The Object of His Obsession (The Alexanders Book 4) (2 page)

“Is that it?”

He nodded. “Yes. Um…yes, I
think so.”

Dr. Nash tried to disguise
a frown the best way she could. “You
think
so? What do you mean you think
so?”

He looked rattled.
Confused. “I mean…that’s what I did, okay.” Dilvan sighed and
buried his face in his hands briefly before looking at Dr. Nash
again, watching her write a note. “I know you’re judging me, but I
came to you because I want you to fix me, doc. I can’t get over
Gabrielle and I’ve had plenty of girlfriends before. I had one who
was completely infatuated with me, women who loved me. I had women
who I thought I would spend the rest of my life with but, when the
relationships went south, I never once tried to get back with any
of them. But Gabrielle...she’s different. Maybe it’s the fact that
my mother chose her for me. Maybe it’s because I messed up by
hurting her in the past, and it could be that I was never given a
chance to redeem myself to her, to show her I could be a good man
to her.”

“Could it be that she’s
married to your cousin, Tyson, and you want to take her back from
him? Is this about revenge?”

“No. That’s not it at
all.”

The more Dilvan talked,
the more Dr. Nash wrote in her notebook.

Dilvan continued, “I want
to let Gabrielle go so I don’t hurt her anymore, but at the same
time I wish I could have a second chance with her. I always find
myself imagining that the baby she’s carrying is mine.”

Dr. Nash frowned again.
“Baby? What baby?”

“Gabrielle’s pregnant,” he
said and for the first time this session, a smile appeared on his
face. “She’s eight months, and it’s a boy.”

“And why do you think it
may be yours when you told me that you only kissed her and rubbed
her hair?”

He shrugged. “Okay. I was
hoping that it was my baby, okay. It would be nice if it was. We
could be a family again if it was.”

Dr. Nash literally bit her
tongue. Dilvan was making her extremely uncomfortable with his
answers to her questions. “Dilvan, are you on any sort of
medication?”

Dilvan stood and walked to
the door like he was about to leave. Instead of leaving, though, he
leaned up against the door with his hands in the pockets of his
slacks, trying to control his anger. “No, I’m not. I simply said I
hoped the baby was mine. I pay you to listen. Why don’t you do
that?”

“Okay, why don’t you come
back over here and have a seat?”

“No thanks. I’ve had enough
for today. See ya later, doc.”

He turned away from hear
and headed out the door leaving Dr. Nash confused.

Chapter 2

Tyson and Gabrielle
arrived back home after leaving the obstetrician. They were both
satisfied that everything was okay with the baby and the doctor
assured them that they would have a happy, healthy bundle of joy.
The thing that really surprised Gabrielle is that the doctor could
estimate how much the baby would weigh at birth. She said their
baby boy would probably be around six pounds at
delivery.

Once they were in the
house and settled, Gabrielle took a seat at the kitchen table. She
had an episode of morning sickness before her appointment, so she
skipped breakfast and sipped on some Ginger Ale instead. Now, she
felt well enough to eat and Tyson was making egg, cheese and bacon
puff pastries.

Could a woman ask for a
better husband? He was the perfect match for her, the perfect
embodiment of what a man is supposed to be. As he cooked breakfast,
she stared him up and down, at how toned his body was – lean and
muscular. He stayed in shape. Seemed like he’d become even more
strapping since she first laid eyes on him – since the first time
she met him at Dilvan’s house. She hadn’t paid much attention to
him then, but when he moved her into his home, rescuing her from
his cousin, she began to see all the qualities that made him so
fine. So good-looking inside and out.

Back then, he cooked for
her, cleaned for her, changed his life, schedule and routine to
make things comfortable for her. He had a guest bedroom decorated
specifically for her. Never did Gabrielle think that a man like
Tyson could fall in love with a woman like her but he did. And now
they’re married with a baby on the way. Gabrielle found it hard to
believe that this was her reality. That he was her man.

Tyson stood by the stove
and glanced over at his beautiful wife. He smiled at her. She
smiled back. Even at eight months pregnant she was still the most
beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on. There was something about
the glow to her smooth, chocolate skin, the way she tried to force
herself to be okay even though pregnancy was stressful on her tiny
body. She hadn’t been much of a complainer throughout the entire
process, but in the last trimester, she was dealing with swollen
ankles which he gladly massaged every night. She was doing the hard
part of carrying his child. He didn’t mind catering to her along
the way. Didn’t mind it at all, because it was something he did
even before she was pregnant.

As he cooked, she couldn’t
help but be close to him. Touch him. So she stood and slowly walked
over to the stove to where he’d been standing touched his waist
with her hands and leaned her face against his back, closing her
eyes at the mere smell of his manly scent that doubled as
aromatherapy to her.

Tyson smiled, turned
around to face her and took her hands into his. “You’re supposed to
be sitting down, baby. What are you doing over here?”

She stared up into his
eyes. “Just felt like being close to you.”

“Oh, yeah?” he said,
placing his hands on her face.

“Yes.”

Tyson leaned down and
pressed his lips against hers.

“You take such good care of
me.”

“And I enjoy every minute
of it, sweet lips.”

Gabrielle
smiled.

“Now,” he said, taking her
hand. “Let’s get you back over here to your seat.”

Once they were back at the
table, Tyson helped her to sit comfortably again.

Gabrielle blew a breath.
“Tyson, I have to admit, being eight months pregnant has me feeling
like a whale. I just feel heavy and big.”

“Sweetheart, stop it.
You’re beautiful,” Tyson assured her.

“Beautiful? How am I
beautiful when I look like a pencil with a basketball sticking out
of it?” Gabrielle laughed.

Tyson chuckled and after
fixing her meal on a plate, he carried it over to her, kissed her
on the cheek and said, “Don’t be too hard on yourself. And to
answer your question, you’re beautiful because I say you’re
beautiful, Bri.”

“Thanks, hun,” she
responded, and she couldn’t wipe the smile from her face even if
she had a warm, damp towel.

“Are you ready to eat now,
or do you think it’ll make you sick?”

“
I’m good
to eat. If I don’t, I think Tyson junior is going to kick his way
out of my stomach and make his own plate,” she said, rubbing her
belly.

“You mean, T.J. We’re going
to have to start calling him T.J. or things are going to get real
confusing around here.”

“Right. T.J.”

“Is he still
kicking?”

“Yes.” She took Tyson’s
large, muscular hand and placed it on her belly, resting her hand
on top of his.

“Oh yeah...he’s
kicking.”

“He’s strong,” Gabrielle
said. “Looks like we got another football player on our hands,” she
joked, remembering that Tyson said she was the captain of his high
school football team.

“Looks that way,” Tyson
agreed, walking back near the stove, taking his plate from the
lime-green quartz countertop.

“I think he’s kicking like
this because he smells his daddy’s cooking,” Gabrielle
said.

Tyson sat across from her
and before he touched his food, he sipped on coffee, watching
Gabrielle eat. She had her hair gathered into a ponytail with a few
strands hanging, framing her beautiful face. He’d lost himself in
her beauty, so much so that he’d stopped chewing and only admired
her.

Gabrielle looked up and
caught his gaze. She smiled. This isn’t the first time she’d caught
him looking at her so endearingly. So in love. He made it a
practice and always at the most unexpected times. She could only
imagine what he was thinking.

“Why are you smiling,
Gabrielle?” Tyson asked.

“Because it’s nice to still
catch you staring at me like that.”

“It’s nice to be in love
with you,” he responded. Tyson took a sip of coffee, watching her
blush. He loved to make her do so because she was so beautiful with
her rosy cheeks as she tried to prevent herself from becoming
bashful. It never worked.

She hadn’t known the
extent of his happiness to have a son on the way, a little twin –
someone whom he could mold into a young man. A son whom he could
teach and play baseball and football with in the backyard. Speaking
of a backyard he needed to discuss with Gabrielle about the
possibility of moving away from the coast. Did he really want his
son to grow up on the beach?

Tyson cleared his throat
and said, “Sweetheart, there’s something I’ve been thinking about
for a few weeks now.”

“What’s that?”

“You know we’ve been living
in this place for a while...I’ve been living here for much longer
than you, but with the baby coming and all, I think it’s time to
move a little further inland...someplace where we can both decorate
to our specific tastes. I want T.J. to have a yard where he can run
around and act crazy and play in a tree house. Someplace where we
could play basketball, camp out and have picnics. We can’t really
do that here on the beach.”

“But you like it here,” she
said because it was true. He did like living on the water. He’d
been there for a long time, went running along the shore every
morning and now he was wanting to give it all up.

“Yes you’re right. I do
like it here, but I can’t think about myself right now. I have to
do what’s good for the family, and that being the case, Bri, we
have to think long-term. I don’t want T.J. growing up in a place
that I know isn’t right for him. I need to make sure we’re starting
this little family off in the right house, baby, and I just don’t
feel that this is it.

“It
could
be the right house. We could
make this work and—”

“It’s a little too small
for us.”

“No it’s not, Tyson. This
is a three-bedroom place. We have the master and there are two
bedrooms upstairs.”

“We don’t have a backyard.
And what if, two or three years down the road, we have another
child? Then what?”

Gabrielle laughed. “Then
we still have room in this place. There are three bedrooms, Tyson.
Three...”

“Okay. What if we have
triplets?” he asked with a smirk on his face.

“Tyson...”

“You have to admit that
this is a really small house for a growing family.”

“Well of course, but I
don’t think bigger is always better when it comes to things like
this. I think the smaller we stay the closer we will be. Don’t you
agree? I mean look at you. You have this million-dollar restaurant
empire and you don’t brag about anything or flaunt your success by
living in a mansion and driving exotic cars.” She was referring to
Dilvan when she made the comment, because he was very flashy with
the way he lived his life. Why did a single man need a house with
six bedrooms, a Ferrari, a Maserati and Lamborghini?

“
But this
isn’t about flaunting, baby. I want us to have a home. When we’re
old and gray and the kids are off to college, I want them to come
back and visit their home where they grew up in and still be able
to stay in their rooms if they wanted.”

“I don’t know, Tyson. Don’t
you think I’m too late in my pregnancy to be house hunting
and—”

“I already have a few
prospects in mind and after breakfast, I thought we could look at
them. If we see something we like, we’ll hire movers and make it
happen.”

She caved when she saw the
excitement in his eyes. “Okay.”

He flashed an amazing
smile. “Perfect.”

Chapter 3

“Lalita I can’t help but
notice you’ve been behaving a little odd for a while now,” Padma
said. “Is something wrong?”

Lalita shook her head. She
was at Padma’s Food House volunteering, filling in for a waitress
who could not make it today. Gabrielle would normally have filled
the spot, but since she was pregnant now, she couldn’t do as much
as she used to. Plus the doctor did not want her on her feet for a
long period of time.

So while the lunch crowd
dwindled down and there was a lull in the place, the women sat down
at a booth toward the back of the restaurant, near the kitchen,
taking a much needed break while sipping on some southern sweet
tea.

“I’m okay,” Lalita
responded in an exhausted breath. “I’ve just been busy.”