Baby Makes Five (A Multiple Birth Book 1) Read online

“Is everything okay?”

  “Yes, I didn’t expect to see you again.”

  “Why would you say that? You’re pregnant with my children. What did you expect me to do forget about it?” he asked softly.

  “Why would you think they are yours? For a man who is very suspicious, you are behaving as if you are a hundred percent sure.”

  “Are you telling me they aren’t mine? I have an idea if I bet my life savings, I’ll

  win. However, if you want to fight, we can have a DNA test done.”

  “No, I am not saying they aren’t. I just assumed that you thought they weren’t yours.”

  “Why would you think that?”

  “Maybe because I expected you to storm over here two days ago that’s why.”

  “I had things to think through. It was a shock. You had two months to get accustomed to the idea. I had a few hours. I thought you would have called me.”

  “Why would you assume that? And if I wanted to, I don’t have your contact information remember?”

  “True, but you know where I work. Were you ever going to tell me about the babies?”

  “No. I didn’t know who you were and to be honest with the way we left things I didn’t think you deserved to know. And I wasn’t sure if I was going to keep the baby or not.”

  “You were going to give my children away?” he asked deceptively.

  “I said I wasn’t sure I wanted the baby. I never said anything about giving them away. And it’s called adoption.

  “I don’t care what it’s called. You were thinking of giving my children away before even telling me?”

  “Perhaps,” She said eyes on her plate.

  “Do you mean you were--?"

  “What, God no, never. At no time, did an abortion cross my mind. I wasn’t sure I could be a mother or wanted to until I saw them on the ultrasound. This reminds me you have something that belongs to me.”

  “I don’t want to fight Miah. It’s not why I came. I came because whether you like it or not we are about to become parents. It’s not the way either of us would have chosen, but it’s a done deal. I know you don’t like me, and I don’t blame you.”

  “I never said I didn’t like you.”

  “You didn’t have to. It radiates from you.”

  She sighed, “look, Ash, I don’t know you well enough to say I don’t like you. What I have seen of you isn’t flattering. Yes, you did deserve to know I was pregnant so you can decide if you wanted to be in their lives or not.”

  “Of course, I want to be in their lives. Why won’t I? Give me a chance, get to know me, and maybe you’ll change your mind.”

  “Can you honestly tell me had I known who you were, and came to tell you I was pregnant you would have been pleased with it? Are you even happy now?”

  He turned in his chair and pulled it closer to hers. “I don’t know how I would have reacted Miah. We used protection—"

  “I know. You think I haven’t agonized over how this happened? I know you would blame me that you would say everything you said that night was true. Can you honestly say you aren’t still upset I didn’t tell you I was a virgin?”

  “I am not as upset as I was, but you have to realize that some men have a rule where they don’t want the responsibility or consequences of dealing with an inexperienced woman. It had nothing to do with you. How can you think I would blame you for getting pregnant?” he asked aghast.

  “Is that a rhetorical question?”

  “I guess I deserve that, but I am not the monster you think I am. Was I ready to become a father? Not for another couple of years, but it doesn’t mean I am not happy about the situation.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay?”

  “So where do we go from here?” She asked him.

  “I’ll like to get to know the mother of my children as a start.”

  She nodded, “I can do that.”

  “If you don’t mind I’ll also like to meet with your doctor and attend your appointments. I see you have one in a few weeks.”

  “That will be acceptable,” she said feeling some of her anxiety disappearing. “Anything else?” she asked drinking the remaining of her milk.

  “I’ll like to make love to you again,” he said softly.

  She choked on her milk at his answer.

  “You’ve got to be joking?” she said, looking at him when she had herself under control.

  “Not really, but since you were cooperative, I thought I would throw that in and see what answer you’ll give,” he smiled.

  Butterflies danced in her stomach it would be so easy to say yes to him. “Is everything a joke for you?” She snapped instead.

  “You need to relax more, and I never joke about something as serious as sex. Can you honestly tell me you don’t want a repeat of that night that you don’t get hot for me as I do for you?”

  “That’s what got us into this predicament in the first place,” she whispered looking towards her roommate’s door. “After the crap you pulled at your office, do you expect me to agree?”

  “She doesn’t know am the father does she?” he asked now curious. “As for the way I treated you, it was out of place. I was angry you kept your pregnancy from me.”

  “No, she doesn’t know you're the father.”

  “Are you ashamed of me?”

  “Of you not of me yes. I will tell her when I am ready.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Thank you, would you like some dessert? I have brownies and butter tarts,” she offered.

  “No thank you. I am full. I greatly enjoyed dinner. Maybe you can cook for me again? I must go, but first I need your cell phone number if I am going to get in contact with you.”

  She blushed embarrassed, “I don’t have one.”

  “Okay, we’ll figure something out. Here’s my card if you want anything, call me no matter the time.”

  “Thank you,” she said looking at the card.

  “There is a Gala coming up in a month, the opening of the new pediatric wing at the hospital. I would like it if you could attend with me.”

  “As in a date?” she asked baffle.

  “I guess so. We agreed to get to know each other didn’t we?”

  “Yes, we did.”

  “Good, why don’t you walk me to the door?”

  She complied. He turned to her when he was outside.

  “Thank you for dinner; it’s been a lovely evening.” He kissed her.

  He tasted like she remembered. He pulled her close to him deepening their kiss. She sighed and relaxed in his embrace letting her body take over. He was the first to break their kiss.

  “If we don’t stop now I am going to carry to your room and make love to you all night. That’s how much I crave you. Goodnight Miah,” and he was gone.

  She touched her lips closing the door and leaned against it eyes shut.

  “Wow, so I was right, he is the father,” Amanda said staring at her.

  Miah’s eyes flew open “how long have you been there?” she asked in surprise.

  “Not long enough. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I didn’t tell you because I know how you felt about him knowing. Frankly, I wouldn’t put it passed you not to tell him.”

  “I am hurt; I wouldn’t have told him if you asked me not to. I thought you didn’t know his name?”

  “I didn’t until I ran into him at the hospital and found out who he was.”

  “Then you told him the truth?”

  “Hardly,” she said filling in her friend on what had happened.

  “You were destined to meet,” Amanda said eyes glazed over. She obviously was dreaming up some romantic notion.

  “This is why I didn’t tell you. It’s not a romantic story.”

  “Fine, but you can’t deny you’re still attracted to him, and he obviously wants you.”

  “Sex is what got us here Amanda. We now have two people to think about than our needs.”

  “You’re already pregnan
t what harm is there in a little sex?”

  “Let’s just have our dessert. I am tired.”

  The next day a package arrive for her. When she opened the box, it was a cell phone. The note that accompanied it read “every girl should have a cell phone, especially in case of emergencies. Enjoy.

  Ash

  p.s. have dinner with me tonight.

  That was two and half weeks ago. They had practically spoken every day and had gone out to dinner most nights getting to know each other. They called a truce. She spent most of her days looking forward to hearing his voice or seeing him. He had canceled their date the night before, due to an emergency. He didn’t say what it was. She learned not to ask him about his business if he wanted to share he would.

  He had never once kissed her or tried anything remotely sexual; making her wonder if he would ever again touch her. After each date, she went home full of sexual need and ended up taking cold showers to cool her body down. He was the perfect gentleman, another side of him. She hadn’t seen before.

  The night before her appointment they were lying on the grass with their heads touching in his enormous backyard looking up at the stars.

  “You should get your driver’s license. It can come in handy.”

  “I have one, what make you think I didn’t?”

  “You don’t drive, and you never mentioned it.”

  “I got my license a few months before my mother died. I haven’t gotten around to

  getting my G2.”

  “Tell me about your mother. What was she like?”

  She smiled, “she was the best. I called her super mom. She was always there for me no matter what I was into at the time. She never missed a softball game or one of my baking competitions. She was perfect.”

  “You played softball?’ he asked sounding surprised.

  She laughed “why does that surprise you?”

  “I wouldn’t have taken you for the sporty type.”

  “Well, that should tell you never judge a book by its cover. I was a pitcher, and I’ll have you know we won the championship four years in a row, out of the five I was on the team.”

  “Impressive.”

  “Yes, I was a tomboy and had a lot of extracurricular activities from aikido to cookery club and tennis. My mom was an administrative assistant at the local hospital, so my schedule worked perfectly with hers. That way, I won’t have to be home alone. She worked extra hours and sacrificed a lot to make sure I was happy and taken care of.

  “What about your father?” he asked curiously.

  “I don’t have one,” she said flatly.

  “I’m sorry if it’s difficult to talk about—”

  “Didn’t your research on me tell you anything?”

  “There isn’t much said about him,” he said not trying to deny he had had her investigated.

  “There isn’t much to tell. I never met him or saw a picture of him. I know my mother loved him, and he apparently loved her. He was a professor at the college she attended. They started dating when she was nineteen, and he was twenty-eight. Three years later, she got pregnant with me three months after they had moved in together. My conception wasn’t planned. She was sick, and the antibiotics didn’t mesh well with the birth control pill she was taking.

  “When she told him, she was pregnant, he told her he wasn’t ready to become a father and didn’t want to have kids’ period. It was either him or the baby.”

  “She chose you.”

  “Yeah, she didn’t believe in abortions, and she had always wanted a child. She told him that, and he left the next day. She never saw or heard from him again. I only know his name is Benjamin Clarke. It’s on my birth certificate. My mother never kept his name from me.

  “Have you ever been curious enough to want to look him up and ask him why?”

  “No, he made his choice. I had a happy childhood. I can’t complain about wanting anything. She loved me. I was her life. I was the one thing she got right she always said.”

  “She sounds great, strong someone I would have liked.”

  “She was, all the way to the end.”

  “I wish I could have met her.”

  “Me too. What about you. What was your childhood like?”

  “Not as great as yours. My dad died when I was seven.”

  “Sorry, it must have been hard. Were you two close?”

  “Thank you, I’ll like to say yes, but my parents shouldn’t have procreated. They were too self-absorbed and had no patience for a child. I grew up seeing my nanny more than I did my parents.”

  “I can’t imagine what that felt like.”

  “It wasn’t that bad, not when you don’t know anything else. When my dad died, I went to live with my grandmother, his mother.”

  “Why, was your mother ill?”

  “No, she didn’t want to give up her partying lifestyle. So my grandmother offered her five million dollars to get out of my life. She took the money, and I haven’t seen her since.”

  “That’s terrible what kind of mother sells her child?” she asked, mad on behalf of the seven-year-old boy. She thought of her babies and put a protective hand over her stomach.

  “As I said, my parents weren’t meant to have children. They weren’t ready to grow up.”

  “Were you, at least, happy with your grandmother?”

  “I was comfortable. She wasn’t the hugs and kisses type of person. When I was nine, she sent me to boarding school in England. She died when I was eighteen.”

  She sniffed she couldn’t help crying for the boy who had lost his childhood. He sat up and put her head in his lap wiping her tears away.

  “Don’t cry for me, I am okay. My childhood made me stronger."

  “I am not crying for you. I am crying for the seven-year-old boy who didn’t get a chance to a wonderful childhood. The boy who didn’t get hugs or his boo-boos kissed. The boy who didn’t have stories read to him at nights. I’m sorry, but your family sounds awful.”

  He laughed, but the sound was empty. “Having money or two parents doesn’t guarantee you happiness. Miah your childhood was ten times better than mine, and that is what I want for our two beans.”

  “Beans, that’s what you are calling them?”

  “Yes until we can give them names.”

  “Okay Bean one and Bean two it is them. Tonight has been nice, but I need to get going. We have that appointment in the morning,” she said sitting up.

  “Stay,” he said standing and pulling her up with him.

  “I can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t have my toothbrush or a change of clothes.”

  “Technicalities we can easily remedy.”

  “I…I--“

  “What are you afraid of. I know you feel this thing between us tell me you don’t, and I’ll never bring it up again.”

  “It’s just sex.”

  “How could you say that? The past two and a half weeks have been the best I’ve had in a very long time. Can you say you didn’t enjoy our time together?”

  “I did. Things are going too fast.”

  “Look around you Miah, that ship has sailed with the conception of our babies.”

  “I know it’s just—”

  “It’s alright. I’ll take you home,” he said heading towards the kitchen door.

  “No!” she said not moving from her spot.

  “I’m not going to let you take the bus or a cab. I’ll feel better knowing you are safely home no arguments.”

  “I mean no. You don’t have to drive me home. I’ll stay.

  5

  He was silent for a few heartbeats.

  “I don’t want you to stay because it’s what I want. If you are going to stay it has to be because you want to, otherwise I am driving you home.”

  She walked towards him and placed her hands on either side of his face.

  “I am staying because I want to. I’ll be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t scared. I would also be lying if I
said I didn’t want you.”

  He took her hands and kissed each palm at the wrists. The action sent shock waves up her arms.

  “You have nothing to be frightened of. I would never hurt you don’t you know that by now. I’m trying my best not to screw things up, Miah.”

  “I know you are,” she said. The problem was she was worried her heart wouldn’t listen.

  He lifted her into his arms and walked towards the door.

  “What are you doing?” she asked in surprise.

  “Sweeping you off your feet I guess if you have to ask I’m not doing it right.”

  She laughed. He was good at that. She hadn’t pegged him for someone with a sense of humor until they started dating, albeit some of his jokes weren’t that funny.

  He walked up the staircase. Even though she had come here a few times in the past two weeks, she was still in awe of his home. She remembered the first time she saw his home. She had felt intimidated by how huge it was.

  He opened the door to his bedroom door and sat her on the bed.

  “Stay here I’ll be right back.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “Just stay here, and don’t get undress. I want the pleasure of doing that.”

  “Okay,” she was getting curious about his behaviour.

  She sat restlessly on the bed looking around the room. It was the first time she had seen the inside. When he had shown her around, she made sure to avoid his private domain. Her eyes fell on the lone picture frame on the nightstand on his bed. It looks out of place. She was surprised. She hasn’t seen many photos lying around. She walked over and took it up. It was a copy of the sonogram of their babies.

  “I made a copy for myself. I hope you don’t mind. I like waking up to it and going to bed seeing it.”

  She jumped at his voice. She didn’t hear him reenter the room.

  “You scared the crap out of me.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

  She put the picture back on the stand and turned to him.

  “It’s okay. I am happy you have a copy,” she smiled. “So what’s with the mystery?”

  He smiles and laces his fingers with hers, “come and see,” he said leading her to the master bathroom.

  The scene that greeted her was breathtaking. The room was lit with candles on the floor as well as on the side of the bathtub. The tub was fill with bubbles and floating candles. It was like a scene from one of her favourite romance movies.