by Dyanne Davis
He dropped to his knees on the side of the bed, pulling her with him. “We’re going to stop this.”
“You started it.”
“Tit for tat, baby?”
“Tit for tat. How does it feel?”
“Look, you wanted to hurt me, and you did. We’re even. It’s over. Now we’re going to stop this nonsense and start acting like we’re married.” He looked straight into her eyes. “We both know you did this to get back at me. And I’ll admit your using Reggie was the best way to pound some sense into me.”
“I didn’t use Reggie.”
Eric glared at her and pulled her closer. He could feel her warm breath on his face, smell the scent of sex mixed with the sugar cookie smell. “Reggie might not know you were using him but you were. Now come on, admit it. You never did anything with him, right?” He saw the gentle smile that curved her lips. “You’re evil. You’re not going to say, are you?”
“Honey, why would you think my being with an old boyfriend…oops, I mean talking to an old boyfriend, was any reason to worry?” She cocked her head a little to the right, her gaze sweeping him up and down. “Don’t you remember? I still had my panties on.”
“Gabi?”
“Don’t Gabi me, I did have them on.”
“I don’t know whose panties were in the car.”
“I do. I’m sure they were Jamilla’s.”
“Have you asked her?”
“Do you think I’d give either of you the satisfaction?”
“Gabi, I don’t need this right now. I’m hanging on by a thread here. Do you have any idea how rough my new assignment is on me right now?”
Gabi pushed away. “How would I know? You don’t talk to me, remember?”
When she was far enough away she shoved out her foot, hitting Eric squarely in the chest. “You do what you damn please for months, then when you think you have something to worry about you want to blame it on the marines. I’m not blaming the marines for your actions and I’m not blaming the war. I’m blaming you. And if I did sleep with Reggie, at least I waited until we were separated to do it.”
Eric roared so loudly that Gabi found herself moving farther back in bed. She’d struck a nerve. He was ticked.
“Tell me the truth now!” Eric growled, his eyes bulging and his hands clenched at his sides.
“I was tempted,” she replied softly, knowing that her quiet demeanor was doing a heck of a lot more to her husband than shouting it out.
“Don’t do this, Gabi.”
“I’m not doing anything.”
“Tit for tat, baby. I know what you’re doing.”
“Good.” She smiled. “Since you know I’m only doing this for revenge, you should stop worrying about it.”
“You’re not going to bait me, I know you love me.”
“Of course I love you…just like I knew you loved me when you were tempted, when you were out dancing with every hoochie you could find. I knew you loved me when you kept pushing me away, refusing to talk to me. I knew you loved me when I caught you practically having sex with Jamilla in public. I knew you loved me when you talked to me like I was nothing and treated me like crap, when you refused to make love to me, when you pulled out as though I was stupid. And I knew you loved me when I found the used condom and panties in our car.”
“Did you do anything, Gabi?”
“No more than you did.” She leaned back on the pillows and closed her eyes. “Maybe a little more, maybe a little less.” She sighed. “Reggie does look good, though, doesn’t he? I think he’s been working out. He dances at the club. She hunched her shoulders. “I don’t blame him if that’s what he wants to do. He told me he makes very good money.”
“He’s a stripper?” Eric’s eyes narrowed. “Reggie is a stripper? Did you sit there and watch him strip down to that damn G string? Is that why you were standing between his legs?”
“Exotic dancer.” Gabi laughed. “I don’t think he’d like being called a stripper, but hey, go for it. In answer to your question, yes, I watched him dance. He’s very good. He kinda dedicated his dance to me.” She ran her tongue across her lips. “His stage name is Chocolate Pudding. It should be something like Caramel Candy, or Brown Sugar.” She laughed harder. “Can you believe it, Brown sugar?” She allowed her eyes to close slowly and wrapped her arms around her body.
“In about two seconds I’m going to strangle you.” Eric glared at her and took a step toward her.
“You’re into wife beating now?”
“I’m not going to beat you, just strangle you.”
Gabi laughed and rolled over to her side of the bed. “Brown Sugar,” she whispered softly in a seductive voice. “I want me some Brown Sugar.” She laughed harder and pulled the covers over her head. Good, she thought, let him stew.
“I know you didn’t sleep with Reggie.”
But he didn’t know it. He was stomping around the room trying to reassure himself, plopping down on the bed. “Gabi, don’t do this to me, I can’t take it. I know I’ve been treating you like crap, pushing you away. I thought I wanted you to leave me. Baby, I can’t take it. Come on, please tell me the truth, tell me you haven’t been sleeping around with Reggie.”
He was begging, begging her. He’d never begged for anything. If he had he would have begged her at seventeen to be his. His voice was hoarse. He swallowed, pulling her closer. “Baby, please tell me you didn’t do it.” He was about to give up when finally Gabi turned back to face him.
“I didn’t sleep with Reggie. I didn’t sleep with anyone. I love you…you’re my husband. Don’t you know that I would never cheat on you?”
A tremor started in Eric’s soul and traveled through-out his body at the deadpan voice Gabi was using. She was saying the right words but she was saying them in that stupid monotone voice just to piss him off. He hissed and threw a pillow at her and headed for the shower.
“I know you, Gabi, you wouldn’t cheat on me. You’re just trying to hurt me, make me crazy. I know you.”
“Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think,” she taunted.
Eric didn’t even bother to turn back to glare at her. She was just torturing him. She wouldn’t sleep with Reggie just like he wouldn’t sleep with anyone else. But he’d been tempted, he’d wanted to, he’d thought about it more than once. And he knew his wife. If she thought he’d done it, and she did, she would do anything to get back at him. He scrubbed his bald head. Then again, she would also set it up so that it would look like she had, just to get revenge. He pounded his fist against the shower stall, wishing he knew the truth. Payback is a mother, he thought.
***
It was positive, there was no doubt about it, Gabi was pregnant. She’d doubted the urine test strip, but the blood test was irrefutable evidence. But how? Her husband was sterile. Now how the heck was she supposed to tell him this news? She could hear him now after all the fighting they’d been doing for the past weeks over Reggie.
“Whose is it, Gabi?”
“It’s yours.”
“Right.”
Gabi couldn’t blame Eric. If she didn’t know she’d not slept with another soul other than him, she would wonder also. But she knew she hadn’t, despite what Eric would think. And what you led him to believe, the little voice nagged. God, how stupid could she be? That was the last thing a woman should ever do to her man.
But she’d busted him dancing with that skank and feeling her up and she’d retaliated in the way she knew would hurt him the most—by finding an old boyfriend and making sure her husband saw her with him. It hadn’t taken much encouragement to make Reggie think he was getting into her panties. He’d been licking his lips and giving her sly glances, even after her husband had snatched her arm and shoved Reggie. Who wouldn’t think that she’d been screwing around?
And don’t forget you called out Reggie’s name and pretended it was an accident. Her apology and the crocodile tears, swearing nothing had happened, had made Eric believe otherwise. Now this.
Damn.
Gabi groaned. It all made so much sense now, the tender breasts, the vomiting, the raging hormones, the unusual bloating. A wave of nausea rose so quickly that had she not already been in the bathroom she wouldn’t have made it.
A couple of minutes later she spat out the toothpaste and allowed the tears to fill her eyes. This was a mess, a for real mess and she didn’t know how she was gong to handle it.
“Gabi, are you going to stay in that bathroom forever?” Eric yelled.
Why wait? It was now or never. Gabi pushed the door open and squared her shoulders for a moment. Her husband with his deep pecan brown skin that was smoother than a baby’s bottom, took her breath away. She looked at his nicely shaped bald head and a shiver traveled from her womb to her heart. She closed her eyes for a second, loving this man more in this moment than she ever had. He’d given her the one gift she didn’t think they would ever have. And telling him would rip their tattered marriage to shreds. She watched as he narrowed his gaze and looked at her.
“What’s wrong with you, girl? You look like you’re sick or something.”
She heard the concern coating his words and swayed as his brown arm reached to steady her. As it did, darkness claimed her.
“Gabi, Gabi, baby, what’s wrong?” This time the worry had elevated into full scale alarm.
Gabi moaned and forced her eyes open to look into the worried eyes of her husband. She was surprised to find she was on the bed. Eric hovered over her, his right hand holding a cold towel on her forehead.
“I’m sorry we’ve been fighting so much, baby. It’s stressing you out, I know. Damn, it’s stressing me out as well. I love you, baby. Nothing happened with Jamilla, nothing happened with anyone, I promise you that. Let’s start over, baby.” He leaned down, placed his lips lightly on hers, and kissed her.
Oh God, for just a moment let us be the two people we used to be before we started fighting, before we stopped trusting each other. Tears ran down her cheeks and Gabi succumbed to her husband’s embrace. Her head pressed against his broad shoulder, she listened to the beating of his heart and held on tighter.
“Don’t cry, baby, I love you,” Eric said softly, his arms going around her, holding her close.
“I love you too,” she admitted, hoping that it wasn’t too late.
“Then stop crying, okay?”
“I’m pregnant.”
The words burst out of her before she could reel them in, before she could prepare her husband.
“You’re what!”
She couldn’t say it again. Gabi could only look at him as he moved away. Betrayal quickly filled his eyes and disbelief ravaged his features. Tears replaced the look of betrayal in his eyes and he moved across the room, wrapping his long arms around his body. He stared at her, shaking his head, unable to talk.
“It’s yours,” Gabi whispered softly. “I swear it is.” The look that came into her husband’s eyes made her want to die. She’d killed something in him. A chill pierced her core and snaked its way slowly over her spine. She had what she’d wanted; she’d killed his soul as surely as he’d killed hers. But now that it was too late she was aware that she had never intended to heap this kind of pain on her husband.
“Eric, it’s yours. I swear I’ve never cheated on you.”
She moved backwards on the bed as his glare cut a hole through her.
“Is that what our fighting has been about for the last months? I couldn’t give you a baby so you found someone who could? What about me, Gabi? What about us?” His voice broke. “I can’t look at you right now.” Gabi started to speak and he held up his hand to stop her, then pointed a finger in her direction, his arm shaking with fury. “Don’t speak, not now.”
He couldn’t look at her, not now, not knowing she carried another man’s baby in her belly. He had to get away, had to leave her before he hurt her and if he hurt her he’d never be able to live with himself. Nothing had ever hurt him like this. Actual pains were shooting through his body.
As he drove around aimlessly, Eric thought of the time he’d spent in Iraq, the knowledge that he could be killed at any moment never leaving him, the sounds of gunfire, the wounded, the dead and dying. None of it had ever given him the feeling he had now.
In all of it he’d known he would come out of it alive. He had a wife to get home to, a wife he loved with everything that was in him. He’d promised her they would start a family when he returned home.
He pulled into the lot of the supermarket and parked at the back, away from any cars. His chest was tightening up and he felt as though he couldn’t breathe. The sobs tore lose from his throat and there was nothing he could do. He shook his head, trying to make himself stop. He’d not cried like this when his best friend went down in battle beside him, or when he’d held his bloodied body and looked into Bo’s eyes begging him not to die. Sure he’d cried, but not like this.
In one moment he’d lost all that he’d ever wanted and with that loss the will to live was slowly seeping from his pores. If there were a way for him to erase the last hour from his memory he would. But there was no such magical elixir. Eric breathed in hard as the images flooded him. He saw his wife’s face with the tears falling non-stop and he shuddered, sobbing harder. This wasn’t supposed to happen, not to them. He’d loved Gabi since she was fifteen and he’d seen her with a group of friends in the park. She’d been licking an ice cream and had stopped for a second and smiled at him. In that instant she’d claimed his heart and his soul.
Eric could still see her smiling at him. He remembered all their firsts. Damn, this was the only first that hurt like hell, the first time one of them cheated on the other. Or was it the first? he wondered. He’d come so close to doing it himself when he first came home from Iraq and he’d almost done it again once they were given the news that they could not ever have the babies they’d planned for, waited for. “Oh Gabi,” Eric moaned aloud. “Gabi, how could you let this happen? How could you sleep with someone else? How could you be having another man’s baby?”
***
If she could die right here, right now, she would. Gabi touched her stomach and looked down. She was going to have a baby. She couldn’t die. This was what she’d wanted for the last seven years of her marriage. If only she could go back to six months ago, if only the one guy she’d chosen to make her husband jealous had not been Reggie. If only, if only… But it was too late now. They’d been fighting for weeks over an affair she’d never had and she’d only pretended because she’d thought he’d cheated on her. God, what a mess.
ANOTHER MAN’S BABY 229
Chapter Seventeen
“Whose baby is it, Gabi?”
“It’s yours.”
“Right.”
The conversation was going as she’d anticipated, word for word. Eric’s voice was ice cold, all traces of feeling removed from his voice or his features. Should she beg, plead?
“There’s a simple way to prove it.” Gabi watched while his head tilted just slightly and a glimmer of hope lit his eyes and died out.
“DNA, once the baby is born.” She looked down. “Or you could go back to the doctor. He must have made a mistake. I don’t know. I only know I haven’t been with anyone.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I know you don’t but it’s true.”
Eric’s fists closed and his eyes followed. “I’m not a fool. I want to believe you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.”
“Then believe me.”
For a moment they stared at each other until she heard the groan from across the room that told her he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t believe something so crazy.
“Please, just go to the doctor and get another test, you’ll see. It’s only an hour out of your life. That’s all I ask, just have him repeat the test.” She saw him swallow as he stared at her and read every thought she was having. That part was easy because they were having the same ones. “I’ll call and set up the appointment for you.”
/>
Eric stared at his wife, the love of his life. He wanted so much to believe her, to believe the doctors had made a mistake. He went to the drawer and pulled out the sheets of paper that had destroyed their lives and their marriage. The papers said he was sterile, not a low sperm count, sterile. How was that going to change? He watched Gabi move toward the phone and a sound issued from his throat. He shook his head. “Not your office. I’ll find my own doctor and make my own appointment.”
“You think our lab would lie because I work there? Are you crazy?”
“No, I’m not crazy. That’s the reason I’ll find my own doctor. There are enough of them listed. I’m not stupid.”
“I didn’t think you were. Until you go to the doctor what are we going to do? Are we going to talk about this?”
“There isn’t really anything for us to talk about…not until we know.”
“There’s a baby involved now, not just the two of us. We have to stop this silly squabbling.”
Before he could stop himself he was across the room and standing an inch from her. Gabi had pushed his last button. She knew how much he loved her, had always loved her, had once wanted a dozen babies with her. He could feel the rage boiling upwards. He took a deep breath, a mistake, he realized, as soon as her scent hit his nostrils. She always smelled like fresh baked sugar cookies, always good enough to eat.
“I haven’t done anything wrong.”
He held up the papers he was still clutching. “Was it through osmosis or maybe wishing? Is that it, you wanted a baby so badly that you wished it into being?”
“I didn’t want just any baby, I wanted our baby, yours and mine and this is what we have, our baby.” Gabi couldn’t help cringing as her husband’s eyes flashed fire. She blinked, suddenly afraid. She didn’t even sense the pain, just his anger. She took a step back cautiously, wondering if her husband would hit her. He never had and she’d always sworn that if he ever did she would pick up whatever was handy and do her best to lay him out in spite of his being six-three. She was far too old to take a butt whipping. Uhh uhh, wasn’t going to happen, not to her.