Chapter 10
Nick
I send Cat a quick text before I leave the office to meet my parents.
Nick: I can’t wait to see you. Sorry I haven’t gotten a chance to speak to you today, love you.
Cat: Aww :-) it's okay. I was keeping myself busy putting the rest of my things away. I’m going out to eat with Ava, Chloe, and Isabelle. I might tell them.
Nick: Do whatever feels right to you. If you’re okay with letting them know about the baby and us, then I’m okay with it.
Cat: Sure you are, until you decide to strip me bare to the bone :-/
Nick: :-)) I LOVE YOU!
Cat: :-)) See you later.
The faster I get this over with, the faster I can get home to Cat.
“I’m sure you’re wondering why I asked both of you to meet me here. I have important news to share with you, and I would rather do it once so I don’t have to repeat myself.”
“Well, what is it, son? This is a lot of drama.”
My mother glares. “Be patient. Your son obviously has something important to tell us. Why else would he want both of us in the same room together?” She gives him a cool look and continues. “I know how much you must have hated leaving the office early, but you’re already here.”
My father pours himself a drink from the table and sits on the opposite end of the couch from my mother. He unbuttons his jacket and takes a sip of brandy from his glass.
“I have a date. She’s young and impatient.” He looks at my mother when he says the word young and rolls his eyes up and down her body, leering at her.
Oh God, I have to hurry this along. He’ll probably try to proposition her to sleep with him before he leaves for his date. I sigh. That’s my dad. No shame in his game.
My mother crosses her legs at the ankles and looks at me with a dry expression before turning her attention back to her ex-husband. “Aren’t they all young and impatient to get their hands on an old man’s money? I see nothing’s changed.”
I run my hand across my forehead and shake my head at my mother. These two will never change. They like to push each other’s buttons. I used to be bothered by it when I was younger. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve concluded it’s something they enjoy. It helps them relate to each other somehow.
David Alexander is distinguished, with a little gray at his temples, and he looks stronger and more built at fifty-seven than most men in their twenties.
My mother doesn’t look her age and is still very beautiful, but can be a free spirit at times.
She and I traveled all over the world when I was a child, until my father put a stop to it and told her she better put my ass in a real school.
He’s watching my mother over the rim of his glass. He leans back in the couch with a smirk, both arms on the back of the couch, swirling the brandy around his glass as if he still owns the place.
“Nick, you’ve been dodging my calls for weeks. It’s nice to know you’re alive and well. I thought I was going to have to send out a search and rescue party for you.”
“Mom, I have not been dodging you. I have returned all your calls.” And I have. I’ve been busier than usual with Cat moving in.
She shakes her head at me and smiles. “Yes, through your secretary. I like talking to Karen, but I would rather my only child return my calls so I can hear his beautiful voice, then I can tell if he’s really doing as good as he says he is.”
This is the smile she gave me when I was little, telling me she’s being patient but whatever I did was not acceptable.
In his deep authoritative voice, my father says, “Allison, let the boy get on with what he has to say.” He taps his watch indicating he has to go.
“Yes, be quick about it, dear, your father’s nineteen-year-old is waiting.”
I run my hand through my hair and sit up. I’m going to get this over with before the arguing starts.
My mother rolls her eyes and cuts my father a look. “You should have gotten her a nanny to keep her company.”
“Allison, jealousy doesn’t become you. I have it on good authority it turns you into a dried-up old abstinent sea hag who can’t enjoy the baser instincts and needs in life.”
Shit. She’s going to rip him a new one, then all hell is going to break loose in here.
“I’m having a baby with Catherine Reed, and we’re living together.”
I knew that would shut them up. My father’s hand freezes in midair with his drink. My mother looks stunned and confused.
“What did you say?” she asks me.
I repeat it slower and louder in case my father didn’t hear me either. “Cat is four months pregnant, and this baby is absolutely, one hundred percent, without a doubt mine.”
“What have you got—Olympic gold medalist swimmers?” My father’s drink almost spills over the glass when he points a finger at me. “Those little suckers are fast, aren’t they? You might want to make sure your fly’s closed or one of them slippery little suckers might decide to fly through here.”
I sit back, not amused. “Hilarious. You and Ava should consider a comedy act.”
“David, please, do you have to be so crude?”
“Allison, he got two sisters pregnant practically at the same time. There’s nothing tactful about this. Her family is going to have a weenie roast with you. Family dinners are going to be a bitch. You’re going to be the damn main course.”
“Nick—” My mother leans forward with her hands together. I can see the worry lines creasing her forehead.
“Mom, I’m fine.”
“You recently lost a child with her sister.”
“I know, I was there. Like I said, I’m fine.” I haven’t thought much about it since the last time I saw Kate, and I would rather not. What good is it going to do? It won’t bring him back. Everyone has their own way of grieving and this is mine.
“He said he was fine, Allison.”
“Saying it and being it are two different things, David.”
“He’s a grown-ass man. He doesn’t need his mama coddling him.”
My mother doesn’t pay him any attention. “We’ll talk later. How’s Cat doing? Is she fine also, like you?” she asks, with one eyebrow slightly raised.
“As far as I know, she is. We’re good.” Until her family gets involved.
“When are you going to bring her over here?”
“Yes, when are we going to see your new baby mama?” my father says, taking a drink from his glass.
“My baby mama?” I sit forward on the couch with my arms on my knees and look up at him.
“That’s what she is, isn’t it? You’re not married and you’re shacking up together.”
“We’re not shacking up. She’s not my baby mama. She’s my girlfriend, and we’re living together.” He’s been dating too many women less than half his age. Baby mama.
“David.” My mother gives him a warning look. She knows any minute now I’m going to leave.
“I haven’t seen her since before she was legal. I remember she was a pretty little thing. Did she grow up to look like what I expect? I have an eye for fine things.”
“David, you need to stop talking now. Aren’t you late for your date? You should go before she toddles out into traffic. Don’t forget you haven’t hired her a nanny yet. Better yet, you should get her a nanny cam.”
“Honey, if there’s a camera involved, it will be strictly for viewing pleasure of the adult variety.”
Too much information. I don’t need to know about his after-hours activity. I look at my mother and father and stand. “I’m going home. I’ve said what I came to say, and I’ve heard way more than I want to.” They both stand up with me.
“Are you happy now, David? You ran him off.”
“I’m leaving too, right after I finish my drink.”
“No, put the drink down.” My mother grabs the drink and puts it down for him. “You’re leaving now.”
My father gives her a lopsided smile. “You were always my favorite wife.” He walks over and kisses her on the cheek. “Can’t blame a man for trying. Maybe next time.”
“I don’t think so. Once a leech always a leech.”
“You might be right, but maybe I can change for you, we’re about to be grandparents.”
“Goodbye, David.”
“We’ll talk.” He winks at my mother. “Nick, I’ll walk out with you.”
My mother told me to make sure I bring Cat to see her. I told her it’s not as though she’s never met her before, but that did not appease her.
My father asks me if Cat has any more sisters of childbearing years that could possibly get knocked up, because I need to stay far away from them if she does.
“Is she the woman to make you stay home at nights?”
“She’s the only woman.”
“Then when are you going to marry her?”
“Marry her?”
“Why not? As long as you have a signed prenup in your hand on the wedding day and a hard-on standing up with you at the altar, you’re good to go.”
“Is that all you require for marriage?”
“Yes, one without the other is no good, the marriage is going to be over before it starts.”
“How has that way of thinking worked out for you?”
“Still a work in progress. Maybe next time I’ll finally get it right. You never know, your mother could be lucky number four.”
“I think we can all agree once was enough. Let’s not get back on that ride. From what I remember, it left a casualty in its wake.”
“What casualty? You turned out fine.”
“I’ve never been able to sustain a functional relationship with a woman. I’m living with my pregnant girlfriend exactly four months to the day her sister miscarried my son. If you call that fine, then I’m fine, I’m the guy you’d proudly bring home to meet the parents.”
“Well, who doesn’t have their faults? Fuck it, you’re an Alexander. They can deal with it or get the fuck out of the way.”
Ahh, the unofficial Alexander family motto. At least I know where I get that attitude from.