Baller’s Baby(21)

Now it’s my turn to hang my head in shame. I did know better, but my hormones and my overactive imagination got the best of me. He takes my chin in his hand, lifting my face to his as he gazes into my eyes with his startling blue ones.

“Sky . . . baby, I would never do anything to intentionally hurt you.”





Chapter Thirty

Kiptyn



I feel like the air has been sucked from my lungs, and it's slowly evaporating from the room around me. I’m trying to hold on and be strong for Skila, because I know she needs me to, but right now, I don’t know if my being here is the right thing. Does she even want me here? Or am I just the cheap replacement for the real thing that she can't have?

Camryn.

I want to knock his teeth down his throat right now for what he’s doing to her. She deserves so much better than this. I don’t give a damn what he went through over there. I know it fucked him up—that much is obvious just from looking at him. A nurse dropped a tray of medical supplies, and it clanged to the floor loudly.

I flinched, but Cam . . . shit, I thought he was about to go into full-blown panic mode. He kept reaching for his waist and the gun that wasn’t there—thankfully. I can't imagine what would have happened had it been—a catastrophe, for sure. I tried to talk to him and calm him down, but he just pushed me off and stalked in the direction of Skila’s room.

I stay in the waiting room while the doctors are in there with her, and it fucking kills me. Apparently, since we aren’t married and I'm not the father of the baby—a fact that Camryn was oh, so happy to point out—I’m not allowed in there while she’s still unconscious. It doesn’t matter that we’re dating or that the baby is mine. Until she’s awake and able to tell the staff who is and isn’t allowed in there, I have to stay out here.

I could have made a big fuss about Cam being allowed in there, but it comforts me a little knowing someone is with her. Someone who I know, without a shadow of a doubt, will protect her. It’s evident in the way he stands guard outside her room. If anyone even attempts to hurt her, they’d have hell to pay. Of course, I don’t take into account the fact that she might still have feelings for him, and what seeing him again will do to her.

I take the forced solitude like a champ and make the required calls to Granny and Bo. I’m not sure if Camryn had gone by there when he was in Atlanta, and since we aren’t really on speaking terms, I can’t ask. Granny is floored, to say the least, when I tell her Cam is alive and well—although that part is a bit of a stretch. She wants to jump on a plane right away, but I convince her to wait and give him some time. We spend the rest of our conversation talking about Skila and the baby. If anyone knows how excited I am, it’s my grandmother. She hangs up with strict orders to come visit soon and bring Sky along. I tell her I will.

I just hope it’s true.

Now, I’m sitting on the edge of her bed, wrapping my good arm around her and cradling her against me the best I can, comforting the woman I love because my brother has just broken her heart. God, my life sucks ass.

“Is there anything I can do, Sky? Do you need anything?” I ask her.

Really, I just want any excuse to get the hell out of here and track my asshole brother down. I told him to wait and not stress her anymore about the baby until we’re at least out of the hospital. Hell, the doctor hasn’t even made it back in here yet.

“No, I’m okay. It’s just a shock more than anything, I guess,” she states, staring across the room and off into space.

I’ve spent every day of the past two months with this woman. I know when her mind is somewhere else, and I know that right now her mind is on Camryn. There’s a light knock at the door, followed by the pad of feet entering. I glance over my shoulder and see a nurse in blue scrubs entering, followed closely by the doctor overseeing Skila’s care. She hasn’t even noticed someone new is in the room. Her gaze is still locked on the closed blinds across the room, staring at nothing, at everything.

The doctor clears his throat and waits for Skila to notice him. She doesn’t, and so I nod for him to begin.

“Miss Parker, it looks like everything is fine on the ultrasound. There’s no further bleeding. The placenta looks good. Growth is fine, and you’re not contracting, so I think it will be safe to send you home. I'm going to put you on pelvic rest until your next appointment in the office. That means no sex or anything in the vagina until then, ok?”

“Are you sure it’s safe to go home? She doesn’t need to stay overnight?” I ask, worried.

“No, there’s no reason to keep her in the hospital at this time. If she starts spotting again or feels contractions, then she can come back, but that is very unlikely.”

“And you’re sure the baby is okay?” Skila turns her head and looks at the doctor, now waiting for his reply.

“Yes. Everything with the baby looks perfectly healthy. His growth is great, and the fall didn’t affect him at all. Everything is fine.”

“Ok. Kiptyn, please take me home,” Skila says and then turns her head to stare back toward the window.

The nurse informs me that she will be back in a few minutes with the discharge paperwork and that Skila can get dressed while we wait. I’m starting to wonder if she’ll be able to do anything other than stare into space, but as soon as everyone else leaves the room, she stands and drops the gown from her shoulders, letting it fall to the floor. I pass her bra and shirt to her and then her pants—minus panties, because they were thrown in the trash earlier when we first arrived at the hospital.

I’ve never been more terrified in my life than I was when Camryn told me Skila was bleeding. I thought we had lost the baby. I don’t know shit about pregnancy and how any of this crap works. I didn’t know how a fall like that would affect an unborn baby. I heard the word blood and I freaked the fuck out.

My world caved in around me. Hearing that the baby is okay feels like someone had breathed a lungful of air back into my dry lungs, and I soak it in, absorbing it. As soon as I get out of here and get her home safe and sound, I'm ordering every pregnancy how-to book I can find.

The nurse returns and hands me a packet of papers on shit that could go wrong and what to look for in case of emergency. I glance at it and sign the sheet of discharge papers for Skila, and then I lead her outside to Chris’s car so that I can take her back home where she belongs. The last twenty-four hours have been beyond fucked up, and I just want my girl and our bed.





Chapter Thirty-One

Skila



Kiptyn tucks the sheet up around my shoulders and kisses me lightly on the forehead. He keeps telling me to get some rest, but there is no chance in hell I’ll be able to sleep. My mind won’t shut off. It’s racing in a million different directions with one hundred thousand unanswered questions. My hand snakes out from under the lush black comforter, and I grab hold of Kip’s wrist before he turns to leave.

“Stay with me, please?”

I hate the way my voice breaks when I ask him to stay. I hate having to ask him at all. His shoulders drop forward, and he hangs his head for just a second before kicking off his shoes and pulling back the covers. His long, lean body sprawls on the bed next to me, and I take advantage of it, wrapping my leg around his and laying my head against his chest in the crease of his uninjured arm.

“Talk to me,” I say.

“What do you want me to say?” he asks, looking down at me.

His hand is running up and down the length of my spine, and with each pass, my heartbeat accelerates even more. I’m trying to control the way his touch makes my body react, but it’s not working. Every time I’m around this man, I want him more than the last. If it wasn’t for the fact that the doctor said no sex, PERIOD, then I’d already be half-naked, and talking wouldn’t be on the agenda.

“I don’t know. Tell me something. Tell me everything. What’s your favorite food, color, band?” I ask in a moment of desperation when his hand dips lower down my back and his finger trails across my hips. My aching core can’t take much more of this. I need to get his attention on something else, and now that I think about it, I don’t really know anything about him other than his love of basketball. I want to know more. I want to know everything.

“Hmmm, let me see. My favorite food would probably be Granny’s fried pork chops, homemade mashed potatoes, fried okra, corn on the cob, and peach cobbler,” he says after thinking for a minute.

“Oh my God, Kiptyn, that’s not a food. That’s a whole meal. Good Lord. Mmm, peach cobbler sounds so good right now, though.”

“It's the best. I'll have to call her and see if she’ll make you one. I know you and my little man will love it.” His body goes rigid for a moment, and I wonder what he’s thinking, but then the moment passes and he’s back to rubbing circles along my back like nothing happened, so I let it go.

“Does your Granny live around here?” I ask, because this is the first time he has mentioned any family other than Camryn to me. I’m curious to know who all he has. Will I ever get the chance to meet them?

“You can meet them anytime you want, baby. Mostly, I just keep in contact with my Granny and Cousin Bo. My mom and dad were both killed in a car accident when I was nine, so I lived with my Granny after that. I didn’t think you would want to with the situation, but I’d be honored to introduce you to them. I have no doubt that they will all love you.”