Marco (The Men of Indecent Exposure #1) (7 page)

And I did know that. She didn’t love my job—the
other
one—but she tolerated it because she knew I wouldn’t let it go anytime soon. Not until I was ready. That still didn’t change the fact that she lost a lot of sleep on weekends, knowing I was out ‘til the sun was damn near up. My mother and other sisters didn’t complain about it as much as Luce did, but I knew they felt the same way. With Luce and I being close, she knew a lot of what went on behind the scenes—the drugs, the alcohol, the propositions—and that only made her more uneasy about it.

“I’m fine,” I assured her, and that was mostly true. All that hung over my head was the
‘Brynn thing’
.

For the fraction of a second I let that thought occupy space inside my head, Lucia picked up on it. Before she could ask, I repeated myself. “I’m fine.”

Her eyes searched my face a little while longer, and then she let it go. “Call me if you need to, Marco,” she made sure to say when I walked her to the door.

I nodded and told her I would.

She took off after that and I got back to work. I had a few customers back to back, so I was busy for a while, but then things slowed down. I used the time to organize my equipment and clean my station, and then went out to check on things up front.

Two of my artists, Pete and Manuel, were hanging out, talking about TV shows I didn’t watch and music I didn’t listen to, but other than that it was dead up there, too.

I checked the time. It was just a little past four, which meant I needed to head out. I told the guys I probably wouldn’t be back to lock up, so closing the shop was on them this evening. They assured me everything would be taken care of and I was out.

According to my GPS, I’d driven halfway to the address Brynn gave me, which was different from where the paternity test had been done a few days ago. I had about ten minutes to get myself together so I could walk in there and not let it show that I was kinda nervous. No one knew what I was doing today but Justin, and I wanted to keep it that way. The fewer people in my business, the better.

My heart raced when I rounded the corner and the doctor’s office came into view. I found a space to park beside Brynn’s car and took a breath. This was it; the moment of truth, but I couldn’t seem to get up the nerve to go inside.

Quit stalling and man up!

I cut off the engine and stepped out, holding my head high like I was taught to do. It was too late to be worried or afraid because what’s done was done at this point, so there was nothing left to do but face the music. This could go one of two ways and I had to be prepared for either. Even if the results showed that Brynn had been wrong about it being me, I made up my mind to be gracious about it. There was no sense in rubbing salt in her wound if things didn’t turn out the way she was expecting them to. I would wish her well, then we’d part ways respectfully, and that would be the end of it.

I wandered down a hallway, quickly finding the waiting room where Brynn sat. She didn’t see me yet because her back was to me and her attention was focused on the magazine in her hands.

I could’ve walked away, could’ve gone back the way I came and let her think I never even showed. It would’ve been that easy. She didn’t know anything about me—where I lived, where I worked, and there had to be at least a hundred men with the name Marco Rios in this state. I could’ve very easily disappeared and went on about my business.

Could have
.

But didn’t.

Despite being freaked-the-hell-out right now, I wasn’t that kind of guy.

“Hey,” I said, getting Brynn’s attention.

Startled, she looked up with the gentle eyes I hadn’t forgotten and greeted me with a weak smile. “Did you find it okay?” she asked.

There was a seat beside her and one across from her, which I decided to take instead. “I didn’t have any trouble.”

She nodded and shifted in her seat, crossing her legs. When she nodded and looked back down at her magazine, I got the hint; she was still upset and didn’t really feel like talking to me, but that was cool. It relieved me of the pressure of having to find something to talk about
.

With her actively ignoring me, I took in her appearance again. The last time we met up, at the restaurant, I was in a fog of confusion as my head reeled over the news she dropped on me. But even then, I was attracted to her. Like I said, I have my preferences just like any other man and she happened to be the type of woman I liked.

Wearing a pair of tight, black pants, she showed off her curves. Then and now, she seemed confident in her size, comfortable in her skin, and that was even more of a turn-on. My eyes ran the length of her thick legs, stopping momentarily at the spread of her hips, more pronounced with her legs crossed like they were.

“Brynn Palmer.”

When her name was called we both stood. Brynn set her magazine back on the table beside her and then her eyes met mine. I gestured for her to go ahead of me and she did. For a fraction of a second, I was hypnotized by the rhythmic dip and sway of her full hips as she walked, but I made myself look away.

Lusting after her was what got us here in the first damn place.

We stopped at a scale in the hallway and Brynn was weighed. I looked away, of course, knowing most women like privacy when it comes to that type of thing.

“The doctor will be right in with you,” the nurse said, leaving Brynn and I alone in the room she just escorted us to after the weigh-in. Brynn settled on the edge of the exam table while I took the chair beside the door. It was quiet as hell in there, the two of us confined in that small space. If I had to guess, Brynn probably regretted leaving that magazine in the waiting room.

There was so much awkward tension in the room we didn’t have any choice but to talk.

“You feeling all right today?” I asked. I honestly did care and would’ve asked her earlier if I hadn’t gotten the impression that she wished I wasn’t here.

Her eyes looked everywhere but at me. “Not really, but that’s just the way it goes,” she answered.

She picked off a piece of lint from her shirt and then let out a breath.

This was stupid. We were two grown people, facing a very grown up situation; it didn’t make sense to behave like children. If apologizing would help get us over this hump, I’d do that even if I didn’t think it was warranted.

“About the other day, requesting the paternity test; I didn’t mean to be disrespectful. I just thought we
both
needed to be sure. I apologize if I hurt you.”

She was quiet, swinging her dangling feet while she thought. The vacancy behind her eyes was telling of how deeply.

“There was a lot more going on than just you bringing up the test,” she started. “That day was just… it was bad all around. Plus, I was never really mad at you; I was mad at
me
.”

Confused, I didn’t respond.

Her eyes lifted to the ceiling and I watched her, seeing the disappointment in her expression, but not understanding it fully.

“I know you have absolutely
no
reason to believe this, but… I’m not the girl who sleeps with random strangers she meets in bars. Hell, if it hadn’t been for the drinking, we wouldn’t even be here today,” she added. “Despite how I know this situation makes me look to you, this isn’t who I am,” she said, gesturing around the room with her hand. “I don’t have strange men accompanying me to the doctor’s office to see if I’m pregnant with their children. This isn’t routine for me.” That disappointment on her face shifted to sadness.

Deep, steady breaths made her chest rise and fall slowly as she did her best to stay calm. However, the tears started almost immediately after she finished speaking and she fanned her face as if that’d make it stop. I didn’t know what to do. Typically, I would console a crying woman, but I was pretty sure she didn’t want me to touch her.

“Brynn, I—”

“You don’t have to say anything,” she cut in. “We don’t know each other, so I would’ve done the same thing if I was in your position. You don’t owe me an apology. Doing this, getting the test… it makes sense,” she admitted. “I just hate that it was even necessary.”

I understood that. And as much as I wanted to believe she’d been with multiple guys who could’ve gotten her in this predicament… I was beginning to believe her. I was beginning to believe it was only me.

Damn
.

The door unlatched and Brynn quickly wiped the remaining traces of tears from her face when a tall, thin woman with short, brown hair entered the room, smiling at both Brynn and I. She had a stethoscope draped around the collar of her white lab coat and a chart cradled in the bend of her arm.

“Hello, hello, hello!” She said in a chipper tone, completely missing the emotionally charged energy in the room.

“Hi, Dr. Rubino,” Brynn said, forcing the sadness from her voice as she shook the physician’s hand.

“And you must be Mr. Rios,” the woman said, extending her hand toward me next. At first, I wasn’t sure how she knew my name, but then I remembered that our test results were right there attached to her clipboard.

“Marco is fine,” I replied, letting her know it was okay to drop the formalities.

“Marco it is then.”

She took a seat on the stool adjacent to Brynn and I, and then opened her folder. It felt like it took her forever to speak, but when she did, she met our gazes with a smile.

“Brynn, Marco,” she started. “Congratulations! Later this year you two will be welcoming a new, little bundle of joy into the world!” The smile the doctor wore on her face faded, I think because of the look on mine.

And there you have it…

Brynn didn’t seem shocked at all when she turned to me. It became clear that this was only news to one of us and no matter how much I tried to prepare myself, I wasn’t ready to hear those words.

“How have you been feeling, Brynn? Still battling the morning-sickness?”

“Daily,” Brynn answered. “But I’ve also been getting headaches and some lightheadedness off and on. Is that normal?”

“Hmm… could be your blood pressure. Let’s get you checked out,” Dr. Rubino responded, securing the cuff around Brynn’s arm right after as they got down to business as usual.

The two went back and forth about Brynn’s inquiry, and then about dry heaving, nipple tenderness, and a whole bunch of other stuff that became nothing but white-noise inside my head. Having a kid didn’t fit into my life, but apparently I now needed to figure out how to make that work because… this was happening.

This was definitely happening.

Marco

Logan checked out my work in the mirror, flexing and relaxing his bicep to see it from all angles. When he gave a nod, I took that as a
‘thank you’
. He didn’t speak unless he had to, even now.

“You’re satisfied with it?” I asked, observing the clean lines I’d just etched into his skin.

“Nailed it,” he grumbled to confirm.

“Cool. Next time, we’ll add the color and you’ll be good to go.”

Having his seal of approval, I went back to my station and started cleaning. Carlos was next. Me working here made it easy for the guys to feed their ink addiction and I didn’t mind it. No, I wasn’t making money, but we all had our ‘
thing’
we brought to the table and this was my thing. Logan’s brother owned the gym we were members of, so we got a pretty hefty discount. Carlos got us a hook up on costumes with some chick he used to bang a couple years back—apparently, she still had a thing for him. And Justin was our go-to guy for advice. Kind of like our own personal Dr. Phil.

I disposed of the old needle and set out a new one to load, hearing the doctor’s words from the day before echoing inside my head.
‘Congratulations! Later this year, you two will be welcoming a new, little bundle of joy into the world!’
She was the only one in the room who seemed happy about the news.

The rest of the appointment was pretty much routine, I guess—she took Brynn’s blood pressure and asked her a bunch of questions. After that, I left the room so she could examine her further. The whole thing only took about half an hour, but that half hour reshaped my entire future.

Brynn was a stranger to me and yet, here we were having a kid together and I didn’t know anything about her. Like…
at all
. I had no idea who she really was, what she was capable of, and I never envied guys who had baby mama drama.

What if she was like that?

What if she was one of those manipulative-type females?

What if late night phone calls with her yelling all in my ear about nonsense was what my future looked like now?

Even the
possibility
of having to put up with that made my head hurt.

I waved Carlos over when I was done setting up, but he didn’t come. Instead, he shook his head and stayed posted against the wall.

“You ready or what?”

He shook his head again when I asked. “Nah, I’m good. You seem distracted, man. I’m gonna sit this one out.”

At his words, Justin looked up from his phone. He was the only one I told about any of this, so I guessed he at least knew what was on my mind even though I hadn’t told him the new development—that I was definitely gonna be a dad.

“Quit bein’ such a pussy and get in the damn chair, man. You see Logan’s came out fine.” I gestured toward Logan and he gave my work a wordless thumbs up to back me up. “See?”

Carlos waited a few seconds, stared at me long and hard until he was sure, and then finally came over to the chair, unbothered by the fact that I was now laughing at him for almost punking out. While he removed his shirt so I could finish the art on his shoulder, I glanced over at Justin, not surprised to find him already watching me.

“You got something to say?” I asked, pretty much knowing what he was thinking.

He shrugged, pretending to be casual, and then started texting again as he answered my question. “Yup, but I won’t put your business all out in the street.”

The seat behind me creaked when Logan dropped down into it, probably so he wouldn’t have to strain to eavesdrop.

These three, my brothers, were as close to me as my blood family. I already intended to fill them in on what was going on, but I was planning to wait for a better time—or maybe I was just stalling. However, when would we get another chance to talk openly without all the other guys being around? Here, in my shop, was probably the safest bet.

All eyes were on me as I pulled on a pair of black, latex gloves. Although they were just now showing it, the guys had probably been able to tell for weeks that something was wrong. This thing with Brynn had definitely stolen my focus. It wasn’t affecting any of my work, but offstage I knew I’d withdrawn a bit. I didn’t take calls from anyone I didn’t have to and I found myself uninterested in hanging out. It’d been work and home for me. Those were the only places I went.

At this point, it didn’t make sense to keep hiding my situation because, in a matter of months,
everyone
would know. I set aside the bottle of alcohol in my hand and took a breath. All three sets of eyes came my way.

“I got a call a few weeks ago.” I paused, shaking my head at how hard this still was to believe. “Someone I met when we went to
The Alibi
a couple months ago. She and I hooked up and—”

“The one you banged in the bathroom?” Carlos blurted, smiling hard.

The fact that
he
remembered more than
I
did…

“Why can’t I picture her?” Justin asked next, leaning forward in his seat. I glanced back and forth between the two of them. Both were more concerned with Brynn’s appearance than the rest of my statement. “What’s she look like?” The question was for Carlos, not me.

Carlos’s smiled as he recalled an image of Brynn and I felt my brow tense. “She was definitely hittable, man.
Definitely
hittable,” was the response he gave, nodding. “Marco’s type all day—cute, brown-skinned, thick, hair was looking right, too.” He paused to nod vigorously again, giving his seal of approval. “You know I would’ve stopped him from even going to talk to her if she was busted.”

Justin shook his head. “I must’ve been high as hell, cause I can’t remember a thing.”

“You were,” Logan confirmed from his seat.

Justin laughed and then saw the look on my face, realizing I wasn’t nearly as entertained as the three of
them
were. “My bad, man. Get back to your story. We didn’t mean to interrupt.”

Deciding that my head was clear enough to work and talk at the same time, I loaded the new needle from a sterile pack and grabbed the alcohol again.

There was no candy-coating the rest of the story, so I gave up trying to ease into it and just blurted the words, “She’s pregnant.”

Dead silence.

I dropped the used wipe into the trash basket, carrying on while the guys processed everything.

“And you’re sure it’s yours?” Carlos asked.

I nodded. “We got the paternity test results yesterday… and it’s definitely mine.”

The razor I used to prep Carlos’s shoulder clattered into the trash and I swiped his skin with alcohol one last time. Next, I glanced over at the sketch of what he and I discussed adding to his tattoo before grabbing the bottle of black ink.

“Wow, I didn’t realize you went through with setting it up.” Justin’s tone let on that he was shocked, probably remembering how confused I was about everything the last time we talked.

I let out a breath and pressed my foot on the pedal, concentrating on the area of Carlos’s skin where my lamp was focused. “Yup, it’s official.”

“Well, congratulations,” Logan mumbled.

I laughed a little, but didn’t turn toward him. “Thanks… I guess.”

“Nah, this is gonna be a good thing,” Carlos cut in. “Regardless of how it happened, this is your first kid. That’s definitely something to celebrate.”

“Agreed,” Justin added.

One thing’s for sure, they were all a hell of a lot more optimistic than me. Mostly, I was skeptical about how Brynn and I would manage to pull through this together. Being complete strangers was bound to make things more difficult.

“I know you don’t know this chick all that well, but…” Carlos paused in the middle of his question. “Wait… what’s her name, so I don’t have to keep calling her that?” he asked.

“Brynn.”

He started over. “I know you don’t know Brynn all that well, but does she seem cool? She sending up any red flags?”

I thought about that and shook my head, answering honestly. “Not so far.”

She’d been pretty level-headed about everything, aside from getting upset when I wanted a DNA test, but that was it and apparently, there were other things going on with her that day. So, for the most part, I suppose she seemed normal.

“So, she’s how far along again?” Justin asked.

I did the math in my head. “A little over three months now.”

Carlos’s eyes widened. “Damn! And time is gonna fly past. She’ll be delivering before you know it.”

I envisioned that, her going into labor. When and if I ever decided to have kids, I imagined it would be with my wife, or at least someone I was committed to. How in the hell was I supposed to be there for Brynn through that and we didn’t even have a
basic
connection? None of this felt right.

“Just quit talkin’, Carlos. Looks like you’re scaring him,” Justin said with a laugh.

They continued to discuss my life, but I checked out of the conversation, trying to contemplate my next move, trying to sort out the details. However, before I could work through any of it on my own, I needed to clear the air with Brynn. With me just finding out all of this was legit roughly twenty-four hours ago, we hadn’t had a chance to talk things through.

Just like I had questions and concerns, I was sure she did, too, and the easiest way to keep confusion down was to keep the lines of communication open.

We had to.

I refused to have drama between us and besides, in her condition, she didn’t need that either. And whether I liked it or not, Brynn, for obvious reasons, was now my number one priority.

Period.

This may not have been an ideal situation, but I wasn’t about to be a deadbeat. Not having the best relationship with my father growing up taught me a valuable lesson, a very simple one that I’d never forget:
be there for your kid
.

No matter what.

No excuses.

*****

Brynn

“
Dammit!
”

One peek through the peephole when someone knocked sent me into cleaning hyper-drive. I scrambled to rid my coffee table of the half-empty bottle of ginger ale I downed to settle my stomach and my
Sex in the City
DVDs. After submitting a few resumes online in an effort to stay ahead of the curve if my job situation went sour, I let myself veg out in front of the TV. I needed a mental break, so to say this had been a lazy Saturday was an understatement.

Yesterday—my first appointment with Marco present—had been stressful. Having a stranger in the room while Dr. Rubino and I spoke in detail about the horror of first-trimester pregnancy was…
strange.
However, I knew I’d have to get used to it;
if
he was planning to be at other appointments, that is. For all I knew, he only made his way to this one to find out the test results. Who knows…

I wasn’t expecting company today so I hadn’t bothered getting out of my PJs, hence the reason I damn-near fell trying to hop into a pair of jeans. Nothing fit like it used to, so this was nothing short of a struggle. This was the very reason I’d been wearing a lot of stretch pants lately.

“Coming,” I called out, letting Naseem know I was on my way. A warning phone call would’ve been nice, but given our current status—
limbo—
I wasn’t about to make a big deal of it.

Smoothing my hair down one last time, I finally opened the door. On the other side of it, I stared into a very stoic, very somber set of eyes. The look behind them made me uncomfortable, led me to believe that my confession had changed us forever. I mean, yeah, I knew whatever chances we had at a relationship were dead in the water, but… I didn’t think it was too much to want my friend back. Perhaps this was all just a big, cosmic sign that all Naseem and I were ever meant to be were friends.

“May I come in?” he asked, faint tones of his native dialect present in his sullen voice.

I stepped aside and gestured with my hand, closing the door behind him. My palms were sweating and my heart fluttered like hummingbird wings inside my chest. Communication had been minimal since telling him I was expecting. There was still only the one stray text exchanged between us. That was a far cry from our daily phone calls back and forth to one another and even messages throughout the workday.