“We ate the same things,” Steel pointed out.
“It’s not nice to brag about your constitution being better than mine.” He chuckled again, but helped me to my feet. “Thanks for helping me in there this morning.”
“Sickness and health, remember?”
Holy hell! My damn eyes were swimming with tears at that. He was quoting our marriage vows? On our anniversary? I smiled at him, even though I had giant watery drops trying hard to cling to my eyeballs and failing. “Babe, what the hell?” He asked cautiously.
“I don’t know. I’m sorry. I just... I don’t remember the last time someone took care of me and it's our one-month wedding anniversary and you just brought up those vows and…” My voice cracked and my long string of too-quickly spoken words dissolved into a quick sob. When I glanced up at him through my still overly wet eyes he was doing a fantastic impression of a deer in the headlights. “Um, I guess I get a little whiny when I’m sick.” That was my excuse, although I’d never been a whiny sick person. I had no clue what was going on with me today.
“I was about to ask if maybe it was finally your time of the month.” I thought he was teasing until I noticed he was giving me a very thorough looking over.
“My time of the month?” Finally? This was our one month anniversary, and I had not had a period. Oh God! No! It couldn’t be. I couldn’t be. Panic washed through me and I suddenly had the urge to hurl again. I’d been so happy to have my period two weeks before the Vegas trip, because I didn’t have to worry about packing tampons and whatnot like Keys had done. No! No! No!
“You okay? Feeling sick again?” Steel guided me over to the sofa and put an empty bathroom wastebasket beside me. “Just in case,” he mentioned as he moved back into the kitchen. “Do you want ice with the Ginger Ale or what?”
“No,” I managed to choke out. I had thankfully snatched my phone up before coming downstairs.
JoJo – I need a huge favor and to swear you to secrecy.
Keys – Anything, you know that.
JoJo – Could you, maybe, bring me a couple of pregnancy tests this evening? Discreetly, as in, I don’t want anyone to see them when you get here.
Keys – OMG! Seriously, JoJo?
JoJo – I don’t know, Keys. That’s what the tests are for.
Keys – I’ll be by around five. Gonna have to go a couple towns over to avoid the gossip. LOL
“Who you texting with, babe? Guys at work giving you shit for a sick day?” Steel set down the ginger ale in front of me.
“No, Keys is coming over to hang with me this evening. You mentioned that thing at the club, inducting a new prospect or something? What was his name? Walter? Walker?” He leaned down and kissed the top of my head. Then he grabbed the throw off the back of the couch, sat with me, and started surfing through Netflix for a movie to watch.
“It’s Walker, and he’s not a prospect. He’s moving up from the Tallahassee Chapter, but he’s still young enough he damn sure seems more like a prospect than a member.” He stopped explaining about the new kid, and grinned at me. “You know, they can do that shit without me, right?”
“I know, I just thought you were supposed to show solidarity and brotherhood when you patched in a prospect, or the new guy, or whatever.”
Steel laughed. “Well, it’s not a normal situation. We’re bringing the kid in because he and his dad tend to butt heads down there having to work together. Then there’s Battle. He’s an old buddy of Ghost’s, and been in an MC for fifteen years, but they went belly up when their leader got into some seriously shady shit. Battle isn’t a typical prospect. He’s getting a probationary membership. He has 120 days to serve with us, then we vote on keeping him, kicking him, or making him serve out a full prospect period to give us more time to determine if he’s a good enough fit.”
“Oh, that’s cool. Still, I don’t want you to miss that. It’s no problem for Keys to come stay with me for a bit.”
“Okay, babe. That shit isn’t until later though so we’ll play it by ear and see how you feel later. For now, let’s just chill with a movie.” He pulled me closer, snuggling up to me when his damn phone went off, indicating a text. “Shit!”
“What?” Paranoia had my heart banging around in my chest like a drummer at a rock concert. Maybe Quickshot saw my texts with Keys, and passed on the news. The maybe news. Crap! How would he handle this kind of news anyway? We were both aware of the accident when it happened. Hell, I even had a solution for it until everyone’s drama distracted me, and I never got to pick up the morning after pill. Damn! Shit! Damn!
“One of the guys sent a heads up. My mom stopped by the clubhouse. He gave her the address here.”
“What? Holy hell! Doesn’t your mom know how to call ahead?” I started to jump up to run upstairs and try to make myself more presentable, but Steel caught me with a grip around my hips and pulled me back down on the couch with him. “Let me go, I look like absolute shit, Steel.”
“Nope! You’re sick, babe. You’re not supposed to be all dolled up. Besides, I think you’re beautiful just the way you are. If my mom wanted a big welcome, she could have planned her visit ahead of time. I told her I would bring you up next month to meet everyone. I don’t know why she’s suddenly on a mission to come here.”
Before another word could be spoken, there was a knock on the door. I watched, with anxious knots coiled in my stomach, as steel opened the door and smiled at the woman who immediately wrapped her arms around him. “I’ve missed you, son!” She sighed the words out with pure joy for seeing him again. Steel, however, looked anything but joyful as his mother pushed past him and a stunning blond woman with a noticeable baby bump threw her arms around my husband, and planted her lips firmly on his. To his credit, Steel did not reciprocate. In fact, he pushed the woman away while his mother looked disapprovingly at him. She looked disapprovingly at him for that scene! As if he should have reacted any other way when his wife was in the room and another woman was mauling him?
“What the hell was that about, Jenn? We’re not together anymore.” She too pushed past him into my house like she owned the place. When she noticed me she gave me a dirty look and then had the audacity to say what came out of her mouth next.
“You can leave. We have family business to discuss.” My eyebrows shot up as I took in her statuesque frame. She was closer to Steel’s height of six foot. Probably just a few inches shorter. If I were to stand, she would definitely still be looking down on me in a major way.
“This is my house, and if you think you’re ordering me out of it, you’ve got another thing coming. I don’t care who you THINK you are to Steel.” He was now perched on the edge of the couch right beside where I’d been lounging moments ago. Now, I was sitting ramrod straight, braced for a damn fight.
“Mom, you better explain why you brought her here and do it quickly.”
“Jenn is right. This is a family issue. Your friend shouldn’t be here for our conversation.” Steel’s mom was a beautiful woman in her own right. Her auburn hair and blue eyes mixed with her lightly tanned skin was a stunning combination. While she had to be in her late 40s or early 50s, she looked far younger. I could appreciate the good genetics, considering my current predicament, but the woman had seriously just made my bitch list.
“There are exactly two people in this room who can count themselves as my legitimate family. You,” he said indicating his mom, “and JoJo.” He placed an arm around my shoulder, pulling me tighter to force me to relax against him. “Since you’re currently standing in JoJo’s house, I suggest you come at me, at us, with a different approach before things get even uglier than they already are.” God! This man! I wanted to kiss him so hard. He’d just told his own mother off for me.
Steel’s mom just rolled her eyes. “Everyone knows she is just a business deal. Not a good one on your end either.” It was taking every ounce of self control I possessed to keep my features schooled into a mask of nothingness.
“Mom!” Steel
managed to grind out through clenched teeth. “Final warning. Get to the point of this surprise visit and do it fast, because you just used up the last of my damn patience this morning.”
“Fine, tell him your news, Jenn.” His mother beamed at the woman, who smiled just as bright back at my monster-in-law.
“Well, Flint and I had a DNA test done with the baby.”
“How the hell is that possible?” Steel interrupted with the question, although he didn’t look at all surprised by this news.
“I had an amnio-thingy test done to check for genetic defects or whatever. They were able to conduct a DNA test from that.” She was again smiling like the cat who ate the canary. “Flint isn’t the daddy.”
“So?! Shouldn’t you be telling Flint that?” The smile actually slipped a bit from Jenn’s face then.
“I did already.” She spoke softer now, not as excited to deliver her news.
“I know men can be slow on the uptake son, but Jenn’s trying to tell you the baby is yours.” Steel’s mom cooed the words with extreme enthusiasm.
“Yeah?” Steel said with mock excitement. Uh-oh! I’d seen that particular look on his face before. He had an ace up his sleeve that the women present weren’t aware he was holding.
Blondie nodded emphatically, back to producing her mega-watt, sparkly white smile. At least until Steel absentmindedly picked me up from the couch as he slid from the arm to the seat while pulling me into his lap and snuggling up to me. Again, the smile faded from Jenn’s face. “It’s not Flint’s, so it has to be yours!” Her words were a demand on his attention, or inattentiveness as it were.
“Is that right?” Steel asked without needing an answer. Jenn nodded her head emphatically once again. This time, however, Steel’s mom appeared nervous as her gaze shifted from me, in her son’s arms, to the bimbo she’d dragged into my house uninvited. It was obvious Steel’s mom had finally caught on to his demeanor.
“Funny thing about that test. You knew about it in advance, yeah?”
“Well, of course, I had the appointment for three weeks.”
“I know,” Steel confirmed. Now Jenn was shifting from foot to foot nervously. Waiting. “And in those three weeks before a paternity test was conducted, did it ever occur to you to notify me to come in and take it as well?”
Blondie’s eyes went wide. “No, because Flint was already there. If it wasn’t his, it had to be yours.”
“And you thought I’d just believe you? I was supposed to take the word of a cheating club whore?” Steel spat the words out.
“I wasn’t ever a club whore!” Jenn yelled at him.
“Really? Did you sleep with multiple brothers from the club?” She stubbornly refused to answer. “Did you?” He asked again, louder this time.
“You know I did. It was just you, and then Flint when I got mad at you.” Jenn looked away when she said their names, not able to make eye contact. Maybe it was guilt at having to name Flint, but I didn’t think so. There were more skeletons in that girl’s closet. I’d bet money on it.
Steel dropped his face beside my ear and whispered his next words to me softly so I was the only who would be able to hear. “You all right, baby?” I hadn’t realized I’d clenched pretty much all of the muscles in my body up tight. I nodded my head. “Relax, I’ve got this.” His hands ran comfortingly up and down my arms, coaxing me to relax further into him and so I did. Jenn’s face fell even more after witnessing our interaction.
Steel blew out a deep breath. “So, you admit you’re a cheater. You’re a club whore by definition, and yet you expect me to take your word that you’re carrying my baby? Hell, let’s not even mention the fact that I was unconscious for the sex we had that was supposed to have produced that miracle.” She said nothing. Steel’s mother sat herself down in the overstuffed chair across from us. I think she knew what was coming. Hell, he hadn’t told me yet, but even I could anticipate what he was about to reveal.
“Do you have a sonogram photo?” Jenn nodded her head and reached into her purse. She pulled out the grainy black and white paper and handed it over. “See, the funny thing about these things is that they put the due date right here,” he pointed to the picture. “See it, under your name?” Jenn blanched. “I remember you telling me a specific due date, one that would coincide with the time you climbed on top of me while I was passed out. I didn’t consent to that ride, Jenn. Never, in a million years, would I have consented to going bare with you. Do you know what the law calls lack of consent where sexual acts are concerned?”
Her hand clutched her stomach then. “No worries. I’m not looking to get you locked up. But the funny thing about THIS due date, the one the doctor programmed in based on conception info, period info, and the size of the kid; it doesn’t match up with the one time you ever had me inside you bare.” I flinched at those words, and for a completely different reason than Jenn flinched. I hated the thought that she had that moment with him, even if she had stolen it. Especially because she had stolen it. I was angry on behalf of my man that he had to worry about whatever disease his cheating ex-girlfriend had been carrying, let alone a pregnancy that could have resulted from him being raped. That’s the ugly word he failed to use.
“Now, maybe you should start telling the truth, because the prospect you were fucking behind both mine and Flint’s backs already came forward. Poor kid thinks he’s the daddy. He gave up being a member of the MC in order to make sure he could openly be a daddy to his baby. From what I hear, he took a hell of a beating on the way out too.” Another visible cringe came from the blond hell-beast as Steel continued to fill her in on what he already somehow knew. “He gave up a lot to be there for you and the baby, and here you stand in my house, insulting my woman, lying to my mother, and trying to lie to me. Again.”
“Steel!” She whined. “It could still be yours.”
“You’re going to continue the lie?” Steel pulled out his phone and queued up a picture from a text message. “I received this three days ago. The same day I got a call from Flint telling me good luck because it wasn’t him. The prospect wanted me to know he was 99.8 percent sure he was the father. It says so, right here.” Steel turned the phone to show the image of the lab results. Jenn had huge tears gushing in rivers down her face.
“You lying little whore!” Steel’s mom spat out. “I only brought you here because you swore you were carrying my grandchild. You knew he wasn’t the dad.” The woman looked like she was about to blow a blood vessel.
“Calm down, mom. You’re still going to be a grandma,” Steel proclaimed. The woman’s head snapped around. She looked at me, and then at the ginge rale on the table, and then back up to me before she finally smiled. “You have some apologies to make first, after you take the trash out.”
Jenn was beaming again for some reason. Clearly missing the part where I was the one pregnant with his child. Maybe. She must have thought he meant he’d accept her and the baby. “He’s not talking about you,” I finally spoke up. “He’s talking about the fact that I might be pregnant. You were the ‘trash that needed to be taken out’ in that scenario.”
“You can’t talk to me like that, you whore!” Jenn screamed.
“My house! My rules! And since I don’t fuck around like you did, I’m going to assume you’re projecting.”
“I’m sorry,” Steel’s mom managed to say to me before she grabbed hold of Jenn’s arm. “I’ll go put her on a bus or something.”
“What? You can’t do that.”
“No worries mom. I have a prospect coming to get her out of here. He’s even giving her a lift to the airport.” Steel sneered Jenn’s way. “Oh, and Jenn, he’s been warned about you. So, don’t waste your time trying.”
J.D., the prospect in question, showed up ten minutes later and carted Jenn away, hopefully for good. Once that was taken care of, Steel pulled me upstairs, telling his mother we’d be back down in a few minutes, but that we had some family business to discuss. She did not seem to like the fact t
hat he’d just excluded her from said “family business” one bit.
“I’m sorry I called out the pregnancy like that, babe. I shouldn’t have.”
“It didn’t even occur to me until today when you mentioned my period. Keys is supposed to be bringing me some tests later. I wasn’t trying to hide it. I just freaked out and figured I’d wait to talk to you about it until I knew for sure.”
“Shh,” Steel kissed my forehead. “I know baby. It was obvious you were clueless.” He chuckled at the glare I sent his way. “I was wondering because we’ve had sex literally every day since we got married, and no period. Then when you got sick today, I thought maybe it was true. Our wedding night, we never got to go get that pill in the morning like we discussed.”
“I’m so sorry. Everything happened all at once, and yeah, I dropped the ball and forgot.”
“We dropped the ball, babe. We’re both responsible in every way, and it’s okay. I couldn’t think of a better woman to be the mother of my kid. Plus, we’re already married, so no shotgun wedding necessary.”
That did it. I burst out laughing, and then the words slipped out amidst my laughter, “I love you!” As soon they were free from my lips, I glanced up at Steel, wide-eyed by my own admission. He just smiled, kissed my head, and pulled me closer.
“I love you too, JoJo.” And then he added the tear starters. “For better or worse, babe.” We stood there with Steel just holding me for a few minutes before I slapped a little reality back down.
“I might not be pregnant though. We really don’t know for sure.”
“When did you say Keys is showing up with the tests?”
“Tonight, around five.”
Steel pulled out his phone and glance at the time. “Well, we have a few hours to figure out what we’re hoping for with the results then, huh?”
“Will you be upset if I am?”
“JoJo, were you not paying attention when I told my mom she was going to be a grandma, or when I told you I thought you’d make a great mom? Ideally, I think we could have used a little more time to get used to one another and whatever. Really though, we have eight more months to do that, and in the meantime, I get to watch your cute little ass get bigger.”
JoJo (S.H.E Book 2) Page 11