“I… I don’t know if I can do the three of us on a permanent basis.” She looked at the others. “I want everyone to be a part of the baby’s life, I, well, don’t expect to be automatically in the mix because I am pregnant.”
To say I was pissed she automatically went with the typical ‘they are only with me because of the baby’ shit that was a constant TV or book phrase when a woman was faced with a pregnancy before she got with the guy, meant nothing to that could be compared to Reese’s mad if the red that was creeping up from his neck to engulf his face was a sign. His, “I got this,” definitely was.
Reese
Michael was way better with words than me, and the parents staying quiet through his speech was a shock but there was a first time for everything. My mother’s posture said she was anxiously waiting to pounce, which I was sure she would on me at the first opportunity; however, she was going to have to wait. Zoey was the important one here, everyone else could do or say what they wanted, but it was her that needed to believe she was everything we hoped for when we found a woman that fit both of us. The baby, yeah, it was important but her thinking it was the reason for us being here, not even close.
“Guess it is my turn now. I would have loved for this to have come about between the three of us but life doesn’t always happen the way we’d like.” Zoey turned toward me and I took a deep breath to calm me.
“Michael covered the first time with you and how you affected us. Now, I’m going to touch on the now. Zoey, we don’t want to hear you even come close to the suggestion we are here because of you being pregnant. When we realized who you were in the pub, we knew we would stop at nothing to have you. Then you fainted and were taken away and I’d never felt so lost, me, who always had a plan to follow, found myself out of sorts. Never were we going to let you walk away a second time. That decision, baby, was made prior to coming here and finding out that you were carrying our kid. To people outside of this family, it would seem rather crazy to be talking about love, kids, and forever when hell, we don’t even know your birthday. But a smart and intuitive woman told Michael and me that when we found the right woman who could offer us a love that held no boundaries, we would know. You, baby, are that woman.
“Michael and I have grown up in families that fight, are overbearing at times, nosy, and above all else, loud. But they are also the ones who will back you without question, help you if you fall, and love you no matter how many mistakes you make.
“You’re ours, Zoe, and we will do everything in our power to prove it, whether it takes a day or five years, doesn’t matter because the outcome will be the same. You, us, and however many children we can talk you into giving us, we’ll be a family.” I reached up and wiped a tear that had slipped out of her eye. The living room was so quiet that if a pin hit the floor the sound would have echoed. But with this bunch I’d known that couldn’t last.
“Well now, I think our job is done here.” Michael’s dad stood from the recliner and put his hand out to his wife. Mrs. O’Malley stood and immediately walked over to Michael and hugged him and then moved to me.
“You two make me so proud. Out of all of my boys, I have to say when I got the call from Velma, I was shocked as she said your names. A mother knows her sons so a part of me couldn’t believe Michael would be so careless with a woman, let alone leave her pregnant to do it all on her own. And, Reese, Madeline raised you the same.
“But that shock was overshadowed with the outpouring of emotion in both your words. To be witness to it, a mother can have no better validation that she’d done her job as a parent.”
My mother joined Mrs. O’Malley and stared at me before grabbing my shirt and pulling me into her arms, then she stepped back and the tears running down her cheeks alarmed me until she spoke and wiped at them. “Don’t fret, son, happy tears. I agree with Olivia, I couldn’t be prouder, you are a fine man and I know your father is looking down and smiling. You and Michael are going to make great fathers but the first step is going to be to show this lovely young woman that you will make even better husbands.” My mom leaned in and hugged Zoey, followed by Michael’s mom. We received the typical man smacks on our backs from Mr. O’Malley but Zoey received a huge that I swore I could hear the air leave her lungs before he let her loose.
“Okay, ladies, let’s move out. I need to get in my shed, a cradle is calling to be made.”
“Oh for goodness sakes, Reilly, you have time.”
“No I don’t, ‘cause I am betting once Fin and Tony hear that Michael and Reese have the jump on them, they will try to compete and Brooklyn will be pregnant before too long. Making two cradles will take some time.” With the tension so high earlier, nothing was needed more than a laugh to let go and feel the lightness return and Mr. O’Malley knew how to do it. He’d had a lot a practice over the years.
“Dad, we don’t compete over everything?” Michael laughed.
“Please, was it not you and Fin who bet which one could wear a pair of socks the longest until they stuck to your feet?”
“We were like seven and six at the time, Dad?” Everyone laughed at Michael’s indignation while Mr. O’Malley laughed and led the moms to the door. Mrs. Honeychil came back in from the kitchen with Rucker and said she too was heading back to her house next door as Rucker went to stand by Ranger.
My mom stopped at the door and turned back to Zoey. “I will call you with your appointment to the OB/GYN. You need to get in as soon as possible. I will pull a few strings to make that happen. You will love Dr. Stevens, he has been around forever and delivered hundreds of babies. Nothing but the best for my grandbaby.”
“Come on, Madeline. You can come to our house and we will call Sonia. She is going to be upset that we are getting a grandchild before her. She thought we would all share the first one with Brook, Fin, and Tony getting together. This news could have her depressed.”
“Oh, Olivia, I hadn’t thought of that.” The parents headed out the door with the moms still discussing Mrs. Roark’s depression over not getting a grandbaby.
We watched from the porch as our folks got in the car to leave. My mom was doing better getting around, and I knew with news of the baby, by the time it was born she would be at a hundred percent. The woman would expect no less.
“A mother is going to be depressed, really? About this?” Ranger’s brows furrowed when the door closed. He had no idea. Poor bastard.
And Zoey wasn’t much better. I almost felt sorry for the look of complete confusion over everything that had taken place. Almost. She just had her first experience with the moms, it would prepare her for the rest of the family members.
“Let’s sit down, even though you punched us, Ranger, we still can’t leave you hanging out to dry with the moms.” Michael laughed with me while Zoey now had the furrowed brows. Her, Ranger, and even Rucker would learn but at least Michael and I could give them some preparation. Then they were on their own like the rest of us, every man for himself when it came to dealing with the moms.
Chapter Eleven
Zoey
How did I lose control of my life? I mean, one second I was happy and moving along in life, everything was good, of course not amazing, since my sister-in-law had been killed but still, it was okay. Now I was on a fucking wild rollercoaster ride, which I had no clue how the hell to get off. I looked around my office and sighed. Saturday had sucked.
After the parents left and Ranger and the guys had worked out their issues, I had finally had a chance to lay the law down. Everyone seemed to be making decisions for me, damn it, and I was not going to allow that. So I told Reese and Michael I wasn’t making any decisions yet, and would get back with them next week.
Of course this set off a huge debate with Ranger and the duo trying to gang up on me. Hell, Ranger had practically had a shotgun wedding planned in his backyard, which I totally put a nix to. And I was cussing, I never cussed, only when I got frustrated, which I was completely. At least Sunday went by uneventfully, well if I didn’t
count the dozen phone calls from Reese and Michael checking on me throughout the day. They’d started first thing in the morning.
“Have you eaten breakfast? It’s the most important meal of the day.” I hadn’t been up thirty minutes and had spent fifteen of them with my head over the toilet, so needless to say, I snapped Reese’s head off.
The next was from Mike, “Babe, Reese said you were suffering with morning sickness when he called about breakfast. That should be over so you really should try to get a small snack down to hold you till lunch.” He’d gotten hung up on. If I’d thought they wouldn’t come over if I didn’t answer, I would have stopped taking their calls.
All freakin’ day long. Eat lunch. Take a nap because you need as much rest as you can get now before the baby comes. On and on and on. I’d yelled my answers in the phone, I’d hung up on them with no response to their question. Not once did they raise their voice, nope, they’d chuckle and in a couple hours my phone would ring again. The last call came right as I got into bed and when I answered both of them were on the phone. They’d wanted to tell me goodnight and then asked me to hold the phone to my stomach so they could tell the baby goodnight. I did it but I refused to think it was sweet.
My hormones were everywhere, I needed to talk about all that had happened. I needed my best friend. Looking at the clock I smiled, yeah, just enough time to call Brit while walking over to court. I yelled at Cora and told her I was leaving and to forward any calls to the switchboard. Today was gonna be a long day.
It had started this morning when Cora came to pick me up and take me to O’Malley’s gym. Who knew that guys liked to get all sweaty and hot first thing in the morning. When we had walked into the facility we had both started to pant. Damn, there was so much testosterone in the place it oozed from the walls.
Brant had been there and introduced us to his boss, Fin, politely. I wanted to laugh, he was so nervous, Fin had winked at us and reminded Brant that he knew me. Then we had taken a tour, and halfway in the middle of it Mr. O’Malley had shown up. He had brought a bottle of water and some fresh fruit to the gym for me when he heard I was here. It was all a conspiracy, I tell ya. Especially since Cora had found it completely sweet that the older man was looking after me and she had gushed with praises. Ugh.
Then we had gone into the offices where Brant explained his job, how much he was getting paid, and who was supervising him every day, that part of the morning had been awesome. I really was excited to show the judge that Brant was really trying to turn his life around. All of the men in O’Malleys had taken the young man under their wings. Some man named Jet was helping him with getting into a local Junior College so he could study Criminal Justice. He planned on working for Tony Roark in the future as one of his guys. Then a man named Reed was helping him in training. By the end of the appointment, I had been happy with the progress and told Brant I would let the judge know.
However, my mistake had been to leave Cora in the main room to do the inspection checklist, ‘cause when I came out, the woman was ring side and yelling at the two men who were sparring. You know, I am not sure my life could get any more bizarre and weird, I wasn’t equipped to deal with this many crazy people in one sitting.
Once I was outside, I called Brit who answered on the first ring.
“Chicka!!!!!” How is the Big Apple?” Brit yelled in the phone and I couldn’t help but grin, I missed her.
“Fine,” I said and like my best friend, she always knew when I was full of shit.
“Uh oh, come on, talk to your personal counselor, what is up?”
I closed my eyes, this could really suck too since I hadn’t even told her I was pregnant yet.
“Well, you uh remember those guys I met the night we went out before I left?” I said, looking up at the sky.
“Yep, the Mc-hotties!” Brit said.
“Yeah, well they live here. I met them again,” the words no sooner out my mouth and Brit screamed into the phone and I almost dropped it.
“No fucking way!”
“Oh yeah, now wanna hear the kicker?” I had no intention of giving her a chance to answer. “I’m pregnant.”
Silence, oh no, that was not good, like at all. Brit always had something to say about everything.
“Um wanna run that by me again?” Brit whispered.
I closed my eyes and just let it all come out. I told Brit about the guys, meeting them again, ending up in the hospital, the parents, everything, and like a good friend she was silent and let me rant and rave about it all. Twenty minutes later, I was finished and fell silent waiting for her to say something. I was also standing outside the courthouse in line to go through security. Heck, the line was so long I had plenty of time to talk.
“Okay, so what you are saying is, that in Bronx, New York, where it is like the corner stone of the Catholic community, ménage relationships are like allowed and not frowned upon. This is what you are saying?” Brit said calmly and I pulled the phone away from my face and stared at the receiver.
“Umm,” I said slowly not sure why this was part of the conversation.
“‘Cause if so I am totally moving there like this week, get me a transfer. I need to meet these brothers, the O’Malleys you said. Do they have Facebook profiles? I mean, can I stalk them?” Brit said and I laughed. Yes, I loved my best friend.
“Come on,” I said and laughed. “I need one friend who is not going crazy because of all the guys.”
“What? I am dead serious; why do you get all the luck? I mean seriously, I am in California, land of the free love and all that shit but noooooo, I can’t even find a damn date and you have like two men panting after your cute pregnant ass!” Brit said.
“Well, I wouldn’t say that. I would say that Michael’s mother and father, and Reese’s mother pretty much told them they were going to make an honest woman out of me. Add my brother, who is a cop and has a gun, yeah, pretty much they are being forced into this. I don’t want that. I want…I don’t know…love…wooing…all that stuff. I had a one night stand that had morphed into like something totally out of control and I don’t know what to do,” I heard the panic coming into my voice.
“Really?” Brit snorted. “You are saying this to me? You do realize you are completely off your rocker, right? I say this because if you remember correctly when my parents tried to force me into marrying the ‘right’ kind of man, you told them to shove it. Like literally told my father, the man who runs a Fortune 500 company, to shove his stupid expectations up his ass. I am pretty sure you can handle this.”
“No,” I whined into the phone. Yes, whined, I would totally kick my own ass later for being a wimp but right now I needed to whine to my bestie. “You don’t know these people, they are like so nice and sweet. They totally played me, got me all mushy and comfortable, talking about how excited they were about their first grandkid and stuff and then I was like stuck. I don’t want to be with anyone who is forced to be with me. It sucks, ‘cause I really liked them and now I won’t know if they actually liked me at all or if they are trapped into taking care of me.”
Brit laughed loudly into the phone and I stomped my foot, childish yes, and yet I still did it. “Oh my God, I wish I could record this shit. Seriously, babe, I love you, you know I love you, but damn, pull your head out of your ass and make them work for this shit. I mean duh, who cares if the parents or Ranger expect you to do the right thing. You know and I know, you are a strong capable woman who can take care of herself. So pull up those grannie panties and get this shit taken care of.”
“I love you,” I whispered as the tears gathered in my eyes. Damn hormones.
“Babe, you know I love you. Now, what are you going to do?” Brit said and I looked around and saw all of the people walking around.
“I am heading to the courthouse?” I said.
“No, you are hanging up this phone, calling those two hunkalicious men and telling them unless they have plans of wooing your ass with like diamonds and shit, that you weren�
��t going to take them up on their little demand to ‘make an honest woman’ of you. You are Zoey-fucking-Marshall and they need to step up and win your heart,” Brit said and I grinned. Seriously I loved my best friend.
“Okay, it’s kinda what Michael’s dad said about they need to work for it.”
“His dad told you that? Damn, girl, then do it, and call me tonight, I am clearing my calendar and coming out there for a few weeks. I need a vacay. And I got to meet these people.” I rolled my eyes, Brit was crazy.
“You have only been working for like three months.”
“Yeah, but it was like a hellacious three months. I even had to give them receipts before I actually got reimbursed for shit. It is annoying, and my father is pissing me off. So roll out the Tweedy Bird pj’s and The Notebook DVD ‘cause I’m as good as there. I will text you with my flight info.” I sighed, not sure the Bronx was ready for Brit, but I couldn’t wait.
“Have I said how much I love you?”
“Yes, now go.” I hung up the phone and then bit my lip. I was totally going to do this. I’m not a weeping willow who needed a man to take care of me. I shuffled to the front of the line, turned off my phone, and put my briefcase through the scanner. Yay me, here we go, I thought and then looked around when I made it through security.
Juvenile courts were on the second floor and as I rode up the escalator I saw a group of thugs working their way through security. Gangs, I thought and frowned. I saw the colors they were sporting, something in the back of my head made me look again, I couldn’t place the colors, darn it. When I got back to the office I would ask Cora. Red, black, and blue were common gang colors, but the unusual yellow made me wonder if there was a new gang in town. Great.
Pierced and Inked (KO Ink Book 2) Page 8
