Being Their Baby (27 page)

He then grinned sheepishly and opened his arms up wide for her. “Hi, bunny,” he said.

She closed the rest of the distance, still cautious, but eventually wrapping her arms around his large chest. She felt his hand reach up to stroke her hair, and then he crooked his fingers underneath her chin and tilted it up so he could kiss her tenderly on the mouth.

Closing her eyes with bliss, she decided that nobody—nobody in the world—kissed as tenderly as Josh. While Charlie had two kisses—one that was firm and bruising and the other that was light and familial, and Elizabeth’s kiss was calculated and firm, Josh had only one: the perfect one. It was filled with passion, but she could always tell that he was gauging her, getting on the right page, only delving as deep as she was in the mood for.

“Mmm,” she moaned, letting her fingers play with the hem of his dark blue cotton t-shirt as if she might start disrobing him right there on the grass as people passed around them, throwing them looks.

Josh finally pulled apart from her and took one of her hands as well as her backpack. “We’d better get home before we put on a free show.” Still, he held her hand in a way that kept her body close to his, as if he wanted to feel her warmth as much as she wanted to feel his.

“So, I was thinking about tonight,” she began after inhaling a large breath.

“So was I,” he grumbled, sounding surprisingly unhappy.

She blinked at him.

“First,” he said, throwing the backpack in the backseat of his Jeep before he opened the door for her and helped her up the step until she was settled into the seat, “you’re going to hit me for a while, then yell at me, and then…”

As she was still puzzling, he walked to his side of the cab. “And then I’ll order you pizza or something, buy you any R-rated movie you can imagine even if Charlie kicks my ass for it, and then I have to go to—”

Goddamn it! “Don’t say you have to go in, Josh!” she whined angrily. “You promised! You’d take me out! You told Charlie that there was no way in hell you’d be called in!”

“I did say something like that, but that’s before I was reminded that the two guys on call are irresponsible douche bags.”

Sophie bunched her shoulders and crossed her arms angrily. With one sentence, he couldn’t have possibly made her more disappointed if he’d tried, and he seemed to realize it, because he let silence reign before he contritely offered, “You want to drive home?”

Normally she’d always say yes to that; she loved driving, despite the fact that he probably had worked off the passenger-side handle off, and he was normally a little nauseated afterward. At the moment, however, she was in no mood.

She stayed silent, ignoring his question completely.

“Come on, Soph. Talk to me,” he begged, reaching over to squeeze her knee.

She moved her knee away from him.

He pursed his lips, sighed loudly, and started the Jeep. “You know if there was any way I could get out of this, I would.”

“Just don’t go in then,” she said tersely, waving her arm through the air.

“What do you mean, ‘Just don’t go in’? This isn’t the mailroom, Sophie. Doctors need to go in because if they don’t, people tend to die. Women tend to give birth whether or not it is or is not convenient to our schedules. If it were
you
giving birth, I would like to think that a doctor wouldn’t blow off his responsibilities just so he could take his girlfriend on a date!”

Well, that certainly didn’t make Sophie feel any better. She didn’t deserve a lecture; her throat clenched at his miniature outburst. “You don’t have to worry about
my
turn,” she choked out angrily, “since I’m going to be a virgin
forever
!”

“And that’s my fault and mine alone, huh?” he charged. “Besides, I wanted your first time to be
special
!”

She rolled her eyes and pointed to a corner they were about to pass. “You know what? Drop me off at the corner over there. I’ll find a date who doesn’t care if
my
first time is special or not!”

In response, he put the child lock on the door. Real mature.

“Oh, well, that settles it, then,” she seethed. “I’ll just continue to be everyone’s fuck doll. I’ll just wait until I’m needed next.”

“You enjoy our affections just as much as we enjoy giving them to you,” he gritted, “don’t give me that. Don’t try to guilt me like we’ve been violating you this whole time.”

She couldn’t really argue with that. Even the idea of everything stopping at this point and her getting a relationship like she’d seen in the movies—aka a vanilla relationship—made her cringe. So she kept silent and continued to glare out the window.

“Sophie, how about I take you away next weekend? Rent a cabin or something, and then we can just—”

She rolled her eyes and interjected, “—
Not go
because work will call you and I’ll have my hopes up for nothing? No, thanks. Try to take me out on a date successfully first.”

Again, silence.

“It wouldn’t hurt you to be a little more mature and understanding about this,” Josh told her quietly as he pulled into his garage.

“I disagree,” she said, although it hurt when Josh called her immature. She was always afraid of it, especially when living in a house where she was the youngest by eleven years. “It wouldn’t hurt
you
.” She didn’t wait until Josh came around and let her out as he was wont to do. Now that the car was turned off, so was the child’s safety function. She opened the door and hopped down before grabbing her backpack from the front seat and slamming the car door behind her.

She spun and marched toward the main house, angry that Josh was right on her heels. “Leave me alone!” she demanded firmly. She tromped up the stairs.

Josh wasn’t giving her an inch. “Sophie, we need to talk, not just throw a—”

She slammed her bedroom door in his face and locked it.

“—tantrum,” he finished more quietly on the other side of the door. She threw her bag at the door and heard patient knocking. “Sophie, angel, open up and let me in, please.”

“Why? I get it. Work’s more important. Go to it!”

“Work is
not
more important than you. You’re the most important thing in my universe, bunny. I was looking forward to tonight, too.”

She sat on the edge of her bed and brought her knees up to her chest.

“Look, Tom’s working my shift too, so he’ll pick me up here in a few minutes. I’m leaving some cash behind and my credit card. I want you to order pizza or Chinese food or whatever you want. I’ll be home at two, and if you’re still up, I’ll work on your forgiveness, all right? Try to get your homework done so we can have fun tomorrow night, instead.”

“Yeah. Wouldn’t wanna to miss
tomorrow
,” she replied tersely. “If it’s anything like tonight I’ll want to bring my camera.”

She heard him sigh. “I love you, snuggle bunny. Be good.”

Be good. They were always telling her to be good. Hard not to be good when she couldn’t go anywhere or do anything.

It wasn’t long before she heard him call out that he was leaving, then the front door closed. She was already done with the opening paragraph of her report, just because there wasn’t anything else to do. She hadn’t wanted to leave the room, because Josh was getting her cold shoulder, and if she had gone down to grab a snack, he’d probably have been there with a cupcake and a hug and then she wouldn’t have been able to keep from forgiving him.

She didn’t want to forgive him right now; she wanted to be upset! She wanted someone to snuggle with and who would pay attention to her—it was one of those needs that she had ignored for years until she’d moved here. And Liz, Charlie, and Josh had gotten her addicted to attention and affection like crack!

She left her room, padded down the stairs in her bare feet, and walked to the kitchen. On top of the island, she saw neat stack of twenties—three of them—and a note:

Bunny,

I’ll spoil you in person soon. I promise.

You’re on your own tonight, so I’d suggest no scary movies, but I’ll be home soon to cuddle you through your inevitable onslaught of nightmares if you do.

Love you, Doll

Uncle Josh

She pursed her lips and then, since nobody was around to give her a swat, stuck her tongue out at the note. It only brought home the fact that Josh wasn’t going to be there until nearly dawn. Until then, she was on her own.

On her own. She hated it. She hated feeling this lonely; it was ridiculous!

She grabbed a Popsicle from the freezer and sat down at a stool in the island, staring at the car keys in front of her. They were Josh’s. He must have just put them down when he came home and hadn’t picked them up again since he’d carpooled to work.

Which meant his Jeep was still there.

She turned her head slowly in the direction of the pool house.

Her bottom cringed as she thought of an idea. She pulled out her cellphone and typed: “Still need a car? My hot date fell through.”

She knew that Josh would kill her if she took the car anywhere. She didn’t have her license, she didn’t have his permission, and she had no insurance. But, that being said, last week Josh had gushed about how much better she was getting behind the wheel.

She could do this. She could have fun with her friends, have a girls’ night out, and then put the car safely back in the garage without anyone being the wiser.

* * *

Sophie wanted to kick her own ass. Why did she think she was going to get away with this? “You are one lucky little girl, let me tell you,” the ER doctor said when he came in and shined his penlight in her eye. “That was a bad accident, Miss Benny.”

“I’ll say!” she agreed. Josh’s car was
totaled
.

He was going to make her into hamburger. She almost wished she had gotten a worse injury—like a concussion or a broken arm. It wouldn’t have felt great, but it would save her from a whole lot of spanking.

She had no idea how she was going to look Josh in the face. With one stupid night out with the girls, she had ruined their relationship. All for what? A trip to the mall? A movie? Some ice cream? No, she did it for revenge.

Well, she didn’t crash the car for revenge. That deer came out of
nowhere
. She was so damn close to home, too. She only had a couple more blocks before she was home free. She was going to celebrate by finishing off her book report while watching a scary movie.

Now she didn’t need the extra scare. She’d been so freaked by the car rolling over—twice—that she just wanted to throw up and curl into a ball somewhere. Maybe with the giant stuffed bunny Daddy bought for her for Christmas.

“You’re going through a little bit of shock, but not too bad. You might feel a little bruised tomorrow, but you’re in one piece, thank God. The police will come in here and talk to you, but if you have anyone you want me to call, then…”

She shook her head. “I don’t know the number off the top of my head, and my cellphone didn’t survive.” She sighed. “Wait—can you call Christ Cross hospital? I need to talk to an ob-gyn on call right now named Josh Hobbes.”

“You’re pregnant?” the doctor asked, startled, and looking through the sheets with a new fury.

“No, no.” She put her hand over her eyes. “It’s his car I crashed.”

Her doctor, God bless him, went to the phone on the wall. “You’re
at
Christ Cross,” he informed her, looking at her worriedly. “I know Josh. I’ll try to get a hold of him before the police tell him about the crash and he assumes the worst.”

A chill ran up her spine. If the police wouldn’t give him any information on her, and they called him already about his car, Josh was going to be a
mess
!

The doctor couldn’t reach Josh, and so he sent a nurse to track him down while cops came into the room and started asking questions about the accident, if she had had permission to use the car, or if she’d stolen it. The cops were very unsympathetic that she was scared out of her mind, but it seemed to end when Josh came into the room, darted in front of them, and grabbed her into his arms and against his chest. “Are you okay?” he asked, finally pulling back enough to look at her as if expecting her to be sporting casts and stitches. “Jesus—I was out of my mind. They wouldn’t tell me where you were, what happened to you, if you were hurt…”

“I’m okay,” she assured, choking out the word. “I’m so sorry about your car.”

“Sweetheart, I only care that you’re safe. We’ll talk about the car later, okay?”

“Hey—are you Dr. Joshua R. Hobbes?” the police officer asked after listening in on their conversation. “We talked on the phone earlier.”

Josh was pissed. “Yes, and you were oh-so-
helpful
. Regarding any and all important information. God forbid you tell me if she was okay.” He stepped forward and the cop actually stepped back; maybe because Josh towered over him by about five inches and about seventy pounds. “If you have a ticket to write,
write
it
. She was driving without a license, but I’m not pressing charges about my goddamned car. You want to write me a fine for the crash? Write me the fine. And then go.”

“Look, you’re not her emergency contact or an immediate family member. You have no right to be told anything personal,” the cop defended himself.

“Oh, well. Thanks for following protocol to the letter! Now I have medical questions to discuss with her, so go outside and do whatever paperwork you need to get done so I can take her home!” he boomed.

The cops, blinking, turned and left the room, even shutting the door behind them. Josh was back at Sophie’s side with her face in both of his hands in the next heartbeat. “Thanks for contacting me, Rich,” he told the elderly doctor who was writing something into his electronic tablet.

“Sure,” the old man said with a shrug. “She is one lucky duck. She’s fine, just a little in shock from the accident and only a small bruise from the safety belt; I’m surprised her collarbone’s not broken. If she were an inch or two shorter, I’d tell you to get a special safety belt or booster seat for her.” He tried to throw Josh a teasing grin, he noticed, but it fell flat since Josh was too busy pulling down the neck of her shirt and checking out the bruise already formed at her collar and shoulder.