Chapter Twenty-Six

Matthew

“Let’s go see our baby!”

Words that will forever change my life. When she collapsed in my arms, my lungs burned with fear. Fear that she was sick, fear that she wouldn’t open her eyes, fear that I would have to live without her.

I walk up to the bed, seeing her get into it. The technician takes what looks like a wand in her hand, putting a condom on it. She squeezes a blue gel on it. “Okay, open your legs.”

“Hold on a minute,” I say out loud right before she goes to move up Karrie’s gown.

“Matthew,” Karrie says with clenched teeth.

“Will that hurt the baby?” I push her legs closed.

The lady laughs. “Oh, no, honey. The baby is so protected there isn’t a lot that will hurt it.” She smiles and waits for me to open her legs. “It’s going to be cold, but it’ll get warm in a second.” But I stop listening to her because the room is filled with what sounds like horses racing. Galloping. “That, you two, is your child’s heartbeat.”

I grab Karrie’s hand, bringing it to my lips. The tears are now rolling down my cheeks. My child. Mine.

“Now, you see this?” She points to a small blob that looks like it’s a pea. “That’s your baby.” She starts clicking on things.

My eyes zoom in to what is the smallest pea I’ve ever seen, but it’s mine. Mine to love, mine to protect, mine to teach. The smallest thing and I would give my life for him or her. I would give everything I have just to make sure this baby is okay. Not only that, I would give them everything, I would move heaven and earth for their mother. The woman who loves me, the woman who stood in a room and fought for me, the woman who held my hand with her shoulders square and her spine straight. The woman who will carry my child, the woman who will be the best mother to our child.

“So I’ll give you a paper for you to bring to your ob-gyn. You should make an appointment as soon as possible,” The lady says something and a couple of pictures come out of the machine. “Here you go, this is the first picture of your child.” She smiles while giving Karrie a towel.

“You can go and change. The doctor signed off, so you are good to go,” she says while she closes the machine and leaves the room.

I stand here looking at the black and white paper in my hand. “I’m going to change. I’m exhausted and I want to go to bed.” One glance at my watch says it’s almost four a.m.

I text the driver that Doug said is waiting for us outside, letting him know we are being discharged. Karrie comes out of the bathroom, throwing the hospital gown on the bed. “Ready?” she asks me, turning to walk out.

“Where are you going?” My head tilts to the side.

“I’m leaving. She said I was discharged.”

“We need the nurse to come with a wheelchair. You can’t walk downstairs.” I walk to the bed to press the button for the nurse.

“I don’t need a wheelchair.”

“Can you please get a wheelchair?” I smile at the nurse.

She blushes at me. “Of course.”

“What would you like me to tell your child about you?” She crosses her arms over her chest.

My eyebrows pinch together.

“Because I’m about to kill you if you continue this way. You need to relax. I’m fine. I’m pregnant. People get pregnant all the time. It is just the way it is.”

“Babe.” I walk to her, wrapping my arms around her. “I just want you and the baby to be okay. It’s not too much to ask, now is it?” I kiss her neck while she hums.

“Here we are.” The nurse comes into the room with the wheelchair.

I grab it from the nurse. “Your chariot awaits, my lady.” She tries to hide her smile but sits down in the wheelchair. “See, was that so hard?” I ask her, wheeling her downstairs to the awaiting car.

By the time we get home, the sun is almost coming up. I carry Karrie inside because she fell asleep as soon as we started driving. Walking upstairs to our room, my mom is waiting on the stairs from where my room was.

“Honey, are you okay?” she asks with Cooper walking down the stairs. From as far back as I can remember, the minute they became a couple, where she went he was right behind her no matter what. When the twins were born, he did every single feeding with her. If she was up in the house, he wasn’t too far away.

“Yeah, all good. We got a picture of squirt.” I smile to myself. “I’ll show you when we get up.” I smile to my mom and Cooper. “I’m going to have a baby. I’m going to be a dad.” I smile so big it is hurting my cheeks.

She smiles at me, brushing a tear away. “I know. I’m going to be a grandmother.”

“You’re a GILF,” Cooper says, kissing her cheek. “Now let’s go to bed, please. I’m exhausted and I swear to God if the twins get into any trouble I’m sending them to military school.” He looks at my mother who nods at him.

“You know military school is where they sleep there, right? You can’t just see them when you want. It’s almost like boarding school,” my mother tells him as I watch his eyebrows pinch together and the vein in his forehead comes out. “That’s what I thought. Let’s go sleep, granddad.”

I undress Karrie and slide into bed right next to her, and it’s only a matter of seconds before I’m snoring.

The smell of bacon and coffee fills my nose. Raising my head, the bedside clock says it’s almost two p.m. Karrie’s side of the bed is empty. I rush out of bed, going to the bathroom, and then rushing downstairs to the kitchen. She’s sitting on the stool at the island wearing her white bathrobe while Cooper sits on the stool next to her and my mother is at the stove cooking.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” I ask her, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, letting them adjust to the light.

“Um, because you were sleeping.” She takes a sip of what looks like coffee.

“Is that decaf?” I look from her to my mom to Cooper. “You shouldn’t be drinking caffeine. It’s not good for the baby.”

“You should worry about standing here in the kitchen in your underwear instead of what’s in my cup, thank you very much.”

My mother sees that I might have steam coming out of my ears. “It’s decaf. Cooper went out this morning and got it. Now please go put something on so you guys can eat.”

“Okay.” I lean down and kiss Karrie’s lips. “Love you,” I whisper to her. I turn around and by the time I get back downstairs there’s a buffet of food on the dining room table. “Is this brupper?” I ask my mom, looking at everything she set up.

“Brupper?” Karrie asks, putting a couple of pancakes on her plate, with some scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage.

“When we were younger Allison was obsessed with pancakes, so much so Mom used to make them for supper and we would call it brupper.” I sit next to Karrie, filling my own plate. “Is bacon okay for the baby? Is it not too greasy, Mom?”

“You know what’s not good for the baby?” Karrie says while pouring a heaping portion of syrup on her pancake. “YOU.” She cuts into a pancake, moaning as she eats. “Now if you want to live here while I’m pregnant you need to chill out. Jesus,” she says, stabbing a piece of sausage and dipping it in syrup. With her mouth half full she says, “Parker, this is so good. I didn’t realize how hungry I was.”

“So when do you want to start interviewing nurses?” I ask when I finally finish my plate. Cooper’s eyes bug out while my mother’s mouth opens wide and doesn’t shut.

“Pardon.”

“Well, we need to have around the clock care in case you get sick or you're tired. We need to have someone here to watch you.” I don’t continue because Karrie’s hands shoot up.

“I’m going to be sick,” she says out loud, her chair shooting back, scraping against the floor while she runs to the bathroom. The sound of her throwing up has me rushing down the hall, throwing the door open. I open the water to cold, grabbing a small towel from under the sink. Wetting it, I hand it to Karrie. “Thank you,” she says, grabbing the towel and putting it on her face. I squat down next to her, pushing the hair away from her face. “I was fine and then in one second I wasn’t.”

“I know, babe.” I get up to grab a glass and fill it with water. “Here.”

She takes little sips of water while she waits for her stomach to stop being queasy.

The doorbell rings. Mom goes to open it. “Hey,” she says to whoever is at the door. “Guys, Doug is here.”

“Hey, guys,” he yells. “I brought Karrie her favorite burger from Shake Shack.”

“Oh, God,” Karrie groans beside me, leaning over and emptying whatever was left in her stomach.

I grimace and decide this is fucking love. What feels like an eternity later, but is more or less twenty minutes, Karrie sneaks off to go upstairs to shower and brush her teeth. I go into the living room where Cooper is eating Karrie’s burger.

Raising my eyebrow at him, he says, “What? I’m getting rid of it so it doesn’t make her sick.”

I sit down on the couch and reach out to see the white frame in the middle of the table. Inside is a picture of the ultrasound. I smile, passing it to Doug. “So how bad is it?” I ask him, looking back at him and then at Cooper. My mother comes into the room with a tray of coffee, juice, soda, water, and cookies. I smile up at her, grabbing a water bottle. “Just come out and tell me.”

“I think we should wait for Karrie,” Doug says, still looking at the picture.

“Wait for Karrie for what?” I turn my head to watch Karrie walk in the room. Her hair is tied on top of her head. She’s wearing plaid PJ bottoms with one of my team T-shirts that fits her almost like a dress.

“Hey, Dad.” She walks over to kiss his cheek.

“Hey, honey, I brought you some ginger ale and some saltines to help the queasiness.” My mom leans forward.

“Thank you.” She smiles at my mom while I open my arms to her and she sits next to me, cuddling into my side. “Vivienne is on her way here. She should be here soon.”

I pull her to me, kissing the top of her head.

The knock at the door comes a couple of minutes later with Vivienne coming in and saying hello to everyone, sitting next to Karrie, and holding her hand.

“Okay,” Doug says, “Matthew is off for the next two games. The press release went out the second we left the jail. I have to say those detectives didn’t waste time in clearing Matthew’s name. The investigation is still ongoing and now there are charges pending on the woman who started all this.”

“Bitch,” Vivienne says under her breath.

“Okay, that settles that.” Doug continues, “The news stations have stopped talking about it for now. Now the only thing we have to talk about is what we will tell the team when Karrie is no longer your chaperone.”

Karrie sits up straight. “Wait a second. Why am I not his chaperone anymore?”

Doug looks at me and then at Cooper. “Honey, the traveling alone will tire you out. You need to stay put.”

Karrie’s eyes open wide as saucers. “You know this is discrimination, right? You’re firing me because I’m pregnant.”

Vivienne smiles at Karrie. “Not exactly, cheri.” She rubs her back.

“I don’t want to tell anyone about the baby till I’m at least three months along,” she says, looking at me. I nod at her, agreeing with this. “But I will not be giving up my job of watching Matthew.”

“Well,” Vivienne says, laughing. “You were really watching him pretty fucking close to get that baby in there.”

Cooper throws his head back and laughs and I try to hide a laugh when I see Karrie turn and look at her with her eyes into slits.

“Oh, vraiment.” Really, she says. “C’est une blague.” It’s a joke, she says.

“Babe, your father is right. You need to be home and off your feet,” I speak up, trying to not piss her off.

She gets up to her feet. “No, I will not cop out just because this one”—she points at me—“shot and scored on my goalie.”

“Oh, dear,” Mom says while Cooper covers his mouth. “Honey, don’t get upset. It’s not good for the baby. Matthew, you need to not get on her nerves and stress isn’t good.”

“Great, then take him home with you,” Karrie says. “I’m not giving up this job, and you”—she points at me—“you will support me and my decision.” And then at her father. “And you, you hold my hand and tell me that everything is okay.” She storms out of the room, going to the kitchen. Mom and Vivienne get up, following her, leaving the guys to look at each other.

“What just happened?” I ask the two guys left with me.

“She just got her way,” Doug says. “What do we tell the team about you two?”

“No fucking way am I hiding this bullshit anymore. I didn’t want to hide it in the beginning, but she wouldn’t let me tell you. Man to man, I’m sorry that you found out this way.”

“Wasn’t exactly the best way to find out your little girl is not only in love finally, but that she is going to have a baby. With that said, you hurt her.” He moves his head from side to side and looks at Cooper. “I’ll make sure they never find you.”

“My boy will never do anything to hurt her on purpose. He’s going to make a great dad and an even better husband,” Cooper says while I nod.

“Can we just slow down and get used to us being parents and then do the whole marriage thing?” Karrie says from the doorway with my mother and Vivienne, who stand behind her with two thumbs up.