Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Are you really
going to make me go through with this?” Chris whined as they walked into their
room.
Michelle arched an eyebrow at him. “I’ve never known you to renege on a bet,
Chris.”
He frowned.
“But…”
“It’s fine Chris, really.” She turned away. “You don’t have to go through with it if you
don’t want to.”
“The guilt trip isn’t going to work.” He stated
flatly.
“I’m not tripping you… I’m just saying that if you
don’t want to do it and you want to renege on the bet…” She grinned evilly,
happy that he couldn’t see her expression.
“I mean, if one of the guys should just ‘accidentally’ find out that you
didn’t fulfill your part of the bargain…”
Chris sighed.
“How long is the list?”
Michelle laughed and turned back to him. “It’s not very long… yet.”
“Oh man,” he groaned and buried his face in his
hands.
**********
“No!” Denise shrieked with laughter and started
running down the hallway of the hotel.
Joey was chasing her and laughing maniacally. “Joey, I said I was sorry, don’t!”
“Payback is hell, Dee!” Joey continued to laugh.
Denise was running at full speed when she turned a
corner and saw Lonnie walking in her direction. He was close enough that she had to quickly turn so she didn’t
run into him. Instead, she ended up
running into a table and cried out in pain.
Joey immediately fell to his knees beside her.
“Dee… are you all right?” He asked, his voice full
of concern.
“I think I broke my toe.” She moaned in pain.
“Shit,” Joey muttered and looked up at Lonnie. “Can you go find the hotel doctor while I
carry her back to my room?”
“If you hadn’t of been horsing around in the first
place, it wouldn’t have happened.” He scolded.
“Lonnie, I don’t need to hear this right now,
please.”
Joey picked Denise up and began carrying her back
in the direction of his room. He ran
into Lance and Hannah when he was halfway there and they looked at him
curiously.
“Umm, Joey?” Lance said. “What are you doing? Did
Denise forget how to walk?”
“Shut up. I
was chasing her and she ran into a table and she thinks she might have broken
her toe.” He explained.
“And why were
you chasing her?” Lance asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I poured ice down his back,” Denise couldn’t help
but giggle. “And some of it slid into
his shorts.”
A smile tugged at the corner of Lance’s mouth. “That’s umm… too bad.” He turned to look at Hannah. “See what happens when relationships are
still new? People get hurt.”
Hannah laughed and they turned to go into the
elevator. They could see Joey continue
carrying Denise back to his room just as the doors were closing.
“So speaking of new relationships, what happened
between you and Isabella?”
Lance shrugged.
“She found someone who can spend a little more time with her than I
can. It’s not a huge deal. It wasn’t like it was even a relationship,
she was just someone I went out with when I had time.”
“I didn’t doubt you Lance, I was just curious.”
When Hannah faced the front of the elevator again,
Lance took that opportunity to study her profile. Her soft hair cascaded over her shoulders and her skin looked
like it was begging to be touched. He
shook his head when he realized what he was thinking. Hannah had been his best friend for years… why was he suddenly
noticing how much she had grown up now?
**********
The minute Justin was back in his room, he dove for
the phone beside the bed to call Stacy.
He couldn’t wait to tell her the news.
He suddenly remembered that it was Sunday and that she was always in
church at this time of day. He replaced
the receiver with a dejected sigh and idly wondered which of the guys he could
go and harass. The problem was, they
all had someone to hang out with at the moment.
He could grab one of the guards and go shoot some
hoops, but he really wasn’t in the mood for that. Instead, he went out to the balcony and sat in one of the chairs
to try to soak up some sun.
JC and Laurie.
He shook his head. He vaguely
remembered Laurie from their time in Europe, just because she was the only
woman JC ever spent time with while they were there. They seemed to be good for each other though; Justin had been
wondering why JC had been so cheerful lately.
Now he knew why.
Which brought him to his own dilemma. He sighed and kicked at the air. He loved Stacy with all his heart and he
felt lucky to have found someone at such a young age. But then there was the issue of Kristina. He hated being unfaithful to Stacy, but he
respected her decision to wait until their wedding night. He figured Stacy probably knew about
Kristina, even if she didn’t know the details.
It was one of those ‘don’t ask – don’t tell’ deals, he supposed.
And even though both JC and Laurie were being
unfaithful to their spouses, they had found something in each other that
couldn’t be matched. They were madly in
love and Justin knew he had that with Stacy.
And suddenly he knew that he was willing to wait for Stacy… and he knew
he had to break it off with Kristina.
**********
Chris was leaning back against the headboard
watching TV when Michelle emerged from the bathroom with one towel around her
head and one towel around her body. His
eyes followed her as she walked over to her suitcase to find something to wear.
“Hey hun?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you come over here please?”
Michelle stopped rummaging for clothes and walked
over to the bed. When she got there,
Chris patted his lap and she sat down, straddling his legs. He rested his hands lightly on her waist and
stared at her intently.
“What?”
“Have you given any thought to what we were talking
about last night?”
“Chris…”
“I know it will be a huge change in lifestyle…”
“Yes it will… midnight feedings…”
“Yes.”
“No more sleeping in…”
“Yes.”
“Diaper changes…”
“Yes.”
“No sex for four to six weeks after I give birth
depending on how fast I heal…”
Chris winced.
“Yes.”
“And you think you’re ready for that?”
He looked at her with the most serious expression
she had ever seen him wear. “Yes.”
“Ok,” she said softly. “Let’s try to have a baby… and whatever happens… happens.”
“I love you,” he told her with his voice full of
emotion. His hands were playing with
the closure of her towel. He suddenly
grinned. “Do you want to start now?”