Page 70 of Imperfections Seduced
The doctor turns his head to me with his bushyeyebrows knitted together. “Are you sure you…both want to know?”
I must really look uneasy. I take a shaky breath to steady myself. “Yeah.”
He turns back to the monitor, moving the machine around Kate’s stomach a few more times, hitting more buttons.
“It’s a boy. Congratulations, you’re having a boy.”
Oh shit! I’m having a son. I’m going to be a father.
“I come waving my white flag!”
“Get in here, Ava.” I told Ava to meet me at my house, and for once she’s on time. I follow her into the living room. She sits on the couch with her coat and bag still on. One hand’s on the strap and the other one in her lap. She obviously thinks she needs to be prepared to make a fast getaway.
“Ava, you look nervous. You can relax, I’m not going to bite you.” I sit down on the other end of the couch. She watches me and slightly arches one of her eyebrows. “I only bite the women I take to bed, but only if they ask me nicely.”
“Honey, they should be careful, they don’t know where your mouth has been. I’m surprised they don’t leave foaming at the mouth. If your bite is anything like the tongue-lashing you put on me yesterday morning, I’m surprised they’re not dead already.”
I shake my head and smile at her. “Good one, Ava, good one.” I sit back, put one hand over the couch and watch her take off her coat.
“I’m not joking. I can still feel the whip marks going across my back. All because I took my friend out for a fewdrinks to relax, which I wouldn’t have had to do if it weren’t for you. I think you owe me an apology.”
“No, I don’t think I do. What I owe you is another tongue-lashing for taking her to a club with Matt!” She pouts and tilts her head to the side, her eyes open wide like an innocent, blue-eyed doe. This look might work on most men, including her father, but not on me. Ava is a lot of things, but innocent isn’t one of them.
“In my defense, the only reason I took her out was because of you! She was really upset. She was coming down on herself hard for what happened between the two of you in the car. I told you to talk to her and tell her the truth, not make things more complicated. You know that’s what you did?”
“I had to. I couldn’t tell her the truth first; you know Cat as well as I do. If I told her the truth, she would have bolted out of that car and that would have been the end.”
“Probably.”
“I had to buy some time.”
“And how is complicating matters going to do that? I don’t want her to get hurt.”
“I had to hurt her. There is no getting around it.”
“How is hurting her going to get you more time?”
“If I’m lucky, I unintentionally bought myself enough time to at least let her give the idea of us a chance.”
“What does that mean?”
“I did something stupid. Something I hardly ever do.”
“You’ve been doing a lot of that. You should stop, especially if it involves a female member of Cat’s family.”
I lean my head back and close my eyes. I hate that I hurt her. “I tried to talk to her, but she was so upset and angry. She wouldn’t return any of my calls.”
“She told me everything about Kate, the fake marriage, and the pregnancy. This is a lot of shit to deal with. Sheneeded to get her mind off having sex with her pregnant sister’s fake fiancé. I’m not sorry for taking her out to forget her problems for a while and showing her a good time.”
“I’m glad you were there for her and she had someone to talk to.” I sit up and look at her. “What I’m pissed off about is you taking her out with Matt. You know how I feel about him and Cat together. Saying I was angry when I found out he was with her doesn’t describe it. I know that fucker wants her.”
“That doesn’t mean she wants him. You’ve been friends for years with Matt. I don’t understand why you’re ticked off because they hooked up once a million years ago.”
I get up off the couch and walk into the kitchen to get a drink. “If I would have known back then, I would have cut his ass off at the knees and hung him out to dry. He took advantage of her.”
“Don’t rewrite history, Nick. He didn’t take advantage of her, as I’m sure Cat told you. I think she was the one taking advantage of him.”
“Whatever, Ava. He was wrong. He was our friend, he should have thought about her like a little sister.” I take a drink of my beer, turn around, and lean against the counter.
