Hard To Fall (Sliding Home Book 3)

by Elizabeth Perry

  “Yes!” she exclaims, before slamming the car door shut and turning in her seat, glaring at me.

  “Rich knew about each child.”

  “Rich was my husband, and anyways, look at what happened there!”

  “Yeah, well, all of that ended up being a blessing because Rich is a loser.”

  “I just can’t tell him, Arielle, alright? I can’t.”

  “Fine.” She shrugs. “Then I will.”

  It’s my turn to glare at my sister.

  “You wouldn’t.”

  She starts the engine before peeling out of the parking lot.

  “You bet your ass I would. I understand that telling him would be hard for you, but he deserves to know. It’s only fair, Isabelle. If the tables were turned, you would want to know.”

  She’s absolutely right, I would want to know.

  But telling Ryan means that I need to face him again, and I’m not sure that I can do that just yet.

  “I need time.”

  “No. You need to just do it.”

  “Fine.” I glare at her before whipping out my cellphone. “I’ll send him a text.”

  She grabs my phone out of my hand.

  “You’re not sending him a fucking text. We’re going right now, to his house. I’m not letting you get out of this.”

  As much as I love my sister, right now, in this moment, I’m fantasizing about killing her.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Ryan

  Isaac and I are in the front yard, playing catch, when a car that I don’t recognize pulls into the driveway.

  I stare at it, for just a second, before my eyes connect with the driver.

  “Hey buddy. Go inside of the house for a few minutes, ok?”

  “Ok, Dad.” Isaac looks between the car and me quickly, before jogging up the stairs and going into the house.

  The passenger side door opens, and Isabelle steps out of the car.

  My heart stops in my chest as I take her in, and then, just as quickly, anger fills me.

  “What are you doing here?” I growl at her, as she takes a few steps on seemingly shaky legs towards me.

  “Hey, Ryan.” She swallows hard before looking up at me.

  “Do you have a minute to talk?”

  “I’m not sure that we have anything to talk about, Isabelle. You should probably just go.”

  It kills me to say the words to her, because even though I know that she doesn’t have any feelings for me, a small part of me is hopeful that she came here to profess her love.

  I snort.

  That’s a fucking joke.

  The woman standing in front of me used me for my dick, and that’s all. Maybe even a claim to fame. I have no idea what her motives actually were, but they sure as hell weren’t to find love.

  “Well, I have something that I need to tell you.” She bites her lip hard as her eyes fill with tears.

  “I don’t know that I even want to hear it,” I tell her honestly, before shaking my head. “If you came here to hurt me some more, then please. Just leave. I’ve had enough.”

  “I never meant to hurt you, Ryan. I swear that I didn’t. It’s just that…”

  “It’s just that I fell in love with you, and you didn’t love me back. It’s cool, Isabelle, I accept that. But that doesn’t mean that I want to hear anything that you have to say.”

  “I’m pregnant.”

  The words hit me like a punch to the gut.

  “I just thought that you should know.”

  “You’re pregnant? How in the fuck are you pregnant? You said that you were on birth control.”

  And then, I realize exactly what her motives were.

  She used me for my dick, that’s for damn sure. I would have never seen this coming from her, but also, I never imagined that she didn’t have feelings for me.

  Goes to show you just how fucking dumb I am.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I growl, before taking the baseball glove in my hand and chucking it onto the ground. “You did this on purpose.”

  “No, Ryan, I swear…”

  “You pretended to be on birth control so that I wouldn’t use protection. You pretended to have feelings for me, or at least, tricked me into thinking that you did, all so that you could get pregnant with my child?”

  “No!”

  “Yeah, right. You pretended not to want children with me, which only made me believe you more. You had the opportunity last week to be with me and have a child. But instead, you chose to scheme behind my back, all so that you could take my money.”

  “You have this all wrong. Ryan, for gods sake, will you just shut up and listen to me?”

  “No, actually, I won’t. If you needed money, Isabelle, I would have just given it to you. You didn’t need to go through all of this and break my heart in the process. I would have given you anything that you wanted.”

  The rush of emotions that I feel right now aren’t letting me absorb the fact that Isabelle is about to be the mother of my child.

  I’ve been down this road before, and I’ve been screwed hard. I can’t even comprehend the fact that she did this to me.

  “I think that you should go,” I tell her, through clenched teeth. “You need to get back into your sister’s car and get out of here before I fucking lose it.”

  “Dammit, Ryan, you need to listen to me. I don’t want your money, and there isn’t going to be a…”

  “My lawyer will be in touch,” I tell her, before spinning on my heel and storming into my house without a single glance back to her.

  Fuck me.

  Isabelle is going to have my baby.

  A week ago, this news would have been the best thing ever.

  But now, it’s tainted, because I see her true colors, and her motives are crystal clear.

  It’s taken me a full week to wrap my mind around the fact that Isabelle is pregnant. A full week to adjust to the idea that I am going to be a father yet again.

  A very broke father, but a father again none the less.

  “I need to get something in writing now and have her sign it,” I tell my attorney, who stares at me as if I am the dumbest man alive.

  “Dude.” He shakes his head. “What you need to do is start wearing fucking condoms. Any more child support, and you’re going to be one broke superstar.”

  Isn’t that the truth?

  “Well, what’s a reasonable number to try to get her to agree on? And I’m not talking about Audra’s numbers, because that shit is not reasonable, and I know it.”

  “I mean, that’s all going to depend. Are you paying her off for this kid? Or do you want to be a part of its life?”

  I glare at him.

  “Really? Do you even need to ask that question?”

  “Listen, Ryan,” Jason, my attorney sighs. “I represent all kinds of professional athletes. You aren’t the first to knock a girl up, and you won’t be the last. If you want to just pay her off, I have a lot of experience with that. You’d be amazed at how common that is.”

  The knowledge pisses me off.

  I don’t care if I got someone pregnant during a one-night stand. I’d never sign my rights off on a kid and give someone a payoff to keep it quiet.

  No fucking way.

  “Well, I’m not that guy.”

  “I know that you’re not. That’s what I was afraid of.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Eighteen years is a long damn time to be paying on a kid. If this one is even a fraction as crazy as your ex-wife, you’re going to be screwed.”

  “Money doesn’t mean shit to me,” I let him know him honestly. “As long as I have enough to live off, I’m cool. I want to support my children, even if that means being taken to the cleaners by their mothers.”

  “On the bright side,” he scans my paperwork on his desk, “having another kid means that you might have some leverage with Audra. If she gets nervous that you might want this kid more than Isaac, she might star
t to concede a bit. It might make her realize that you absolutely could walk away from him, and that you could even expose her. She’s mean as a snake, but she’s smart. I could speak to her attorney and make some suggestions.”

  “I’m not walking away from my son, Jason.”

  “Oh, yeah, buddy. I know that. But, maybe it’s time to play the game. She’s been playing it, and she’s been playing you hard. Maybe now it’s time to fight back.”

  “Go for it, I guess. The only thing that I have left to lose is more money. I’d just have to pay Audra more if this pissed her off.”

  “Money, you’ve got. At least for now. I think that the safest bet for you is to start making monthly payments to this new woman while she’s pregnant. That way, she can’t come back at you for support later on. Get some in the womb DNA testing done to make sure the kid is yours, and then, have her sign on the dotted line.”

  We go over some figures, and Jason gets my paperwork together.

  The idea of having to see Isabelle again doesn’t sit well with me, but only because she has me so fucked up in the head right now.

  I’m going to have to be a man about this and face her at some point, though.

  Obviously, she got me good. But there is still going to be a baby, and that baby deserves to have a father in the picture.

  Even if it’s just in the form of a paycheck and a few weekends a month.

  “Don’t order a mixed drink,” the man at the bar tells me before nodding his head towards Isabelle, who is busy scanning through a rolodex behind the bar.

  “She’s nice to look at, but she’s a shitty bartender. Get a beer, and a bottle at that. She can’t even pour a draft beer right.”

  “I hear you, Jack,” Isabelle calls out, without even looking up. “And just so you know, words hurt.”

  “Yeah, Jack,” Arielle calls from where she’s kneeling behind the bar and stocking the cooler.

  “That’s my baby sister that you’re talking about. And just so you know, she’s the youngest of twelve kids. I’ve got seven big brothers who would whoop your behind for being mean to Isabelle.”

  Jack snorts, before taking another swig of his beer.

  “Just warning the guy.”

  He glances to me as recognition dawns.

  “Hey, I know you. You’re that baseball player, right?”

  I just nod, but I’m not even looking at him. My eyes are firmly focused on Isabelle.

  Just the sight of her takes my breath away and reopens the wound that is barely starting to scab.

  Her brown hair is piled high onto her head, and she has a pen twisted into the top of it.

  Her endless legs are present in her white shorts, and the yellow t-shirt that she’s wearing makes her dark skin seem even darker.

  She’s so fucking beautiful.

  “Hey, Isabelle. You have a star here at the bar. Maybe you could get the man a drink.”

  Her eyes snap up, and she visibly pales, as her face falls and her eyes widen in shock.

  “Ryan? What are you doing here?”

  “Well, he’s not getting a drink, it looks like,” Jack mutters, and Arielle stands up abruptly.

  “Shut up, Jack. Ryan, as the owner of this restaurant, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

  “What?” My eyebrows shoot up, and Isabelle’s mouth flattens.

  “You heard me. I have the right to refuse service to whomever I please, and you are not welcome here.”

  I nod.

  “Ok. I’ll go. But Isabelle, I just need five minutes of your time.”

  “Don’t, Belle.” Arielle grabs her arm. “You don’t have to give him anything.”

  “It’s fine.” Isabelle finally shrugs before turning her eyes on me. “Five minutes, and that’s it. Come with me.”

  She nods her head towards the back, and I follow her, keeping the documents that I need her to sign firmly in my grasp.

  We step inside of an office, and she shuts the door behind her, before crossing her arms and glaring at me.

  “What do you want, Ryan?”

  I swallow hard, as I try to get my thoughts back in order.

  “I, uh. I had my attorney draw up some paperwork. I can leave it here so that you can read it, and then you just need to sign it if you agree.”

  “Paperwork?” She glances at the documents in my hand before motioning for them. “What kind of paperwork?”

  “Support details. I think that it’s a fair amount of money. If you agree, then you just need to sign.”

  “Support? I don’t want anything from you!”

  She scans the papers before rolling her eyes and ripping them in half.

  “Isabelle! Seriously. Is it not enough? What in the hell?”

  “I don’t want your money.” She glares at me. “I don’t want anything from you. I just want you to leave.”

  “Oh, please. Look, I want to get this settled before the baby comes. I don’t want to be blindsided with some lawsuit…”

  “I don’t want your money. I don’t want anything from you, Ryan. Contrary to what you believe, I didn’t want this to happen. I didn’t do this to get money from you. The only papers that I am willing to sign, are documents that state just that. No money, no nothing. I’ll give you the all clear, ok?”

  “It’s my responsibility to support my baby.”

  “There isn’t going to be a baby!” She raises her voice before waving her arms wildly. “It won’t work out. It never does. I’m going to miscarry, Ryan.”

  “Wait, what?” My stomach drops. “Why are you saying that? Is that what the doctors told you?”

  “Not yet, but…”

  Suddenly, she yelps, before placing her hand on her stomach.

  “Oh, oh my god.”

  She leans forward and braces herself against the desk.

  “Ryan, you need to leave.” She forces out through clenched teeth.

  “Isabelle, what’s happening?”

  “Nothing.” Her teeth are still clenched as her face suddenly pales. “Go. Please go.”

  She whimpers again, before squeezing her eyes shut.

  “Isabelle.” I take a step towards her, before reaching out, and placing my hand on her arm.

  “Something is obviously wrong. Talk to me.”

  “Why waste my breath?” she mutters, before a pained expression flashes on her beautiful features. “You won’t hear me anyways.”

  “Oh, fuck.” The arm that was holding her up on the table drops, and she bends over, holding her stomach tightly.

  As I watch in horror, as a gush of blood runs down her leg, and beads of sweat break out across her forehead.

  She’s panting, and moaning, and then, she finally manages to cry out.

  “My sister,” she finally manages to squeak. “Get my sister.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Isabelle

  My eyes open to the sound of beeping.

  Slowly, I manage to turn my head, and scan the room.

  Arielle sits on the edge of the bed, and she’s holding onto my hand.

  I feel groggy, and not quite right.

  At first, I’m not really sure where I am, but then, suddenly, it all comes flooding back to me.

  I lost the baby.

  The instant pain, coupled with the gush of blood are always the telltale signs.

  I’ve been through this before, although, this time, the pain was so much worse than it had ever been.

  Ryan had scooped me up, and ran with me in his arms, out of the restaurant, and had rushed me to the hospital.

  Arielle must have followed right behind him.

  I remember looking down in the car and being afraid of how much blood that I was losing.

  That was the last thing that I remember.

  “Hey.” Arielle squeezes my hand when my eyes connect with hers. “You’re finally awake.”

  “Yeah.” I nod. My throat feels like it’s full of gravel as I force the single word out.

  Arielle squeezes
my hand again.

  “He’s here.”

  My eyes close at her words, and I just shake my head.

  “I don’t want to see him.” I swallow hard, as my eyes fill with tears.

  “Too bad.” I hear his voice, and my head turns in the direction. “I’m right here.”

  Arielle squeezes my hand again, before standing up.

  “I’m going to leave the two of you alone so that you can talk.”

  Great.

  “Isabelle.” Ryan sits down in the seat that Arielle just vacated and wraps his hand around mine.

  “Baby,” he croaks, and as my eyes focus on him, I see the tears that are running down his cheeks.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” he finally forces out, before pulling his hand back and running his hands down his face.

  “Fuck, don’t answer that. You tried to tell me. I just wouldn’t listen.”

  “Did I lose the baby?” I ask quietly, and his hands drop from his face.

  He doesn’t need to answer me. The look on his face says it all.

  “We almost lost you.” His voice cracks. “You started hemorrhaging. The doctors couldn’t stop the bleeding in the emergency room, so they had to take you to surgery. You lost so much blood baby. So fucking much blood.”

  “Oh my god.” The realization hits me like a mac truck. “It gets worse every single time.”

  “I was so worried about you. And then, the baby…”

  “This is why I didn’t want to tell you.” I blink, before shaking my head.

  “I’m so sorry, Ryan. I’m so very sorry. This is all my fault. I should have been more careful.”

  “Is this why you left me?” he finally asks before reaching down and taking my hand in his.

  “I just need to know the truth, because, the last two weeks, I’ve run it through my head so many fucking times, and it just doesn’t add up. You told me that you didn’t love me, but I’ve seen it in your eyes. Every time that we made love, baby, I saw it. That’s why this all has had me so fucked up.”

  “I can never give you what you want.” I can’t even stop the tears that are falling from my eyes right now. “You want a family, Ryan. You want more children. I will never be able to give you that.”