Nick of Time [Davis Hollow, Davis Ranch 4] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by JQ Jones

  “What do you think?”

  “About Barbara?”

  “About everything.”

  “I don’t think you should marry someone you don’t love or even like. It not about me or the Bean that’s about you doing something for other people that will make your life a living Hell. The Bean and I will stay in London. I’ll need your help until I’m able to get a job and we can get our place. After that I don’t know,” she said.

  “I agree about Barbara, disagree on the living arrangements. I think we should get a place together and figure out how we’re going to go about raising our child. But we can’t do all that today,” David said. Each of them was folding clothes and placing them in piles around the room.

  Manny kept the things purchased for her in the original bags, to return them at the first opportunity. No reason to be totally dependent. She watched David as he went through the bags. Each item had a purpose, each item was so very necessary. He had muslin swaddles that transitioned to sleeping bags, bath towels and washcloths, security blankets and bed covers, laundry bags plus lots and lots of blankets. He explained the reason behind each with a look of joy and wonder that made her smile.

  She listened as he went through his purchases until her eyes drooped in exhaustion. She wanted to stay up later but the Bean wanted to sleep. After three stifled yawns, David smiled up from his discussion of the baby food maker and noticed her with her hand over her mouth.

  “Time for bed,” he said.

  “It’s only 7:30,” she said.

  “And that means nothing to the Bean,” he said.

  “Good point. Let’s go to bed.”

  She and David shared the bathroom, falling into a pattern of two people using one bathroom. They talked about nothing things before they crawled into the large bed. David took up his position as back rest, curved around her back with his knees making sure that her butt was gently cradled against his thighs.

  He had his right arm under her head, the left crossed her body right under her breast. He couldn’t stop himself slowly rubbing and petting and caressing her growing bulge. Her breasts were fuller and from her reaction, sensitive to the touch. He wanted Manny but hesitated for two reasons—the Bean and fear of rejection.

  Manny sighed as David’s continuing caress lulled her into a wakeful sleep, now more awake than sleep. She wiggled closer to the hand brushing her nipples. She began a gentle movement that touched his now-throbbing dick that twitched every time she moved.

  “Would you be okay if we made love right now?” he said.

  “I’d love to. But I don’t want to gross you out. I swear to you I’m getting larger by the second,” she said. She gave a very slight nervous laugh as she said it but she really meant every word. She was retaining water in places that she hadn’t realized you could since arriving. Her earlobes were puffy.

  “I think you’re beautiful. You were beautiful when I met you, beautiful the first time I made love to you, and you take my breath away right now looking at you with my Bean growing inside of you,” he said.

  “You should be a poet.”

  David laughed which turned into a slight groan as she wiggled closer to him. He couldn’t hold back anymore and he lifted her leg slipped inside her wetness.

  They started out with a gentle soft movement, both aware of the Bean and not quite sure how to proceed and at what level of intensity. That changed after Manny’s first orgasm. It was unlike any she had ever had before. It started when the roof of her mouth began to tingle and tickle at the same time. As it moved downward it pebbled her nipples and made them even more sensitive as it moved further to her stomach. When it hit her clit she spasmed into an all-over body release. She wanted to experience that sensation once again. She clutched down on his dick as he pushed further into her while her muscles pulled him deeper and deeper than he had ever been before. They shouted together as he bumped against a group of nerves that neither one of them had noticed before. Manny came again.

  Now David’s hands clutched her shoulders as he dove into her pussy hitting that same spot over and over again. Every time he hit she clutched down on his tip and rippled all along the length of him. No words passed between them until Manny whispered words of encouragement as she convulsed into yet another orgasm.

  “Oh fuck.”

  “I’m not going be able to hold off much longer. I think I can make you come one more time,” David said.

  He began to enter her with stronger and stronger thrust. His fingers played with her fingers until he felt her come once again. Only then did he come as his entire body released into hers. They shouted out their joy into the room.

  * * * *

  They lay in the heap of tangled sheets and sweat. He slipped away to the bathroom to clean up. On his way back to the bed he turned the AC up and wiped Manny off with a cloth and towel.

  “Let’s go to dinner now,” he said.

  “Great idea. I’m getting right up,” she said. She smiled as she wiggled back into her original position so that her body was supported when he returned to bed and positioned himself behind her. She was asleep before he turned off the bedside lamp.

  * * * *

  The next morning they talked over breakfast.

  “I asked my friends for a recommendation for a doctor. She offered one not too far from here, considered the best in the city and very difficult to get to see. There’s an opening this afternoon but I’m happy to help you find another doctor if you like.” His look of uncertainty was so hopeful that Manny laughed.

  “Dr. Kingsley suggested a good doctor in London but since you found this one, let’s go with him. Is it a him? I trust you. I’d love for you to come. I might need an English translator.”

  * * * *

  The OB/GYN was a small dapper man who had tiny hands with delicate bones and a wrist that looked like it would snap with a firm handshake. However, Mr. Harlow was no-nonsense in his examination. He was quick, efficient and extremely sure of himself. He had a cool and dry sense of humor that led him to only raise an eyebrow at her age and smile indulgently at David’s hovering.

  “Everything seems to be progressing normally. I want you to watch what you eat because you are gaining weight faster than most pregnancies. But that’s to be expected,” he said. He sat behind a huge old English desk that was clear of everything except for her file and a small picture of a large Scandinavian woman.

  “So nothing is wrong? And I’m due when?” Manny said.

  “I suggest that you should be ready to deliver by the end of March, if not a little sooner,” the doctor said.

  “I don’t want to be intrusive, Mr. Harlow, but I am the baby’s father and that seems a little bit ambiguous to me,” David said. He and Manny sat in matching leather chairs that sloped in the back to provide support for patients plus allow them ease-of-exit when they needed to get up.

  “No, Mr. Davis, you’re not the baby’s father,” Mr. Harlow said. He had a slight smile as he did.

  Both Manny and David began to protest but the doctor held up one finger and they went silent.

  “Forgive my little attempt at humor but you’re not the baby’s father, you’re the babies’ father. That’s plural. You and Ms. Menendez are the proud parents of what looks like twin baby boys.”

  Stunned silence was all that followed.

  Chapter Nine:

  Show Me a Smile

  David downed his second brandy. Manny sat across from him at the booth of the pub worrying her bottom lip as she drank water with lemon. They had not spoken beyond “excuse me please” and “pardon me” since leaving the doctor’s office.

  “Why is it that two babies sound so much more impossible than one?” Manny said.

  “I didn’t get enough stuff yesterday. We need two of everything. We have two sons on the way and they deserve real sharing, caring, together parents but what they have are two people with a ‘friends with benefits’ situation. They need more than that.” Davis voice was tinged with sarcasm. This was
the first time that Manny had seen him upset.

  “I’m shocked that we have two babies but I’ll just adjust my life a little bit more. I still plan on opening a restaurant, I still plan on being the chef and I still plan on raising these boys. Unless the doctor throws me a major curve like something wrong with the babies, I’m exactly where I was times two. If nothing is wrong with them, then what the Hell, we have two babies.” Manny put an edge to her voice to match his.

  “You make it seem as if this is nothing but we both know this is major. What are we going to do? Do you expect to continue to be just buddies? We need to find a bigger place and move in together. You’re not going to be able to work while you’re pregnant at all. I’m not comfortable with you living in a separate place. You need me with you right now,” David said.

  “Let’s talk about this when you’re not so upset about what you just heard. I appreciate the way that you took the news of me being pregnant and I understand how gob smacked you are with us having two. I’m not holding that against you. But I am saying you need to get over the shit relatively quickly,” she said. She began to gather up her jacket and purse to slide across the booth and out of the deep seat.

  David watched her through the tinted window as she disappeared around the corner. He sat watching the rain soak the street.

  * * * *

  It was rush hour. The streets were clogged with people on the way home trying their best to get where they needed to be without getting wet. The steady rain poured down on Manny until her cheeks tingled. It was colder than she expected but she enjoyed it. She was cooler now in body and spirit. Her coat refused to close over her protruding belly. After a few blocks, she stopped at a small shop and bought a rain hat, boots and an umbrella. Now she looked like a native.

  She changed in the store putting her old clothes into the shopping bags and wore her new. She left the store to explore her immediate area, looking in shops, noting restaurants and types of food, passing pubs, toy stores and boutiques. It had good foot traffic and was close but not too close to a main thoroughfare. She stopped at a small fish and chips place to sit and think and watch the people in the neighborhood come and go.

  The handwritten menu board said what she ordered was a mango cocktail but it tasted like a mixture of pineapple juice and spritzer. The pastry, a gloriously delicate shell full of a tart strawberry-rosemary filling, was fresh and delicious. After praising the filling, the baker-slash-owner sat down for a few minutes to talk to her. He was a small Haitian who was expansive about the area and his business. He directed her to a new restaurant on the same block that might be hiring. They spent over an hour talking about the city and what she could expect. Manny made her way back to the hotel thinking about what she’d learn in just one day.

  David sat in the semidarkness when she entered the hotel room. Tiny bottles from the minibar joined a larger bottle of scotch on the low table in the sitting room. Even with his glasses on she could tell he was just a bit upset with her.

  “I worried about you.”

  “Sorry. I did some exploring. Plus I needed to be by myself for a while. It’s a little shocking to find out, at forty-three, that not only are you having a baby but you’re having two,” she said. She sat across from him on the matching love seat. The leather was soft and buttery. She tried to gracefully sink down but her descent ended with more of a plop. The leather groaned as it accepted her weight.

  “Are you okay?” David’s concern flashed behind his glasses.

  “I’m fine. How are you?” Manny said.

  “I’ve been acting like a bit of the ass. I forgot for a minute my main concern is you, the mother of my boys,” David said. His smile started off small but grew into a large grin. “When I do things, I do them big.”

  * * * *

  Over the next several days David and Manny stayed in the room, coming to grips with the reality of being the parents of twins, getting to know one another, planning for the babies and making love most of the night.

  They relaxed into an easy system of him spending the night and leaving from her hotel suite before dawn. So far they had avoided his house and going out to meet and greet the people that he knew. By the following Friday their peaceful interlude was over. Manny could tell from David’s face that it was time to face real life. He wore a haunted expression with deep frown lines forming between his brows.

  “I’ve got to attend an opening for a new play. I’d like for you to come with me.” He chewed his bottom lip as he spoke. The action only made his already full bottom lip plumper and wetter. Manny, who found that she was horny all the time now, pulled him closer to her and sucked his bottom lip into her mouth. She worried it for himself.

  “All I have to do is find something to wear that doesn’t make me look like a small house. No, I’m not a small house anymore, I’m more like a medium-size apartment building,” she said.

  “Why is it you get to say things like that and I can’t?”

  “Because you’re too young to die.”

  * * * *

  The party was held in yet another restaurant. This one seemed a fusion of Thai and 1950s Hollywood. The people were a mix of the theatre, fashion, television and restaurant. It was loud, hot and crowded.

  Manny had attended many of these in her younger days and was pleasantly surprised to see that she could still master the art of banal conversation. She sipped a sparkling water standing in a large group of chefs as they discussed, no gossiped, about a friend’s new restaurant. It was not a good review.

  From time to time David would appear and either offer her a new glass of sparkling water or see if she had to go to the bathroom. She always had to go to the bathroom. Between these brief interludes, he drifted from section to section of the party smiling, talking and being seen. When he stood beside her he held her hand or stroked her back. He insisted from time to time that she sit in one of the Z-shaped chairs.

  It was well past 11:00 when Manny noticed a dark-haired woman standing beside David. She was artfully made up, using the lighting of the restaurant to enhance whatever she had done to her face. Her hand draped over David’s arm with a possessiveness that grated on Manny at first sight. Her expression of slight disdain and ownership announced her. It had to be Barbara.

  Because every artistic group, especially restaurateurs, are catty to the extreme, Barbara’s arrival was commented on in the group where Manny was.

  “I see Barbara’s arrived finally. Didn’t you arrive with David?” The woman speaking had a slight smile that didn’t even attempt to reach her eyes.

  “Yes, I did,” Manny said.

  “I’ve just never seen Barbara willing to share David. They’ve been together for since they were children. She never lets him out of her sight. Although she’s been known to do a little bit of the old in and out on the side, she expects and receives fidelity from David,” the woman, Caroline, said. She picked up another glass of wine from the tray as the waiter passed by.

  “I don’t consider myself sharing David with anybody. He is a great man and a great friend, but as for me coming in between them, that is not my intention,” Manny said. Her sparkling water was flat on her tongue.

  “I guess you have to explain that to Barbara,” Caroline said. Her look of glee turned into down a bit as if bracing for the unpleasantness that they both knew was coming.

  Caroline and Barbara air kissed as the brunette greeted everyone in the circle except for Manny. Barbara stopped to look Manny up and down. Her head was tilted to the right as her hand stroked her chin. The assessing look changed into a sneer as Manny returned her look with a smile.

  “David, you must introduce me to your friend,” Barbara said. Her voice was cultured. She wore a perfume that was subtle and floral without being overpowering. Her face was made up with perfection, her dress couture and her shoes one of a kind. Everything about her screamed old school money and class.

  “This is Manuela Menendez, a great new chef moving to London to open up her own resta
urant. You should congratulate us, we’re expecting twins in April,” David said.

  The silence was immediate and spread over a large area. People who were usually very blasé about drama and histrionics leaned a little to watch the exchange. Manny was more than embarrassed. She glanced at David, now saw that his audacious behavior was deliberate. He had been drinking but only a few glasses of wine over a long period of time so that wasn’t his excuse. He had an interesting look in his eye as if he had been planning this for a long time.

  Barbara flushed a pretty peach but her slight smile never faltered. She turned to David. She turned toward Manny and her hand rose to deliver, what Manny assumed would be, a slap. Manny had spent most of life with her male cousins. From the time she was seven years old and came to live with her Abuela, Manny had spent all her summers with Moises and his brothers. She had learned to either duck blows or retaliate in kind. This time she chose to disengage altogether. As Barbara’s hand went up Manny’s did too. Their hands met in the air so that Manny turned the slap into a hearty slap of hands and handshake.

  She kept Barbara’s hand in her stronger, chop, slice, and knead-muscled hand, and without seeming to force Barbara to follow her into a quiet corner.

  “I understand you’re very upset and you have every right to be. But I don’t plan on airing all of my dirty laundry in front of these people. So we can either talk about this now in this corner or you can come by my hotel tomorrow so we can have lunch and talk this over,” Manny said.

  “As soon as you let go of my hand, I shall leave this restaurant. I will meet you for lunch at David’s house. Which, as you know, is my house as well,” Barbara said. She had regained her composure. Her creamy complexion was unsullied by the previous unpleasantness. Manny released her hand aware that at any time Barbara could strike.

  “What time would be good for you?”