by Lane Hart
“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about! Why don’t you ask Riley what actually happened with those baseball players? Huh? Find out what the real story is from her and not believe the fucking gossip!” I shout, because hearing that shit from my own daughter’s mouth infuriates me.
“Calm down,” she says. “It’s not rumors. She’s sleeps with everyone!”
“Those boys drugged her and raped her, and you’re one of the reasons she blames herself for it happening!”
“No. Dalton wouldn’t do that. She’s lying,” Sara replies, with a shake of her head.
“No, she’s not. I believe Riley because that little shit was going to do the same thing to another girl!”
“Even if you forget the baseball team, I’ve seen her go off with tons of guys myself,” Sara informs me. “She’s a…big flirt, and I just don’t think you know her as well as I do.”
“That doesn’t matter to me,” I say. “None of it matters to me, not even what you think about her, because I love her!”
“What?” Sara gasps. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m very serious,” I reply before I start for the SUV in the parking lot. “And when we get back to the house, I’m taking you back to Greensboro.”
“Why?” she asks, following behind me.
“Because I need to find out whether or not I’m gonna be a father again,” I tell her honestly.
“Oh. My. God. I can’t believe this! What makes you think it’s yours? It could be anyone’s!”
“If Riley’s pregnant, it’s mine,” I tell my daughter as we both climb in the 4Runner and slam our separate doors. “I know that for a fact because she’s been living with me.”
“She lives with you!” Sara scoffs. “How could you…why are you…ugh, there are no words!”
“That’s right,” I tell her as I buckle up and pull out into traffic to head to the house. “There are no words for you, because she and I are together, whether you like it or not.”
“Are you seriously that insane to fall for her?” she asks. “You’re just like every other man; so blinded by her looks that you can’t see that she’s using you.”
“She’s not using me!” I yell. “And I don’t want to hear another word about it. When we get to the house, grab all of your things and be ready to go in your car in ten minutes.”
“I don’t want you to be with her. If you are” – I glance over and see Sara shaking her head – “I don’t want any part of it.”
Gritting my teeth together in disappointment, I ask, “Could you at least try to give this a chance? I really care about her.”
“I’m sorry, Dad, but I can’t,” she tells me.
Blowing out a frustrated breath, I decide to deal with one problem at a time. And right now, talking to Riley about whether or not she’s pregnant is the most urgent.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Riley
“It seems so small to cause all this trouble, doesn’t it?” Cheryl asks, as we stare down at the black and white photo in my hands, the embryo no bigger than a small peanut.
“Yeah,” I agree.
Last Tuesday, I made an appointment with the gynecologist and they did an ultrasound to confirm the pregnancy. Now I’m holding that confirmation and haven’t been able to put it down since the technician gave it to me.
There’s no doubt about it.
I’m pregnant, about five weeks along last week, so now six.
“What are you gonna do?” Cheryl asks. “You can’t hide out here forever.”
“I know,” I reply. “I’m trying to figure out how to tell Brody but each scenario ends with him yelling at me for being so stupid and telling me he doesn’t want it…or me.”
And I haven’t answered his calls the last few days, just text messages, because I was afraid I would blurt out the truth on the phone and never get to see him again.
“What about you? Do you want it?” she asks.
“My decision this time was just as easy as before,” I tell her.
“Oh,” Cheryl mutters. “So, you’re going to…”
“Keep it. I’m definitely keeping it,” I tell her with a tearful smile. “Before, I felt like I had an alien growing inside of me, an evil creature that would destroy me. But this time…I know that this is a sweet baby made from love. Love and my stupidity, but at least there’s no maliciousness.”
“Good,” she says, with a pat to my tummy that still looks exactly the same but is so different on the inside.
The doorbell suddenly rings, causing Cheryl and me to stare at each other because it’s almost ten o’clock at night.
“Well, it’s certainly not for me,” she says.
Setting the ultrasound photo down on the coffee table, I stand from the sofa to creep over to the peephole and peer out of it.
Turning back to Cheryl with my jaw hanging open, I mouth, “Holy shit!”
“Brody?” she whispers back, and I nod. “Then answer it!”
My fingers tremble as I undo the deadbolt and slide the chain free to pull the door open. And there he is, the man I love on the other side, his handsome face pinched in pain…with Sara scowling a few feet behind him, underneath the lamp posts.
Oh no. Did he tell her about us?
“Brody,” I say, wetting my dry lips to try and figure out what to say. “What are you doing here?”
Without responding, he throws his arms around my waist and the other cradles the back of my head, crushing me against his chest.
“Are you?” he asks into my hair, making me go rigid.
“Am I…what?” I ask.
Pulling back enough to see my face but keep his arms around me, Brody asks, “Pregnant. Are you pregnant, Riley?”
I glance over my shoulder at Cheryl to see if she’s holding up the ultrasound or a sign that gives away the news, but there’s nothing in her hands.
“How did you…” I start, but Brody interrupts.
“Just tell me! For five long, excruciating hours, I’ve been about to die, waiting to find out, but you wouldn’t answer your phone!” he shouts, green eyes blazing with fury.
“Yes,” I answer.
Rather than walk away or yell at me again, he wraps me up in another hug before he asks, “And what are you going to do?”
Looking at Sara, who obviously knows about us, I tell him, “I know you don’t want to be a father again, but I’m…I’m keeping it.”
“Oh, thank God,” Brody mutters before he drops to his knees. He presses his face into my stomach and kisses my belly sweetly through my pajama top.
His reaction is the last one I imagined, in all the million ways I tried to figure out how to tell him. Relieved beyond belief, big, fat tears spill from my eyes.
“Dad?” Sara asks, and I brace myself for her verbal attack. So does Brody, based on the tension I feel in his back where I’m still clutching him to me.
“Just go home, Sara. We’ll talk about this tomorrow,” he tells her without turning around. He can’t see that her arms are no longer crossed over her chest, and her scowl has turned to confusion, and now hurt, that he’s dismissing her. It’s what she deserves for always pushing him away, but she’s also his daughter, and will be a part of our family too, whether she likes it or not.
That’s why I try to offer an olive branch of peace to her, even though I’m pretty sure she would rather beat me with it than accept it graciously.
“I have a picture, if you want to see your baby sister or brother,” I tell her.
Her eyes widen as she realizes for the first time what our baby means for her.
Heaving a breath, she rolls her eyes and says, “Fine. But I’m never calling you mom.”
“That’s okay,” I agree, biting back a grin as she marches past us and into the apartment. “I think I would prefer Mommy anyways.”
Brody looks up at me, his face damp with his own tears but a smile on his face, and says, “I’ve always been partial to Daddy myself.”
Laughing in relief that he’s not angry at me, and Sara is actually not being a bitch, I kneel down with Brody to kiss him on the welcome mat.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him against his lips, my fingers clutching his hair. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“I know,” he replies, cradling my face in his hands and kissing me. “But at least it happened now before I become even more ancient.”
“Get a room,” Cheryl teases from inside the apartment, making me smile even wider.
“Sounds good to me,” Brody says, helping me to my feet. “First, show me the picture of my son or daughter, and then tell me everything the doctor said.”
Chapter Thirty
Weeks later…
Brody
“Riley!” I call out when I’m finished arranging the bedroom.
“Yeah?” she yells from downstairs.
“Can you come up here for a minute?”
“On my way,” she replies. “Everything okay? You’ve been banging around up here for hours,” she says as she comes toward the bedroom.
When she steps through the doorway, I hold my arms out. “Surprise!”
“Oh, wow,” she gasps as she looks around the candlelit room. Other than the soft glow of the candles, there’re only the picture lights lit up around the room above the new photos I just hung on the wall.
Going over to grab her hand, I pull her toward the first one. “This one is called ‘American Girl’,” I tell her, as she takes in the photo I took of her on the beach back in June. It’s similar to the one on my desk, but this one is not a close up of her. Riley’s looking out at the ocean, her dark waves blowing in the wind.
“I’ve never seen it before. I’ve never seen any of these before,” she says. “They’re beautiful.”
“You’re beautiful,” I correct, pulling her to the next photo, the one I took of her napping in the guest bedroom the day after our night together. “This one is ‘Free Fallin’ because I knew, when I was unable to resist capturing you so gorgeous and peaceful, that I was a goner.”
“I had no idea you took this one,” she says.
“I was sneaky.”
“Yes, you were,” she agrees with a smile.
I lead her to the next to last one on the wall, one I’m sure she remembers taking just a few weeks ago when we got back from Greensboro, after I found out I was going to be a father again.
“I think I’ll call this one ‘Wreck Me’,” I say, as we both look at the photo of the two of us, standing on the beach with my arm around her. I set the timer on my camera to take it right before a thunderstorm came up. The clouds are angry and gray in the background, but both of us are smiling, uncaring about the threat of rain or thunder, whether it’s the weather or the future. Come what may, we’re in this together and nothing can tear us apart. It’s the first photo we took together, and you can see the happiness on our faces because we don’t have to hide any longer.
“And finally,” I say as I pull her over to the most recent ultrasound photo that I had enlarged and framed. Our son or daughter is healthy and perfect as he or she can be at twelve weeks. “‘The Waiting’ seems to be the most appropriate title for this one,” I tell Riley. “The hardest part has been the waiting. Waiting for you to come along, and now waiting for our baby to be born so we can start a family. You were both well worth the twenty-year delay, and now I can’t imagine my life without you.”
Reaching into my pants pocket, I pull out the diamond ring before I drop down to my knee, still holding Riley’s left hand.
“Riley Yates, I love you and I want us to spend the rest of our lives together. I promise to wake up beside you every morning, hold you through the nights, and never let you go. So, sweetheart, will you marry me?”
I hear her sharp intake of breath as I wait, heart pounding, for her to give me an answer.
“Yes! Oh, my God, Brody, yes! Nothing would make me happier than becoming your wife,” she thankfully agrees with a tearful smile.
I slip the ring on her finger and stand up to pull her into my arms, and kiss her.
“Dance with me?” I ask and Riley nods before slipping her arms around my neck. I wind mine around her back to hold her close as we sway to the soft song playing through the speakers.
“How soon can I convince you to be my wife?” I ask her with another quick kiss. “And not because the baby is on the way, but because I want you to be mine.”
“As soon as you want,” Riley replies, looking up at me with a smile.
“Good,” I say in relief. “We’ll start making plans.”
“Speaking of plans,” she starts. “Soon we’ll have to decide which room to turn into the nursery.”
“How about your old room?” I suggest with a grin.
“That will be a good room for him or her,” she agrees.
“Which do you think it is?” I ask, as I bring my palm around to her growing bump.
“I don’t know. What do you think it is?”
“A boy,” I tell her confidently.
“Really?” she asks, covering my hand with hers.
“Yes.”
“If so, I think we should name him Thomas.”
“Me too,” I agree with a laugh before I brush my lips over hers. “And I bet he’ll be a heartbreaker.”
Epilogue
Months later…
Riley
“Would you like to hold your brother?” I ask Sara once she joins us. The doctors and nurses have left the room and everything is beginning to finally calm down.
A few hours ago, I thought I was dying, the labor pain was so bad. And now all that seems so far away, such a distant memory, it may have well been another lifetime.
The only thing that matters now is the beautiful, sweet baby squinting up at me. It’s such a relief that he’s finally here after all the waiting, and I already love him so much that my heart aches, swelling up in my chest.
“Sara?” Brody asks from his seat on the edge of the bed, one hand on me and another on our son.
“I dunno. What if I suck at it and he cries?” my stepdaughter asks. That word still feels foreign, but I’m getting used to it. So is Sara, after Brody and I had a small wedding ceremony on the beach in front of the house.
Over the last seven months or so, Sara’s started to come around, smiling more around me while leering less. Especially after two girls came forward and told campus police that Dalton Michaels drugged and raped them. I finally got up enough courage to do the same, and now he’s been kicked out of school and sentenced to six years in prison.
“Come on. You’ll do fine,” Brody assures Sara with a smile as she creeps closer to the bed.
Lifting Thomas up and into her waiting arms, Sara finally relaxes a hair, the tension leaving her shoulders as she adjusts the baby more comfortably in her arms.
“Wow, he’s so cute and tiny,” she remarks while staring down at him. “I can’t believe he’s really here, or that I have a little brother who is twenty-three years younger than me.”
“It’s pretty incredible,” Brody agrees, leaning over to kiss my cheek. “Thank you for giving this old man a son. I may have a few more years in me yet.”
I laugh at that. “Hush. You’re so healthy, you’ll probably outlive us all.”
“I’m surprised I survived nine hours of labor with you, honestly,” he jokes. “You’re Superwoman for enduring that.”
“Was it bad? The pain?” Sara asks as she sways Thomas gently in her arms, looking like a natural.
I start to open my mouth and answer that it wasn’t too bad but Brody speaks for me. “There are no words to describe it. When she was pushing, Riley told me to take good care of our son, and tell him she loves him in case she doesn’t make it.”
Smiling, I admit, “I may have been a little overdramatic.”
“Abstinence is the best policy,” Brody tells his daughter. “Wait until you’re married before you…”
“She’s my age, Brody,” I remind him. “Yo
u can’t expect her to be celibate.”
“A father can hope,” he sighs, making me laugh.
“Save the protectiveness for your son,” I suggest. “Sara can take care of herself.”
“This is true,” Sara agrees, before placing Thomas back down in my arms and I admit, I missed him in just those few minutes she had him. “And I’m already jealous of my little brother.”
“Why?” Brody asks, his voice tight when he goes rigid beside me. “Sara, I don’t love you any less now that Thomas is here. My heart just doubled to make enough room to hold my love for both of you.”
“Oh, I know,” she replies. “It’s not that. I’m jealous that he’ll get to grow up in a house with both of his parents who love him. He’s lucky to have you for his mother and father.”
“Thank you,” I tell her, tearing up because that’s the nicest compliment she or anyone else has ever given me.
“Well, I better take off so you three can have some time alone together,” she says quickly.
“You don’t have to go,” I say honestly. Since she no longer badmouths me, I like having her around just fine.
“Yeah, stay,” Brody urges, standing up from the bed. “How about you and I go get some dinner together?”
“Okay, I’m starved,” Sara agrees, rubbing her stomach. “But let’s go through a drive-thru and bring it back, in case Riley needs you. And I’ll let Cheryl know she can come back to keep you company until then.”
“Good idea,” Brody agrees. “We’ll be back soon. Love you both,” he says with a kiss to my temple and one to Thomas’s.
“Love you too,” I reply, wondering how I found so much happiness that I’ll never deserve.
Life isn’t always a fairytale. Sometimes there are selfish villains who try their best to ruin another person’s happily ever after.
But luckily for me, there was also a white knight out there to help me slay the dragons of my past, making my world drastically better, and loving me more than the grains of sand on the beach or all the drops of water in the ocean.
