Accidentally Perfect (9 page)

“I’m not talking about just financially.  I’m speaking about freedom.  I have the freedom to come and go as I please.  Can you say the same thing?  Can you drop your classes to get the girls if they need you?  How many times do you think that is going to happen before the school administration is looking to replace you?  Are you even tenured?”

“We’ve made it work for all these years. Nothing is going to change, Nathan.”

“I’m just saying I know that I can be there for them and Laney whenever they need me to,
and I will be.  You may be their father
Brad,
I will never deny you that fact.  Laney is now my wife. They are my
family,
and I will always protect what’s mine and those three ladies in there, are mine.  Do not ever doubt that.  Your sperm doesn’t make you a father
any more than if you jacked off in a paper cup and sold it to the highest bidder.”

“I really don’t need you swinging your dick around me, Nathan.  You’re acting as if I’m not there for the girls or ever have been.  I am just as much a parent as Laney is. Don’t ever doubt or question me when it comes to being a father.  There is no greater responsibility in my life.   Laney may have married you for whatever reason she has, but there is no reason to go all
caveman
around me, especially since it is my blood coursing through Amanda and Adele’s veins, and not yours.  Jealousy isn’t very becoming of you, Nathan.”

“Don’t mistake my position as jealously, Brad.  I know for a fact that there is nothing to be jealous of when it comes to you.  Especially since Laney has been fucked by both you, and Michael on top of giving birth to those girls in there, but yet when she was around my cock she was still as tight as a goddamn vice grip, her pussy pulled the cum right out of me.  Now that has to tell you something.”

“I get it, big man.” He pats me on the shoulder
,  “Laney’s your wife.  That’s one street I don’t intend to travel down again, but those girls will always be,
lemme put it in a word you will understand,
mine
.”  He pulls the door open and steps inside the hospital room.

Well,
that bastard sure did pull one out on me. Damn it, I completely had him pegged all wrong.  I thought for sure with how easily Vivian was able to shoot him down tha
t I could go all alpha male on his ass, and he would sulk in
the corner just like he did with her.  I guess not. He can beat on his chest all he wants and piss everywhere those girls walk to mark them as his, it doesn’t change anything in my mind.  It doesn’t matter whose blood flows through whose body; blood doesn’t make anyone a parent.  It’s the effort that’s put forth to prove who has the right to be a parent, and I give everything in my life one hundred and ten motherfucking percent. There’s no way I’m stopping now. No fucking way. 

Brad walks through the door while the girls are still asleep.  They must be wiped out because they didn’t even stir when the doctors and nurses were here to check on them. I wait a few seconds and see that Nathan isn’t with him.  That can’t be a good thing.  “Where’s Nate, Brad?”  He just pursed his lips without answering.   I nod my head to Stella and make my way out the door in search of my husband.  My husband -
it sounds better and better.

I look down the hall and find where he’s standing. Hands in his pockets of his running pants accentuating his tight firm ass.
  He’s staring out the
windows;
I’m sure lost in thought.  The sun has long since gone and now the moon and stars are shining bright.  I take a moment to take him in.
To really look at him.
  I cannot believe I never recognized him.  I’m not sure if that‘s a good thing or not.  It’s not like I’m over the hill or
anything; I’m only twenty-eight
.   I should be paying attention to the gossip that floats through the streets of New York.  Who doesn’t know who's dating
who. Or better yet, who’s knocked up who
.  He was known as the bad boy of New York.  Grew up rich, without a care in the world, but he turned his back on his family’s name and did his own thing.  We all heard the stories of Nathan Whitmore; playboy, heartthrob,
ungrateful,
spoiled boy.  None of them were true, I know deep in my heart that the stories I‘ve heard about him are not true at all.   

He is a specimen of physical perfection
if I do say so myself.  It doesn’t even have to do with the fact that I know what he’s packing in the southern region.  Let’s be honest, I know I have
yet to
experience that beast at its full potential yet.  Or maybe I did, and I just can’t remember it. 
How sad is that?
  I slide my eyes up and down his body, stifling a moan low in my throat. I absolutely love the
effect
this man has on me.  His stark white t-shirt is stretched beyond its limits across the muscles that make up his biceps.  His scruff is more prominent now, but still looks like he’s meant for it to be that way.  “Hey.”  I walk up to him and gently place my hands on his shoulders.  I feel the tension.
“Everything alright?”

He turns and looks at me.  He pulls me into
him,
and he wraps his strong arms around my body.  I instantly melt into him.  “Yeah
Bear, everything’s good.”

“Are you and Brad alright?”

“Yeah.”
  He looks over to the food and drinks left on the table next to him.  “Let’s get you fed, baby girl.”  He picks up the food and heads for the hospital room.  I know there’s something bothering him, but I’m not going to push.  I hope he will tell me when he’s ready. 

“Nathan,
”  I
call after him, he stops and turns around.

“I do love you, you know.  You know you can talk to me.  I’m sure all this has put your head in a
tailspin
, and I understand if you need to take a breather.  I would you know, understand.”

“Not in a million years, love.  Not in a million years.”  He turns back around and enters the room without another look. 

Does what Brad said to me bother me?  Fuck yes, but I just need to remember what I feel in my heart when Laney is near me.  How connected we are and how I know she is my other half.  They share children, something that will never change, but Brad ruined their
future,
and now her future is with me; it’s mine.  No one and nothing will take that away.  I hope he truly knows that being their father is as far as he goes.  He will never have the opportunity to cross the line and become more to Laney, never again will he be able to claim her as his.  He said she’s a street he will never travel
again; well I will just make certain that I am a full-blown
road block. 

I finally feel like I’m not alone, that I have a purpose.   I haven't felt this way since my mother was alive.  Natalie is great, I couldn’t ask for a better sibling, but I still have had this sense of loneliness,
a void
that I haven’t been able to fill.   Having a bastard for a father is rough.  A son needs to have his father there, to show him how to be a man, a husband, even a father. Mine didn’t show me the things that I needed to know.  Money was the only thing that was on his mind.  I can actually laugh that I hold the power to take all that money away from him.  That fact is not lost on me. I'm sure it’s not lost on him either.  It’s sad that he had this beautiful woman at home and two kids who would have given up their world to be something to him.  He could have cared less for his family, for me.  There
were no examples to live by at home when it came to becoming a man. I have had to learn on my own,
and I never thought I would be able to do it.  But looking into those molten chocolate eyes of Laney, I know my
purpose,
and I know that I am going to be the man I want to be.  She gives me hope; reason.     

Laney isn’t far behind me when I return to the room.  I put the food and drinks on the table and take a seat in one of the open chairs.  I can feel the tension that has developed between Brad and
me
.  This is only the beginning when it comes to
us,
and I hope it won’t always be like this.  I hope lines are never
drawn,
and we can work to be there for the girls as a team.  “The doctors came
in,” Laney
says as she walks over to me taking a seat on my lap.  My hand automatically comes around her waist and pulls her flush against my chest.  Stella is still cuddled up with Amanda while Addie is
lying
comfortably in her bed with Brad by her side. 

“And?”
  Brad said, clipped. 

“Amanda will be able to go home tomorrow, but Addie will need to stay a few days.  The specialist that Nathan found
would
be here tomorrow morning to assess her condition.”  I nod in agreement.  “He’s going to make sure everything’s where it needs to be.  He wants new x-rays to determine if the growth plate was
damaged
and if so, to what degree.  His preliminary finding that the hospital sent
over looks promising, but he wants to make sure and see new films tomorrow.”

“That’s good, love,” I said as I give her a squeeze.

“Yes, I’m off for two more days, but I’m going to arrange with the hospital to get my shifts covered until Addie is taken care of and up and around.”

“How is she going to be able to move around with her leg in a cast?”

“Crutches Brad, they have them for kids.  She will be fine.”

“Laney, you do realize the girls’ bedroom is on the second floor.  How do you expect for her to get there?  Are you planning on her sleeping on the couch for the next several weeks, possibly a month?  Or are you going to roll a bed into your office, or library?”

“We will make it work Brad.”

“My apartment is one level;
she can stay with me while she recovers.  Panda can too if she doesn’t want to be away from Bug.”

“That’s not going to happen.  I want them both with me.  I’ll figure something out.”

I stay silent while Laney and Brad discuss the situation.  I am using all my restraint because I really want to tell him to back the fuck up and allow their mother to take care of them like she has been doing their entire lives.  I take long deep breaths while I rub my hand up and down Laney’s thigh, probably more for my benefit than hers.

“You act like they have never stayed with me before, Laney.  They have been staying with me for the past two years.”

“I understand that Brad, but your place is tiny,
and I don’t see how Addie will be able to get around, it’s doesn’t matter that it’s one level.  She’ll be running into things left and right. 
Besides who
do you think will be staying with her while you’re at work?”  Laney just proved my point that I brought up to Brad earlier. 

“My penthouse is one level. 
There're
six bedrooms and multiple other rooms.  It’s
on
Columbus with views of Central Park and the Hudson.  I don’t see any reason why you and the girls can’t just move in with me.”  Brad
throws daggers my way.

“No thanks, Nathan.”  Brad is quick to decline my offer.  “If the girls can’t be in my apartment then I want them in my house, not a place they don’t know.”