Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Foster
I’m still whirling from the doctor’s office by the time Callie and I ride the elevator back down to street level in silence and climb into the car.
“That was terrifying as fuck,” I admit when the driver pulls into traffic.
“Hello, it’s my body. Did you see those diagrams on the wall?” She stares down at her stomach as if an alien’s about to pop out of it.
“I purposely tried not to.”
“What do you care? It’s my vagina that’s going to be all torn open.”
The driver slyly looks through the rearview mirror, but I give him a scathing expression, and his eyes go back to the road.
“Thanks for the visual.”
“You did this to me.” She points at me.
“If memory serves—” The driver glances at us again, and I decide we’re going to stop talking until we’re alone.
He probably knows enough. Although I’m sure in his profession and with what he charges, he must be discreet, since this car service is specifically for clientele with a public profile.
It’s better if we table this conversation for now. “Let’s go eat.”
“I’m not really hungry.”
Her mood has diminished since we saw the baby. I think reality has set in that we’re going to be parents.
“You have to eat.” I look at her stomach, and she covers it with her hands. “For, you know.”
She rolls her eyes and sighs, turning toward the window. “Just spare me the overprotective bullshit self you’ve morphed into since I broke the news to you.”
“Do you think I want to be like this?”
It’s as though something has taken control of my body. And I’m still trying to figure out if it’s the baby, the guilt that it’s Hayes’s baby sister, or just this thing in my stomach that won’t stop craving Callie.
“Well, you’re not trying very hard to stop. So far—”
I give a small nod in the direction of the driver, and she sighs but stops talking.
Surely, she knows we have to be discreet.
Then again, one thing that turned me on about Callie was her I-don’t-give-a-shit attitude.
I wouldn’t care if someone knew she was pregnant, and the baby was mine. Hayes just needs to find out first.
We pull up to her apartment a few minutes later, and I tell the driver that we’re done with his services, opening the door and waiting for Callie to slide out of my side before shutting the door.
“Thanks for the ride. I’ll see you next month at the next doctor appointment.” Callie pats my chest and walks past me toward her front door.
“I’m walking you up.” I follow her.
She pulls on the street-facing door and walks into the vestibule to the next door. She pulls on that door, but it doesn’t budge.
Thank you, Jerry.
“Great.” She opens her purse and digs inside. “Now I have to get my keys, but look, your wish was Jerry’s command. So relax, big guy, your kid is all safe and secure.” She nods at the door, pulling out her keys. “You can go now.”
“I’ll see you in.” I know it’s pissing her off that I’m being an overprotective asshole, but I can’t squash this part of me that needs to know she’s okay.
I’ve had women tell me they were pregnant before, but those all were attempts at extortion.
The first time it happened was when I’d just arrived at college.
I remember thinking it would destroy my entire life and everything I had worked hard for.
Maybe it’s different this time because I know Callie isn’t lying, I’m late in my career, and although I never thought I was going to have a family, this might be my only chance.
“You’re driving me crazy, Foster.”
“Be careful, last time you said that to me…” I let my words trail off because she knows exactly what happened last time.
“Ugh!” She opens the door, walks through, and doesn’t hold it open for me, continuing to climb the stairs.
“Should you be walking up these stairs every day?”
Callie stops midflight and turns around. “I’m pregnant. I’m not an eighty-five-year-old heart patient.” She swivels back around and stomps up the stairs.
“It was just a question.”
“A stupid one in case you were wondering.”
She gets to her door, and I put my hand over hers as she’s about to insert the key into the lock. “Listen. I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m feeling this way. These things are just coming out of my mouth. I’ve never been like this.”
“You mean with your other one-night stands who end up pregnant, you weren’t trying to lock the woman in a padded room and force-feed her?”
I lean my shoulder against the wall and blow out a breath. “Hayes is really important to me. Our friendship is…” I try to excuse my behavior with one of my many theories.
“Ah.” Her head rocks back. “It’s about me being Hayes’s baby sister. Well, don’t worry, I’m a big girl and can take care of this little bundle.”
It’s not just because she’s Hayes’s sister, but it seemed like the better explanation than trying to tell her all the shit going on in my head.
“Go home, Foster.” She puts the key in the lock. “I’ll see you around.”
Callie twists the key and swings open the door. She freezes in the doorway, and her jaw slowly drops. Seeing her stunned reaction, I push off the wall and peer over her shoulder into the apartment.
“Callie…” I try to keep my voice level. “I’m gonna need your help so I don’t end up on the evening news in handcuffs.” My voice is calm, but rage boils in my veins, hotter than hellfire.
She puts her hands on either side of the doorframe as if she could stop me from barging in. “Jerry?” She uses a calm voice as if he’s a child. “Why are you in my apartment?”
“And wearing her fucking bra and panties?” I shout over Callie’s shoulder.
Callie sighs and presses back against me.
His eyes are wide as he glances around like a wild animal that’s been cornered. “Oh… I… I was fixing your shower and my clothes got wet…”
“Bullshit.” I step closer so I can get my hands on him, but Callie continues to stand in the threshold, blocking the way, which keeps the beast in me at bay.
Just barely.
“I think we both know that isn’t true, so how about you get dressed and leave the apartment?” Again, with the placating tone.
Jerry walks to her bedroom, head hanging low. I don’t want to know how many times he’s done this.
Callie finally walks in and points toward the kitchen. “You’re going to stand over there, behind the counter, and you can’t come out.”
“I’m not your dog.”
“Don’t act like a guard dog then.” She pins me with a stare.
My fists itch to meet Jerry’s face, but I do what she says because Jagger’s words repeat in my head—don’t do shit that’s going to get you bad press.
And I’m pretty sure beating Jerry to a bloody pulp will get me bad press.
Even if they knew what he did, there would always be people saying, “I knew Foster was trouble. All those tattoos and bad energy. Of course I’m not surprised he beat up that innocent man. ”
Besides, the last thing I want is for my kid to find out I’ve been arrested when they get older.
Callie looks away from me in the direction her landlord went. “And, Jerry, you can go ahead and keep that panty and bra set.”
“Did he have to put on that set?” I grumble.
She side-eyes me.
It was the set she was wearing the night we were together.
Black, lacy, and see-through with flowers.
Shit, I almost tucked her panties in my pocket that night like some prize to prove she’d actually slept with me.
At the time, I thought it was the competition with Easton over who could have her, but I knew the minute my lips pressed against hers I’d been lying to myself.
Jerry comes out, his head angled down.
Callie crosses her arms. “I’ll be changing my locks, and you won’t have a key.”
He nods. “I did fix that outside door.” He peeks at me, and I clench my teeth, wanting to growl at the fucker. “I’m sorry, Callie. I just…”
She opens the apartment door, waiting for him to walk out. “Goodbye, Jerry.” Once he’s past the doorway, she slams it shut and flicks the lock. She does a full-body shudder and makes a gagging sound. “How many times do you think he’s done this?”
“May I come out now?” I round the counter and sit on a breakfast stool, crossing my arms. “I guarantee it wasn’t his first time.”
“Which means all of my panties and bras.” She passes me, pulls out a garbage bag from under the sink, and heads down the hall.
I follow her, watching from the doorway.
Callie opens her drawer and shoves all her bras and panties into the bag.
“What about the ones you’re wearing?” I raise my eyebrows. “Go ahead, I don’t mind if you strip.”
Why am I deflecting with humor? Because you’re an asshole, remember?
She gives me a not now look, and I break across the room and sit on the edge of her bed.
“Sorry, that was stupid,” I murmur.
I’m not surprised to see her bedroom is girly with floral wallpaper and lots of pillows on her bed.
All the colors match but somehow contrast at the same time.
There are pictures of her and Leighton in various frames, and my gaze snags on one of her and Hayes when he was drafted, then one of her entire family the same day.
I’m not sure I even took a picture the day I was drafted. If I did, it wasn’t with my entire family.
“Believe me, I’m going to take a shower as soon as you leave, and I’ll be going commando until I can get to the store.” She cinches the bag after cleaning out the entire drawer. “Oh wait.” She opens a bottom drawer and tosses lingerie onto the bed.
A babydoll number lands on my thigh, and I pick it up, envisioning Callie wearing it as she saunters over and falls to her knees in front of me.
Fuck my life right now. This is not the time to be thinking about that.
“I have no idea how I’ll continue to see him around the building. I feel like I need to tell the neighbors. What if he’s done it to them too?” She opens the bag and tosses the items from the bed in the bag.
I want to buy her an entire assortment of lingerie and fill that drawer up as long as she promises it’s only for my viewing pleasure.
“You’re not staying here.” I get up from the bed, needing to stop thinking sexual things about a woman I’ll never have and never deserve.
“Why not? I have a lease.”
“That you can break now that you found your landlord in your apartment, wearing your intimates.”
“Intimates?” She chuckles. “Foster Davis calls my panties and bras intimates?”
“Come stay with me.” It’s out of my mouth before I really think about it, but I cannot allow her to stay here.
She laughs and takes the bag into the family room, dropping it by the front door. “I think I’ll just drop them off to Jerry. I’d hate for it all to go to waste.”
“Callie?” I draw her back to the conversation, ignoring her attempt at levity.
She looks over her shoulder and goes into the kitchen, looking exhausted with me. “I’m not moving in with you.”
“Why?”
She leans against the counter and stares me down. “Is that even a real question?”
“It is actually. Give me one reason why.”
I may have been rash in suggesting it, but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of knowing more about the woman who will be raising my child than just how she sounds when she comes.
“You’re taking this protective bodyguard thing too far.” She opens her fridge and takes out a water.
“Listen to me.” I slide onto a barstool. “We have to learn to be around one another. We’re going to be co-parents, and you can’t possibly stay here now. He essentially broke into your apartment and wore your lingerie. Who knows what else he’s capable of?”
“I’ll get the locks changed.”
“Take Jerry out of the equation. I want to get to know you better before the baby comes.”
She goes to her purse on the counter to grab something and it falls over, the ultrasound picture slipping onto the counter. She stops and stares at it, and I feel as if there’s a sliver of an opening to get her to agree.
“It’s a ridiculous idea.”
I lean back in the seat, staring at the picture. “What if I told you I’d help you get your five big names for the podcast?”
Her head flies up.
I’ve got her interest now.