“So you’re the baby daddy that took Maddie’s cherry. She held on to that thing for so long that I thought she’d die before she lost it.” I jump up from the toilet, running over to wash my hands quickly. I almost fall over my yoga pants, not having pulled them up right. I fix them quickly. I should have known that Danielle wouldn’t be able to keep quiet much longer.
“I’m the father,” Oliver says without question.
“How do you know you’re the father? Maybe she had a string of one-night stands.” Danielle keeps going. She always does. I pull open the door. I try to give her a stern look but she only smiles at me. She’s such a little devil.
“I’m the father,” Oliver repeats. No hesitation in his voice.
“Danielle.” I hiss her name.
“What?” She feigns innocence. “Me and Oliver were just getting some facts straight here.” She lifts her shoulders as though her saying that I may have had a string of one-night stands is not a big deal.
“I’m sorry, Oliver. Danielle can be a little over the top sometimes.” I shoot her a look, telling her to keep her mouth zipped. She rolls her damn eyes at me.
Oliver walks over to me. He puts one hand on my belly while the other reaches up to caress my face. “You may not have heard me the first time but I’m the father. Regardless if you were only with me or not.”
What the hell does that mean? Is he saying even if the baby isn’t his he’s still staking his claim? I don’t know if that should make me angry or happy.
“The baby is yours,” I tell him. I can get that out of the way at least.
“I know.” He drops his hand from my face, pulling me toward him. “And so are you.”
Chapter Six
Oliver
I’m bending my head to kiss her again when there’s a loud throat clearing noise behind me. I turn to see Madeleine’s friend waving her hand at me.
“I’m still here,” the woman says.
Reluctantly, I release Madeleine. No, Maddie. That’s what her friend calls her. “So you are.”
“Don’t sound so disappointed. After all, you’re the one intruding on our tender moment.” She slides around me to take up position next to Maddie.
I’m not sure what tender moment they are referring to but I think it’s one of those things where ignorance is bliss so I refrain from asking. Instead, I take steps to secure Maddie. She’s mine, but she might not understand what that means.
I take her hand, reach inside my jacket and slap on the handcuffs. It’s done so quickly that Maddie doesn’t even realize what I’ve done until it’s too late.
“What are these?” She wriggles her wrist, making my arm shake.
“Handcuffs.”
“I can see that. Why did you put them on us?”
“Isn’t it obvious? It’s so I can keep track of you.”
“Track of her?” interjects Danielle. “Saying she’s yours doesn’t actually mean you own her. It’s the twentieth-first century.”
“What is the saying? Possession is nine-tenths of the law.” I stare pointedly at the steel.
Danielle opens her mouth to respond, but Maddie holds up a hand. “How am I supposed to go to the bathroom?” She tries to reason with me.
“I guess we’ll be together.”
Maddie draws in a horrified breath. “Oh no.” Her head shakes vigorously. “I am not okay with that. No one has watched me go to the bathroom since I was, like, two, and I’m not having an audience now.”
“I don’t see what the big deal is.” I shrug, careful not to jostle her. I don’t want her delicate skin to be damaged by the metal. “I’m gonna be in the birthing room and from what I read on the Internet all sorts of stuff happens in there worse than anything you could do in the bathroom.” The flight was long but it had wi-fi so I did some research on births, taking care of infants, breastfeeding and all of it. It’s damn scary but we’re doing it together so I figure if we lean on each other, we’ll make it through.
Maddie does not concur. “We have never agreed to that. We have never worked out those details,” she protests.
I spread my free hand out. “Perhaps if I knew about the pregnancy say, two to three months ago, we could have negotiated on the details. However, I arrived late”—I don’t add why I was missing but we all know the reason—“and have already missed two months of this magical time. I’m not going to allow myself to be excluded from anything else in the future.”
Forgetting we’re attached, Maddie throws up her arms. “What magical time? I have grown out of my clothes. I have thrown up in the morning—”
“Sometimes in the afternoon, too,” Danielle unhelpfully adds.
Maddie sends her friend a grateful nod. “Thank you. Yes, sometimes in the afternoon, too. My fingers and feet are getting swollen. I can’t sleep on my stomach—”