Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set (181 page)

“Yeah.  I’m sure everything’s okay with the baby, but I want to know for sure.”

“Of course.  It never hurts to be sure.”

Ricky led them to his bedroom.  Almost as soon as he had turned on the light, his phone rang.  He took it out of his pocket and sighed.  “I have to take this.  I’m sorry.  You go ahead Matthew.  I’ll try to make this quick.”  He reached out and squeezed Molli’s hand and then left the room.

“Why don’t you lie down?”  Matthew said.

“Um, sure.  You’re not going to check me out like they check you out at the doctor’s office are you?”

Matthew grinned.  “Not unless you want me to.  Nah, I’m only kidding.  Ricky would probably kick my ass if he heard me say that.  He’s so proud that he’s going to be a dad.  I think he’s telling everyone at the University.”

Molli smiled.  “Is he really?”

“Yep.  Everyone that will listen to him.  If you lift your shirt a little I’ll kinda feel around a bit.  You let me know if it hurts anywhere I touch okay?”

“Okay.”

Molli lay down on the bed and lifted her shirt.  Matthew put gentle pressure on several points of her abdomen; again telling her to let him know if anywhere he touched was painful.  When she told him nothing was he said “And you haven’t had any sharp pains or bleeding or anything like that?”

“No.”

“Good.  You and the baby both seem to be fine.  Have you had any headaches or blurred vision?”

“My vision was blurry for a little bit and I did have a headache but it went away after I drank some juice and ate something.”

“Okay.  Well, you might still want to have yourself checked out by your regular doctor to be sure, but everything looks good as far as I can tell.”

Molli pulled her shirt back down and sat up.  “Thank you.”

“No problem.  Your makeup is smearing where you tried to cover up the bruise on your forehead.  You probably had a lump there at first huh?”

Molli touched her forehead, feeling self-conscious.  “Yeah.  I didn’t want Ricky to worry.  He worries about me enough already.”

Matthew chuckled.  “All good boyfriends worry about their girlfriends.  But yeah, I’d say Ricky is a really good worrier.  He’s so caring that he lets stuff get to him sometimes.  I think he’d save the whole world if he could.  He thinks that there’s plenty of food and shelter on the planet for everyone and doesn’t understand why everyone can’t have a house and food and clothes.”

“It makes sense doesn’t it?”  Molli shrugged.

“Yeah, it does.  Now we have to convince the rich people to share with the poor people.  It’s kinda funny that one of the first things we’re taught when we’re little is to share, and then we grow up and seem to forget how to do it.  Well, I guess I’d better go.  My girlfriend is waiting for me back at my apartment and she gets really impatient.”

“Have a nice night Matthew.  Thank you.”

“No need to thank me.  I really do owe both Ricky and his family a lot.  I was too busy playing sports and chasing tail to think about my grades the last couple years of high school.”

Molli laughed.  “And now you’re going to be a doctor.”

Matthew smiled.  “Yeah.  Guys like Ricky remind you that you have to follow your dreams on a daily basis, no matter what you did in the past.  It wasn’t that I couldn’t do the work, I just didn’t want to.  His older brother and his parents helped me out a lot and Ricky was always around.  Well, you guys have a good night and best of luck with your baby.  Remind Ricky that I want an invitation to the wedding okay?  I think he’s still busy on the phone.”

“Um, sure.”  Molli wasn’t sure there was ever going to be a wedding.  “Bye Matthew, it was nice to meet you.”

“You too, Molli.  Hey did you dye your hair?  I thought Ricky’s girlfriend had dark hair.”

“No.  That would be his ex-girlfriend Mellenda.” Or soon to be ex-girlfriend she hoped.

“Oh, sorry.  Take care Molli.  Bye now.” 

Matthew walked out of the room.  She heard the door of the apartment open and shut.

She stood up and stretched, wondering what was taking Ricky so long on the phone.  She wandered out to the living room and found him sitting on the couch.  He looked up at her, gave her a weak smile and mouthed “It’s Mellenda.”

She fought a sudden urge to say something really loudly or to do something that would really distract him, but instead, she sat on the couch, laid her head in his lap and put her feet up on the arm of the couch, trying not to listen too closely to his conversation.

He talked to Mellenda for several more minutes.  The last thing she heard him say was “I’m hanging up now Mellenda.”

His phone rang again right afterwards, but he ignored it and tossed it onto the coffee table.

He stroked his hand across her hair, then leaned down and kissed her forehead.  “I’m sorry.  Mellenda and I have been doing nothing but arguing since I told her I found out about the baby.”

“So why don’t you break up with her?”

“We are so entangled, Molli.  We have so many plans so far ahead of time that it’s not funny.”

“Then cancel them.  It doesn’t sound that hard to me.  Of course what can I say?  I haven’t broken up with Jude.  I haven’t bothered to answer his phone calls in almost two weeks, but I haven’t exactly broken up with him.”

“I suppose I can give the tickets and things that we already have away, which I guess I will do when I do break up with her.  I guess now, I want to wait until after the holidays are over.  The holidays can be a painful time.  I don’t want to cause Mellenda any more pain.  She really does care about me.”

“How are the holidays painful for Mellenda?  She has parents that actually care about her.”

Ricky sighed, and ran his hand over her stomach.  “Mellenda’s older sister died during the holidays five years ago.  She was pregnant.  Did you not know that, even after being her roommate for two years?”

“I didn’t know that.  She barely talks to me.  That’s why I have no idea why she brought up the whole abortion thing to me out of the blue.”

“Would she have had any reason to think that you were pregnant?  Was it a possible warning against making such a decision yourself, do you think?”

“I’d missed my period, but I hadn’t taken the test then.  I hadn’t even made Seneca steal it for me yet, so I don’t think that she would have had any reason to suspect that I was pregnant.  And it didn’t seem like a warning to me.  She was casual about the whole thing.  She told me and then she went back to reading some fashion magazine like it was nothing.”

“I don’t think it was nothing for her.  I’m still very angry with her for not telling me, but she cried for a very long time after I told her that I’d found out.”

“How did you tell her you found out?”

“Rumors.  There are always rumors.”

“So, you’ve been telling people that you’re having a baby huh?”

“Yes.”  He leaned down and kissed her.  “Should I not be?”

“It’s not that.  Aren’t you concerned about Mellenda finding out?”

“I’m going to break up with her as soon as the time is right.  We’re supposed to get together over Christmas vacation, but I don’t know if I can stand to do that.  I can’t look at her and not think of you.”

“Are you sure she doesn’t know that I’m the one that told you or think that I spread the rumors?  She’s been even bitchier than usual lately.  She ignores me when I say hello to her.”

“She suspects there is someone else in my life.”

“And what did you tell her about that?  Did you tell her it’s not true?  I can’t believe she wouldn’t have broken up with you if you had told her it was true.”

“She hasn’t asked me directly.  It’s in the things she doesn’t say.  The way she looks at me, like she knows that she has lost my heart to another woman.”

“So if she knows all that, why don’t you break up with her and get it over with?  I’ll call Jude right now and tell him I’m pregnant, and that it might be his but that you’re willing to be the father and that I don’t want to see him anymore.  It’s not like he needs an excuse to go out and get laid somewhere else.  Look what he already did with Tory and then he turned around and gave me that stupid cheap promise ring.”

“Where is your ring?”

“I shoved it in the back of my sock drawer.  I only wear it at school, so I can flash it when Tory’s around.  Maybe that’s why she pushed me down the stairs, because I was being such a bitch.  But it pissed me off so bad that Jude slept with her.  He even bragged about it to Tony, Tory’s boyfriend, did I tell you that?”

“No.  How do you know Tony?”

“Um, well I kind of went over to his house to try to seduce him after I found out about Jude and Tory.  I was pretty upset when you told me couldn’t get together last weekend.  I decided to screw Tony to get back at all of you.”

“Ah.  So, you said try to seduce him.  I assume you didn’t succeed then?”

“No.  I don’t know if I really could have done it.  I was mad and hurt and tired of all of this.  I want to be your one and only Ricky.  I want us to be happy together, to make a life together for us and for the baby.”

He leaned down and kissed her.  “I want that too, Molli.  But we have to be patient.  It will only be a few more weeks before we can truly be together, I promise.”

“Yeah.  You told Matthew that I was your girlfriend.”

“It’s much easier to explain to people that my girlfriend is pregnant with my child, rather than explaining that my girlfriend’s roommate who is dating another man is pregnant with my child.”

Molli sighed.  “I know.  I’ll call Jude and I’ll give him his ring back as soon as I get back to Brentwood.”

“Thank you.  I found some cocoa without caffeine for you.  Would you like some?  Or I have a cherry pie that my mother insisted on sending me home with that I haven’t touched.  Would you like a piece of pie with ice cream on top?  I can warm it up.”

“That would be great.  Thank you.”

She sat up and Ricky got up off of the couch.  He took the pie out of the fridge and the ice cream out of the freezer.  “Do you want me to help you?”

“No.  Just sit.  Did Matthew say that everything looked okay?”

She touched her forehead absentmindedly.  “Yes.  He also told me to tell you that he wanted an invitation to our wedding.”

Ricky chuckled.  “Of course he’ll be invited.  Have you told Eduardo about the baby?”

Molli sighed.  “He showed up at my parents’ house on the day after Thanksgiving at two o’clock in the morning.  I thought it was going to be you because you promised you’d try to come back.”

“I’m sorry.  I would have come back but Mellenda insisted on coming with me when I delivered the plate of food, so I took it to a friend from school.  It would have been a little awkward bringing it to you with her there.”

“Yeah.  So I told Eduardo about the baby and the first word out of his mouth practically was abortion.”

“It’s a good thing he has no say in the matter since the baby isn’t his.  I’m sorry you had to go through that by yourself.  I wish I could have been there with you.”

“Me too.”

Ricky brought two cups of hot chocolate and two slices of cherry pie with ice cream back to the living room.  They ate silently, each lost in their own thoughts.  She wondered what he was thinking about, but couldn’t bring herself to ask him.

When they were finished, they went back to the bedroom because Ricky said she looked tired.  She felt drained.  She wanted to be able to say that Ricky was her boyfriend.  She wanted to be done with Jude.  She tried to call him after they retired to the bedroom, but he wouldn’t answer his phone.  She thought that it was pretty funny that Jude seemed to be ignoring her now, after she’d been ignoring him for so long.

When they were lying together in bed, Ricky leaned over and kissed her forehead.  Molli winced because he’d managed to hit the spot where she’d hit her head.

“I’m sorry Molli.  Does your head still hurt?”  He gently ran his fingers over her forehead.  “You have a lump there.  It’s not noticeable but I can feel it.  And you’ve got a bruise too.  I should take you to the doctor.  You’re going to need prenatal care anyway.  I’ll set up an appointment for you.”

“I don’t want to go to the doctor Ricky.  I’m fine, really.  Maybe after the first of the year.  Then it’s so close to my birthday that it won’t matter anymore.”

“Your birthday is January 11
th
?”

“Yes.  How did you know?  I never told you.”

Ricky smiled.  “I found out as much about you as I could when I was hanging out in Brentwood before.  I even talked to Seneca a time or two about you.”

“I asked you and you said that you hadn’t talked to her.”  She shook her head at him, but smiled to let him know that she was kidding.  “Did you buy my Christmas present?  And what are you going to buy me for my birthday?”

Ricky laughed.  “I made her promise not to tell you after I was silly enough to ask Mellenda out instead of you.  I didn’t get to buy your Christmas present.  Mellenda managed to hang around until it was so late that I had to take her straight back to school.  I’d like to take you away for the weekend for your birthday.”

Molli made a face.  “I thought I smelled you on Mellenda when she came back that weekend.  Of course I can’t say anything there either because I did it with Jude when he gave me the ring.”