20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Ihad not seen Rich since the disaster dinner with Mr. Sanderson a week before. Usually, he made it a point to be seen at work, but that wasn’t the case any longer. He hid in his office when he showed up to work, otherwise he had been working from home. I didn’t bother myself with where ‘home’ was for him these days. All I knew was that it wasn’t with Mel, despite his repeated attempts to get her to take him back.

Brax and I laughed at his disingenuous attempts. The idiot thought Mel would allow him to live in her house while he was still actively dating other people. According to her, there was a nurse he had been seeing and she didn’t think that was the only woman on his roster, either. She only knew because he asked to take the kids out for dinner, but failed to mention that he was bringing a date along. The kids had apparently embarrassed him and asked why their mom couldn’t come along if he had invited a friend.

I’m not sure if, or how, he got out of that mess with whoever the woman was, but at least she knew he had children. It did make me wonder if she knew there were also two babies by two different women on the way. Again, not my problem, but Rich was one tiger who wouldn’t change his stripes, so I didn’t think he would offer up the truth.

“Are you ready?” I turned to see Brax standing there looking like a sweet dessert that I wanted to stay home and indulge in. Instead, we were off to another doctor’s appointment. At 34 weeks along, I didn’t have much time left. Six more weeks, if I went full term. My brain wouldn’t even compute going past my due date. It already felt as though my skin wanted to pop open at any minute.

A tired sigh left me as I pouted. “I was just contemplating staying home and indulging in your snackiness, but now I just feel like taking another nap.”

“My snackiness?” Brax laughed as I nodded in earnest.

“Yeah, babe, you look like a whole dessert, and I’d rather lie in bed and just lick you from head to toe.” I scrunched my nose up at that thought. "Maybe from head to knee. I’ve been here when you took your running shoes off. It’s not yummy.”

Brax threw his head back and laughed even harder. “Damn woman, way to boost my ego and land a blow in less than two seconds flat.”

“I only speak the tired truth, Brax.”

“Aww, come on sweetheart.” He wrapped his arm around me and guided us through the door before propping me against his body as he locked up. “Once we get this appointment out of the way, we’ll come back, and I’ll make dinner for us while you take a nap. How’s that sound?”

“What are you making for dinner?”

“What are you craving today?”

“Right now?” I asked. He gave me a look that said that was a dumb question without actually saying it and getting himself in trouble. My man was smart. “I want a giant, juicy burger, fries, and a strawberry shake. No, blueberry shake.”

“I can probably make that happen, but we’ll have to stop at the store on the way. I don’t have blueberries in because someone ate them all yesterday.”

“If you didn’t want me to eat them, they shouldn’t have been sitting out where just anyone could grab them. That was like an invitation to partake,” I complained.

“Sweetheart, they were in the crisper drawer in my refrigerator, buried behind the kale, baby spinach, and lettuce.”

I shrugged my shoulders like I didn’t know how hard I had to dig to find those delicious dark berries. My daughter was probably going to be born blue, but not for lack of oxygen. She was being dyed from the inside out by the craving she gave me. Before I got pregnant with her, I never even really liked blueberries that much.

“Okay, we can go to the store, but I think I’ll just hang out in the car until you get what we need. My poor feet… If I could see them, I bet they’d be swollen to like three times the normal size. They feel like they’re about to explode too.”

“They don’t look too swollen to me,” he said after he stopped to inspect them.

“Did you just check on my feet for me?”

“I did,” Brax admitted before wrapping me back up in his arms and guiding us to his car.

“That’s the sweetest thing.”

“I seem to do a lot of sweet things where you’re concerned.

“Boyfriend of the year material right there,” I teased.

“Just the year?”

I shrugged and giggled. “We’ll see if we can add the rest of our lifetime to that in the future.”

“Count on it, except at some point we’ll have to change my title.”

“Your title?”

“I’m not going to remain your boyfriend forever. One day, I’ll be your fiancé, and then another I’ll be upgraded to husband of the year.”

“That sounds like a good plan, Brax.”

“I’m glad you agree, Avi.”

He got me situated in the car. It was sad that we were using the Charger instead of his Durango because it was becoming more of a pain in the ass for me. His vehicle sat far too low for me to balance my pregnant body while trying to slide in. He would have to use a pry bar to get me out before too long.

“What do you think they’ll do at this appointment?” Brax asked as we drove across town to my OB/GYN.

“I’m not sure. I think the nurse told me they’ll be doing some kind of stress test to check on the baby and of course listening to our heartbeats. I always have to pee in a cup. It kind of makes me wonder if there’s some weird use they’ve found for pregnant lady urine, since they collect so much.”

“I kind of wonder if your pregnant lady brain has gone crazy when you say things like that,” Brax deadpanned.

“What? Seriously! What do they need with all that pee, Brax? They literally take gallons of it!”

“I’m fairly certain they do not take gallons.”

“You haven’t seen me pee lately. I don’t know where it all gets stored, to be honest.”

Brax chuckled as he drove. We had both taken the day off to rest and relax after my appointment because lately just going to the doctor seemed like a lot of work. Brax thought it was because I was always worried, they would tell me something was wrong when I went in. That was true, and maybe I put more stress on my body than I realized by fretting about things that would probably never come to pass.

When we finally got to the office, all my reasons not to worry came back to the surface the minute I walked into the lobby and saw who was seated there waiting to be called back. I glanced from Rich to Mel and back again before finally settling on Mel.

“I’m sorry,” she mouthed to me. Rich was involved with her pregnancy in a way that I wouldn’t allow him to be there for mine. Part of me thought he did it just to get that little dig in with Braxton in case the baby turned out to be his. Then he could make some rude ass comment about how he was there for Mel when Brax was too busy with me. I could almost see the plan formulating in Rich’s head, now that I knew the real man behind the façade he showed everyone.

“Hey Mel,” I finally managed to say before I went to the window to check in. Rich seemed peeved that I hadn’t acknowledged him, but he could go fuck himself. There might come a day, after my baby was born, where I had to be civil to him, but that day was not today because Janine didn’t know anything about her biological father.

Once I was all checked in, I sat on Mel’s other side with Brax taking the seat next to me. I turned to Mel and asked, “Have you talked to Trent lately?”

She grinned, knowing exactly how bitchy I was being by asking.

“Last night,” Mel admitted.

“Who the fuck is Trent?” Rich asked after predictably taking the bait.

“Oh,” I feigned surprise like I thought he knew. “After you left early that day, when we were all at Lake Juniper, this walking sex God, and former Olympian, came over to help us build a sandcastle and he was absolutely smitten with our beautiful Mel.”

“She’s pregnant!” He snapped.

“So,” I taunted. “She’s still gorgeous, plus she has that glow.”

“She’s pregnant with my child!” He threw it out there like we didn’t already suspect that.

“Well, we don’t really know that yet,” I hemmed before turning to throw Brax a wink.

“I don’t mind if Mel gets her flirt on with Trent. He was pretty freaking incredible. Everyone loved him,” Brax added. I was going to lick him head to knees later as a reward, even if this whole ordeal made me feel too tired to be horny.

“Anyway,” I rambled and waved off the glare Rich aimed at me. “He was amazing, and Mel exchanged numbers with him. The awesome thing is that, like Brax, he didn’t mind that she was pregnant with someone else’s baby. He simply appreciated Mel for who she is and the circumstances she was stuck in no thanks to…” I cut myself off, as if I just realized it would be rude to talk shit about Mel’s ex-husband with him staring me in the face. I giggled. “Oops, well, you know the rest.”

“I never took you for a bitch, Avi.”

“I never took you for a married father of two with another on the way. Nor did I take you for a chronic liar, but here we are.”

Mel started to laugh and couldn’t stop herself after that. She broke into the worst giggle fit I’d ever seen a pregnant woman have and then she excused herself to run out to the bathroom just down the hall.

Brax leaned across me to get Rich’s attention. “You ever call Avi or Mel a bitch again, you’ll deal with me in a way you aren’t ready to handle.”

Rich rolled his eyes, but I’d seen Brax working out and the man was not only stacked with lean muscle, but he was fast. He was also a black belt in Karate and something else, but I didn’t think Rich was aware of that.

By the time Mel came back, they were ready for her. She and Rich went back to the doctor’s office, and I blew out a breath of frustration. “Thank God he won’t be out here to make a scene when I’m called back,” I mumbled.

“Something tells me he doesn’t have the balls to do that.”

“I think you’re underestimating his pettiness. There’s a reason he showed up to Mel’s doctor appointment today, and I don’t think it is because he suddenly cares about her, or the baby he isn’t sure belongs to him.”

“I was thinking the same thing. He’s trying to get one up on me, but he doesn’t realize his real competition is Trent now.”

By the time I was called back to the office, Mel still hadn’t come out of her appointment, so the worry of Rich making a scene was gone. Brax followed me back and watched as I was weighed and had my blood pressure taken. Then we were escorted back to the exam room before the nurse offered me a cup and asked me to go pee in it. I rolled my eyes but turned back to Brax.

“Listen up and see if they have plans for it,” I teased. He laughed as I walked out the door and went to do my business. As I was headed back to the room where I’d left Brax, I could hear raised voices up near the front.

“She is carrying my baby,” Rich’s voice demanded.

Shit!

“Sir, you were just here with your pregnant wife,” the nurse reminded him.

“I know! I cheated on my wife. Is that what you wanted to know! I admit it. It’s not like they both don’t know at this point. Aviva Acker is carrying my child, too, and I need to go back there for this visit.”

“Sir, please calm down and we’ll check with Ms. Acker if it is okay for you to come back with her.”

“Why do you have to check? It’s my baby.”

“It’s her body, her healthcare, and if she doesn’t want you there, then you don’t get to be there. If you want rights to the baby once she gives birth, then you can go to court and obtain those rights. For now, we are concerned with the rights of our patient.”

The minute the woman turned to come down the hall to find me, she saw me standing there. I shook my head, and she turned right back around.

“I’m sorry, sir. You are not welcome back for this patient.”

“Dammit!” He yelled. “Aviva!” His voice boomed through the office loud enough that Brax came out of the exam room and the doctor came out of another room and headed up front.

“Pam, call security. Sir, you will not behave like a child in this office. You need to leave immediately.”

“That woman is pregnant with my child, and I have a right to know the status of its health.”

“Jesus, the asshole can’t even remember you’re having a girl.”

I turned to see Brax as he clenched his fists and released over and over. “Come on, let’s go wait in the room. This might be my last visit here, considering he caused this scene.”

“Don’t worry, Dr. Martinez doesn’t hold things like that against his patients,” a passing nurse stated.

“Do things like this happen often?” I asked.

She rolled her eyes. “More than you’d think.” Another nurse laughed with her. “Some days, it’s like one of those talk shows where they go through thirteen dads trying to find the one that fathered the baby, only they’re all here.”

“Unfortunately, there’s only one possible father for this little cantaloupe and it’s the idiot making a fuss out there.”

Brax and I sat through Dr. Martinez taking swabs from my nether regions to test for Group B Strep, then we listened to mine and the baby’s hearts, and he did some poking around of my belly before measuring it and telling me that all was good, and he’d see me in two weeks. After that, I would see him weekly until I gave birth.

“We’re almost at weekly visits,” Brax stated as we walked out with my appointment card in hand.

“Yep,” I agreed as the nerves started to hit me.

“Janine will be here soon,” he added.

“I know. I’m so freaking excited and scared, and holy shit, Brax… I’m scared to death.”

“I’ll be by your side for everything, I promise.”

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“Hey guys!” We both looked up to see Mel standing there next to her car. “I have some news and thought it best if I share it with you both.”

“Did they arrest Rich?” I asked a little too excitedly. Mel laughed but shook her head.

“No, sorry. The security guard did throw him out and told him he’s not welcome back. They said if I want him at future visits, I will have to change doctors and I’m not going to do that. Rich took off in a huff.

“So, if that’s not what you wanted to tell us, what is it?”

Mel turned from me to Brax and smiled sweetly as she grabbed hold of his hand. “You’re off the hook, Pal.”

“Off the…” He started and then caught on to what Mel was telling us. “How do you know?”

“They did an amniocentesis on me at my last visit, and I asked that they do DNA testing. Rich gave a sample. I didn’t want to bother you for it at the time.”

“I would have gladly given one, Mel.”

“I know, but the process of elimination worked. Rich is the baby’s father.”

My stomach tumbled. I knew it was a possibility, but it just highlighted, yet again, what a duplicitous asshole the man was. He had slept with me and Mel at the same time, as we were together when she got pregnant. He had slept with both of us unprotected, not caring if either of us could possibly pass something to the other. I wanted to punch his lights out.

“I’m sorry, Mel.”

She looked taken aback. “You’re upset for me that the baby isn’t Braxton’s?”

“Well, yeah. Rich is a dick, in case you didn’t realize that yet. I was honestly hoping that your child could have a better dad than your other two have.”

“Then yours has…” She reminded me.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t really think Rich will stick around and be much of a father to my child. In fact, I’m hoping when he realizes that he’ll have to pay child support or be involved in her life, that he’ll willingly sign over his rights. There’s no way we can have a mature, co-parenting relationship with the way he has been acting, or the way I feel.”

“I wish I had that option,” Mel stated. “Anyway, I have to get back. Elizabeth – my neighbor – is keeping an eye on the kids for me. Thankfully, the rest of my visits can be scheduled when the kids are back in school, so I won’t have to worry about who will watch them.”

“They have a father,” I reminded her.

“Not much of one this past year,” she tossed back.

“Maybe he needs a reminder.”

It was Mel’s turn to shrug before she gave both of us a hug and whispered something in Braxton’s ear. After that, she turned to leave, and we made our way to his car.

“Don’t you want to know what she said?”

“Honestly, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious, but at the same time, it’s between the two of you. If she wanted me to know, she would have said it out loud.”

“It’s okay. She didn’t want to upset you.” Brax pulled my hand into his lap and then turned to look at me. “She told me she was really happy for me that I wasn’t the father of her baby because I deserved a little less mess in the life you and I are building together.”

“Aww, I want to give her another hug now.” I pouted, as if it would bring Mel back so I could do just that.

“I’m sure you’ll get a chance to do that soon.”

“Thank you for being here by my side through this. I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I appreciate every minute that you don’t run away screaming.”

I chuckled along as he laughed at me once more. “Love you, Avi.”

“Love you right back, Brax.”