“I should take a pregnancy test.”
“Just to rule it out of the equation,” Suzy insisted.
I was sitting up in bed, with my pillow on my lap. I could feel a sudden bout of hot flashes coming on. I was clutching the pillow tightly. It wasn’t just the flu. I could feel it. There was something different about me…and it wasn’t just today, I’d been feeling it for a few days now.
“Beth?” Gia interrupted my thoughts, and I nodded.
“Yes, I think I should take a few tests,” I replied.
Suzy smiled and reached for my hand in support.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’m sure it’s nothing,” she said. I shook my head.
“I feel something. I can feel it. I think I’m pregnant,” I said.
I didn’t want to meet their eyes.
“Oh, honey, you don’t know that yet…” Gia protested and pulled me into her arms. We were hugging.
“Yeah, but see, I think I do. I can feel something different,” I told her.
“I’m going to go get the tests. You two just stay here!” Suzy snapped, jumping off the bed.
Gia and I were alone. She was still holding me. I was glad because I definitely needed to be held.
“Are you going to be okay?” she asked, after some time.
“You mean if I am pregnant?”
She nodded.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine…I think. I mean, I have no idea where to even begin being a mother…”
Gia interrupted me.
“But we’ll be there, Suzy and I, all along the way, as long as you need us,” she said. We smiled at each other.
“I am so grateful for the two of you,” I told her.
“Will you tell him?” she asked then.
There was no other possibility. If I was pregnant, it was by Vince. Suzy and Gia knew that too.
“No. Of course not. He doesn’t even remember my name in all likelihood,” I snapped.
Gia seemed unconvinced, but she was on my side. She was going to support any decision I made.
“And what about work…” she mentioned, and I sighed.
“I think it’s time I got serious about figuring out a plan. If I am actually pregnant, I have another human being to be responsible for. I can’t just spend all day in pajamas, badly recreating complicated recipes in my kitchen!”
Gia laughed at that, and I laughed too. It was good to share some light-hearted moments now while I could. Things were going to start getting very serious very quickly.
Chapter 22
Vince
Cliff called me up on a Friday night, soon after I returned from New Orleans.
“Wanna hit the bars like we used to?” he said. It was strange to hear him suggest that because ever since he met Piper, Cliff had felt no inclination or shown any interest in hanging out at the bar.
“How come?” I asked him.
“Piper just gave me a big lecture on how I need to socialize more,” he said.
“By hanging out at a bar, with me?”
We laughed at that, but of course, I agreed to go. Sawyer and Isaac couldn’t join us because they were still happily on daddy-duty.
We went back to the same place where the four of us used to meet up. We even ordered the same drinks.
“It’s been too long!” I remarked, and Cliff nodded his head.
“Yeah, I had no idea how long it had been. It feels so good to get out and feel like a man again. But, you know, the funny thing is even while I’m sitting here talking to you I’m thinking about Piper and our daughter. But, it is so nice to just get out and have a regular adult conversation,” he said as he lifted his drink to cheers me.
He didn’t think I knew what he meant, but I did. I was thinking about Beth, even though it had been nearly a month since I last saw her. I still couldn’t get her out of my mind.
Cliff must have noticed the faraway look in my eyes because he caught my gaze.
“What’s going on with you, man? You look like you’re somewhere else.”
I shrugged my shoulders. There was no point discussing something that was out of my hands.
“I’m fine. I'm just thinking about the game,” I told him. But Cliff didn’t buy it. We’d known each other since we were kids. Who was I trying to fool here?
“You’re thinking about that girl. Beth. Wasn’t that her name?” he asked, and I remained silent.
“Look, man, if you’re still thinking about her, maybe you should do something about it,” he insisted.
I put down my glass of whiskey and glared at him.
“I wish you guys and Leo and everyone else would just stop talking about her. What I’m thinking, in the privacy of my own head is none of your damn business!”
I was growling. It was uncalled for. I knew Cliff didn’t mean to piss me off. He was trying to help me. But I was acting like an addict who had been denied his drug. It had been too long, and now I felt sick because I couldn’t have her.
Cliff put up his hands in mock defense.
“Whatever you want, man,” he said. “I’m just saying, I know love when I see it.”
“Fuck this shit!” I snapped and stood up from the chair. I turned from him and started to walk away.
“Vince! Where are you going?” I heard him shout at me.
He thought I was leaving the bar, but I wasn’t. I was just trying to find a way to prove to myself and him and the rest of the world that I didn’t need Beth anymore.
I strode right up to the first group of women I could find.
It was a group of three, and they all turned to me with their eyes twinkling. They recognized me, and they were each hoping I had gone up to the group to speak to one of them specifically.
I hadn’t. I was just trying to find someone.
“Good evening, ladies,” I greeted them with my widest smile.
“You’re Vince Woods!” One of them spoke up, and since she was the first one to speak, I picked her.
“Since you know my name already, it’s only fair I should know yours,” I said, and she giggled and batted her eyelashes.
“I’m Carla,” she said and held out her hand. Her friends were chewing on their lips.
“Hello, Carla. Would you lovely ladies mind if I whisked your friend away for a few quick moments?” I suggested.
Carla giggled, and we stepped away from the group. We stood close together and talked. The bar was crowded, but I knew Cliff was keeping an eye on me. He could see me with Carla. So hopefully now he would stop pestering me about Beth.
But as much as I tried to cozy up with Carla, which should have come easily to me since she was a smoking hot brunette in the tiniest cocktail dress. I just couldn’t get close to her.
She leaned into me, touched my arm suggestively and laughed aloud at every little thing I said. She thought we were ‘getting to know each other, while the truth was, her voice was merely distracting me from thinking about Beth.
“I’ve had my eye on you all night, Vince Woods,” Carla said at one point, snapping me out of my thoughts.
This wasn’t working. I was still thinking about Beth, and it was driving me nuts.
“Okay, sure, I think I’m going to go,” I told her. I’d given up.
“Excuse me?” Carla’s brows were furrowed.
“I have to leave,” I told her and putting down my glass on the counter. Then I made to step away.
Carla caught my arm when I least expected it. She pulled me close to her. She grabbed me by surprise.
“You’re going to go? Just like that? I know you’re a player, but you haven’t even started!” she snapped.
She was still holding my arm as I was facing her. Our bodies were just inches apart. She looked up at me, parting her mouth in anticipation of a kiss. That was when the cameras flashed.
The lights blinded me and startled Carla enough, so she let go of my arm.
I rushed away from her like I was running for my life.
Cliff saw that, and he got up from h
is chair too. We ran out of the bar, Cliff fast on my heels.
“Shit, man! I’ve never seen you running away from a woman before,” he called out, and I stopped. He was right. This was madness. Wanting Beth had turned me into a stranger to myself, and I hated feeling this way.
Chapter 23
Beth
As much as I tried not to, I couldn’t help it. Every now and again, I went on the internet and typed Vince’s name just to see what would come up.
I saw the photos of him at the bar. There was a brunette’s arm around him. Her mouth was parted for a kiss. Had they just kissed or were they going to? When I saw the photos, it made me sick. I snapped away from my computer and switched it off like the screen had burned me.
I should have been furious. I was pregnant with Vince’s child, and he was out there, making out with hot women in bars. But I wasn’t mad, because the truth was this was none of his fault.
He had no idea I was pregnant, and he hadn’t led me on.
From the first night we met in Miami it was what it was. Not for a moment had Vince pretended to be a different guy. I had knowingly fallen for him. Even though I was fully aware of the kind of man he was. I kept sleeping with him and kept allowing my feelings to get tangled up in him.
And now, I was facing the consequences of it all.
I hadn’t done much since I found out I was pregnant. Other than panic, of course.
But the realization that I was going to be a mother, and be responsible for another human being hit me hard. I needed to pull up my socks and come up with a plan.
My best chance was to move to Silicon Valley, but how was I going to do that in this condition? I couldn’t just uproot my life and move to a new city without a support system in place. I needed to stay in New York, for as long as I could manage. I still had some money saved up. That would see me through a few more months. In the meantime, I decided that I would work on growing my own company.
The prospect was exciting. I should have thought of this a long time ago.
I had the expertise and the experience, and starting my own social media agency wouldn’t be very hard. The only thing was I needed clients. I had some money, but not enough to market myself in the way I needed to in this highly competitive industry.
For starters, I designed a website and started social media marketing myself, but that was going very slow. I hadn’t bagged any clients yet, and I wasn’t sure how to change that either. The only thing I could do was keep at it, keep working and hoping that sometime soon in the future, somebody would take a chance on me so I could prove myself.
Until then, it was just the baby growing inside me and me.
In my apartment, I walked around, thinking of new marketing ideas and researching and pondering on what kind of mother I was going to make.
I missed Vince. I wished things were different between us. I wished that we could have had a normal relationship and that this child could grow up knowing his or her father. But it was never meant to be that way, and thinking about Vince saddened me.
I wished him the best, but I was never going to let him find out about the baby. I didn’t want him to think I had trapped him in some way. And chances were that he wasn’t prepared for fatherhood, in which case he would reject this child, and I didn’t want my baby to have to go through that either.
So, the best thing to do for everyone, in this case, was to keep this to myself and hope everything just worked itself out. Hopefully, all this child would need was the support and love of its mother. Hopefully, that would be enough.
Sometimes, the stress of everything finally got to me when I would go to bed at night, and I would finally allow myself to cry.
Not only was I pregnant but I had also quit my job, and my agency was going nowhere yet. I wondered if I could go back to Nathan, begging for my job back. I wanted to apologize for being that arrogant as to think I could have a career in this industry without the company. Or, that I felt so highly of myself to do it alone.
Sometimes I couldn’t help but wonder if it was Nathan. If he was the one spreading rumors about me and deterring potential clients from coming to me with their business. It was possible. I royally pissed Nathan off by quitting, especially since he begged me to stay.
Whatever the deal was, I needed to find clients fast. Or else my only option would be to make a move to Silicon Valley and hope for the best. But who would hire a pregnant woman? I was aware of my situation and that I was running out of options.
Gia and Suzy were trying to be as supportive as they could, but I didn’t want them to pity me, so I underplayed most of my problems to them.
The baby hadn’t even arrived, and I had so much to worry about. I had no clue how I was going to do this once the baby came!
I thought about Vince often, looked at his photos online and told myself it was all just a dream. I kept convincing myself that we were not right for each other.
But a child was growing inside me, and it was his. So, wherever I went now, no matter how much time passed, I would always have a piece of him with me.
Chapter 24
Vince
I saw the photos of Carla and me at the bar, and I was sure that Beth would see them too. Unless of course, she didn’t give a shit anymore which was highly likely also.
The photos made me feel sick to my stomach. Why had I done that? Why did I go and approach those girls knowing there were always cameras pointed at me. I should have known people were waiting to pounce on me.
With each day that passed, I missed Beth more. The fact was that we barely knew each other. I had no idea what her childhood was like, if she had allergies to any food, what her favorite ice cream flavor was. She knew none of those things about me either.
Nonetheless, it felt like I had known her forever and now that she was gone, I couldn’t imagine spending the rest of my life without her. At night, when I was lying in bed, I was constantly thinking of her and imagining a future with her. I would fantasize about her body, getting to know her, and meeting her parents. I had so many different fantasies about professing my feelings to her.
Some kind of unearthly force seemed to have drawn me to Beth that night at the club in Miami. I picked her out of hundreds of women at that place, and unknowingly, she picked me too. That night with her on the beach was the most magical night of my life. I was never going to forget Beth. How was I supposed to move on from her?
I was realizing quickly that all my friends were right. I should have listened to them when they told me it was love.
What else could it have been?
The three of them had fallen in love. They have all been through this. They knew exactly what it felt like to fall in love with a beautiful, kind woman and I should have taken their advice.
Instead, I let her get away.
I shouldn’t have allowed Beth to walk away that day at the stadium. I should have held on to her, spilled my guts and told her everything I was feeling. But it was the fear of rejection that made me let her go and walk right out of my life. I will always regret that.
I had never been rejected before, and I thought Beth was going to be the first to reject me.
She was mistreated and cheated on by a man she thought she had a future with. How was she going to trust a guy like me after that? I was convinced she would reject me and I couldn’t face that fear.
I made the decision to let her walk away, rather than hear her say ‘no.’ Now, I regretted that more than anything. A month and a half had gone by, and my feelings for Beth hadn’t changed an ounce.
This was for real. It was time I faced the music.
It was time I faced my fears and put myself on the line. If she didn’t want me, I would deal with that. I needed to hear her say ‘no’ first.
* * *
I stormed into Leo’s office while he was on the phone with someone else.
“Vince? What are you doing here?” I never went to his office.
“I need you to get in touch with Beth Thomas
,” I said, shutting the door behind me.
Leo drew in a deep breath and stood up from his chair.
“You’ve changed your mind about the whole social media thing?” he asked.
“Sure.”
“That’s great, man!” Leo was visibly delighted. He came around the table towards me, meaning to shake my hand. “I’ll get in touch with Soletraders again, ask them to put together a team for you!”
“No. I don’t need them. I need you to get in touch with Beth Thomas specifically. Find me a phone number or something.”
I stood my ground, keeping my hands tucked into the pockets of my jeans. Leo was staring at me, confused.
“I told you, she doesn’t work there anymore.”
“Okay, well I’m not asking you to get me the company, am I? I don’t give a shit about Soletraders. Just find her,” I growled.
Leo was eyeing me up and down, trying to figure out the situation.
“I knew something was up between the two of you. Are you going to tell me what happened?” he asked.
“Fine!” I snapped at him. “I knew her from before she came to Boston. We met in Miami a few days before that at a club. We spent the night together.”
“I knew it!” Leo snapped his fingers. “I could sense it in the air between the two of you!”
“When she came here we continued with that relationship. We thought it was going nowhere, and now I can’t get her out of my mind,” I continued.
Leo was smiling by the end of that.
“You in love with her, man?” he asked.
I ran a hand through my hair.
“Yeah, I think so,” I said. It was the first time I was admitting it to someone else, even to myself. Leo nodded.
“I knew there was something different about you. There had to be a reason why she just quit her job the moment she got back.”
“Do you think you can get a hold of her?” I asked. Leo shrugged his shoulders.
Daddy Player: A BILLIONAIRE SPORTS BABY ROMANCE Page 8