Page 40 of Catch My Fall (Catch)

Chapter Twenty-One

Waking up this morning was brutal, mostly because I was suffering from an emotional hangover. Opening my eyes, I found Tristan on his side watching me sleep.

“Morning, baby,” he said with a smile.

“How long have you been watching me sleep, weirdo?”

He chuckled as he reached his hand out and pushed a piece of hair off my forehead. “I admit it, I’m totally weird for you. Don’t worry; I haven’t been sitting here staring at you for hours. I woke up a few minutes ago when my alarm went off and I’ve been watching you sleep because I was debating whether to wake you up or not. I don’t know about you but I’m completely shit-kicked. Wanna take a mental health day with me?”

It wasn’t even something I needed to debate about. “Absolutely. I’m exhausted.”

“Awesome. Are we getting up or going back to sleep?”

Snuggling into his chest I draped my arm across his stomach and sighed contentedly. “Back to sleep.”

Laughing drowsily he joined his hand with mine and mumbled, “That’s the choice I was pulling for.”

* * *

The next time I woke up I felt much, much better. Tristan was still zonked out so I left him to it and went to take a shower. I was gone for quite a while—it takes a fair amount of time to shower and then dry and straighten my hair—but when I came back he was still out. Leaving him to sleep I went to the living room and with shaking hands sent a text off to Macy’s mom.

Me: I know that Macy’s pregnant. I’m not upset that she kept it from me at all, but Iwanted you to know that I know. Please tell her that I support her unconditionally and that I will stand by her side no matter what she chooses to do.

Mary: Oh honey… she wanted to tell you but she didn’t want to do it until she made her decision. Did your father tell you?

Me: What? NO! How does he know?

Mary: He’s known for months. He and the Winthorps are pushing hard for her to give the baby up for adoption… but I don’t want her to and I don’t really think she’s going to. I’m going to see her later today. I’ll talk to her and let her know that you know. She’s one centimeter dilated so she could go at any time. Not sure if she’s going to want to talk to anyone before she has the baby—I’ll text you tomorrow and let you know.

Me: Tell her that I love her.

Mary: I promise that I will.

I sat quietly for a while and thought about my best friend giving birth to a baby that had either Brady or Chad as its biological father. I don’t know what I would do in her position, and all I could do was pray that everything works out the way that it’s supposed to.

Pushing away those heavy thoughts, I headed back to Tristan’s room to see if he was awake yet. He wasn’t and the only difference from when I left the room last was that his naked chest was now cuddled against the pillow that I slept with, and it was adorable. Unable to let the moment pass without capturing it, I got my phone and snapped a few photos of him. The sound of the pictures being snapped woke him up and he cracked open his eye and looked at me. “Whatcha doin’ baby?”

Laughing softly, I climbed up onto the bed with him and bent forward to kiss him along his jawline. “I saw this beautiful boy cuddling the pillow that I used last night and I had to take some pictures to preserve the moment. You’re hot when you sleep, Stan.”

Chuckling sleepily, he sat up and pulled me onto his lap before burying his face in my hair. “You smell fresh. Shower?”

“Yep. Not all of us are built to laze around all day.”

“Idea. How about I take a shower and we go get something to eat? I’m starving.”

The sound of my stomach growling was my answer, and we both cracked up. After shifting me off his lap he walked across the room and grabbed a fresh pair of boxers out of his drawer before heading off to the bathroom.

After he was ready we went to Olive Garden for lunch. He laughed as I recounted my first experience with Darby at the restaurant, eating clothes and all. “Darbs is a fuckin’ trip, that’s for damn sure. Did she tell you she’s on the wall at The Big Texas Steak Ranch?”

“No! For what?”

“The restaurant has a seventy-two ounce steak challenge and Darby saw that guy onMan versus Fooddo it. The deal is you have to eat the steak, a salad, a roll with butter, a baked potato and shrimp cocktail in an hour, and you can’t leave a bite that isn’t fat on the plate. Almost no one can do it, and most that attempt it fail. They even sit a bucket next to you in case you puke while you’re trying. That fuckin’ lunatic went in there and made that challenge her bitch. Me, Austin and Trace did it with her and all three of us bombed out before we were even twenty ounces in. She never lets us forget that she’s tougher than we are.”

“She’s so skinny! Where the heck did she put seventy-two ounces of steak and all the extras?”

“Don’t let her size fool you—Darby’s the fuckin Terminator. You can’t ever tell her that I admitted this to you, but I’m pretty sure she could take me. Austin, Trace and I were teaching her how to defend herself when she was just in Kindergarten and by the time she got to junior high I swear to God she was going easy on us. Be glad that Darby’s on your team—she’s an asset for sure.”

I laughed, half in astonishment and half in admiration. “Believe me, I thank my lucky stars every single day that she’s my roommate. I was so stressed out when the assignments were emailed out, and I was in a dead panic thinking that I’d get some crazy bitch.”

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