Page 49 of Ghosted By Texas

I ignored their bullshit and made my singular statement. “I’m keeping it.”

I stood up and walked toward Austin. “This is MY baby. I don’t want a thing from you, but your brother was right, you deserved to at least know. So, now you do, and you can go back to your far more important Jordan drama, just like you always do.”

“I think this just proved that bullshit needs to come to an end. We’ll go get married, and…”

“No, we will not be getting married.”

“You’re having my kid, we’re getting married,” Austin demanded. Funny that he and his brother had the same response to seeing a positive pregnancy test. Their parents had clearly instilled a whopping amount of responsibility into them. Too bad he didn’t feel that same level of responsibility toward me personally when he started a relationship with me and then didn’t have the balls to end it properly before moving on with someone else.

“I refuse to marry you.” I thrust my jaw out stubbornly and crossed my arms in front of my slightly sore chest. Huh, why hadn’t I realized my boobs were all tingly and sensitive before?

“What? Why?” Austin asked, clearly shocked by my adamant refusal to marry the asshole.

“Look at you!” I shouted in his face. “You’re still playing fuck buddies with the girl who is hell bent on ruining our relationship every single time we take a chance on one another. Not only that, but I even told you about how she came to gloat about everything, and you still couldn’t see what she was up to.”

“Who said she’s even my fuck buddy?”

“We saw you at the movies with your tongue down her throat!” I screamed at him.

“And that automatically translates to me fucking her?” He asked as venom dripped from his words. “And when did she come gloat about anything to you?” He already knew she’d come to tell me that they were having sex again during our little tête-à-tête six years ago.

“It doesn’t matter. You chose her then. You chose her this last time, too. I am very clearly not your choice, and never have been, so go live the life you promised her when you were children. I’ll live mine, and you don’t have to be bothered with us.”

“Jesus,” Houston murmured from where he stood holding my best friend to his chest as if she had tried to break free and do harm to his brother. “I told you that hole you were digging with Jordan was going to bury you one day.” He explained to his clueless brother. He hadn’t been the only person to warn Austin about that. I’d done so as well, but since I had a vested interest in a certain outcome my words had fallen on deaf ears.

Houston and Clea took off for her bedroom before anything else could be said. The distraction gave me the ability to take a few paces away from Austin before I turned to look at him again. It fucking hurt. My insides ached with the need to touch him, to have him hold me and tell me that everything would be okay, but I could see the conflict in his eyes.

“I want to be a part of my child’s life.”

“I don’t want Jordan to be a part of it,” I told him point blank, even though I knew it was an impossibility and I hated myself for even voicing those words.

“Becs,” he started to argue and that did it. Fuck him. Fuck his fuck buddy. Fuck his family. I didn’t need anyone. I was so done with his back and forth. The bastard had just asked me to marry him and now, minutes later when I demand that Jordan not be in the picture, he throws a placating tone my way, ready to defend that whore in his life again.

“No. We’re done here. It’s obvious that she has been and always will remain your number one priority. Have fun with that. When the baby’s here, we can do a paternity test and all the legal bullshit that’s needed. I won’t be able to stop you from having my child around her and that fucking kills me. It guts me, Austin, because she already took you from me – twice! Now, she’ll get to play house with you and our child, too. It’s not fucking fair. I hate you so damn much right now that it’s making me sick to even look at your goddamn face!”

He must have been stunned by my sobbing, anger-laden outburst, because I was able to slip past him and out the door. I was in my car and backing out of Clea’s driveway before he even popped his head out. He stood there and watched me drive away.

It was funny how things changed in the blink of an eye. Austin somehow learned to use the texting feature on his phone to locate my contact information.

Dickhead Baby Daddy: When are you going for a doc appointment to confirm? I’d like to be there.

I scoffed at that. He’d seen the pregnancy test. Like hell he would accompany me to a lady doctor visit. I knew what they would do on my first visit, besides make me pee in a cup and take my blood. The whole process of pregnancy scared the bejesus out of me, so I’d looked up what to expect at my visit.

They were going to shove a wand up my coochie and peek at the baby I had onboard. Austin didn’t get the privilege of ever seeing my lady bits again, let alone watching as a doctor shoved what amounted to a specialized dildo inside me. I took a note out of his book and ignored his text. Then, I sent one to my bestie.

Becs: Are we still on for tomorrow?

Clea: I’m so excited!!!!!!

Becs: Whoa there! You might hurt someone with all those exclamation points.

Clea: Ha! Seriously, aren’t you excited? You might get to see your baby tomorrow.

Becs: I’m sure it will look like an indecipherable blob, and we’ll walk away underwhelmed.

It was true, I’d looked it up and couldn’t tell anything from the pictures I’d seen of early sonograms. There was a giant black and white space with more black and white shit mixed throughout. People had doctored their images to circle the blob that was supposed to be the fetus, but I wasn’t so sure they knew what they were talking about.

Clea: I bet you lunch tomorrow that you cry like a baby.

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