Hand of Thorns

by Ashley Beale

  He tilts his head over at me. "Really?"

  "It hurts, and I'm already jealous, but... but I can't say no."

  "Thank you, beautiful." He leans in to brush his lips against mine. "One last thing."

  "What?" I question, kind of nervous.

  "Next Friday there is a banquet in honor of my brother. I was asked to invite you."

  "You were asked?"

  He runs his hand through his hair nervously. "By my brother... in front of Ellie. They both suggested I asked you."

  "Oh." Not what I had expected at first.

  "You don't have to go, but I'd like for you to."

  "And Ellie is going to be there?" He nods his head. "I don't know, Leon. It doesn't sound very enticing."

  He rubs my thigh, squeezing it while he stares at me through his frames. "You're due in three weeks. You could go early, late, or on time. We have no idea. What I do know is for the first few weeks after the baby is born, I probably won't get to see you much. I want to spend every moment between now and then as possible together, even if it's something like this banquet."

  I groan. "Fine. Whatever. I'll be there."

  He kisses me once more before positioning himself back to normal and shoving the car into first gear. "Good. I had my assistant buy you a dress already."

  "Oh, God, I'm going to look like a whale in a dress."

  “You're going to look so fucking gorgeous in a dress, like you always do."

  The tension between us eases completely and I can relax into the seat once more, enjoying the remainder of the ride. I ask him about his commercial ad yesterday, and he tells me the boring details on the different backgrounds they used, and what kind of boxer briefs they made him wear, along with the model- Shey Ashborn- they used. I absolutely love hearing about it, since we don't talk about his career all too often, but I can't help and wonder to myself if he's honestly ever had another affair with someone else. I know he said he hasn’t, but it doesn’t mean that was the truth. I mean, Shey Ashborn was on the cover to Maxim last month, and is obsessed over by men and women everywhere. Basically a female version of Leon. They'd be perfect together, which is probably why they were doing the cologne commercial together- and that thought makes me sad.

  I don't tell him though, I don't bring any of it up, because I know that while I'm with Leon- or whatever this exactly is between us- thoughts like this will swarm. I have to try to stay confident that in the end, it'll be him and I, and no one else. Not that I'd take him away from Spud or anything, I want him to have a healthy relationship with his daughter, and hopefully if he does leave Ellie they'll still get along for their child, but someday I want to go public with Leon. I want him to be monogamous with me.

  It's probably a lot to ask for, and I know it's downright selfish, but it doesn't change what I hope for. How I envision my future with him.

  When we arrive at this hospital, he parks the car and gets out with me. I glance over the top of the car at him. "What are you doing?"

  "Coming with you."

  "She could be in there for hours. You don't have to wait around for that."

  "What if I say I want to?"

  "It's your birthday."

  He smirks, and with his sunglasses on, it makes me want to throw myself at him, right here right now. "My birthday was yesterday. I wanted to spend today with you, regardless to how it's spent."

  I'm speechless. Walking around the car, I hug around his chest. "Thank you."

  He kisses the top of my head. Melting into his touch, I realize we're out in public, and he's showing me affection. To me, that is a major step. We even walk hand in hand indoors, all the way to the third floor where the Labor and Delivery Ward is.

  William meets us outside the room. He stares at Leon for a long minute. "Oh, uh, hey man. I'm William."

  "Leon," he replies. His voice in that husky, stern tone I fell for in the beginning. He stands taller, maybe as a way of being alpha or something. Either way, I find it unrulingly sexy.

  "She's asking for you," Williams says to me, still eyeing Leon cautiously. "She's covered up if you both want to go in, but uh, sorry man, you're going to have to wait in the waiting room when it's time to push."

  Leon perks one of his eyebrows up. "Trust me, I planned on it."

  William laughs uncomfortably, rubbing the back of his neck as he turns to enter back into the room. "You got some visitors," he announces.

  "Is it Mom?"

  I peek my head around. "Surprise, not Mom, but I'm here!"

  "Oh, honestly I'm kind of relieved," she laughs. "I'm not prepared for Mom to be here to tell me everything I'm doing wrong while in labor." Her smile slowly fades as her eyes grow larger, rounding in shock. "Oh... hi."

  I bite nervously on my bottom lip as Leon places his arm over my shoulders. "Yeah, I didn't know he'd be joining me either." I can't help the ridiculous smile on my face.

  "Well, you may as well prepare yourself. It won't be much longer until you're standing here next to Monica."

  William interrupts, clearing his throat first. "So... you two are a thing? I thought you got inseminated?"

  "I did," I answer. Bashful about being called out.

  "Things aren't always black and white," Leon adds in. Each time he speaks to William, he sounds more domineering. "Unexpected things happen."

  "Not judging," William adds in. But by the look he gives me for a quick moment, he is definitely lying through his teeth. I ignore it, even though it hurts a little, because I want to focus on Penelope.

  She starts to breathe heavier and the machine picks up on something. "What is happening?"

  William walks over to hold her hand. "She's having a contraction. They're getting worse each time."

  When Penelope is done breathing, she cracks her head in my direction. "Haven't you been doing Lamaze?"

  "Yeah, I know how to breathe and all that, but... I guess I wasn't thinking a contraction would be that painful."

  "Ha. Well, I wish they weren't."

  "How far dilated are you?"

  "The last time she checked I was at a six, and told me sometime in the next hour or two I should be pushing. They gave me an epidural, and it helps, but the pain is definitely still there." I’m glad I came in, because I was going to say no to an epidural or any kind of drug, per Ellie's request, but now I'm not so sure. It looks painful with the epidural, I don't want to know what it'll be like without.

  "Do you need or want anything?"

  "I want a freaking buffet of food, but I can only eat ice chips," she groans. "So for now, the company is enough."

  "What are you having?" Leon asks.

  She shrugs. "I vote girl."

  "Boy," William says.

  Another voice behind us says, "Oh, definitely a girl. You were carrying high the whole time until recently. I told you you'd be going early." I turn my head, but I already know who it is- Penelope's mom, Karla. "Oh, you look so pale and swollen," she continues, walking towards her daughter. "You best get out in that sun when you get out of here, you need more color." I've always said her mom was the reason behind all her insecurity issues.

  Penelope rolls her eyes. "Well either way, I hope the baby is healthy. That is most important."

  "Of course, but I purchased all pink, so I'll be awfully upset if she ends up having a penis."

  I glance up at Leon, but he's too busy staring at Karla with a not too nice glare. In fact, he looks truly pissed. I try to elbow him, but he doesn't even flinch.

  William squeezes Penelope's hand as she starts another contraction. He glances at Karla. "I don't think right now is the time to joke."

  "Who said I was joking." She settles on the bed, as if her child isn't about to have a child of her own. Ignoring the pain Penelope is in as she continues. "My grandmother was an only child, and had six girls. My mom had three girls, and I have two girls. It's going to be a girl."

  Everyone remains silent for a few minutes, knowing it's pointless to argue with Karla. I start to say somethin
g directly to Penelope to change the subject, but Leon surprisingly speaks up. "If you're not going to sit back and support your daughter the way she needs you to, then I highly suggest you walk down the hall to the waiting room, because I won't put up with listening to your arrogance much longer."

  Every single face turns to Leon, including the nurse who happened to walk in at that moment.

  "Excuse me?" Karla starts to question, but her mouth snaps shut when the nurse speaks, too.

  "This environment is for Penelope and her baby, we need it to be a happy, gentle surrounding. If you do not feel you can provide that, I personally will escort you to the waiting room." She looks directly to Karla to make sure there is no miscommunication in whom she is speaking to.

  Karla gasps dramatically. "Well, I've never been so insulted in my life. Fine, fine, I'll keep my jokes to myself if no one has a personality enough to accept them."

  "And please remove yourself from my patient's bed as well. There are chairs over there." She points by the window where two beige leather chairs are placed, and a side table in the middle of them.

  Karla lifts her nose into the air, walking over to the window. When she sits, she starts to look through her purse, pulling her cellphone out, ignoring everyone while she types away on it. I look up to Leon once more, smiling softly. I mouth a thank you to him, and he kisses my forehead in response.

  We listen to the nurse speak for a few minutes, then she says the doctor is going to measure Penelope again, asking everyone but William and I to step out. Leon says he has to make a phone call anyways, so he'll be down the hall for a few minutes.

  The doctor comes in to measure Penelope, and that in itself seems painful, but I stand and watch, while William plays with her hair. "You're getting there. I would put you at an eight right now. I’ll start getting things prepped and ready." The doctor leaves without another word.

  "Does that mean I'll be pushing soon?" Penelope asks. "I feel a lot of pressure down there, like I'm going to..." She doesn't finish her sentence, but her face gets insanely red.

  "Poop?" The nurse asks. Penelope nods. "That is perfectly normal. The way the baby is pushing against you, it's gives you that sensation, which means that he or she is ready to make their entrance into the world. You went from a six to eight fast, so I'm going to assume, oh..." She looks over at the clock, doing math in her head. "Maybe in the next thirty minutes you'll be pushing."

  "Oh God," Penelope cries out. "But it already hurts so much. I just want to sleep."

  The sudden panic makes me nervous for her, but her nurse calmly tosses her gloves into the trash and uses some hand sanitizer as she walks towards the bed again. "Every labor is different, but for the majority of the women in here, the pushing is actually relieving. You push when you feel a contraction, and it subsides your pain temporarily, and you're so focused on pushing and breathing, the pain sort of is background noise to it all. Then, I promise you, that final push will be such an incredible feeling, you'll immediately forget all this pain."

  The following half hour becomes intense, with doctors and nurses in and out, and Penelope crying from the pain. Leon tells me he'll be back at some point, and even Sumner and Rochelle both stop in minutes before the doctor kicks them out. I stand aside Penelope as she prepares to push, helping guide her with her breathing. I help holster her up when she needs it while her mom and William hold her feet.

  She pushes and grunts and screams, tears fall from her eyes heavily, but in less than forty minutes the cry of a baby echoes throughout the room. We all look at the baby, then to Penelope. I'm not sure who is crying harder... Penelope, her mom, or myself. That was by far the best thing I've ever witnessed in my life.

  The doctor looks over at the new parents and gushes with delight. "You have a gorgeous baby boy. Dad, would you like to cut his cord?"

  Once everything calms down a bit, and they get Penelope to nurse her newborn, Brady Alexander, people finally get to come in and visit. William holds their son first, Penelope's mom second, then me third. The feeling I get while holding him is insane. I'm already in love with him to the point I want to start crying all over again.

  Leon shows up about a half hour after everyone has had a chance to hold him. They started having people leave so they can move the family into a prenatal room. We head over with them, helping carry bags and such. When we walk in, the room is filled with flowers and balloons, and a large gift basket sits on the window mantel.

  "Whoa, I didn't know the hospital went all out," Penelope says when she steps in.

  The nurse strolls the baby in behind her. "Oh, this isn't the hospital. This was all sent in. Hold on, I have a card for you." She parks the baby’s bed next to Penelope's, then walks over to the window. "Here you are." She hands Penelope over the card. "If you need anything, feel free to buzz. We'll be in and out for the remainder of the evening. I believe Denise, our CNA, will be in shortly to do your vitals."

  She thanks her while opening the card. Her eyes start to water as she glances up at me. "Wow, thank you both so much."

  "Who?" I look around as Leon clears his throat. I look at him as he widens his eyes, trying to tell me it's... from me? "Me?" I ask, turning back to Penelope.

  Her smile fades some while she looks to Leon, too. "You got this for us?"

  "Monica and I both." He really went all out. I wasn't at all expecting any of it.

  Penelope picks up the gift basket, unraveling the cellophane around it. Inside is an array of gifts, including several gender neutral outfits, mittens, a stuffed teddy bear, pacifiers, diapers, wipes, and many more other small items. I keep glancing over to Leon in astonishment. I may have fallen in love with him a little bit more.

  "This is... incredible. Thank you both so much." She starts to tear up. "Sorry, ignore my hormones." She wipes at the tears, hiding her face for a moment. "But seriously, thank you."

  Leon nods his head at William, when he too thanks us, but other than that he says nothing. I give them both hugs and congratulate them once more. After giving the sleeping, perfect baby a kiss on the forehead, I slip out of the room to allow them to rest and enjoy time together as a family. Plus, I'm sure they are going to get plenty more visitors throughout the evening.

  When we get back into his car, I lean over to kiss him hard on the mouth. He chuckles. "What is that for?"

  "What was that?" I ask, pointing to the hospital. "You didn't have to do that."

  "I know, but I did."

  "If you start doing special things like that, people are going to think you're actually nice."

  "Shit, I better stop then." He winks before placing his sunglasses back on his face. "I got to keep up my asshole role, right?"

  "Exactly. You can only be that sweet to me."

  "It was for you," he says. "I called my assistant and told her to pick it all out, and to sign the card from you. I didn't know she put my name too."

  When we start driving away, I ask where we're going. It's getting late, and although it's LA, I can't think of anything to do. He only grins and says, "We have some serious celebrating to do." My skin crawls in excitement.

  Chapter Sixteen

  March 11th

  The dress isn’t quite as horrid as I assumed. I try not to wear lose clothing because I swear I gain three pounds a week at this rate. I have gained over fifty pounds since I first got pregnant, and it's mainly in my boobs and belly. If I wear anything that hangs straight down from my belly, I look twice my size. When I envisioned a dress, I thought I'd look like Missy Elliot during her trash bag dance video, signing The Rain. Thankfully I feel a little more Jennifer Lopez when she was pregnant with twins. I'd take the latter over the first any day.

  Although my face, feet, and everywhere else is swelled, so I definitely don't look nearly as gorgeous as JLo. I can't even wear heels... nor sneakers... nor crocs. I put on strappy sandals, but even those are uncomfortable. I'd prefer to go barefoot, but I know that isn't an option.

  Glancing at myself in the mir
ror, I sway back and forth, actually loving how I look. The top half of the dress is black lace over beige material, and it ends just below my breasts, then the rest of the material is a soft green silk that fits just right against my body, allowing me to still move and feel comfortable.

  My hair is curled in spirals, which falls almost to my waist at this point. I have some eye shadow to match the dress, and my makeup was done by Sumner who perfected it exactly how I wanted it to be. "I'm impressed," I say out loud.

  "Me too," Sumner agrees. I convinced Leon to allow Sumner to join, since we haven't seen much of each other lately. He was skeptical until I mentioned that he'd be stuck with Ellie all night, and I'd be the third wheel over in the corner. He had no room to argue after that.

  Sumner is dressed in a strapless silver and black dress that falls almost to her ankles, with a slit all the way up to her hip bone. Her hair is pulled back into a sleek bun, and she has a simple pearl necklace on for jewelry. She is stunning, but that never takes much.

  We ride to the banquet in her father's car, which happens to be an Audi R8 right off the lot. He wasn't going to let her drive it at first, but she somehow convinced him. The banquet isn't overly exclusive and there is no valet parking, but we manage to park pretty close to the entrance. Most of the vehicles are large pickup trucks, with some other fancy cars, and even some basic ones like mine. Since a majority of the trucks have racing stickers or numbers on them, you can definitely tell we're at the right place, after all the banquet has to do with the upcoming motocross races Richard is going to be part of.

  Inside most everything is in black and white... the balloons, the banners, the table settings. I see a lot of checkered flags, too. I don't know much about motocross, but Dad did enjoy watching NASCAR, so I recognize a few things here and there as we walk around. The dining hall is a large open area with round tables circling the perimeter. A buffet setup is off to one side, a stage to the front, and exceedingly large windows opposite to the buffet.

  People are already digging in to the food, while many guests are still arriving. There is a huge difference in the people here tonight, as most of the females are dressed to the nines as well, but there are some wearing jeans with fancy shirts instead, while it's split right down the middle with the men. I see suits and I see flannel, I see dress pants, and I see jeans with holes in them. I feel a little overdressed, but at least I'm not alone.