Romantic Interludes Part 28

Memphis's grip on her hips tightened as he stood making Kennedy cry out in surprise and tighten her legs around his waist to keep from falling.

"You heard the woman, Luke. We're going to school-after I teach her a few things."

Kennedy laughed and looked down at his grinning face, shaking her head.

"You don't have time for that. The cla.s.s starts in an hour and-"

"I have plenty of time."

"And there's traffic."

"I have time."

Memphis was halfway to the bedroom when the doorbell rang, stopping him in his tracks with a groan.

"How much do you want to bet that's Vanessa?" he grumbled, leaning Kennedy against the wall as he pressed his hips between her legs.

Kennedy dropped her head back and cursed the plans she had made with her friend yesterday.

"We're . . . going shopping."

"Shopping can wait." Memphis palmed her a.s.s and she half laughed-half moaned.

"Shopping can wait, yes. Vanessa waiting, though? Not a chance."

The doorbell rang again.

"Ignore her," Memphis said, distracting her with his hands.

Sounded like a very good idea only . . .

"f.u.c.k, Memphis, she has a key. Remember?"

He groaned again just as the pounding on the door started and the m.u.f.fled warning yelled, "I'm giving you two minutes to get decent and then I'm coming in! We have important things to do today."

"We can always lock the bedroom door."

"Luke busted the k.n.o.b the other night when he kept jumping up on it."

Memphis laughed and shook his head. "We need to get that dog some obedience training." Reluctantly, he set her on her feet, brus.h.i.+ng one of her stray black curls away from her eyes. "Tonight."

Kennedy nodded and stood on her toes to place a quick kiss on his lips before disappearing into their bedroom to dress. By the time she emerged, Memphis had started the dishwasher and cleaned up the kitchen.

Vanessa was standing next to the counter, pulling apart pieces of French toast and stuffing them into her mouth. " 'Bout time," she mumbled around the food. She swallowed and looked at Memphis where he was squatted on the floor trying to get Luke's leash on.

"You have as much trouble tying down that dog as you did tying down my girl," she teased.

Memphis stood, finally having won the leash game, and flashed Vanessa a s.e.xy grin, his mischievous eyes gleaming.

"That's what you think. Kennedy actually likes being tied down. Or up."

"No, no, not hearing this!" Vanessa cried, covering her ears with her hands and closing her eyes as if she were afraid they were going to give her a demonstration.

"You two are ridiculous." Kennedy shook her head but her smile gave away just how amusing she found them.

Memphis wrapped his arms around her and whispered promises of picking up where they were interrupted later that night before giving her one last kiss and heading out the door, Luke happily trotting along behind him.

"I knew you two were kinky," Vanessa said as soon as the door closed and they were alone.

Kennedy arched an eyebrow in her friend's direction and smirked. "Are you telling me you and Joe aren't adventurous?"

Vanessa pursed her lips but remained silent.

Kennedy laughed. "That's what I thought. You don't make four babies by having a stale love life."

Vanessa and her husband Joseph had gotten on the baby train and forgotten to get off. Blessed with a daughter three years ago, they also had eighteen month old twin boys and Vanessa was currently three months into her third pregnancy.

"Speaking of babies, let's go!" Vanessa cried, clapping her hands together and beaming. "I have to pick up the kids from daycare by noon, so I'm on borrowed time."

Kennedy hesitated just long enough for Vanessa to lose some of her enthusiasm.

"What?"

"We can go another day if you have other things to do. Or I can go by myself. It's not a big deal. I shouldn't need you there to hold my hand."

Vanessa gave her a knowing look.

"It's okay to be scared, Kennedy. I don't have any plans today so don't worry about that. But if you want to do this alone then you should." Vanessa reached out and squeezed her hand. "I'm here for moral support in whatever way you need me to be."

"Ugh!" Kennedy dragged her hands through her hair, pulling on the roots. "Who would have thought this would be the hard part?" She shook her head and dropped her hands. "Forget it. I'm just being silly. Let's go."

"Are you sure?"

"No, but let's go anyway."

Twenty minutes later, Kennedy was trying to fight off an anxiety attack of mixed emotions as they stood in an aisle at their local shopping center.

"Oh, look." Vanessa said, picking up one of the little boxes. "This one gives you smiley face." She turned the box around to read the back and then frowned. "Never mind. It's for ovulation testing only."

Kennedy watched her put the test back as the fear turned her stomach and started to expand into her chest making it hard to breathe. Fear and panic chased away any excitement she should feel right then. All she could think about was the last time she was standing in the spot she was at that moment and how it had ended.

"Maybe I should wait," she whispered, taking a step back. "Maybe it's too soon."

Vanessa s.h.i.+fted, blocking her view of the pregnancy tests and placed her hands on her shoulders.

"Kennedy, look at me." More panic until Vanessa cupped her chin and made her focus. "It's going to be okay, Kennedy."

The rea.s.surance did nothing to stop the fear that filled her.

"You don't know that," she whispered, tears suddenly stinging her eyes as she thought of everything she could possibly have with Memphis.

"And you don't know that it won't be. If you want to wait then wait. We'll go have lunch before I pick up the kids and you can do this whenever you feel up to it again. But . . ."

Kennedy's eyes widened at the word. "But what?"

Vanessa dropped her hand and shrugged. "But if you want my opinion, it's not too early at all. There are tests now that know you're pregnant even before you are pregnant," she joked. "You're a week late; it's not too soon to test." Vanessa held out a box to her. "Your choice."

Kennedy stared at the box for one long agonizing minute before finally taking it from her friend. The words First Response stared back at her and the nausea she had yet to feel suddenly came rus.h.i.+ng over her. Kennedy pressed her lips together and closed her eyes as Vanessa encouraged her to take deep, slow breaths.

"Are you sure you don't want to do this with Memphis?" she asked once the feeling had pa.s.sed. "You know he'd want to be here for you."

"I know. I just . . . I don't want him to know that it's even a possibility until I know for sure." Kennedy looked at Vanessa and tried to blink away tears. "I'm scared either way. I'm scared if I'm not then maybe there's something wrong with me. Maybe something happened after the mis-the miscarriage." Even after so many years it was still hard to think about what happened.

"Well, it's not like you've been trying."

"No. But it's not like we've been all that careful either the last year or so since I went off birth control." Kennedy paused and looked down at the box again. "And I'm scared if I am . . . that it will just happen again. What if my body isn't made for babies?" Tears spilled down her cheeks as she let Vanessa pull her into a hug.

"It's going to be okay."

"Easy for you to say." Kennedy gave her a watery smile. "All Joe has to do is look at you and you're pregnant."

"Well, that and the adventurous s.e.x we may or may not have. " Vanessa b.u.mped her arm with hers and nodded at the test. "So? Moment of truth?"

"Moment of truth," Kennedy agreed. "I wish I could do this right now before I lost my nerve."

"So do it right now." Vanessa looked around before grabbing Kennedy's hand and dragging her off in the direction of the bathrooms.

"Are you crazy?" Kennedy cried. "I can't take this," she waved the box around, "here!"

"Sure you can. All you gotta do is pee on the stick, Kennedy. You can do that anywhere."

"You know what I mean."

Vanessa rolled her eyes.

"You're still going to pay for the d.a.m.n thing." She turned Kennedy around and pushed her to an empty stall. "You said you wanted to do it before you lost your nerve. So do it. Pee, Monroe."

"It's Adams now, you know."

"You'll always be Monroe to me." Vanessa nudged her into the bathroom stall and gave her two thumbs up and a big grin. "Good luck."

Kennedy chewed on her bottom lip as she nodded and closed the door. She hung her purse on the hook and leaned against one of the walls, closing her eyes.

Could she really be doing this again? It had been almost five years since she had taken her first, and only, pregnancy test. The uncertainty and fear she had felt that day quickly vanished when those two pink lines showed up. Sure, she had still been nervous and even a little scared, but she knew in that moment having that baby was what she was meant to do. She was meant to be a mother.

Sadly, Mother Nature didn't agree with her, and five weeks later she lost the precious gift she had been given.

The pregnancy had put a strain on her relations.h.i.+p with her boyfriend, Ian Brooks. But after the miscarriage things went downhill fast. Only neither of them really cared at the time to do anything about it. If it hadn't been for Memphis she didn't know what she would have done. He had been her rock during that time. He had helped her, saved her from drowning in the sadness that she had felt . . .

Kennedy had opened her apartment door and found Memphis standing on the other side, gorgeous smile in place, messy hair, tired eyes and hands weighted down with grocery bags.

"I brought ice cream and all the fixings for our famous sundaes," he'd said instead of greeting her with a sympathetic smile and an "I'm sorry", or "How you doing?" like everyone else did.

He entered the apartment, kicking the door closed behind him and pausing to kiss the top of her head before proceeding into the kitchen to unpack his loot.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice hoa.r.s.e from all the hours of crying and little talking she had done. In fact, if she'd stopped to consider her appearance at all she knew she probably looked like s.h.i.+t. Her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail, the sweats.h.i.+rt was two sizes too big, she was wearing ratty old sweats, and her eyes were red and puffy. But she couldn't seem to care.

"You're here," he said simply, pulling out a can of whipped cream.

"But you were in Germany."

"Yes, and you weren't."

"But . . ." Her throat closed up and new tears threatened to spill down her cheeks as she thought of what he had sacrificed for her to come back home. "But your work," she said weakly.

"I finished what I needed to do and caught an early flight home," he explained without meeting her eyes and she instantly knew he was lying.

"Memphis, you didn't-"

"It's just a job, Kennedy," he said, finally meeting her gaze. "You're what's important right now."

Kennedy shook her head as the tears won out and she started sobbing. Memphis wrapped his arms around her as she clung to his s.h.i.+rt and carefully lowered them to the kitchen floor as he cradled her against his chest.

"Why did this happen, Memphis?" she cried into his s.h.i.+rt. "Why is life so cruel to give me a child and then take it away?"

"I don't know, beautiful." He kissed her temple and rubbed his hands up and down her arms.

"I didn't even make it to my first appointment," she told him. "My OB doesn't see patients until twelve weeks and I was only nine. When the cramping started Brooks said it was normal, that many women cramp during pregnancy, but then-"

"Shhh." He tightened his hold on her. "I'm here now."

"Thank you for coming home, Memphis."

"Always. Let me take care of you, okay?" He looked down at her and she nodded.

Brooks couldn't even be bothered to take a day or two off from the hospital to be with her. He told her that what she was going through happened to thousands of other women all the time and there was nothing he could do about it. But this, what Memphis was doing right now, was what he could have done. He could have held her and told her it would be okay. He could have stayed with her, even if they didn't do anything, just so she knew she wasn't alone in this. He could have made her dinner, or taken a walk with her, or he could have bought her the d.a.m.n ice cream. There was so much he could have done.

But instead it had been Memphis who picked her up and set her on the couch and made her a sundae, who had listened to her talk about what happened, who had held her while she cried, and who had tucked her into bed when she pa.s.sed out from exhaustion. It had been Memphis who was there in the morning making her breakfast, who had dragged her out of the house and made her go for a walk on the beach and stop by the art gallery to see everyone. It hadn't been Brooks who took her to her follow up appointment with her doctor and it hadn't been Brooks who packed away the few baby things she had bought so she didn't have to deal with it. It was her best friend, her rock . . .

"I don't hear tinkling!" Vanessa sang.

Kennedy opened her eyes, the memory popping like a soap bubble. She looked down at the box in her hand and suddenly felt a wave of calm. She could do this. No matter what the result was or what happened, she could do this because she had Memphis.

"What are you doing in there?"

"Reading the instructions," Kennedy lied.

"Reading the . . . Girl, you're not making the d.a.m.n thing, you're peeing on it!"