The Bad Boy's Dance

by Vera Calloway

  Quinn pouted. “But I wanna see Grammie and Granpa. Grammie promised cookies. But Grandpa put almonds in the gooey stuff and Grammie was mad and I got to watch T.V. Can I watch the princess show today?”

  As always, her daughter’s rambling helped lighten Annie’s mood. Connor was still watching her carefully, and Annie ruffled his hair. “I think Connor called dibs today. Maybe he’ll let you.”

  Connor was a sucker for his little sister’s sad face, so he ran ahead quickly. “No! Transformers is on today!”

  Quinn wriggled out of Annie’s arms and gave chase.

  Annie followed her children into the house and hovered in the doorway, gazing at the empty driveway.

  Maybe tomorrow.

  Meanwhile, Paul was starting to regret going over to his parents’ house.

  “Victor! I told you not to let Henry into the guest bedroom! You know that’s where I hide the cookie!” Mom shouted, dragging her chocolate-stained grandchild to the sink. Henry had a satisfied grin on his face as Mom lifted him to the faucet and proceeded to scrub his face clean.

  Dad shrugged, flipping through his newspaper. “Darling, you know he would have gotten in there one way or another. He has his father’s talent for raiding other people’s food.”

  Paul grinned as his ten year old nephew hopped onto a stool beside him and pretended to read the newspaper with his Grandpa. Henry was staying with Mom and Dad this week since Ivy was expected to go into labor any second, and they didn’t want to psychologically scar Henry by taking him to the hospital with them when Mommy pushed out his younger sibling.

  “Paul, honey, you never told us why you dropped by. Not that we aren’t happy to see you, but its Valentine’s Day. Shouldn’t you be with Annie? I actually expected to see Connor and Quinn dropped off,” Mom commented, sitting opposite him on the kitchen island. She distractedly pushed Dad’s slipping glasses up the bridge of his nose.

  “What’s your secret?” Paul blurted. “How have you and Dad been happily married for so long?”

  Mom was thrown, and even Dad flicked his gaze up from the newspaper. “What’s wrong, Paul?”

  There was still the matter of the ten year old at the table. Mom must have picked up on his reluctance, because she tugged Henry from the table and towards the T.V. “Here’s the remote, you can watch Transformers!”

  Henry cast a suspicious glance at his Grammie, but wasn’t about to pass up the offer of uninterrupted T.V. Mom returned to her seat and leveled her concerned gaze at her eldest son.

  Paul rubbed his neck and exhaled. “Annie and I…we’ve been fighting. A lot. Nothing important, just a bunch of stupid stuff. But it feels like there’s nothing but the stupid stuff anymore. She’s stubborn and can hold a mother of a grudge, and God knows my patience seems to be deteriorating year by year.”

  Mom reached out and grabbed his hand, cupping it in both of hers. “Paul, marriage isn’t easy, and it isn’t a smooth ride. But if two people love each other as much as you and Annie do, you can fix anything. Right now, you guys are focusing on the petty things to avoid something bigger. So think. What are you two not saying?”

  Paul gave a humorless laugh. “I’m the psychologist and I need marriage counseling from my mother.”

  Mom arched a brow. “A mother’s advice is never obsolete, dear. Now think.”

  Paul shrugged but obediently searched his memory banks for what might be the real reason he and Annie were fighting.

  “Think about when all the fighting started. Think about the trigger.”

  Paul’s brow furrowed in concentration. “I think it was a few months ago…we were supposed to go out for a late dinner. Annie hired a babysitter, got her makeup done, the whole enchilada…but I was exhausted from work. I came home, promised to make it up to her, and fell asleep. The rest of the week, I’d come home and try to take her out to dinner again, but she was pissed at me. I tried. I came home early for a week. What was I supposed to do? But yeah…that was when everything became a problem and things started falling apart.”

  Mom pursed her lips thoughtfully. “What day was this dinner supposed to be exactly?”

  “December 3rd. I’d seen one of my more volatile patients that day.”

  Paul was instantly on guard when Mom’s expression took on a pityingly knowing look. “Wasn’t that Annie’s birthday, honey? Her thirtieth birthday?”

  He froze. No way. It couldn’t be…was it?

  “Shit,” Paul cursed, dropping his head onto the cold counter.

  Dad finally piped up. “Don’t use that language in front of your mother. Although the situation does warrant it. Damn, son, if I’d forgotten your mother’s big three-oh, she would’ve put my head on a pike.”

  Mom patted Dad’s arm. “Now, don’t exaggerate. I would’ve dismembered the rest of you first.”

  Paul stood, fire in his heart and regret in his veins. “I have to go see her. God, how could I have been so stupid? She’s my best friend, the mother of my children…and I’ve paid more attention to my patients than I have to her.”

  With a huge smile, Mom shooed him to the door. “Well, what are you waiting for?”

  Ruffling Henry’s shaggy hair as he headed for the door, he dialed Annie’s number and waited impatiently while it rang. He was about to climb into his car when he felt a tug on the back of his shirt.

  Henry had his arms crossed over his chest, and cobalt eyes regarded him with surprising maturity. “Fix it with Auntie Ann. She smells nice and doesn’t tell Grammie when I take cookies. There aren’t a lot like her.”

  With that proclamation, he ran back inside. Paul watched his nephew go and chuckled. Asher and Ivy were going to have a party controlling that one when he hit his teen years.

  “Hello?” Annie’s voice in his ear drew his attention back to the matter at hand.

  “Annie,” he spoke in a rush, words tripping over themselves in their hurry. “Baby, I am so sorry I forgot your birthday. I just…it completely slipped my mind, which is no excuse.”

  There was a sniffle on the other end and the sound of a door shutting. “It’s not just my birthday. We don’t do anything together anymore. We have a routine, and I don’t mind having a routine, but this one doesn’t involve us being part of each other’s lives. I…I want to watch dumb movies with you for hours, I want to take our kids to an annoying arcade together, I want to not go to sleep with you at night.”

  Paul switched on the engine and backed out of his parent’s driveway, flipping on the car’s Bluetooth so he was hands-free. He waved at Mom, who was peeking from behind the curtains. “I want to do all those things too. I’ll take some time off work. All of us can go on vacation, anywhere you want.”

  Annie giggled, and the sound was music to his ears. “We’ll talk about that when you come home. Might be a bad idea though, since Ivy’s due to pop any day now and she’ll be pissed if we take away the extra babysitters.”

  Paul chuckled. “She won’t mind.” He knew that for a fact. If she’d known he was having trouble with his wife, she would have smacked him upside the head and told him to get his noodles together.

  Suddenly, the car went over something and depressed to the right, sending the back careening into the curb. Paul cursed, gripping the wheel tightly to keep it from spinning.

  “Paul? Paul!” Annie’s frantic voice helped him focus just as the car came to a stop, front against the sidewalk and bumper pointed towards the street. Paul flicked on his emergency light.

  “I’m okay. I just ran over something. I think it popped my tire.”

  “Where are you? I’ll come get you!” Annie sounded no less worried.

  Paul squinted at the street sign. “Oh, I’m like a block away from Darwin High. Let me call you back, honey.”

  “Okay. Be careful. I’ll be there in ten,” she promised, then paused. “I love you.”

  Paul smiled softly. “I love you too.”

  They hung up, and Paul stuck his phone in his back pocket as he rounded the car to
see the culprit. A long metal pipe was bent and twisted on the road, and three spiky edges pointed upwards, undoubtedly the things that had ripped into his tire.

  Paul studied the thing and picked it up gingerly, throwing it in the trunk. If this cost a lot to fix, he’d track the owner of the car and get them to cough up insurance money.

  “Havin’ some trouble there, son?” Paul nearly leapt from his skin at the sound of a gruff voice behind him. He whirled around to find a burly man wearing red flannel and overalls regarding him cheerfully.

  Paul eyed him warily. “Some car trouble, nothing big.”

  The man scratched his beard. “You need a ride somewhere? I parked my truck down a ways.” He pointed to the left, and Paul followed it to a rusty truck parked against the curb.

  Paul hesitated, but he supposed it would save him a lot of trouble to wait for help at Darwin. Especially if Annie brought the kids with her. “Could you drop me off at the high school a block away? I’d be much obliged.”

  The trucker gestured towards his vehicle. “Let’s go on then. Time’s a wastin’.”

  Paul followed him to the truck and hopped into the passenger’s seat. The trucker started the engine with a rumble. He smiled at Paul as they made their way down the street. “You’ve always been the easier one. Your brother nearly made me retire my engine.”

  Paul scooted towards the door and stared at the trucker, preparing to tackle him if need be. “Excuse me?”

  The truck came to a stop in front of the school. Night had fallen, and Paul nearly threw himself from the car. He glanced back when he was a good four feet away from the weirdo. “Thanks for the, um, ride.”

  The trucker tipped his head. “Oh, and son? Two things: she needs a surprise party, and you’d best be getting to the hospital.”

  With that, he drove off, leaving Paul staring after his exhaust like a fool. What the…

  He saw Annie’s car about to drive past the school and flagged her down quickly. She parked and jumped from the car and into his arms. “Thank God you’re okay.”

  He buried his nose in her hair and held her tightly, finally feeling at peace. “Of course I am. It’s Valentine’s Day, and we need to get ourselves to a crappy arcade.”

  “Mommy! Daddy said the C-word!” came Quinn’s accusatory holler from the back of the car.

  “Don’t worry, baby!” Annie called. “I’ll punish him later.” With that delicious promise, Annie released him and opened the door for the kids.

  “Have you called Triple A yet?” she inquired.

  “No, I was just-” he extracted his phone from his pocket only to have it ring in his hands. It was Mom.

  “Hey Mom, we-”

  “IVY’S IN LABOR!” came the panicked cry before she promptly hung up.

  Paul stared at his phone, then at the road. What the hell? How…Annie watched him curiously. “Who was that?”

  “Mom…Ivy’s in labor. We need to get to the hospital!”

  Annie herded the kids back inside, and Paul was about to climb in when he saw two familiar people sprinting across the campus.

  “What the…Jodi! Spencer!” he shouted, stopping the figures. They ran towards him, breathing heavily.

  “Thank God you’re here! Derek left already and Spencer’s ride left already and we need a ride to the hospital because I’m about to get another nephew or niece!” Jodi rambled hysterically.

  “Get in the car!” Paul commanded, making a note to ask them what the hell they were doing here later.

  Everyone piled in, and Paul waited till seatbelts were on before he floored the car down the street. Annie called a mechanic and one of their friends to come deal with his poor car.

  “She’s gonna have a Valentine’s baby! How cute is that?” Jodi squealed, jumping up and down. Connor rolled his eyes and returned his attention to his book. Quinn, mimicking her Aunt, started clapping her hands in excitement.

  “We still don’t know if it’s a boy or girl,” Spencer pointed out.

  “Either way, Henry’s gets to be a big brother!”

  They sped to the hospital and parked in the first available space. Paul ran ahead with Jodi and Spencer while Annie herded the kids towards the entrance. The three of them halted in front of the receptionist’s desk, winded.

  “Hi, we’re looking for Ivy Grayson’s room?” Jodi asked, hopping from foot to foot.

  The woman was attractive, and Paul glanced at Spencer to see if he had his ‘come-hither’ face on, but he was surprised. Spencer was staring at his phone, a strangely affectionate smile on his face. Paul made a note to ask him about that later.

  “Are you family?” the receptionist drawled.

  “YES!” the three cried.

  “Room thirty-six C, third floor.”

  And they were off. Connor and Quinn ran ahead of them, caught up in the action.

  They knew they’d reached the right floor when they saw the woman of the hour being rolled from her room in her bed. Asher walked beside her, holding her hand tightly.

  “Ivy!” Jodi shouted, sprinting to their sister. Ivy greeted them with a strangled scream. Connor and Quinn halted, glancing at Annie questioningly.

  “I HATE YOU!” Ivy screamed. Asher sighed and patted her hand.

  “YOU RAT BASTARD!” she continued shrilly. The nurse wheeling her picked up her pace, and the group had to jog to keep up with them.

  “Yes, yes,” Asher agreed patiently. “You can slap me with a sardine once you deliver our baby safely.”

  “OUR BABY? I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware you were the one about to push eight pounds of human out of a STRAW!”

  Annie clapped her hands over their children’s ears and Spencer cleared his throat to mask his laughter. Asher just rolled his eyes.

  They went through a door, and Paul moved to follow them only to be cut off by a nurse. “I’m sorry, nobody past this door.”

  “We’re family!”

  Spencer clapped him on the shoulder. “We can go in after. I love Ivy, but I’m pretty sure I’d rather scoop out my eyeballs then witness whatever’s about to go down in that room.”

  “He makes a fair point,” Jodi conceded. Sighing, Paul followed them to the waiting room and settled into a chair. He was just wondering how long the whole thing would take when Ivy’s voice cut through the silence.

  “THE BABY’S COMING!”

  Paul grinned and took Annie’s hand in his. She squeezed his fingers. “How do you think Ivy’s doing in there?”

  Paul laughed. “It’s not her I’m worried about. Asher’s probably gonna walk out more injured than her.”

  Annie leaned her head on his shoulder as Quinn crawled into her lap. “I think he wouldn’t want it any other way.”

  Paul smiled fondly.

  “Not in a million years.”

  Asher

  “PUSH!”

  “WHAT DO YOU THINK I’M DOING? BAKING A FREAKING CAKE?” Ivy hollered.

  The doctor straightened Ivy’s legs in the stirrups and looked at Asher imploringly.

  Asher wiped the sweaty strands of hair from Ivy’s forehead. “C’mon angel, you’ve got to push through it so we can meet our baby. Henry’s probably here by now, and you know how he is with patience.”

  Ivy threw her head back, a scream ripping from her throat as she pushed. Asher winced. He hated this part. Seeing Ivy in so much pain made him want to tear things apart, but there was nothing he could do about it. He was utterly helpless.

  She panted. The doctor encouraged her on, and Ivy gritted her teeth.

  Asher got an idea.

  He untangled his hand from hers, ignoring the murderous expression on her face. Taking her hand, he placed it squarely on his ass. Despite her exhaustion, Ivy raised her brows.

  “You have a thing for pinching my ass. My ass has a thing for being pinched. Now push, angel!”

  “Don’t be cute when I want to kill you!” Ivy wailed as her muscles contracted.

  “One more, Ivy! You can do it!” the doct
or shouted.

  With a pinch that would have put most lobsters to shame, Ivy threw her head back, lifted her hips, and pushed. After the ringing his ears from her unearthly scream faded, he registered another cry. A high, reedy cry that was like music to his ears and a balm for his sore ass.

  After a lot of wiping and a nurse removing the umbilical cord (Asher could never bring himself to cut it), their baby was swaddled in a pink blanket.

  “Pink,” Ivy gasped, reaching up to grab Asher’s arm. “Does that mean…”

  Asher kissed his wife’s sweaty forehead as the nurse walked over to them. “Mr. and Mrs. Grayson, say hello to your little girl.”

  Asher laughed incredulously, and Ivy’s eyes welled with tears. She took the tiny bundle from the nurse and cradled the baby to her chest.

  “Asher,” she whispered, tears coursing down her cheeks. “She’s so beautiful.”

  He crouched beside them and gently lifted his daughter’s fingers. “That’s because she looks just like her mom.”

  “She has your eyes,” Ivy sniffed, kissing the baby’s little fingers.

  Asher chuckled. “Her eyes are closed, sweetheart.”

  “I can just tell, okay?”

  Asher wasn’t about to argue with the woman who’d just birthed his kid. “Got it.”

  “You said if it was a girl…”Ivy trailed off, lifting her face to beseech him with that puppy-dog look of hers.

  Asher sighed. He’d been worried about this, but fair was fair. Secretly, he wasn’t even opposed to their deal. He just enjoyed getting a rise out of her.

  “I know what I said,” he sighed dramatically.

  Ivy smiled, and his heart melted. She’d captured him in her spell from the minute she’d stomped on his foot outside Principal Henderson’s office, and Asher never wanted to wake up.

  “Cassidy Luna Grayson, say hi to your Mommy and Daddy, baby girl,” Ivy murmured. She peered at one of the nurses. “Could you please call our families in?”

  The doctor nodded her approval to the nurse. “Alright, but not for too long. You need your rest.” She squeezed Ivy’s shoulder. “Congratulations.”

  With that, the medical personnel exited. The door had barely closed before it was bursting open. Through it came Paul, Annie, their kids, Jodi, Spencer, Ivy’s parents, Dex, Dana, Caleb, Kyle, his Mom and Dad, and his son. Asher held out his hand for Henry, who hesitantly approached the bed. Ivy beamed down at their son. His small hand squeezed Asher’s nervously.