| Chapter Seventeen Somehow, I managed to avoid him until dinner. I had just came down the back stairs and sat down at the kitchen table when the swinging door between the kitchen and the dinning room swung inward. I looked up and there he was. He looked so good, standing there in the doorway, his long hair pushed back behind his shoulders, his long legs encased in a pair of Levis and his upper body molded by a forest green shirt. My breath caught in my throat and the baby jumped inside of me as if to say, ‘Hey, that’s my dad.’ We stared at each other for the longest time, neither of us speaking, until his eyes drifted over me. I watched silently as his eyes widened and then flew back to meet my gaze. In that instant time seemed to have stopped. A myriad of feelings seemed to flash through his eyes, finally stopping somewhere between joy and hurt. I understood both, and I wanted to explain, but my voice was frozen in my throat and the most that I could do was make a strangled sound. “Why didn’t you tell me?” He accused, his eyes flashing warningly. Calm, you just have to stay calm, I repeated over and over. As much as I’d tried to prepare myself for this meeting, it hadn’t worked. “Aren’t you going to answer me?” He nearly shouted, the muscle on his cheek jumping frantically. I knew I was supposed to stay calm, I really did. And I had tried, but that was the last straw on an overloaded emotional system, made worse by raging pregnancy hormones. “Just how was I supposed to tell you?” I raged. “You left. The only number I had was the one you used when you registered and all it ever gave me was an answering machine. Not to mention the fact that you made it clear that there was nothing between us except for that night,” I paused, feeling defensive and scared. There was no way he was getting my baby. No way. “Besides, it’s kinda hard to get in touch with a Backstreet Boy,” I threw at him. He winced slightly before steeling his face into a calm mask. “You obviously know who I am, there are ways to get a hold of me. You didn’t try very hard, did you?” He accused. “Hey I got lucky! I happened to catch a video on one of the music stations; otherwise I’d never have known who you really are, now would I have? After all, you weren’t very forthcoming with details were you?” The words dripped with sarcasm. “Cassie?” My sister tentatively asked as she stepped into the room. I looked up at Callie and read the concern in her eyes and I forced myself to take a deep breath and calm down. “I’m fine sis. Although, I think I’m ready to go to my room,” I admitted. Callie was beside me in a flash, her hand under my arm, helping me to my feet. As she led me towards the stairs, Kevin’s voice, soft and menacing shot out and grabbed at me. “I’m not going anywhere. This is far from over.” A shudder ripped through my body and I felt Callie hold tighter to me. I turned side-ways on the stairs and looked down at where Kevin was still standing. “That’s where you’re wrong Kevin. It’s been over for a long time. You made it clear in the last eight months that I mean nothing to you. I don’t need or want you in my life. As far as to your month long vacation, you’re welcome to stay here, just stay away from me,” I stated in a steely voice, before turning and making my way to my room. “Are you alright?” Callie asked as she helped me into my bed and arranged the pillows behind my back. I opened my mouth to speak, and instead a loud sob escaped and shook my entire body. Callie wrapped her arms around me and gently rocked me as she murmured softly. “You knew he’d find out someday. And you knew it was likely that he’d react this way. And if the situations were reversed, you would react the same way. Just give him time to adjust to all of this. You’ve had months to get used to the fact that you’re going to be a mommy. He’s had minutes. Once he calms down and looks at things rationally, he’ll see your side of it.” Callie continued to croon in my ear as she rocked me. I was emotionally spent and I had a monster headache coming on. I knew I needed to get control of myself, before my blood pressure shot through the roof. I took several deep breaths, concentrating on the tiny life nestled inside me. I soon began to feel the tension leave my body and apparently so did Callie. “You get some rest now and I’ll bring you up something to eat in about an hour,” she whispered as she pulled the covers up over me. I nodded sleepily and scooted down on the bed. I vaguely heard the door click closed before exhaustion overtook me. * * * * * * * * * * * * Unbeknownst to me or Callie, Carly stood outside the bedroom door and listened as Callie spoke softly to me. Her eyes flashed and she turned on her heels, determined to set one Mr. Richardson right on a few things. And if he didn’t like it, that was just way to bad. She was now on the warpath. No one, but no one was going to upset Cassie and get away with it. They’d been through too much to get her this far in the pregnancy and she wasn’t about to loose Cassie or the baby now. A few moments later, she found Kevin sitting on the porch swing. Without stopping to think, she marched across the porch and stopped directly in front of him. “I hope you’re happy with yourself,” she shot out, her words clipped and full of repressed tension, her fists, clenched tightly rested on her hips. “I might of known the ranks would close around her,” he replied stiffly. “Well what do you expect? We are her sisters. Do you realize how close you came to killing her?” She demanded, fighting the urge to slug the man sitting before her. “What? I did no such thing,” he cried in shock. Carly sighed remembering that he really didn’t know about Cassie’s health, and slowly sank onto the swing next to Kevin. “Yes Kevin, you did. She’s had a rough pregnancy. Yesterday, the doctor made her quit working completely with the warning that she wasn’t to get upset for any reason. Her blood pressure has been erratic for months, and just the other day, it was so high, high enough for the doctor to seriously consider putting her in the hospital. Cassie barely got him to agree not to do that by promising she’d quit working entirely and that she’d take it easy. She’s been doing really well too. She’s stayed out of the office and away from the guests. Then you show up and react the way anyone would, not knowing what you were doing was pushing her toward a very scary precipice.” “Why didn’t she tell me? Not just about the complications, but being pregnant? I’d have come back,” he whispered. “She was scared Kevin. When you left, she had no clue what you did for a living. As far as she knew, you were just some guy out here with some friends for vacation. The week she found out she was pregnant, she also found out what you did for a living and it scared the crap out of her. She’d barely had time to adjust to the fact that she was going to be a mom, little lone what she was going to tell you. Add all the horror stories of custody battles and you have the perfect recipe for one scared woman. Besides, it wasn’t like you two had an understanding.” Carly paused to let everything she’d said so far sink in before she spoke again. “And just so you know, she did try to tell you. She called and got your answering machine.” Kevin remained silent, his eyes downcast, starring at a crack in the porch. “What was she supposed to do Kevin? Leave a message?” she snorted indelicately and stood up. “I can just hear it now. ‘Hey Kevin, it’s Cassie. I just thought you should know that I’m pregnant and the baby is yours.’ That would’ve gone over real well,” she said sarcastically. “Look, I’m not saying that any of this is easy. But there are other ways of getting a hold of me,” he said, his head swinging up so he could look her in the eye. “Well enlighten me please! Because you seem to be forgetting that until two months after you left she didn’t even know who you were. You didn’t give her a personal number to reach you at if something came up. You just left. Good-bye, so long, and good-riddance. Just how was she supposed to get a hold of you to let you know you were about to become a daddy? Please, tell me. Because honestly Kevin, I don’t have a clue,” Carly stated vehemently. Kevin rubbed his hands over his face as what he heard sank in. He’d spent the last eight months thinking about Cassie and what she meant to him. He’d tried to call from the road, but every time he’d reached for the phone, the fact that he hadn’t been totally honest with her came back to haunt him. How was he supposed to call and act casual with her, knowing that when they were together, he hadn’t told what he did for a living, hadn’t told her how she made him feel? Thoughts of her had kept him up more nights than he could count. When he managed to sleep, his dreams were filled with her; the way she smelled, her laugh, her sparkling cinnamon eyes, and the way they had come together that night in the barn. He’d never before experienced the feelings that he had that night. And since that night, he hadn’t even looked at another woman. No other woman could hold a candle to Cassie. All he knew was that he missed her and the first opportunity he’d had, he headed straight for her, only to find that she’d kept something so monumentally important from him. It was too much to take in, too much to handle. He couldn’t seem to wrap his mind around the fact that in a few short weeks he was going to be a daddy. Was he ready for that kind of responsibility? He didn’t know. He’d always wanted children, but having children was something he’d always thought would happen somewhere in the future. He did know that it didn’t change his feelings for Cassie. If anything, it only added to them, strengthening them. He looked up at Carly and smiled slightly. “You’re right. There was no way for her to get in touch with me.” “Then why on earth are you smiling like that?” Carly questioned. “Because I love your sister and the baby doesn’t change that, the baby just adds to it and makes the love so much richer,” he stated softly. Carly returned his smile. No doubt Cassie would give him a hard way to go and it was going to be fun to watch! CCC Index Chapter Eighteen Main Page |