Rebel: A MMA Sports Romance (11 page)

“Yes, a little bit.  But first I want to say I’m sorry for not calling you about it last night.  I know you were probably freaking out so I’m really sorry.”

“What happened?  I thought you’d call me the second you got home.”

“I ended up hanging out with Zach until almost 2:00 a.m.”

My eyes were as big as saucers.  “What?!”

She smiled and giggled at my reaction.  “Yeah, he’s a pretty cool guy and we actually have a lot in common.”

“Wow, are you going to see him again?”

“I hope so.  I would love to see him again.  I don’t know why I didn’t notice him more in Mexico.”

“Because you were on a mission to find someone you would not have to see again in Mexico.  Wow, well this is pretty cool.  Zach is a good guy.”

“Yeah, he seems to be.  We’ll see.  So, Sarah, she’s kind of bad news.”

I looked at her afraid to hear more.  “Why, what did Zach tell you?”

“Well, she basically is the one that got away, or she used to be until Lucas met you.  She shattered him when she broke up with him.  Zach thinks she is manipulative and won’t stop until she gets what she wants.  He thinks since she showed up out of the blue the way she did because she wants Lucas back.”

My stomach fell to my toes.  They had a ton of history and she was the one who got away.  Why wouldn’t he take her back?  He and I had basically just gotten to know each other so he was not invested in me.  I was feeling really sorry for myself and felt I had nowhere to turn for comfort except to Sophie.  I put my head in my hands and then lifted my sad eyes to hers.

“We hooked up the last night in Mexico.”

She quickly grabbed my arm.  “I knew it!  I saw the way you guys looked at each other.  I wouldn’t worry about that girl, Kinsley.  She’s old news.  I can see that he likes you from the way he looks at you.”

“But I haven’t heard from him, not even a text.”

“I bet he was totally thrown off by her just showing up like that and I’m sure he was exhausted from the fight, so I bet he just crashed early last night.  I’m sure you’ll hear from him today.  He was way too into you to just blow you off.”

I let out a long sigh.  “I hope you’re right.”

She shifted on the couch, tucking her leg under her and smiled at me.

“I know I am.  So, back to your living situation…why don’t you just move in with me?  I have plenty of room.  You can take the spare third bedroom and just move your stuff in.”

“Sophie, I can’t impose on you like that and I can’t afford to pay you any rent.  At least, not until we graduate in a couple of months.”

“Don’t even worry about that.  You know my parents paid cash for this condo for me so I wouldn’t have to worry about renting somewhere.  They take care of all the bills so you can stay with me for as long as you need to.  I mean it.”

Sophie’s parents were loaded.  I threw my arms around her and gave her a big hug.  “Thank you so much Sophie.  I promise once I get a job after graduation I will contribute to the bills.  I know your parents are covering those but I want to pay my share.”

“You don’t have to but if you really want to, fine.  We don’t have to worry about that for a couple of months.  You can move in whenever you want.”

I smiled at her.  “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

She smiled back.  “Luckily you will never have to find out!”

The morning after Sarah’s bombshell I stayed in bed for a while trying to think clearly and decided that I needed someone to bounce stuff off of.  I called Zach and asked him to get over to my place as soon as he could. I had to figure something out because I had no idea what to do and I did not want to lose Kinsley.  I needed to call her because I was sure she was freaking out not hearing from me after Sarah showed up. 
Fuck!
  I didn’t know what to do so I busied myself with unpacking my stuff until Zach showed up.

I buzzed him in about an hour later and it was a huge relief to have someone to help me talk things out.

“Dude, Sarah says she’s pregnant.”

He stood there looking at me in disbelief. 

“No!”

“Yes!”  I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration.  “What am I going to do?”

“Is it yours?”  He was still in shock.

“She says it is.”

“Shit, man, this is not good.”

I looked at him and nodded my head.  “I know.  I can’t believe this.”

“How far along is she?”

“Six months.”

“
Damn
.  That’s about how long it’s been since you had that one night thing.”

I stood up and started pacing back and forth.

“This is a nightmare.”

“Lucas, you’re going to have to get a DNA test to make sure it’s yours.  That chick could be telling you anything right now.  Your star is rising and she might want to jump on the money train, if you know what I mean.”

He was right.  I didn’t even think about that.  When I was in it with Sarah I didn’t notice what everyone else around me saw; I didn’t see her gold-digging ways.  I was so caught up in what we had I let a lot of her shortcomings slide.

I looked at him, confusion written all over my face.  “I can’t do that until the baby’s born, can I?”

“I don’t think so.”

I took a deep breath and slowly let it out as I continued to pace.  “If it’s mine I’ll pay child support and I’ll be in the kid’s life, but I want nothing to do with Sarah.  I’ve moved on from that a while ago and I don’t want to go back.”

Zach looked at me with compassion.  “Dude, make sure you tell
her
that, too.”

I didn’t mention what had happened with Kinsley because I wanted to make sure she wasn’t going to bounce once she found out Sarah was pregnant with my kid.

“I will.”

“You have to get this situation under control man, because we have another fight in seven days.  I need you to be focused.”

“Don’t worry, dude.  I’ll be ready.”

Zach left a little while later and I still didn’t know what to do so I went to see the one person who always made everything better.  She opened the door and her smile was bright as the sun and she pulled me in for a big hug. 

“Oh Lucas, sweetheart!  It is so good to see you!”

“Hi Mom.”

She pulled away and looked at me, her eyes filled with worry.

“Honey, what’s wrong?  What happened?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Well come in and have a seat.  I’ll have Gavin bring us some tea.”

We sat in my mom’s family room and I allowed myself to sink into her comfy couch.  It was my favorite spot in her house.  My mom did very well in the divorce from my father and she never had to want for a thing after they split up.  Even though she had a 15,000 square foot mansion it was the coziest place I had ever been.  She sat next to me and patted my knee.

“What’s going on, Lucas?”

I nervously rubbed my hands together and slowly looked up at her.

“Do you remember Sarah?”

“Of course.”

“She’s pregnant and she says it’s mine.”

I don’t know if I had ever seen that level of shock on my mom’s face.  Within seconds it turned from shock to skepticism.

“You haven’t been with her in forever, how can it be yours?”

“I had a moment of weakness a few months ago.”

She raised her eyebrows at me and sat on the edge of the couch.

“And you didn’t think to use protection?”

“We did, mom.  I don’t know how this happened.”

“How far along is she?”

“Six months.”

There went the eyebrows again.  “And she’s just telling you now?  Why did she wait so long?”

“She said she was afraid to tell me.”

“Honey, after the way she treated you I want you to be very careful with how you handle this.  I don’t mean to sound cold but you have to get a paternity test.  Sarah is very cunning and I would not put anything past her.  She has a lot more to gain with having you as the father over anyone else and she knows it.  I never trusted her and I was afraid something like this might happen.”

“Mom, I don’t need Sarah bashing right now, I need to know what to do.  What if it is mine?”

She grabbed my hands and looked me in the eyes.

“I’m sorry.  If it’s yours you will be fine.  I will help you any way I can and the baby will have everything he or she needs.  I don’t want you to feel obligated to be with Sarah unless you want to be with her.  If you don’t want to be with her, the main priority for you will be the baby and that’s it.  I will help you every step of the way.”

I was so grateful for my mom and I don’t know what I would have done without her.  Her words were so comforting for me and I wrapped my arms around her and gave her a long hug.

“Thanks, Mom.”

“You’re welcome honey.  As soon as the baby is born you’ll get a paternity test and then we will go from there.  I know it will be hard but try not to stress over this.  Are you still fighting?”

My mom was proud of all of my wins but she hated that I was a MMA fighter.  She kept telling me that I could do anything else and she would give me what I needed but I wanted to make a living on my own.  I didn’t have access to my inheritance until I was 30 so I wanted to support myself and I know my dad respected that I made my own money.

“Yes, but I think I’m going to take a break until the kid is born.  There is no way I can focus the way I need to.  Zach will probably be disappointed but it’s what I need to do.”

“Well make sure you at least continue to work out because you need to get your frustration out somehow and I don’t want you turning into the person you were when Sarah broke up with you.”

“I will, Mom.  Don’t worry, that guy doesn’t exist anymore and he’s not coming back.”

I was going to tell her about Kinsley even though she wasn’t speaking to me at that time but my step-dad came home.  I decided I would tell her another time when it was just the two of us.

“Lucas!  What a nice surprise!”

I stood up and gave him a hug.  “Hey John.”  They had been married for about 15 years and he treated my mom like a queen so I really liked him.

“Are you staying for dinner?”

“Yes, honey stay for dinner.  Gavin can set a place for you.”

My mom was practically pleading with her eyes and I couldn’t say no to her so I decided to stay and spend some time with them.  I ended up having a really good time and for about an hour I didn’t think about Sarah or the baby.  I left a little bit after 8:00 and thanked my mom for the talk and told her I would keep her posted.  I decided to let her fill John in on the details after I left.

When I got home it was almost 9:00 p.m. and I was exhausted so I crashed and decided I would call Kinsley the next day after I’d had a good night’s sleep…or as good as it could be under the circumstances.  Sarah called me the next morning ripping me out of a semi-restful night of much needed sleep, and I was pissed.

“Hey, I just wanted to see if you changed your mind about going to the doctor with me today.”

“No, I did not change my mind, Sarah.  Look, I hope it all goes well but I need time to process what you told me.  I will call you in a few days.”

I didn’t give her a chance to respond and I just hung up.  I know it was a dick move but I was exhausted and needed some time to think.  If she was violently ill that would be a different story and I would have gone with her, but she wasn’t so she could wait a few days to hear from me.

I rolled over and stared up at the ceiling.  I was planning to call Kinsley later that day after her classes and hoped she wasn’t too pissed at me for not calling sooner.  I figured it would be better to tell her the news in person so I was going to invite her over for dinner.  A few minutes later, unable to get back to sleep, I hopped out of bed and got ready to go to the gym.  It was time to let out some frustration.

I was able to get in a full workout and by the time 5:30 rolled around I figured Kinsley would be done with classes for the day so I called her.

“Hey, are you busy?”

“Not really, I just got home.”  Her tone was a little cold and I could tell she was not happy with me.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call you last night. Something came up and then I just crashed, but I would love to see you tonight.  Do you want to come over for dinner?”

She hesitated for a minute and I was worried that she would say no.

“Um, sure.  What time?”

“How about around 7:00?  I’ll pick you up.”

“I’m actually going to be in your neighborhood so I can just come to your place.”  She didn’t sound as cold so I was happy she was warming up to me.

“Okay, sounds good.”

“Alright, see you then.”

I rushed home, had a protein shake while I seasoned the chicken, shoved it in the oven, put a few potatoes in the second oven and started cutting vegetables for the salad.  I went over and over in my mind what I was going to say to Kinsley and I just hoped that she wouldn’t turn and walk right out the door.  I really wanted to see where things could go with us.  After I found out if she was down with sticking around through Sarah’s pregnancy, I would think about how we were going to tell our parents about us.  I had not talked to my dad in a couple of weeks so I figured I would reach out to him the following day to see how wedding plans were coming along.  He was making an effort to have a relationship with me and after everything I had experienced that past couple of days, I figured I could be a little nicer and more receptive to him.

I was so lost in my thoughts and preparing dinner that I didn’t notice it was almost 7:00.  I hopped in the shower and finished getting dressed just as my doorman buzzed me.

“Ms. Peterson is here to see you.”

“Thanks, Keith, send her up.”

A couple of minutes later when I opened the door, her beauty blew me away.  I smiled at her and pulled her to me for a kiss.

“Hey you, you look beautiful.”

She smiled back at me and I felt like the luckiest guy in the world.

“Thank you.  Your doorman gave me some money.”

“Yes, I left that to cover your cab, silly.”