by Beth Rinyu
Chapter 9
Nicole
I awoke the next morning at 5:30. I tried my hardest to fall back asleep. After about a half hour of tossing and turning, I finally gave up. I quietly tiptoed down the stairs, after quickly sticking my head in Ella’s and Ryan's rooms. I made a cup of coffee and sucked in the quietness. It wasn't often that I could hear the humming of the refrigerator; normally this house was jam packed with noise and I wouldn't have it any other way.
I jumped when I saw Ryan standing in the doorway.
“Hey, what are you doing up so early?” I asked.
He shrugged his shoulders. He poured himself a glass of orange juice and sat down next to me. “Are you and my Uncle D mad at each other?”
I smiled and shook my head. “No, Ryan, we’re not.”
A look of relief washed over his face. “Good!”
I looked out the kitchen window. “Well, it looks like it’s going to be a nice day for your birthday party.”
He smiled and then quickly replaced it with a worrisome look. “You won’t say anything to Katy Carmichael when she comes over today, will you?”
“Absolutely not! I promised you I wouldn’t.”
He sighed in relief. “Now I just have to worry about Big Mouth saying something to her.”
“I promise you, Ryan, I will make sure that he doesn’t say anything.”
“How can you make sure that he doesn’t?”
“Oh, I have my ways.” I smiled. I looked over at the clock. “Hey, Ryan, you want to go get some breakfast and then go pick up your cake?”
“Just me and you?” he asked with excitement.
“Yup!”
“Okay,” he said with a huge smile.
“Go get dressed.” He ran up the steps, two at a time. I dumped the rest of my coffee down the sink and followed him up the stairs. I took a quick shower and quickly dressed. I moved the baby monitor to Dailan's side of the bed. He was still sleeping. I gave him a quick kiss on the head. I left him a quick note letting him know where we were going and checked on Ella one more time before Ryan and I headed out the door.
Ryan and I finished up our breakfast at the diner. I loved our one-on-one time that we spent together. I tried to have “date night” with him at least twice a month. I didn’t want him to feel like he was getting lost in the shuffle since Ella came along. We walked over to the bakery, which was right next door to the diner and waited in line for the cake. The early morning crowd was already out, buying their donuts and coffee. I watched as Ryan pressed his head up against the glass, eyeing all of the different cupcakes and cookies. “What kind of cupcake do you want?” I asked.
His smile was a mile wide. “That one!” He pointed to a chocolate one with vanilla icing and colored sprinkles. It was finally our turn; I gave the lady my name, while Ryan pointed out his cupcake to her. She handed Ryan his cupcake before going in the back to get the cake. I giggled at the icing that was all over his nose. “Go in the bathroom and get that off your nose; you’re a sticky mess.”
“Nicole?” I didn’t want to turn around. I knew that voice. It had been ten years since I had heard it, but I would never forget it. I swallowed hard and finally got the strength to move my head. I was nauseous as I stared into Jonathan Caldwell’s eyes. “Nicole, how are you?” he said with a huge smile as if nothing had ever happened between us. I was speechless. I didn’t know what to say.
“Miss,” the lady from behind the counter said as she came walking out with the cake.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said, quickly turning my attention back to her. I was shaking so badly that I dropped my wallet and its contents all over the floor. I bent down to pick up my credit cards at the same time as Jonathan. He picked up my driver’s license and I could see him giving it a quick glance before handing it to me. I quickly snatched it from his hand and shoved everything haphazardly back into my wallet. I handed the lady my credit card and she rang me up.
“So, how have you been?” he asked.
“Fine.” I was short and to the point, hoping that he would get the hint. But he didn’t.
“So, are you still living around here?” he asked.
“Yeah, I am,” I said, not looking at him as I signed the receipt.
“All clean!” Ryan exclaimed as he made his way out of the bathroom. Shit, shit, shit I forgot all about Ryan being here.
Jonathan’s eyes widened as he looked Ryan over up and down, before looking at me once again. “Hey, bud, how are you?” Jonathan asked.
“I’m good,” Ryan answered.
My stomach was churning; this couldn’t be happening. I was hoping that Jonathan wasn’t able to figure it out.
“Jonathan, did you order my coffee?” Okay, if I didn’t feel like I was going to throw up before, I certainly did now as Jonathan’s mother approached us. She stopped dead in her tracks and looked me over up and down as if she had seen a ghost.
“Mom, you remember Nicole Morgan, don’t you?”
“Nicole O’Maley,” Ryan chimed in.
“Well, of course I do.” She forced a smile. I remained expressionless; I had nothing to say to her or her son. “How are you, Nicole?”
“I’m well. Come on, Ryan, let’s go.”
“Wait, let me see my birthday cake,” Ryan said, looking over the cake. “Wow, awesome!”
Jonathan’s mom stared at Ryan in amazement. I knew at that moment she had figured it out. She closed her eyes as if it pained her to look at him. You bitch, you should feel guilty, I was screaming to myself. “Well, it was really great seeing you again, Nicole.”
I didn’t answer. I just placed my hand on Ryan’s shoulder while balancing the cake and making a hasty getaway. I made it to the car and had to get myself together before driving. I was shaking so badly and felt my eyes beginning to burn with tears. Jonathan was awful enough to me after I became pregnant and his mother was even worse.
“What’s wrong?” Ryan asked me, very sweetly, clearly noticing that I was upset. “Who were those people?”
“Just some not so nice people that I used to know and hope to never see again,” I answered.
Chapter 10
Nicole
The past...
As the weeks passed and my pregnancy became common knowledge to everyone, the whispers behind my back were beginning to subside. And although it was still uncomfortable, it was at least a little more bearable. Home, on the other hand, was still a nightmare. My father and sister weren’t speaking to me, while my mother tried her best to play peacekeeper. Justin was the only one who treated me in the same way as before all of this had happened. I had bought my car with the money I saved up while waitressing on the weekends at the local diner. It was a piece of junk, but it got me where I needed to go. My father had made a deal with me that if I could save up the money for the car, then he would pay the car insurance. Once he had found out about my pregnancy, he reneged on his end of the deal, trying to make his point that I didn’t have it all figured out at seventeen. Since there was no way that I could afford to pay for it myself, I was without a car. Donna had become my personal chauffer. I took the bus to school on the days that Donna couldn’t drive me. I had my first appointment with the adoption counselor. She was going to be meeting me at the doctor’s for my first check-up. Donna was driving me there, but I had asked her to make a stop at Jonathan’s parents’ house first. She agreed to do it, but she wasn’t happy about it.
“Nicole, why are you doing this?”
“Because, Donna, they’re taking this out on my dad and it’s totally not his fault.”
I had found out that Rachel was the one that had delivered the news of my pregnancy to Jonathan’s parents, making me hate her even more. We pulled into the long driveway. Donna waited in the car as I nervously made my way up to the front porch. I rang the doorbell and immediately heard Chauncey begin to bark. Jonathan’s mother opened the door and had a pure look of disgust on her face when she looked at me.
“Nicole, what are you
doing here?” she asked as she hesitantly opened the screen door and let me in.
“I wanted to talk to Mr. Caldwell.”
“Well, he’s not here. He’s away on business,” she said in a very dismissing tone.
“Look, Mrs. Caldwell. I’m going to have this baby and I’m not going to ask Jonathan for anything. Just please don’t take this out on my dad.”
“Oh, really? Who the hell do you think you are, coming into my house and making demands? No, you will not be asking my son for anything. He has a bright future ahead of him and he’s not going to mess it up because he decided to get messed up with a tramp like you.”
“I’m not a tramp. Jonathan was my first. He told me that he loved me and I loved him.” I began to cry.
“Well, then, that just makes you stupid on top of it,” she said coldly. “How my husband chooses to run his business isn’t my concern and I will not tell him what he should or shouldn’t do.”
I couldn’t believe how heartless this woman was to me. I wiped the tears from my face and began to walk out the door. “Nicole.” I turned around and looked at her. “The best thing you can do for yourself and your family is just get rid of that evil little bastard growing inside of you.” My mouth fell to the ground. I was hysterical by the time I reached Donna’s car.
“What just happened?” Donna asked.
I tried my best to calm myself down. I told Donna everything. “Oh my God! What a fuckin’ bitch!” Donna took my hand in hers. “It’s okay, Nicole. Just calm down.”
My eyes were swollen and red by the time we arrived at the clinic. I signed in and took a seat. “Nicole Morgan?” a short African American lady who looked to be in her fifties asked.
“Yes,” I answered.
“I’m Tisha Jones. I’m your adoption counselor.” She extended her hand to me and I immediately felt comfortable in her presence.
“Nicole, I have to be at work in a half hour. Do you think you’ll be that long?” Donna asked.
“Oh, I can give you a ride home,” Tisha answered.
“Okay. Are you going to be okay?” Donna asked.
I nodded. Donna gave me a hug and I watched her walk out the door.
“So, Nicole, how are you feeling?” Tisha asked.
“I’m okay. Just really tired.”
“Well, that always happens in the first trimester. In a few months, you’ll be getting some of that energy back and once you start taking your prenatal vitamins, you will be feeling a lot better.” It was so comforting to actually be talking to an adult that wasn’t yelling at me or calling me bad names. She actually cared.
We were taken into the exam room where I was examined by a young female doctor. “Okay, Nicole, everything seems to look good. So you’re almost ten weeks pregnant. Do you want to see if we can hear the heartbeat?” she asked.
“Yeah, sure!” I found myself getting overly excited.
She rubbed some gel on my tummy and began to move a wand around. All of a sudden, I heard a swishing sound coming from the speaker.
“That’s your baby’s heart.” She smiled.
I was on emotional overload. Tisha grabbed my hand and smiled as the tears rolled down my face. It was all so real now; my baby was alive inside of me. Just hearing the heartbeat for the very first time reconfirmed what I already knew. I was doing the right thing.
Chapter 11
Nicole
I pulled into the driveway, not even remembering the drive home. Ryan chattered away in the back seat and I would answer him every now and then with a “yes” or just a laugh. But my mind was a million miles away. I was so frazzled by the little run in that I just had. It stirred up too many painful memories for me. I took a deep breath as I got out the car, telling myself that was the past and I had never been happier than where I was in my present. I was not going to let them ruin my day. As hard as I tried, I was still a little shaken by the time I walked into the house. Dailan was feeding Ella and picked up on my edginess right away as he saw my frustration with trying to get the cake to fit in the fridge. He got up and moved me out of the way, repositioned a few things on the shelf, and fit the cake box in with ease.
“Thanks,” I said as I pushed a stray strand of hair that had fallen from the ponytail behind my ear.
“Nicole, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I hated lying to him. I kissed him on the cheek to try and reassure him, but I could tell by the look on his face that he wasn’t buying it.
“Can you finish feeding her? I have to be at work for another conference call at nine-thirty.”
“What? Dailan, it’s Saturday, it’s a holiday weekend, and it’s Ryan’s party.”
“I know and I promise I will be an hour tops,” he said. He kissed Ella on the head and gave me a quick kiss before darting out the door.
“Where’d Uncle D go?” Ryan asked as he came walking into the kitchen.
“He had to run into work really quick.”
“Is he gonna miss my party?”
“Not a chance.” I smiled.” Because if he does I will have to kill him, I secretly thought to myself as I shoveled one last spoonful of cereal into Ella’s mouth.
Ryan was a big help with helping me get everything together for the party. I looked at the clock when I heard Dailan entering the front door. 11:45. Okay, he will live to see another day. He walked into the kitchen and I could tell he was in a bad mood. “Hey, is everything okay?” I asked.
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, everything is fine,” he said in a very dismissing tone. I quickly rethought my original plan of telling him who I had run into at the bakery and decided against it.
I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him on the cheek. “Well, I love you. Does that make it a little better?” I teased.
He kissed me on the forehead. “What do you need help with?” he asked.
“Your daughter. She is in rare form today.”
Ella was crawling around the kitchen, trying to get into everything. Ryan had been doing his best to keep her at bay, but he soon got bored with it. Dailan picked her up and she began to scream loudly, trying to wiggle her way back down to the ground. “You’ve got a big mouth for such a little girl,” he teased. She began to do her fake cry that she was quickly learning would get her what she wanted. “Oh no, I’m not falling for that one, baby girl.” He pretended to bite her neck and she began to giggle. I watched as the moodiness from just a few minutes ago washed away from both Dailan and Ella.
I smiled when I heard the voice of my father-in-law, Jack O’Maley, coming from the front door. “Ah, there’s my beautiful daughter-in-law and granddaughter,” he said as he entered the kitchen. He gave me a kiss on the cheek and immediately took Ella from Dailan.
“Hi, to you too, Dad,” Dailan joked.
“Where’s Annette?” I asked.
“Here I am,” she said as she entered the kitchen, carrying two bags.
“Such a gentleman you are, Dad,” Dailan said as he took the bags from her hands.
“I’m sorry. I was just so excited to see this beautiful baby and the birthday boy,” Jack said as Ryan walked into the kitchen.
“Oh my goodness, Nicole, it’s only been a week since I’ve last seen her and she looks like she’s grown so much,” Annette said. I nodded in agreement. “Wow, she is such a mixture of you and Dailan. I have a feeling Daddy’s going to have a hard time with the boys when a certain little somebody becomes a teenager,” Annette teased Dailan.
“Paybacks, Dailan.” Jack O’Maley laughed. He went on to tell me all about the trouble that Dailan would get into with the girls when he would come and visit him over the summer. Dailan rolled his eyes and groaned, listening to the stories. I just laughed. I never tired of listening to the stories that Jack would tell me about Dailan’s past.
Annette took over and helped prepare for the party. Before I knew it, I had a backyard full of guests. I watched and smiled as Ryan held hands with Katy Carmichael. “Don’t you dare say a word,” I said
to Dailan, who was all smiles.
“I’m not. Who do you think told him to grab her hand? He’s learning from the master.”
“Oh, God help us,” I said as I started to walk away.
He grabbed my arm and pulled me back to him. “I got the girl I always dreamed of, didn’t I?” He kissed me softly on the lips.
“Oh my God, do you two ever stop?” I heard a voice from behind me.
“Tommy, you fuckhead, where have you been?” Dailan shouted.
“Dailan!” I yelled, looking around at the backyard full of kids.
Tommy was Dailan’s best friend and although I thought he was a great guy, the two of them would sometimes act very juvenile when they were around each other. “Nicole, you let him kiss you with that mouth?” Tommy laughed, giving me a hug and kiss. “Sorry about not texting you back the other night. Cindy and I broke up.” Another thing about Tommy, he had a different girlfriend almost every week and each break up was like it was with someone he had been dating for years.
“Well, she was a record. What was it? Two weeks?” Dailan teased.
“Dailan, that’s not nice. I’m sorry to hear that, Tommy,” I said.
“Thanks, Nicole.”
“Bro, hook me up,” Tommy said. Dailan reached into the cooler and handed Tommy a beer. “What, you’re not having one?” Tommy asked Dailan.
“No, he’s in charge of watching fifteen kids and he can’t be drinking,” I answered for him.
“Damn, O’Maley’s whooped by a woman. I never thought I’d see the day.” Tommy laughed.
“Yeah, well at least I’m gettin’ some,” Dailan shouted just as my father appeared.
“Oh my God, Dailan, will you please shut up!” I whispered loud enough for only him to hear.
“Hi, Dad.” I stood on my tippy toes and gave him a kiss.
“Hey, Nicole,” my sister said as she came out, holding Ella and smothering her in kisses. She leaned in and gave me and Dailan each a kiss. I noticed that ever since her separation from her husband, she had been dressing a lot sexier than normal. I checked her out from head to toe in her black mini skirt and halter-top. I couldn’t help but notice Tommy doing the same.