Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Callie
“The T-shirt did the talking.” I point toward the bedroom.
“So you were just going to leave it here and hope I knew it was you?” He goes to the fridge and grabs two beers, twisting the cap off of one and holding it out for me.
I raise my eyebrows.
“Fuck.” He places it on the counter. “What do you want to drink?”
“Nothing.”
“Shouldn’t you have water or something? Are you hungry? I have peanut butter but no pickles.” He turns his back to me and pulls a jar of peanut butter out of the cupboard.
“Listen.” I go to the front door to grab my shoes.
“I just wanted to let you know. I don’t expect anything from you.
” I place my hand on my stomach, and his eyes zero in on the gesture.
I retract my hand immediately. “This was a you should know obligatory telling. I’m not looking for a relationship or money or anything.
” I hurriedly slip into my shoes as he rounds the counter.
Damn, he looks good today. Of course he does. Low-hanging jeans, a black T-shirt, his tattoos sneaking out of his sleeves and above his neckline.
“Oh, I get it. You wanted to let me know, but I’m not good enough to talk it out with or have any part in the baby’s life if you decide to keep him or her.”
I glance up, and his eyebrows raise from what I suspect is a shocked expression on my face.
“Are you at least gonna tell me if you’re keeping the baby? Do I deserve to know that much at least?”
I stand and grab my backpack, securing it on my back. “I…” I stutter because I assumed… shit, I’m the asshole now. “Well… I thought… You wouldn’t want to? I mean I… do you?”
He puts the closed beer back in the fridge and dumps the other beer in the sink before tossing the bottle in the trash can. “You assumed I’d be a deadbeat dad. That I wouldn’t want to know my own kid.”
My stomach feels as though it slides down my leg and onto the floor. “That’s not it.” I glance away from him.
“I think you’re lying.”
I throw my hands in the air. He’s cornered me, and it’s apparent that I’ve clearly made assumptions about him.
“Okay. Yes. I figured you might not even believe me and probably ask for a paternity test and then maybe you’d want to pay me a few bucks to go away.
Which I wasn’t going to take, for the record. ”
“Jesus, Callie.” He runs his fingers through his hair and appears genuinely hurt. I’m surprised by how much it bothers me. “You’re my best friend’s sister, and you think I’d just desert you?”
I bite my lip as my shoulders sink. “I’m sorry, it was wrong of me to assume.”
How could I be so stupid and judgmental to think he’d abandon the baby? His reputation as a womanizer doesn’t mean he’d run from his own kid.
“I’m sorry. I think I got caught up in worrying how I’m to navigate this, and I wasn’t giving a lot of real thought to how you would.”
Foster sets his hands on his hips. “Are you keeping the baby? Have you made that decision yet?” His gaze falls to my stomach once more.
I follow his line of vision so we’re both staring at my not-swollen belly. “I am.”
He nods, steels himself with a deep breath. “Okay, well then, I’m in.”
“Foster…”
“Goddamn it, Callie, don’t. You might know what my dick feels like inside you, but you don’t know me.
You probably know what you’ve heard from gossip blogs and the reputation I’ve made for myself.
Shit, I’m sure Decker told you to stay the fuck away from me, but that’s my child in your stomach, and I’m not gonna have it grow up without me. ”
Although he didn’t strike me, my cheeks heat as if he did. “You…”
He blows out a breath, goes to his bedroom, and I don’t know if I should follow or just give him space. I couldn’t have made this worse for both of us.
He comes back out with the onesie in his hand, staring at the small outfit.
“I can’t promise I’m going to be good at fatherhood.
I’m going to fuck up, but I can make one promise to you that I’ll never break.
” His eyes meet mine, and there’s so much emotion swimming in those pools of blue, I can’t see through to what he’s really thinking.
“They’ll come first in my life. Always.”
I suck in a sharp breath. “That’s all you need to do.”
He nods. “So, let’s talk logistics. Have you been to the doctor?”
I shake my head, surprised he’s thinking through the steps that have to be taken after he just tried to offer me peanut butter and pickles.
“You’ll need prenatal vitamins.”
“I know. I am the woman.” My back goes up because who does he think he is to just tell me what I need?
“I’d like to go with you.” His voice softens a little.
“Is this your first time getting a woman pregnant?” I ask, since he seems to know the routine so well.
“Yes, I’m not the manwhore you like to think I am. And just so you know, I would have known the baby shirt was from you. I haven’t slept with anyone in Chicago but you.”
I blink back my surprise.
“Shocking, I know.” He crosses his arms, the onesie still dangling from his fingers.
“I feel like we should start over. I’m just…
” I pause because Foster doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy you want to pour your heart out to, but he is the father of my baby.
“I’m not used to relying on people. I’ve just never been someone’s first…
” I let my words drift off, but he waits for me to finish.
“I have hang-ups too, but it’s no excuse. ”
He opens his mouth to speak, but I raise my hand.
“I’m truly sorry for barging in here and leaving a bomb on your bed when I should’ve just asked to meet you for coffee.
I should have talked it out with you. It was extremely selfish of me to assume you wouldn’t want to be a part of this, and it was judgmental as well. I am sorry.”
He doesn’t say anything for a few seconds. My stomach sours. This is not how I wanted our co-parenting journey to start off.
“Have you eaten?” he asks.
I shake my head.
“Want to order takeout and talk it out?” I’m not sure of the look that crosses my face, but he chuckles. “You’re used to being disappointed by people, and I’m used to being underestimated. How about we make a deal not to pick at the scabs other people have left behind?”
I don’t know much about Foster’s life, only bits and pieces, but if he feels the same about being underestimated as I do about being disappointed, I don’t want to inflict that pain on him.
I nod. “Deal.”
He pulls out his phone. “What are you craving?”
I shake my head, and he peeks up at me with a raised eyebrow. “Not peanut butter and pickles.”
“But what?”
“Guacamole and chips. Pretty much all Mexican food.”
He grabs some waters from the fridge and waves me into his living room. “Take your shoes off and stay a while.”
I slip out of my shoes again, and my phone vibrates in my back pocket on my way over to the couch.
Leighton: Okay, I’ve been a good girl and waited really patiently. When do I get my reward?
I’m with him now. We’re going to talk it out.
How many flights of stairs did you have to walk up to reach him?
I giggle.
Wouldn’t you like to know?
YES. YES, I would like to know. And you’re gonna have to tell me who it is so I know if I have to tie Hayes down before you tell him.
Keep your kinky sex games to yourself. I’ll be over tomorrow.
TOMORROW?!? You’re killin’ me!!!!
“Work?”
I shake my head. My brother is a whole other ordeal, one I haven’t wanted to focus on until after I told Foster he was going to be a dad.
Foster sits next to me on the couch and hands me a water after opening the top. “Food will be here in forty or so.”
“Thanks.”
We sit there awkwardly for a second, neither of us saying a word.
Finally I can’t take it anymore. “Leighton knows about me being pregnant.”
His head whips toward me, then toward the front door. I guess I know one thing Foster is afraid of. “Hayes?”
I shake my head. “And Leighton doesn’t know you’re the father. She knows it’s either you, Easton, or Decker, but that’s all.”
He nods, seeming to take that in. “Thanks for telling me first.”
“That’s the one thing I did right in all this.” I touch his arm. “Again, I’m really sorry.”
He sips his water. “Don’t sweat it, but…
” He turns to face me. “I don’t want us to be just co-parents.
I want to be a part of our baby’s life. And don’t think I’m gonna have him or her at my place and have a woman over or something.
I won’t. We can make rules, and I’ll abide by them.
I want our child to have the kind of life I never did. ”
“A life you never did?” My head tilts.
“I’ll just say this… I didn’t have a role model, but I sure as hell learned how not to raise a kid.”
I squeeze his arm, the fixer in me wanting to dig deeper, but Foster seems like a man with a lot of layers. Layers he’s not going to shed to the person who underestimated him just minutes ago. He doesn’t have to share anything with me, but maybe one day he’ll feel comfortable enough to.
“The road might be bumpy, but as long as we keep this about the baby, we can make it work.”
Foster brings his hand to the back of his neck and rubs there. “As long as your brother doesn’t kill me. This isn’t good for us or the team. I’m a jerk for sleeping with you in the first place.”
“It’s not your fault I’m so irresistible.” I flutter my eyelashes jokingly, but his eyes don’t stray from mine.
“I’m gonna be honest with you, I’ve never been that worked up before. I wasn’t even thinking rationally. Maybe I didn’t put on the condom right.”
I sip my water and cross my legs. “Just what a woman wants to hear, that the man she slept with wishes he had been thinking rationally. And anyway, I don’t think we… used one.”
“It was more a compliment than anything, Callie. You made me see past all that.” His forehead wrinkles. “We didn’t use one? I always do.”
“I’m on the pill, and I think I said…” I honestly can’t remember the whole thing or how it all happened. Thanks, alcohol. I do remember his breath in my ear and the feel of his big hands on me though.
He made me forget myself too. I’ve never slept with one of Hayes’s friends, and I never planned to. I never wanted to affect any of his friendships.
“We do have the fact he’s engaged to my best friend on our side.” I shrug.
“That’s different though. You don’t have a ring on your finger, and we’re not in a relationship. It changes things.” His voice is strained.
He’s not wrong, but I’m fully prepared to give my brother shit if he decides to go after Foster. I’m a grown woman, and I can make my own decisions.
“Callie?” Foster’s voice pulls me out of my thoughts. “Can I be there when you tell him?”
Whoever said Foster wasn’t a stand-up guy was wrong. Oh, wait—that was me.
“Sure. If you want to.”
He puts his hand in mine. His calluses are rough, but I love the way they feel along my soft palm. “I want to be there every step of the way. I’m not going to abandon you. I promise.”
I squeeze his hand, feeling like real shit again considering how I thought this would go. “Thank you, Foster. I—”
“No. We start over now. Forget all that shit from earlier. I learned a long time ago that actions change people’s perception, not words. So I know I’m promising you a bunch of things, and I mean every one of them, but I’ll show you how serious I am.”
Tears prick my eyes, but I suck them back.
This is not what I thought I was going to get out of Foster when I told him we were going to have a baby.
It’s a welcome surprise, but at the same time, I’ve heard a lot of promises from others who said they would be there for me, and when it came down to it, they weren’t.
I think I’ll keep that wall erected a little longer.