Frenemies With Benefits (Geek To Chic Book 2) (29 page)

“Is Izzy asleep?” Alex managed to ask without slurring, too
much.
 

“Yep, all safely tucked in bed, although she fell asleep
smack in the middle of the bed so good luck finding a place to sleep. Let’s
head home, baby, I’m tired.”
 
She kissed
Derek, pulled herself from his grip and walked over to Alex.
 
“Take care of my girl. She may seem all tough
on the outside but on the inside she is terrified of rejection.”
 
To his surprise she stood on her tip toes and
kissed his cheek.
 

“Get some sleep man, we will check on you guys later in the
week.”
 
Derek gave him a quick man hug
and they were gone.
 
The penthouse was
suddenly bathed in silence.
 

Alex quietly went to his room to check on Izzy, he had been
sleeping in the guest room since she came home from the hospital, and he would
tonight after he grabbed a few things and saw for his own eyes she was ok.
 
Quietly, he opened the door there in the
middle of his bed was a small curled up sleeping Izzy.
 
The very sight of her stole his breath
away.
 
He sat on the bed next to her,
brushing a piece of hair out of her face; he leaned in and kissed her
forehead.
 
She sighed and snuggled closer
to him.
 
In her sleep, how she felt about
him was very clear.
 

He kissed her one more time and went to his closet to hang
up his suit.
 
He was placing the hanger
on the rod when he saw a small shoe box on the top self of his closet he had
forgotten all about.
 
Reaching for the
box, he pulled it from the shelf and immediately opened it.
 
A large smile spread across his face when he
eyed the contents.
 
Alex knew exactly how
he was going to tell Izzy how much he loved her, how he was going to prove it
to her.
 
Closing the box, he slipped from
the room.
 

Grabbing his laptop from the table, he flicked on Sports
Center for background noise, plopped down on the couch and got to work on his
plan.
 

Today was Izzy’s first day off bed rest and she was grateful
to Roni for talking her into taking a few extra days off work.
 
Physically she felt great, ok so great might
be a stretch, but she felt good.
 
Emotionally she felt off, very off.
 
Currently, she was wandering around the bedroom collecting her things in
an attempt to pack.
 

Her shower this morning
had lasted forever, it had felt so nice to have a real shower.
 
For the first time in a week she was not under
a strict five minute time limit that Alex ensured she never went even a second
over.
 
She smiled at some of his antics
from the past week.
 
Two days ago when
she dared to get out of bed to get her own glass of water, he muttered under
his breath something about her being a stubborn woman and carried her fireman
style back to bed.
 
He returned a moment
later with a glass and a pitcher of water, that way she didn’t have to get up
for any reason.
 
That is until she had to
pee from drinking the pitcher of water.
 

Izzy had to admit he
had taken very good care of her over the past week, never missing a beat when
she had what she deemed a hormone meltdown and threw a few books at his
head.
 
The man simply picked up the
books, put them on the dresser conveniently out of her reach, and delivered her
lunch.
 
His lack of even acknowledging
her fit, sent her in to a fit of crying, which he cured by lying down next to
her pulling her into a giant hug.
 
When
her crying finally finished, he kissed her on top of her head, told her
everything would be fine and left her alone again.
 

She rubbed her stomach,
well not entirely alone.
 
Now that her
bed rest was officially over, she knew it was time to put her big girl panties
on and face the music.
 
Folding one of
her shirts, she laid it in the duffle bag Alex had brought from her apartment,
and sat on the bed.
 
She knew she needed
to leave, go back to her own apartment, put some distance between them, however
she didn’t want to leave him.
 
The need
she felt to be with this man, infuriated her. Hormonal reaction, maybe, or
maybe she had finally snapped not knowing what their future held or didn’t
hold. She huffed out a breath, stomped toward the door ready for a fight, only
when she got to the door she was meant with sounds of a woman yelling at
Alex.
 

“Where is she? Where is my baby girl?” The woman, Mama
Porter by the sound of her voice.
 

“Ouch!
 
Mom, why are you hitting me on the back of my
head? And who is your baby girl?
 
I don’t
remember having a sister other than C and she is not here!” Alex whined, which
made Izzy laugh, her anger immediately fading away.
 
She laughed until Mama Porter barreled into
her room and pulled her into her chest for a hug.
 

Mama Porter held her at arm’s length, “Let me look at
you?
 
Are you ok honey?
 
Alex should have called me the minute he
found out about you being in that car accident!
 
I had to hear about it from Roni. And even she didn't tell me until this
morning.
 
All of them are going too
grounded for keeping from you.”
 
Mama
Porter protested, looking back over her shoulder to give Alex another dirty
look.
 
“One of my kiddos is in the
hospital and Alex doesn’t even bother to tell me!
 
I raised him better.”
 

“One of your kiddos?”
 
Izzy asked with a smile.
 
Did Mama
Porter consider her one of her kiddos after only meeting her a hand full of
times?

“Yes, you all are my
adopted kiddos.
 
All of Alex’s friends
are my children once I meet them.
 
Of
course, Derek and Caroline have been mine for a while now but over the last
year I have added to the number of children I have now that you and the girls and
the other boys are around.”
 
Mama Porter
declared.
 
“Now, baby girl, back to bed
with you.
 
I am here now to take care of
you.”
 
She kissed her on the forehead,
shoving her back in bed.
 

“Mama Porter, I’m fine
really.
 
Actually, I have a doctor’s
appointment to get to.”
 
Izzy smiled at
the older woman, trying to hide her laughter.
 
It felt so nice to have a mother take care of her again, even if it
wasn’t her mom.
 

“Alex is taking you to
the doctor, right?” Mama Porter now had her hands on her hips and her mother
look securely in place.
 

Afraid to say no, she
started to say yes when Alex’s voice came through the doorway, “Yes Mom, I’m
taking her and we actually need to leave now to make the appointment.
 
I promise to bring her by your house after
her appointment, ok?”

Looking between them
with suspicion, Mama Porter finally nodded.
 
Alex kissed her on her cheek on her way out the door.
 
“You ready?”
 

That’s when she noticed
that he held her jacket in his hands ready to help her put it on.
 
Once he had her jacket in place, he handed
her purse to her and escorted her out of his apartment with his hand on the
small of back.
 
She loved the feel of his
touch.
 
She never wanted him to move his
hand off her body.
 

Unfortunately he needed
that hand to drive his car.
 
“After the
appointment, I would like to take you somewhere, so we can talk, if that’s
ok?”
 
Alex asked without taking his eyes
off the road.
 

Suddenly, she realize how nervous he looked.
 
His complexion was pale and he was sweating a
little.
 
Touching his forearm to gain his
attention, she smiled and said, “Alex, hon...” She cut herself off before the
endearment came out. “Everything with me and the baby is going to be fine.
 
You can relax.”
 

With his left hand he
grabbed her hand off his forearm and kissed her knuckles lightly, causing her
to sigh.
 
A very content feminine
sigh.
 
Which brought a smile to his face.
The rest of the ride was made in silence.
 

~*~*~*~

The wamp wamp wamp
sound filled the small sterile examining room as the doctor pushed the wand
over Izzy’s stomach.
 
The sound of his
child’s strong heartbeat made his own heart sore.
 
He squeezed Izzy’s hand and returned her
beaming smile.
 
All too soon the doctor
was wiping the cold blue gel off of Izzy’s stomach and the beautiful sound was
gone.
 

“Izzy, you and the baby
are doing great.
 
We will schedule
another appointment in a few weeks and we will do your first ultrasound.
 
Baby’s first picture.”
 
The doctor joked.
 

They thanked the doctor
and made the appointment with the receptionist, leaving the office hand in hand
as they walked to his car.
 
He tucked her
safely in the passenger seat of his car and ran around to the driver’s
seat.
 
Quietly they pulled onto the main
street and he headed to their next stop.
 
He took a deep breath when he thought about how important the outcome of
the next stop was to their future.
 

“I love that
sound.”
 
Izzy blurted out.

“Sound?” Alex was
confused.

“The sound of our
baby’s heartbeat.
 
He sounded so strong
today.
 
It’s all because of how well you
took care of us last week, even if you did become a nag.”
 
She winked at him and turned her attention
back out the window.

“He?
 
You think it’s a boy?”

“I don’t think, I
know.
 
All mothers know on some level
what they are having. Are we going to see Derek and Roni?”
 
Izzy asked as they turned into Derek’s
neighborhood.
 

“No, we are going
somewhere else.
 
Don’t ask where I won’t
tell you, it’s a surprise.”
 
Alex’s
heartbeat was increasing with every block they drove.
 
Maybe
this wasn’t such a good idea.
 
He
could feel her give him the evil eye.
 

A few short blocks later, Alex pulled his car into the
driveway of a beautiful two story home with a wraparound porch.
 
The one Izzy had said she had liked when they
drove Derek and Roni to the airport.
 
Alex thought that the house was perfect with four large bedrooms, three
bathrooms, a theater style basement and the best part of it all was the large
backyard for children to play in.
 

“This is the house I
pointed out. Whose house is this?”
 
Izzy
asked him as she helped her from the car.
 

“That depends.”
 

“Depends on what?”
 

“How the next few
minutes go.”
 
He turned away from her and
went to the trunk of his car, he removed a shoe box and pulled her to a patio
swing near the front door.
 
“I need five
minutes from you.
 
Five minutes with no
interruptions, no comments, nothing but perfect listening ears, ok?”

“You should like me when I talk to my students.”
 
She mused.
 
When he gave her a look saying that she was not starting the quiet time
well, she nodded returning his look with a look of her own saying he had lost
his mind, which of course he had the moment he saw her in the club all those
years ago.
 
He took the lid off the box
and placed it by his feet, without letting her see what the box contained.
 
With one last fortifying breath, he took a
napkin out of the box and placed it in her lap.
 
“That was the napkin from the club we met at, after you left I stuffed
it in my pocket.”

Ignoring her hand
covering her mouth in shock, he dug out the next item in the little box of
memories.
 
“Here is the receipt to that
little place we had lunch at the day we went exploring.
 
This is that little frog you bought me
because you thought it would look good on my desk.
 
I never put it on my desk, it was too painful
to look at.”
 
He placed both of the items
into her lap.
 
Alex was too nervous to
look her in the eyes, as he continued down memory lane.
 
The next item he pulled out, was one he was
embarrassed to show her, but nevertheless he needed to show it to her.
 
“This is the ticket I had to make a sizeable
donation to the University of Colorado to obtain, it’s a ticket to your
graduation.
 
I thought maybe I could find
you in the hundreds of graduates.
 
I
didn’t but I tried.”
 

“You came to my
graduation?” Izzy’s voice was soft full of emotion.
 

“Yes, I had to try to and find you.
 
I ran every day at Wash Park for a month,
different times, but every day in an attempt to find you.”
 
Alex said in a sad tone.
 
“And this is the only picture I have of
you.
 
I took it with my cell phone while
you picking out a basket at one of the shops.
 
I always wished I had more pictures of you.”
 

Finally, he looked at
her and saw the tears streaming down her face, fear that he had done or said
something wrong clenched his stomach hard.
 
“I’m sorry.
 
I thought if I showed
you all of these things that I have kept all of these years, I would prove to
you how deeply I felt about you, then and now.
 
I’m sorry.
 
It was silly.”
 
Alex shook his head and started to grab the
items from her lap.
 

Immediately, small
shaky hands stopped him.
 
He looked into
her eyes and saw the love he had hoped was still there.
 
“Ask me again.”
 
She said quietly.
 

“Ask you again?”

“What we talked about
in the hospital.
 
Ask me.”
 
She said with more authority.
 

A large smile broke out
across his face.
 
From the box he pulled
out a velvet ring box, he even got down on one knee this time.
 
Holding the box out in front of him, “Isabella
Newport, the moment I met you, you captured my heart.
 
Even you have been plotting my murder daily
over the last few months made me fall further for you.
 
I love you Izzy, no that’s not right.
 
You are
the
love of my life.
 
I need you more than I
need to breathe. Will you please be my wife?
 
Be with me forever.”