Rebel Heart by Penelope Ward
Sweaty as all hell and feeling beat from my outburst, I walked the rest of the way to Gia’s house.
When she opened the door, she said, “You look like you’ve been through hell and back.”
I laughed, moving past her. “I was just in a fight.”
“A fight?” She shut the door and clutched her chest in a panic. “With Elliott?”
“No…uh…” I chuckled. “With your car.”
“My car?”
“I sort of trashed it. Went apeshit on it.”
“What? I thought you said you were fixing it?”
“Well, I was. And I did. But then the damn thing broke down again and started smoking on the way home, and I lost it. Kicked the shit out of it, and now it’s gone.”
Her eyes were wide. “Gone? I don’t have a car anymore?”
“Correct. It needs to be junked.”
Gia’s mouth was hanging open. “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”
“We’ll go tomorrow and get you a new car.”
“What? Just like that? You say it so casually like that’s not a big deal. I can’t afford to buy a new car.”
I sat down at her kitchen table and kicked my feet up on a chair. “Gia…I trashed your vehicle. It’s my responsibility to replace it.”
“Well, you don’t replace a used car with a new one.”
“I don’t want you driving the baby around in something unreliable.”
She crossed her arms and blew air up to her forehead, looking frustrated.
Then I said, “I’ll tell you what. I’ll handle the down payment to make up for destroying your car. You can cover the monthly payments.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
After twenty more minutes of arguing, she finally agreed.
I suddenly got up and smacked my hands together. “Good. I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning.”
Gia was shocked that I’d taken her to the Mercedes dealership. I wasn’t going to buy her anything I didn’t consider to be the safest possible option, and I’d done my research over the past twenty-four hours.
She kept saying she could never afford the monthly payments on a Benz. I reminded her that I was handling the down payment. That didn’t mean it couldn’t be a large amount of money—a small detail I neglected to discuss with her. I assured Gia she’d be left with a reasonable monthly bill. Very reasonable. Like almost nothing.
She was wearing one of her new maternity outfits, and this particular one hid her stomach and accentuated her tits. The car dealer likely didn’t even know she was pregnant. That gave him free rein to flirt like hell with her. I was ready to snap his neck because he wouldn’t stop staring at her knockers. Not to mention, when he asked if we were married, her answer was, “No, he’s my boss.” Little shit. Then she winked at me after, and I wanted to just take her right on the goddamn showroom floor. I would’ve loved to do so much damage on the hood of one of these cars that I’d have no choice but to purchase it. She was teasing about the boss thing—sure—but that just egged Dealer Dimwit to flirt with her more.
“What can I show you next?” he asked her tits.
“Give us a minute,” I snapped, placing my arm possessively around her.
We’d just come in from test driving the SUV, when I told her, “You wanna test drive the E-Class?”
Gia was mostly considering “practical” vehicles. I couldn’t blame her because I had always rented those for her in the past whenever her car would shit the bed. But I couldn’t help noticing how she lit up when we’d passed the E-Class convertible.
She shrugged her shoulders. “Why bother?”
“Because you seem to love it.”
“I can’t get a convertible with a baby.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s not practical.”
“In what way?”
“Well…there’s no…space.”
“You planning on having more than one kid anytime soon?”
She laughed. “No. But what about things like the stroller?”
I went in search of Dealer Dimwit. “Hey, can you pop the trunk of the E-Class open?”
After he did it, I peeked my head in and smirked as I looked back at her. “Looks like plenty of space for a stroller.”
Her eyeballs were flitting back and forth. She still looked like she was searching for reasons why she didn’t deserve to have the car she actually wanted.
“Let me ask you this…” I said. “Do you plan on chopping off your hair and wearing Mom jeans after the baby is born just because those things are practical?”
“Hell no.”
“Then why do you need to sacrifice what you really want in a car? Besides, there’s plenty of room. Believe me, I wouldn’t let you get something too small.”
Her eyes were glued to the shiny silver convertible.
Gia was caving. “I guess we can test drive it.”
I winked. “That’s my girl.”
We went to take it out, and the dealer had some nerve trying to get into the passenger seat next to her this time.
I practically shoved him to the side. “Excuse me. I’ll be sitting in the front. And if you look at my girl’s tits again, not only are you gonna lose out on this deal, you’re gonna lose a mouthful of teeth.”
He swallowed and stayed quiet as he crawled into the backseat. Gia looked a little embarrassed, but my reaction shouldn’t have come as a surprise to her.
I barely remembered that he was even there once we took to the road. Gia had turned into a little speed demon in this thing, and I was loving it. Her wild hair was blowing all over the place, and all I could do was stare at her and enjoy every second of it.
This car would be worth every damn penny if I got to do this all the time.
Turning my head around to look at the back, I envisioned a car seat there and got chills. If only I could figure out what the chills were trying to tell me.
I’d finally caught up at work. Between the building project on the other side of town, the upcoming end-of-season party at The Heights, going back and forth to visit Edward, working on Gia’s hunk of shit, and going car shopping, I had a mile-long list of shit to do. But I came in at the ass crack of dawn this morning and tackled most of it by the time the dinner rush started pouring in. This time of the year, with the end of the season fast approaching, we were always extra busy.
I went behind the bar to help Riley and Carly and took a drink order for a snobby silver spoon type standing with a woman way out of his league. He ordered a scotch. I carded him just to be a dick in front of his lady friend.
He grumbled as he dug his license from his wallet. “I’ve been standing here waiting for ten minutes, and I haven’t seen one person asked for proof of age.”
I looked at his license, checking out the address after the year of birth. Dune Road. Figures. Most expensive beachfront hood in the Hamptons. No wonder he’s able to snag her.
“When a young person orders an old man’s drink, half the time it means they’re trying to act mature because they’re not of age. You ordered a scotch on the rocks.”
He snatched his license from my hand. “Or, they have taste. And we’ll take a pinot noir.”
Dune Road’s lady friend gave me a flirty smile from behind him. Yeah, I don’t blame you, sweetheart. I poured their drinks and hit him for an extra four bucks on his bill—my own personal douchebag tax. Of course, he paid with a black card.
When they were done, he told her he wanted to go out to the back deck. As he turned to walk away, his girlfriend leaned to the bar. “What’s it mean the other half of the time?”
It took me a minute to realize she was referring to my comment that dudes who order old men drinks were under age half the time. I leaned close to respond. “The other half of the time, they’re just douchebags.” She laughed and followed her cash cow out back.
After helping a few more people, I noticed the bar started to slow down so I went to he
“Is that a maternity skirt?” I snuck up behind her and spoke over her shoulder. “You look extra sexy tonight.”
“It is. It’s so comfortable and stretchy. I could probably fit you inside of it with me.”
I wanted inside, alright.
“That sounds like a challenge. You know how much I like a good…” I halted mid-sentence seeing a familiar woman walk into the restaurant. Is that Lauren? At first I thought it was. But she didn’t look like her usual put together self. She had on a baggy T-shirt and a pair of yoga pants, and when she took off her sunglasses her eyes were puffy and red. It wasn’t until she saw me and started making her way over that I was certain it was even her.
Unaware of who had just walked in, Gia turned around because I’d trailed off. “Rush?”
“Shit.”
“What did I do?”
“Not you. Lauren.”
Gia’s nose scrunched up. “Lauren?”
She heard the voice, before I could explain. “Hi, Rush,” Lauren said. “I’m sorry to drop in unannounced. Can we talk for a minute?”
Fuck.
“Sure.”
I squeezed Gia’s shoulder and whispered, “You good?”
The look she gave me screamed anything but. I gave her another squeeze. “I’ll be back. Hang tight.”
Lauren and I went to my office. She was quiet until the door closed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know where else to go.”
I pulled out a chair. “Take a seat. Whatever it is, I’m here. It’s fine.”
She looked down as she spoke. “Edward needs more surgery. You know they were hoping to take him out of the coma they have him in soon.”
“Yeah. The day before yesterday they were hoping for the end of the week. They said the swelling had gone down a lot. Did something change?”
“Not in his head. That’s still good. But they did some other scans today as a precaution and found another aneurysm in his stomach. It needs to come out. They want your consent to perform the surgery.”
“Why my consent? That’s Elliott’s decision.”
Lauren looked down again and wrung her hands. “Elliott’s not been so logical lately. He’s been…drinking a lot.”
“Everything with Edward too much to handle?”
Her eyes rose up to meet mine. Tears pooled and her bottom lip quivered.
“What’s going on, Lauren?”
“Elliott…he…he…” Unable to hold back anymore, she broke into a cry.
I handed her a box of tissues and pulled a chair next to her so I could rub her back. “It’s okay. Take your time. I’m right here.”
My heart was ricocheting off my ribcage while I waited to hear what she had to say.
Eventually she sniffled a few times and continued. “Last week…I went to his office to surprise him with his favorite dinner.”
The minute she said surprise him, I knew what was coming.
“He’d been so stressed between running the office and Edward being sick. I wanted to cheer him up.” She wiped her eyes and looked at me. “But he had someone already doing that for him. Right there in his office.”
Fuck. Such a goddamn lowlife.
“I’d suspected something was going on before. But I guess I just chose to ignore it and pretend he wasn’t cheating on me.”
I hung my head in shame of my DNA. “I’m sorry, Lauren.”
“Thank you.” After a few minutes of her telling me all the clues she should have picked up on, we rounded the conversation back to Edward’s condition.
“So is Elliott against the surgery?”
“He hasn’t been to the hospital in twenty-four hours. He’s just been drunk and pounding on my door. I’d asked him to leave because I can’t be around him right now. But I went up to visit Edward this morning, and apparently they’ve been trying to reach Elliott since yesterday, and he hasn’t called them back. They need a decision now. I’m sorry to put this on you, Rush.”
“No. Of course. It’s Elliott’s responsibility and mine. Not yours. I appreciate you coming to me. I’ll head into the hospital. Do you know where Elliott is staying?”
“I’m not sure. He was snoring on the floor outside of our apartment late last night. But this morning he was gone. I’m going to stay at my parents’ summer home in Montauk for a few days, so if you see him, tell him that he can use the apartment until I figure out what I’m going to do.”
“Okay.”
Lauren stood. I wished there was something more I could do to help her. She didn’t deserve this shit. “Montauk is twenty minutes. If you need anything at all, even just to talk or to scream about Elliott, don’t hesitate to call me.”
She gave me a hug. “Thanks, Rush.”
I opened the door to my office and she stopped. These days, I thought there wasn’t much that could shock me. But God had to prove me wrong.
Lauren turned back. “I almost forgot. We didn’t get a chance to tell anyone yet.” Her hand went to her belly. “I guess it’s not exactly happy news anymore. But…I’m seven weeks pregnant.”
Gia rushed into my office the minute Lauren was gone.
“She knows, doesn’t she?”
“No.”
Her hand clutched her chest. “Oh my God, Rush. Did Edward…I’m so self-absorbed, I wasn’t even thinking…”
“Edward’s fine. I mean...he’s not fine. But he’s not dead. Why don’t you take a seat?”
Some of the color came back to Gia’s face as she sat down in my chair. I filled her in on the latest on Edward’s medical condition and told her that Lauren had walked in on Elliott with another woman in his office. I left out the part about Lauren being pregnant. One nightmare at a time.
“So you need to head to the hospital?”
“Yeah. I need to think about whether I’m going to try and find my asshole brother or not. But I’ll have two hours in traffic to figure that shit out.”
“I’m going with you.”
I smiled, loving that she wasn’t asking permission. “Yes, ma’am.”
Oak called a friend to work the door so that he could pull double duty as manager and hostess. Ten minutes later, Gia and I were out the door. When we got inside my car, she was still lamenting over the news I’d shared.
“I feel so bad for Lauren. She looked awful when she ran out. I hate to say it, because I’m certain she’s in a lot of pain right now…but she’s better off finding out now about Elliott. It would be so much harder for her to go through all of this if they had a family.”
I hesitated to put the key into the ignition. Crap.
“What’s wrong?” Gia asked.
I shifted in my seat to face her. “You make it fucking impossible to keep shit from you.”
“What are you talking about?”
I shook my head. “I left out part of what Lauren just told me. I didn’t want to upset you.”
“What did she say?”
I took a deep breath. “Lauren’s seven weeks pregnant.”
Gia stared at me for a long time. I don’t know how I expected her to react, but it certainly wasn’t what she did next.
She started to laugh. At first lightly, but that turned into a full-fledged belly laugh. I couldn’t help but join in. The entire fucking situation was just ludicrous. This shit was better than a Jerry Springer episode. We laughed so hard that Gia snorted and said she had to pee. Then we laughed harder.
But the sad part was…we were laughing at exactly what had happened to my mother and Elliott’s mother—twenty-eight years ago.
Round two, here we come.
“You made the right decision.” Gia rested her hand on my bouncing leg to settle it. “The doctors are going to come through those doors anytime now and tell us that he’s fine.”
After we spoke to the doctors last night, I signed the consent forms for E
Even though Gia and I had a good laugh over the insanity of Lauren being pregnant, it brought a lot of bad memories back to the forefront of my mind. Lauren’s kid would be like Elliott growing up…the heir apparent. Gia’s would be like me in this awful family dynamic of having a father who didn’t give a flying fuck about his bastard child. I didn’t think I could handle another lifetime of shit that came along with being intertwined with that family. Of course, this new shit had to rear its ugly head just as I was easing my way back to Gia—thinking it could work for us. But doubt crept back in again now. And it made me fucking miserable. Because time was running out, and I knew I needed to either end this with Gia and let her move on, or get the fuck over myself.
A voice called my name and snapped me out of my thoughts. “Mr. Rushmore?”
Gia and I stood as the doctor who performed Edward’s surgery walked over.
He pulled the paper mask from his mouth and slipped the blue matching hat from his head. “Good news. Your father did great. We were able to remove the aneurysm and repair the artery wall without too much bleeding.”
“That’s great,” I said. I didn’t want to care, but at the same time, I couldn’t help feeling relieved that he pulled through.
“He’s got a very long road to recovery.” The doctor put a hand on my shoulder. “But I’m optimistic he’ll make it there. It won’t be easy. Your father’s going to need you now, more than ever.”
I was just about to thank him when a voice from behind me cut me off. A drunk, slurring, evil voice.
“No one ever needed you.”
Rookie move. You never grab the arm of a guy in a fight.
That part I remembered. Yet I couldn’t for the life of me recall what Rush had said you should do when you break up a fight. He’d told me something after I stupidly got in the middle of that rooftop brawl at The Heights months ago. Rush and Elliott were nose to nose since the doctor left the waiting room, and I was pretty sure things were about to get ugly.