His Pretend Baby

by Theodora Taylor

  It was almost enough to make him forget he’d heard her once again proclaim her love to Sam after he turned off the shower last Saturday. It was almost enough to make him forget he was paying her to take care of his needs. All of his needs.

  Almost.

  Eventually it was Friday again, and Mac showed up, bursting the girlfriend-boyfriend fantasy bubble he’d kept Josie and himself in for the past six days.

  But Mac’s presence didn’t keep Beau from kissing her after breakfast. And kissing her, and kissing her, and kissing her, until Mac cleared his throat.

  “If we don’t get going soon, we’re going to be late for your appointment.”

  He didn’t want to let her go, didn’t want to leave the house for the first time since he’d arrive.

  “What are you planning to do while I’m gone?” he asked her, ignoring Mac.

  “Go to the grocery store,” she answered with a laugh. “We’re out of everything again.”

  “You’re not going anywhere else?” he asked, thinking of the boyfriend she hadn’t seen in over a week.

  “I’ll be back before you are,” she said. Then she stroked a hand over his hair. “Don’t be afraid. Everything will be all right, no matter what happens during the appointment.”

  “I’m not afraid,” he said. At least he wasn’t afraid of what she thought he was afraid of. He was determined to get his eyesight back and return to the man he used to be, but right now he was more afraid of losing Josie to this Sam before he could make that happen. He cupped a hand around the back of her neck. “I want you here when I get back. That’s not a request.”

  A pause. “Okay.” But her voice sounded a little hollow to him, the way it did whenever she was biting back what she really wanted to say.

  He kissed her again, reminded her of who had made her come too many times to count this week. He would have kept on kissing her, but Mac cleared his throat even louder this time.

  “Let me walk you to the car,” she said.

  He shook his head. “Mac can handle that.”

  When he got his sight back, he could finally woo Josie the way he wanted to woo her. Bring her out to L.A. and show her the life she could have with him if she just got rid of this Sam joker. Meanwhile, the less Josie saw of him being led around like an invalid the better.

  “But I want to.”

  “I’ll see you when I get back.” He let her out of his embrace. “Now get.”

  “Whatever you say, Mr. Prescott,” she answered. But this time she sounded less like she was joking, and more like she was very reluctantly following his orders.

  He waited until he heard her go through the kitchen door, before he allowed Mac to lead him outside.

  “So you and Josie, huh?” Mac said after they were in the car.

  He liked the sound of that. “Yeah, me and Josie. You have anything to say about that?”

  “Nope, just fishing for some gossip.”

  He was fairly sure Mac was joking, but another dark cloud passed over his thoughts. What would the L.A. gossip rags say if they knew what was going on here? That he was paying a woman from his past an insane amount of money to sleep with him?

  “That fish ain’t going to bite,” he told Mac. “So you might as well turn on the radio.”

  The mood remained jovial in the car, but it soured soon after they arrived at UAB’s Callahan Eye Hospital.

  “Hunh…” Mac said after they were escorted into a room and told Dr. Grant, their neuro-ophthamology fellow, would be joining them very soon.

  “What?” Beau asked.

  “That nurse led us into an office. I would have thought we’d be doing this in an exam room.”

  So did Beau. In fact, instead of saying hello when the doctor came in a few minutes later, he asked, “Shouldn’t we be in an exam room?”

  “No need,” Dr. Grant answered. “I’ve looked over the charts your assistant Carol sent me, and I can already tell you’re a very promising candidate for the procedure we’re developing to treat cortical blindness with neural stem cell transplantation.”

  Beau grinned. “Exactly what I wanted to hear. When do we get started?”

  “Get started?” the doctor said.

  He sounded confused, which made Beau frown. “You told my assistant you wanted to meet with me?”

  “Yes,” the doctor said. “To talk about how our research might affect your case. As you may or may not know, the Prescott Trust continues to be one of UAB’s most generous donors. However, the money has traditionally been directed toward the School of Business, per your father’s will. I was hoping you might be interested in either diverting some of that ongoing allocation or donating to the Department of Ophthalmology yourself, since you might be able to benefit from the research we’re doing here… someday.”

  “When you say ‘someday,’ do you mean someday next month?” Beau asked.

  “More like someday in the next decade—I hope.” The doctor’s voice sounded very agitated now. “I’m sorry, Mr. Prescott, I didn’t purposefully mean to mislead you. But now I’m seeing something might have been lost in translation when I talked with your assistant about all of this.”

  Beau gritted his teeth together. “She said you said that you had fixed cases like mine before. Hundreds of them.”

  “Again I’m extremely sorry, Mr. Prescott. When she said you were interested in my research, I assumed she had read my papers in full, and I was so excited about possibly getting your financial support for the Department of Ophthalmology—but I should have given more of a mind toward managing your expectations.”

  Beau could barely comprehend what this guy was telling him. How the hell was he supposed to manage his expectations? He either got his sight back and returned to playing football, or his whole life was ruined.

  He held up a hand up to stop the doctor’s blathering. “Did you or did you not cure hundreds of cortical blindness cases like you claimed?”

  “Yes, I did,” the doctor said, his voice laced with frustration. “In mice. Those cases I told your assistant about referred to the work we’ve done with mice. We’re still several years away from being able pursue human trials, and there are a few hoops to jump through before that—hoops that will require a lot of time and money, which is why I wanted to meet with you…”

  He kept talking, but Beau didn’t hear much beyond “in mice.”

  “Get me out of here,” he told Mac.

  “Mr. Prescott, I’m sorry to have disappointed you, but if you could just consider how much a large donation would benefit the work we’re doing here.”

  “Mac!” he bit out.

  Less than five minutes later he was back in the passenger side of Mac’s car.

  “Call Carol and tell her she’s fired,” he said as soon as he heard Mac get in on the passenger side.

  “Firing folks isn’t exactly in my job description,” Mac said. “I’m just supposed to be your home aide.”

  “Fire her and then I want you to find a doctor who can fix me.”

  “Man, I know you’re in your feelings right now. I would be, too. Maybe what we should do is call Josie. She’s the kind of girl you want by your side after you get news like this.”

  Beau gritted his teeth. Mac had no idea Josie had professed her love to another man twice within earshot and that she was only with him because he was paying her.

  “Mac, I’m going to say this once,” he said. “Don’t talk to me about Josie. You have no idea what kind of girl she is, so keep opinions about her to yourself. Either do what I tell you, or you can find another job, too.”

  “Sorry, man, I overstepped.” Mac started up the car. “I’ll ask around and do some research. See what I can find.”

  They drove the rest of the way home in silence.

  * * *

  Josie was home when he arrived back at the house, just like she said she would be. He knew this because she showed up a few minutes after Mac left him alone in his bedroom. Right after he’d just laid himself down on
his bed with the weight of the world crushing down on his chest.

  “Hey,” she said, crawling into bed with him. “Mac’s gone.”

  “Good,” he said between clenched teeth.

  He could hear Josie hesitate and shift in the bed before she said, “It’s not Mac’s fault that neurosurgeon didn’t tell you what you wanted to hear.”

  “I don’t want to talk about this,” he said.

  “But maybe you should talk about it. It would probably make you feel better.”

  His jaw set. “I’m not paying for your fucking counsel. I don’t need you to lend a goddamned ear. If you really want to help me, shut up and strip.”

  The old Josie wouldn’t have let him talk to her that way. The old Josie would have put him in his place. But this Josie just went silent for a few long moments before saying, “I’m already naked.”

  His dick sprang to life like she’d hit it with a defibrillator. “Hell, Josie, why didn’t you lead with that?”

  She swung a leg over his torso and made herself comfortable, so he could feel the heat of her pussy through the crotch of his tailored trousers. “Now I’m unbuttoning your shirt…”

  She unbuttoned his shirt and let her hands fan over his chest before leaning forward.

  “I’m kissing you on your neck.” She placed a kiss on his shoulder, then started working her way down his chest. “…and on your chest… your stomach.”

  Her soft, warm lips pressed into a few of his ab muscles. Then he heard an unzipping sound. “The next part is a surprise.”

  Her tongue flicked across the slit at the top of his dick and his whole body seized up. It was just a lick, a tease really, but just the thought of Josie touching him that way… She sucked on his bulbous head for a few moments before licking her way down his shaft.

  He clenched his teeth. “Josie…”

  She took him all the way into her mouth, so far in he could feel the back of her warm wet throat on the tip of his dick.

  He groaned out his pleasure and fumbled until he found the back of her head. “Keep going, darlin’,” he said, helping her find a good rhythm.

  And she did just that, bobbing her head up and down on his dick and sucking like a vacuum at the same time.

  “Oh, hell, you’ve got to stop.”

  There was a wet pop of sound when she let go of his penis. “What? You want me to stop? Am I not doing it right?”

  He laughed, actually laughed after being told the procedure he’d been counting on to fix him wasn’t ready for humans yet. “No, you’re doing it too right, darlin’. I don’t want to come in your mouth.”

  “Oh.” A few beats of silence, then she said, “I don’t mind if you come in my mouth.”

  And a bolt of hot lust pumped through his dick. “That’s tempting, darlin’, but what I’m trying to tell you is there’s only one place I want to come right now. Inside you. So I’ll need you to grab a condom and climb on top again.”

  She did what he said, stretching the condom over his aching erection before settling herself on top of him again. But then she asked, “Is this really how you want to do this, or are you just not wanting to tell me I wasn’t doing it right?”

  He affectionately rubbed his hands over her thighs. “When have I ever been the one to spare your feelings?”

  “Never,” she grumbled.

  “That’s right, never. And I’m not going to start now. I’m telling it to you straight. I want to be inside of you.”

  Without warning, he flipped her over, and entered her in one swift move. To his delight, her tunnel was slick and wet, even without foreplay. “And from the feel of it, you want me inside of you, too.”

  Her only answer to that was to wrap her legs around his waist, effectively clamping him to her as he lifted up and started moving inside of her with long, exploratory strokes. He’d wanted to tease her like this for while, but then she started in with her pretty little moans. And soon he was ramming himself inside of her just to hear the sound of her crying out for more.

  He spun a fantasy around them then, imagining he still had his sight, that Josie had voluntarily come to his bed, that they had future together. In the end, they came at the same time, their arms wrapped around each other in a rictus of pleasure.

  He rolled off of her, and she snuggled into his side, laying her head on his chest. They laid like that for a long time, and just when he thought she’d fallen asleep, she said, “When I first got to Alabama, I went looking for my father. I thought maybe after all this time, he’d be happy to finally meet the daughter he’d never known.”

  Beau stilled. He didn’t know much about Josie’s father, just that he had never been in the picture of Josie’s life. He sensed that this story wasn’t one she’d shared with many people. “Did you find him?”

  “I found his grave. In a cemetery not ten miles from here,” A sour sadness tinged her next words. “Turns out he died in a car accident five years ago. Left behind a wife but no kids. He was white, so I guess I’m half-white, too, but I didn’t know that until I’d spent most of my life thinking I was all black--and I guess that’s how he saw me, too. As the black daughter he didn’t want anything to do with, because I was the only kid he ever had, but he never came looking for me.”

  His arm tightened around Josie. “I’m sorry he didn’t come looking for you. Dads can be assholes,” he said, thinking of his father, who had maintained that his pro quarterback son was a bitter disappointment until the very end.

  “The point is I know more than a little something about building an event up in your head and then having the truth crush you back down, and I’m sorry that happened you today.” She nuzzled his chest with her nose. “But I hope you’re feeling a little better about it now.”

  He did feel better. A lot better, in fact, and it was all because of Josie.

  That was when he made a solemn vow to himself: Every single thing he’d fantasized about while they were making love would eventually come to pass, because he would be keeping Josie even after their agreed upon time was up.

  He didn’t know how yet, but he’d find a way.

  He fell into a deep sleep then, dreaming of a wedding on a football field, him dressed in his Suns uniform, a bride beside him as they listened to the head coach of his football team say, “You may now kiss the bride.” He lifted the bride’s veil, and there was Josie smiling up at him, her happy eyes like a magnet pulling him down to kiss her—

  Knock! Knock! Knock!

  The dream flickered out and was replaced with the absence of any image at all when he opened his eyes. But the sound of knocking on the door remained. Why would Josie be knocking on the door?

  “Who is it?” he called.

  “It’s Mac, Mr. Prescott.”

  He sat up. Josie. He groped around the bed, but it was empty. Where was she?

  “Is it okay if I come in?” Mac asked outside the door.

  “What are you doing here?” Beau asked back. “Is it morning already?”

  The door opened and he heard the click of a light switch being flipped. “Sorry for not waiting for permission, but it seemed like it would be easier to talk without the door. You hungry yet? Got some of Josie’s chili simmering downstairs if you want it.”

  “Is that where Josie is? Downstairs? And you still haven’t told me why you’re here.”

  “Josie was afraid this might happen. That’s why she called me in, so you wouldn’t be confused.”

  He shook his head. “If she called you in to keep me from being confused, it’s not working, because I’m still not understanding what’s going on here.”

  “According to Josie, you fell asleep and she didn’t want to wake you because she thought you needed it after getting that news today.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” he said, signaling for Mac to get on with the story.

  “But she told me to wake you by eight, because you hadn’t eaten lunch and she wanted me to make sure you got some dinner in you.”

  He shook his head. �
��I’m still not understanding why you’re here telling me this and not her.”

  Mac’s next words hit him like a punch in the gut. “Oh, because Josie left out of here a couple of hours ago. She said something about it being her night off. She also said not to wait up for her, because she’s going to be back real late, so she’ll… er…. just sleep in her own room tonight.”

  Beau sat there feeling like a fool. While he’d been dreaming of weddings on football fields, Josie had been stealing away to meet up with Sam. And she hadn’t even respected him enough to tell him in person that she was leaving.

  “Mr. Prescott?” came Mac’s voice again. “You all right?”

  14

  It was her night off. She was allowed to leave the house. Beau couldn’t keep her from living her own life in her off hours.

  At least that was what Josie told herself. But guilt plagued her as she went about her business at the shelter. As busy as Ruth’s House was, with the usual stack of paperwork, piles of linens that needing washing, and two new intakes, one of a willowy blonde with two big-eyed children in tow, thoughts of Beau Prescott dogged her as she helped Sam put out one fire after another.

  Coming here had seemed like a great idea earlier in the day. She’d let her Saturday duties go the week before, and she knew Sam could more than use the extra pair of hands.

  But really it was Beau’s command that she come right back after going to the grocery store that had made the decision for her.

  She had adjusted surprisingly fast to being someone’s sex partner for money. But the way Beau tried to keep her from leaving the house made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Not just because of the presumption of it all, but also because it reminded her of Wayne who by the last year of their marriage, didn’t let her go anywhere but the grocery store unaccompanied.