NO SECRETS NO LIES (SIN CITY HEAT SERIES Book 3) (18 page)

    
Amir held Alexis' hand
in his. “What’s going on? There’s something you’re not telling me, isn’t
there?”
     Alexis looked at Amir with a twinkle in her eye and
nodded.
     “Alexis, what??” He shot up off the bed. “Okay, that’s
it. We’re going to the hospital right now. Come on.” He reached down to lift
her up in his arms, but she stopped him with a laugh.
     “Amir, Marcus is a doctor, and a highly respected one
at that. I don’t need to go to the hospital.”
     “I don’t mean any harm, and I’m not being disrespectful
to your brother, but I’d feel a lot better if you were checked out at the
hospital.” Amir helped her to sit up and reached for her shoes.
     “Amir…”
     “Yes, baby.” He kneeled down and slipped her foot in
the sandal.     

    
“I’m pregnant...”
     Amir was holding her ankle, preparing to slip the
other shoe on when he slowly looked up and stared at her with his mouth hanging
open.
     “Pregnant?”
     Alexis nodded with a big grin on her face. The smile
that crossed Amir’s was bigger.

     He pulled her up and wrapped his arms
around her waist. “What??!!” he laughed. “We’re pregnant?!” Alexis laughed with
him as he shouted from happiness and twirled her around.
     Alexis pulled her head back to look at his face. He
slowly lowered her feet to the floor and leaned down to rest his forehead
against hers.
     “Damn," he whispered in awe. "Thank you.”
     Tears came to Alexis' eyes. She reached up to kiss him
softly, but when he started digging in his pocket, she opened her eyes.

     Amir took a step back and held her hand
and looked her in the eye. “You know I love you, right?”
     Alexis nodded. “Yes, Amir. I love you too.”
     “Lex…I was literally lost before you and Michael came
into my life. And now….” He looked at her stomach, smiling and shaking his head
as if he still couldn’t believe she was pregnant. “And now, we’re going to have
a baby, but...”
     Alexis’ smile slipped a little when he hesitated.
“But…what?”
     Amir sighed as if the joy had suddenly gone out of the
moment. Alexis became queasy as dread and a sick uneasiness settled in her
stomach.
     “Amir….what’s wrong?” she whispered.
Oh, please.
Don’t let me have been wrong about him…about us.

     Amir looked at her. “But I don’t think I
can do this...”
     Alexis gasped as her heart dropped.
     “...without you being my wife.”
     Alexis stared at him blankly before his words slowly
penetrated. She covered her mouth as her eyes stretched wide. “What did you
say?” she whispered from behind her hands.
     She screamed as Amir dropped to his knee in front of
her and held out a ring with a huge princess cut diamond nestled in the middle
of a cluster of smaller diamonds. He reached for her hand, which trembled
uncontrollably, and held it in his.
     “Alexis Michelle Duvall….will you do me the honor -
the privilege - of becoming my wife?”
     Alexis nodded her head vigorously. “YES…!!"
     Amir slipped the ring on her finger and stood up. He
pulled her to him with a deep groan as he kissed her. “I love you. And I’ll
never give you a reason…ever….to regret giving me your love and your trust.”
     They stayed in the room kissing and holding one
another, until a soft knock came from the door.
     “Come in,” Alexis called out.
     Aleesha opened the door and peeped in. “Hi…I don’t
mean to interrupt. I was just a little worried and wanted to check on you.”
     “Thanks, Aleesha. I’m fine. In fact…" Alexis held
out her left hand to show Aleesha her ring. Her voice trembled in her
excitement. "I’m getting married!!!”

      Aleesha squealed as she ran over.
Jerra and Keisha rushed into the room when they heard the screams. “What’s
going on?” Keisha asked as she and Jerra walked towards them. They joined in
the screaming when they saw Alexis’ ring, reaching out to hug her.
     Amir stood to the side watching them with a grin, and
shaking his head at them. However, his eyes glazed over a little bit when they
began shooting questions back and forth about planning a wedding, locations,
and themes. The four of them chattered nonstop as they sat on the bed. When
Aleesha, Keisha, and Jerra started reminiscing about their own wedding and
vows, Amir knew it was time to go.
     “Uh, ladies, I’m gonna leave you to your girl talk,”
he said as he took careful, measured steps backwards to get to the door. The
four of them never even heard him, and he released a relieved sigh as he made
his escape.
     He was still grinning when he got to the living room.
The grin disappeared as he came face to face with Marcus, Darrell, and
Dominick. He tensed as he looked from one of them to the other.
     “Look. I don’t want any more trouble.” His tone made
it clear he wouldn't run from it either.
     Marcus stared at him for several tense seconds. “You
love my sister, don’t you?”
     Amir eyed him cautiously, keeping his stance loose and
ready in case Marcus wanted to pick up where they’d left off. “Yes. I do. And
you might as well know that she’s agreed to marry me.”
     Marcus surprised him by nodding, as if he’d already been
ready for that. “The only thing I ask is that you treat her right. So for her
sake, I think we should try to start over. I want my sister to be happy. And if
you make her happy, I guess that’s all that matters.” Marcus stretched out his
hand and offered it to Amir.
     Some of the tension left Amir’s body as he slowly
shook Marcus’ hand. He did the same with Dominick and Darrell, who said, “No
hard feelin’s, man.”
     Amir nodded. “It’s cool.”
     “Good. Now that that’s all settled, you can come and
help us finish cleaning up the mess we made,” Marcus told Amir with a grin.

     The rest of the weekend passed pleasantly. The
tentative truce Amir and Marcus struck up showed signs of becoming a solid
friendship given time. On Alexis and Amir's last day in Vegas, Marcus and
Aleesha hosted a dinner for them. As the sun began to set, they moved the party
outside by the pool and continued the friendly, easy conversation.  The
men were huddled
 
a ways off from the
women, who sat at one of the patio tables and resumed their talk about the
subject that had been their main focus the last two days: babies and weddings.
     Suddenly Alexis remembered the double fudge chocolate
cake she’d seen in the kitchen earlier “Leesh, can we please cut that cake now??
It looks delicious!”
     “Sure, girl, you should’ve said something. We could’ve
cut it a long time ago.”
     “Oh, I don’t even want to think about cake. I’m
stuffed,” Jerra moaned.
     Hearing Alexis' statement about the cake, Amir looked
at her and grinned. “Baby, I’m surprised you have room for anything else the
way you demolished those ribs. I was almost ready to guard my food. You sure
we’re not having twins?” he teased.
     Alexis had been eagerly on her way inside to get to
that cake when she paused. The look she delivered should've been a warning.
“Excuse me?”
     The three men tried to catch Amir’s attention to head
him off, but he was oblivious to the fact he was joking himself into a shitload
of trouble.
     “I tell you what, though. I bet you’re going to enjoy
having a license to eat as much as you want, babe. Fine with me. I love the
extra meat on your bones.”
     Alexis’ mouth dropped open.  “Are you saying that
I’m getting fat??”
     “Awww, fuck….” one of the men muttered under their
breath.
     The smile fell from Amir’s face as he realized she was
taking what he said the wrong way. “No! Baby, no! You’ve gained a little
weight, but that’s normal…”
     Alexis' folded her arms. Her eyes narrowed and drilled
a hole sharp enough to go straight through Amir. Jerra and Keisha moved to her
side, glaring at him and folding their arms as well.
     Amir looked at Darrell and Dominick for help but
Darrell suddenly found the label on his beer bottle extremely interesting, and
Dominick seemed as if he had found the most fascinating star patterns in the
sky. They knew when to choose their battles with their spouses; Amir was on his
own with this one.

     Amir turned to Marcus. “Right? I know
she’s only a couple of months pregnant, but she’s supposed to be big. I mean…”
     Alexis screamed in outrage. Amir quickly took a few
steps towards her to apologize, but Aleesha blocked his way as the women led
Lexie inside with comforting words. Amir heard the term ‘idiot’ and
‘insensitive jerk’ tossed into the conversation.
     “I think you should give her a few minutes, Amir. I
can’t believe you would even say something like that to her at a time like
this.”
     Aleesha continued to stand there as if making sure he
didn’t follow Lexie in the house. Again, Amir looked helplessly at the other
men. Marcus shook his head before finally taking pity on him. He put his arm
around Amir and walked him in the other direction away from Aleesha’s wrath.
     “Brother-in-law to be, let me explain some things to
you real quick about pregnant women. This a very sensitive time for them. See,
Darrell had to learn the hard way, but I‘m gonna help you out, a'ight?” Darrell
and Dominick joined them as they walked towards the pool.
     “And while you’re at it, explain to him about the
united front those women can put up at a moment’s notice,” Dominick threw in.
     “Now they’ve added Alexis to the pack, so they gonna
be even more difficult than before. Damn!” Darrell grumbled.
     Satisfied, Aleesha rolled her eyes at the four of them
and went inside.

     Later that night, Alexis and Amir lay in bed at the
hotel. He'd thoroughly apologized for his insensitive comments and managed to
get back into her good graces. He still didn’t know what he’d said that was so
bad, but as long as she wasn’t mad anymore, he guessed it didn’t matter.
     Amir rested his hand on her stomach. “I think I should
pick out the name. You picked Michael’s name, so this time it’s my turn. You
can do the next one.”
     “The next one?” Alexis said as she leaned up on an
elbow and stared at her fiancé. “Just how many times do you think we’ll be
doing this?”
     Amir pretended to ponder the question. “Oh, ‘bout
five, six, maybe seven more times - at least.”
     “Amir!” Lexie hit his shoulder as he burst out
laughing.
     “What?”
     “You’d better be joking, that’s what.” She laughed as
he lay back and pulled her down to his chest. Alexis yawned as she snuggled
closer, her eyes finally losing the battle to stay open.
     “Tired?”
     “Mmhm…” She yawned again.
     Amir kissed the top of her head and rubbed her back.
“Get some rest, then. Our flight leaves early in the morning.”
     “'K. Love you baby.”
     Amir’s arms tightened around her. “I love you, too.”
     Seconds later, he heard Lexie’s steady breathing as
she quickly fell asleep. Amir was too wound up to sleep. He and Alexis had
decided to have a small wedding in a couple of weeks. He was going to start
moving his things to her house as soon as they got back.
     Amir thought back to how just over a year ago, he’d
been running wild and out of control, not caring about anything or anybody
except himself. He hadn’t been ready to accept responsibility for a lot of the
things that had gone wrong in his life until he’d met Lexie. However, he had no
doubt he was ready to be a husband to the woman in his arms and a father to his
son and unborn child.
     As he finally began to drift off, his last thought
before he succumbed to sleep was that first moment he’d laid eyes on Alexis ten
years ago. He didn’t know what had possessed him to race up those flights of
stairs to get to her, but even then he’d realized she was someone special. He
couldn’t wait to see what else this game of life would throw his way. He was up
for the challenge.