I jerked the wheel to the right and headed down the off ramp.
Blue lights flashed behind me and a white cop car pulled up alongside. The window rolled down and an officer stared at me with his mouth hanging open.
“Leonardo Cruz!” He yelled over the rushing wind between us. “Pull over!”
Fuck.
Double fuck.
Now was not the time for a run in with the law.
So I gunned it.
There was only another block to go. Maybe I could lose him.
I hooked a right and saw the signs for Centro Medico.
The cop pulled in behind me and blared his siren.
“Pull your car, errr, vehicle, over, Mr. Cruz,” he said over a loud speaker.
I waved and kept on trucking like it was a publicity tour.
There it was! The ER.
I yanked the wheel right and nearly tipped over as the golf cart skidded into the turn. I made it to the entrance and slammed on the breaks.
The cop behind did the same and his heavier vehicle squealed to a stop. I jumped out hobbling toward the automatics doors on my cursed slow-as-molasses crutches.
The helpful police officer pulled up in front of me.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“It’s my girlfriend, Alex,” I said. “She’s pregnant and she had a bad fall. I have to see her!”
“I’d say that was the best line I’d heard all year. But I see you’re running, hopping I mean, into the ER.”
He paused and considered.
“Let me help,” he said.
He hooked his arm under mine and half-carried me into the terrifying unknown.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Alexis
I reclined on the exam table as the doctor slid the ultrasound wand over my belly. My nails dug into the sides of the table so hard I’d probably have to pay to have it reupholstered. Megan stood beside me holding my other hand.
I knew I was squeezing the crap out of her hand but she didn’t complain. That’s what a best friend did.
“How is my baby?”
The doctor didn’t answer as she continued to move the wand to different sections of my gelled belly. She studied the screen as different areas that temporarily looked like vaguely recognizable baby parts moved in and out of view.
She paused the wand at a particular spot and I watched the monitor praying she hadn’t found a problem.
“Do you see that?” she asked.
Oh no! She’d found a problem!
All that was left was to deliver the terrible news. I squeezed Megan’s hand harder. I’d probably owe her for arthritis medication someday.
I stared at the monitor and tried to make sense of the odd shapes I was seeing. One little section in particular kind of look like a walnut. It moved, and moved again in a rhythmic way.
“That is your baby’s heart,” the woman said.
“What’s wrong with it?” I asked in a panic.
“Nothing is wrong with it,” she said with a smile. “It’s pumping away beautifully.”
The musical lilt her native Indian tongue gave to English was a song to my ears.
“What about the rest of it?” I asked.
“We have your blood tests running so we’ll know more when they come back,” she said. “But I can tell you that everything I’m seeing here looks absolutely fine.”
The frigid dagger digging into my chest melted away. I let up the pressure on Megan’s hand and she switched hands to spread out the abuse.
“Your baby is as healthy as can be,” the doctor said. “You had a bad spill, but a mother’s body is strong protection for her baby.”
A voice I knew all too well echoed in from the hallway.
“Where is she? Which room?”
Leo appeared in the doorway and a police officer walked in behind him. He rushed to my side and Megan made way. I couldn’t have asked for a better friend.
Leo cupped my hands in his and kissed them frantically. “I’m so sorry, Alex. So sorry. “
I couldn’t have asked for a better partner either. Maybe I could’ve, but he’d get there.
Leo kissed my forehead.
“I’m so sorry, honey,” he said. “I was selfish and stupid. You’re everything I want and need. Please forgive me.”
I wanted to totally let him off the hook, but he needed to work for it first.
“I will, eventually. You’ve got a lot of making up to do.”
He cracked a small smile. “I know I do. And you better believe I will. You’re my everything.”
“Is this the father?” the doctor asked.
“Yes,” he said.
I pulled Leo close. It felt so good to be near him again.
He stared deep into my eyes and kissed me on the tip of my nose.
“Thank you,” he said.
I had to forgive him. We were talking about our life together. All three of us.
I didn’t know how this realization would affect my employment, but sitting here on this table with Leo at my side and seeing images of the growing life inside me made it a question for another time.
I loved him.
How could I not? I loved him more than life itself. My love for him grew inside my belly.
I nodded and swallowed hard to choke back tears.
Leo kissed my cheek and turned to the doctor.
“How is our baby? Please, tell me everything’s okay.”
The woman’s mouth crinkled and she smiled.
“Your baby is doing fine,” she said. “Would you like to see the heartbeat?”
Leo nodded even before she finished the question.
She swept the wand over my belly and zeroed in on a good angle. The little walnut blob beat in quick, even movements.
Leo’s stared in silent wonder.
“It’s so fast,” he said. “Is it supposed to be that fast?”
The woman chuckled. “Haven’t been reading up on the stages of pregnancy now, have we?”
Leo looked ashamed, devastated that he hadn’t looked after our baby like he was expected to.
“Don’t take it so hard, young man,” she said. “I remember the rushing days of my youth. And to answer your question, yes.”
Leo held my hands in his and peppered them with kisses. He turned to Megan and smiled.
“I know you’re not too keen on me right now, but I want to thank you for taking care of her. And I want you to know I’ll do everything in my power to be good to both of them.”
“We’ll talk more later,” Megan said. She always had my back.
The doctor moved the wand to the other side of my belly and zeroed in on new angle.
“Would you like to know the sex of your baby?”
Leo looked at me with questioning eyes. “Do we?” he asked.
“Why not? It’ll give us a better story to remember.”
The doctor punched some numbers on the monitor and the magnification zoomed in.
A smaller walnut-shaped thing was centered on the screen.
“Is that still the heart?’ Leo asked.
“No, they are not.”
“They?” I asked. “Are those balls?”
“Yes, they are,” she said. “Congratulations, you have a boy.”
“I have a son?” Leo asked.
The doctor nodded.
“I have a son!”
He turned to Megan. “I have a son!”
He turned to the officer behind him. “I have a son!”
“Congratulations,” the officer said.
Speaking of the officer, why was he here with Leo?
“Excuse me, sir?” I said.
The officer looked at me. “Yes, ma’am?”
“I hate to ask because I don’t think I’ll like the answer, but is my baby’s father under arrest?”
The officer twisted his mouth up and looked back and forth from Leo to the monitor showing our baby in a very exposed pose.
“I was trying to decide
that.”
“If it matters at all, he’s really a nice guy once you get to know him.”
The officer chuckled. “I’m sure he is.”
He put a hand on Leo’s shoulder and squeezed it.
“Listen, the next time you think it would be a good idea to drive a golf cart with a giant chrome cock on the front on the freeway, could you ask your partner here if she thinks it’s a good idea first?”
I turned to Leo. “What is he talking about?”
“It’s a long story,” he said.
I turned back to the officer. “I’ll keep a tighter leash on him.”
“We have a deal?” the officer asked.
“Yes, sir,” Leo replied.
“Great. Well, I’ve intruded on your private moment long enough. Congratulations.”
He turned to leave and bumped into my ex, Robert, stepping through the doorway.
“Alex, are you okay?”
“What is he doing here?” Leo asked in an icy tone.
The officer looked between them, and it was clear he saw the bad blood. He stuck around.
“It was an accident,” Robert said. “I was on my way out of her apartment—”
“You were at her apartment?” Leo yelled.
“It was an accident. I was mad. I tried to get around her to get out of there, but she tripped and fell.”
A dark wrath burned in my chest. This man had put my baby in danger! I wanted to claw his eyes out.
“You pushed me, Robert, and I fell to the ground. Don’t for one second try to slither away from what happened! I know that’s your speciality.”
The officer stepped to the side of the bed.
“Ma’am, did this man hurt you?”
“He’s the reason I’m in this hospital.”
Leo looked at Robert like death come in the final seconds of life. He lunged and Robert cowered back against the wall, covering himself and shaking. Leo checked himself and grinned wickedly.
“I could beat the piss out of you,” Leo said, “even on crutches. But you know what? I’m going to let my lawyers beat the shit out of you. In court.”
Leo’s newly found restraint surprised me. And then I realized a few bruises would be too small a price to pay for this jerk trying to ruin my life again. Worse yet, his wrongdoing put my baby and Leo in danger, too.
Robert’s face went pale.
“And I’m going to have a talk with Mr. Garcia,” I said. “Did you know he’s close friends with Frank Garcetti, the President of your sports network? I don’t think he’ll like this vindictive streak you’ve been on, ruining Leo’s reputation simply because you still wanted me. Very unprofessional.”
All the color bled out of Robert’s face.
“I wouldn’t expect to still have a job next Monday,” I said.
The officer stepped forward. “Ma’am, is there any evidence of his assault?”
“There is no evidence” Robert shouted, “because she’s lying about everything. I didn’t touch her! I’m here to check on her, for Christsakes!”
Megan pulled out her phone and pointed the screen at the police officer. “He’s a total, fucking liar.”
She hit play and it showed a view recorded from the around the kitchen corner. It showed Robert begging for me to go back to him. It showed him admitting that was the reason he was on a witch hunt after Leo. And then it showed him shove me to the side, causing me to crash to the carpet.
It was all there.
“That qualifies,” the officer said. “I’ll need you to come down to the station when you are able to give statements.”
“Absolutely,” Megan and I said in unison.
The officer yanked Robert to his feet and spun him around to face the wall. “Buddy, it looks like you’re about to have a really bad year.”
He clicked handcuffs around Robert’s wrists and marched him through the open door.
Leo took my hand and smiled. “You know, that almost felt better than rearranging his face with my fist.”
“You did the smart thing,” I said.
“He deserved a beat down,” Megan said, “but Alex is right.”
Leo rubbed the ungelled side of my belly. “I can’t believe we have a son,” he said in wonder.
“I know, right?”
“What should we name him?” he asked.
A name popped into my head and it had that ring of truth that made it feel almost inevitable.
“Antonio,” I said, “after your father.”
Leo’s eyes misted as he leaned over to kiss my lips. His warm breath filled my lungs. His words came out thick with emotion.
“I love it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Alexis
Leo stood at the front of the small press room in the bowels of Camp Nou stadium. The same place where our lives first became entangled. I sat facing Leo, in the front row, along with the other senior correspondents.
A short conversation with Mr. Garcia had resulted in him agreeing to the original promotion offer with the amended condition that Leo and I could stay together. I didn’t know if I was that good, the organization needed diversity that badly, or that he saw that public opinion had fallen solidly behind Leo and his growing family.
Whatever it was, he got onboard quick when I got up to walk out on the negotiation.
Sometimes you had to have the balls to stick to your guns.
It worked for me.
Josh leaned back in a chair next to Leo. His hands were clasped behind his back and he grinned at everyone like being up there in front of a pack of ravenous reporters was just another day at the mill for him.
The kid was something special. The more I got to know him, the more I understood that. Leo and I spoke about him being here this afternoon and I wholeheartedly agreed with Leo’s wish.
The press briefing had begun with a flurry of questions about who the boy was and Leo had stubbornly pushed them all off saying he’d get to explaining that before they were finished.
The journalists jumped to the next topic without missing a beat.
The news for the last two days had been a repeat cycle of a clip somebody had recorded of Leo flying down the freeway in his Cock Cart, as the public was calling it.
My shining knight to the rescue, more or less.
One reporter raised her hand and Leo nodded to her.
“So you were arrested for cruising in the Cock Cart on a public motorway?”
Leo looked at me with a silly grin.
“Something like that,” he said.
Another reporter jumped in, “Why were you going to the hospital?”
“To join the love of my life,” he said.
The same reporter continued, “I have sources that say you were spotted in the obstetrician’s wing. Will you confirm or deny that?”
Leo smiled and nodded. “Yes, I was. I was checking on Alexis and our baby.”
Another reporter piped in, “Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl yet?”
“I do,” he said.
“Well, are you going to tell us?”
“I don’t think so,” Leo replied.
The swarm of reporters buzzed like unhappy bees. The last thing Leo needed was to piss these people off, not when he barely had a foot in the door of their good graces.
He looked at me and I nodded at him mouthing the words, “Tell them.”
His brows jumped up and he shot me a questioning look.
“Yes,” I said in the cacophony of voices filling the room.
“Tell you what,” Leo said. “Since I like you people so much, we’re going to let it out today.”
The room went quiet.
He scanned the room, enjoying the anticipation.
“We’re having a son.”
“Congratulations!”
“The Lion Cub of Spain!”
All the reporters threw in their two cents as the room erupted in chatter.
It took a few minutes for the hum to die down. One reporter jumped in
with a question that I was hoping wouldn’t get asked.
“How is your knee? Will Spain see its star striker return?”
Leo touched his knee self-consciously.
“I honestly don’t know,” he said. “I’m doing my best in physical therapy and taking one day at a time. I can tell you this. I love the beautiful game. I love playing for my country.”
“We love you right back!”
The reporters broke out in appreciative laughter.
Leo waited to regain their attention.
“But as much as I love those things,” he said, “there are a few things I love infinitely more. Three of which are in this room.”
He turned to Josh and pulled him to his feet. Leo wrapped him in a huge side hug and ruffled his unkempt hair.
His now even-more unkempt hair.
Josh grinned and shook it out of his face. The freckles dotting his face pinched up as he smiled.
“Which brings us back to the question of who this handsome young man is.”
The noise in the room again plummeted to silence.
“I’m appealing a past decision against my application for adoption. My attorney tells me in light of my new life circumstances,” he glanced at me and then looked back at Josh, “that he thinks this time it will go through with no problem. Josh, I’d love for you to be the best big brother in the world.”
The easy smile on Josh’s face melted into the most heart-breaking look of surprise. He buried his face into Leo’s chest. Leo swept him up and hugged him like they were the only two people in the room.
An embrace without reservation, without concern for the stunned looks on all the reporter’s faces.
All except mine. I was overjoyed the news was now official.
The sound broke and roared like a aural tsunami.
If it was loud before, it was an absolute squall of shouted questions now.
Leo kissed Josh’s forehead and set him back on his feet, keeping one arm around him. Josh frantically swiped at the tears streaming down his freckled cheeks.
Leo waved everyone to a low murmur. He turned to me.
“I love you, Alex. I love you more than my career, my life, my everything. You are my everything.”
The murmur erupted into another barrage of questions.
Balls: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (A Cruz Boys Novel Book 1) Page 21
