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At some point, he’s going to have to take that step if that’s what he really wants.
Since most of the work for his new album has been done and it’s in the hands of the producers, he’s mostly free to hang out here. He’s been here nearly every day.
He kept me busy while Lucas was gone. We went for a walk around the neighborhood, watched Coyote Ugly on cable television, ordered a pizza, and ate it in the living room, of course. We mostly talk about stuff like the music we like, what makes Taylor Swift so amazing, and how stupid Texas can be sometimes. We agree on literally everything, except for the fact that he thinks the new country version of “Fast Car” is better than the original, which is a shame because he’s just dead wrong.
All in all, I love Luke’s secret brother, and he’s exactly the friend I need right now.
“Have you talked to Jax lately?” he asks as he cleans up the evidence of us eating on the couch before his brother comes home.
“No,” I reply. “Honestly, I wonder if I ever will.”
“You really think he doesn’t want the baby?” he asks.
“My fear is that he doesn’t want it now, but someday he’ll come back and want a part in the baby’s life. It would be so confusing for them.”
“So put Lucas on the birth certificate and tell Jax to fuck off,” Isaac says as he drops back down on the couch.
My back stiffens again so I shift my position to find some relief. It doesn’t work.
“It’s not that easy,” I laugh.
“Either way, the baby will be loved,” he says, and I answer with a nod.
He fires up a video game on the TV, and I try to join him, but I’m so uncomfortable that I can hardly focus. I consider lying down for a nap, but standing up and walking around is the only thing that seems to relieve the pain.
Isaac is playing Gran Turismo as he glances sideways at me. I’m leaning against the couch with my forearms as I let my belly hang and sway side to side, moaning from the discomfort in my hips.
“Uhh…” he says as he sets his controller down. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” I reply. “My back just hurts today.”
“Like a deep throbbing pain that comes and goes, radiating from your lower back to your hips?”
I pick my head up and stare at him, bewildered. “That was oddly specific.”
“I read some baby books. It said early signs of labor include lower back pain that radiates to your hips. Is that what you’re feeling?”
“Okay…first of all, it’s adorable that you’re reading baby books, and second…yeah, sort of.”
Isaac leaps up from the couch. “I’m going to call Lucas.”
I put up a hand to stop him. “Isaac, calm down. It’s not even that bad yet.”
“Still!” he shouts.
“It could be nothing. False labor happens all the time.”
“So does real labor!”
The look of terror on this face is sort of adorable, and it makes me laugh. But my laughter is quickly cut off by another spasm in my back that does, in fact, radiate up to my hips.
Fuck.
Labor is awful. I’ve been stuck at five centimeters for hours. I’m starving. Everything hurts. And the fucking anesthesiologist isn’t here yet.
“Want me to go check again?” Isaac asks from the chair in the corner. I’m hanging on Lucas, but it’s not helping as much as it normally does. Everything just hurts worse and worse and worse.
Luke growls angrily as he holds me. “I’m going to go raise hell in a minute,” he argues.
