I winked. “Yes, sir.”
“See, that’s what I like to hear! Lizzie, when are you gonna learn how to obey like that?” Manuelo asked loudly.
Laughing, I followed a grumbling Elizabeth, and an even more unhappy Joslin, into the kitchen.
“Makin’ us look bad, my dear,” Elizabeth said once the door swung shut behind us.
They had one of those swinging doors that I’d only seen in movies, and their kitchen was state of the art.
“Man, I could knock out some tamales in here!” I said in awe.
“You’re welcome to make them anytime you wish, as long as you share,” Elizabeth offered graciously.
“Deal,” I said, stopping by the trash to dump what remained on the two plates in my hand into the trash before walking them to the sink where Elizabeth was rinsing the dishes.
Joslin took a seat at the table and started leafing through a magazine, leaving Elizabeth and I to fill the silence, which was surprisingly easy, considering.
“So, what made you want to be a midwife?” Elizabeth asked, offering me a rinsed off dish to load into the dishwasher.
“I’m a paramedic. The first call I ever took when I was on my own was a forty week pregnant woman having her baby in a closet in her bedroom. It was during one of those storms that threatened to hail and damage everything in the affected area with its high winds. They’d just rung the tornado siren when we showed up,” I told her. “So we get there, and she’d already moved to the closet with her freaking out husband at her side. That’s where we delivered her. And I’ve been hooked ever since.”
“Those are the types of stories I love to hear. As you know, I work on the ped’s floor. It can be depressing at times to hear some stories,” Elizabeth said, handing me a handful of forks.
“Dean and I have decided to try invitro fertilization,” Joslin announced from her spot at the table.
I froze, as did Elizabeth.
“Y’all haven’t really given it that long,” Elizabeth hesitated.
“We’ve been trying for over a year, so Dean went to get tested and they discovered he had a very low sperm count. They suggested invitro, but even then they’re not sure that he’ll be able to fertilize my eggs. We’re going to ask Michael if he’d be willing to donate sperm…”
I dropped the plate I was holding and stormed out of the room.
I was so mad that I could spit nails, and when I found Dean and Michael in a tense huddle in the corner of the living room.
“Michael!” I yelled, storming to him.
He turned around to look at me in concern, then his eyes narrowed when he saw Joslin’s smiling face at my back.
“What?” he asked worriedly.
“We need to talk. Outside … now,” I told him quickly.
“I told her that we’re going to ask Michael to donate sperm,” Joslin announced to the room as a whole.
Michael turned stiffly and stared at me, ready for what he knew was coming.
Because let me tell you a little something about me.
I’m a hothead.
I react first, speak second, and think third.
It’s gotten me into trouble my entire life.
“You will not have a kid with anyone but me!” I yelled loudly, punctuating my point with a finger jab to his chest.
Michael’s eyes glittered.
“I’m not having kids with anyone, so it’s a moot point,” Michael said, crossing his arms over his chest.
“But Dean, you said he’d agree!” Joslin whined.
“My baby brother is not having a kid with you. That’s fucked,” Hannah put in her two cents.
“But it wouldn’t be his kid and mine, it’d be mine and Dean’s,” Joslin continued to whine.
“Yeah right. You know damn well and good that if it’s Michael’s DNA, he’ll have a responsibility to that kid, even if you want him not to,” Manuelo said seriously.
“It’d be our kid! He wouldn’t have any say to it!” Joslin dug herself deeper.
Michael’s body became tense, and I knew he was about to say something harsh.
“Michael and I are serious, and I’m really not comfortable with having a child of his running around with y’all. Not to say that you wouldn’t be capable parents,” I told Dean. “But what’s a part of Michael is a part of me. So would y’all be comfortable with sharing this child with me and Michael? Because I know I wouldn’t be comfortable doing that with y’all.”
“I think that we need to talk to Michael without you here,” Dean said softly. “Joslin, why don’t you go finish cleaning the kitchen with Nikki and…”
“No, she’s right. I won’t be having any kids. But if I were, it wouldn’t be with Joslin. Sorry,” Michael said, shoving his hands into his pockets and looking around the room at all the occupants.
Manuelo and Hannah, I could tell, were firmly on my side.
Elizabeth, I could tell, was conflicted.
She wanted both of her boys to be happy.
And I knew I’d made an enemy out of Joslin first and foremost.
There wouldn’t be any turning back from that.
Dean, however, looked oddly happy.
Like he hadn’t wanted to have children with her. Nor her to have any children with anyone else.
Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep.
I glanced at Michael as he pulled his pager out of his pocket.
“Gotta go,” he muttered, looking at the readout. “Nikki, come on. Let’s go.”
We left within seconds, and I was so happy I could scream.
“I cannot believe,” I said, plugging my seatbelt in, “That she asked you that.”
Michael snorted. “She always wanted kids. And I think Dean was in the process of telling me he didn’t want kids either, when you burst through the door like a hot fire poker was shoved up your ass.”
I winced.
“That sounds painful,” I admitted.
He shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve no doubt that it would be, though.”
He pulled out of his parents subdivision, flipping the lights on that I hadn’t realized were there.
“Wow,” I said, looking up at the flashing lights that were mounted to his rearview mirror. “Does it make sounds, too?”
He hit a button on his steering wheel, and the sound of a loud air horn, followed by the distinct buuuurp-burrrp most police cars used filled the night air.