Page 60 of Beside the Rolling Waves
“I know we had sex three times. It’s quite possible that you might have gotten pregnant. I…didn’t have enough experience to have any kind of protection, and I guess I assumed that it was your responsibility. That was my bad.”
“Just like that?” She stopped again. “Aren’t you going to question me about how I know he’s yours?”
“I don’t care. I want him. I love him. But I don’t want to be dangled around on a string every time you go on a tear. He’s either going to be all mine, or I’ll see you in court.”
The way he said it made a shiver run down Becky’s spine. She would have backed down right away. But Stella stopped again.
“Hooray. Whatever. I can’t believe you actually want him. But you actually offered me more than what I wanted, and I’d be a fool not to take five million dollars in exchange for the kid. He’s done nothing but whine and fuss since he was born.” She wrinkled her nose. “Good riddance.”
“My lawyer can cut you a check today. How soon can you have the child here?” Rodney asked.
Becky, at that point, was tempted to ask if the child had a name. She was kind of tired of both of them acting like he didn’t. But she understood that Rodney was just trying to go along with Stella and was playing the cards he had been dealt.
Stella’s eyes lit up at the idea of getting the money that fast. “I can have him for you in an hour.”
“All right. The funds are already in my lawyer’s account. He can write you out a check as soon as you bring him. As long as you sign the papers stating that you’re giving up all of your maternal rights.”
“No problem. I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.” She stood up and walked out the door.
Becky waited for the door to close before she looked at Rodney. “Do you really think it’s going to be that easy?”
“I don’t know. I couldn’t figure out why she wanted me to meet her to begin with. I’m still not sure I understand it. It was like she didn’t think that I would believe her, but what was I going to do?”
“I don’t know. It seems weird, but sometimes people do weird stuff, stuff where it’s kinda hard to square with anything that resembles intelligence.”
He couldn’t argue with that. Stella didn’t seem like she was the brightest bulb in the bunch. And Becky wondered what it was in her past that had caused her to become what she was. A bunch of bad decisions? The idea that she felt free whenever she was doing whatever she wanted, even if that was having sex with almost strangers? She wasn’t sure. But she did know that wasn’t the way to lasting happiness.
“We don’t have to sit here and wait. There’s a nice park across the street. We can take a walk.”
“It’s so nice to be without the babies. I miss them, but…we don’t have heavy car seats to carry, and we don’t have to worry about when they’re going to eat next.”
“It hasn’t even been three weeks.”
They grinned at each other. Becky had asked Vera if she would be willing to watch the babies for a day while they drove to Chicago to see the lawyer.
She hadn’t said what it was about, although eventually it was going to come out that Rodney had a child. She figured she would let Rodney do that, whenever he wanted to, but she imagined that he would want to wait and see how it went today before he told everyone. Until the papers were signed, there was always a chance that Stella was going to back out.
“I guess I can’t help but wish that there was some way we could help Stella too, you know?”
They had exited the lawyer’s building and were waiting to cross the street to the park.
“Are you serious?” Rodney said, looking down at her. He seemed to be searching her face to see if there was any kind of guile or humor on it, but she was dead serious.
“Yeah.” She nodded. “Doesn’t it make you sad? I mean how misguided and pathetic she must be.”
“Yeah. That’s true. I…guess I can understand why you’d feel bad for her. I guess for me, I just want to stay away from her. I know she’s bad news for me.”
“She’s still a temptation?” Becky asked, wondering for the first time if there was more there than what Rodney had said. After all, he’d avoided temptation all his life, except for with Stella. Maybe there was some kind of magnetic pull he had with her.
“No,” he said immediately. “Not at all. It’s more… I just know what kind of morals she has. And I know that I don’t want to be caught in that same situation again. Where I’m alone withher. I don’t think I would have any trouble resisting her. It’s not that. It’s just… I know she feels no guilt about what happened. And those kinds of people, people who don’t see anything wrong with sleeping with anyone, are dangerous to married men and everyone.” He held up his ring. “I really like being married, by the way.”
She grinned. “It’s funny, we’re not getting any more sleep as a married couple than we did before we were married.”
He laughed with her, knowing that was true. The twins had been up almost constantly every night of their marriage. It certainly had not been a romantic time for them.
“Maybe we can have Vera watch them overnight some night, so I might actually get to sleep with my wife. In the biblical sense,” Rodney said, and then he laughed.
Becky figured it was okay. They had the rest of their lives. And she enjoyed some nice kissing before and after their nuptials. Considering that she was kinda new to the whole kissing thing, she was still greatly enjoying it too much to think she was missing anything else.
