Chapter 59

“Mol, you actually have that pregnant glow now. I wasn’t sure if you’d be tired and sick the whole time you had that baby growin’ in there, but look at you! You’re like the freakin’ sunshine!”

Molly was trying on a new dress she bought from the maternity section at a local boutique. Her belly was the now the size of a basketball, and all of her old clothes had gotten too small.

“Really? You thought I was going to look like a hag the whole time? I’m a freakin’ ray of sunshine alright, a ray of sunshine with pain in her lower back and swollen ankles. I feel like a whale and I’m not even in my third trimester yet.”

Elodie looked over at Molly’s bulletin board where she had made a chart devoted to tracking the development of her baby while it was in the womb.

“Okay, so right now, your baby could totally be sucking its own thumb, blinking its eyes, or—”

Molly felt an intense cramp in her belly.

“Or kicking me in the bladder! Seriously, baby? You’re really making me go pee for the eightieth time?”

Molly hiked up her dress and waddled to the bathroom. Over the past week, Molly judged how much her stomach had grown based on how little she was able to see past it when she sat down on the toilet.

“I’m bigger than last week, El! I can’t see my crotch at all now!” she yelled down the hallway.

Elodie opened the door into the bathroom and Molly quickly covered herself with her arms.

“Can I help you?”

Elodie was already undressing.

“I haven’t showered in like a week, Molly. I’m starting to smell like an armpit. Or, did you want to shower first?”

Finished, Molly washed her hands and examined herself in the mirror.

“I wouldn’t want to wash away that pregnancy glow you mentioned. I’m okay, I showered like three days ago. I’ll make us some lunch while you transform.”

The doorbell rang as Molly was changing back into her yoga pants and cotton tee.

Oh my God, if I have to tell one more fundraiser that I’m broke, pregnant, and can’t afford to donate to charity right now ...

Doing her best to speed-walk to the front door, Molly passed by the kitchen table and grabbed an apple from the fruit basket.

I’ll just pretend I’m in the middle of breakfast.

The silhouette through the front door window was bigger than Molly had expected. Normally, the people who came knocking on her door asking for money were teenagers.

Is that Johnny?

“Coming!” Molly opened the door and immediately dropped her apple.

“Xander?”

Xander’s jaw dropped as his eyes traced down to her belly.

“It’s true. You are pregnant.”

Molly furrowed her eyebrows and put both of her hands onto her stomach. She had formed a habit of doing that when she felt like she needed to protect herself and the baby.

“Why are you here, Xander? What are you doing in Texas?”

He looks like a total mess. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him with a beard, or shaggy hair.

“Is it mine?”

Molly put one hand out and leaned against the door.

“Is what yours exactly, Xander?”

Xander switched back and forth from Molly’s eyes to her stomach.

“The baby. Is it mine? Am I really going to be a Dad?”

Taking a step back from the entrance, Molly grabbed for the doorknob.

Xander stuck his foot out.

“Please, Molly, can you just tell me whether or not I’m the father? I don’t expect you to welcome me with open arms, but could you find it somewhere in your heart to give me a second chance.”

The nerve of this guy! Second chance? He really thinks he hasn’t already had a second chance?

“Fine, Xander. Fine. Of course it’s your baby. You’re the only person I’ve ever had sex with, so unless it was by some divine intervention that I’m pregnant, it’s yours. But you don’t get to swoop in now and act like Mr. Father of the Year. Was I supposed to sit around and wait for you to maybe show up someday? I thought it pretty unlikely that you’d have some pivotal moment in your life that would make you realize how much of an asshole you had been, so I moved on. I’m with someone who’s going to take care of me and the baby.”

Xander removed his foot from the doorway.

“What ... who is it? Who is he? Do I know him?”

I actually feel kind of bad for Xander. Look at him. He’s like a sad, lost puppy.

“His name is Scott. He’s a doctor here in the city and he makes good money and has a big heart. He doesn’t care that this baby isn’t his. We’re going to be a family.”

Molly could see that he had tears in his eyes. Xander outstretched his arms, offering himself to her.

“Molly, I have more money than I need, and I promise to take care of you and the baby better than that Scott guy. I made a mistake pushing you away. I knew it was wrong every time I did it, but you have to understand that I thought I had to. It seemed like life or death to me—like my whole life was resting on whether or not I’d win the next fight. That’s not me anymore, I’m done with it. Doesn’t this seem like something bigger than ourselves is pulling us together? We’re meant to be, Molly Tompkins, I know we are and I’ll do whatever it takes to show you.”

I wanted that, but you ruined it. What if you hurt me again? Why would I trust you? It’s not just me that I have to consider now. I have to think of the baby.

“I don’t want you to ‘do whatever it takes,’ Xander. You’ve already done enough. I’m happy now, why can’t you respect that? Just leave me and the baby alone. It’s better this way.”

It was harder than Molly wanted to admit. With every word that came out of her mouth, Molly could see Xander losing hope.

I can’t look at him anymore. This is too much.

Molly shut the door in Xander’s face.

Why do I feel like the mean one now? He deserves to be shut out, right?

Xander persisted in knocking on the door, pleading for Molly to hear him out. After a few minutes, the knocking faded until finally, he just left.

“Who was that? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Elodie was scrunching her wet hair with a towel, wrapped in her favorite silk robe. One that Johnny had bought her, of course.

“That’s what it feels like. It was Xander. He ... he knows about the baby.”

Elodie dropped her towel.

“Oh boy. Does he know it’s his?”

Molly nodded her head and picked up Elodie’s towel from the floor, folding it onto the back of a chair.

“And he suddenly wants to be a part of everything. He looked completely defeated, El. The L.A. scene must have chewed him up and spit him out. I know it’s bad but ... I kind of pity him.”

Elodie raised an eyebrow at this.

“Pity him? Pity isn’t going to make him be a better person, let alone a good partner to raise a child with. How convenient that he’s here in Texas, crawling back to you after L.A. apparently didn’t want him anymore. What did you tell him? To get lost I hope? If I was there I would have done more than that.”

Over the last couple of months, Molly had started chewing her nails when she was nervous or stressed. The doctor had prescribed a foul tasting nail polish to help prevent her from biting her fingers off, but Molly had no such luck. She was tearing at them now, although there was little left for her to get at.

“See! Look how stressed out he has you and you only spoke to him for what, five minutes? He’s not good for you. And you being stressed is not good for the baby. Please, don’t tell me you’re seriously considering letting him into your life again?”

Molly slumped onto the couch, laying her head back on a cushion.

“I don’t know what to do. On one hand, I wanted to slap him across the face and tell him to get lost. Which happened to be closest thing to what actually happened, by the way. On the other hand, I wanted to run into his arms and head off to get our freaking family photos done. I just need some time to think.”

Elodie sat down beside Molly and stroked her hair.

“Scott may be good for you Molly, but if it doesn’t make sense to you, then it doesn’t make sense, and there’s nothing anyone can tell you that will make you feel any different. This is your life, and this will be your family. Listen to your gut. Don’t think too much with your brain or you could end up like those gross, fake nuclear families that only pretend they’re happy. Doctor Scott Holloway and his trophy wife, Molly Holloway.”

Molly wasn’t impervious to Elodie’s obvious disdain for her new beau. From the moment Elodie met him, she regarded him as a pompous guy who thought he was better than everyone else just because he went to med school.

“Thanks, El. I appreciate you supporting me, no matter what.”

“Even if you do end up marrying Mr. Hollow-Gay, I’ll still be your Maid of Honor.” Elodie said, laughing at her own joke.

“Speaking of which, you should probably go get ready for your date. Want me to do your makeup?”

Molly put one hand on the back of the couch and pulled herself upright.

“Why would you do my makeup?”

Elodie thought of Molly’s heavy-handed makeup application the last time she had gone out.

“Because the last time you touched an eyeshadow brush, you ended up looking like the Bride of Frankenstein. I however, pride myself on my beauty skills. C’mon.”

Rolling her eyes, Molly followed Elodie reluctantly into the bedroom.