There Are No Words (The Morelli Sisters #3)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Allegra

I paused from walking and took a deep breath in and out through my nose. My back was killing me. That was right, my own back was going to be the death of me. I was going to die from lower back pain.

I didn’t know how women did this.

I wanted this baby out. O-u-t.

I was sick of the aches and pains that came with being pregnant. I had pain in my neck, back, legs, feet, and, not to be overly dramatic, but every other part of my body I hadn’t listed.

Brady stood beside me, waiting for me to move again.

Well, sorry to disappoint you, Baby Daddy, but I don’t think we’re going to start walking again anytime soon. And if he did, then he was doing it without me.

“I need to sit.” My hand was still resting on my back as it had been since we’d gotten out of the car, and Brady had convinced me that coming to the movies was a bright idea.

I still didn’t see how but fine. I supposed this was like his other good idea to get a dog. A dog that I, thankfully, was able to convince Maria would be fun to keep for the weekend—you know, for Isabella. Yeah, a dog. . . yet another thing for me to take care of. As though being a first-time mom wouldn’t be enough. It would, by the way. Just in case anyone wasn’t sure, it would be enough for me .

And it wasn’t that I didn’t love the gesture. It was sweet, and Tipsy really was adorable. A great addition to our family. I was just being crabby, so excuse me.

Brady looked pained. I didn’t know why exactly. Hello, I was the one who could hardly stand up straight. I literally had to hold myself upright.

“I hate seeing you like this. Listen, once we get inside, we can sit.”

I turned and gave him a combination bite-me-hard-on-the-ass look and death stare. “I could’ve been sitting if we had stayed home. What is so wrong with watching a movie from the comfort of my couch?”

He shook his head. Oh, I’d love to hear this one. “You once said that when the baby came it would be all about her and you would become less and less important. And I’m not saying that’s going to happen, but when she comes, it might not be as easy to do things like this.”

Part of me wanted to gush because he thought of everything, but the other part of me wanted to scream out in pain. Instead, I groaned. “Brady, hear me carefully on this one, okay? If I could, I would stick my hand up my vagina right now and pull this baby out. As far as I’m concerned, nine months is far too long.”

“I happen to agree, and I’m not going to pretend I know what you’re going through, but you’re almost there. We can watch the movie, you can sit down, and”—he nudged his elbow where the popcorn was wedged—“we can enjoy this popcorn.”

“It’s unsalted,” I deadpanned.

He chuckled. “Yes, but that’s because salt can cause your feet to swell, and you’re already having pain, so why add to it?”

I wanted to grab him by the collar of his shirt and choke him. That was right. I wanted to choke Brady, the man who drove me needy with desire every single day. But, at this moment, he was just driving me up a wall. “Okay.” I finally gave in and started walking again. “But I’m only getting on board with this because the movie seats are a lot closer than the car, and standing is doing me no good.”

“Whatever the reason,” he said, wrapping his arm around my shoulder, “I’m just glad we’re doing this.” He bent down and whispered in my ear, “You know, technically, we could consider this our first official date.”

I eyed his hand that was hanging dangerously close to my breast. Recalling our banter from the elevator at Bellissima , I teased, “Are you going to cop a feel?”

He laughed, a deep, throaty laugh that sent shivers down my spine.

How was it that, even with all the pain I was in, my body could have such an intense reaction to him? And not just him, but his laugh. Was there anything sensual about a laugh? I usually didn’t think so, but I found it sensual when this man took out the trash. Pathetic, I know.

“I’d much rather have you naked while I tug and roll your nipples between my fingers, but I’ll take just about anything I can get,” Brady finally answered. Then he did something I wasn’t expecting and tried to cover my breast with his hand, giving it a good squeeze as we walked into the movie.

I bit down on my bottom lip, trying my hardest not to moan.

He removed his hand and grazed his lips over my temple before giving me a kiss.

When I say it was all I could do not to turn around, jump in his arms, and demand that he take me to the bathroom so he could finger fuck me just to get rid of the ache between my legs, I meant it.

Trying to distract myself, I turned my attention to finding seats.

He pointed a couple rows down. “Those look good.”

I licked my lips and nodded. “These stairs are annoying.”

“Sorry. I could always pick you up.”

“Brady!” I admonished. “We can’t cause a scene.”

“Why the hell not? I don’t mind if everyone knows that I take care of what’s mine. And you and this baby are mine.”

We’re his. I loved the way that sounded. “That’s okay. I think I’ll walk.”

With my head down and my hand on my back, I focused on breathing as I took the stairs to our row.

One, two, three. Breathe.

One, two, three. Breathe.

One, two, three. Breathe.

“You’re doing great,” Brady praised, resting a hand on my shoulder as he trailed behind me.

I finally made it to our row and was about to let out a hallelujah when. . . “Maybe you can waddle your wide load a little faster, lady, okay?”

I gazed up at the man who’d said that. He was trying to leave the row we were looking to get into and was pissed, understandably so, because I was in his way. Although, I cringed, not only because of his harsh words, but because I knew Brady was going to—

“Excuse me,” Brady roared, moving his hand to my arm as he coaxed me to move off to the side while he got in the guy’s face.

The man didn’t so much as blink. In fact, he looked disinterested in Brady’s macho behavior. “Listen, pal, I want to get some popcorn and come right back here to watch the movie when it starts. Got that?”

Wow, if I were this man, I’d wish I was a snail so I could crawl into my shell. Honestly, any place other than in front of Brady would have been safer. “No, you listen to me, you piece of shit”—Brady’s hand left my arm and he pointed a finger directly in the guy’s face—“you’re going to apologize to my girl right now unless you feel like swallowing your teeth.”

The guy’s face contorted, and he looked. . . freaked out. Like he hadn’t been expecting that type of reaction from Brady. What was he expecting? He’d insulted me. “All right, whatever you want, man.” His eyes flickered back over to me. “I’m sorry, lady, okay?”

I opened my mouth to accept his apology so he could be on his way, but Brady wasn’t having it. Through gritted teeth, he said, “You can do better than that, you asshole. Try it again. This time with sincerity.”

This was the first time a man had stood up for me in this way, and I had to say, I didn’t hate it. In fact, I sort of appreciated it. It was nice to know that someone cared about me so much that they’d go to bat for me.

The man cleared his throat, narrowing his eyes as he looked at me. “I’m sorry for being impatient. It wasn’t fair to you. You’re pregnant, clearly, and I should have shut my mouth and waited.”

“Thank you,” I replied.

Brady turned to me and our eyes connected. He studied me before asking, “Are you okay?”

I nodded, almost chuckling at this intense side of Brady. Biting down on my lip, I managed, “I’m fine.”

Then he looked back at the guy. “Now go so she can sit down.”

The guy mumbled something under his breath but listened to Brady and moved out.

We walked to our seats in silence. When we were finally seated, though, I whispered, “Thank you for standing up for me like that.”

Brady gave me a bewildered look, his brows raising and his eyes narrowing. “I told you, you and this baby are mine, and I take care of what’s mine. It’s as simple as that. That douchebag had no right to say what he did.”

I licked my lips. “Still. I appreciate it.”

“Has no one ever done that for you before?” Clarifying, he said, “Stand up for you.”

I shook my head and tried to look everywhere but at him. It felt too vulnerable being honest about the fact that no one had ever cared about me enough to possibly get into a fight with a complete stranger on my behalf.

Clearly, I’d dated all winners in the past, right? Yeah, go ahead, roll your eyes; I was rolling mine.

His finger brushed my chin before urging me to look at him. He tipped my chin, so we were eye to eye. “Then it’s a good thing you’re with a real man now.”

* * *

Brady

“Ohhh!”

Trying to keep my attention on the road, I looked at Allegra out of the corner of my eye. She was on her phone, watching some video from the sound of it.

“Ohhh! Ahhh!”

What the video was about beat the hell out of me.

“Gahhh!!!”

The last sound was so loud, and it sounded so excruciating, I flashed my eyes to her abruptly.

“Mother of—”

All right, that did it. What exactly was she watching? Finally, I asked, “What’s with the tortured-filled noises coming from your phone?”

Allegra’s eyes didn’t leave the screen. She was totally captivated by this heinous video. Seriously, I had no visual whatsoever, and I was going to have nightmares. “It’s a water birth,” she explained.

I blinked twice, making sure I heard her correctly. “You’re watching a video of a woman giving birth?”

She nodded, not even flinching. Was that normal? Was that something women did for fun? To prepare for their own delivery? Please tell me soon-to-be dads didn’t, because—judge me all you wanted—but I only wanted to watch Allegra give birth (and even “wanted” was a stretch). That was it, though. I drew the line there.

When we were at a stoplight, Allegra said, “See,” turning the phone to me. I got a lovely (read: disgusting) view of a woman sitting in a blowup tub filled with water. She was wearing a top, thankfully, but her legs were spread completely, and she was pushing, her face as red as a goddamn tomato.

I shoved the phone away. “I’m good, thanks.”

She blew bubbles, pausing the video and putting her phone down. Did you hear that? Me neither. It was nothing. Silence. And, thankfully, no more of the horrid sounds of a woman giving birth to a baby when it sounded like she was delivering a fucking whale. Seriously, there were some things that scarred a man, you know?

The light turned green, and I kept driving as Allegra said, “You know, I’ve been thinking a lot about it, and it makes sense to have a home birth.”

A home birth? Oh no! No damn way was Allegra risking her life delivering a baby in a tub. “No.” I was putting my foot down on this one.

“No?” Allegra’s voice grew intense. “It’s my body.”

I clenched my jaw. “It’s dangerous, Allegra. You need to be in a sterile environment, around plenty of experienced medical professionals.”

“I won’t be doing it alone, obviously.”

I looked over as she rolled her eyes. “Of course not. I’ll be there, but I still think—”

“I’m talking about a doula. I think I want an unmedicated birth.”

I wasn’t following. Unmedicated? Wasn’t giving birth painful? And she didn’t want to be medicated? I’d watched enough TV to know that was the first thing a woman asked for—drugs. Figured Allegra would be opposed to them. They would help her. And we all knew how she felt about help.

“You need to give birth in a hospital. What if you need a C-section?”

“It’ll be fine, Brady.”

I strummed my fingers on the steering wheel, trying to make sense of this. How could she seriously think this was a good idea? “What did Maria do? Don’t you want to do the same thing she did?” See, that made sense, right? They were sisters, and the Morelli sisters were stuck together with something a lot stronger than glue. So bringing up Maria could only help my case. Knowing her, she’d given birth to Isabella in a hospital.

“Maria is a traditionalist, so she went to a hospital.”

“See,” I pointed out, a smile crossing my lips. Had I mentioned I was a genius? End of discussion, we were having our baby in a hospital, too.

“But that doesn’t change anything.”

Why did she make everything so hard? “Not following. I imagine she had a great birth, right? So don’t you want the same thing?”

“Hospitals don’t automatically make it great. I want to do this my way.”

Fine. I understood what Allegra wanted. Really, I did. But there were risks involved with that shit, and I didn’t want anything happening to either of my girls. They were both way too important to me.

I turned to look at her and placed a hand on her thigh, my other one still on the steering wheel. I gave her thigh a gentle squeeze, and she gazed over at me. “Can you do this for me, please? I would feel much better knowing you’re safe in a hospital.”

She licked her lips, softening her expression. “We’ll see.”

She’d think about it. That was all I needed. “Thank you.”

A few minutes later, Allegra broke the silence, saying, “You know, it’s too bad because if I did have a home birth, I would let you catch the baby like it was a football.”

Just another reason we needed to do this in a hospital.