Page 37 of Due At The Same Time
Indi
As I stuffed the incriminating letter back in Ambrose and Astrid’s recycling bin, my mind was whirling.
Astridhad gone to a sperm bank.
Her baby wasn’t Ambrose’s at all.
This news was so insane I couldn’t think about anything else. There was Ambrose all excited to be a father, but he didn’t know his balls were largely empty and his baby was another man’s.
For some reason, I didn’t tell Finn about it as the weeks went by.
I wasn’t sure exactly why. Why did I feel a little. . . protective of my stuffy old ex?
What should I do? What exactly was my responsibility here? Unless I went digging in their garbage again, I didn’t have any proof.
The day of my baby shower dawned bright and sunny, a perfect fall day for our low-key gathering.
I opened my window to breathe in the fresh air, only to hear the disharmonious sounds of my ex-husband and his now ex-fiancée yelling at each other.
Ambrose was not the kind of man who yelled, so I wondered what had gotten him so heated under the collar, but all I heardwas his very angry, “don’t call her that ever again” before I banged the window shut again.
I wasn’t going to let him or Astrid ruin my baby’s big day!
However, I should have known there was bullshit afoot.
Somehow, I shouldn’t have been surprised when visitors began to stream into Astrid and Ambrose’s front yard, first Millicent and all of her horrible rich asshole friends in their Rolls-Royces, then Astrid’s friends from Pilates class, and Ambrose’s coworkers.
Thehell?
She had changed thedateof her party to be the same day as mine, but starting an hour before, and before long all her guests had taken up the street parking and there was an enormous catering truck from Pumpernickel Princess Palace blockingmydriveway.
The sound of a hired string quartet began to stream out of their spacious three-story, as Astrid’s guests gathered on the lawn.
Astrid was so jealous she couldn’t bear to let anyone else have any attention. Her party would always have to be the biggest, most luxurious, and most expensive.
But I had something they didn’t. And for once I decided to put aside my principles and be a little bit petty.
“Finn, do you want to come out here?” I asked, as innocently as I could, as he pulled a tight white collared shirt on and began to do up his cuffs.
“Sure, babe,” he said, rolling his sleeves up instead so his powerful forearms were visible, muscles flexing at his throat and wrists.
I led the way outside, Finn following me.
I knew he looked and smelled absolutely sinful, tall and built, like a dark Irish sex god, his hair wet from the shower and that absolutely criminally sexy aftershave.
But of course, I couldn’thelpit that my baby daddy was this sexy, and if Astrid hadn’t moved her shower to the same day as mine, Finn wouldn’t have walked out at the exact moment Ambrose and Astrid were about to do their gender reveal.
Astrid was preening herself on being the center of attention, and she was just counting down to zero, holding one of those little exploding cannons that would burst out either pink or blue confetti.
Ambrose was standing beside her in a dove-gray suit. He was looking like something a cat would drag in these days—drawn face, haunted eyes, big dark circles under them.
I had never seen him look so knocked off his balance, off that kingly pedestal he had always seemed permanently affixed on.
But even if I could forgive what he had done, I didn’t think I could ever forget the sound of his voice, rough and gravelly, saying “You want a baby in this belly?”
Nope, couldn’t forget that.
“3. . . “ Astrid said, her jaw practically unhinging with how widely she smiled as she looked around at her audience.
