Finding Opa! (13 page)

Stacey chuckled. “You’re impossible. You’ve got me out in the rain driving around the city pregnant and you want to have sex?”

Hunter pulled off his shirt and hovered over her. “Basically.”

***

The rain had finally stopped by the time that Hunter and Stacey had finished making love for the second time that night. This time had been more passionate than ever before. Hunter had kissed every inch of her body, including her precious belly. Holding her now in his embrace, they lay in bed talking about what would be for their future.

“We don’t have to rush into marriage or anything,” Stacey said, looking up at him.

“Right,” Hunter said, biting his lip. That was his next suggestion. “But we don’t have to
not
get married, just because we fell in love so quickly.” He looked down at her and raised his brow. “It’s a thought.”

Stacey didn’t know exactly what he meant by that. She had learned that many of the things that Hunter said were cryptic in nature. “What about our families? Does your family even know about me?”

“Sort of,” he said, clenching his jaw. “What about your dad?” He had to change the subject. His mother’s voice was creeping into his head at just the mention of family.

“When he’s sober, we talk about you. He seemed to be indifferent about your race. He just wanted to make sure that I was happy.”

Hunter knew that Stacey’s father was an old jazz man who had spent his life supporting her through his work in the bars. After her mother had passed, he had fallen into deep depression and had gotten drunk every day for over twenty years. He lived by himself now in Harlem off his meager savings and the money that she sent back to him every month. But he never took nearly as much as Stacey would have liked for him to. Whenever, she sent more than he needed, he always sent it back.

“What do you mean by your family sort of knows about me?” Stacey backtracked.

“My sister told them about you at dinner last Sunday.”

“Why didn’t
you
tell them?” She sat up and put her head on his chest. Was he ashamed of them? If so, that dog wouldn’t hunt.

Hunter debated whether or not to tell the future mother of his child and the love of his life that his family was prejudice. However, he knew that the conversation was coming whether he liked it or not.

“I haven’t told them, because I’m angry with them. Things haven’t been the same since Corina died.” He sighed. “She wasn’t good enough for my mom and dad, because she wasn’t from a
particular
type of family.”

“But she was Greek.” Stacey didn’t understand.

“Yeah, she was Greek, but she wasn’t wealthy enough. In fact, she wasn’t wealthy at all. She did it all on student loans and partial scholarships.”

“But she was a doctor?”

“Yeah, but she wasn’t from the right side of the tracks. They didn’t really approve of her until after she graduated from med school, and in truth they didn’t hold her in high regard until she was a fallen patriot. Then we were the attention of the Greek community and with all of the concern, they had to change their tune.”

Stacey knew what that meant. “Your family is not going to ever approve of me.”

He sat up instantly. Pulling her close to him, he moved her wiry hair from her face. “I don’t need their approval. I don’t need it,” he said, shaking his head. “This is about us, not them.”

Stacey was silent. She wasn’t sure if he was saying it for her or for himself. “It doesn’t matter that I’m wealthy. I’m black, Hunter. That is not going to change, and even if it could, I wouldn’t change it. I’m proud to be who I am, just like you. However, you have to face the fact that it could present a problem with your family.”

“If you were the poorest woman in America, it wouldn’t matter to me. I love you. My family has no bearing on this relationship.”

She searched his face for even the slightest weakness but found none. He was absolutely, positively sincere. “Well, are you going to tell them about the baby?”

“Of course, I am,” he said quickly. “I’m not ashamed of us.”

“Good,” she said, pulling herself to the edge of the bed. “I still want to meet them.”

He looked over at her. “You do? Even after I told you that they are
horrible
?”

Stacey laughed. “Every family is horrible. I’m sure that yours is no worse than my own. Yes, I want to meet them. I want them to know that I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere. Plus, I want to meet this mother of yours.”

Hunter liked that Stacey had no problem standing her ground. “Okay. How about Mother’s Day? My mother has summoned me to dinner. I’d like nothing more than to show up with you.”

Stacey wasn’t expecting to meet them
that
soon. She was quickly made to eat her own words. Swallowing hard, she stood up naked and nodded his way. “Fine. It’s a date. Do we have to drive?”

“Well, if you want to ride bike there, we can always leave tonight, and
maybe
we’ll make it there by Sunday. That’s if the whole car thing stopped working for you.”

Grabbing a pillow, she threw it at him and laughed. “Ha ha, smartass.”

Chapter Ten

Every day since her first ride, Hunter had found a reason to take Stacey somewhere to get her out of her house, and while the anxiety had not left yet, it was slowly easing. Tonight, after hours, Hunter had taken her to his office and performed their first prenatal visit.

It was strange to be back in the office again, because this time, knowing the doctor so
intimately
, everything was dramatically different. Stacey paid closer attention to the modern design of the clinic, the many accolades, awards, honors, organizations and degrees on the walls. She also watched his careful care of her, treating her as though she was made of gold.

“Okay, you’re good to go,” he said, pulling off his gloves. Throwing them in the garbage can, he leaned against the wall and simply glowed. Finally, he was doing this procedure for his own kid. She didn’t know how long he had wanted this. He had been different since the moment he had discovered their little secret, as if he had found the cure to his own cancer. Looking at her now, he silently admired the trusting smile that she gave as she got dressed.

“So we have a little less than nine months,” she said, slipping on her jeans.

“Yep.” He looked at the floor and smiled. “Have you thought of names yet?”

“No, I haven’t been able to wrap my mind around things
yet
.”

Hunter knew that Stacey had been different. In some ways, she was distant as if always preoccupied in thought, yet in some ways, she had become clingy, not that he minded.

At night, she would curl up to him and sleep wrapped up in his embrace. During the day, she sat in front of her computer and typed away. In the evenings, they made plans and talked about hopes and dreams that would shortly come to fruition with the birth of their first child. But in all, what he truly desired was to know if she wanted any of this.

In many ways, he took the blame. After all, he was the doctor. Yet, he could not deny his own happiness with the thought that she was carrying his child. This woman that he was still learning so much about would be in his life forever, and while he had never seen her bad side, he was sure that it could not outweigh her good side.

“Hunter, where are you?” she asked, interrupting his deep thoughts.

He looked up. “Huh?” Blinking hard, he adjusted.

“Where did you just go?”

He scratched his head. All of that would be impossible to explain at the very moment. Plus, there was little that didn’t require a thorough discussion with Stacey. Escorting her out of the room, he tried to move away from his thoughts. “Nothing, sweetie. Would you like to go and get something to eat?”

“Well, we have to go to dinner with your friends tonight. So, I don’t think that I should eat before then.” She still didn’t know how she felt about this dinner date. It had been so long since she had been asked to entertain other people.

“So, you’re still good on going?” he asked, sensing her discomfort. “I don’t want you to feel as though you
have
to go.” But she did, whether she knew it or not.

Stacey had grown to learn one thing about Hunter, if she had learned anything at all. Even though he was often very sweet, he was pushy. And he always ended up getting exactly what he wanted either because she caved in and gave it to him or he found another way. It could be an endearing quality at times, but it could also be irritating.

“I’m going to this dinner for you,” she said smugly. In truth, she would have preferred to crawl up in front of the television like they did nearly every night.

Hunter knew
that
tone. She was getting irritable, as to be expected. Plus, she never liked doing anything that required her to dress up, though he didn’t know why. She had an amazing body. It should have been plastered on billboards, not hidden under jeans.

Turning off the light behind him, he closed the door to the room. “Well, thank you, either way,” he answered.

Stacey cut her eyes at him and slipped on her coat. “This baby is going to make me fat. Will you still love me when I’m as big as a house?”

“You may gain twenty pounds at most. With the proper Mediterranean diet, you’ll lose it all by your first six-week checkup.” He kissed her forehead. “It’ll take some getting used to, but we’ll be fine. And women married to Greek men have always been known to be curvaceous.”

Stacey caught that.
Married.
He had brought it up on several occasions in general conversation, which meant that he was giving heavy thought to it. Like she had told him before, they needed to make sure that they didn’t rush everything. She looked up at him and realized that he didn’t even know he had said it.
Freudian slip in deed.

As they rounded the corner to head out of the office, they ran dead smack into Hanna, who judging from the startled look on her face, had heard everything. She quickly raised her hand. “I forgot my cell phone,” she explained in a squeaky voice while looking at Stacey.

Hunter wasn’t sure if his sister was lying or not. Shaking his head, he put his hand on Stacey’s shoulder in a protective motion. “Hanna, you remember Stacey.” From behind Stacey, he gave a brotherly scowl, forbidding Hanna from being unpleasant.

“Yes, how are you?” Hanna said, offering her hand. She smiled but her face didn’t show the same delight as her quivering voice.

“Fine,” Stacey said, shaking her hand warmly. She looked up at Hunter, who had a stone face.

“Did I hear something about a baby?” Hanna asked Hunter. She slowly moved her gaze from Stacey to her brother.

Hunter tried to control his temper, but the redness of his face gave him away. He clenched his jaw tight and held his breath before he spoke. “Yes, you did,” he said on a heaving exhalation.

“You two?” Hanna asked, looking at Stacey.

Stacey nodded. “Yes, we are pregnant.”

“If you say a word, Hanna…” Hunter warned.

“I wouldn’t dare,” Hanna interrupted, shaking her head.
The family would shoot the messenger on this one anyway.

“We plan to tell the family when we’re ready,” Hunter said, moving Stacey past her sister, who blocked their path on purpose. “And we’re coming over for Mother’s Day. So, I’ll know if you’ve opened your extremely large mouth.”

Stacey thought Hunter was being harsh and squeezed his hand.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Hanna promised, pivoting on her little feet to face them. “But aren’t I allowed to even say congratulations?”

“Yes,” Hunter bit out. He wasn’t expecting that but appreciated it.

Hanna smiled at Stacey. “Congratulations. I know what a blessing having a baby can be.”

Hunter cooled his heels. He had nearly forgotten about Hanna’s miscarriage a couple of years ago. It had happened right after Corina’s death. He had felt awful for both her and Jack. Walking back up to her, he took her hand. “Sis, this is big,” he said, looking into her wide, watery eyes.