She nods. “Yes. He’s the one.”
“Then I guess you have my blessing.”
Might as well tell him the rest.
“Frankee and I are talking about getting engaged. That’s probably going to be a conversation I’ll be wanting to have with you soon.”
He sighs. “Y’all are just dropping all kinds of bombs on me today.”
“They’re good bombs, Daddy. We’re happy, and we want you to be happy about us being together.”
“I’m not unhappy. I’m shocked. But I suppose I shouldn’t be. Not after you went off to Texas together for days. And then you went to Mobile together. And those are just the trips I know about. I suspect there have been more spend-the-nights.”
Frankee’s mom places her hand on Scott’s leg. “Don’t.”
“Did you know about this?”
“I knew a little bit.”
“Ah, hell, Tara. You knew more than a little.”
She chuckles. “Maybe I did, but it wasn’t for me to blab about. Porter and Frankee needed to be the ones to tell you.”
“Well, it’s done now.”
One down. Two best friends and a whole brewery to go.
Should be fun.
I roll up in Stout’s office and sit in my usual chair, putting my feet on his desk. Love pissing the fucker off by doing that. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You’re messing with a felon now.”
“A felon?”
“Yeah. I spent some time in the pokey while I was in Savannah.”
“What?”
“I got locked up while I was over there for Christie’s funeral.”
“For doing what?”
“Fighting in a funeral home.” Maybe it’s morbid but that instantly makes me want to laugh.
Stout’s been in Savannah because his birth mother died. His sorry, lowdown, no-good birth mother. “You go to a funeral and end up in jail. That sounds like a bad episode of Cops. What the fuck happened?”
Stout’s birth parents are pieces of shit so this ought to be good.
“Jimmy-motherfucking-McCollum happened.” Stout despises his birth father with a passion. Can’t blame him. The asshole always taunted Stout.
“What did he do?”
“The McCollums were being McCollums when we got to the funeral home. All of them were high on something and acting like jackasses. Especially Jimmy. That motherfucker started in on me the minute I stepped foot in that place. It went on the whole time we were there for the visitation, but I put up with his shit for Lawry. I figured I could be the bigger man for a couple hours.”
“Until you couldn’t be anymore?”
“I thought I was home free. The funeral was over, and we were leaving. I was so close to never seeing those people again that I could taste the freedom. And that fucker couldn’t stand it. He couldn’t let me go without poking for one last fight.”
“And you gave it to him.”
“I damn sure did. Right in the funeral home. I hated that, but I had no choice. He grabbed my mom’s arm and told her that she was an uppity bitch who stole his kids and raised them to be assholes just like her and her husband.” Stout’s jaw is clenched so tightly that the muscle is rigid. “My mom was there to pay respects to her children’s birth mother, and Jimmy put his hands on her and then insulted her.”
“Any legal repercussions?”
“Probably a fine. Not sure yet.”
Stout’s smiling like a big douchebag. “What’s with the grin?”
“The whole trip and funeral may have been a clusterfuck but something good came out of it. I asked Adelyn to marry me, and she said yes.”
“Congratulations. When’s the big day?”
“Haven’t gotten that far yet but I sure hope it’s soon. I’m ready to give that girl my last name.”
I know the feeling. I want Frankee to have my last name too.
“I have a bit of news myself. You weren’t wrong about my having a secret woman. Frankee and I are together.”
“I knew you were fucking that girl. Knew. It.”
“I’m not fucking her. I’m in love with her.”
“What are you planning to do when Scott finds out?”
“He knows. Frankee and I told him yesterday, and he’s cool with it.”
“That’s a hard one to believe considering that he knows how you are.”
“You too, motherfucker.”
“I don’t matter. I’m not dating his daughter.”
“We touched on the topic of my past, and I told him that part of my life was over. There will be no more women coming around the brewery looking for me. Frankee is the only one for me. And that’s why I told Scott that he could expect me to come to him soon so we could have a conversation about me proposing to his daughter.”
“The hell you say.”
“I’m not fucking with you. I want to marry her.” As soon as possible. “Maybe we plan a double wedding.”
“I don’t recommend that; Adelyn is an event planner. She’s going to blow up a fucking wedding budget.”
“I don’t even care about a wedding. I just want to be married to her.”
Maybe we should elope.
I’m not opposed to that idea at all.
It’s been three weeks since Charlotte’s visit. She hasn’t been back, probably thanks to Porter’s warning, but that hasn’t stopped her from calling every few days to talk about the baby and what a great father Porter is going to be to the baby and how much the baby is going to love Porter.
The baby. The baby. The baby.
Shit goes on and on.
Today is her sixteen-week appointment. Not even halfway through it and she’s doing everything within her power to suck Porter into her web.
This is going to be the fucking longest pregnancy in history.
“Fuck, I don’t want to do this.”
“I don’t want you to do this either. Mostly because it’s going to make her so damn happy but as the baby’s father, it’s the right thing to do.”
“I wish you’d go with me.”
That would go over like a turd in a punchbowl. “It doesn’t make sense for me to go. I’d have to sit in the waiting area while you go to the exam room with her.”
“You’re my support system. I want you there.”
“We both know she’ll throw a damn shit fit if I’m there. It’s not worth it.”
“Fuccck.” Porter kisses my mouth. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
“We can when you get back. Take a long lunch if you want.”
“Yesss. I want that.”
He kisses my mouth again. “I’ll be back as soon as it’s over.”
“I’ll be here.” Working. I have plenty to keep me busy. But I’m not complaining. I need something to take my mind off the clusterfuck named Charlotte.
I busy myself with Lawrence’s new design series for a line that she and Lucas are planning to launch in the spring. I absolutely love working on Bohemian Cider Company’s artwork. Such fun designs with their cool hippie vibe.
I’m excited to see what Lawrence thinks of my ideas, so I give her a buzz. “Hey. I have some initial designs for the new line if you want to come over and have a look.”
“Will you be there in about thirty minutes?”
“Planning to be.”
“Okay. See you then.”
I’m glad Lawrence is coming. That will help to take my mind off Porter being with the pregnant clusterfuck.
I print off samples of my work and arrange them on Porter’s desk so we can use mine for a workspace. I smile when I see the framed photo of us on the shelf behind his chair. I’m so glad we no longer have to hide our relationship. Makes life so much easier.
I look up when I hear the light tap on the door. “Hey girl. Come in.”
I know the minute I see Lawrence that something is wrong. Her eyes and nose are red and swollen. “Goodness, I wouldn’t have bothered you if I’d known you were sick.”
“I’m not sick.”
“Everything okay?”
Tears swell in her lower lids. “I’m sorry. I thought I was done crying.”
I don’t know Lawrence incredibly well, but we’re on our way to becoming friends. “Is there something I can do?”
“No.”
I take her hand and tug. “Come sit.”
I take the seat beside her at Porter’s desk. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Nothing’s wrong per se. It’s just that Lucas and I are trying to have a baby, and I thought I was pregnant. But it turns out that I’m not.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Have you been trying for long?”
“Not long but we’ve already been told by doctors that it will probably take a while. It was silly of me to think it had already happened.”
“You never know. It could happen quickly.”
“It’s just very disappointing to think I was and then find out differently.”
See, this kind of thing pisses me off. You have a couple who wants to have a baby and either can’t or will go through problems achieving it, and then you have clusterfuck—supposedly on birth control—who gets pregnant during a one-night stand with a condom. Totally unfair.
She wipes her tears away. “I don’t need to fixate on that. I want to see your designs.”
Lawrence takes my mind off my baby problems, and I take her mind off hers. We’re still talking and laughing when Porter returns from clusterfuck’s doctor’s visit.
“Sounds like y’all are having a party in here.”
“Maybe.”
Porter goes to Lawrence and kisses the side of her face. “I haven’t seen you in a while. Whatcha been up to?”
“Not much. Just staying busy at the cider company.”
“Busy is always good for business.”
“You don’t have to tell me. I’m married to the numbers guy, remember?”
“Yeah. Tap loves to run numbers, especially when they equal dollars.”
Lawrence gets up. “I’ve gotta get going. I have a lunch date with my husband.”
Porter winks at me. “I’m ready for a little lunch myself. How ’bout you, baby?”
“I could eat.”
“Love the designs, Frankee. Give me a holler when you’re done with edits.”
“Will do.”
Lawrence smiles as she leaves, shutting the door behind her, and Porter pulls me into his arms. “I’m so fucking glad to be done with that.”
I hate to break it to him, but he’s not done. He’s just getting started.
“Was it horrible?”
“No. I’m just not sure why she insisted I go. They didn’t do anything but look at her.”
“They didn’t listen to the heartbeat?”
“Yeah, they did that and asked her some questions.”
“I’m sure she wanted you to hear the baby’s heartbeat.” That’s just one of the many ways she’s going to try to make Porter bond with this baby.
“I can’t believe she had me leave work for that. It was nothing but a waste of my time.”
“Aside from the appointment, how did seeing her go?”
He looks away and grunts.
“What?”
“She was sitting on the table waiting for the doctor to come in and she pulled up her shirt to show me her bump and told me to touch it.”
“Did you?”
“No. I’m not touching her.”
“Did anything else happen?”
“They scheduled her next appointment while we were there and she’s having an ultrasound to find out the baby’s gender. She wants me to come to that.”
“No surprise there.”
“I won’t go if you don’t want me to.”
“A father should be there for the ultrasound. That visit is important. But after that, I don’t think it’s necessary for you to go to regular appointments with her if everything is okay.” I don’t think most dads-to-be go to all of the appointments. I only see a couple of men in the waiting area with their wives or girlfriends when I go see my OB-GYN.
“I was hoping you would say I didn’t have to go to any more at all.”
“It’s not my decision to make.”
“I guess I’ll go to that one, but she can forget me coming to any more after that.”
“As long as it’s always your choice.” I won’t have clusterfuck blaming me for Porter missing any milestones in this baby’s life. If he does, it’ll be his decision.
“My choice is to get out of here and start our lunch break.”
“That would be my choice too.”
“I think I feel like fucking you on the kitchen counter today. And maybe I’ll lick peanut butter off your nipples. And jelly.”
“Well, you do enjoy a good PB&J.”
“I bet there’s never been a better PB&J than what I’d lick off your body.”
“Only one way to find out.”
Another month behind us and clusterfuck is at the halfway point of her pregnancy. It’s been easy to avoid her because she hasn’t come back to Porter’s condo. I’m grateful for that but her calls to him are coming more frequently.
He took them for the first couple weeks after her last appointment, but he’s had to resort to telling her only to call in the event of an emergency.
Everything is a fucking emergency.
She vomits and it’s an emergency.
She spots and it’s an emergency.
She farts and it’s an emergency.
But the one that takes the cake is her calling an ambulance because she said her water may have broken. Turned out she just has a nasty vagina and it was vaginal discharge coming out.
But she managed to get Porter out of bed with me to come to the hospital to check on her.
Today is her ultrasound to determine the baby’s gender. We haven’t discussed it, but the day is here now, and we’ve no choice but to talk about it. “Do you want a boy or a girl?”
“I don’t care.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Do what?”
“Act like you don’t care because you’re afraid I’ll be upset if you show some interest in your child.”
“I’m not acting.” He shakes his head and shrugs. “I don’t feel anything when I think about this baby. And then that makes me feel like a shitty person because I know I’m supposed to have some kind of bond or connection or feelings for my child. But I don’t.”
“You’re not a shitty person. The feelings will come when they come.”
“Maybe I don’t have the dad gene.”
I hate that he doubts himself. “I’ve seen you with Anna Cade and Bennett and Callan and Willow and Keeley. You sooo have the dad gene. It oozes out of you when you’re around children and makes my ovaries ache.”
“I love that your ovaries ache for me.”
“A lot of my stuff aches for you.”
“I love that too. I have ten minutes until I have to leave.”
“And?”
“Let me stick it in you.”
“Porter…”
“Come on, baby. Let me put it inside you. I’ll be fast.”
“Is the door locked?”
“It can be.”
“Lock it.”
I sit in the chair beside Charlotte in the exam room while the woman prepares the machine for her ultrasound. “I want you to stand by me so you can see better.”
“I can see just fine from here.”
“No, you can’t. Come here.”
Charlotte loves to tell me what I should be doing. A lot. And it pisses me off.
“You won’t be able to see as well over there,” the female technician confirms.
I’d love to tell these two that I honestly don’t give a shit if I see anything or not.
I get up and stand by the table, my arms crossed, and she reaches out to me. “What are you doing?”
“I want you to hold my hand.”
“I don’t want to.”
Charlotte crosses
her arms over her abdomen. “You smell like her.”
“Of course, I smell like her. I’m always going to smell like her.”
The woman about to do the ultrasound looks over at me and then back at the machine. I’m certain she thinks I’m the biggest asshole who ever walked the face of the earth, but that’s because she’s judging a situation she knows nothing about.
“All set. I’m ready to start. Warm goo on your belly.”
The woman moves the wand over Charlotte’s stomach and points out different parts of the baby’s body for us to see. She says it’s this or that but I can’t make heads or tails of any of it.
“Look, Porter. You can see the baby’s hand and fingers.”
That one I can sort of make out. “Yeah.”
“Let’s see if this baby will show us if it’s a boy or girl.”
The woman moves the wand and takes a still shot of the view between the baby’s legs. She blows it up and points to the screen. “That looks like a girl to me.”
Charlotte squeals and reaches for my hand, this time successfully stealing it from my crossed arms. “Oh my God, Porter, we’re having a little girl. A daughter.”
I don’t want any of this with her.
“We have to start talking about names and picking out the paint color for the nursery and the baby furniture. It’s going to be so much fun.”
None of that is going to be fun.
The technician interrupts Charlotte’s gleeful idiocy. “Have you been feeling any contractions?”
“I don’t think so. But this is my first baby. I don’t know what contractions feel like. Why are you asking?”
“Your cervix looks a little open. I’m going to let your doctor know.”
“Is everything okay?”
“I’m going to talk to your doctor so he can make sure. Stay there and I’ll be right back.”
Charlotte’s eyes dart to mine. “What she just said didn’t sound good.”
“I’m sure everything is fine.”
“I’m scared. What if something is wrong?”
“Don’t jump to conclusions. I’m sure she has to report every little thing she sees. Wait for the doctor to tell you if there’s something to be concerned about.”
Charlotte’s doctor comes into the exam room. “The tech tells me she might be seeing a little bit of dilation. Could be nothing, but I’m going to do a very gentle vaginal exam and see if it feels like your cervix is misbehaving.”