“Sounds delicious.”
She smiled at his sarcasm.
“For someone who talks about their love of food the way you do,” he added, “you sure don’t eat much.”
“I’ve had the best. I’m picky.”
Ryan stopped sucking on the bottle, prompting Derrick to lift him to his shoulder where he’d already placed a clean towel. He patted Ryan on the back.
“You’re getting good at that.”
“I’m trying.”
“Thanks for helping me out tonight, especially after the way I’ve treated you.”
“I understand why you’d be upset. Maggie never should have brought those papers to the party.”
“Speaking of which…what is the deal with you and Maggie?”
“Like I said before, we’ve been friends for a long time.”
“I can’t be friends with someone who can’t be honest with me.”
“It’s the truth,” he said.
She angled her head. “Are you in denial when it comes to your feelings for Maggie, or do you think everyone around you is blind?”
“What do you mean?”
“Aaron gave you a black eye—obviously it had to do with Maggie. Twice now I’ve seen you look at her with longing and desire. Your feelings for Maggie also explain why a friendly, good-looking guy like yourself is still single.”
“So, you think I’m friendly and good-looking?”
He was definitely in denial, she decided. “I think you have an ego the size of Mount Everest. That’s what I think.”
~~~
Maggie followed Aaron to the closet in the spare bedroom and watched him dig through sleeping bags, extra pillows, and a pile of pending Goodwill donations until he found the duffel bag he was looking for.
She plunked her hands on her hips. “I cannot believe you’re walking out on me.”
“I cannot believe you helped Derrick decorate and then went to Mom’s house knowing Derrick would be there.”
She followed him down the hall and into their bedroom, where he tossed the duffel bag onto their bed. “I helped your brother Garrett decorate, too, when Bailey was born. I told you from the beginning that I was going to help Derrick and that’s what I was doing. That letter from CryoCorp is going to give your brother a chance to have a relationship with his son. That should mean something to you.”
Aaron’s face turned beet red as he stabbed a finger through the air. “This is exactly why I didn’t want to move back to Los Angeles. But you insisted. Because I trusted you and loved you, I went along with it.”
He laughed. “The funniest part of this whole sordid affair is that Derrick’s stupid little vow is beginning to make sense after all. Derrick, the football player who cared more about a stupid ball than homework or grades, turns out to be smarter than all of us. Who woulda thunk?”
Maggie sighed. “What are you talking about?”
“The vow I told you about. Derrick made us all poke our finger with a needle and let a drop of blood fall to the paper where he’d written the vow that we each had to repeat. ‘I will never, under any circumstance, kiss Maggie Monroe, go on a date with Maggie Monroe, or have a relationship with Maggie Monroe for as long as I live because the brotherhood always comes first.’” He held up his pointy finger and said, “‘I, Aaron William Baylor, will never allow a female, more specifically, Maggie Monroe, to come between us and break the bond I have with my brothers.’”
Nervous laughter escaped her, mostly because she couldn’t believe what she was hearing or that Aaron would even bother bringing up the absurd vow at such a horrible time.
“Go ahead and laugh, Maggie. But it’s true. Derrick has loved you since the beginning of time, and he must have known you loved him, too, but he wasn’t willing to jeopardize his relationship with me, so he never went after you. It’s clear to me now. He knew all along what would happen if one of us broke the vow.”
“And what exactly would happen, Aaron?”
“Whoever broke the vow would ultimately have to give up one for the other.”
“Funny,” she said, “the only person I can see choosing one over the other is you.”
Aaron went back to shoving clothes into the duffel bag.
“I don’t love Derrick,” she said as she touched his shoulder and felt his muscles tighten. “I never have. I only love you. I’ve never loved anyone but you. I always thought you knew that.”
He pulled away and disappeared inside the bathroom to collect his toiletries. When he came back, he tossed his things inside the duffel bag with everything else. Then he turned to her and said, “You’re the one who made me choose, Maggie. I asked you not to take on Derrick’s problems, but you insisted.” He tied the bag. “Because of our busy lives, we haven’t had time to go to a movie or dinner, but as soon as Derrick has a problem, you’re suddenly as free as a bird—nothing but time on your hands to meet with him in court and discuss his problems over the phone. You couldn’t say no to him. Even after he kissed you in the courtroom, proving my point, you still couldn’t say no.”
She followed Aaron through the house and to the front door. “He’s your brother. Did you ever stop to think that the Baylor family was my family, too? Did you ever wonder how that made me feel, knowing that all of you signed some silly piece of paper to keep me out of your silly little club? Made a stupid vow to keep me out of your lives?”
Aaron walked out the door.
She followed him to the car. “After your mother left you and your father, who do you think your father was telling all his sorrows to?”
He didn’t look interested as he threw his bag into the trunk of his car.
“It was my mother whose creamy white breasts your father buried his head between and told his woes to.”
Aaron didn’t say a word.
“Once my father learned of the affair and finally had enough, he left without saying good-bye to me. I haven’t seen him since. And I wasn’t even the one who betrayed him.”
Aaron finally looked at her, his eyes filled with shock.
“Did any of your brotherhood ever bother to check up on me and see that my life was turning to shit while you all bonded together and made blood vows?”
“I didn’t know.”
“Because none of you cared about anyone but yourselves. And through it all, before and after I left for college, I always knew that you were the one for me and that you would come for me. And that made everything bad in my life bearable. Because I knew you were the one who knew me best and loved me most.” She crossed her arms. “But you’re right. We never should have moved back to Los Angeles. It’s turned out to be some sort of crazy, stupid test. A test we couldn’t pass. But don’t you worry about me because I don’t need you, Aaron. I’ve been alone for most of my life. I don’t need anyone.”
Chapter Sixteen
Jill stepped inside Sandy’s apartment and looked around, stunned by the decorative changes her friend had made in the past few months. Sandy was usually the one coming to her place to cook and do business, especially since she liked to take Lexi to the park afterward. But now that Jill had caught a glimpse of handmade curtains and travertine floors, giving the place a light and airy feel, Jill knew it had been way too long since she’d visited. “I love what you’ve done to the place.”
“Thanks.” Sandy took the diaper bag out of her hands and set it to the side while Jill unbuckled Ryan from his carrier and lifted him into her arms.
“I’m having fun decorating.”
Ryan let out a small cry and Sandy came up close and took a good long look at him. “He looks perfectly fine to me.”
“He is fine. According to Nate it’s normal for babies to get a little warm once in a while. If Ryan’s temperature had gone over 100 degrees then he said I would have needed to bring him in for a closer look.”
“That makes sense.”
“You should have seen Derrick last night. He pretended to be calm as we waited for Nate to return my phone call, bu
t any time Ryan so much as sneezed, the big tough quarterback was overcome with anxiety: pacing the floor and twiddling his fingers.”
“So how did Derrick get involved last night?” Sandy asked. “I thought you were finished with him?”
“I panicked. After Nate failed to return my call, I ran to Derrick’s place to get a second opinion.”
“Who’s Nate?”
“Ryan’s pediatrician, the guy I told you about when we were in the barn.”
“Let me get this straight,” Sandy said. “You ran to Derrick because Ryan had a slight fever?”
“It wasn’t just the fever,” Jill said. “Ryan wasn’t crying as much as he usually does and he slept through his feeding.”
Sandy headed for the kitchen. “I see.”
“According to Nate, he gets calls like mine all of the time.”
Sandy stopped what she was doing and looked Jill square in the eyes. “It sounds to me like you were looking for an excuse to run to Derrick’s place.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Come on, Jill. I saw you and Derrick wrapped in each other’s arms when your parents came to visit and then again when the two of you were doing the do-si-do in the barn. I could have fried an egg on the heat sizzling between the two of you.”
Jill readjusted Ryan onto her shoulder and gently patted his back. “I thought there might be something sizzling between us, too, but after I kissed him in his apartment he backed off and even went so far as to apologize and then seal our friendship with a handshake.”
Sandy selected two tall glasses from a cupboard and set them on the granite island between them. “What do you mean?”
Jill scrunched her nose at the memory. “It was the same day that you and my parents walked into Derrick’s apartment and found us on the floor.”
“Ahh. That’s right. I never heard the full story.”
“I had gone to Derrick’s apartment to invite him to go with us to Ryan’s doctor appointment. Derrick was icing his sore knee, but he wanted to go, so I gave him some ibuprofen and then helped him to his room so he could dress. It sounds silly, but we tripped over a backpack and fell onto his bed. He sort of fell on top of me, or maybe I fell on him, I can’t remember—”
Sandy waved a frustrated hand through the air. “Forget about all that. Skip to the good part.”
“The bed frame broke next—”
“Leave it to a bunch of guys to put a bed together.” Sandy retrieved a pitcher of iced tea from the refrigerator and filled their glasses.
“Yes, well, the frame broke, we rolled across the mattress, and then I did what hundreds of females had surely done before me…I wrapped my arms around Derrick Baylor’s neck and I kissed him.”
“And then what?”
“Well, that’s when you and my parents showed up.”
“Oh.”
“After everyone left, Derrick helped me to my feet. As I gazed into his eyes with ‘do me, take me’ scrawled across my forehead, hoping to finish the kiss, he took a step back and apologized.”
Sandy set the pitcher down. “He didn’t.”
“He did.”
“That’s horrible.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“What did you do next?”
“I grabbed my purse and got the heck out of his apartment before I did something really stupid, like jump his bones.” Jill moaned. “You should have seen me. I went all hot and heavy on him. It was pathetic.”
“You’re not pathetic. I know you said that he had his eye on Maggie, but I would have sworn he only had eyes for you when we were all square dancing in the barn.”
“Yeah, well, remember when Derrick first came to my apartment and he had a black eye?”
Sandy nodded.
“It was Maggie’s husband-to-be, Aaron, who punched him.”
“How do you know that?”
“Derrick and I ran into Aaron at an art festival after the doctor’s appointment.”
Sandy rubbed her temple, trying to take it all in.
“It’s worse than that,” Jill went on. “In the parking lot, before leaving for the doctor’s appointment, Derrick pulled me aside and said the kiss was a mistake and that he takes full responsibility. He said if we’re going to be friends then we need to keep things cordial between us. After that, he squished his big body into my tiny car. He looked ridiculously uncomfortable and I was glad.”
Sandy sipped her iced tea. “This doesn’t make sense. Men don’t squish into tiny cars with a bad knee and send flowers every day just for the hell of it. I understand that he wants to be close to his son, but none of this adds up. Derrick must have it bad for you. Maybe he just doesn’t realize it yet. Men are dense that way, you know.”
“Well, he did seem sort of jealous after he found out that Nate—you know, the pediatrician—wanted to take me to dinner and a movie.”
“I realize we have both been incredibly busy,” Sandy said, “but why didn’t I know any of this?”
Jill sipped her tea. “I thought I told you. Nate and I are old friends. He’s handsome and sweet, and he’d be considered a fine catch by most, but I only agreed to go out with him because my pride had been shaken that same morning. He was called away for an emergency before the date ended, which was just as well since I couldn’t get my mind off of Derrick.”
“Derrick Baylor is turning out to be more than a puzzle. Maybe I’ll ask Connor about his brother when I see him this Friday.”
“Connor, as in Derrick’s brother, Connor?”
Sandy smiled. “That’s the one.”
“He called you?”
“Not exactly. I called his office and made an appointment.”
“He’s a gynecologist.”
“Exactly.”
“Are you sure you want to do that?” Jill asked since Sandy had a tendency to do things she later regretted.
“I know what I’m doing.”
Jill shook her head. “You are bad.”
Sandy smiled. “I’m so bad, I’m good.”
Chapter Seventeen
Helen Baylor stared up at the ceiling and watched the moonlight filter in through the blinds. “Phil, are you awake?”
Her husband rolled from his side to his back. “I am now.”
“I’m worried about Maggie and Aaron.”
“They’ll work things out. Just give them time.”
He closed his eyes again and she listened to his deep, even breathing, hoping the sound would lull her to sleep.
No such luck.
“If Derrick would just talk to Aaron,” she said, “tell him he wishes him and Maggie well, then Maggie and Aaron could move on with their lives. Why is Derrick being so stubborn?”
“Because he is his mother’s son.”
Helen smiled as she curled up next to her husband, something she always did when she had too much on her mind and couldn’t sleep. “What do you think about Jill Garrison?”
He adjusted his arm so her head fit neatly in the crook of his arm. “I think she’s a lovely girl. I told you that. We’re lucky to have her as part of the family.”
“Where were we when Derrick was off collecting money for his sperm? Why would he do such a thing? Where did we go wrong?”
Phil reached out a hand and brushed his fingers across her cheek. “Kids do funny and unpredictable things. I’m sure he had his reasons at the time, but he can’t turn back the clock. And besides, Jill seems like a good woman and we got a fine looking grandson out of the deal. I can’t complain.”
“I think I should pay Jill a visit. Derrick sounded confused the last time I talked to him. He could probably use my help. What do you think?”
“I think you should remember what happened the last time you stuck your nose where it didn’t belong.”
She made a tsking sound. “Connor needed to know what his wife was up to. He deserved to know.”
“Nothing good came of his knowing about her drug problem, though.”
“I hop
e you’re not blaming me for her overdose.”
“Of course, I don’t blame you. Don’t be silly. I just think people need to figure things out for themselves—without others meddling into their private matters.”
She pulled away from him.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. It’s just that everything seemed to fall apart quickly after you told Connor.”
“Once Connor knew what he was dealing with, he was able to get her help. Amanda would have conquered the drug problem, too, if that drug dealing monster had stayed away like the court had ordered.”
“Addictions aren’t easy…mostly because the monsters, in some form or another, are always there lurking in a corner, waiting for a weak moment.” He reached for Helen and coaxed her back toward him until she rested her head on his chest once again.
“Do you think Connor will ever forgive me?”
“I think he already has. He just hasn’t realized it yet.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“We’ve been married for nearly forty years. You know I always am.”
She pushed him gently and they both chuckled, but she knew she wouldn’t get much sleep tonight. The wheels in her head were turning, making a racket as they went round and round, causing her to worry about Jill and Ryan and Derrick. Instinct told her that Jill and Derrick were meant to be together. Now if she could just get her son to open his eyes.
~~~
“Oh, my God! It’s Derrick Baylor,” a willowy blonde cried out from the other side of the grocery store.
Jill looked up from the cucumbers in the produce section and watched two women, one blonde and the other brunette, approach Derrick, one fawning over him while the other shuffled through her purse, looking for something for him to autograph.
Derrick had insisted he go to the store with Jill. Ever since he had helped her with Ryan when she thought he was sick, Derrick had been sticking to her like glue. She wasn’t complaining, though. Between taking care of Ryan and keeping up with her editorial commitments, she needed all the help she could get. To make matters worse, her mother had called to tell her they were heading back from San Francisco and would be stopping by. Jill insisted on cooking them dinner. She hoped they could all bury any bad feelings and move on. She also hoped that a nice quiet dinner would give her parents a chance to hold their grandson.
Having My Baby Page 17