AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Shaking my head, I punched him in the shoulder and turned to the scene in front of us. Family and friends. Today was Rita's birthday, and instead of going out, she wanted to do a back yard barbecue. Even Chief Sadin was here with her son. It was the first time I'd met the young stud, and he was a nice young man. Nineteen and wild, he was giving his mother, a world-renowned surgeon, tons of grief, talking about dropping out of college and joining a punk band. It was funny to watch someone break through the Chief's perfect poker face; it humanized my hero.
Everyone was around the table, laughing and chatting; Jessica was talking about a kid she had in pediatrics that gave the finger to everybody. Paris was playing with Chelsea, and my beautiful wife - for real now - was chatting with Karl Sadin about his future music career. I liked the kid, but he'd better stop looking at her tits. Everything in between her ankles and her neck was only for me.
"So, you're married to an author now, huh? The mighty Sullivan name moving into publishing."
"Future author." Rita's book was getting along so well. A children’s story with her illustrations. I was so proud; she'd been working so hard for this, and the joy this project brought to her eyes was priceless. All the shadows that were lurking there were exorcised. "Thanks to Paris and the connections she has with that book agent."
Rita and Paris grew quite close since the incident. London's cousin stayed over one night to help with Chelsea when I was still committed to bed rest, and they started talking about art and drawings. The next thing I knew she brought a contract for Rita to publish a bedtime story. For the smile she put on my wife's face, I would forever be indebted to her.
"London and I were thinking," I couldn’t wait to hear that. "How about you take Rita away to celebrate? We can take Chelsea next weekend when we're both off."
"Really?" He nodded, smiling. I didn’t know what happened on his honeymoon, but my friend really got a taste for traveling. "That would be great. I have to check with Rita, thought, she might be busy with another meeting or something."
The publishing house had been calling her on a few meetings to talk about design, printing, and stuff. It was awesome to watch her get dressed in pantsuits that made her look even more sexy, put on high heels and go to conquer the world.
Almost like she knew I was speaking about her, Rita took Jessica's hand and walked up to me.
"If you ladies are done gossiping over beers, can I have my husband for a minute, Ford?" She liked to joke that Zach's my boyfriend. I felt like I'd outgrown my boyfriend-girlfriend phase a long time ago. I prefer work wife.
"Only if it's worth it. What do you need my man for?"
"I have no idea. Jess wants to tell us something in private."
Zach gave us the green light, and the three of us walked into my office.
"What's up, Jess?"
"I have to say something because it's obvious that both of you are oblivious. Rita, have you been drinking?"
"What? No, I haven't."
"Drugs? Cigarettes? You're Cuban, do you smoke cigars?"
"No."
"Jessica, why are you grilling Rita? What's going on."
"Your wife is pregnant."
"Excuse me?" The shock usually came in the form of a cold wave, but this time it was like my chest burst on fire.
"Rita is pregnant. I suspected it for a while, but now I'm sure. When she said she wanted some whiskey, I knew I had to enlighten you both, morons."
Rita shook her head.
"Jessica, this is impossible," she said.
"Have you been fucking James in the last two months? Because if you did, I assure you there's a way."
Oh, we've been fucking.
"I can't have kids. I tried before...I can't."
Jessica shook her head disagreeing with her. I couldn’t talk because of the knot in my throat. I knew Jess was a fucking good doctor, double board certification, she’s a start pediatric surgeon and OBGYN, she didn’t fail to diagnose.
"Did the scumbag ever got a fertility test?"
"No."
