Blocked Shot

by Amber Lynn

  Nina had slept with at least fifty or sixty guys, which was probably on the low side, but Hannah couldn’t imagine even reaching double digits. With that amount of possibilities, it was hard to believe not a single one of them resonated as more than a quick fling.

  It hurt a little to think that someone she’d cared about so much would never feel the things she did with Curtis. Everyone, even Nina, deserved to find some kind of love in their life, but Nina wasn’t going to let that person in. She cared too much about herself to share her life with someone else.

  “Do you know how much it hurt both of us to find out we weren’t having a baby after having to think about the possibility for weeks? Of course you don’t, because you don’t care about anyone but yourself.”

  The smile that slithered onto Nina’s face was unsettling, but Hannah didn’t let it get to her. Nina was always plotting, and the smile was a good indicator her gears were at work. That was the main reason Hannah had taken the conversation outside. She didn’t want her family, including Curtis, to get anything on them when Nina exploded, because it was a guaranteed event.

  “He sure has added a little spirit to you, hasn’t he? Your little milk teeth look like they’ve been filed. Obviously, not too sharp, but you have a little bite to you.”

  There was an odd sense of pride in the words. Hannah felt like a science experiment finally amounting to something. She’d been off in some corner growing mold or something for years and now she was being put to use.

  “You know nothing about him, so don’t act like you do. I don’t care how many ex-girlfriends you were able to round up and quiz. They don’t know him.”

  Nina laughed. As usual, Hannah was going to say more, but whatever crossed Nina’s mind was more important.

  “I heard he said something very similar to Paul when your old friend paid him a visit the other day.”

  Hannah couldn’t hold it back. She’d tried her hardest, but bringing up the creep crossed the line.

  She didn’t think about it, she just pulled back her arm and curled her fingers into a fist. The next thing she knew, that fist was flying towards Nina’s perfect face. Hannah had never hit someone in earnest, so she wasn’t ready for the pain that radiated up her arm. Her playful fights with her brothers hadn’t prepared her.

  Bones collided and jolted Hannah’s arm. She had little care about how Nina faired when her own hand felt like it was on fire.

  “Shit,” she said as she wrapped her other hand around the injured hand.

  Turning her back on Nina wasn’t the best idea, but she needed to walk off the pain. Fuck it hurt.

  Nina’s laugh was a little surprising, but the way it chilled Hannah’s body wasn’t. She looked up briefly to see the woman massaging her face.

  “I take it back. You’ve lost your milk teeth. I never thought I’d be able to say that. Good for you.”

  “That’s enough.” Hannah jumped hearing Curtis’ voice from her left. “I don’t know, nor do I care, what in the world you’re doing here, Nina, but you need to leave before I call the cops.”

  The man speaking was quick to make his way over to Hannah and wrap an arm around her shoulders. He tsked as he looked down at her hand, swiftly taking it and placing a soft kiss on it. It reminded Hannah of all the times she’d tried to kiss away his pain. He was right. It didn’t work, but the sentiment made her feel a little better.

  “What are you going to tell them? That your fiancé just assaulted me?”

  “The way I saw it, you attacked her first.”

  It was bad enough Curtis had witnessed the altercation. Hannah felt slight mortification hearing her father offer to lie to the police for her.

  “Plus, this is my property, so I think the law would be on our side.”

  Hannah was staring blankly at her father, so she saw the small wink in her direction thanks to the porch light glowing behind him. She knew she was going to have to explain herself, and she wasn’t sure how she would even begin to tell the story without revealing key details she didn’t want her family knowing.

  “Touché, Mr. Williams. I guess that’s my cue to leave. Please let Mrs. Williams know that I’m sorry I won’t be staying to enjoy the delicious meal she’s prepared. I will leave you with your presents, though. There’s no reason a little misunderstanding should keep you from enjoying them. This year I even handpicked them all instead of sending someone out to do it for me.”

  Nina smiled sweetly and put the bag she hadn’t lost hold of on the ground in front of her. Her eyes briefly trained in on Curtis, with an odd glint in them. Hannah wanted to say it was almost respect, but she based that on what she saw in other people’s eyes. Nina had never shown respect for anyone, other than the time she met the designer of her favorite pair of shoes.

  “I want to continue this conversation, Hannah,” she said as her eyes moved to Hannah. “I’ll be in touch.”

  Hannah had no response to that. She wasn’t sure if it was a joke, but she figured it had to be. Any continuation would probably end the same way, which didn’t bode well for Hannah’s hand.

  Turning and swaying her hips as she walked away, Nina didn’t wait for a reply. If the woman was seeing a shrink, she needed to get her money back, because they weren’t helping.

  “We should probably get some ice on this, and clearly I’m going to have to teach you how to punch,” Curtis said as he studied Hannah’s hand in the minimal light available. “Tell me you didn’t curl your thumb inside your fingers.”

  A touch to her thumb caused Hannah to wince. Her whole hand hurt, but the thumb was particularly a touchy spot.

  “I don’t remember. I just swung back and tried to hit something.”

  Curtis pulled her in close to him, leading her towards the house. The bag of gifts was forgotten on the lawn as her father held the door open for the pair.

  “I saw that.” Curtis leaned in to whisper in her ear. “And it’s going to take a miracle for me to make it home before I have to show you how fucking hot I thought that was.”

  Her father’s throat clearing from behind them indicated he might have heard just a little of the whisper. Hannah felt her face flush from a pretty equal mix of embarrassment and lust.

  When they walked into the kitchen, the rest of Hannah’s immediate family were acting too bizarre to not have witnessed what happened outside. They had scattered away from the island, with one brother staring into the fridge, another pretending to clean the glass of the patio door, and the other three members of the family doing similar unrealistically needed tasks.

  “Oh good, you’re back. I was just getting ready to set the table.”

  Her mom was the only one doing something theoretically needed by putting whipped cream on the pumpkin pie. Usually they just passed the whipped cream around the table so everyone could get the amount they wanted, so it was a little out of character. The fact that it had been one of the pies warming in the oven and the whipped cream would melt added to how suspicious it was.

  Karen pasted a Cheshire Cat grin across her face and picked up the bowl with mashed potatoes in it. They all knew something had happened, even if they hadn’t watched, which Hannah was fairly sure they had, yet not one of them asked the question hanging in the room.

  That was why Hannah loved them. Obviously, since they were her family, that was a given, but they made it easy on her.

  “I’ll help carry, but I need to get some ice on our little boxer first. I’m worried she broke her thumb.”

  Curtis left Hannah’s side for a second so he could complete his task. He had to push Miles out of the way and dig around in the freezer, before coming back with a bag of frozen peas. Hannah made a small face of disgust, thinking about eating the peas. They definitely weren’t one of her favorite vegetable, but the instant pain relief they provided put them slightly on her good side.

  “As you all can figure out, Nina and I had a little falling out a few months ago and things haven’t improved.”

  “I’m sor
ry, honey,” Karen said as she put the potatoes down. “She called a couple days ago wanting to verify what time dinner was. Since she’s been coming to Christmas dinner for years, I didn’t think anything of it.”

  Hannah shook her head. She couldn’t believe Nina’s audacity. She shouldn’t have been surprised, but it was one thing to mess with Hannah’s life. Bringing her family into it was just another new low.

  “It’s not your fault. I didn’t tell you.”

  It would’ve been nice to leave it at that, but Hannah thought they deserved some explanation. Only Curtis and she knew that Hannah wasn’t even working with Nina anymore. She realized there was a lot she was hiding, and for the most part she was going to keep it that way. She’d always been a private person, even with her family.

  “I don’t really want to get into the whys, but I quit my job and haven’t had contact with her since. You guys know how she is. She finally took things too far and I decided I don’t need all that negativity in my life.”

  “Thank god,” Vinnie proclaimed. “When you said you were getting married, all I could see was a maid of honor from hell. Now I can be happy about your little announcement.”

  Vinnie had been pretending to rearrange the vegetable platter when they’d come back in the room. He picked up a carrot and chomped on it before walking out of the room towards the dining room.

  “I’m glad I could ease your fears,” Hannah hollered after him.

  After that, the night went off without a hitch. The family welcomed Curtis with open arms and no one pushed for more information about Nina. Hannah got the feeling everyone had taken a big sigh of relief. It was a little painful to realize she’d been causing her family grief over the years because of her choice of friend, but she was glad the cloud hanging over them was gone.

  For Hannah, it wasn’t that easy, though. Nina had said she’d be in touch, and it sounded like a threat. Knowing what Nina was capable of, Hannah wasn’t going to have any peaceful night’s sleep in the foreseeable future.

  Chapter 22

  “So, remember when we came home after Christmas dinner with my family and you couldn’t wait to get in the house to have sex?”

  Curtis smiled at the memory. He’d never be able to look at the lawnmower the same way. Hannah held onto it while he bent her over and took her hard and fast. He rubbed his crotch as he started coming alive from the memory. He’d never thought to bring gardening tools into their sex life, but the memory made him wonder what other fun they could have.

  It’d been a little over a month since Christmas. They’d welcomed in the new year and he was getting ready to have a little break from work. Two weeks with nothing more than half-hearted practices thrown in was going to give him plenty of time to recreate the scene in the garage.

  “You want to go try it again?” Curtis asked as he looked up from the laptop on his lap.

  They were getting ready to go to bed, even though it was only nine o’clock. Hannah had come down with something, the flu they assumed based on the random runs to the bathroom to vomit. Curtis tried to be there for her and hold her hair, but she shooed him away, worried he might catch it.

  She was standing in the door of the bathroom with something in her hand. Her bottom lip was firmly between her teeth as she waved the wand in the air.

  Curtis didn’t have to ask what it was. He hadn’t thought about one for a while, but he and pregnancy tests seemed to be like old friends, only in the past they hadn’t been too friendly to him.

  “Are you serious?”

  They’d slipped up a couple times, but for the most part they were good about making sure condoms were always on hand. He was sure at the time of the garage fun he’d had one in his wallet, probably even two, but he couldn’t deny it was one of the times they’d been too engrossed with each other.

  “I took four this time because I had a good feeling. All of them are positive.”

  Hannah reached down and caressed her flat stomach. The stomach his son or daughter was growing in.

  Throwing the computer and covers off him, not caring if the laptop survived the toss, Curtis leaped off the bed and was to his fiancé in two big steps. He took the stick from her hand and stared down at the word “Pregnant.” There was no not in front of it this time.

  His hand joined hers on her stomach as he leaned down and engulfed her lips with his. The kiss was short, because Curtis wanted to talk and verify he wasn’t dreaming. His whole life felt like a dream since Hannah had joined it. Somehow, every single day she made him happier than the day before.

  “This isn’t some twisted April Fool’s Day trick, right? I know it’s months away, but what better way to make sure it’s unexpected than to do it at the end of January.”

  Hannah laughed and put one of her hands on top of his. There weren’t any physical signs that anything was growing inside of her, but his usual fantasies of her belly growing easily popped in his mind.

  “In a few months, you’ll be able to feel our baby moving inside of me.”

  “You know at least one of my hands is going to be glued to your stomach from now on, right? And I’m going to start speaking nonsense too. I am so going to be one of those dads that the mom has to make up errands to run to get away from him.”

  Curtis tossed the pregnancy test away before he fell to his knees and kissed Hannah’s stomach. They were getting ready for bed, so clothes were nowhere to be seen, as was the norm anytime they were in the house.

  “How you doing in there, little babykins? I’m your daddy and I am going to spoil you so rotten that your mommy is going to be so mad at me. The day you’re born, I’m going to have a pony waiting for you. If you play your cards right and prove to me before you’re born that you’re a daddy’s boy or girl, I might even have two.”

  “He will not,” Hannah said firmly. “We don’t have a big enough yard for a pony.”

  “Do too, don’t listen to mommy. You’ll have a pony, or two, and I’ll build you a huge tree house with a slide and a zipline to the house.”

  Hannah smacked him playfully on his head. He’d warned her how things would be, and he had every intention of following through.

  “It’s a little scary how much you want a baby. I thought the first time you were just being supportive, but you really want to have a baby.”

  “I really want to have a baby with you. A little red-haired girl like her mom, with brains and legs for days.” Curtis shook his head. “That sounded really wrong, but I hope you get the idea.”

  There was emphasis on the you part of his first statement. Curtis couldn’t explain it, so he didn’t try. He’d always wanted kids, but the second he had Hannah in his arms on his boat, he knew she was the one who would have his children.

  It was stupid on his part. At the time, he hadn’t had a chance to explain that he’d compared every woman he’d ever been with to what he imagined it be like with her. It wasn’t solely finding the right time to say the words. He actually had never explained that to her because it sounded pathetic and crazy.

  It was stupid. That was definitely worth repeating to himself. He’d built up an idea of what Hannah and he would’ve been like if Nina and his own priorities hadn’t gotten in the way. By all accounts, the reality shouldn’t have competed with what he came up with, but it was so much better.

  “I think I got the idea, as scary as it sounds. I don’t recommend sharing those comments when we get around to telling people.”

  “Which according to everything I’ve read, we shouldn’t do until the first trimester is over. How do people last that long? I’ve known for like two minutes and all I can think about doing is telling everyone.”

  Hannah’s pearly whites showed as her smile grew. Curtis stood back up, wrapping his arms around her hips. Resting her head on his shoulder, she returned the embrace.

  “Everyone you’d tell would spread the news through town faster than when Luke Anderson got caught watching Mrs. Kincade skinny dipping with Mr. Birch. I think that made
it around within four hours of him telling Brian Pilson.”

  “How do you remember stuff like that?”

  Curtis was mystified at how she remembered every name. Mrs. Kincade was their Biology teacher, their married biology teacher. Curtis recalled the incident clear enough, but other than Mrs. Kincade, he probably wouldn’t have been able to come up with the other names.

  “Luke is Vinnie’s best friend, and he likes to recall his fifteen seconds of fame for breaking the news to everyone that Mrs. Kincade wasn’t as sweet and innocent as she pretended. I’m pretty sure she failed him and he just wanted some dirt on her, so he’d been following her around.”

  Be that as confusing as it may, Hannah was right about how fast things moved through town, especially if someone got the media involved because of his level of sort-of-celebrity status. Curtis didn’t think the gossip chain was still in effect, though, at least not to the extent it once was. They still ran into people who hadn’t heard about their engagement, and only a few days prior someone asked why they never saw Hannah and Nina together.

  Tired of standing around and doing nothing more than talking, Curtis lifted Hannah up and slid her on to him. That was the convenience of never wearing clothes. Hannah arched her back to push him deeper inside of her.

  “If you’re pregnant, we don’t have to worry about condoms, right?”

  “I don’t know. I heard you like to wear them.”

  Her whole face teased him with her words, with her eyes focusing up and a small smirk. She controlled the rhythm as she moved up and down gradually. She loved to pull up slowly, so slowly that Curtis had to grit his teeth to keep from ramming in and out of her at his own speed. It was worth the pain when she slammed down.

  “And I heard you’re a wicked woman.”

  “I’m your wicked woman, which reminds me. Do you have any idea how much our lives are going to change once this baby is born? We’re going to have to start wearing clothes.”

  Curtis laughed. He remembered a time when the sex was so volatile between them that they couldn’t have a conversation during it. Most of the time it still had that effect, but every once in a while they kept a level head. With the baby on the way, they probably needed to practice it more often. They could get so caught up in each other that the house around them could be burning down and they wouldn’t know.