Ripe: A Stepbrother Pregnancy Romance (10 page)

Elise sat back and listened to the women banter back and fourth. Their problems distracted her from her own, and while she still couldn’t help but envy them, she found herself feeling grateful that she had at least
one
advantage they didn’t. She was younger than them all by about ten years.

When Elise heard the tone of the conversation change, she perked up and looked around. The women were staring at someone on the boardwalk and talking in hushed tones.

“What’s going on?” Elise questioned, not quite grasping the jest of what they were talking about.

“See that guy?” Maria spoke up. “He comes here almost every single day around this time, and he just sits on the beach watching the kids. It’s pretty unsettling. Actually, now that I think about it, I’ve seen him talk to your friend a few times. You said her name was Deanna? Yeah, they talk, but he never talks to anyone else, and lately he’s been here even on the days that she isn’t.”

Elise swallowed hard. She knew who they were referring to without having to look over at the boardwalk again. If it hadn’t been for Isaiah rushing over to greet him, she wouldn’t have even acknowledged his presence.

“Elise, you might want to get Isaiah!” Jessica said in a frantic tone.

“No, it’s okay,” Elise spoke up, exhaling a dry sigh. “I know him.”

Elise stood up, silently fuming that Jesse would be bold enough to intrude on the only day she got off with her son.

“Oh,” Jessica called after her, exchanging a look with her friends. “Sorry…we didn’t realize that you knew him. I hope we didn’t offend you. Is he Isaiah’s father? Now that I think about it, they do share a resemblance!”

Elise was no longer listening. She was too busy watching Jesse.  “What are you doing here?” she hissed.

“Come on,” Jesse said, giving her an all too familiar smug look. “This is a public beach. No matter how much you might want to, you can’t keep me from being here.”

“Well what about the fact that you’re making some of the mothers uncomfortable? Would that be enough to make you stop coming here?”

“Oh please,” Jesse said, casting them a glance and rolling his eyes. “I could care less what those chatty-patties think. Let them talk. I come here for one reason and one reason only, and that’s to see Isaiah.”

“Jesse, I didn’t agree to this.”

“That’s right, because you won’t agree to
anything
. You give me no other option but to go behind your back.”

Elise didn’t notice that Isaiah was beside them until it was too late.

“Jesse,” Isaiah said in a breathless tone. “Mommy said I could invite you to my birthday party. It’s in three weeks. Will you come? We’re gonna have Superman cake!”

“Isaiah, I didn’t—” Elise interrupted, but it was too late. The axe had fallen. If she protested now, he’d simply throw a tantrum.

“I’d love to be there buddy,” Jesse spoke up, taking a knee so that he was at Isaiah’s level. “But are you sure your mommy doesn’t mind?”

“Nope! She doesn’t!” Isaiah answered before his mother could, smiling in a way that accentuated his dimples. It was one of the many traits he’d inherited from his father. “So will you come?”

Jesse looked up at Elise once more, and though she mouthed him a silent ‘no’, he nodded anyway. “Of course I’ll be there,” he said, keeping his eyes steadied on her face. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

A string of expletives threatened to leap from Elise’s tongue, but Isaiah was still present and she could only imagine what the other mothers would think of her if she let
that
happen.

As soon as Isaiah wandered off to join the rest of the children back in the water, Elise wasted no time in lashing out at Jesse. “You asshole!” she spat, narrowing her eyes at him. “You just had to do that, didn’t you? You just had to go and get his hopes up!”

“Oh give it a rest, Elise. You’re going to give yourself an aneurism. Come on. Give me
one
good reason why I shouldn’t be at my son’s birthday party. Haven’t I already missed out on enough of them?”

“That’s just it, don’t you get it? It’s too late. You waited too long. There’s no place for you in our lives, not anymore. Isaiah is doing really well, and you’re just going to fuck him up the same way you fuck everything up. The same way you fucked
me
up. He doesn’t need you. For the final time,
we
don’t need you.”

“You’re wrong, Elise,” Jesse said, taking a step towards her. “He needs me more than you think, and I think you do too.”

“And just what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Jesse shook his and walked away, casting a fleeting glance at Elise as he made his way back onto the boardwalk.

Elise was so angry she couldn’t even think straight. She hated the way he was holding something over her head. Or maybe he was just
fucking
with her head. Maybe he didn’t know anything at all. Still…why would he ever kid himself into thinking that she needed him? She had made it this far without him, and even if she was in trouble, there were about a dozen other people, most of them near strangers, who she’d turn to before him. The only thing she wanted him to do was go back to not existing.

Elise grabbed her things off of her blanket and said a quick goodbye to the other mothers before calling out to Isaiah in the water. As soon as they were home, she fed him some lunch and put him down for a nap.

It wasn’t long before Elise found herself at her kitchen table again with her cell phone in hand. This time, however, she didn’t hesitate. She unlocked it and dialed right away, punching in each number from memory.

“Dad?” Elise spoke up after two rings and a click. “It’s me. I—I’m calling because I need your help.”

Chapter Seventeen

Elise rushed home on her lunch break to grab up the large envelope waiting in her mailbox, which she wasted no time in tearing open
.
Inside was Jesse’s criminal background check. As she stared down at the file in stunned silence, she realized right away that obtaining the information wasn't anywhere near as difficult as accepting it.

Elise phoned her father earlier in the week, promptly putting an end to their seven-year vow of silence. After relaying to him that she was trying to keep Jesse from getting custody of Isaiah, he was more than willing to pull the file for her despite his recent retirement from the force. At the end of the day, his hatred of his former stepson far outweighed his disappointment in his daughter.

“Now just wait a minute,” Malcolm said after a few seconds of tense silence. “I'll get you your information, don't you worry, but first I want to know just what exactly is going on between you and Jesse. You're not seeing each other again, are you?”

Elise sighed under her breath, but she proceeded to explain the last week and a half worth of events to him anyway. When she finally had him all caught up, she made a point of reassuring him that it wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle. All she needed was a viable safety net in place in case things got ugly. She figured three years worth of legal records proving Jesse to be a negligent drug addict who'd serve time would do just that.

As Elise made her way back to work, Jesse found himself in a dimly lit conference room on the other side of town, where an executive conference sanctioned by his father's board was underway.

“Gentlemen, I’d like to take a moment to formally introduce you all to our new CEO, Mr. Jesse Stone, son of our Founder, the late Mr. Stone,” introduced the Chairman. “Mr. Stone is a busy man and he isn’t usually available for these meetings, but he has some rather enlightening statistics to share in regards to the Ocean City branch, so I asked him to step in.”

The Chairman paused, giving everyone a chance to greet Jesse before he continued speaking.

“As you all know, after shadowing this facility we found no substantial use for many of its departments, and we had initially determined to shut down the malpractice firm at the beginning of the next fiscal year in order to cut back on costs. However, Mr. Stone brought my attention to a positive upward trend in regards to public relations there, as opposed to other departments managed under the Stone name. Jesse, do you want to take it from here?”

Jesse nodded and stood up, turning on the projector and pulling out his laser pen.

“At first glance, Stone Malpractice seems like a guppy in shark invested waters. I can understand why the board would come to the conclusion that it isn’t financially feasible to keep it open. Their recent successes, although commendable, have not been all that lucrative. The leukemia case, for instance, only netted the client half a million in profits, of which Stone only saw about a quarter of.”

Jesse was nervous as he spoke. This marked the first time he’d ever addressed his father’s board, and he wanted to be taken seriously by the men who'd once seen him in diapers.

“However after reviewing the firms call records, which stretch all the way back to early 2000, I noticed an extremely positive trend in client support. This department is respected by the general public, not just because they win cases, but because they care about the needs of the common man.”

Jesse cleared his throat and scanned the crowd of faces in front of him. Not even one gave way to any sort of reaction.

“In addition, the malpractice department at this branch happens to be one of our first, dating all the way back to my great-grandfather’s time at Stone in 1910. There’s history there, and what’s easier to market than that?”

“What are you proposing, Mr. Stone?” one of the board members spoke up in a dull tone.

“What am I proposing?” Jesse glanced back at the statistics on the screen in an attempt at looking more relaxed than he felt.

“What I’m proposing is that we keep the malpractice department open. With a little fine-tuning to their marketing strategy, their client satisfaction and proven history in the industry would be more than enough to justify the costs. The department’s biggest problem, as far as I can see, is that they don’t have a proper leader. The current supervisor, Robert Koval, while a nice guy, is not capable of steering a ship this big. Therefore, business has suffered. It's my suggestion that we scout out some local talent, preferably fresh out of law school and willing to work harder for less. Training within the firm would also be a lucrative and cost effective approach, while also encouraging employee morale.”

When Jesse was finally finished speaking, he turned around to address the board, taking in each face. While he genuinely believed that keeping Stone's malpractice department open was a good idea, he couldn’t act like he didn’t have a more personal reason for his interests.

The members of the board looked over the slides Jesse provided for a second time. They spoke quietly amongst each other before asking him a few questions he was relieved to be able to easily answer. When they were finally satisfied, the meeting came to an abrupt end just as quickly as it began.

“Thanks, Jesse,” the Chairman said, standing up and extending his hand to him. “You've given us some great information to work with here.”

Jesse knew that meant that he was dismissed, but that the conversation would continue to go on long after he was gone. It didn't matter that Stone was, by all technicalities, his company. He looked at the older man who’d worked alongside his father as his superior, and he knew it would be inappropriate of him to ask when the board would make their decision.

All he could hope was that it would be sooner rather than later.

Chapter Eighteen

When Elise arrived at Deanna’s house to pick up Isaiah later that afternoon, Deanna noticed that she was behaving oddly right away. “Did you want to go over the plans for Isaiah’s birthday party?” she questioned, eyeing her friend as she spoke.

“We can do it later,” Elise said, waving her hand in the air dismissively. “It’s not until the end of the week.”