Page 21 of Expecting an Argument
I gritted my teeth and held my arms tighter. Anybody else in my position had parents, or grandparents, or even a cousin to help them out. But me? I had no one.
I had dealt with years of empty seats at graduation and silent apartments at holidays, but never had the absence of family felt more like a slap in the face.
But I could still beat Beau at his game. I could make up a half-sibling that I could rely on, he’d never know. I bit my lip, silently inventing a fake name and a fake address when Beau let out a low laugh.
“That’s what I thought,” he said with a smug smile. He took his foot off the brake and started to drive as my heart sank. “Figure out what kind of smoothie you want. I suggest getting something with protein—you’re going to need your energy for all the packing ahead.”
Mom once told me to never drive past a covered bridge when a tornado was coming—always take shelter as soon as you can.
She was wrong, a covered bridge was actually the worst place to be in a tornado. You were better off leaving your car and hiding in a ditch until the storm passed.
My temple pressed against the passenger window of Beau’s truck as he drove into Elren. The sunset-kissed gray December sky showed no sign of a tornado, but I was forced to seek shelter from a storm nonetheless.
Would I much rather wallow in a ditch than live with Beau Fontaine? Absolutely, but I couldn’t make decisions based on what I wanted anymore.
Moving into the famous Fontaine Manor for the ease of my pregnancy was just like when Mom and I had to move in with Grandma after my dad left. Mom and Grandma didn’t see eye-to-eye, to put it lightly, but Mom put up with her for my sake.
“Pride doesn’t keep your stomach full or your bed warm,”Mom had said.
Thatadvice I had to agree with. Accepting Beau’s charity felt like I had spiders crawling beneath my skin, but my babies deserved the best I could offer.
And right now, all I could offer them was a rich father.
As the men on Beau’s podcast droned on about the discovery of a new sea urchin, I weakly lifted my arm and my lips caught the edge of my straw. I sucked down the last dregs of my extra-large peanut butter smoothie and listened as my suitcases slid around in the bed of Beau’s truck.
I had left most of my decor and books in my apartment, but I stuffed all my blankets, candles, and sweatshirts into every piece of luggage I owned. They were heavy as all hell, but that was Beau’s problem.
If I was carrying his babies, he could carry all the suitcases he forced me to pack when he strong-armed me into moving in with him.
Well, except for my purse that rested at my feet. No one was touching it but me.
Beau turned the truck and suddenly the cracked pavement of the highway smoothed into dark asphalt. Since Ashley and I weren’t too keen to get drunk in fields or smoke blunts in the grocery store parking lot, we spent hours of our teenage years cruising all over Elren in her rusty beater sedan. Even though I swore Ashley and I had explored every back road around Elren’s city limits, I had never been down this country road before.
After a few minutes of driving, I saw it on the horizon—Fontaine Manor. I had always heard that Fontaine Manor was a creature borne from the pages of a leather-bound gothic horror and dropped into the middle of the prairie. With its stone walls, mansard roofs topped with copper spires, and corners rounded out with ostentatious turrets, I understood where people couldhave gotten that idea.
Though if anyone had asked me, I would have described the massive house not as a dark fairytale dream, but with a mere two words—gaudy and imposing.
The truck headed up the long driveway to the manor that circled around a large, three-tiered fountain before parking in front of the mahogany double doors.
Beau got out of the truck as I examined the front of the manor. The brickwork that made the base of the manor suggested that it was built in the early 20th century, but I couldn’t find any architectural cues that would connect the manor to any other building in Elren. From the small iron bars that formed diamond window panes to the perfectly square hedges that guarded the foundation like a moat, everything about the manor screamed old money.
A shiver went up my arms—this was nothing like moving in with Grandma. Still, the stay at Grandma’s house was temporary, just like my stay at Fontaine Manor.
Granted, we only left Grandma’s because she died and the bank took her house…but it was still just a temporary stay!
Beau opened my door just as I pulled my purse onto my shoulder. He held out his hand, but I squeezed my purse closer to my body.
“No, I’ve got it,” I protested.
Beau stood aside with his arms folded as I carefully shimmied and slid my way out of his giant truck. My pelvis didn’t want to cooperate for whatever reason, so I had to escape my seat like an oversized penguin.
And I thought nausea was going to be the most humiliating part of pregnancy.
I ignored the pointed eye-roll Beau gave me as I struggled. Maybe I would move faster if he had a normal vehicle…or if he knew how to pull out.
My legs were a little wobbly as my feet planted on the perfectly smooth concrete near the front steps, but Beau didn’t wait for me before turning to the front door. He pressed his thumb against a pad on the handle. A lock clicked and then he pushed the door open.
I raised an eyebrow. “So only you can get in and out? Are you planning on locking me in here to keep your precious heirs safe?”
