Laughing Fate (29 page)

Perri wrestled the phone away from Puck and listened to what James had to say. “She’s okay now, but she hurt her ankle pretty bad. No, she’s not staying off of it. I know! She’s so stubborn! I don’t think she’ll do that, James. Well, first off, you know that not even you could make her behave. Plus Potter would be pretty mad…”

“DON’T YOU DARE!” Puck screamed, grabbing for the phone.

“
Who’s Potter? Well, he’s her-

“
Perri’s pregnant!” Puck screamed, trying to cut off Perri.

The whole room could hear the yells coming from the phone. Perri jabbed Puck with her elbow, her face turning red. “How could you?” She whispered to Puck angrily.

“You were telling James about Potter! What did you expect me to do, you little snitch?”

A quieter voice came on over the phone. It was James’s wife, Penny. “Umm, girls? James is packing to come visit you; I just thought you should know. He’s a little mad. He was saying something about killing the bastard that knocked up his sister? Which one of you is pregnant? It’s not both of you, is it?”

Perri shot Puck a frightened look and cleared her throat. “Umm, I am.”

Puck grabbed the phone and tried to convince Penny to tie up her husband. Penny just laughed and said she was sorry that she’d miss all the action but that the kids had school.  Puck threw the phone at Perri after she’d hung up and yelled, “Are you happy now? You stupid snitch! James is coming to kill us!”

“Not us,” Perri said softly, “Just the father of my baby and your boyfriend.”

“
Who’s going to kill me?” Potter asked from the stairs as he came down. He had taken a quick shower and wet hair was falling across his forehead. He was also wearing one of her fluffy robes. Puck couldn’t help the smile that came to her lips at the sight of Potter in her Fraggle Rock robe.

Potter frowned to see Puck standing on her bad foot. He scooped her up, ignoring her protests, and settled her on his lap after he sat down. He smiled with satisfaction when Puck stopped squirming and gave her a quick kiss on the lips as reward.

“Now who’s going to kill me?”

“
James, my brother. He found out about last night and wanted me to move in with him so he could watch my every move. But once he found out about Perri being pregnant and about you hanging around…”

“
He wouldn’t be coming up here if you hadn’t mentioned the baby!”

“
I wouldn’t have mentioned it if you hadn’t mentioned Potter!”

Potter glanced at his friends to see if they were getting any of this. Dave had slowly relaxed his stance as he realized that Puck was getting the yelling she deserved. Now he was standing by his wife, talking softly to her. Brad was grinning and nudging James, enjoying the show. Potter brought his attention back to Puck as he had to restrain her from jumping up and attacking Perri.

They didn’t look seriously angry. This was one of their sisterly battles that would blow over as soon as it was done. Still, Puck had to take it easy for Pete’s sake! She was injured and Perri was pregnant, what were they doing battling? He winced as Puck elbowed him in the gut, but kept his arm around her.

“
Hey! You’re injured, remember? You still need to get it checked out by a doctor, too. Stop your squirming and just rest. And you,” Potter said, pointing at Perri. “You are going to sit down and rest too! God, you’re pregnant- what are you doing fighting with Puck?” He ignored both sets of glares that were being thrown his way and pinched Puck’s bottom.

Her glare narrowed dangerously, but she settled down in his arms and contented herself with just glaring at Perri. She pulled her finger across her throat in the classic, ‘You are so dead’ gesture and then crossed her arms like a petulant child. Potter rewarded her by slowly caressing her leg, his fingers lingering on her thigh.

Puck felt herself relax under his hands, thinking that she could get used to being around this man. She could even get used to his overbearing friends. They meant well, they were just stupid men. Couldn’t help them for being pig headed. Puck smiled at that thought and snuggled into Potter. It was about time he started comforting her, she’d just gone through a freakin ordeal-she did not need anyone else to be yelling at her.

Potter smiled at Puck, a goofy smile full of all of his love. “Now that you’re comfortable, tell all of us exactly what happened yesterday.”

Puck sighed. She hadn’t thought that she could get away with out telling them what had happened. But she sure had hoped she could.

“
I went to Kneeland because it was a place that I used to go with Drea and Kyle. I was just missing them, so I decided to drive up there and go on a small hike and just enjoy myself. But after I texted you, Potter, I accidently dropped my phone in the water. And then my jeep broke down… I really did stop to consider my actions! I didn’t want to do anything stupid,” Puck ignored the snorts and snickers that filled the room and continued, “So I sat and thought about whether I should stay in the jeep or not-

“
You should have sat and thought some more, darlin,” one of the pigs said.

She ignored them and continued, “I just couldn’t sit and wait for help to arrive. I hadn’t told any of you that I was going there-

“Which is going to change from now on,” Potter interrupted firmly. “From now on I know where you’re going. That way, if something happens I know where to start looking for you.”

His words made Puck stiffen and a wave of indignation swept through her body. She was old enough to take care of herself, dang it! She narrowed her eyes and thought, ‘Just keep thinking that buddy.’ There would be time enough to argue about that later though. If she didn’t start talking soon they would know that she didn’t plan on changing her ways.

Puck shrugged and continued her tale, “So anyways, I started walking down the mountain. It got dark pretty quick, so it took me a long time to walk down the dirt road. I had to stick to the bushes on one side just so I knew for sure I wouldn’t fall off the…umm I mean I was tired. It took a long time to walk because I’m just a weak girl.”

She sure hoped they didn’t notice her slip about the cliff. She was trying to reassure them that she’d been safe! “Then I started hearing something following me- but it was just Taly, er I mean Pete. Pete the Pirate. I was almost to town when Casanova here tried to run me over…for the second time in our brief friendship.” She slanted him a look and added, “I think he’s trying to kill me.”

Puck patted Potter’s arm affectionately and smiled at his mock frown. “Oh, and at some point I tripped and sprained my ankle. That’s all. Nothing too dangerous happened and if none of you had found me I would have walked to Trinidad and then called you. So you see, there was no real reason to worry. I was just fine.”

Everyone interrupted then to protest that she had NOT been fine. Potter just sighed and said, “You scare me, Puck.” He kissed her softly on the nose and cradled her close to his chest. Loving Puck was definitely going to be bad on his stress levels.

“I know,” Puck said with a wise ass smirk on her face. She fingered her robe and smiled at him. “You’re so gay.”

Brad laughed and said, “Yeah man, pink is so your color!” Soon the room was filled with laughter and good natured teasing, all the tension quickly leaving.  Puck looked around the room at her smiling sister, the laughing men and the strong man that held her in her arms. How had she gotten so lucky to have these people in her life?

Chapter 10

All good things…

Several days had passed since Puck’s misadventure. Her ankle was pronounced a sprain by the doctor Potter had demanded she see. Already it was beginning to heal, which meant that Puck could go back to work. Just thinking about her finances was enough to make her squirm. She’d missed several days of work because of her stupid ankle.

Already her rent was passed due, her electricity was close to being shut off, and pretty soon they’d run out of food. Puck dropped her head in her hands. Why did Potter insist she go see a doctor? Didn’t he understand that doctors cost money? Puck threw Perri’s medical bills on top of the growing pile of bills. Pregnancy was NOT cheap. Her sister had special vitamins to take, special check ups, special little bills, and special little baby things to buy. Puck banged her head softly against the table. They were going to be dead broke.

Puck looked up to see Perri waddling into the room. Okay, she wasn’t actually waddling yet.  She was only a few months along, but Puck teased her unmercifully about waddling. She waved to her sister and shoved the bills out of view.

“Good morning, how you feeling?”

“
Fine. I think the morning sickness is finally going away,” Perri said with a smile as she placed her hand on her belly. “Has James showed up yet? It worries me that he hasn’t arrived yet. Penny made it sound like he was leaving right that second.”

“
Yeah, I know. I wonder if she was able to convince him to stay out of it.”

Both sisters looked at each other and said, “Nah…he’ll show up.” James was the eldest of all the Berri folk. He was crazy just like the rest of them, but had a noble streak as well. He had always been a third parent to the rest of the kids- when he wasn’t beating the stuffing out of them or leading them into some kind of adventure.

Now that they were all grown up, James was usually busy being the head of his own little family. He had three girls, all of which were mischievous little monkeys.  However, with the news of his little sister being pregnant and Puck having a guy hanging around, there was no doubt in either sister’s mind that he’d be coming for a visit. And he wouldn’t be happy.

As if their thoughts had conjured him up, James came walking through their front door. His eyes narrowed when he saw Perri standing with one hand resting on her belly, the other on her lower back. She might as well have had a sign hanging from her neck that said: YEP, I’M KNOCKED UP.  James looked around, probably looking for the guy responsible, and let his overnight bag thump onto the floor.

“Thanks for knocking, big brother.”

“Sure no problem. How’s your ankle?”

“
Better.”

“
Good, now come here and hug me before I kill you.”

Puck grinned and limped over to her brother. He had always been her favorite. He was tall, close to six feet with brown hair cut real short, piercing blue eyes, and a cleft chin. Although he wasn’t smiling now, he usually had an easy grin on his lips. He was a noble guy, with an odd ball sort of humor, and was well liked by nearly everyone.

He hugged Puck quickly and then walked over to Perri. He looked her over and then hugged her quickly.

“
How are you doing?”

“
Good.”

James nodded and then looked around the house again. “No boys?”

Puck grinned and rolled her eyes. “They’re all locked up in our attic right now. Why? Did you want to meet our harem?”

“
Shnikey, Puck! Do you have to use the word harem? Now why don’t you two tell me what has been going on?”

Puck grinned at her big brother. Ever since she could remember he had said ‘shnikey’ instead of the “S” word. He pronounced it Nike with a ‘sh’ in front.  Hearing him say it was like a time warp back to their childhood.  Puck filled him in briefly on all the latest news, omitting facts that would have made him angry.

James listened carefully while Puck talked, knowing that he wasn’t getting the full story. He looked Puck over and couldn’t help but notice a change in her. She was softer somehow, had lost that chip on her shoulder. She was practically glowing- his little sister was in love. He didn’t quite know what he thought of that, so he turned his attention to problem number two.

He looked at Perri and found himself frowning. His baby sister was pregnant. He had never planned what he’d do in this situation. He had back up plans out the wazoo for Puck, but nothing dealing with boys. Frankly, he had never thought Puck would ever let a guy touch her (she seemed to hate guys) and even if she didn’t hate guys- most of the male population feared her. Sure he had plans for if Puck landed up in jail, died, or became a drug addict… He didn’t have any plans for Perri. He still found it hard to believe that Perri was pregnant. She was the good kid. He was going to have to kill the bastard that did this to her. He noticed Perri’s healthy glow and grudgingly admitted that she looked happy as well.

A knock sounded on the door in the middle of Puck trying to explain the logical reasoning behind choosing to walk in the dark through a forest.  James jumped up and grabbed the door before either sister could. Standing at the door was a tall man, with hair that was too long, and a too handsome face. James didn’t like the look of him at all. He looked like a womanizer. The man even had a tattoo around his bicep.

“Who are you?” Demanded Potter at seeing a guy open the door.

James scowled and said, “Who the hell are you and what are you doing at my sister’s door?”James crossed his arms and glared at Potter. Was this the man who knocked up his sister? Just the thought of this man touching his baby sister filled him with rage. She was just a kid! James pulled back his fist and punched the man in his too pretty face.