Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
I t was two weeks until Rodney’s lawyer was able to set up a meeting with Stella.
In that amount of time, Rodney and Becky did not sit around. In fact, Becky sometimes wondered if maybe they should have just chilled a little bit more. Because it felt like they were constantly busy and constantly sleep deprived.
But they managed to settle on the house, and they hired people to move the furniture that they’d ordered in, including baby furniture. She and Rodney spent an interesting afternoon trying to get the baby swings put together. It was probably good that they paid someone to assemble the cribs.
They had discussed whether or not they should have the babies in different rooms, and they decided that they would.
Even though the hospital had said the twins knew when the other one was close, they were not the same gender, and they were going to have to have separate rooms eventually.
They figured that it would be just as easy to do it now as later.
Plus, the house had five bedrooms, so it felt more like they were using it.
They had another bedroom set up, just in case the meeting with Stella went the way they wanted it to and they ended up with another child.
Becky understood that this child might not even be biologically related to Rodney, but there was no doubt in her mind, and absolutely no hesitation on her part, that the kid needed a home, and they would give him one.
She was sure Stella hadn’t bargained on Rodney reacting the way he had, and Becky was interested to see how that meeting went.
She and Rodney had done one other small thing before the day of the meeting arrived.
And that was to get the preacher who had just conducted Rita’s funeral to marry them.
It was a small ceremony. Luke and Kristen along with Grif and Chi were able to beam in remotely from their cabin in Alaska.
The connection was sketchy, and Becky and Rodney had almost not been able to convince them that they didn’t need to cut their trip short.
Becky and Rodney agreed that they would have felt terrible if they’d interrupted their trip of a lifetime.
The couples already felt bad enough because of missing Rita’s funeral, but they’d all promised that when they got back they would be doting on the twins in a massive way.
She felt like they had rushed things a bit, but it made Rodney feel better about sharing the house with her, and it worked for her, too.
She had been a wife for two and a half days when they showed up at the lawyer’s office and were escorted into a conference room.
Stella sat there waiting on them.
She turned as they walked in and then partially stood.
“Rodney?” she said, squinting her eyes as though she couldn’t believe that the person walking in was the person she remembered.
Rodney had not dressed in a suit and tie for the occasion, but he did look good in a black T-shirt with a sports jacket over it, along with jeans.
Becky had enjoyed watching him, and now, she almost smiled at Stella’s reaction.
Apparently Rodney looked a little different than he had five years ago, and Stella was having trouble reconciling the differences.
She should have been expecting someone who looked a little bit prosperous anyway.
Then, she seemed to notice Becky for the first time as the door clicked closed.
“You don’t need a lawyer in here with you,” she said, eyeing Becky with suspicion and dislike.
“It’s my wife, actually. Becky, this is Stella, the girl I told you about. The one who allowed me to stay on her couch for three months. Stella, this is my wife, Becky. The girl I’ve loved all my life.”
“Well, it’s interesting that you loved her all your life, but you were having sex with me while you were living in my apartment.”
Becky wanted to close her eyes, because it was just crude, and it made her feel dirty somehow. But she lifted her chin and held tight to Rodney’s hand.
“I thought you might bring our son along,” Rodney said, taking a glance around the room like he might have missed the child sitting somewhere.
They walked to the table and sat down, with Rodney pulling out her chair and Becky smiling her thanks at him.
“So gentlemanly.” Stella rolled her eyes.
Rodney ignored her again. “How is he?”
“He’s fine. I guess. I haven’t seen him for a while. My mom was watching him, but she got sick. I have a friend to keep him for me when I need to do things. A girl needs her space, you know.”
Right there, Becky felt better already. The child might be attached to his mother and probably was, but it was obvious that she didn’t care about him.
Becky wasn’t sure she could be any better of a mother, but she did know that she would be there for the child and give him all the love she possibly could.
It made her heart sad to think of a little boy growing up without a dad, thinking his dad didn’t care about him, and having a mom who just dumped him off on anyone.
“What did you want to talk about?” Rodney asked casually. She admired that he was calm, didn’t fall for any of the bait that Stella had thrown out, and had been acting like an adult the entire time. She wanted to remember to tell him how proud of him she was.
“I just couldn’t believe that you wanted the kid. You didn’t even see him. How do you know I’m not lying?”
“I know we had sex three times. It’s quite possible that you might have gotten pregnant. I…didn’t have enough experience to have any kind of protection, and I guess I assumed that it was your responsibility. That was my bad.”
“Just like that?” She stopped again. “Aren’t you going to question me about how I know he’s yours?”
“I don’t care. I want him. I love him. But I don’t want to be dangled around on a string every time you go on a tear. He’s either going to be all mine, or I’ll see you in court.”
The way he said it made a shiver run down Becky’s spine. She would have backed down right away. But Stella stopped again.
“Hooray. Whatever. I can’t believe you actually want him. But you actually offered me more than what I wanted, and I’d be a fool not to take five million dollars in exchange for the kid. He’s done nothing but whine and fuss since he was born.” She wrinkled her nose. “Good riddance.”
“My lawyer can cut you a check today. How soon can you have the child here?” Rodney asked.
Becky, at that point, was tempted to ask if the child had a name. She was kind of tired of both of them acting like he didn’t. But she understood that Rodney was just trying to go along with Stella and was playing the cards he had been dealt.
Stella’s eyes lit up at the idea of getting the money that fast. “I can have him for you in an hour.”
“All right. The funds are already in my lawyer’s account. He can write you out a check as soon as you bring him. As long as you sign the papers stating that you’re giving up all of your maternal rights.”
“No problem. I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.” She stood up and walked out the door.
Becky waited for the door to close before she looked at Rodney. “Do you really think it’s going to be that easy?”
“I don’t know. I couldn’t figure out why she wanted me to meet her to begin with. I’m still not sure I understand it. It was like she didn’t think that I would believe her, but what was I going to do?”
“I don’t know. It seems weird, but sometimes people do weird stuff, stuff where it’s kinda hard to square with anything that resembles intelligence.”
He couldn’t argue with that. Stella didn’t seem like she was the brightest bulb in the bunch.
And Becky wondered what it was in her past that had caused her to become what she was.
A bunch of bad decisions? The idea that she felt free whenever she was doing whatever she wanted, even if that was having sex with almost strangers?
She wasn’t sure. But she did know that wasn’t the way to lasting happiness.
“We don’t have to sit here and wait. There’s a nice park across the street. We can take a walk.”
“It’s so nice to be without the babies. I miss them, but…we don’t have heavy car seats to carry, and we don’t have to worry about when they’re going to eat next.”
“It hasn’t even been three weeks.”
They grinned at each other. Becky had asked Vera if she would be willing to watch the babies for a day while they drove to Chicago to see the lawyer.
She hadn’t said what it was about, although eventually it was going to come out that Rodney had a child.
She figured she would let Rodney do that, whenever he wanted to, but she imagined that he would want to wait and see how it went today before he told everyone.
Until the papers were signed, there was always a chance that Stella was going to back out.
“I guess I can’t help but wish that there was some way we could help Stella too, you know?”
They had exited the lawyer’s building and were waiting to cross the street to the park.
“Are you serious?” Rodney said, looking down at her. He seemed to be searching her face to see if there was any kind of guile or humor on it, but she was dead serious.
“Yeah.” She nodded. “Doesn’t it make you sad? I mean how misguided and pathetic she must be.”
“Yeah. That’s true. I…guess I can understand why you’d feel bad for her. I guess for me, I just want to stay away from her. I know she’s bad news for me.”
“She’s still a temptation?” Becky asked, wondering for the first time if there was more there than what Rodney had said. After all, he’d avoided temptation all his life, except for with Stella. Maybe there was some kind of magnetic pull he had with her.