by Rae Daniel
Chapter Thirteen: The Reveal
Anne
I’m glad to be home. I just want to change into my sweatpants and climb under the covers of my bed. I love my bed. It’s my refuge when things get tough, and nothing cures what ails you like sleep. Well, almost.
After I change, I am about to turn off the living room lamp when I hear the doorbell ring. I really want to ignore it. I just want to go to bed but at this hour, something has to be wrong for someone to be on my doorstep. Just then, I hear my phone ping with a new text.
Anne, it’s Ben. Open up.
Now I know I can’t ignore it. Heading over to the door I allow him to step inside. It’s still really nice and cool out so I open it up all of the way, loving the breeze that comes in through.
“I saw you at The Diner.”
“What? Why didn’t you come in to say hello?”
Jim
I park my car and turn to walk up her steps, at the same moment, I see Ben knock on her door.
Quickly I crouch down behind the nearest bush like a trained assassin, knocking over only a few trash cans and stepping on a cat that meows loudly in protest. My mind rushes to think what he could be doing here at this hour. I really don’t want to hear him profess his love again.
My surroundings sink in and I jump away from the damn bush. The cat has more fighting guts than I do as it has shredded my pants in the five seconds I’ve crouched in the shadows.
Trained assassin, yeah right.
I rush up to the door and I can hear both Anne and Ben talking through the screen door. I feel like a voyeur again since it’s dark outside and no one can see me, but my heart apparently wants to keep breaking as I continue to listen in.
I hear them squabble about him not saying hello at The Diner.
Yeah, like that was what we needed, more drama.
I shake my head free of my own thoughts as Ben continues, “I didn’t know what to say to Renee. Ever since I told you that I loved her, I’ve been self conscious about my feelings towards her. I don’t know how to react around her any more without jumping up, grabbing her and kissing the daylights out of her. She is beautiful, strong, and smart. I’m sure she’ll laugh in my face when she hears me pour my heart out.”
I swear, my heart beats for the first time in a almost a month. I almost cannot believe what I am hearing. That explains Renee’s reaction when I saw her outside of The Diner.
Wait, is Renee in love with Ben?
“Ben, you have to tell her. It’s going to eat you up inside if you don’t.”
“But, what if I mess everything up?”
“Well, let me give you a word of womanly advice, do not come out and drop the L bomb on her. Start slow. Ask her out.”
At this point my heart is elated. They were talking about him being in love with Renee the whole time and because of the wind, I only heard parts of their conversation.
I am such an idiot.
Summoning up all of my courage, I knock on the door.
I hear Anne mutter, “What is this, Grand Central Station tonight?”
The front porch light flips on as I adjust my tie.
“You? What the fuck do you want? To rub it in my face even more that you are dating again? Well thanks, but no thanks. Get the fuck off my porch and go fuck yourself.”
This woman can flip from happy to pissed in zero point two. I love it. I love her passion.
As she starts to shut the door in my face I jump into action. “Anne, listen to me for a minute, please.”
She pauses for a second and stares at me. “Why?”
“Because I was wrong, I was very wrong. Please, give me five minutes.”
I start to see her face soften a tiny bit and can feel her moving towards the door to let me in right as Ben steps behind her, “She said no, buddy.”
Without completely losing my cool, I turn my gaze from Anne, addressing Ben. “I know you are one of Anne’s best friends, but I’m respectfully asking you to have a Coke and a smile and shut the fuck up.”
Ben chuckles, “That Richard Pryor was the best.”
“Yeah he was,” turning my attention back around I look at Anne, “Please, let me in.” I can only beg at this point.
I have no idea if I even have a chance but Anne looks back and forth between us several times before Ben gives a nod to the door. His stock just went up a bit in my book.
“I don’t even know why I am doing this, but you have five minutes.”
“Thank you honey, thank you.” I burst through the door and go to wrap her up in my arms when she takes a step back.
Damn, too soon.
Ben comes to stand at her side and softly asks if she wants him to stay.
She keeps her eyes locked on me when she replies, “No, I’ll be fine. Call me tomorrow.”
“I will.” He then kisses her on the cheek and heads out the door. If I hadn’t heard his professed love for Renee with my own ears, I might have ripped his lips clean off his face. Being that I now know it’s completely platonic, my jealousy doesn’t quite leap into action like it would have before.
Anne follows him to the door, closing it and locking it behind her. She slowly turns to me, crossing her arms over her chest.
I clear my throat and begin to speak but Anne beats me to the punch.
“Who is she?”
I’m confused with her question and it takes me a minute to figure out who she is talking about.
“The Nordic Queen from The Diner. Who is she? And don’t try to stall to make up an excuse. You all but peed on me with Brian while you were there on a date. At least have the balls to be honest with me.”
“Her name is Kaitlyn.”
I see her close her eyes and inhale sharply. I get the feeling that she would have been happy to go her whole life without knowing Kaitlyn’s name but she had to know.
She opens her eyes and I swear I can see fire spitting out of them. “Are you happy?”
“What? No, of course I’m not happy.”
“Then why are you with her if you are not happy? I heard you talking on the phone at the hospital. You called her ‘Sweetie’ with this huge shit eating grin on your face. That didn’t look or sound like an unhappy guy to me.”
“First, I doubt I would have a grin on my face if I was eating shit.”
She doesn’t bat an eye at my little joke. “Don’t play word games with me, mister. It’s late and I don’t know why you are here if you are unhappily dating ‘Sweetie’.”
“Second, shut up.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. You need to shut up and listen to me.”
She keeps her arms crossed and lets out a dramatic huff.
“Kaitlyn is my sister.”
Before I even finish the words, Anne’s face goes completely pale as she starts to crumple to the floor. I race over and catch her in my arms.
Holding her to me, kissing her on the forehead and cheeks I softly whisper, “Anne. Anne, can you hear me?”
“Jim, please. Don’t let me go.”
“I’m not ever going to let you go, sugar. I love you. I love you so much.”
She starts to cry and tries to push away from me but I hold her fast to my chest. I have to get the rest out before she completely shuts me out.
“Do you remember that Sunday that I was supposed to come over but sent you a text saying that I was called into work?”
She sniffles a little but nods her head yes.
“I actually did come over to your house.”
“You did? I never saw you.”
“That’s because I walked up to your door which was halfway open and heard you talking to Ben. Because it was windy out I only caught part of the conversation and from what I heard, it sounded like he was professing his love for you. It wasn’t until I walked up here tonight, that I heard the full story about him being in love with Renee.”
“Of course he loves her. He told me that has been in love with her forever. Sure, he loves me but we�
��ve never been compatible that way.”
I can’t help it, I have to touch her more. Sliding my hand to her face I cup her cheek and stare deep into her eyes. “Sugar, if I have anything to say about it, you will never be compatible with another man again.”
She looks right back at me with tears welling in her big beautiful eyes. I can’t bare to see her hurting. I nudge her chin up a little more with my hand and place a small kiss on her nose. I slowly wipe away the tears from her eyes as she asks me a question that I knew was coming, “Why didn’t you tell me that Kaitlyn was your sister?”
I let out a sigh and pull her closer, if that is even possible.
“To be honest, you never gave me a chance. At The Diner, I was green with jealousy over Brian asking you out, that I barely knew where I was, let alone had enough sense to introduce anyone. Then at the hospital, I didn’t know that you overheard my conversation, or else I would have explained then and there.”
I give her a minute to absorb all that I’ve said. She is no longer crying so I take that as a good sign. She looks up at me with a cavern full of weariness in her eyes that it physically hurts my heart before she whispers, “I’ve missed you so much.”
“I’ve missed you too. I love you so much. I will never let another day go by where there is a question or doubt between us. I’m so sorry.”
Her eyes start to fill with water again. I rock her slowly and rub her back with my hand, letting her know through my touch that it’s alright.
“Jim, you’re such an idiot. For being one of the area's smartest docs, you’re an idiot.”
“I know, and I’m sorry for everything that I put you through. It won’t ever happen again.”
“You better not, because you have my heart. You can easily smash it into a thousand pieces. Please be careful with it.”
“I have your heart?”
“Completely. Even after everything that we’ve been through, you never left my heart.”
Epilogue:
One Year Later
Anne
Holy fucking shit I think I’m gonna die.
“You are not going to die, honey.”
Fuck, did I say that out loud?
“Yes, you said it out loud.”
“Damn you Jim, stop reading my mind!”
This got a chuckle out of him, the rat bastard. He got me into this mess, he made me feel like I am going to die. He should be arrested and flogged in public.
“They will not flog me in public. Stop wishing for it.”
I lunge across the hospital bed, towards the rat bastard and grab his scrubs. “You need to stop that Jedi mind trick shit right now and get me more medicine. I can still tell you what day it is and that ain’t good. Now, knock me the fuck out, doc!”
As I let go of his scrubs, Renee rushes in scanning the room, looking for sharp objects so I can’t hurl them at her again.
“Okay, good. The room is secure. Is the T.V. screwed down?”
Jim holds back a laugh, “She’s not gonna throw the T.V. at you, Renee.”
“Are you fucking insane? Did you see what she tried to do to me last night? She tried to pull my hair out one strand at a time, after she hurled the remote at me!”
I look between them both, “Why didn’t anyone tell me that stupid remote was attached to the wall? It damn near came back at me like a boomerang and hit me in the head!”
I can see the rat bastard out of the corner of my eye trying not to laugh. He is going to rue the day that he knocked me up. I swear to everything that is holy, he will rue it!
He wants four kids. Ha! He is lucky I am letting him live to experience this pregnancy. This one has been one of the worst ever. I’ve never done this before, but I am sure it could go down in the record books. Among everything else going on with my body, I am a sexy prego bitch...with cankles. There is absolutely no distinction between my calves and my ankles.
So okay, okay, it is not the worst pregnancy to ever happen in the world. I am sure my hormones are making this out to be much worse than it is. Overall we’ve been lucky and haven’t had too many issues. But that doesn’t mean it was a walk in the park. Pregnancy is no joke!
“It’s almost over, sugar. You’re doing great!”
“Don’t, ‘It’s almost over, sugar’ me! This has been going on for eleven hours! You wanna take over for the next shift? You wanna jump up here and squeeze something the size of a watermelon out of something the size of a lemon?”
He chuckles again, the rat bastard. I am thinking of legally changing his name. “I would if I could. Now, keep breathing normal. I’ll be back after I check on a few patients.”
He tried. I have to give him credit, he tried to get away from the Medusa that has taken over his wife’s body. But he is going to fail miserably.
“Don’t you even try to sneak out of here now. I know Mark is down there. Get him to check on everyone and report back to you. If it’s show time and you are not in the room, you had better not come back buddy.”
“I will always come back. You can’t keep me away from you and the twins.”
Twins!
We are not only having one baby, we are going to be having two. Hence, the cankle situation.
Taking a deep breath, I leaned my head back. I went into labor before we were able to go to bed, making it to where I haven’t slept in damn near twenty-four hours.
Closing my eyes I think back on our lives.
From the moment that I met Jim, that was it. It was like I had no control over anything that was happening between us and we were two magnets that were being pulled toward each other. I’d never felt something like that before in my life.
Some people say magic, some people say they just knew. I would say it was a combination of both. Sort of like when you are riding your bike down a dirt path and your wheel gets into one of the dug in grooves. If you force your way out, everything crashes down, but if you go with the groove, you end up safe on the other side. For us, that other side was forever.
Shortly after we got back together, Jim proposed. And when I say shortly I mean that same day. And when I say that same day, I mean 5 seconds after I told him he had my heart. It makes me giggle and I can almost feel my heart smile thinking back on it.
“I have your heart?”
“Completely. Even after everything that we’ve been through, you never left my heart.”
I remember him holding me tight, slowly releasing me to make sure that I was able to stand on two feet. Once he was certain I was fine, he dropped down to one knee.
“Anne, I have known from the moment that I first laid eyes on you in the emergency room with your hair all messy, zero makeup on, and while you wore your pants with the holes in the crotch, that you were mine.”
“What! You saw the holes?”
I think back to how he laughed while my mortification was complete. I swear that I probably turned the reddest shade I possibly could as I tried to cover my face. He wouldn’t let me though. Grabbing my hands, he took them both into his and pulled them to his chest.
“It was the cutest thing that I had ever seen and my heart ached to be yours in that moment.”
“But, why?”
“Because you were the most real thing that I had seen in a long time. I could see your character, personality, and joyful life shining out of you. I wanted nothing more than to be a part of that.”
“I thought your ass looked good in scrubs.”
That got a small laugh out of him.
“Thank you, sugar. As I spent more and more time with you, I couldn’t imagine not being with you, not sharing everything with you. I couldn’t imagine a life without you and I knew that you were, The One. I want to see you in the morning when I wake up. I want to come home to each other each night and no longer spend one moment that we don’t have to, away from each other.”
“That sounds a shade suffocating.”
He smiles as he leans in closer, “Too bad, You are mine now and you will be a part of everyt
hing that I do. You will seep further into my soul than you already are, and I can’t wait.”
Pausing, he raises my hands to his lips and kiss them so gently.
“Anne, will you marry me?”
Even sitting in this hospital bed thinking back on it, I begin to get a little verklempt over it all. I almost forgot how loud I screamed yes and then tackled him to the ground. It was such a wonderful and perfect moment. We don’t have many of those moments in our lives. Movies, books, television shows, and all that other stuff makes you think that moments like these happen every day. They don’t. Nine times out of ten we are living our lives, going about our day-to-day activities. When that perfect moment happened to me, I cherished it and stored it away for times like these. Times where I want to rip that rat bastard's head off for knocking me up with twins!
Twins!
As I was reminiscing, the anesthesiologist must have come in and given me more of the good stuff. I’m half baked now and about to march into la la land when I feel Renee pushing on my cankles and Jim stroking my head with a cool washcloth.
Ahhh, he’s such a sweetie.
I look over at him and think, can I keep him?
Renee bursts out laughing. And to my utter surprise the the OB/GYN pops his head up and says, “You can keep all three! Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Ross, you are now the proud parents of twin boys.”
I love meds.
Everyone in the room hoots and hollers and I fall back onto the bed feeling completely exhausted. Thankfully, because of the sweet cocktail that the anesthesiologist gave me, I can’t actually feel a thing, but I can feel the exhaustion deep into my bones. Eleven hours of labor will exhaust just about anyone. At the same time, I highly doubt that what people say is true, that you forget the pain. They have to be joking. But right now, I don’t feel a thing and I am fine with that.
The good doctor lays both boys on my chest, allowing me to be the first one in the world to hold, kiss, and hug them. Jim is right there, kissing them each on the forehead and giving them a good solid rub on their back. I know he is trying to stimulate their little lungs, like the nurse will be doing moments from now. I shake my head at him with a small smile on my face as I stare at our boys. Always the doctor.