In Sly's Eyes: In Sly's Eyes Marco's MMA Boys Book 2 (12 page)

CHAPTER 23

KARA

As soon as we left the doctor’s office, we stopped by the nearest baby store. He didn’t find what he wanted, but I’m going to get a friend of mine to make that. He did find something that was pink and said ‘World’s Greatest Uncle’. We are having everyone over for dinner tonight.

Now, I’m standing in the kitchen with Huck, chopping veggies for our shish-kabobs. “So what exactly are we doing tonight?” Huck asks me as he cuts up the beef for the skewers.

I grin, shaking my head and finish cutting up the squash. “Well, the ultrasound tech told Sly about gender reveal parties. I guess Sly wants to do his own take on one.”

“My brother, the loveable idiot.” He shakes his head, grinning.

I point the knife toward him. “Hey, he’s trying to do something special. He wants to surprise everyone. He put a lot of thought into tonight. Well, the gifts anyway.”

He looks at me confused. “Gifts? Aren’t we supposed to get baby gifts for you? What is a gender reveal party? This is all crazy.”

As I continue chopping, I tell him what a gender reveal party is and how I promised Sly I wouldn’t tell anyone what we’re having.

Once we get the kabobs on the grill, everyone starts to show up. Sly is like a damn kid on Christmas.

He calls everyone on to the back deck. “Okay, so we were lucky enough to find out a little early what we’re having today. I also found out what a gender reveal party is and decided I wanted to have my own.”

Everyone is laughing and poking fun at him for stealing the show. I put my hands up. “He really isn’t trying to steal the show. He wanted to tell everyone in a sweet way.”

Sly puts his hands up. “So we need Eve, Jade, Elaine, Marco, Huck and Lox to come up here.” He grabs up the white bags with everyone’s names on them. “Now, I’m going to hand you these, don’t look in them until I say so.” He hands out the bags. “Okay, on the count of three, open them up. One- Two- Three.”

They all pull them out. My mother squeals, “It’s a Girl!”

Sly picked them all out pink onesies with different things on them.

My mom and Elaine got ones that say, ‘If Daddy won’t buy it for me, I’m going to Grandma’s’.

My sister got one that says, ‘My Aunt Rocks!’

Huck and Lox got ones that say, ‘My Uncle is Awesome.’

The sweetest one is watching Marco with his. He has tears in his eyes, ‘Grandpa’s Sweetheart.’

“We wanted everyone to know how special you are to us. That includes you, Marco,” I say, hugging him. “You have been wonderful to these guys. You were a big part in them becoming the men they are. You and Elaine are going to be a big part of this baby’s life.”

“Well, isn’t that fucking nice? I mean I gave birth to them, but oh Lord, you two were just the next best thing to sliced bread.” We all spin around and see an older woman. I’m guessing she’s the guys’ mom. She looks like the kinda woman that my granny would’ve said had been
rode hard and put up wet too many times.

Huck looks like he could break something in half and Sly looks worried.

“What, nothing to say?” she says abruptly.

Elaine makes her way over to her and tries to calm the situation. “Brandi, this isn’t the time.”

“Fuck you, Elaine.” She goes to slap Elaine but before she can, Marco steps in and grabs her wrist.

“Brandi, this is not the time or the place.” He points to Sage. “There is a small child out here. Have respect for your sons and yourself. Take it inside.”

“You don’t fucking tell me what to do, Vance.” I see my sister take Sage inside the house. Brandi starts pacing around. “Vance DeMarco and Elaine Storm. Aren’t you guys just the greatest people God sent my little shithead boys? Because I was such a horrible damn person.” She takes a drag off of a cigarette. “Fuck you both. I tried my best.”

Huck bolts to the front of the crowd. “This is my house and you are not fucking welcome here. You will not come in here and ruin this happy occasion. If you’re jealous of our bond with Marco and Elaine, it’s your own fucking fault. You just gave up on life. Who did you think was going to raise us? Those fucking losers you brought around? The ones who thought that we were punching bags?”

Sly comes up. “Can y’all just calm down? I really don’t want all of this shit right now.”

His mom laughs at him. “So what, Sly, you knock up some whore?” Sly’s face goes from calm to a raging storm in a second. 

Whoa! She just called me a whore. I make my way to the front of the crowd. “Excuse me. I’m not a whore.”

Sly pulls me back into his arms. “Baby, please just get back. Go sit down, please, you don’t need to deal with this bullshit. It’s too stressful.”

I nod and respectfully let him lead me back to one of the patio chairs. Huck steps back up to her. “You need to leave. You aren’t welcome here.”

She hauls off and slaps Huck across the face. “You always were an angry little shit. Your brother is the only one who’s ever cared about me.”

She turns around, just as a raging Sly gets in her face. “First off,” he puts a finger almost on her nose. “Don’t you ever call my woman a whore. Second, we did care about you. When we were kids, you were who we wanted to be with. You didn’t want to be with us. You treated us like garbage. You left us all alone, with no one. No food. No clean clothes. You’re a horrible person and I’ve tried to help you so many times it’s ridiculous. I’ve tried to get you into programs, I’ve given you money and at times, against Huck’s advice, I’ve put you up in places to live. Not anymore though. This shit is over. You can leave now or I’ll call the cops and they’ll make you leave.”

I feel so bad for watching this. Sly is pissed, but he also looks like he’s about to cry.

She throws her cigarette down and flips us all off with both hands. “Screw all of you. You think you’re so high and mighty. Well, fuck you!”

She hightails it out of our back yard. Everyone looks around stunned for a few moments.

Huck finally breaks the silence. “She’s not ruining our good time. We’re here to celebrate my niece, a beautiful baby girl that’s going to be showing up soon. So forget her, guys, come on over here and help me with the kabobs. Girls, go talk baby shit or something.”

Elaine snorts but pops Huck on the arm. “Watch it, potty mouth.”

He pulls her into his arms. “Yeah, but you love me anyway.”

Everyone does what Huck tells them. Sly gives me a kiss, whispering he loves me and walks over to the grill.

Sloan sits down, beaming. “So let’s plan a baby shower. We also need to plan a trip to set you up a registry.”

She starts chatting away with my mom, Elaine and Jade.

Jade claps franticly, “I’m so excited! I’m glad that we can plan the shower on my fall break. I’m just hoping that the baby decides to come a little early around the holidays so I’ll be home.”

I snort nervously, trying not to think about the fact that this baby is going to come a few weeks earlier than most people are anticipating. I’m sure Sloan is thinking the same thing as me. I hope we can manage to keep this quiet.

My mom grabs my hand. “Sweetie, I’m so happy for you.”

I start to cry a little. “Thank you, Momma.”

Sloan looks at me. “So have you thought about names for a little girl?”

Sly steps over to us. “Yes, her name is going to be Mildred, which will assure that she never dates.”

Everyone starts laughing. I snort but then speak, “No way in hell am I naming my daughter Mildred. Anyway, we decided we aren’t telling anyone until the baby gets here. It’s just going to be between Sly and myself.”

My mom smiles at me. “That sounds sweet.”

We keep making conversation and planning my shower the rest of the evening.

CHAPTER 24

SLY

I don’t know where the past few months have gone, but they’ve damn sure flown by. We’ve been working non-stop between the gym and home. I don’t remember now what I did before she came into my life. Last month, Huck managed to locate Paige, but she basically told him to go to hell and stay away from her, and that she couldn’t be seen talking to him. When he asked her about it, she said that even though Drake was in jail, he would know. He always knows. Then she told him it was our fault that he was in jail. He told her she needed help, but that he couldn’t help her until she wanted to help herself.

Now, here we are meeting the last new doctor in the rotation. She’s right at 34 weeks, but of course most people thinks she’s only like 31 weeks.

Seeing Kara take her pants off brings me back to the here and now. I watch her lie back on the table. She’s starting to get more uncomfortable, but it makes her so beautiful to me. She’s incredibly amazing. It’s like I told her, I love women. A woman is the most amazing, versatile creature God ever put on this planet.

I mean she can be a sexy vixen or something that looks like a space alien. She can be the most loving and caring individual, then the most cut throat if she needs to be. She’s soft, but yet hard as stone. Plus, now I’m realizing the severity of the fact that something the size of a watermelon is going to come out a very small hole.

“Sly,” she says.

I jerk my head up from my rambling thoughts. “Yeah?”

She looks at me concerned. “You okay? You look lost over there.”

I shake my head. “No, just thinking. Sorry.”

“No, it’s no big deal, I was just making sure you were okay. You’re normally not that perplexed.” She laughs. “You’ll get worry lines.”

I shake my head. “Thanks for your concern, I’ll make sure to use extra moisturizer tonight. Don’t want those worry lines showing up.”

She’s about to come back with a snarky comment when there is a tap at the door. A young blonde guy walks in a few minutes later and introduces himself as Dr. Shelton.  We go through what I’ve come to realize is a normal routine in this type of doctor’s office.

As we leave the doctor’s office, I tell her I still like her regular doctor the best and then Dr. Jennings. The guy today kept freaking out about little things. I think he’s too unstable to be in the delivery room. I’m not sure the kid should’ve gotten out of school. He paced around the room while they checked her urine for proteins.
Which I guess is something they do at this stage,
according to that Expecting book I’ve been reading in the bathroom. That book has some scary crap in it. I’m hoping the birthing classes we’ve signed up for will ease my mind a little. I just really don’t want to screw up in there. I need to be supportive and there for her, I can’t be a complete pussy
.
Hell, if Dr. Shelton is in there, he’ll be enough of a pussy for all of us.

~*~*~

Today is the coed baby shower for her at Elaine’s house. We’ve already painted the baby’s room a bright pink. She is going to be my princess. Kara picked out some baby stuff with frogs on it for the bedding and walls. It’s crazy, when we went to the baby super store to do her registry I couldn’t believe how much stuff you have to get for a baby. There are bottles of all different sizes, pacifiers, diapers, special soap, special bath cloths, special laundry soap, special wipes, something called a wipe warmer, something called a diaper genie and some weird shit called nipple butter.

Walking through the front door of Elaine’s, everyone’s here already. They invited Sloan’s family, Dr. Beck’s family, a girl from the office and both of our families.

“Yay! They’re here!” Jade shrieks, running across the room to us.

Kara’s face lights up. “Oh I’m so glad you could make it. I was worried you’d be too busy with school.”

“Never. I’d have just left anyway. You and my niece are way more important.” Jade hugs her hard.

Then Jade turns to me, hugging me. “I’m so glad my sister has you.”

“Thanks.” I look around to everyone else. “Now, let’s get this party started.”

Kara laughs at me. “I’m thinking this is going to be somewhat of a tame party.”

Looking at the gift table, I can see that Elaine and Eve probably went overboard.  I point over to it. “It looks like some people went a little crazy.”

Elaine hugs me. “Yes, I’ll admit I did.”

We spend the next couple of hours eating and opening gifts. We have enough baby shit to stock a store. Huck and Sloan’s dad, Derek, argue over who won the diaper changing contest.

Lox stands up. “I have a couple of things to say. The day I met Kara, I could tell she was a little spitfire. Then running into her and Sloan at Greene’s turned out to be one of the greatest things in my life. Little did I know that the little spitfire would win over my best friend’s heart. So to the little girl they’re bringing into this world, she’s the luckiest little girl on the planet. Now, we decided since everyone is here today that we care about, Sloan and I wanted to announce that next Saturday, we’re getting married. It’s going to be a small ceremony at the arena just before the fights so we’ll make sure everyone has tickets to the fight. We’re going to get married in front of all of you before they open the gates.”

The room erupts with excitement. I stand up, “Excuse me, everyone. Now I get to say a couple of things since Lox decided to steal the damn show.” He flips me off and Slick giggles. “I just wanted to say that Kara and I appreciate everyone coming out and supporting us.”

Huck barks out a laugh, “Dude, you aren’t giving an interview after a fight.”

“As I was saying before my evil half interrupted, I appreciate everything everyone has done to make this day special. The night I met Kara, she made me laugh all night long. She had this sweet sassiness about her that, well, let’s just say it made me
happy
.” That gets a chuckle around the room. “She put up one hell of a fight, but I’m so glad she finally fell for my charms and she’s giving me this awesome chance to be a dad.”

Huck reaches over and hands me the box of nipple butter. “I thought you might start lactating soon.”

I punch Huck in the arm. “Dick.” We both say at the same time.

Slick walks over to us. “Huck, Mom said you can’t call people dick. That it’s not appropriate and it’s not nice.”

I laugh and Huck turns red. “Sorry, lil’ man. I’ll watch it from now on.”

Slick sits between us and leans back. “So guess what?”

This kid cracks me up. “What?” I say, grinning at him.

“Lox is gonna be my dad now. You know, next Saturday after he and my mom get married?”

Huck gives him a fist bump. “Yeah, man. That’s gonna be cool.”

“You’re gonna be a daddy, too, Sly. Huck, when are you gonna be someone’s daddy?” Slick asks us in all seriousness.

I snort drink out of my nose and start coughing, while Huck tries to form an answer. After the coughing subsides, I laugh and tell him, “He’s probably already someone’s dad and he just doesn’t know it.”

Huck glares at me. “Shut up. No, Slick, I’m not anyone’s dad and I don’t intend on being one anytime soon.”

“How about with Ms. Elizabeth? You always watch her like Lox watches my mom. Isn’t she your girlfriend?”

I’m laughing so hard I can’t catch my breath while Huck explains, “No way, man. She’s Marco’s daughter. I’m looking out for her, but she’s not, nor will she ever be, my girlfriend. I was gonna steal Ms. Kara away, but my brother got lucky.”

That brings me out of my laughing stupor. “Yeah, my ass. You’d never be able to take my girl from me, dick-lick.”

“Sly, my mom says you can’t say words-.”

I stop him. “I know, Slick. I’m sorry, I’ll watch my mouth.”

“So why don’t you like Ms. Elizabeth? She’s nice and she makes great cookies,” Slick asks.

Huck pats him on the head. “Don’t worry about it, lil man. She’s okay, but I just don’t like her like that and she doesn’t like me like that. I can bake my own cookies and they’re pretty awesome.”

Slick shrugs. “Okay, just looking out for you, bro.”

We all bust out laughing as Slick walks off. Huck shakes his head and goes over to speak to Elaine.

I walk over to Kara, “Babe, we might want to get going, we have our birthing class this afternoon.”

I hear the guys giving me a hard time about the classes but I don’t care. I look at them, “Hey, you just wait, Lox, until you and Sloan decide to have a kid. It’s scary as hell. I look at the pictures on the walls of the doctor’s office. There is going to be some wild shit going on in that delivery room, I’ve got to be prepared.”

They both clap a hand on my back. My brother pulls me into a one arm hug. “Nah, man, we just like giving you shit. We wouldn’t be good brothers if we didn’t.”

Lox grins. “Yeah, man, you’re growing up. We are so proud.”

“Shut up, both of you,” Sloan says as she comes to hug me. “They’re just jealous. We’ll get all of this stuff to your house. You guys go on to your class.”

I kiss her on top of the head. “Thanks, girl.” I raise my hand up and take Kara’s hand with my other one. “Thank you guys, we’ll see you later.”

Looking over at her as we walk out of the house, she’s smiling and it’s the greatest feeling in the world.

As we go out to the parkway, I notice a little Eclipse following kinda close. I hate it when assholes ride my damn bumper. I whip over into the turning lane for the doctor’s office and the Eclipse almost rear-ends me but speeds off.

“Those people are crazy,” Kara says as she’s getting out of the truck.

“Fucking crazy ass drivers,” I mumble as I walk around to grab the pillows we’re taking into the class.

She smiles over to me. “You ready for this?”

I smack her on the ass, she yelps and I kiss her. “You bet.”