by Ray, Marika
“What’s going on here, Lucille? Did these ladies steal your sperm?”
26
Bain
Loss was a funny thing. It had waves or phases, similar to grief. I went from angry to numb to disbelief to sadness. Finally around daybreak, I made it to desperation. Lucy and I couldn’t be through. We just couldn’t. And while logically I knew my mind should be on Addi and her allegations about a baby, I couldn’t get my focus to shift from potentially losing the one woman who made me want to settle down and become a father. I had to fix things there first. Then I could deal with Addi.
I was going to be late to work, having forgotten to set my alarm while I beat my head against the wall to come up with a solution to get Lucy back. As I rushed through a shower and pulled on my work uniform, my head pounded away. No amount of ibuprofen was going to kick this hangover. I vaguely recalled spilling my guts to Nugget, a surprisingly good listener behind that gruff exterior. The guy had tattoos that I was pretty sure meant he’d been involved in a gang in his youth, but he had a nice soft shoulder to cry on.
I grabbed my keys, wallet, and phone and ran out the front door. I didn’t even stop to lock the damn thing, remembering how Lucy said it was safe around here. My bright idea was to meet her at the clinic, drop to my knees, and beg her for a second chance. She was a logical woman. If I just told her that Addi was before I ever met her and that quite frankly, I only had a vague recollection of Addi’s face and therefore might not even be the father of her baby, she’d see I’d done nothing wrong.
My phone buzzed in my back pocket. I paused to pull it out in case it was Lucy and then started the truck engine.
Jayden: Hope your head this morning is a hell of a lot clearer than your texts last night.
I groaned, tilting my head back until it hit the headrest. I knew I shouldn’t have gone to Hell’s Tavern in the mood I was in. I wiped a hand down the beard I’d let grow out a few days too many. Scrolling through the texts, I saw at least nine of them at various intervals throughout the evening. They got progressively incoherent.
“Oh, shit!”
A thought occurred to me like a lightning bolt to the brain.
“No, no, no…” I chanted, jabbing at my phone.
Nope. No mercy for a drunk idiot. There it was in all its glory.
A text to Lucy last night around midnight.
A voice chat.
I hit play and nearly climbed back out of the truck to find a hole to fall into and never come back out. My voice warbled and cracked, not so great on a good day, let alone after I’d drunk half the liquid in that dingy bar.
I sang the chorus to Justin Bieber’s song “Sorry.” Including a couple of whoops for good measure and then a loud crash at the end where I thought I remembered dropping my phone. The only reason I remember that part was it landed in a sticky puddle and I wondered what deadly disease I’d catch from it.
I smacked the steering wheel, threw the offending phone on the passenger seat, and peeled out of the driveway. I had damage control to do and I couldn’t do it drunk in a bar or stuck at my house alone. I needed to grovel and groveling was best done in person.
The four-way stop entering town was already backed up. I gripped the wheel and tried out opening arguments in my head. They all sounded either callous or overly pathetic. It was my turn at the stop sign, so I tapped the brakes and was just about to hit the gas for a right turn onto Brinestone Way when the car in the intersection slammed to a halt and a woman leaned half her body out the window. Her arm waved wildly in the air.
“Bain!”
“Fuck me…” I groaned.
It was Addi. The alleged baby mama, flagging me down in the middle of the jam-packed four-way stop. If you wanted to be the highlight of the gossip mill, this was the way to do it. Everybody and their mother was watching us right now.
I waved her over, turned right, and pulled off to the side of the road in the red dirt. She pulled in front of me, the tail end of her car still in the damn lane. This woman was reckless all right.
I slid out of the truck and put my hands on my hips, ready for a confrontation. Until I had facts, I wasn’t going to let this pint-sized woman trample all over my life.
She jumped out of the car, the incessant ding of the door being left open getting on my last nerve. I could literally see every tooth she possessed, she was smiling so wide. On the surface, she was a pretty girl—if you could overlook the crazed look in her eyes—but Lucy had ruined me for other women. No one could compare to her.
“Good morning, sweetie!”
When she was in front of me, she opened her arms out wide and leaned in. I sidestepped quickly, leaving her with nothing but good old-fashioned small-town clean air in her embrace.
“Don’t call me sweetie. In fact, don’t call me at all until you have DNA evidence to prove who the father is.”
Her mouth flopped open and closed like a fish before settling into a pout a toddler would be proud of. In my peripheral vision, I could see heads swiveling in the cars going by. No need for a cop to enforce speed limits. Just give the town some juicy drama and these assholes drove slower than my grandma getting her driver’s license renewed on her eighty-fifth birthday. I was sure they wanted to catch all the drama, but I had other things to do.
“I’ll see you when you have that document.” With that order, I climbed back into my truck and pulled back out onto the road, careful not to hit her while she still stood there in shock, like I’d killed her dreams and strangled her cat.
Halfway down the mile stretch of road, I saw her car come up behind me, rising from the ashes like an angry, pregnant phoenix. Based on the way her eyebrows went from two distinct lines to one, I had a sense she was angry. My head started to ache in earnest. Now that I had a tail I couldn’t go straight to the clinic and dump this mess on Lucy’s doorstep. I’d have to get rid of Addi and then I could talk to Lucy.
As I passed the clinic, I saw the chief’s car in the lot, along with the mail truck Poppy drove. That pounding in my head took a turn for the worst, barreling straight into fear for Lucy’s safety. Last time the chief was there, my girl had a gun to her head. My truck turned on a dime, skidding across the pavement and bouncing wildly into the clinic parking lot. Had to give Addi credit; she took the change in plans remarkably well, swerving into the dirt on the side of the road as she flipped a U-turn and followed me.
I hopped out of the truck and ran to the door of the clinic like my soul was on fire. Mostly it was just heartburn from the fried fish and chips last night at Hell’s Tavern.
“Luc—”
I hit a wall of flesh, my eyes not used to the dimmer lights in the clinic after the spotlight right to the brain from the morning sunshine. A domino effect occurred, pushing the chief into the two ladies in front of him, which sent them all forward into Lucy. A mangy cat hissed and ran out the door.
Lucy yelped and pushed back with both hands on Poppy’s forehead, desperately trying to turn the tide in a sea of limbs and bodies. Momentum wasn’t on her side, and after a brief second of a shaky pause, she went down to the floor like one of those buildings they demolish in the city, a cloud of cat hair the ash flitting through the air from beneath the bodies.
“What the—” Addi’s voice came from behind me. I ignored her yet again.
I began digging in the rubble, pulling up the chief first and letting him deal with his flap of hair sticking straight up instead of nicely greased to his scalp. Next came Poppy, cursing like a sailor. Yedda was next, giving me a pat on the head and a sweet smile.
Lucy, dressed in casual clothes, lay on the ground, staring at the ceiling as if it held all the answers to the universe. I leaned over her, relieved to see her in one piece, that lovely face of hers a balm to all that ailed me.
The moment held clarity for me. She was my everything.
I needed to make sure she knew that.
“You okay, sweetheart?”
At my question, her gaze swept over to me, he
r eyes wide with shock.
I gave her my hand and, to my relief, she took it. Once she was back on her feet, I put my arm around her waist to steady her. The chief, Poppy, Yedda, and Addi all stared back at us.
“What’s going—”
“Who called a meeting and didn’t tell me?” the mayor thundered from the open doorway.
“Am I stuck in a dream?” I whispered to no one in particular.
“Like a nightmare, isn’t it?” Lucy whispered back.
I looked down at her and she looked up at me. We had a moment. A very public moment of talking with our eyes. Mine said I was sorry and I loved her and please make all these damn people go away so I can rip your clothes off and have my way with your body. Hers agreed.
“What in Sam Hill is going on here?” The mayor flapped his arms, looking ridiculous in his gray three-piece suit.
“It’s Auburn Hill,” Yedda told him helpfully.
“Nah, it’s most definitely Hell,” Poppy disputed at full volume.
The mayor’s face turned a lovely shade of red while the chief chuckled.
Lucy cleared her throat and we all looked at her. “I called the chief here this morning because we have a situation on our hands.”
“I’ll say!” Addi interjected.
“That’s enough out of you, young lady. One situation at a time,” Poppy reprimanded Addi.
Addi gasped, most likely not used to the acerbic way the mail delivery lady went about communicating. If she wasn’t gossiping, she was cutting you down to size. Just the way she was.
“As I was saying, we have a problem. Sperm samples have gone missing. I fear they may be stolen.”
“We think the Jizz Whizz thief might be Nikki Quinnly.” Keva popped up from behind the front desk and then slapped both hands over her mouth like she couldn’t believe she’d spilled the beans.
I, for one, was impressed with Keva’s creativity. Jizz Whizz thief. I’d have to work that into conversation from time to time. Lucy must not have been as impressed since her cheeks flushed bright red and she shook her head slowly.
The chief took his little notebook out of this breast pocket and wrote down some notes while the two older ladies twittered back and forth in hushed tones. Lucy elbowed me in the gut, and for a sharp guy, I wasn’t cluing into what she was trying to tell me with her eyes darting back and forth.
Another poke in the ribs and I shot Lucy a look. “What?”
“Maybe that’s why Addi is here,” she said out of the side of her mouth.
The light went on upstairs the same time Addi gasped.
I pinned her with a squinty-eyed look. “Did you steal my swimmers?”
“Wait, do you have sperm to swim?” Poppy shook her head violently and tried again. “Did you have a sperm sample here at the clinic?”
I froze, my secret already floating out there for five sets of ears to hear, but waiting for my confirmation. I could feel the weight of everyone’s stare a judgement as to why I’d have a sample here at the clinic. I could see the town newspaper headline now: Town Warden Infertility Problems Lead to Unwanted Pregnancy. Lucy’s small hand drifted to my back, her touch exactly what I needed to remind myself of what was important.
Honestly, I didn’t give a damn what the town thought of me. All that mattered was what Lucy thought of me.
I stood up tall and felt a surge of energy I desperately needed.
“Call Clancy. I’d like to make sure we set the record straight here today.”
“A press conference? Are you sure, honey?” Yedda asked sweetly.
I nodded and flashed a smile at Lucy. “Never been so sure before in my whole life.”
* * *
“I’m not a saint by any means. I don’t recall having a relationship with Ms. Townsend, but I welcome the DNA results so we can sort this out and make things right for the baby’s sake. As for my sperm sample, I’m happy to report that I gave that sample not long after I moved here. You see, I believe in what Lucille Eureka is trying to do. She wants to provide this community with the very thing that keeps us alive: the children. All women who want to raise a child should have a chance to have that baby and Lucy is handling one aspect of making that dream come true. I’m proud to say I’m helping her in that endeavor and you should too. We could use more good men from Auburn Hill donating their sperm to a good cause.”
I pulled Lucy into my side, wrapping my arm around her waist and gazing into her sweet face. The steps of her clinic were an odd place to have a press conference—and that term was stretching it as there was only one person from the press in attendance amongst all the townsfolk who were here to satisfy their curiosity—but I firmly believed when you did a thing, you did it right. I didn’t want my private business to flip and twist through the gossip grapevine, becoming something else entirely on the other end. I wanted everyone to know the facts, straight from me.
“My manhood has been threatened since I moved to Auburn Hill. I’ve been pressured about my sperm sample, my girlfriend has been held at gunpoint, rumors have been circulating as to my supposed fertility issues, then in a stunning turn of events, a stranger shows up and says her baby is mine. The thing is, I don’t care about any of that right now. Because none of it is something I can change.” I kissed Lucy’s forehead and then addressed the small crowd of citizens in front of me. “All that matters is that I love Lucy and I desperately need her to forgive me.”
At the collective “ahh” from the crowd of bystanders, Lucy smiled at me, her sunshine spreading as her eyes warmed and her arms slid around my waist.
“I love you too, Bain. Still and always.”
My fingers threaded through her hair, cupping her face and tilting her head to receive my kiss. Lips barely brushed, just an invitation for more, seeking permission to deepen. Lucy leaned up on her tiptoes and closed the distance. She crushed her lips to mine, her tongue darting out to taste me. My head swam and the noise of whistles and hollers dimmed to a soft background noise. Her curves pressed against my chest and the love I felt for her surged to the surface, mixing with my desire for her lush body. Lucy bit my lower lip and I nearly gave a sample in my boxers right then and there.
Someone clapped me on the back. I broke off from Lucy and hoped whoever it was, was prepared to lose their hand. The mayor stood there, his face smiling, but his eyes coolly assessing.
“Oh. I’m calling in sick to work today, Mayor,” I bit out, not exactly pleased with the man even though he held the power to fire me.
He smirked and the way he glanced at Lucy made me want to rip his face off. “I can see you’ve got your hands full today. I hope you’ll be recovered enough to meet with me and the consultant tomorrow to deal with your little escapee problem.”
I ground my teeth and tried to keep my cool. “Yes, sir. See you tomorrow.”
The mayor walked off to shake hands and act like this little gathering had been his idea the whole time. Clyde scrambled to finish writing his notes in a little notebook he refused to give up even though most newspaper journalists had moved to recording press conferences and playing it back later when they were at their computer.
The crowd broke up, slowly going back to their cars and bicycles, heading back home to spread the word about what I’d said. Telephones would be ringing soon, the news of our relationship confirmed the hottest gossip of the week. Even Addi saw the wisdom in vacating the premises after she saw the look on my face. I’d be seeing her again, I was sure of it, but it best be with lab results in hand.
Lucy pushed away from me, lifting a finger, asking for a minute. She leaned her head through the doorway of the clinic.
“Hey, Keva, why don’t you go home for the day? The chief will need to check out the sample room for evidence, so we might as well shut down for today.” Lucy winked at me even as Keva got busy gathering her things from under the front desk.
Lucy dragged a finger down the buttons of my shirt. I felt her touch right down to the bottoms of my feet.
�
��Wanna stick around? When the chief is done, we’ll have the place to ourselves…”
Oh, hell yes. We’re back in business.
27
Lucille
We moved to the back room, the same one where I saw Bain for the first time that fateful day. The chief and his team were looking for fingerprints all over my clinic, but mostly concentrated in the sample room and the back door. While we waited them out, I figured it was time for me to come clean too. Bain put it all out there in front of the whole town and I needed to be just as transparent.
“Bain. I’m so—”
He cut me off by tugging on my hand and pulling me down onto his lap as he sat on that deep blue velvet couch. I went willingly, loving his strong muscles under me, around me, against me. I was so in love with this man, the guy who barked orders and whispered dirty things in my ear as he filled me, yet bared all his secrets in public to say he was sorry.
His arms banded around me, his nose nuzzling behind my ear. As delicious as the sensations that traveled up my spine were, I needed to get out what I had to say.
“Bain, I have to tell you something.”
His lips nipped at my neck and a breathy sigh came out, interrupting myself.
“I’m being serious. I want you to know…”
His rough hand trailed up my leg and under the hem of my shirt, his thumb swiping back and forth on the sensitive skin of my stomach. His touch made me melt even as the butterflies took flight. I hoped to never lose the feeling I had right then and there.
“What were you saying?” he mumbled, his lips exploring my neck and collarbone.
I tilted my head back to give him better access. “You’re making this hard,” I groaned.
“That’s what he said.”
I snorted and the moment was broken. Laughter rumbled in his chest. I pushed him back, getting enough space to look him in the eye.
“Save that for later, Romeo. I want to apologize for walking out on you the way I did yesterday.” He tried to interrupt me, but I shushed him with a finger to his warm lips.
