by Rose Francis
***
Kent pulled up to the Jordan home, thinking it certainly didn’t sound like a hospital she had called from and if she wasn’t at home, someone here would know where she was.
Her father answered the door.
“Well if it isn’t the son-of-a-bitch who left my daughter high and dry,” Carl said as he punched Kent in the face.
He heard a scream from the stairs.
As Kent recovered from the blow, he held his hand out and said:
“Wait—Mr. Jordan…!”
“Dad!” Kimberly said, coming down the stairs. “Dad stop it! Wait!”
Carl turned toward his daughter and said:
“Sweetheart, can you believe this fool had the nerve…”
“Daddy no, okay? He didn’t leave me! I know that’s how it seemed, but it was me who called it off all right?”
“Oh so he lets the woman pregnant with his child go just like that huh…”
“No! Daddy…”
Fearing she was about to tell them all the truth about Damien’s baby, Kent stepped in.
“Mr. Jordan. I’m sorry you saw it that way. The only reason I stayed away was because I thought coming around her would stress her out, that’s all. And I’m sure you know, she got medical advice to stay away from stress. I gave in to her wishes because I wanted to do what was best for the baby and if she wanted some space from me, I’d give it to her. But she knew, she knows…” he looked directly at Kimberly, “...she can call me anytime she needs me. Anytime. I’m always here for her Mr. Jordan, just waiting till she’s ready for me again.”
“It’s true,” Kimberly said reaching his side. “Father, I just…I don’t know, a pregnant thing I guess. I wanted him to give me more space. But we still saw each other every now and then.”
Kent appreciated the lie.
She led him into the house and indicated something to her aunt.
Carl shut the door and turned to Kent.
“Well, I’m sorry about that then Davenport. I just thought…”
“Hey, I don’t blame you Mr. Jordan. But honestly I don’t know if anyone in their right mind could ever leave Kimberly ‘high and dry.’”
He saw Kimberly smile.
Her dad’s sister came back with a cloth, some tissues, hydrogen peroxide, and first aid kit as far as he could make out.
Kimberly giggled at her selection.
“Thanks Aunt Pat.”
“No problem honey. Monique, darling, it’s okay, you can go back to bed,” she said to Monique who was at the top of the stairs looking down curiously.
“Hi Kent,” Monique said before turning to go back to her room.
“Good night Monique!” Kent replied with Kimberly tending to his face. Pat gave Carl a signal for them to leave the room. They headed up the stairs.
Kimberly sighed.
“I’m sorry about that Kent.” She paused. “They were some pretty convincing things you said there!”
Kent shrugged his shoulders.
“So what made you come over?” she asked.
“You called.”
“How did you know it was me?”
“I just knew it.”
She paused and took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry for interrupting your little rendezvous…”
“Kimberly…”
“No, you don’t have to explain anything to me or anything. It’s not like we’re together.”
She attempted to laugh and it broke his heart. Then she suddenly put her hand over her mouth.
“Excuse me,” she said, running to the bathroom.
When she returned Kent took a good look at her.
“You all right?” he asked.
She nodded.
“A smell...” she began but never finished.
Kent realized his previous female companion’s perfume was all over him and wondered if it was that she’d gotten a whiff of.
“You look different,” he continued, taking in her slightly more rounded face, her hair, even longer now, hanging at her waist, and her protruding belly. She definitely looked like a healthy pregnant woman. And she was so darn cute.
He began to feel his love for her start overwhelming him so he tried to think about something else before he grabbed her and held her like there was no tomorrow, telling her all the things he’d wanted to for the past few months.
“You look different too,” she said, “besides the obvious bruising!”
She laughed.
He smiled at her.
“How so?”
“Well...I guess it looks like you haven’t shaved in a while. Your eyes are the same though.”
Then she looked into his eyes. There were so many emotions swirling in hers he couldn’t catch what was what. Regardless, he wanted to kiss her.
“So,” he said, “you haven’t answered my question. Why did you call?”
She seemed to deliberate.
It took her more than a few seconds to finally give him an answer.
“Well…it’s stupid. I just…I kind of missed hearing your voice,” she said, looking at him briefly before turning her eyes away.
“Kimberly…”
He didn’t quite know where to go next. He wanted to tell her he hadn’t gotten as far as she thought with that Lacy girl, or whatever her name was, and that there had been no other women.
He suddenly realized they had fallen into one of their old positions—her, at one end of the couch, legs extended over his thighs as he rubbed her feet, her ankles, her calves every now and then.
“Hey,” he said, “aren’t you due any day now?”
“Pretty soon!” she said.
He thought about it.
“Have you told…”
She shook her head no.
“Hey, if it was me, even if I was your half-brother, I would want to know I’m about to be a father,” he said cautiously. “You should tell him. Hell, it might save me from other attempts on my life,” he joked.
She just looked at him, her face grave.
“I was just kidding about the last part, this has nothing to do with me. I just think…a father should know.”
“Kent,” she whispered, her voice forlorn.
“What is it Kimberly?”
He knew something was going on she wasn’t telling him but he couldn’t guess what.
She held out her arms and swung her legs to the ground.
“Hold me please,”
Kent slid over and hugged her.
At that moment, that they had spent three months apart didn’t matter.
“Hey, what is it, huh?” he asked gently. “You can tell me. What’s bothering you?”
Kimberly cried softly on his shoulder. Then she pulled back.
“I have something to tell you.”
“Kim, tell me. What’s on your mind?”
Kent wanted so desperately to hear what she had to say, he had to check his emotions so he could continue speaking as gently as possible.
“I can’t tell you now Kent. We need more privacy.”
Kent got up, ready to take them somewhere else, even if she was in her nightgown.
“No Kent. Not tonight. Can we talk tomorrow? I need to gather myself.”
Kent bellowed on the inside.
“Yeah, sure Kimberly. We’ll meet tomorrow, we’ll talk then. When? Where?”
“Um, well I’ll be home all day tomorrow so can you meet me here? In the afternoon sometime? Like around three?”
“Okay sure.”
“How’s your cheek?”
“I’ll be fine. Thanks for looking after it.”
She lowered her eyes.
“My pleasure.”
Kimberly got up and headed to the door as if to see him out.
As they reached the door Kent turned to face her.
“You sure…”
“I’m fine Kent. Everything is and will be fine.”
She smiled up at him. It was the same kind of smile she had on her face after he
r checkup at the hospital. Her eyes twinkled and she looked like she had a juicy secret.
“Well okay,” he replied.
He couldn’t help but give her another hug.
They held onto each other for what felt like a welcome eternity. When they finally broke apart, he headed out quickly, ignoring the way he could swear he heard her lips calling out to him. He kissed her on the forehead.
“Take care,” he said, then headed to his vehicle.
CHAPTER TEN
As Kent headed home, he thought about how glad he was that Kimberly had called and interrupted his little ‘rendezvous’ as she called it. Truth was, he was having trouble maintaining an erection with Amy. He kept feeling like he was cheating on Kimberly, and her face kept popping into his head. Every time he mentally pushed her away, she bounced back—one way or another. Was she okay? How were things going with the baby? Was she thinking about him? Would she call him soon? How could she just leave him? He kept fighting against himself, and up and down went the flag. By the time his cell phone rang, he realized he was fighting a losing battle with mini-Kent and was only too glad for an interruption.
He also realized that the old player in him was really dead.
He couldn’t just think of that girl as tail. He worried about consequences, thought about how it would affect Kimberly if she knew—not that it was any of her business. Still, he needed even more from the girl herself to maintain his attraction to her.
Kent felt like he had evolved into a hybrid of the Kent he used to be—the hard-edged, sneaky, ruthless player—and the Kent he had become from loving Kimberly, tender and caring. It reminded him of something he had heard on a TV show about water being both one of the softest and most dangerous things on earth.
Kent felt he was closer to a healthy combination of the two Kents, soft and hard—like water.
***
As Kent pulled up to his place, the feeling that had gnawed at him came back. It was as if he knew what Kimberly wanted to say to him, yet he didn’t—it hadn’t yet crossed over from his subconscious to his consciousness. But he was sure there were signs and he could put them together, so he started trying, thinking.
He thought about what had happened tonight, then he thought about the last times they were together months ago. There was something there—but what was it?
Maybe he was too tired; he was coming up blank.
As he entered his room and started dressing for bed, he decided to just let his mind work on it as he slept. He’d see what a good night’s rest brought him.
***
Kent tried not to look at them, looking so happy—the image of the perfect couple—but he peeked anyway, from behind the bushes. Damien wasn’t a bad guy, but he was the one who should be with Kimberly—him, Kent Davenport. And she looked so goddamned happy with Damien. He should have been the one to put that beautiful smile on her face, not Damien.
Now he was peeking from a window outside the Jordan home, watching the happy couple as they sat on a couch. Kimberly had a big belly in front of her this time.
That lucky bastard, Kent thought. He gets to put it on her whenever he likes, be with her, start a life with her, she was carrying his child…
The scene changed.
Kent now watched them through walls outside of a hospital room. Kimberly was pushing, pushing—it was time. She looked into Damien’s eyes…but suddenly it was now Kent she was looking at.
“It’s almost here!” she breathed, squeezing Kent’s hand. “The baby…”
Then she was screaming: “The baby!” as Damien grabbed the child and bolted.
Kent ran after him.
***
Kent sat up, the last part of his dream causing his body to imitate the adrenalin rush in his dream.
What the hell was that about?
He lay back down and closed his eyes, trying to lull his body into thinking it was going back to sleep so he could hold on to the pieces, the details that had started drifting away once he had awoken.
Was he remembering Damien and Kimberly as they were when they were a couple? Maybe, but what was that bit about them being together after she was pregnant? After knowing they’re siblings? And what about him—how come he was stalking them?
Although he did kind of do that at some point while Kimberly and Damien were still together, what was up with him switching places with Damien?
He looked over at his clock. Three a.m.
He continued trying to make sense of his dream until sleep grabbed him again.
***
The next morning, Kent woke up and felt like he had missed something.
Then he remembered the dream. He tried recalling it because he felt there was something important in it—his mind was trying to tell him something. He’d heard something about dreams being answers to unformed questions. But what question did he not realize he had that this dream was answering? He could hardly even remember the basics of it—something about Kimberly and Damien being together and him wishing it was him instead, and then it was him. And then Damien kidnapped her baby...something like that.
Why did he dream about Damien anyway? He hadn’t seen the guy around for a while and it’s not like he was a threat to his and Kimberly’s relationship.
Kent got ready for work.
***
Kent could hardly concentrate fully throughout the morning. He was anticipating his chat with Kimberly and all day it was bothering him. What was it she had to tell him? Was it related to the way she smiled at him at the hospital after her checkup? That smile she gave him last night? Did she just want to declare her feelings for him and want them to get back together for good? What?
With a clear head, even after a not-so-good night’s rest, Kent’s mind went to work trying to figure out what he was missing.
He began remembering little things that alerted him a bit but weren’t significant enough to stand out at the time: that sudden phone call in the night for example—there had to be more to it than she let on. He figured whatever she planned to tell him today, she had planned to tell him at that moment. And as she was already chickening out, she heard that skank in the background.
Maybe it had to do with them getting back together after all, except it seemed weightier…those smiles—they seemed to hold a secret. But what secret could she have? Didn’t she tell him the one and only already? What could be bigger than that?
His mind flashed back to when he asked her about her due date—she did not seem to want to say; in fact, it seemed she tried to stall, but why? Also, she didn’t seem like she was expecting any day now—she seemed quite comfortable, like she had more time. And when he asked her last night specifically about when she was due, she never really answered! What did she say? Oh yes, soon…
Kent’s blood rushed.
The dream was also about Damien though. What could that mean?
Last thing he remembered was him just being a pest…although there was that one time he went too far…
Kent decided to call Damien at work—he had to put his mind at rest somehow.
He dialed Damien’s work number.
“Hey, is Damien there?” Kent asked when the receptionist picked up.
“I’m sorry, he’s not in today. He’s actually on vacation this week. And next week.”
“Oh okay, thanks.”
Kent didn’t know why, but that information chilled him to the bone.
He started thinking about his dream again—he had to be more logical about it.
Clearly it was his memories of him wanting to be with Kimberly and watching her and Damien as a happy couple, right? Reflecting his wish of wanting to be the one to start a family with her. But that couldn’t be it—dreams weren’t about things you already knew, not consciously anyway. They were mostly about feelings, wishes, desires, fears that lived beneath the surface, things suppressed, denied, kept on the back burner. Dreams brought these things to light, albeit in strange ways—ways that could confuse you even further, if you let
it. Sometimes, it seemed they even gave a glimpse into the future.
Kent wondered if there was another way he should think about it.
He pushed aside the obvious. Okay, let’s try this again—let’s twist this as much as we can, he thought. He decided that one twisted possibility was that he was actually Damien in the dream, and Damien was him.
Kent choked on his laugh because just as he was about to laugh at the ridiculousness of it, he realized it made some sort of sense.
Okay, he thought, let’s say it was Damien stalking Kimberly and me, and I was the one with her, making her happy…Then he started to reject the thought because it got confusing once the baby was brought into it, especially when he and Damien switched in the dream. Probably because it was actually Damien’s baby, he thought. Or...He started to get excited as another possibility popped into his mind, perhaps the actual switch was the key to crack the dream’s code! But that would mean the baby was really his…
The thought slipped in so unassumingly, Kent had a delayed reaction quickly strangled by disbelief. That couldn’t be…could it? I mean why would Damien steal my baby…unless he thought it was his? Besides, Kimberly had said it was Damien’s so unless she’d made a mistake…
Kent had to contain himself—the possibility was driving him nuts. The juicy secret she looked like she was so happy about—that had to be it! And when I was suggesting to her that she tell Damien because I think a father should know—the way she was looking at me…He thought about the dream again. That dream—it was me…I was the one by her side, she was looking in my eyes…that’s my baby!
He remembered the feeling he had at the end and realized danger could be present.
Kent shot up from his seat.
Screw three o’ clock—he had to see her immediately.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Damien had it together this time, especially now with Luke’s help. He had been watching for a long while and knew the Jordans’ patterns. Right at this moment, Carl and Pat would be at work, and Monique would be in class. But Kimberly would be home. On days like this, after everyone left in the morning, she got up, ate breakfast. Then she’d take a bath, watch a TV game show or two, then start reading or writing for one of her grad classes, breaking every now and then for a snack.