Taking Chances (31 page)

“Huh.” I
glanced to Chase, then back to her, “Is that a bad thing?”

“No, no.
Definitely not bad, it's just a little early is all. Let's have an ultrasound
and get the measurements.” When we were in the room she took the measurements,
then took them again, “Your baby is about nineteen centimeters, well closer to
twenty.”

“Okay?” I had
no idea if that was normal or not.

“Usually he
would only be around eighteen right now, so it looks like he's developing
pretty quickly. Almost two weeks ahead of where he should be.” Dr. Lowdry went
to her computer and checked some things, “He was right where he should have
been at your last visit.” She said mostly to herself.

“I'm not trying
to be rude,” Chase was gripping my hand, “but you're kind of scaring me. Is it
a bad thing that he's developing quicker than most babies?”

“No, I don't
want you to think that. He's perfectly healthy, all this means is there's a
possibility that Harper won't make it to her due date. I'm not worried about
her delivering
too
early, but we'll just continue to monitor his growth.
At
most
, I'll have to put her on bedrest in a couple months or she'll go
into labor a few weeks early, which also wouldn't be bad, as long as he's fully
developed. At
least
, she'll make it to her due date and have a big baby.
Either way, there's nothing to be worried about.”

We both
breathed sighs of relief, thanked her and took our new pictures back to Mom and
Dad's. We looked at the baby names book for a little bit, but decided to close
it. We still had ten names that we liked, but Chase said he wanted to wait
until he was born to decide on the names. I watched a movie in his arms until
Chase had to go into the shop, so I left to go pick up dinner for everyone.
Chase wasn't expected home until two or so in the morning, so after dinner I
hung out with Bree, Mom and Dad for a while and fell asleep well before Chase
even got off work.

G
raduation was
this Sunday, so as a good bye to everyone, the guys were throwing one last huge
party at Chase's house Friday night. Chase told me he'd stay at his parent's
house with me since I wasn't planning on going, but I practically kicked him
out, telling him it was the last time to really be with all the guys before
everyone moved back home. Bree had been a little easier to get out, since she
was planning on spending the entire weekend with Konrad before he moved back to
Oregon, but still whined when I refused to go with them. Thankfully, Mom
completely understood why I wanted to stay away, and supported my decision to make
them go. I mean, it's a little trashy for a five and a half month pregnant
teenager to go to a party where everyone was wasted and playing drinking games.
I knew if I had gone, Chase and Bree would constantly be at my side to make
sure I was fine, and I wanted them to enjoy this. Once they were all gone, Mom,
Dad and I ordered Mexican food and piled onto the couch to watch movies and
feel my gummy bear dance around and kick the crap out of me. Normally we
couldn't make him move unless Chase was talking to my swollen belly, and even
then he mostly just rolled now. But Mexican food was the sure way to make my
boy dance. Over the last two weeks, the kicks had become stronger, and there
were only a few times when other people couldn't feel him too. The second movie
had just ended when Bree texted me.

Breanna - 'Umm...that girl that Chase works
with...what's her name Trick, Trixie, Tramp?'

Me - 'LOL! Trish...what about her?'

Breanna - 'She just showed up.'

Me - 'Ugh. Seriously? I can't stand her. Why is she at
a college party anyway? Wait, who invited her?'

Breanna - 'My thoughts exactly. I'm guessing Chase
did.'

Me - 'Aces. Well keep an eye on her, let me know.
Skank.'

 Breanna - 'Will do friend! You can always still come
over...?'

Me - 'Nah, I'm about to go to bed. Besides, I don't
want Chase to think I don't trust him, because I do. I just don't trust her.'

Breanna - 'Kay, I'll let you know if something goes
down. Night love you'

Me - 'Love you too, thanks.'

It bothered me
more than I wanted it to, but I wasn't about to ask Chase why she was there.
It's not like the parties were exclusive to SDSU, but I'm pretty sure he said
she was twenty eight, and he knows I don't like her. Like I said, I wasn't one
of those girlfriends who didn't allow him to have female friends, because he
definitely had plenty, but they all knew we were together, and none of them
ever flirted with him after our pregnancy announcement. Trish obviously didn't
care that he was taken or about to have a baby with me. She'd text him in the
middle of the night for no reason, the few times I'd been to the shop since
first meeting her, she was always still in his section laughing and touching
his arm, even if she had clients waiting. And let's not forget how she asked
him almost daily to come to her place after the shop closed for a late dinner –
Chase said no every time – or all her new tattoos that she'd
only
let
Chase do. Chase said she was just like one of the guys, but I'm female, I was
now positive she wasn't gay and knew what she was doing, and it pissed me off.

I barely slept
that night. Despite telling me he would, Chase didn't come home, which meant I
couldn't get comfortable without his arms around me, I hadn't heard from him
and
Chase. Didn't. Come. Home.
Not like he never stays at his house
anymore, it is his house after all, but almost every night we fall asleep in
the same bed whether it's here or there. Thankfully most nights was here since
I still don't feel comfortable flaunting my relationship with Chase in front of
Brandon. But we still ended up there and the few times we did were carefully
coordinated so we wouldn’t run into him.

I continued to
tell myself that Chase probably decided to actually drink last night since it
was his last party with those guys, and to be happy that he didn’t drive drunk.
And it’s not like I need him to give me a full report when we're apart, but
this time I knew Trish was at that party, and that is what really bothered me.
At least Bree didn't text me again, which meant nothing happened, but that just
didn't seem to matter to me right now. I had already taken a shower, gotten
ready for the day, made breakfast and was currently going through the baby
names book with a different colored highlighter to narrow down the names even
more, and it was only seven. I breathed a sigh of relief and scolded myself for
acting paranoid when Chase texted me.

Chase - 'Hey beautiful, come by the house, I have a
surprise for you.'

Me - 'Surprise? Really now.'

Chase - ';-) Yep, see you soon.'

I frowned at
the screen. Chase never did smiley faces. I shook my head…paranoid, absolutely
paranoid. I needed to cool it, or I was going to drive myself crazy. Grabbing
my keys and hopping into my Expedition, I drove to his house trying to figure
out what the surprise was, and why he was up so dang early. I tried to remain
quiet so I could sneak into his room without waking up anyone, but Brandon's
husky voice caught me.

“Hey Harper,
where were you last night?”

I turned to see
him sitting on the kitchen counter, coffee mug in hand. My heart dropped when I
looked into his gray eyes. I wanted to curl up in his arms and take back the
last five months. “Uh, thought it'd be a little awkward considering.” I waved a
hand over my stomach.

“Oh, yeah.” His
eyes stayed glued to my small round belly, “Yeah, I guess. How is that going?”

“It's good.” I
said softly, watching his face carefully while I said the next words, “It's
going to be a boy.”

One of the days
when we were in Arizona for Christmas, I had been in the kitchen with his mom
cooking barefoot. Brandon started teasing that all I needed now was to be
pregnant, and it would be a perfect picture. I had thrown an oven mitt at him,
which he dodged and brought back over to me, wrapping his arms around me and
kissing my neck. He promised he'd been joking but said whenever we did have
kids, he wanted a boy to name him after his dad. I hadn't been ready to talk
about marriage with him at that point, but in the joyful mood of that day I had
laughed and promised to pop out a boy for him ASAP. Even through the laughing,
he got a wide smile and his eyes sparkled. My heart squeezed at that memory.

He blew out
heavily and closed his eyes, probably remembering that day too. “That's uh,
that's great Harper. I'm happy for you.”

My little gummy
bear turned over and delivered a sharp and painful kick. I gasped and my hand
flew to my stomach, I hadn't had one that hurt until then.

Brandon jumped
off the counter and rushed to me, “Are you okay? What happened?”

I laughed and
waved him off, “I'm fine. He just kicked me, it hurt a little and caught me by
surprise.”

“I didn't think
they could kick that hard yet.”

I tilted my
head and smiled at him, I wasn't sure how he knew that it
was
still
early. “Yeah, well the Doctor said it isn't incredibly common for the baby to
move this much yet, but she figured since he's still so healthy and a little on
the big side already that it was fine, and he would most likely come early. How
did you know that though?”

He smiled
sheepishly and ducked his head, it was such a strange thing to see on a man
that looked like him, “I've been looking it up.”

My heart
warmed, “How did you even know how far along I was though?”

“I overheard
Chase talking to Brad about your due date.” His face fell at the same time my little
gummy bear started in on a string of softer kicks.

“Oh there he
goes again!” I grabbed Brandon's hand and put it on my stomach.

I don't know
why I did it, that wasn't fair to do to him. I was silently cursing myself for
unintentionally hurting Brandon even more, but his face lit up as he whispered
he could feel them. We stood like that for a couple minutes until I remembered
Chase was waiting for me, and might walk in on this. He didn't care when the guys
he lived with or worked with would rub my belly, but I'm sure he would throw a
fit if he saw Brandon do it. I stepped away, but kept smiling at him so I
wouldn't come across as rude.

“So um, why are
you up so early?”

He blinked and
looked up from my stomach before going back to retrieve his mug, “Couldn't
sleep last night, so I went surfing this morning.”

“Good waves?”

“They were
decent.” He shrugged, “Why are you here this early? I thought Chase left for
his parent's last night.”

“No, he stayed.
He texted me not too long ago asking me to come over. Speaking of, I should
probably go let him know I'm here.” Brandon and I hadn't shared more than a
handful of words since our breakup, and I honestly would have loved to sit on
the couch and talk to him for hours, there was so much I wanted to say to him.

Brandon nodded
slowly and flashed a quick smile, “It was good to see you Harper.”

“You too.” I
walked to the hallway entrance and turned back to find him watching me with a
sad expression, the same one he'd worn every time I'd seen him in the last few
months. “I never meant to hurt you Brandon, I hope you know that.”

I hurried down
the hall and turned the knob to Chase's room. It was locked so I knocked and
stood there for a few seconds, pressing my ear to the door to hear if there was
movement. There wasn’t, he probably fell back asleep since it took me so long
to get here. With a sigh I turned back and walked into the kitchen where
Brandon was rinsing out his mug. He turned to leave and started when he saw me.

“I thought you
were going...?”

“His door is
locked, he probably fell asleep again.”

“Oh.” He looked
towards the hall on the opposite side of the living room that would lead to his
room, then back to me, “I could make you breakfast? I don't have anything going
on today.”

“Don't worry
about it, I already ate. I'm probably going to –”

A door opened
down the hall and my jaw dropped to the floor when I saw Trish walk out in
nothing but underwear and Chase's favorite concert shirt. She rubbed her eyes
and stretched, causing the shirt to rise up farther.

“Was someone
knocking?” She asked groggily.

Oh. My. Word.
No effing way she just walked out of Chase's room. I spared a quick glance to
Brandon whose face was getting red with anger and staring at the hall, then
pushed past Trish to walk into Chase's room that now had the door wide open.
Chase was asleep in bed in only his boxers, his arm stretched out where I guess
Trish's body had just been. All the air left my lungs and I had to grab the
door frame with one hand and the knob with the other to keep myself standing.

“Harper?”
Brandon breathed behind me.

I turned and
tears started streaming down my face when I saw him. I'd hurt him so badly,
cheated on him and crushed him though he'd never once done anything but love
me. Now here I am looking at my boyfriend and the father of my unborn child
after a night with another woman. I would expect Brandon to smirk, say that
karma's a bitch, and I deserved this. Instead his face was worried when he
looked at me, and downright murderous when he glanced at Chase. I stumbled away
from both of them and down the hall, stopping short when I saw Bree. She was
standing across the living room from me with Konrad, both looking like they
just woke up and didn't understand why Trish was in the kitchen. Bree did a
double take when she saw me, Brandon now behind me again, and her eyes went
wide as her head slowly turned back to the kitchen.