Chapter 56
Callie
Gram was standing outside the bathroom door when I opened it, her eyes wide in question.
“We need to go to the grocery store for supplies.” I told her quietly, biting the inside of my cheek.
“You sure?”
“Yeah,” I murmured, holding out the test.
“Okay, let me get my billfold and we’ll go now,” she told me with a nod, reaching forward to kiss my head. “But brush your teeth first.”
I’d seen movies and read books where the main character would wait days, or even weeks, to tell her man that she was pregnant. She’d hem and haw about the right time, as if waiting would somehow lead her to a favorable reaction. I didn’t feel that way. Not at all.
I was bursting at the seams to tell Asa. I wasn’t worried about his reaction, or waiting until the perfect time to tell him. I just wanted him to know. I wanted to share it.
But there were a few things I had to do first.
There was a tradition in my family that had started with Gram. She was probably one of those women who prayed for a favorable reaction, and went out of her way to make sure the scene was set perfectly, before telling her husband she was pregnant. My grandfather had been an a*shole. But when it came time for my mom to tell my dad about me, she’d followed in Gram’s footsteps and cooked him his favorite dinner, setting the table with her best dishes and lighting candles, even though she knew my dad would be over the moon with excitement.
Asa’s favorite dinner was my Gram’s homemade spaghetti recipe with a side of green beans cooked with little bits of bacon, and I was going to make it for him.
Our trip to the grocery store took longer than I expected because Gram had wanted to look at all of the new gadgets in the baby department. I would’ve thought she’d be pissed that I was barely nineteen and having a baby, but if she was she didn’t let on. She treated me like any other expectant mother, cooing at pacifiers shaped like butterflies and bitching about the price of diapers.
By the time we got home it was late afternoon, and I was worried about how I’d get everyone out of the house so Asa and I could have dinner alone. We hadn’t had any time to ourselves in so long that dinner together felt like a novelty, and I’d begun to wish that everyone would go home and leave us alone. I also didn’t want there to be an audience when I gave him the news. He deserved to be able to react however he needed to without having to worry about what everyone was thinking. Besides, the moment I told him the news should be just for us.
I’d just started unpacking the groceries when Farrah burst into the apartment with Asa following behind her. He looked tired and annoyed and I wondered what appointment had taken so long that they’d been gone most of the day.
“I got a tattoo,” she told me bluntly, pulling a banana off the bunch and peeling it quickly.
“A piercing, too, I see,” I commented, eyeballing the septum piercing that hadn’t been in her nose the night before.
“Yup!” she answered around the huge piece of banana she was practically inhaling. “Goes with the tattoo.”
I looked her over but couldn’t see the tattoo anywhere. When she caught my gaze, she tapped on the back of her neck.
“It’s on my neck. Hurt like a bitch, but it looks awesome. I’ll show it to you later after I take the bandage off.”
“Okay,” I replied slowly, watching her carefully. I hadn’t heard any mention of a tattoo before she went out and got it done, and I wondered what had led her to wake up that morning and permanently ink her body.
“Hey, Sugar,” Asa murmured as he strode into the kitchen, completely ignoring Farrah as he stepped past her. “You making dinner?”
“Yep,” I told him quietly, leaning up to kiss his lips.
“Callie, what are we having for dinner?” Cody called from the couch, making me clench my teeth.
“I’m making spaghetti and green beans,” I called flatly, turning toward the counter as Gram walked out of my bedroom.
“My favorite,” Asa mentioned with a smile, patting me on the ass.
“Cody and Farrah, we’re going out to eat, get your shoes on,” Gram ordered at the same time.
My brother, who had been leisurely strolling into the already crowded kitchen, stopped abruptly, his mouth dropping in surprise as his eyes narrowed. “Oh, hell no.”
“Not another word out of your mouth, Cody Daniel,” Gram snapped at him, stopping in front of him to push him toward the door with both hands on his belly. “We’re gonna give them some time alone.”
“I’m hungry as hell; I don’t care where we eat,” Farrah piped in, completely oblivious to the undertones in our conversation as she walked toward the front door. “Take your time, kids. I’ll take Gram to the bar after dinner!”
I was strung tight as a wire by the time the door closed behind them, and I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to keep my mouth shut until I had dinner at the counter. I really wished we had an actual kitchen table, but I was willing to improvise.
“Why don’t you take a shower, and by the time you’re done, I’ll have dinner in the oven,” I told him brightly as I poured noodles into water boiling on the stove.
“Don’t need a shower, took one before we left, and I’ve been sitting on my ass all day while Farrah f*cked around at the tattoo parlor,” he grumbled, sitting down at the counter. “That girl is gonna lose it soon.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing huge, she just seems like she’s strung tight as hell, and she’s trying to find a way to let off some steam.” He shook his head. “You better watch out for that brother of yours.”
“Gross!” I snapped, pulling hamburger out of the fridge. “Cody wouldn’t do that. He knows Farrah’s having a hard time.”
“Your brother’s got a dick,” he answered seriously, looking down at his phone. “He’d do it.”
“Can we not talk about my brother and my best friend having sex right now?” I asked, frustrated tears forming in my eyes. He was texting someone on his phone, talking about people that I’d just kicked out of the house so we could be alone, and I was having a hard time not just blurting my news out before dinner was ready. The night was not going how I’d envisioned it. “I just want to make f*cking dinner for you and me without any other shit getting in the middle of it.”
I sniffed once, turning back to the stove, and in seconds he was wrapping his arms around me from behind.
“What’s going on, sweetheart?” he asked gently, kissing the back of my neck.
“I just want to finish dinner so we can sit down and eat your favorite meal. Alone. I want to eat dinner alone without worrying about anyone else’s problems.”
“Look at me, Callie,” he ordered, pulling at my waist.
“I need to finish this,” I told him desperately, dumping spices into the pan frantically. “The hamburger will burn if I don’t stir it.”
He reached past me and turned off both burners before spinning me to face him.
“You’re going to ruin it!” I practically screeched, pushing at his hands.
“What the f*ck is wrong?” he snapped, making the tears that had been stinging my nose well up in my eyes. “What’s wrong?” he asked again quietly, searching my face as it crumpled.
“I just wanted to make your favorite dinner,” I whispered, wiping off my face, “and now it’s ruined and I don’t have any more noodles.”
I burst into gut-wrenching sobs and pushed my face into his neck as he picked me up and strode toward the front door, locking it before taking me to the bedroom. He set me down by the doorway and walked to the bed, pulling at all four corners of the sheets until he’d wrapped all of the bedding into a ball that he threw on the floor.
“What are you doing?” I asked hoarsely as he put a clean sheet on the bed.
“I’m stripping the bed, so I can f*ck you without smelling Farrah’s and your grandmother’s perfume, and I’m leaving that shit in a pile so we can put them back on later and they don’t have to smell us,” he told me simply, making me cry again.
“What the f*ck is wrong with you?”
“I’m pregnant.” Well, shit. I guess I was going to just blurt it out.
“What?” he whispered, dropping onto the bed.
“I took the test this morning. I didn’t realize…” I swallowed hard as I walked toward him. “Gram took me to the store this morning and pretty much ambushed me into buying a test. With all the stuff going on, I just didn’t even—”
“Oh, f*ck,” he whispered, his eyes widening in horror.
“Not the reaction I was going for, Asa,” I mumbled dryly, trying to disguise the panic rising in my throat. Why did he look so horrified? It’s not like he didn’t know it could happen!
“Are you okay?” he asked, dropping to his knees and lifting up my shirt. “Is everything okay in there?”
I sighed in relief as I ran my fingers through his hair. “I haven’t been to the doctor yet. But I think so.”
“You fell on the f*ckin’ stairs,” he mumbled, unbuttoning my pants and peeling them down my legs. “They had you cuffed on the ground.”
“I’m pretty sure something would’ve happened by now if I’d been hurt,” I reassured him, “but I’ll set up an appointment to make sure everything’s good.”
He pulled off my t-shirt as he got to his feet, staring at my breasts in amazement. “Whoa! Your tits are huge!” he gaped, reaching up to cup them in his hands. “How did I not notice this? They’re popping out all over!”
“Probably because you haven’t seen me naked in for-freaking-ever,” I griped, pushing his cut off his shoulders.
He reached behind me to unclasp my bra and I took a huge breath of relief as it fell away. I hadn’t noticed that my boobs were bigger, but I had noticed that the band had been digging into my sides for what felt like weeks. It left itchy little indents that I loathed.
“Shit, you’re really pregnant,” he mumbled. “Put some pajamas on. We need to find you a doctor.”
I stomped my foot as he started to walk away. I actually stomped my foot.
“You haven’t even kissed me!” I yelled, my emotions all over the place. “We don’t need to call the doctor right now! I need you to kiss me and tell me you love me and then f*ck me on our four hundred dollar bed that you insisted we have!”
My chest was heaving as he turned back around, the most beautiful smile pulling at his cheeks and crinkling his eyes.
“You’re having our baby,” he roared loudly, lifting me so high by the backs of my thighs that I had to lean forward or bump my head on the ceiling. I laughed hysterically as he spun in a circle. “I love you and you’re having my baby.”
“Yeah,” I whispered, my smile trembling.
He carefully slid me down his body until my legs were wrapped around his waist and grabbed the back of my head.
“I love you,” he murmured into my mouth. “Best thing I ever did—taking you outta that house. I’d change a lotta shit that came after if I could, but even if I did, we still woulda ended up right here where we are now.”
He kissed me hard as he laid me down on the bed.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered as he softly rubbed his thumb back and forth below my belly button. “What’d I do to deserve you?”
“You saved me,” I whispered back.