Lennox POV
"You're on time that's good," I nodded as I walked up to Brandt out side of the DNA testing center.
"Uncle Brandt!!" Jayce-Lynn screeched running up to him, engulfing his calves in a hug. She's not that tall, his calves are all she can reach.
"Hey Bug!" Brandt used his free arm to pick her up, kissing her cheek.
Jayce pointed to the box that's in his other hand, "What's that?"
"That's for MiMi." He explained to her, handing the box to me.
I glanced up at him before hesitantly opening the lid. At the top of it were the words I'm Sorry and the box contained a bunch of donuts. Donuts are by far one of my all time favorite desserts. It's donuts and creme brûlée, the latter doesn't really transport well.
I appreciate the gesture, I really do but what Brandt did was super fucked up. "You know if you were really sorry, you would've gotten a maple bar."
"That one," He pointed to a donut in the corner of the box. "Is maple bacon. They were out of maple bars so I got the next best thing. I also got you this.." Brandt pulled an envelope out of his back pocket handing it to me.
I closed the box of donuts so I could open the envelope, but not before handing a donut with sprinkles to Jayce who was not so subtly eyeing my gift.
She's lucky I love her.
I opened the envelope to find a gift receipt for a luxury spa day enclosed inside. To say I was shocked by the gesture would be an understatement... "What is this?"
"I figured that no matter what you decide, you'd probably need to take a mental health day.. Relieve some stress."
I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. Fuck, I really am pregnant. I'm not an emotional person at all. "This is one of the sweetest things that anyone has ever done for me." I wiped my eyes before any tears could fall.
"I wanted you to know how sorry I was. I just wanted my best friend back." He smiled sheepishly as I wrapped my arm around him, squeezing his side tight.
"I love you, even though you're kind of stupid." Maybe it was the hormones, but I feel like his apology is sincere and honestly, it's hard to stay made at someone as adorable as Brandt. It's not his fault that he's kind of stupid. I blame genetics. His brother is kind of stupid too.
"I love you too, bambina." He pecked my forehead gently before pulling away from our hug. "You ready to do this?"
"Uhh.. hold on." I dug Jayce's iPad equipped with a pink protective case and headphones out of my purse. "Here mamas, watch cartoons while Brandt and have our appointment." I handed her the iPad and put the wireless headphones on her head for her.
Her tablet has parental controls on it so she won't be able to access anything that's not age appropriate. She's also only four and doesn't even have a desire to be rebellious or deceitful in that nature yet. I really just needed to make sure she wouldn't be paying attention to what would be discussed in there. I don't have the bandwidth to have the conversation with her regarding how babies are made. Neither of us are ready for that, and I have enough to worry about without adding 'the talk' to the list.
"Now I'm ready." I nodded at Brandt who opened the door to the center, allowing me to walk inside. He carried Jayce in following after me.
I checked in with the receptionist for our appointment and it wasn't long before we were led back to the room where the tests would be conducted.
"Okay Lennox," the laboratory technician started, "We are going to need to conduct a quick ultrasound to confirm your pregnancy and then we will draw blood for the DNA test."
I nodded my head in agreement, this is all standard. "That's fine."
Brandt kept Jayce-Lynn who was now seated in his lap watching the shows I have downloaded for her on Netflix, as I rolled up my shirt so that the tech would be able to perform the ultrasound. Seeing as I had just had one, I wasn't at all invested in what was happening. Brandt on the other hand was all but breaking his neck in attempt to look at the monitor.
"So where's the baby?" He asked unable to make sense of what he was looking at on the screen.
"There is no baby," I rolled my eyes. "It's an amniotic sac. It's not even large enough to be considered a fetus yet. It's an embryo."
The lab technician interrupted us, "Okay, you are indeed pregnant Lennox. So we can go ahead and begin your DNA test." She smiled softly wiping the gel off of my stomach with a towel.
"When will the results be ready?" Brandt questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"The genetic samples will be shipped overnight to our lab in Olympia and it should take about 4-5 business days to fully process them."
"Umm.. No. That seems like a bit of a long wait, is there any way to expedite this process. I'm sure there is, whatever it costs I'll pay it but I'm hoping for something in the 24-48 hour range."
"Brandt!" My mouth fell open at his words. I was honestly slightly taken aback, I would expect this sort of pompous behavior from Beckham but not from him.
"My apologies. May I please speak to your supervisor about expediting our test results?" He corrected.
"I'll send someone in to speak with you after I collect your samples." She responded with a sheepish smile.
She drew a blood sample from Brandt and then one from myself and labeled the vials accordingly before exiting the room. The results aren't going to be a 100% match obviously, given that Beckham and Brandt are brothers. But if the child is Beckham's there should be a 40-60% match, and if not the results will indicate nothing. Which was self-explanatory.
Once she left the room, I was ready to rip into Brandt for his lack of manners but that didn't happen. Before I had the chance to say anything to him, my phone began to ring. It especially peaked my interest because the number calling was not saved anywhere in contacts, and didn't show up under Caller ID.
I scrunched my nose as I answered confused, "Hello?"
"This is Lennox right? This is Xander.. From Hawaii." When he said from Hawaii, I immediately remembered who he was. The fine ass blonde with the adorable nephew. He has a sexy phone voice.
"Oh, hey! How are you?" I smiled softly, biting my bottom lip. I could see Brandt's nosy ass becoming increasingly interested in my conversation, so I stood up leaving the room to finish the call out in the hallway.
"I know this is kind of last minute, but I'm in Seattle. My sister actually got a new job up here and I came to lend a hand with her move. How would you feel about getting the kids together sometime?"
"Are you here like right now?" I asked for clarification.
"Yeah, I've been here two days and things have finally settled down enough for me to give you a call."
I began to nod but then remembered that he couldn't see me. "Well I'm glad you did. Are you busy later today?"
With everything that's going on, I could use a distraction. And if that distraction has blonde hair, green eyes and a killer six pack, I'm not going to be one to object. I have no intention of sleeping with Xander. At all, that would be stupid given my current predicament but I have every intention of going out and having a good time.
But even if I did sleep with him... I can't get pregnant twice. I shouldn't think like that, I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm not going to have sex with uncle of Jayce-Lynn's new best friend. That would be weird. I can't make things weird for her.
"I'm free later today." He confirmed.
"Let's take the kids to the aquarium, and then maybe grab dinner afterwards?" The aquarium is for the children, that's a given but dinner. That's for me. I could really use a night out.
"Sounds good, let's do it. Ashton is going to be so excited when I tell him. I'll text you a time."
"So will Jayce, I'm glad you called."
"I am too. I'll see you later, Lennox." With that I hung up the phone.
I returned back to the room to find Brandt and Jayce-Lynn essentially exactly the same as I had left them.
"I got them to agree to expedite your test results. Now more importantly, that was a boy on the phone wasn't it?" Brandt tilted his head to the side, looking something like that sassy meme emoji.
"It's not what you think. That was the uncle of Ashton, the kid Jay met in Hawaii. He called to set up a play-date."
He frowned, "Oh... Well that's underwhelming."
"I know. I'm sorry that I'm not going out to be an adulterous whore like you expected." I was being facetious, hopefully he picks up on that.
"I don't think you're a... I said I was sorry Lennox, and I meant it. What you do is your business. It's not like Beckham is losing sleep over the shit he does."
"Do Beckham and Brynlee..." I trailed off unable to even ask the question.
"Noo! No. Absolutely not." He vehemently shook his head.
I want to believe him, but she's strangely comfortable for someone Beckham supposedly hates. Comfortable being in his presence, around his family, around in general... I thought back to how she spied on us while having sex.
There's definitely something strange going on there. I'm not quite sure what it is yet, though.
"Okay..." I sighed softly deciding to let it go, "Well thanks for helping out with the kid today, I appreciate it." I collected my belongs and we made our way out of the room together.
"No problem. Are you coming back with me, cause we both know you didn't drive here."
I nodded with a cheeky grin on my face. He knows me so well. I took a Lyft here, the request car-seat option was invented for that purpose. Beckham has been wanting to get me a full-time driver, he says it'll make him feel better about my safety. Even though I hate driving, I can't bring myself to let him do that. It seems like a waste of money, and a weird way for him to spy on me. I'm not into the idea at all.
Who needs a driver anyways when I have Brandt. He also now keeps a car seat for Jayce-Lynn in his car because we're always riding in it. It only made sense.
Once everyone was all situated and buckled up in Brandt's Mercedes, I turned to Jayce in the backseat. "Are you hungry, mamas?"
She nodded her head and I figured she would be, she had a really small lunch today. I tried to get her to eat more but she was insistent on being difficult and then we had to leave for the appointment.
"I'll feed you when we get back to Beckham's and then you need to take a nap before we go see Ashton."
"We're going to see Ashton?!" She began to bounce up and down in her seat with excitement.
"Yes, his mom got a job up here in Seattle so you'll be able to see each other all the time."
"Yay!!"
"Ashton!!"
"Jayce!!"
The two children ran towards each other just like that video of those two little toddlers that went viral. They embraced in a brief hug that lasted exactly a second before Ashton asked Jayce-Lynn to show him where the "touch tank" is. It's her favorite part of the aquarium so she happily obliged.
The touch tank is the only section of the aquarium where the children are allowed to physically interact with marine life. In it are star fish, small crabs, sting rays (that don't sting), small octopi, etc. Under staff supervision the kids are able to hold and touch the creatures and they have the time of their lives!
"Good call on the aquarium." Xander chuckled beside me watching them scamper about.
"It's one of Jayce-Lynn's favorite places. It's this and go-carting."
"Wait that was an option?" He raised an eyebrow, "Next time we're definitely taking them go-carting. Be prepared to eat my dust, Miss James."
I scrunched my nose up, I never told him my last name. We know each other but not like that. "I don't remember giving you my government name." I let out a small laugh.
"You didn't. I follow you on Instagram."
I nodded my head. That would explain it. Since dating Beckham my follower count has increased from 20,000 to 250,000. It would probably be more since he has literally millions of followers if it weren't for the fact that I've stopped posting as much. I find it to be kind of overwhelming now.
"Okay, well what's your handle? I'm gonna follow you back." I pulled my phone out of back pocket. "Since you cyber-stalk me it's only fair that I get to do the same."
I handed my phone to him after opening up my Instagram so he could pull up his account. He did so then handed the phone back to me. I began scrolling through his page. He had a good amount of followers so I'm surprised that I didn't notice when he followed me. Like I said, a lot of people follow me now. Jordyn Woods follows me, so does Trey Songz though I'm more excited about the former.
Xander's page consisted about 170,000 followers and lots of modeling pictures. Specifically shirtless ones much to my delight. I'm gonna go out on a limb here given that there are photos from what appears to be a Calvin Klein campaign and say that he's a professional model. Which makes perfect sense. The boy is fine as fuck.
"You can stop staring at those pics so hard. You know you got the real thing in the flesh."
I glanced up from my phone. "I wasn't staring, I was browsing." I paused my parental instincts kicking in seeing that Jayce-Lynn and Ashton were headed in the direction of the exit. Not of the aquarium, just this specific exhibit but either way she knows better.
I made my way across the room so fast I honestly surprised myself. "Jayce-Lynn Monét." She whipped around at the sound of her name and took one look at me, immediately knowing she was in trouble.
"We weren't leaving—"
I crossed my arms, "Lie again."
"We just wanted to go see the sea lions!" Ashton defended.
"That's fine. I'm more than happy to take you to see the sea lions. But one of you needs to tell either Xander or me if you want to leave. We need to know where you are at all times."
"Sorry MiMi."
I sighed softly. I couldn't help but give in to their adorable little pouty faces. Damn pregnancy hormones. "It's okay. Just don't do it again."
"Remind me to never get on your bad side." Xander whispered in my ear.
"Why not? It can be a lot of fun over there." I whispered back, smirking.
Full transparency, this chapter was supposed to end differently. But it's was already on the longer side so I decided to cut it short and save the drama for the next chapter instead. And this way I can keep you guys reading lol.
Also the wait is finally over, y'all will find out who the father is in the next chapter.
~Lee