Conflicted Love(10)

“Look, Princess, I know you don’t like it, but you’re gonna have to suck it up. I’ll be at the next one, and every other one after that. My kid’s growing in you. I need to make sure everything is good, I need to know what you want from me and what you need me to do.” Teeny wasn’t big on dealing with bullshit so I thought honest was the best way to do this.



Biting down harder on her lip, her eyes shining wet, she looked right at me and whispered, “I don’t need anything from you.” Before I could say another word, she spun around, jumped into her car, started it up and took off in a cloud of black smoke and rattling pipes.



This was why I never got involved; bitches were stubborn. Even worse, Teeny was stubborn and hot, a deadly combination in my book. I needed to sort out what was next, because I sure as shit didn’t know what the hell I was going to do with a kid, but I wouldn’t be an absentee father. I had been raised better than that. I just had to take a class or read a book or something. Yeah, that’s what I needed. I mentally added a stop at the baby place on my way home.





“What the fuck?”



I was frustrated. Why the hell were instructions always written in gibberish? I’d spent the last five hours painting walls, instructing delivery boys where to leave flat pack boxes, while putting together baby furniture; I never even knew a kid needed so much crap. What I had thought was going to be a quick trip to the baby store turned into two hours of picking the perfect crib, bouncy chair, baby swing, mobile, blankets and a hundred other things I’m pretty sure nobody needed. I hated shopping and now my wallet was considerably lighter; my patience was fried and the disgusting overpowering perfume smell from the overbearing sales assistants who’d fallen all over themselves to help me find the perfect stuffed puppy dog seemed to be on everything. It was making me gag.



Turning the instruction sheet upside-down and back again, I still couldn’t make any sense of it. I needed help, even if I didn’t want to ask for it and there wasn’t a single person I could think of that knew how to put shit like this together. Ma was out of town with the girls, and no other moron I knew was stupid enough to knock up their chick. No, not their chick, their friend who they happened to one-night fucking stand.



“Get it together, asshole; you can do this.” It was just a few screws and some wood. I’m a man and men can do this shit. “Right?” I threw the instructions over my shoulder, picked up the discarded drill and took ahold of one side of the crib. I then got stuck into making a room Teeny would be excited to lay our baby down in. Who needs fucking instructions!



I leaned over and dropped the baby mattress inside the finished crib. Admiring my handy work, I picked up the patchwork puppy and sat it inside when the whole thing collapsed. “FUCK!” I kicked the metal toolbox sitting on the floor; shooting pains tore up my bare foot. “Motherfucker! “ This shit was frustrating.



“Swearing at it ain’t gonna help you none.” I spun around catching my foot on a pile of bags and going ass over tit. I landed sprawled on the floor surrounded by blankets, toys and plastic bags. Almost instantly, Mace was looming over me trying to hold in his laughter.



“What the fuck are you doin’ here?” I asked staring up at the freshly painted ceiling hoping whatever was digging into my back wasn’t broken.



“I saw the delivery truck a few hours ago. That and your yelling held a sort of allure even I can’t resist,” he chuckled putting a hand out to help me up, which I batted away half-heartedly.



“You could have come helped me earlier, asshat. I’ve ripped my hands up. I have paint every fuckin’ where and I’m about ready to take an axe to this piece-of-shit crib,” I grumbled pulling myself up into a sitting position and pulling a squeaky toy out from under my ass.



“Consider it payback for not helping me with the flowers in Scar’s yard,” he smiled as he moved to the middle of my mountain of screw up that should have been a nursery already.



“That was a pussy-ass move,” I grumbled. I still couldn’t believe he’d gone to such extremes to win her back. His plan to annoy her into forgiving him had been more of a success than I thought it ever would.



“It pissed her off enough to take me back, so I’d say my pussy-ass move worked,” he said smugly as he crossed his arms over his chest.



“You gonna help me or just stand there, Romeo?” I grouched picking myself up off the floor and being extra careful not to go down again.



Mumbling under his breath, he picked up a few tools and got to work smiling like a fool the whole time. It only served to make me want to slap him a little. He always did find too much amusement in my misfortune. Scar rocked around about an hour later with beer and pizza claiming she wanted to feed us. I was pretty sure she wanted to drool over my brother, sans shirt, building baby shit and laugh at my stupid ass.