Bad Apple_A Stepbrother Romance

by Stephanie Brother

As I spoke, I got up and walked reluctantly toward the door, because I figured she wouldn’t do it. I knew who was on the other side of the door, which is why I thought that Claire would get it.

  I opened the door, and sure enough, she stood on the other side of it. I smiled as I let her into the apartment.

  “Hello, you two,” she said, coming inside. “Sorry to drop by unannounced.”

  “It’s fine, Mom,” Claire said, getting up from the couch. “Is there something I can get for you? We have some juice in the fridge…”

  “It’s fine, it’s fine,” she said, waving at Claire to sit down. “I thought I might as well come over here for that talk,” she added with her eyes narrowed.

  “Rogue brought some food home from class, we were going to have it for lunch. I just told him the news a lot faster than I’d planned to do,” Claire explained as I closed the door behind Hannah.

  “How long have you known?” I asked, curiosity got the better of me. I wanted to know why Hannah knew before me.

  “Just a couple of days, but no time felt like the right time to tell you,” Claire explained and I knew this was the reason, but I felt better having her confirm it to me.

  Hannah sat down beside Claire, and the only option I had was to take the single seat. Claire and I shared a glance as the two of them started talking in between themselves.

  Hannah looked a lot better than the last time I’d seen her. She didn’t visit often and I had classes to go to, because I was trying to be a good student. I didn’t know if I was even allowed to still refer to her as my step mom, since she was now a widow. Even on paper, I couldn’t say we were still related. It didn’t help the awkwardness I’d felt around her before, either.

  I was panicking on the inside, wondering when she would leave, and feeling bad for wanting her gone because she was still my dad’s widow.

  Hannah sat at the dining table as I moved around the kitchen to heat the dish and a couple of side dishes. Claire went to get the plates and set the table. When she moved to more serious topics that included the both of us, asking how we were doing and all, I figured she was drawing closer and closer to what she really wanted to ask us.

  “Are you sure that you guys don’t want to move in with me?” Hannah asked as soon as I sat down and dished up the food. She didn’t waste any time letting us know why she had visited today.

  “Right now we can’t. This place is on my release form, so we can’t move.” I brushed my hand across Claire’s as her eyes darted from mine to Hannah’s.

  “It’s more than just dealing with your probation officer, isn’t it?” Hannah’s gaze never left us.

  “We just don't want to be a burden.”

  She shook her head. “I’m lonely in that house. No Richard. No Claire anymore. The idea of you moving in and my grandchild will bring life back into the house. If anything, you’ll be helping me a lot more than I’ll be helping you.”

  Claire jumped up. “Bread. We need bread.” Then she raced to the kitchen as if her life depended on it.

  “Well in that case, we’ll move in.” I smiled at her and Claire jumped up and down and hugged her mom. I realized that I was being selfish by only thinking of myself, she needed her mom especially seeing as she was going to be having our baby.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Rogue

  The first day of my new job was coming up. I was so fucking scared. I was going to be a fucking chef at the Old Blue Tavern. Dad and I used to eat there when I was a kid. It was under new ownership now, after it had gone downhill, but I wanted to bring it back to its glory. Make it into a place where I would want my family to come and enjoy. I smiled. My family. Me, Claire, our little Richard, named after my dad, and the new little one on the way. Now, all I had to do was make it perfect.

  For the first time in my life, I had a purpose and I didn’t feel like the bad apple anymore. If anything the complete opposite. As if for once I could look in the mirror and feel proud about who I was and what I was going to do with my life. This was all new to me, but it filled me up with this crazy warm feeling and I knew that it had everything to do with Claire. Whoever said that love was made for fools, had obviously never been in love.

  “You coming in here, big boy, or are you going to make me wait all weekend?” Claire yelled from the bedroom.

  I’d promised to make her breakfast in bed. Something that I had been doing every Saturday morning. The only difference was, this one was very special.

  Sure, it was her favorite—pancakes, cream, and strawberries. But this time I put something on top of the strawberries, and I was fucking nervous about what she was going to say.

  Shit, I moved back and forth like a woodpecker against a tree, changing my mind every second. I glanced at Richard in his playpen, watching some weird kids show with bright colors and crazy sounds. It was the right step. Wasn’t it? I bit my lip. We’d never talked about it, but it was what I wanted. I hoped she wouldn’t throw me out on my ear. I hoped she thought I was good enough.

  The old me, the old Rogue, wouldn’t have had a chance in hell.

  The new one.

  The soon-to-be chef of the Old Blue Tavern and the father of her children.

  He should be.

  Or so I fucking hoped so…

  The problem I kept coming back to was, we’d never talked about the future. I’d just moved in, and stayed. She helped me through two years of culinary school, while I worked at the coffee shop that I used to think was boring to work in as a kid. However, it had been my main source of income for the last two years. Until now, I reminded myself.

  “Rogue?” Claire shouted out once again.

  “You can do this,” I whispered to myself, give Richard another look. “Daddy can do this, right Richard?”

  Richard looked at me and said, “Da-da-da-da.”

  “Rogue?” she yelled out again.

  “Right. Time to do this.”

  She was on the move, shit that woman could never keep still, she always had to be moving or doing something. Chill and Claire just didn’t happen at all, I knew that but I was so fucking nervous that my stomach was in fucking knots.

  When did I become such a chicken?

  “Go back to bed. I told you, I’m coming.” I held my breath, waiting for a response.

  She shouted back, “I thought I heard voices.”

  She did alright, it was me, myself, and I and Richard.

  What if I asked her and she said no? Then what? Did I move out? Did we continue the way we were?

  Shit. I picked up the tray and headed to the bedroom with my hands fucking shaking.

  If she said no, I’d just have to deal with it.

  “About time,” she said as I walked into the room. She patted the bedside and said, “We were getting very hungry.”

  Great, the pressure’s too much, but I need to do this. I need to if I want things to go exactly the way that they need to.

  Fuck!

  I dropped the tray.

  Then so much for the strawberries hiding the ring. It rolled across the floor to spin and drop right by her side. It wasn’t the romantic setting that I had picked out. But she looked at the ring and then back at me. I avoided her gaze why I tried to clean the mess up.

  Shit, here goes nothing, I know what she wants me to say, but the fact that she’s not saying anything kinda makes me even more nervous.

  “Claire. I know that things haven’t gone exactly as planned, this is kinda difficult for me. It’s just that…”

  Tears started to stream down her cheeks. “Is this why you were taking so long in the kitchen?”

  Like a kid that’d been caught stealing in the candy store, I nodded.

  “And why you’ve been acting all crazy lately?”

  Again, I nodded. I felt as if my lips were glued tight. I wanted to speak, but no words were coming out. I fucking hated when that happened.

  “Are you going to ask me?”

  I raised an eyebrow and I was just about to tell her
that I didn't know if I should, that this was some fucking big mistake.

  But I got on one knee in front of her, looking up at her beautiful eyes. I muttered, “Will you marry me?”

  Shit. I didn’t even recognize my voice, I was so caught up in my madness that it was as if I’d completely lost it. How was I going to cope if she said no?

  “Rogue,” she purred as she moved down my level. “I couldn't think of anything better than being your wife. I love you.” She hugged me.

  I hugged her a little too tight and she laughed, and this time she wasn’t the only one crying as I started to wet her shoulders from the tears that couldn`t stop falling from my eyes.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Claire

  “Wake up, Claire,” Rogue murmured in my ear, shaking me awake. “If you don’t get up now you’re going to be late, you know? You’re starting your new job today!”

  I groaned as I struggled out of my drowsiness. We’d gotten married over the weekend and today was my first day as the new Assistant District Attorney. We had recently moved back to the apartment, after our sublet contract expired and our tenant moved out. Really it was better, we had more space now for when the new baby arrived.

  I smiled, thinking about how Rogue had been considerate enough not to keep me up late last night and he’d done everything with Richard, our nearly two-year-old who we named after his father, including getting up with him at one a.m. This second pregnancy was only a bit less than a couple of months along, so I wasn’t showing yet, and it hadn’t gotten in my way, though I’d still had to report it when I went in for my interview for the ADA position. I had been told it wasn’t an issue, though, and seeing as I had gotten the job, it clearly hadn’t been.

  Funny how I had been pregnant when I started working as a public defender and now, I’m pregnant again starting as the ADA. I was determined though, to do my best work right up until my maternity leave.

  Compared to the work I had done before, working as a public defender had been a change that I wasn’t sure about, but it turned out that I did, in fact, love it.

  With Rogue now working as well, I didn’t need to put too much of a strain on myself to cover everything. Daycare for Richard was crazy expensive, even with Mom watching him three days a week. And with the new baby coming, it would be even more so, so having his added income would be nice.

  We didn’t live wild lives, so it would be perfect for us.

  “I can't believe you’re still this sleepy early in the morning,” Rogue murmured, supporting me as we walked to the bathroom. “I couldn’t sleep when it was my turn, you know. I was practically sleep deprived when I went in for my first day.”

  “Maybe because it was your first time have a real, grown-up job?” I asked in a mumble, but I was grinning so he knew I was teasing. I rubbed the sleep from my face as he turned on the shower for us. “I am glad that you’ve found a job you love, something that means something to you. I am nervous, though. And pregnant, so that must account for some of it,” I continued explaining away my sleepiness.

  Rogue chuckled, tugging me with him under the warm spray of the shower. “You can't blame everything on being pregnant, you know? You’ve been extra lazy these days because you’re ‘pregnant.’ How are you going to be when you’re further along, hmm? It’s not going to be like last time is it?” He grinned.

  I grimaced, not looking forward to it. From what Mom had told me, my second pregnancy was going to be worse, and not just my stomach, but my whole body might become bloated. I’d need to go shopping for clothes that I might never wear again after I gave birth. Not to mention the morning sickness. I’d barely had any with Richard, but this one, I could tell she was going to give me fits.

  Another thing I wasn’t looking forward to was going through labor again. Rogue had already promised he would be there for it, and he would stay no matter how much I screamed and cursed at him because I definitely would. He’d missed Richard’s birth because he’d been in class at the time, performing a final exam, and I wouldn’t let him come to the hospital until he’d finished and gotten his A. Mom sent him texts and kept him updated throughout the experience, but he’d missed Richard’s birth by about twenty minutes. I made him watch the video Mom took about forty times though, so he knew what to expect with this one.

  “You’ll still do whatever I ask you to, though, right?” I asked, my arms going around his shoulders. “Like a good husband?”

  He took a moment, but I felt his arms squeeze around me as he replied, “Of course.”

  We stood there hugging for a long moment before we remembered we were supposed to be showering, and if I waited too long, the hot water would run out. After the shower, we ended up back in the bedroom. We both had enough self-control by then not to get distracted by each other, though Rogue still dragged me to him for a kiss before we got fully dressed.

  “You go get Richard up and ready, and I’ll get breakfast.”

  I nodded, hiding a yawn.

  “What would you like this morning?” Rogue asked. “Or do you think you can’t stomach it?”

  I was far enough along that I shouldn’t have been affected by morning sickness still, but Mom had explained to me that it wasn’t limited to just the first trimester, let alone only mornings, and could sometimes be triggered by food. Lucky me, I had it mornings and evenings.

  However, as nervous as I was about the job, now that I was properly awake, the only thing I felt was hunger.

  “I’ll eat, so make a lot. Hurry up a little, or we’ll both be late, okay? I’ll drop you off today after we drop Richard with Mom.”

  “You don’t need to drop me off,” he said. “It’s still early, I doubt we’ll be late unless there’s some serious traffic on the road.”

  Before Richard had been born, we’d talked about selling off my car and buying new ones for the both of us. Of course, they would have been used cars, but I thought for sure my Mercedes would be able to fetch a decent price and we’d only need to add a bit of cash on top to manage paying for new ones.

  Rogue had tossed that idea out quickly. He didn’t see much point when he really didn’t like to drive anyway. However, with the new baby coming things would get harder now and Rogue said he was hell-bent on buying his own car. Now that he had a good job, he’d be able to manage it soon. Until then he’d take taxis or Ubers when I was using mine.

  After breakfast, we left the house together. Rogue and I parted with a kiss as I headed for the Mercedes with Richard, and he went to the street to look for his Uber.

  As he’d said, after dropping Richard and all his things at Mom’s, I arrived at work with plenty of time to spare. Since it was my first day in the District Attorney’s office, I was mostly just going to familiarize myself with my workplace and my new colleagues. I was nervous, but it went a lot better than I could have hoped for it too. For the first few weeks, I’d have to shadow the District Attorney to learn the ropes. Nothing seemed that difficult, though I noticed the cases were a bit more serious than what I had been working on as a public defender.

  I hadn't taken on any of my own cases yet, I’d only assisted in a couple of higher profile ones, but I felt this was a step in the right direction. The District Attorney was strict, but kind. I didn’t think I would have to put up with an attitude like Simon’s, though it was still really early to tell. There were two other ADA’s who were helpful as well, and most of staff was very welcoming.

  It turned out pretty great, for all the worrying I’d done over it.

  For the first time in a long time, I felt like I was right where I needed to be.

  In love with Rogue, and with my new life as a wife and mother as well as an Assistant District Attorney.

  Epilogue

  Claire

  I lay on the bed, on my side, with pillows stacked around me. It was close to the baby’s due date, so I’d taken my maternity leave. The strain on my body was a lot greater than what I had imagined it would be, even with it being baby number tw
o. The closer to the due date I arrived, the heavier my body felt. Rogue had pretty much confined me to bed rest until our daughter arrived. He took on the role of care giver, when he wasn’t at work, taking care of both Richard and me. When he was away at the Old Blue Tavern, Mom would be here helping me when I felt like I needed to move around to alleviate some pressure.

  I was being pampered, and even though it got annoying at times, I loved it.

  “How are you doing?” Rogue asked, walking into the room.

  We’d had breakfast a while ago, and he’d left to wash the dishes and do some other chores around the apartment while I rested on the bed. He’d put Richard in his playpen in our room so he could see me. I had my eyes closed, though I wasn’t sleeping, and as he spoke to me, my eyes blinked open.

  “I’m fine,” I muttered groggily, stretching my arms out, then hugging his pillow back to me. “Just my back aches a bit, and I can't find a more comfortable position.”

  “Want me to rub your back for you?” he offered.

  “No. But if you could stay here with me, it would be most appreciated.”

  “Sure,” he said quickly.

  The bed was big enough, and I was only lying on one side of it. He sat at the edge, leaning back against the head of the bed, with his long legs crossed. I rested one of my hands on top of his thigh, and he gently patted the back of it.

  We sat like this a lot, and sometimes he would read to Richard and me, or find videos on his phone for Richard to giggle at as I lay there, being bored. It was impossible to sleep all day every day, after all, but having the company made all the difference.

  “Your mom called, by the way,” Rogue said.

  I hummed, not at all surprised.

  “Did she want to know if the baby was ready to come out again?” I asked. She’d been asking every day since I started my maternity leave.

  “Yeah,” Rogue admitted. “She’s about as excited to see her grand-daughter as we are.”

  I snorted. “Not more than me. She keeps kicking at the worst of times, and I think that she wants to get out so bad.”