Read Mollywood Online

Authors: L.G. Pace III

Mollywood (7 page)

BOOK: Mollywood
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“Thanks.” His eye held mine and I suddenly felt very shy. Breaking off our stare down, Joe closed the toilet seat and sat down, folding his muscular arms across his chest.

“You know, you have to be careful about how hot that water is…”

“Why?” I knitted my eyebrows, truly confused.

“It’s not good for…” He trailed off and I watched his gorgeous eyes migrate to my mid-section. A striking realization hit me. From this moment forward, there would never be another conversation about
us
. From now on, it would always be about
all of us
. “The babies.”

I exhaled and settled further under the water. “I’m sorry.”

He took a turn looking confused. “For what?”

“That we’ve just landed in a situation we’re not ready for.” I felt beads of sweat standing on my upper lip. His warning about the temperature ate at me, and I considered turning on the cold water. The doctor said the babies were about the size of two grains of rice, and here I was already in danger of messing them up.

“Well in that case, I’m sorry too.” The matter of fact way he said it made me flinch.

He noticed and unfolded his arms. He sat forward, an apology splashed all over his face.

“Okay, that sounded really bad. Let me start over…”

“You don’t need to.” I looked away, reaching for the soap.

“Listen to me.” He moved to sit on the side of the tub and placed a hand on my knee. “You and me? This… it’s what I want. This is not how I imagined us starting a family, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want it.”

“So you’re saying you want me to keep them.” I looked up at him from under my damp lashes. He blinked in astonishment then a sound escaped him that was like a wounded animal. When he spoke, his voice was thick and husky.

“What the hell kind of a question is that? What kind of monster do you…why wouldn’t I…” His voice held enough pain to bring tears streaming out of my eyes. “Don’t you?”

“Yes.” I said cautiously. His response scared the hell out of me, but from the moment the doctor pointed out the tiny pulsations on the computer screen, I’d had no doubt. “I want them.”

Joe’s face lit up and he leaned forward, practically falling into the tub with me. He kissed me several times before pulling himself away from me. The outrage and hurt from a moment before had vanished, which I considered more disturbing than their appearance in the first place. “Okay. Let’s get married.”

I exploded in bewildered laughter, a strange sensation considering the fresh tears hadn’t yet dried on my cheeks. I shook my head. “Like hell.”

“I’m serious.” His smile faltered just a tiny bit.

“So am I.” My retort was gentle, but firm. “This is 2014, Joe. I’m not going to roll over and marry you because you’ve put a couple of buns in my oven.”

“You don’t want to marry me?” The smile had evaporated and he looked hurt again. That expression on him killed me, but I’d always promised I’d never lie to him.

“Not like this. I don’t want some quickie shotgun wedding. It never ends well. It’s just a bad idea right now.

“I respectfully disagree.” He argued, his soulful eyes imploring me to listen to reason. “Our babies are a perfectly valid reason to take the plunge. And you and I? We love each other. So why the hell not?”

“Wow. What woman could resist such a romantic proposal?” I rolled my eyes and grinned. He flushed beet red, and seeing his reaction made me feel like a total bitch. I reached for his hand, and luckily, he let me take it. “Baby, don’t misunderstand me. There’s no one else I’d rather have for my ‘baby daddy’. It’s just…we’ve already got a major dilemma to contend with. Let’s not add another, okay?”

He was quiet for a long moment and I felt breathless, wondering if I’d just pushed him too far. His outburst troubled me, but only a little. Joe was nothing but gentle with me, and it was fair for him to get emotional about this unprecedented debacle. Finally, he looked up from the floor. “So I guess we should call our families.”

I groaned at the suggestion and pulled my knees up to my chest. “Can’t we just put it on Facebook or something?”

Joe uttered a shocked guffaw. “What? Like a group text?”

“Do you really want to have this conversation more than once?” I leaned my head back and closed my eyes.

“Cowgirl up, darlin’. We’ve got to tell our parents and siblings before we take out a skywriting ad.”

I sighed. He was always the pragmatist. “Can we eat first?”

Joe smiled softly. “You’re hungry?”

“Ravenous.” I could see why Zofran cost a pretty penny. That shit worked like a charm. As if to punctuate my point, my stomach audibly growled.

Joe glanced at my abdomen with obvious amusement and the smallest hint of pride. When he spoke, there was laughter in his voice. “What sounds good?”

I batted my eyelashes at him innocently and bit my lip. “Loaded nachos and a peanut butter malt.”

 

 

 

 

WE DECIDED TO give ourselves the weekend before we told anyone the news. Two days of peace to just try to absorb our new reality. After failing to teach me how to make blueberry pancakes, Molly dug into all the reading material Dr. Myers had sent home with us. She’d read for a while and then let loose with a string of curse words. Every once in a while she’d blurt something like “You have
got
to be shitting me!” or “I’m only allowed to take
Tylenol
?” Then she’d descend into thoughtful silence.

Thirty minutes after she’d started this effort to educate herself, she jumped up and marched out of the room. I assumed she was headed for the bathroom, since she said she felt like she had to pee every ten minutes. When she didn’t come back, I realized she’d gone into the bedroom. I went to check on her, but discovered she’d locked the door. After my attempts at gentle coaxing were ignored, I got frustrated and picked the lock.

I found her face down on the bed sobbing into a pillow. She had her laptop open on the bed and when I looked at the screen I saw a webpage about fetal alcohol syndrome. I intervened, pulling the laptop away from her and sitting it far out of her reach. When she finally calmed down enough to speak, she confessed that she was worried about the few beers she’d had over the last couple of months.

“A couple of beers are no big deal. I’d be more worried about the pills you took.” The comment was meant to put her mind at ease, but I could tell by the wide eyed stare she wore that I’d just given her a mountain of new things to worry about. I doubted her occasional Xanax and Ibuprofen would do any significant damage, but I knew my medical opinion wouldn’t offer much reassurance. Unsure how else to proceed, I did my best to take her mind off of it with two of her favorite things: slow, sweet sex and a walk down to her favorite Chinese restaurant for orange chicken and some crab rangoon.

I barely slept a wink on Sunday night. Molly and I had agreed to start making the rounds the following day. We’d decided to only tell our family and closest friends what was what. We wouldn’t announce anything to the world at large for another month, since twelve weeks was some magic pregnancy safe zone. I texted my sister and asked if they were free the following night. She texted back that they were and I told her to bring the family and meet us at The Salt Lick, our favorite restaurant, at five p.m. The place was close to my sister’s ranch, and I figured Molly might be a bit less nervous about telling my sister if she got some pork ribs and potato salad out of the deal.

Knowing our “secret” was about to be revealed brought the entire situation into focus. Anxiety started gnawing at me, and I left a voicemail for Dr. Greene’s scheduler asking if I could push up my weekly appointment. I had a feeling he’d be eager to see me once I told him what was up.

After tossing and turning, I finally crawled out of bed at five thirty and started preparing for my day. I figured it couldn’t hurt to get a head start on the workday, since the jobs kept rolling in. I was lacing up my steel-toed boots when Molly came out of the bedroom. Her hair was wild from sleep, and she looked adorable. She bent to kiss the top of my head on her way past me into the kitchen, and I caught the scent of her soap and minty mouthwash.

“What are you doing up, little girl? You sick again?

She shook her head with a nonchalant shrug. “No. The munching on crackers before getting out of bed thing really worked.”

“I always said I wouldn’t kick you out of bed for eating crackers.” I joked and her bawdy laughter shifted my mood from anxious to amorous.

“The doctor was so right about taking the vitamins the night before. I feel way better today than yesterday.” She turned back to the refrigerator and took out the eggs.

“I didn’t wake you, did I?” I asked, troubled that she was up. Stacy and Sanchez had texted her the day before to say they were back from California, so I knew Molly didn’t have to be anywhere.

“No. I couldn’t sleep for shit. I thought I’d do some baking.” She yawned as she preheated the oven and started the coffee pot.

“Careful with that stuff. Only one cup, okay?” I kept my tone light. I was torn between not wanting to sound bossy and worrying about how she’d react when she later learned about the dangers of caffeine.

“Yes, dear.” She parroted like a 1950’s housewife. Her cheeky smile seemed to imply she was kidding. “Actually, I was planning to bring a couple of thermoses down for you and the boys since you still have that shitty old coffee maker downstairs.”

“Huh. Obedient, barefoot
and
in the kitchen! Is it my birthday?” I cracked, crossing the room to kiss her goodbye. She crinkled her nose and reached out for my nipple as if she planned to twist it off. I easily captured her hand and backed her against the refrigerator, pinning it above her. My lips were on hers and her enthusiastic moan against my mouth got my pulse racing.

“Obedient, my ass.” She replied between wet kisses and her spirited response was impossible for me to resist. I fisted her hair at the nape of her neck while my other hand slid inside her robe, grabbing a handful of pert breast. Her hands traveled down my back to grab my ass and she pulled me roughly against her. Her eagerness caused the blood to rush from my head to my groin. I picked her up and sat her on the nearby counter, kneeing my way between her legs. The gasping sound that escaped her made me want to take her back to bed, or perhaps just bend her over the counter.

BOOK: Mollywood
4.49Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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