Can't Say No

Chapter Fifteen- Unexpected.

(This chapter describes medical issues. I am not a professional in the medical field. This story is fiction, and I am making it what I need to be because this is fiction, I will be writing it the way I need it to be. Some may not be medically correct.)

~Echo's point of view~

I am currently thirty-two weeks pregnant. The girls are doing very well, and I have continued to work. If I had a different job, I might not have, but working with Rick isn't working. We cuddle on his couch and sleep most of the time. He even bought a new couch for his office so we could both fit as I get bigger.

Things with Chad aren't any better. We are still close to Charlie. I say I am over what Chad did, but I'm not. I am going to have to be. I have to tell him about the babies. I was going to, but then all the shit went down with his mom, and I didn't think it was appropriate.

Ian was arrested for the stuff he did at the club. While he was being questioned about that, he admitted he gave their mom drugs. He said that he went to school with Chad, and Chad bullied him or some bullshit like that, so he sat out to ruin Chad's life. I do know that Ian was the one who sent the text the next morning. It still doesn't make it better in my head.

Rick: "I could spend every day of the rest of my life in this position right here."

We are on the couch in his office. He is on his back, and I am on my side. My belly overlaps his toned body. I told him I had a headache and this is how we ended up. This is as far as it goes these days.

Echo: "Things aren't any better?"

Rick: "No. I know that I have a lot to do with it. We both know how I feel about you. I tried with Jade. I love her baby with all my heart, but it's getting harder knowing he isn't mine. It bugs me that she knew the whole time and didn't say anything."

Echo: "I can't believe that she turned out that way. I know Monica and Blaze Kane are both disappointed in her."

Jade had their son. They got into an argument over something, and she blurted out that the baby wasn't his. He got a DNA test, and he isn't his. He feels stuck because he married her without a prenup. He is also the only dad the baby knows. He belongs to one of the guys that worked at the club. Jade won't tell him who, but she knows it, and so does the guy.

He did close the club. He made sure those that wanted it had jobs. Not many did. They went to other strip clubs. Rick felt that with all the negative attention the club could possibly draw from the shit Ian did, it would ruin him. He shut it down the day Ian was arrested. He sold the building. He focuses on his other two businesses now.

I know that he is miserable with Jade. I also know that he spends more time with me than with her. He has been talking about buying a house in our neighborhood and giving her the house and whatever money she wants. I told him I would support him no matter what he chose to do. He also knows that we will never be anything.

Rick: "The girls will be coming up for lunch soon."

Echo: "I know."

Rick: "I am such a fucking fool, Echo. I fell for the oldest trick in the book. I should have followed my heart. Lots of people parent these days without being together. I should have told you the moment I knew that I had feelings for you. It would have been easier to deal with the consequences of you being underage than to have to go through a divorce."

Echo: "I only want you happy, Rick. I can't be what you need me to be, but I don't like seeing you miserable either."

Rick: "You give me everything I need, Echo. I may have owned a strip club, but I don't have the need for the physical aspect of a relationship. If you were single, it would be very different. You aren't, and I have tried my damnedest to respect that. I did have you once, though. I replay that shit over and over in my mind, and my hand does the job. I need exactly what I have from you."