Underestimated Too (42 page)

“Sorry, we lost track of time. We’re on our way
now.”

“I can’t believe you did this, Morgan,” Drew
accused. I smiled. He was pissed. What the hell? I almost felt relieved that he
was angry, like he’d gone too long without being the Drew I was used to, like I
needed him to. Deidra was right. I did need the drama. I felt rejected without
it.

“Celeste is going to be so pissed at me. Look how
we’re dressed? This is entirely your fault. What is our story? Why are we so
late?” she pressed in an angry tone.

“We’re sticking with our original story. We were at
the art museum and lost track of time, stop being so dramatic. Jesus, Alicia.
What is your deal?” This wasn’t PMS. Alicia was pissing me off. She was a
nervous wreck. What the hell?

I figured out real fast. Shit. Fuck. Shit. Fucking
hell. “Alicia?” I questioned, seeing the cars.

“Drew did this. This is supposed to be your surprise
birthday party. I am so dead.”

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”

“It was a surprise. Both Celeste and Drew forbade me
to say one word. I didn’t know you were going to make us this late.”

“Shit, Alicia,” I blurted, seeing my husband waiting
outside for me. He was beyond pissed.

“One time, Morgan. Just once, I spend months doing
everything I can to put this together and you do this. Was the art more
important?”

“Drew, I had no idea. How could I know?”

“Come on. You have a whole house full of people,
waiting for you to appear at your party.

Drew led me to the formal dining room by my elbow.
Thank god, I had worn decent clothing and was having a good hair day. That’s
what I was thinking as we walked towards my surprise party.

My heart sank when I opened the door. Speechless, I
looked to Drew, sporting a genuine smile. My mother reached for me with one arm
while the other one hung over…Oh, my god. I couldn’t believe it.

“Justin?” I cried. This wasn’t real. My baby
brother, it was him, it was truly him.

“You look just like I remember you,” he spoke with a
deep man voice. He was so handsome. How did this happen? Drew did this? Justin
wrapped his arms around me and I held him so tight and cried. I cried
uncontrollably. My little Justin was here in my house. I think I cried for ten
minutes before I could catch my breath and let him go.

“Are you kidding me?!?” I yelled when I let him go,
catching Rebecca out of the corner of my eye. 

Running to her, we embraced. “You have no idea how
happy I am to see you,” she confessed. “But, seriously, we need to talk. You and
Drew are together? I didn’t know what to think when he showed up at my house,
begging me to come here.”

I held her hand, smiling at my mom covering her
mouth, trying to keep it together. She was happy. I was happy, Justin was
happy, and Drew was happy. He wasn’t wearing an angry look anymore. He really
outdid himself, and I ruined it for him.

I’m not sure I have ever had a happier day in my
entire life. No, I was sure that I hadn’t. Nicky absolutely loved his uncle
Justin. I loved Justin’s mother and father, and for the first time since he was
taken from me, I was happy that they had adopted him. They loved him so much
and it showed. I think my mother was even happy about how things had turned
out.

I spent a considerate amount of time explaining
everything to Rebecca. She couldn’t believe that I was there with Drew and we
had a baby together. She showed me pictures of her little girl. She was
adorable and named after me. I loved her and couldn’t wait to meet her.

I talked, laughed, and cried with my little brother.
He was quite the athlete, played the drums in his high school marching band. He
wanted to be an architect and either design modern skyscrapers or super
structure bridges. I told him he could do both.

“I cannot believe you did this,” I said, finally
getting my husband alone. What a long day, one that I will never forget.

“Are you happy,” Drew asked, closing our bedroom
door and pulling me close.

“I am so happy, but I ruined it for you. I was too
busy trying to defy your allotted time for me to be home.”

“You were purposely trying to defy me?”

“Sort of,” I confessed, pulling away from him.

“Don’t,” Drew ordered, taking my pack of pills from
my hand. I didn’t want to fight over having a baby. I let him put them back in
the medicine cabinet, thinking I’d just take one before I fell asleep. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did you want to defy me?”

Turning to him, I smiled a defeated, weak smile. I
couldn’t say it out loud. I couldn’t admit that I needed him to be an ass. I
didn’t want him to. I needed him to. I was saving that one for Deidra.

“Because I didn’t like you giving me a time to be
home,” I lied. I didn’t mind that at all. I would have been home long before
had Clay been on time.

“I’m sorry. I have been trying not to do that. I
just really needed you home tonight.”

“I can’t believe you did this. You went to Rebecca?
How did you convince Justin’s parents to bring him here?”

“Actually, Justin was the easy one. He wanted to see
you too, and he’s got some pretty awesome parents.”

“He does, doesn’t he?”

“Rebecca was the one that gave me fits. I thought
she was going to shoot me at her door.”

“You went to her house?”

“Yes, and she called the cops on me. Luckily, I had
her calmed down before they got there, and she told them it was
misunderstanding.”

I could see Rebecca doing that. I was sure she hated
Drew more than anyone on earth. I didn’t see that changing, but a lot of
strange things happened to me that I would have never predicted.

Drew kissed me with a long, deep, passionate kiss
that brought out emotions in us both, the fucked up kind that nobody could
understand but him or me.

“I need to punish you,” he begged in a desperate
tone to my lips.

YES!

I knew Drew wasn’t asking for an erotic ass spanking
over his lap. He needed more than that. Call it what you will, but I needed
that too. It’s what we did, it’s what we were together, and I don’t expect
anyone to understand it. I didn’t understand it myself so there was no way I
could explain it.

Okay, maybe I didn’t need that. The first lash from
his leather belt caused me to scream. It hurt. It hurt like hell and my ass was
suddenly on fire. “Shhh,” he quieted me, rubbing my ass with the palm of his
hand. I needed to lie down. I needed to be across the bed where I could stuff
the covers in my mouth and hold them tight in my fisted hands. Drew wouldn’t
let me. I had to hold on to the foot of the bed, legs spread while I took five
thrashings, leaving welts for sure. I could already feel them.

After a long drawn out, screwed up as hell foreplay
period, Drew used the electrical current on my clit, sending me to instant
orgasm,
almost.
It wasn’t until he fucked me in the ass, reaching around
to my clit that he finally let me come.

“You have no idea how much I love you,” Drew panted,
hot breaths to my back. I loved him too. I loved him more than I could
comprehend myself.

“I’m still not getting pregnant yet,” I exhaustedly
assured him.

“We’ll see.”

I smiled at his response and fell asleep happy with
Drew’s hand covering my still burning ass.

***

I should have called off the whole operation. Things
were going great. I couldn’t have been happier had my life depended on it.  Our
last session with Deidra was even good. We laughed and joked about silly things
Nicholas was learning, and she talked to us more about our cycle. We were
breaking it, Drew was breaking it, and together we were doing it.

I spent the morning sitting on Drew’s lap, creating
a Facebook account. I wanted to keep up with Justin’s sports, talk to him, and
send him messages whenever I wanted. That was a big step for Drew. I was sure I
would still have to let him see who I was talking to, but I didn’t mind that. I
would talk to Alicia, Justin, my mom, and Caroline. Even Rebecca, I couldn’t
wait to see the pictures of her daughter and watch her grow up. Caroline was so
excited that I finally got a Facebook account.

“Oh, Starlight!” I exclaimed, placing my fingers on
the home row. I knew she had a profile. I’d seen her on it talking to her
daughter and sister.

Drew placed his hands over mine stopping me. I
looked over my shoulder, knowing what he was going to say.

“Do you have to do that?”

“You don’t like Starlight?”

“I like her just fine. I’m just not sure I want you
associating with your old life in Maine anymore.”

“I spent the whole day with Starlight the last time
she was here. You didn’t mind it then?”

“I did mind. That was hard for me, and that was here
not Maine. Go ahead,” he offered, trying not to be
that
man. I smiled
and stopped. Baby steps. Drew knew that once I added Starlight, I would see the
post from Dawson and Lauren. That was the two that he really didn’t want me
connecting with. I would leave it at that, for now.

Celeste ran me out of the office in the early
afternoon, wanting to work. I didn’t mind. Nicholas was getting fussy, ready
for a nap anyway.

“Have you talked to Alicia?” I asked, standing with
Nicholas. I wanted to know what was going on. I couldn’t wait much longer.

“Yeah, she was taking Vincent to the dentist. Why?”
Celeste asked suspicious.

“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that,” I said, leaving
them to their work. I couldn’t look at Celeste and keep a straight face.

I spent the whole day, worrying about what happened.
Did it work? Did Clay get in? Did he get caught? Was he in jail? No. He
couldn’t have gotten caught. It was nearly seven thirty. The bank would have
called Drew. He had whatever was in the deposit box. What was in it? What if it
was money and he took it and ran? No, he didn’t do that either. Drew wouldn’t
hide money there anyway.

I jumped, startled when Drew spoke, coming into
Nicholas’s room with me. I’d been jumpy all day. I needed it to be Friday. I
needed to put this behind me and stop playing detective. Once I figured out
what and why Drew was hiding from me, I would.

“Morgan?” Drew called.

“Jesus, you scared me. Don’t do that.”

“You’ve been jumpy all day,” he noticed. “Hey, did I
have to show identification the other night at the restaurant?”

Crap.

“I’m not sure. I didn’t really pay attention. Why?”
I asked, lying. I turned my attention to Nicholas, hiding the guilt. I didn’t
think he’d notice it that soon. Drew had a migraine that night and was asleep
by nine. I was in bed with him, thanking god for his pounding head. Getting his
license from his wallet was easy. It was the social security number I had to
snoop for.

I waited for his relaxed deep breathing before
breaking into his office. The whole thing reminded me of planning my escape,
breaking in there to transfer funds from his accounts. I logged on to his
desktop, needing to keep an eye on him. Drew slept with his arm over his eyes
and I searched through files, folders, and drawers. Nothing I found had his
social on it. Why would it. Damn it. Now what was I supposed to do? I was just
about ready to give up when I saw the folder with the tab, reading
2013
taxes
. Yes! Pulling off a little yellow sticky note, I quickly jotted down
the number and got the hell out of there just in time for Nicholas to wake
crying.

“I don’t remember showing it. They know me there.
That’s so weird. Where else would I have used it?” Drew questioned himself more
than me.

“I don’t know. Look at him, Drew,” I derailed the
conversation that I couldn’t have without a shamed expression. Drew placed his
wallet back to his back pocket and picked up the block, helping Nicholas put
the round piece into the round hole rather than the square one he was trying to
fit it into. He was so smart. He had the right concept, just not the right
block.

Drew never mentioned his license again, not to me
anyway. I would get it back the next day and hide it behind one of the many
cards in his wallet. He’d think he just misplaced it, I hoped.

I wished I didn’t have such a meddling husband. I
wanted to text Alicia and ask her if she had it, what did it look like, was it
in an envelope, a box? UGH. I was never going to sleep. Why didn’t I tell her
I’d be over for breakfast instead of lunch?

Drew and I played with Nicky on his bedroom floor
until he conked out between Drew and me on the plush gray carpet. Drew picked
him up, changed him and kissed his sleeping little head.

“What’s wrong?” Drew asked, dropping to his knees
and lying beside me again.

“Nothing, why do you think something is wrong?”

“You’re just in another time. What are you thinking
about?”