Not even Alex.
“I…”
Her hesitation seemed to make Alex kick into gear. “I shouldn’t put that on you,” he said, apologizing as if reading her mind. “John, can we just show up if we decide to? We might be too tired after skating.”
Gratitude and fury fought inside her.
She didn’t know which one would win.
“Suit yourself. You know your mom has a standing invitation for you two. If you don’t come over then it’s just an extra night of wild sex for us.”
Jim had an odd sense of humor.
Alex blushed again, though he seemed to recover, this role more familiar. “Just don’t do it on the kitchen floor by the back door. Don’t want a repeat of what happened when I brought the soccer team home after practice that one time.” Low chuckles, then a wave from John as he disappeared, dragging Noi off by the leash.
A long, audible exhale from Alex, and then he turned to her with amused eyes. “Can you believe that?”
Josie snorted.
“Oh, that snort sounds dangerous,” he said, turning away. He reopened his pants, but if he thought they going in for round two after that, he was crazy.
Nope. He tied off the condom and found a trashcan nearby. This was a well-known area along a trail, but it fueled her anger that he knew exactly where the trashcans were, right here in the woods.
How about that?
“So, come here often?” she asked him.
He took that as a joke, an invitation to sidle up and snuggle. Her body went stiff with anger.
“Oh,” he said archly, taking a step back and holding his hands above her, as if dealing with something he had to handle gingerly. Which, he did. “You’re upset about something.”
“Perceptive.” She had been reduced to single words now, the churning cauldron of fucked-up emotions inside her spewing nonsense. Josie knew if she tried to explain why she was upset, she couldn’t be coherent. Hoping that Alex understood that, and would somehow just ride out this mood with her and be gentle and understanding, she went quiet.
Alex
Josie didn’t do quiet. He knew he’d screwed up somehow, but damn if he could figure it out. Coming here had been some sort of mistake, and having John discover them left him reeling. While John had always treated him more like a friend than a father, it was still damn intimidating to have your stepfather nearly find you balls deep in your girlfriend in the woods in public.
“You’re upset that I stuck you with answering about his offer to visit after we…” His voice disappeared. After they what? They’d just completed what he’d come here to do. Mission accomplished. His guilty eyes cut over to the ice skates and hope resurged in him.
Maybe he knew exactly what to do next.
“After we…” she repeated in a mocking tone. Uh oh.
“You knew why I brought you here,” he replied, voice as neutral as possible. They had an implicit agreement that outdoor sex and all the thrills and risks that came with it was a joy they both were privy to indulging in. The shock of finding that the other enjoyed the slightly voyeuristic sexual kink had been a revelation. Alex fell for Josie that first time they’d been together, kissing at the hospital while her best friend Laura was giving birth. The impromptu sex by the river a few days later had clinched it.
The rest, as they say, was history, and seven and a half months later, here they were.
Fighting.
He and Josie didn’t, generally speaking, fight. They bickered and argued about small details, but the big concepts weren’t an issue. Both fell into a pattern of just living life together, and as the relationship deepened they found, layer by layer, that they were even more compatible than either realized from the start.
It felt like they were somehow getting away with something. And outdoor sex most definitely fell into that category for Alex. As his breath made clouds that floated up to kiss the observing moon, he took deep, piercing breaths to steady himself. He wanted more. Not just more sex, but more.
However, he didn’t like more fighting.
“What about the others?” she asked in a soft, heartbreaking voice. Others?
“Others what?”
Josie’s arm swept out from her, extended like an announcer at the circus making a grand gesture. “You knew exactly where to go so we couldn’t be seen. You grew up around here. And the trashcan. Ether you have a strange inborn echolocation system for finding the nearest garbage can every time we have outdoor sex, or you know because you’ve been here before with someone.”
He cleared his throat and drew upon the only response he could think of. “You’re right,” he said in a low voice.
She looked stricken. It made his chest hurt. “I am?”
“Yes. You’ve discovered my secret. I’m…” He paused for dramatic effect. “Garbage Can Locater After Public Sex Man.” He unzipped his coat and pulled up his shirt. “I forgot to wear my uniform today.”
“Oh, Christ…”
“Professor X rejected me for the X-Men school. Didn’t think my powers were sufficiently designed to help mankind. I argued that, in fact, they are uniquely designed to aid mankind! I mean, what better skill would a person want as a superpower?”
“Alex,” Josie said, lips twitching. He was getting to her, and then she punched him in the chest, right at diaphragm level. She practically had to jump to do it, their height difference that vast.
It felt like having a plush animal thrown hard at him.
“Ouch,” he said weakly, which made her laugh.
“I know that didn’t hurt.”
“Then why did you do it?”
“Because you’re an idiot.”
“An idiot with unique trashcan-finding abilities.”
“Alex.”
“What?”
“I love you.” Without even looking at him as she said the words, Josie walked over to the ice skates and sat on her ass. She began to shake one leg like a dog, and he frowned, wondering what on earth she was—
And then she pulled a piece of red silk cloth out of her ankle.
“What is that?”
“I just gave birth. Congratulations! You’re a daddy.” She threw the item at him, hitting his cheek. He bent down and picked it up. Her panties. Shredded.
That would have made him laugh, but her words made his heart stop and speed up all at once.
You’re a daddy.
Someday, he wanted to hear those exact words from her as they huddled around a pregnancy test, eager for a positive result. In the not-too-distant future, when his residency was over and he worked reasonably normal hours (though there was no “normal” for an obstetrician, ever on call for babies who didn’t follow schedules), they would talk about marriage and children and…