by Shay Violet
“Why don’t you just let me buy the tickets?” I prodded. I knew I wasn’t the only one in our circle of friends here who’d be willing to do it, but I was the only one who knew just how desperate Ashley’s financial situation could be sometimes. She never liked to talk about it, but the only reason her kid was even a student at Westworth Academy was a scholarship program. The tuition was more than she made in a year.
But Ashley was too proud to ever accept any charity, even when I pointed out to her that I didn’t even work hard for my money. I just married a cheating scumbag athlete who nullified his own damn pre-nup by not being able to keep it in his pants.
I got half of everything, which amounted to more millions of dollars than I could ever conceivably spend.
Especially with my Keona smart enough to get a full-ride to any Ivy she wants. We were pretty much set for life and it wouldn’t take much for me to help Ashley out, but she was too proud. Or too stubborn. Maybe both.
“I couldn’t let you do that, and you know it,” she argued.
“What about me?” Ryan asked, a twinkle in his eyes. “I wouldn’t even notice it. How much could two plane tickets even cost? Five, ten grand?”
I knew he was teasing her, but Ashley blanched anyway. “You’d just hand me ten grand? You barely know me.”
Ryan shrugged. “I’ve given more money to far more useless causes than helping a friend have a good Spring Break.”
“He’s right,” Terrance said. “You know a few years ago I let the kids charm me into donating twenty grand to save some stupid endangered turtles. No idea what happened to my money because the damn things are extinct now…”
Ashely shifted from one foot to the other, obviously uncomfortable about the situation. Most of the time, we didn’t acknowledge the wealth disparity in our little group, but I knew it was something that got under her skin occasionally.
“I appreciate the offer, but no thanks. I’m going to see if I can harass someone on the phone into giving me my deal,” Ashley said.
“You know I just want us both to be kid-free for the week since Keona’s dad is taking her.”
“Lucky,” Rafael said with a sigh. His eyes widened, and he started to backpedal. “Don’t get me wrong, I love my Izzy, but it would be nice if her mom ever wanted to take her for a week… Hell, even a night. She’d love that so much.”
“At least you know who your kid’s other parent is,” Ashley muttered. “I’m the only one here dumb enough to procreate with a one-night stand.”
“Pretty much the only way you could,” I teased her. Ashley was about ninety-nine percent lesbian, but whenever she got white-girl wasted, she suddenly had a craving for dick that she never had in her sober moments. It was a recipe for disaster… Or at least for an unplanned pregnancy.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she grumbled, focusing on her coffee.
Sometimes I wondered if I’d rather be in her shoes, not knowing who the father of my kid was rather than knowing he was a lying, cheating sack of shit. Would’ve saved me a few years trouble, all those therapy sessions, sending Marcus off to rehab for his ‘sex addiction,’ finding out from the tabloids that he was still running around on me…
Then again, I knew Keona and I could take any vacation we wanted thanks to his dumbass. It wasn’t all bad.
“Most parents would be thrilled to have a week off,” Terrance said. His two were way more of a handful than my little girl, though. I’d probably want a break too if I was him.
“Well most kids aren’t as awesome as mine,” I answered, getting more down about it the longer I thought about it. I knew Keona would have a good time with her dad. As shitty as he was to me, Marcus had always been a good father. That was part of the reason I tried to work it out with him for so long. He had all kinds of plans for amusement parks and I was sure she wouldn’t even see a vegetable for the whole week she was gone.
“Could be worse,” Ryan chimed in. “You could be my poor brother stuck with a sudden surprise baby he doesn’t know what to do with.”
“What?” Ashley gasped.
“Your playboy bachelor brother?” I asked, unable to stop my eyebrows from flying off my forehead.
Ryan has told us a few stories about his brother Matt and his antics. If I thought Marcus was bad about sticking his dick in anything close by, Matt was on another level. He barely seemed to be able to take care of himself based on the stories I’d heard, I couldn’t imagine him taking care of a baby. That poor child.
“Yeah… It’s a whole story about how it happened, but the kid’s mom passed away recently and the paternity test came back as a ninety-nine percent match so…” Ryan blew out a breath. “Dad’s been helping him a lot, and Jalisa and I have been over there every other night, but we’re all headed to Disney for the week with Hudson, so he’s going to be on his own and I don’t know how he’s going to handle it.”
“Can’t he hire someone?” Terrance asked, frowning.
“He should,” Ryan said. “I think he’s trying to prove he can do it on his own. I don’t know who he’s trying to prove it to, though.”
“How old is the kid?” I asked.
“She’s almost six months,” Ryan said, and there was a part of me that instantly remembered Keona at that age, chubby face, little leg rolls, all the giggles…
I’d always wanted another baby, but with everything going on in my marriage, it seemed like a terrible idea, and I hadn’t ever given anyone else a chance in the years since the divorce. Just getting to hold a baby that age again, smell her hair, cuddle with her…
“You know, you can give him my number to call if he gets too overwhelmed. I’m not going to have anything else going on, and I love babies,” I offered.
“Weirdo,” Ashley muttered. “What kind of person loves babies?”
“One who actually wanted them?” I countered, snippy enough that she got the message.
“I’m sure he’d appreciate the help,” Ryan said, nodding thoughtfully. “Just don’t let him take advantage of you. Jalisa and I have been setting clear boundaries about how much help we’ll offer. He needs to learn to handle this stuff on his own if he’s going to learn to do it on his own.”
“Oh, don’t you worry, I know all about setting boundaries,” I assured him. By the time we broke apart to go about our daily activities, I was feeling less bummed about my week without Keona. I was going to miss her like crazy, but having a baby to play with would be a fun change of pace. I didn’t know how well I’d get along with Ryan’s manwhore of a brother, but I was sure I could tolerate his presence long enough to satisfy my maternal instincts and quiet the ticking of my biological clock.
It was day two of Spring Break when I got the call from Matthew Williams I’d been expecting. He barely made it a day on his own before throwing up the white flag and asking for help.
I tried to sound nonchalant when I answered, not like I’d been waiting at the ready for the last twenty-four hours.
“Hello?”
“Uh… Hi. Is this Kendra?”
“It is,” I answered, shoving aside my immediate thoughts of how sexy and smooth his voice was. Guess that was how he charmed the ladies. But beyond his voice, I could hear something else in the background. A high-pitched wailing.
“This is Matt… Williams. Ryan’s brother? He gave me your number in case…” The scream-cry got louder, the baby giving her little lungs a workout.
“Yeah, I told him to. What’s wrong?”
“She just won’t… She won’t stop crying and I don’t know…” He sounded helpless, exhausted, at the end of his rope. I actually felt bad for the guy. I remembered those days all too well.
“Does she need to be changed?”
“No.”
“Fed?”
“Nope.”
“When’s the last time she slept?”
“She woke up from her nap like this, so I don’t think it’s that. I just don’t know… Tell me what you want, Addie, please,” he whined.
> The desperation in his voice made my heart hurt. He might be a womanizing douche, but he was still just a guy trying to take care of his kid, completely lost in the woods.
“Do you have a way to check her temperature? Make sure she’s not running a fever.”
I heard the screaming get louder as he neared the baby.
“Her face is really red, but I think that’s from the crying. She’s not hot at all.”
“Okay, that’s good at least.”
“What do I do?” he asked, sounding like he was on the verge of tears.
I thought I might be able to help him over the phone this time, set those boundaries Ryan told me about, but I couldn’t. That baby needed someone who knew what they were doing, and that man needed a break. I could hear it in his voice.
“Send me your address and I’ll be over in a bit.”
“Really?” he asked, the disbelief in his voice definitely teetering on the edge of tears now.
“Yeah, really.”
“Thank you,” he gushed. “You’re an angel.”
“Don’t thank me too much yet. I’m not promising I can get her to stop crying either.”
“I know, I know. It’s just… Thank you,” he said again anyway, letting out a heavy sigh.
“It’s gonna be alright, Addie,” he whispered to the baby. “Just hold on, sweetheart.”
I waited for him to text me the address before packing up my car. I didn’t know what all Matt had on hand, but I still had a lot of Keona’s old baby things packed away in the garage, clothes, toys, a pack-n-play -- a billionaire probably didn’t need hand-me-downs, but did he even know what he needed at all? I’d rather go over prepared than show up and not have something crucial.
His place was a high-rise downtown, the first three floors were all parking garage, filled with sports cars and luxury vehicles that put even my BMW to shame. Not that I cared about things like that. I wasn’t the type of person to flaunt my wealth -- hell, I didn’t even earn it, what right did I have to flaunt it? -- but it looked like this place housed that type of person exclusively.
And at the very tippy top of the tower was Matt’s penthouse apartment. I needed two different security codes just to get to his front door, one for the garage and one for the elevator. Guess he didn’t get much delivery way up here with all that hassle.
I probably looked like a crazy person carrying in bags of stuff like I was, but I liked to be ready for anything, and what waited for me beyond his door was a mystery.
I could hear the baby crying from outside the apartment, and winced. I remembered the kind of mental exhaustion that came from an endlessly crying baby. First came helplessness, then desperation, bargaining, and anger. Hopefully I got here before he decided to get angry with her. He sounded like he was slipping into bargaining on the phone.
I rang the doorbell, figuring I wasn’t going to upset the baby any more, and held my breath, not entirely sure I was ready for the mess I’d gotten myself into.
I did volunteer for this, though.
What I really wasn’t ready for was the disarmingly handsome man who answered the door. If I thought he sounded cute on the phone, it was nothing compared to the real-life thing. He was disheveled, yeah, and had dark circles under his bloodshot eyes. He looked like he’d been through the wringer a few times, but there was no denying the rugged charm. He bore a resemblance to Ryan, but Ryan was always clean-cut and respectable looking. His brother was scruffier, rougher around the edges -- dangerous.
And Lord help me, I liked it.
3
Matt
The sound of the doorbell was like a chorus of angels appearing from the heavens. Addie had been with me just over a week after the paternity test came back and my lawyer worked through all the legalese. She was officially mine now, and I had no idea what the fuck I was doing.
Even with all the help from my family, it seemed like she was never happy. It seemed like she never stopped crying, and I was getting to the end of my rope. I didn’t know the last time I slept for more than an hour at a time, I didn’t know the last time I’d showered at all, and as far as food… Well, I’d mostly been stealing bites of baby food that she kept rejecting.
I was mildly offended when Ryan gave me his friend’s number and told me to call her if I couldn’t handle things on my own, but who the hell was I kidding? Clearly I couldn’t. I was a mess, and it wasn’t getting any better.
So yeah, that doorbell was a very welcome sound, but it only brought one angel -- Kendra.
After opening the door, I just stared at her for a moment, dumbstruck with how put-together she looked while I felt like I was falling apart at the seams. She was beautiful, too, curves in all the right places, with rich dark brown skin and hair that was a few shades lighter that fell in soft waves around her face.
I was so shell-shocked by her appearance that it took a moment to register how much stuff she was carrying. Why didn’t Ryan bother to tell me his friend was a knockout? It didn’t sink in until she was trying to push past me, waddling under the uneven weight of it all.
“Shit, do you need help with that?”
“I’m good,” she grunted, setting the bags down in the middle of the foyer.
“What is all that?”
“Stuff I thought you might need. I’m sure you’ve got the basics, but I learned a lot of tricks with my Keona, and she outgrew all this stuff years ago.”
“Oh… okay.” There were probably a billion baby-related things I didn’t know about. It wasn’t a subject I’d ever concerned myself with. Not something I ever bothered to learn anything about.
“She’s in the living room…” I said, gesturing with a half-hearted flap of my arm. Even that felt like it took a lot of effort. I’d been running on empty for a while, even before Ryan took the whole family to Orlando, but having another capable adult here to keep an eye on the baby made it start to sink in hard. I’d been pushing through on sheer necessity alone.
“Addie, right?” Kendra asked.
“I’m Matt, actually,” I answered without thinking.
She smirked, patting me on the shoulder. “Good thing you haven’t lost your sense of humor. You’re going to need it.”
“Don’t know why. Seems like I’m the joke these days,” I muttered.
She didn’t respond to that, just headed into the living room. I was too tired to even properly appreciate the sway of her hips in the form-fitting jeans she wore.
By the time I caught up to her in the living room, Kendra had Addie out of the high chair, up in her arms, cradling her close, shushing her, singing some song I didn’t recognize under her breath. I kept my distance, just watching, the sound of her sweet singing voice relaxing me, lulling me into a half-awakeness where I stood.
And then, suddenly, something magical happened.
I realized Addie wasn’t crying anymore.
It felt like the first time in weeks that there had been quiet in my apartment, but I realized I hadn’t even had Addie that long. Time had lost all meaning without regular sleep.
“How did you do that?” I murmured, still in awe, but too nervous to get any closer. What if I was the reason the baby kept crying? I didn’t want to set her off again.
“Did you try cuddling her at all?” Kendra asked, halfway between amused and accusatory.
“I… Is that really all it took?”
She shrugged. “Ryan said her mom passed recently?”
I nodded. “About a month ago.”
She nodded. “She’s probably missing her. Her whole life’s been turned upside down and it’s scary and confusing.”
“Tell me about it,” I muttered, still in disbelief.
Admittedly, I hadn’t been holding Addie much. I fed her, I changed her, I carried her from one room to another for nap time or playtime or whatever, but I didn’t just… hold her. She seemed so fragile and foreign to me. I wasn’t cut out for this baby stuff -- I wasn’t sure I even knew how to cuddle. It wasn’t like I had a his
tory of serious relationships to teach me that little trick.
Kendra gave me a once over and it was hard to tell what she was thinking. Normally I was pretty confident in my appearance, but lately I looked like a bum. No better than the folks out on Biscayne Boulevard pissing in the street. It seemed like she was coming to the same conclusion.
“When’s the last time you showered?” she asked.
“Uh… What’s today?”
She gave me a gentle smile and shook her head. “Go. Addie’s in good hands. You’ll feel a lot better, I promise.”
Honestly, I was in no position to argue as worn-down as I was.
“Thank you… Really,” I said, rubbing a hand over my face, finding nearly a full beard growing there. It really had been too long since I’d taken time out to take care of myself.
“Don’t mention it,” she said, turning away, bouncing Addie, who babbled and cooed at her. No screaming. No crying. Just a happy baby.
I couldn’t believe it.
I knew I couldn’t count on Kendra sticking around forever, so I needed to take advantage of her being here while I could. I went off to the shower and turned all the water on full blast. I was never more grateful for the multiple shower jets or the waterfall head above. It was like stepping into a dream world. I shaved, and I washed myself, and then I just stood there, letting the heat seep into me, letting the weariness of the last week melt away.
At some point, I think I must have drifted off standing there. Awareness came to me all at once, startling me out of the trance or the mini-nap or whatever it was, and I realized I was leaning against one of the granite walls, my face awkwardly squished against the tile.
“Shit.” Was Kendra wondering what was taking me so long? Had she tried to check up on me? How long had I been in here?