider than when they’d lived in two different countries.

  When she was back home, they didn’t check in with each other as often as they once had, but he’d made an effort to call her every week to see how things were. That was something he didn’t bother doing with his own mother. There was something about Annie that made him feel grounded, even when the bit of fame he saw from playing for one of the top teams in the country showed up at his door.

  He was about to knock again when he heard the chain on the door slide open. If their landlord didn’t provide the chain and the extra deadbolt, Nelson would’ve installed them himself. He’d always been overprotective where Annie was concerned, and having her in the same building didn’t change that.

  “I didn’t think morning practices started up for another week or two. What in the world are you doing up this early, Nels?”

  Annie didn’t open the door all the way, but Nelson could tell from the way her long hair was disheveled that she hadn’t gotten around to getting ready for the day. There was something a little sexy about her not being put together. Nelson remembered thinking the same thing when he’d woken up next to her, but it wasn’t something he could share at the time. There was too much confusion about what in the world she was doing in his bed, instead of on the couch where she normally insisted on sleeping.

  “You said we could talk in the morning, and the bright light pouring in your windows happens to be the sun. Are you going to let me in, or do we have to talk like this?”

  She didn’t look like she’d just rolled out of bed, messy hair aside, so he didn’t feel too bad about the early hour wake up. There was no sleep in her eyes and the crust of drool she sometimes had running down the corner of her mouth was missing. Nelson had thought about bringing breakfast, but he wasn’t sure what her stomach could handle. He wished he would’ve shown up with something, other than his list of questions.

  “For once, you’re going to be the better dressed friend. I wasn’t expecting you until after ten, so I’m kind of in my pajamas.” Annie opened the door as she spoke, and Nelson lost any ability he had to think clearly.

  She wasn’t in a piece of sexy lingerie, but the tight-fitting t-shirt exposing her belly and pair of white undies was as close to naked as he’d ever seen her. Even after they’d slept together, she’d woken up in one of his shirts that dwarfed her. When she’d realized he had no idea what was going on, she was quick to run off to her room and change. As far as he knew, his shirt had never found its way back to his closet.

  Seeing her without loose-fitting clothing, he could see the small protrusion that was their baby. Nelson quickly looked in both directions down the hallway, then pushed Annie back into her apartment and closed the door behind him.

  “What are you thinking answering your door like that?” Nelson’s voice had transformed into a hushed growl.

  Annie rolled her eyes and made her way over to the kitchen. The layout of her apartment was the same as Nelson’s – an open format with only a divider to separate the bedroom from the rest of the living space.

  “Like I said, I wasn’t expecting you, but since you’re here, I decided I might as well answer the door.” She reached into a cupboard and pulled out a pair
of bowls. “Have you had anything to eat? I don’t have much to offer, but you’ve never turned down a tasty bowl of bran flakes and raisins before.”

  Nelson’s stomach rumbled at the thought of food. “How’s your tummy this morning?”

  Her asking if he’d had anything to eat was a rhetorical question, since she was already pouring cereal into both bowls. She was quick to add milk and spoons before handing Nelson his bowl and leading him over to the fake leather couch that made up the extent of her furniture in the area of the house other people saw. The faux leather looked real to him. If he hadn’t been with her when she bought the dark brown piece of furniture, he wouldn’t know that it wasn’t real.

  They both sat down and had eaten a few bites of their food before she responded. Knowing there was a chance she’d spent the night emptying her stomach, he didn’t push her to talk.

  “Last night wasn’t too bad. I only woke up twice.” She’d curled her legs up under as she sat down, taking up only half of one of the sections of the couch. Even after noticing the bump, she was still so skinny that Nelson worried about how much she was keeping down.

  “And you’ve had nights that have been worse?”

  “My body is just adjusting. It’s nothing to worry about. As long as I eventually catch up on the missing sleep, I feel fine.” She finished her breakfast by drinking the milk in the bowl, and Nelson thought about handing his half-eaten bowl over.

  He knew she had more in the kitchen if she was still hungry, and that chances were good she’d see his offer as babying her. So, he hurried to finish eating before taking both of their dishes to the kitchen and put them in the sink. It was hard not to wash them, but he was trying to make sure he didn’t change his normal habits. He was afraid to do something that would piss her off before they had a chance to talk.

  “I was doing the math last night, and I came up with us having a Christmas baby. Does that match what the doctor told you?"

  When he sat back down, Nelson inched a little closer to Annie. She’d made no attempts to add a layer of clothing, so he assumed she was okay with him seeing every inch of her legs. There was something about seeing them bare that made them look longer. Nelson couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Annie in a pair of shorts or a skirt, and for a moment he was glad about it. He had enough trouble keeping guys with only one thing on their minds away from her without them getting a look at her toned legs.

  “Middle of December, so it very well could be a Christmas baby. As far as the doctor, he says everything seems fine. There haven’t been any abnormalities in the tests they’ve run.”

  Hearing that, Nelson let out a little sigh of relief. Even though Annie had always seemed healthy, there was the frail part of her size that made him worry about how in the world she was going to be able to carry a life inside her.

  “You said ‘he.’ Your doctor isn’t a woman?” Nelson wasn’t sure why that bothered him, but it did.

  Annie laughed at whatever look he had on his face and shook her head. Along with not getting dressed, she hadn’t bothered running her fingers through her hair to fix the disheveled mop. In a way it was a little funny to him to see the look on someone other than himself.

  “I didn’t set out for it to be a guy, but my first choice had a birth come up during my appointment, and rather than reschedule, I decided to let him confirm what I already knew. Since I’d gone over everything with him once, I didn’t think there was a need to switch back for future appointments.”

  It still seemed a little odd for timid and sometimes horribly shy Annie to let a guy check out what was going on inside of her. Nelson always guessed she had a boyfriend here and there that she kept secret, so he wouldn’t scare them away, but he’d never seen her with a guy.

  “And you checked the doctor out at some point, right? He’s not on any watch lists for perverts, is he?”

  “Yes, I checked him out, and the female doctor I was originally going to see. I’m not stupid, Nels. I do know how to protect myself, whether that’s something you believe or not.”

  The laughter was gone from her voice, and some of the annoyance Nelson had felt just under the brim of their conversation the day before made its way to the surface. He’d told himself that he was going to try to keep her from putting up her shields, but he wasn’t doing a very good job.

  “I’m sure you know what you’re doing, Annie. I’ve just been living here a little bit longer, so I’ve watched more news programs where they reveal doctors aren’t always on the up-and-up when it comes to pretty female patients. And seeing their colleagues slapped with jail time and lawsuits doesn’t seem to deter them.”

  Annie quickly rolled her eyes before answering. “I’m pretty sure the fact that no one in the office believed I was over eighteen deters any chances someone is going to get a little too hands on. In fact, I think I heard jail mentioned, but the word bait followed right behind it. Do you know how embarrassing it is for a twenty-five-year-old woman to be asked what high school she goes to?”

  It had been a while since they’d spent a night out on the town, going from bar to bar, but Nelson remembered the questioning looks he always got, especially from the people carding Annie. She seemed to think being seen with her was a hassle for him, so she liked to claim she was busy any night he asked her out that wasn’t a special occasion. She couldn’t get out of those, but they’d transitioned to spending nights out at quiet restaurants, to keep her annoyance level at a minimum.

  “You know as well as I do that people stopped carding me when I was sixteen, so I can’t say I’ve ever run into that problem. It doesn’t change the fact that your youthful-looking innocence is something predators could target.”

  The conversation had gotten off topic, but in a way it was leading to what Nelson really wanted to talk about. They weren’t quite to the point he could just ask the question on his mind, though. He was nervous enough as it was; the sweat accumulating on his palms was turning his hands clammy. If he didn’t find the right segue into his pitch, Annie was going to laugh in his face.

  “I guess it would’ve helped if I’d grown breasts around the time you started having to shave daily, but alas, I still don’t have anything that would classify as boobs. Mosquito bites maybe, but a nice rack was never in my cards.”

  It wasn’t nice, but Nelson chuckled. It wasn’t because of her words, but because for the first time in weeks it felt like one of their normal conversations.

  “I can’t say I witnessed any growth in that department when Casey was pregnant, but I’ve heard that kind of thing happens.”

  Casey had had a double mastectomy about a year before she got pregnant, so even if Nelson had been paying close attention, the augmentations she had probably hadn’t changed.

  “You think I could really move up to a B cup?” Annie put a hand on the side of each of her breasts and tried to squeeze them together to make them a little bigger.

  She’d always been flat from her shoulders down to her abdomen, which she hated. Nelson wasn’t sure what the big problem was. It did make her appear a little younger than her age, but it fit well with her general tomboy personality.

  “They have to fill up with milk, don’t they? That’s got to add a little something.” The words weren’t really helpful, but it was better than saying something about eating for two adding a little filler to her hips. “You haven’t mentioned whether you’ve heard the heartbeat yet. Amongst the various things I read last night, I came away with the assumption that you probably have.”

  She’d been leery of him going to any trips to the doctor’s office with her, but he wanted to hear the beating of his child’s heart inside of her. Listening to what other expecting parents had shared on the Internet wasn’t the same. He’d spent about thirty minutes listening to a few different recordings, trying to figure out what his baby would sound like.

  “I was thinking about getting one of those at-home Doppler thingies, but I haven’t got around to it yet. By the time I went to the
doctor, I was far enough along that I got to listen in. At first I didn’t believe it was a heartbeat, because it was so quiet.” Pure happiness spread across her face as she appeared to think about what she’d heard, and Nelson watched as her hands drifted down to cradle her stomach.

  “When’s the next appointment? I know you were against me coming when I brought it up yesterday, but I’m going to beg and plead until you change your mind.” Nelson hoped past instances of his determination would make things easy on him, but he wasn’t so sure under the circumstances. If she balked, his first plan was to overwhelm her with a smorgasbord of all her favorite foods.

  “Exactly how big a part of this child’s life are you planning on being, Nels?” Annie turned in her seat so she could face him. She looked worried about what his response would be. It was probably right for her to be worried.

  Nelson patted his left jeans pocket and thought about the right words to try to alleviate her fears. There didn’t seem to be enough words in the English language to fulfill that task.

  “I’d say that’s going to depend on you. My hope is to be there every time he or she wakes up at night, hoping to be fed or needing to be changed, and every morning until he or she turns eighteen and is ready to go off to fight the world on their own.”

  Nelson waited a second for the words to sink in before he continued. “I know we don’t have a traditional romance-filled relationship, but I think the friendship we’ve built over the years is more than a lot of people have when they get married.”

  “What are you saying?” Annie asked before he could continue with his proposal. Her words weren’t much more than a murmur.

  Nelson slid off the couch and pulled the small black box out of his pocket. On one knee, he opened the box to reveal the small amethyst engagement ring he’d picked out for her. He had enough money that he could’ve bought her a larger diamond, but he wanted to show he was serious about what he was asking her, and finding a ring that suited her was a good start.