Part Four
Chapter 1
JASON
“What do you mean, she still hasn’t taken the baby to get the mouth swab done?” I shout at my attorney over the phone. “It’s been three weeks. This is insanity! She was ordered to do that! Jackson, I don’t pay you like I do to stand around and let things go. I need you to make her get that swab test done. I want to get married as soon as possible. Do you understand me?”
“I understand you, Jason. But Beatrice is saying the baby is sick. What do you want me to do? Order a mother to take her sick baby to a lab for a swab?”
“How fucking difficult could that be?” I find myself still shouting. “We’ve been stuck here in Dallas for nearly an entire month. Britt has to be back in New York in three days for a meeting about some book cover with some author. I want to accompany her. But I can’t if I don’t have those results.”
“Go with her. I’ll take care of this from here on out. No one told you that you had to wait around, Jason.” He sighs, and I can tell I’m grating on his nerves. “What’s the real problem here? You and I have been working together for a few years now and I’ve never seen you this tense. You’re usually the opposite of tense, as a matter of fact. I should point out that since you and this new girl have hooked up, you’re kind of an irrational puddle of emotions, Jason. Maybe she isn’t good for you.”
Jackson is an older man who I’ve looked up to and needed as an advisor since the very beginning of my career. His help in making sure I kept all the rights to my application was invaluable to me. If he’s saying I’m not the man I was then, I need to listen to him.
I look over my shoulder and see Brittany is still outside on the balcony, talking to her agent. “Jackson, I know I’m changing. I’m well aware of that fact. I’m on an anti-depressant now.”
“Why?” he asks, in what sounds like disbelief. “Jason, you’ve always been the most laidback man I’ve ever met. Why in the world would you need anti-depressants?”
“I have dark times when bad things happen. It’s been years since my last episode. But with this paternity suit hanging over my head and an accident I witnessed a few weeks ago, it sent me into that darkness I had avoided. So now I’m on medication to fix that. It’s working. I’m much better. Not entirely, but much better than when it first set in.” I run my hand through my hair and sigh.
The fact is, I have gotten better. Only it seems to be taking longer than I expected for me to come back around. I keep blaming the lack of results from the paternity test, but something else is there, too.
I want to be married to Britt already!
“What’s the big fucking deal if the kid is yours?” he asks me with an exasperated tone. “You have plenty of money to pay whatever the court orders. See the kid, don’t see the kid, whatever. I can’t understand why the fuss, Jason. Honestly!”
“The fuss is that Britt wanted only us to have kids. I’d be letting her down if the baby is mine.”
“Did she tell you that?”
I look back out the glass door and see her still on the phone, waving her hand in the air and talking what looks like excitedly. “No, she’s never said that. It’s me who thinks that. I know it would bother her. I’ve done wrong by her, and all I wanted to do was make it all up to her. Then one of my many women had to go and fuck up my plans.”
“You can marry Brittany after the results are in. If you are the father, then marry her after the child support is set. Not a big deal. So stop freaking out. Start making your plans. Why not set the wedding date for a year from now? Let her make wedding plans. Women love that shit,” he says with a deep chuckle.
How can I explain to anyone the rush I feel about getting Brittany permanently attached to me? It makes no sense to anyone but me, I think.
“I don’t want to wait a year. I don’t even want to wait a day. You don’t understand. I feel like there’s this tiny thing holding us together right now. It’s like, any minute she could find out something about me that’s a deal breaker for her and boom, it’ll all be over.”
“What makes you think a piece of paper like a marriage license, will stop that?” he asks. “And what kind of things are you hiding, Jason?”
“Just a past riddled with deceit and other terrible things like that.”
The balcony door opens and I see Britt come through it with a frown on her pretty face. She gives me a glance, then walks to the bedroom.
“Do what I’ve told you to, Jason,” Jackson tells me. “Go on about your business. I can sign any papers that will need to be signed. Go back to New York or wherever you want. I’ll deal with this. It’s just a legal problem, when you really think about it.”
The bedroom door closes and I find myself worried for some damn reason. The fucking anti-depressants don’t stop the worry. “Okay, Jackson, I’ll leave this up to you. Don’t let me down. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Great. Bye,” he says and ends the call.
Placing the phone on the table by the sofa, I go to the bedroom to find Brittany packing her things. “What are you doing?”
“I have to head back to New York this evening. Could you do me a favor and call that private jet charter company?” She walks toward the bathroom.
“I’ll come with you,” I say as I follow along behind her.
She stops and spins around. “No!”
I freeze, then thaw very quickly as distrust flows through me. “Why not?”
“You need to stay here in case Beatrice gets the swab test done and the results come back. If the baby is yours, then you need to fight for joint custody! Can’t you remember what we’ve discussed a thousand times, Jason?”
I cross my arms in front of me. “You sure it’s not because you plan on seeing one of your boy toys while you’re there?”
“Lose the closed-off posture, Jason,” she says as she uncrosses my arms. “It has nothing to do with that. It’s all to do with the fact that if the baby is yours, we want to have joint custody.”
“I can go back with you. It’s just as easy for me to jet back over here for the results if luck goes against me and the kid is mine,” I say, then wrap my arms around her and pull her close to me.
Her frown hasn’t gone away. The crease between her dark, perfectly arched brows deepens, as she says, “Don’t say that. Don’t think of him as bad luck. What if he’s the only child you ever have?”
And there it is, her doubt about getting pregnant. I lean my forehead to hers. “Baby, it’s not out of the question that you and I will have kids. So what if the pregnancy tests have all come back negative? It’s been less than two months since we started trying.”
“I know that. I have this feeling it’s not going to happen for us, that’s all. We both managed to get rich. We managed to find each other again. We even managed to get my parents to get over what happened between us in the past. That was a miracle in itself. I just don’t think we get to have everything. You know, like a family of our own. This baby may be all the family you ever get.”
Rocking with her, I whisper, “Baby, if all I ever have in this world is you, then I’ll count myself one of the luckiest men alive. Kids or no kids, I want you. I want you to be in my life forever.”
The touch of her hand as she runs it across my back sends chills through me. “Jason, don’t act like that wasn’t one of the first things you said to me. You wanted to have a baby with me. It was foremost on your mind. I know you. Probably better than you know yourself. If I can’t give you what you desperately want, then you’ll find someone who can.”
“The only thing I desperately want is you, my pumpkin butt.” I kiss her sweet red lips for a moment. “Everything else is gravy.”
The way her blue eyes soften and her bottom lip pouts a bit has me knowing the tears are near the surface. Her voice is shaky as she says quietly, “I wish I could believe you.”
“You can,” I say, but the fact is her words sting.
How can she not see how devoted I am to her? How can she not understand what she means to me? What more can I do to show her?
From the living room, I hear my cell phone ringing. Not really wanting to let her go in her present emotional state, I hold tight to her.
“Go answer your phone, Jason. It might be the call we’re waiting for.”
Taking her hand, I pull her along behind me to see who’s on the phone. The number that’s showing on the screen isn’t one I recognize. “Hmm. Who could this be?” I swipe the screen. “Jason Brennan here.”
“Jason, hi,” a man’s voice says. “I have a secret that you need to know. Brittany Caldwell isn’t right there around you, is she?”
“She is,” I say, then turn the phone on speaker so she can hear it, too. “But she’s not right here in the room. Who is this?”
“This is her husband,” he says.
I look at Britt and she returns my confused expression. “Husband?”
She shakes her head and mouths, “I don’t recognize this voice.”
“Yes. She and I were married in Vegas four months ago. She was in Los Angeles for a party the publishing house I work for had. We got a little intoxicated. Well, a lot, actually. Anyway, we headed to Vegas and got married. The only reason I know this is because I received our marriage license in the mail yesterday. The hotel staff found it in the drawer of the room we were in. Seems housekeeping just found it.”
“And your name is?” I ask as I look at the woman I want to be married to more than life itself and now it seems another monkey wrench has been thrown in my way.
“Elmer Fartenberry,” he says, and I nearly laugh out loud as Britt makes a hilarious face.
“So, my Brittany isn’t mine after all. She’s yours, Mr. Fartenberry. Well, this is awkward, isn’t it? Tell me how you found out she was with me.”
“You’re on social media, dude! Don’t you know that?” he asks. “There’s this man who’s looking for you two. Seems you helped his daughter out at some crash where his wife and son were killed. He’s been looking for you two to give you a reward for your help. There’s some footage from the scene of the accident. Someone took some video of you two with the little girl. I recognized my wife right away.”
Him calling her his wife hits me like a punch in the stomach. “Still doesn’t answer how you found my number or my name for that matter.”
“Oh, sorry. I forgot to tell you. I’m Julie Parker’s younger brother. She recognized you and gave me your phone number. She said to tell you that you two are through. She was under the impression that you two were exclusive.” He laughs. “She saw that engagement ring on Brittany’s finger and about crapped herself.”
“How is your last name different?”
“I’m her half-brother. She and I share a little apartment in Los Angeles. But it won’t be like that for much longer. You see, I found out that I can get spousal support from Brittany now. So I’ll be moving out as soon as that starts coming in. Man, it’s great not to be broke anymore. Marrying her was the smartest thing I’ve ever done. I guess when I’m drunk I make better decisions than I do when I’m sober.”
“Tell you what, buddy. I’m going to send your phone number on to an attorney and he’ll be the one you’ll be dealing with from here on out. You won’t be taking a thing from my fiancée. Got me?” I ask.
“Oh, you're funny, dude. Tell my wife I need to talk to her ASAP. We have a little matter to discuss. It’s private in nature, or I’d tell you about it.”
I watch Britt’s face go red, and she starts shaking as she mouths, “Hang up.”
“I’ll let her know. Bye, Mr. Fartenberry.” I end the call before he can say anything else.
Her eyes are huge as she speaks so quietly I can barely hear her, “There’s a video, Jason!”
Fuck me!