Bad For You

Chapter Twenty-Four

BLYTHE

[Krit was outside the door. He wasn’t ready to face Malcolm, and I wondered if he ever would be. I walked into the room and sat down in the chair beside Malcolm. They said he could go home tomorrow. The church was supplying him with a nurse, and I didn’t want to stay. Not any longer. I had to get back to my new life. The one where I had something worth living for.

“You’re leaving,” he said as he opened his eyes and looked at me.

“Yeah. It’s time I went home,” I told him. Krit was my home now. I had a home to go to, and that felt good. No, it felt amazing.

“The pierced tattooed guy?” he asked.

I nodded. “His name is Krit,” I told him.

Malcolm glanced at the door. “He out there?”

“Yes, but he doesn’t like you. He, uh, he isn’t sure he should be around you. He doesn’t forgive you for . . .” I didn’t finish that. Malcolm understood.

“So he loves you then,” Malcolm said.

“Yeah, he does.”

“Do you love him?”

“More than life. He’s my home. He’s healed me. Fixed all that was broken,” I told the man who had played a part in breaking me.

Malcolm didn’t say anything. He turned his head and looked out the window. “Go be happy, Blythe. Go live the life you deserved all along. Let him love you the way you deserve to be loved.”

He didn’t say he loved me. But he did tell me to go. So I stood up and did as I was told. When I stepped out of the door, Krit’s arms were right there holding me close to his hard safe body. “You’re my home too,” he said against my head.

“Let’s go home,” I told him.

Krit slid his arm over my shoulders and we walked through the waiting room where church members sat waiting to visit Malcolm. They all looked at me and then at the sexy rocker whose arm was possessively wrapped around me. I smiled at them and walked away. Away from the life that hadn’t wanted me and toward the life that I was meant for.

KRIT

Blythe was sleeping in my arms when the knocking on her apartment door started. We had gotten home late, and she was exhausted. I slipped out of bed, jerked on my discarded jeans, and headed for the door before Blythe was disturbed.

Trisha stood outside Blythe’s door with Britt and Jedrick Owens. I’d gone to school with Jedrick. Last I heard, he was playing football at Oklahoma State. Dude was a monster on the field. “What’s this?” I asked, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

“Inside!” Trisha barked, and strutted in. She had her “don’t mess with me” look on her face. Britt and Jedrick followed her, and Jedrick’s eyes met mine.

“Your sister scares the shit out me, man,” he muttered as he sauntered into the apartment.

I managed a grin and turned to look at Trisha, who looked like she was ready to lay the smackdown on anyone who interrupted her. “I took Britt to the doctor. I was tired of her not going, so I made the appointment and took her myself. She fought me on it a little, but then she decided it was in her best interest to do as I said,” Trisha said, shooting a glare at Britt, who stiffened. “She’s pregnant, all right. Four months pregnant to be specific. Four months ago Britt wasn’t even in Sea Breeze. She had gone to see her aunt in Oklahoma. It was summer break, and she and Jedrick had hooked up during spring break and had been talking on the phone.

“Problem was, Britt’s daddy is a redneck and a racist. Britt knew her daddy would never let her date Jedrick. Didn’t matter that he was already being drafted into the NFL. He was the wrong color. So, Britt ran off to spend time with him.” Trisha stopped and looked at Jedrick.

“Now you tell us all about the protection you used with Britt,” Trisha told Jedrick.

The guy stifled a yawn. Apparently, my sister had woken him up too. “We didn’t. Britt said she was clean and on birth control.”

“How often did you have sex with Britt that month?” Trisha asked.

“Fuck, I don’t know. A couple of times a day, every day. She’s a fucking machine.” He paused and grinned. “Fucking machine,” he repeated, and laughed at his own joke.

“And why did you want to slap Krit with Jedrick’s baby?” Trisha asked Britt, who let out a loud annoyed sigh and shot daggers at my sister.

“Because I love Krit,” she replied.

“Wrong answer. Try again,” Trisha repeated in a sharp tone.

“Because the condom broke that one time. When it happened, I knew I could say it was his and he’d believe me.”

Trisha motioned toward Jedrick. “Hate to point out the obvious, but when the baby was born, it was gonna be obvious it wasn’t Krit’s. He and Jedrick do not share the same color skin.”

Britt threw her hands up in the air. “I didn’t know what I was gonna do! I was desperate. I was starting to show, and my dad noticed. He demanded I tell him whose baby it was. He was yelling and calling me a slut. I couldn’t tell him it was Jederick’s. He would have killed me. So, I said it was Krit’s.”

My relief was turning into rage as I realized what Britt had almost taken from me. That Blythe had dealt with a life-changing bomb without me there to hold her because of Britt’s lie. I took a step toward her, when Jedrick stepped in front of me.

“Dat’s my baby mama, man,” he said.

“Krit.” Blythe’s sweet voice called out, and I turned around to see her standing there in my T-shirt. “It’s okay. It’s really better than okay,” she said, a smile lighting up her face. She’d heard everything. She was right. “Let them go.” Her eyes shifted to Trisha’s. “Except Trisha. I can make coffee if she wants to stay.”

“She wants to leave too,” I answered without looking back at my sister. I was thankful for her hand in figuring this out, but I wanted my morning alone with Blythe.

“Day-um,” Jedrick said, reminding me there was another man in the room.

“Go back to the room,” I told her, stepping in his line of view.

Jedrick laughed. “Don’ blame you at all.”

“Go,” I said, pointing to the door.

Jedrick looked more than happy to leave, and Britt scurried out behind him. I turned to look at Trisha. “Thanks.”

She reached over and patted my cheek like I was ten. “That’s what big sisters are for. Fixing shit,” she said with a smile. “Now, go be happy. She came back, didn’t she? Even when she thought you were gonna be someone else’s baby daddy,” she pointed out.

“If I run off to Vegas and get hitched, you’ll forgive me for not having a wedding right?” I asked her.

“You run off to Vegas and I’ll kill you,” she said with a smile, then turned and walked to the door. “Bye, Blythe!” she called out.

Blythe’s head peeked around the corner. “Bye! I’d say again that you could stay, but he doesn’t seem to like that idea,” she said, grinning as she looked at me.

“I can see that. I’ll let y’all enjoy your morning,” she said, then left us alone.

Blythe stepped out of her hidden spot behind the door and walked toward me. “I would have stayed by your side through it all. But I’m very glad that the only babies you’ll be having will be mine.”

Grabbing her and carrying her over to the sofa while she squealed, I sank down with her in my lap. “If you don’t go get birth control fast, we’ll be having those babies a lot sooner than planned,” I told her.

“I’m going to the clinic today,” she assured me, then kissed my nose. “I love you this morning.”

“I love you more this morning,” I replied, then slid my hands under my shirt that was covering her up. “I had intended to wake you up by kissing these beauties,” I told her as I held her breasts in my hands.

“I hate that I missed that, but we can go back in there and I can pretend to be asleep,” she said with a little sexy smirk.

“Can you pretend to be asleep naked?% That way I can wake you up by sliding my tongue up that hot little slit between your legs.”

Blythe’s eyes flared, and she wiggled off my lap and stood up.

“Where are you going?” I asked, reaching for her to bring her back.

She dodged me and grinned. “No way. I’m going to go pretend I’m asleep.” She ran for the room then glanced back over her shoulder. “Naked,” she called out.

Jumping up, I followed behind, giving her just enough time to strip down and get back in our bed.