Fight For My Heart (9 page)

I think for a moment before I say. “Hurry please, I’m hungry.” I whisper back. He grins and rubs my belly one more time before walking to Carmen and dragging her back to the car. This time it’s the driver’s side. They seem to be arguing and he puts her in the car and she speeds off. He calmly walks back over and gets into my SUV behind Marco and Tony starts the car and we’re off.

I feel like this could turn into déjà vu because here we are again sitting in a restaurant and the last time we were bad things seemed to happen. Carmen and her father showing up, the argument after, the accusations.. I look around nervously and anxious at the same times. I worry because I feel like my perfect day is going to be stripped away from me again and that’s the last thing I need right now. I wasn’t lying to Dr. Neil when I told him I haven’t been stressed and I’d like to keep it that way if I can.

“Soooo, let’s talk themes, colors, and location.” Cadence cheers happily. I laugh at her because she’s way more into this than I am. I want to dress her and do her hair, not decorate. I’m not very creative; that’s why the first time I saw the nursery I was awestruck at how much time was spent in thought and getting that room to look like that. “I’m thinking no pink, maybe purple or lavender?” She’s looking at the color wheels she brought home from home depot last week. She knew we might find out the sex today so she brought them along so we could get started on that room.

I shrug my shoulders. “I don’t really care about that, that’s free reign for you, I just want to choose the furniture and clothes. Regarding anything else, feel free to have at it.” I take a chip and dip it into the salsa. Yum, that’s good.

“I want to buy the furniture with you if that’s ok? I have been looking into it when I have time between training and press conferences. I have saved a lot of websites in my phone if you want to see?” Vincent speaks up from across from me. I smile and nod and he gets up and moves his chair next to mine and he’s already loading his phone with the pages he’s saved. I just look at them and point out what I like and by the time our food arrives, I feel good that we already agreed on this stuff because I figured he’d been too busy banging groupies to care. Guess I was wrong.

When Vin sees what I ordered he gets up and inspects it like it’s going to kill me. Checking the tacos and testing the meat. We all sit back in our chairs and watch; he doesn’t even seem to notice anything is wrong. When he’s satisfied, he sits down again like nothing happened and begins to eat. I’m still shocked he had the nerve to touch my food. You never touch a pregnant lady’s meal.

“Um, excuse me, safety inspector gadget, but what was that about?” I point to my plate.

“I was making sure my daughter doesn’t get sick.” He smiles happily like he won a fucking award for his safety patrol.

“Be careful man, last week she tried to cut me over the last Oreo, It wasn’t a good day, I had to see the sports trainer because I thought I wouldn’t be able to throw at my next game.” Tony is being dramatic I stabbed him with a fork. Fork! That doesn’t hurt that much.

“Well next time I say no one touches my cookies, I mean it.” I smile. They stare at me like I’m crazy and shake their heads laughing at me. I guess I need to calm down.

“I wouldn’t mind getting some of your cookies.” Vin smirks and looks at my boobs that are barely contained by my top. I feel my nipples harden and have to look down, because those eyes get me every time. When I look up again he’s still looking at them and licking his lips. Marco snaps his fingers in front of Vin’s face and shakes his head no.

“No uh huh, no happening. Nope! No no no! I refuse to let you two be near each other. You wanted to buy some girly stuff for my granddaughter. That’s why you’re here. You will be dropped off after we leave the mall.” His voice is firm and I bite back a giggle threatening to escape.

Vin looks at my boobs again like a lost puppy so I jiggle them a bit, and his eyes fly to mine. Oh no they are very heated and I start to squirm. “I need to use the bathroom, be right back.” I smile his way, but Cadence jumps up proclaiming to go with me, I sigh and trudge off looking back at him. He looks just as displeased as me.

“What the hell are you doing?! You cannot go there. Just earlier you wouldn’t let him in the room to see the baby and now y’all are going all fuck me eyes at each other!” Cadence is riled up now, and this can’t be good. “I mean I see how much you care about him, but come on Te, he’s engaged and you will get hurt I promise you.” She knows how I feel I’m sure she’s heard me crying a few times. I see Carmen and Vin’s pictures all the time and every time it hurts a little more. I need to get my shit together and focus on why we’re even here.
“You’re right. Ok, I’m good, let’s finish up so we can go.” I’m glad she’s my friend because right now I’m pretty sure I’d be legs spread on the bathroom counter right now.

We finish our lunch and head off to the mall to get baby clothes. Vin helps pick stuff out and we agree on almost everything, This part is so easy that I hope it’s always like this between us, because I don’t think I can fight with him if this is how he’s going to be. Everything is going great until a busty blonde comes over and slides her hand down Vin’s chest while we’re in the furniture store.

I look at her like she’s lost her mind because “HELLO” I’m right here. But, she and he seem to be in some type of trance and I’m well completely forgotten. I look around for everyone else, but they seem to have disappeared. I guess I can’t blame them; they hovered over us at the first 4 stores and when they saw we weren’t going to kill each other, they finally backed off. I’m guessing now would have been a great time for them to intervene because I’m about to lose my shit.

“Yesterday was unbelievable; we really need to get together again. This time at my place. I miss holding onto you all night. I was actually thinking we could kick this up a notch, maybe start going out to dinner, I mean it’s already been a month and we never leave the bedroom.” She purrs to him. I see her look at me finally and smile. “Hi, I’m Rene I don’t think we’ve met.” She reaches out to shake my hand and I guess Vin finally realizes I heard all that when he freezes. Easy to forget the pregnant.. What? What am I to him?
“Hi, I’m Taleah, nice to meet you too. I’m just going to pay for this and get out of your way.” I smile being nice. He’s not mine. He’s Not Mine. He. Is. Not. Mine. So why does this hurt so much?

“Oh, princess’ I love babies! How far are you? It’s a girl right? I mean duh, you have princess blankets.” She giggles. Ugh. Shoot me now. I hate this.

“Yep. A girl. I found out today. Now if you will excuse me.” I turn back to the checkout counter. And the teller rings me up. Damn, I spent a lot of money, well I guess when your baby’s father says he’s going to pay for everything and you both pick stuff out, the price will ring this high, right? I’m getting really upset and I fumble for my wallet to get my card out. When Tony shows up and helps me.

“No, Taleah I said I would pay for everything, let me.” Vin Reaches into his back pocket for his wallet, but I beat him to it and hand over my card. He watches me and tries to take it away, but I push it back to the sells associate. I don’t want anything from him, this is exactly why I told him to stay away. “Why are you paying? At least let me take half of it?”

“No, pay for your friend’s dinner instead. You can take him home, right?” I look to her and she looks between us before finally nodding her head and wrapping her arms around him. “Ok, let’s go I have a lot of rearranging to do.” I look at Tony for help and when he sees what’s gotten me so upset, he starts helping me with my bags.

“Taleah wait! I wanted to help. This is nothing; we’re not together, hell you wouldn’t even talk to me before today. Let me come over. I wanted to paint and shit.” He’s getting aggravated, but I don’t care.

“No, you go ahead, we are going to be fine, I’ll see you in the delivery room.” I walk off after that.

4 monthsbefore ImeetLilNugget

Tonight, Marco talked me into going to see Vin’s fight. We haven’t spoken since that day at the mall. He’s come by the house (and) called. He even sent messages through his dad, but I ignore him. When he comes over to the house, he helps Cadence decorate the nursery, but I still stay away. I either lock myself in my room or leave the house.

Well tonight here I am 5 months pregnant and going to my second ever Vincent Santiago fight. I told everyone to keep him away from me and to watch out for the media, because I’m sure that they will be on my ass as quickly as they can knowing he has a baby on the way and I’ll be the only pregnant woman there tonight.

We walk into the building and there are people everywhere, screaming, hitting on women, trying to sell shit. This is a mad house. Marco, Tony, Ant, and Dom surround Cadence and I as we make our way to our seats. I told them don’t put me exactly ring side. I don’t want to get to caught up in the momentum and get bumped.

“All right here we go, we skipped most of the fights because you didn’t want to be too tired, so Vin will be up next. Now be careful. I know you get crazy when you get excited but, our little girl here needs to be kept safe.” This comes from Marco. He knows how these things work and he’s usually in the background, but he wanted to make sure we were taken care of first.

“Gotcha, No baby moving, rocking, or jumping, cool.” I give thumbs up and laugh at his worried expression, he knows I’m going to let loose. “Tony and Dom please watch her!” He shouts at them getting their attention away from the bikini girls in the ring.

“Yep! Ok!” They look at him then back to the chicks. I roll my eyes and smile.

“I gotta go, I’ll be back when this is over, ok?” He pats my head and treads off to the backrooms.

“Whoop! Daddy’s gone baby! Time to Partay!” I yell and they all look to me. I wiggle and bounce getting into the music playing in the arena. Don’t judge me a belly can only do so much.

“Ok party girl calm down a bit.” Dom laughs and throws his arms around me. I smile up at him and wink. I missed spending time with him, we finally pulled him out of whatever vagina he was in long enough to come with us. His reaction was, “Helll yeah! Fists and tits, let’s roll!” Ahh, gotta love him.

Music blares from the speakers and the crowd goes wild. This is Vincent’s first pro fight and he’s been in the media a lot; according to the commentators he may lose. This guy he’s supposed to fight is huge! He comes bouncing out of the doors making his way up to the ring and I see why the women go ape shit, that man is too nice. If I wasn’t already pregnant I might have let him do it. I blush at my thoughts and Dom bumps me smiling knowing what I am thinking. He takes his robe off a blonde hair is already curled at his nape and sticking to his forehead. His muscles flex and he stretches his body out getting warmed up, I know it’s dark but, there are some majorly blue eyes under that hair and the All-American boy smile comes out to play.

The music changes and the announcers call for Vin, he swaggers out throwing air punches to Jay-Z’s Holy Grail, Hmm… fitting. He takes up to the arena and removes his robe and if the ladies screamed before, I think I’ve just gone deaf. All of a sudden I feel a stitch in my side, not uncomfortable but a fluttering. I wait and then there it is again. I pull Dom’s hands to my belly and he looks at me weird until he feels it, too, he barks out a laugh and smiles huge.

I guess we were too caught up in the moment when we hear the bell. I look at the ring, But Vin has his eyes on me and, Oh shit he looks pissed. I keep my face stoic and watch as his opponent comes bounding over trying to take advantage of the fact that Vin’s not paying attention. My face must change because Vin ducks right before the punch lands and upper cuts the guy so hard the place goes silent. The guy drops and he’s out. Vin looks back at me then at Dom and his eyes narrow. I feel the kick again and look up to Dom who is still got his hands on my belly.

“She kicked again!” He gets the attention of our friends and they rush to me all putting their hands on my little girl and she starts to really show out, kicking up a storm. We all smile at each other not caring who is watching any of us act stupid of something to big.

“Ok, guys show is over and obviously so is the fight! Let’s go before she makes me pee myself, and then I’ll be the one kicking.” I yell to them and Dom helps me make my way out of the stands. I look back at the ring, but Vin is gone and the medical team is helping the other guy up. I smile because even if he were mad at me he still won, and that’s a great thing.

Dom, Ant, and Tony spent the night so we all get up and eat the big breakfast Cadence has made in the morning. We watched ESPN highlights from the fight and everyone was quiet when they saw the direction of Vin’s gaze before he threw that punch. We all know he saw Dom rubbing my belly with his arms around me, but no one wants to say it.
Suddenly there’s a knock on the door. I go to answer thinking maybe Marco stopped by since I told him about the baby kicking last night. He swore she did that because Vincent was around, and maybe he is right, but I don’t want to think about it. When I get to the door, I’m shocked to see Vin standing there in workout pants and a muscle shirt. Those tattoos just glistening with sweat. He looks like he may have jogged over here. And I’m all of sudden worried what for.

“Hey Te, I‘m going to use your shower babe. I have a players meeting to get to and I didn’t go home last night, so I’m going to use those clothes I still have here.” Dom speaks up behind me. I cringe a little because that did not sound good at all. Not that whom I do anything with is Vin’s business, but I don’t want anyone thinking I’m like that at all. Vin’s eyes go very dark brown, and I’ve seen that before so I can determine he is pissed.

“Wait, it’s not like that. But Even if it was, you screw whoever you want. So I could too.” I say sternly looking into his eyes. I even raise my chin a little bit.

“Not when my daughter is in your stomach, you won’t. I don’t care if I fucked the entire Virginia state, but you don’t fuck around! I have come by numerous times trying to talk to you and you avoid me, now I see why.” He’s trying to get past me, but me and my small body block him out of the way.