Surviving the Mercers

The Rules of Engagement Excerpt 4

Another scene that I don't think will be in any of the books, but again, I thought I would share it as a deleted scene.

With Gin, Sal and Ioney.  It is broken into two pieces, I am putting it up as written, so the full piece wasn't completed before I changed my mind.  If it doesn't make sense, apologies in advance LOL.

“He’s not even responding to me anymore,” Gin said, frown lines appearing between her brow.  “It’s like, whenever I mention the B word, he goes deaf.  And he doesn’t tune back into the conversation until I change the topic.”

I was suddenly nervous.  “So what, you want me to get him in the baby making mood?”

Gin snorted, her amusement momentarily breaking through her depressed state.  “Getting him in the mood is not the problem.”

“Okay, ew.”  I held my hand up for her to stop.  Discussing their sex life was something I rated right up there with, well, other icky stuff.

She shook her head, a small grin lighting her pretty face.  “Just… I don’t know.  Just talk to him for me?  Get him thinking that having a baby isn’t going to be the end of the world.  I mean, you’ve been raising five kids for the last four years and none of them have died yet.”

I let out a bark of laughter.  “Yet being the key word.”

Gin nudged me with her shoulder.  “You know what he’s like.  He’s almost as stubborn as you are.”

“So you’re solution is to fight fire with fire?”

Well, it would certainly make for one interesting conversation.  I was already wondering which of us would resort to physical violence first.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I found Sal in the living room sitting on one of the sofas, a beer in hand.  He had a paperback in the other hand and glanced up as I came over to sit in front of him.  Right opposite him on the edge of the coffee table.

For some odd reason I was nervous, and all of my mental bullet points flew out of my head, leaving it vacant.

“You okay?” he asked, frowning.

I nodded, twisting my fingers together in my lap.

That frown intensified.  “The kids okay?”

“Yep.”

He spent a couple of minutes staring at me, trying to figure out why I was acting so weird, and in the end gave up.  His eyes dipped back down to the page he’d been reading.

“Huh.”

Okay, just pop it into the conversation, I told myself sternly.  Just put it out there, and see what he says.

Oblivious to my inner turmoil, he turned the page.  I kept thinking of ways to approach him.

Sal, don’t you think babies are the cutest?

Sal, babies are tough little critters.  Drop one on its head and once it stops bawling, it’s good as new.

Sal, don’t you want a family?

Sal, Gin said it’s time to start multiplying!

“You need to get pregnant!” I blurted, so suddenly I startled even myself.

But of course, there were just some moments that were born from bad timing.  This was one of them.  The words escaped my mouth the same instant Sal put his beer to his lips to take a generous swig.  The end result:  Sal inhaled rather than swallowed, a surprised gasp that had him spraying the liquid to his right; despite choking, he’d had enough sense to turn his head to avoid drenching me.

I reached forward to pat him on the back while he hacked up a lung, then thought better of it as he skewered me with a glare.  His novel lay abandoned at his feet, the half drunk beer sitting beside it.  He needed both hands to brace against his knees, and by the way his face turned a brilliant red I’d say he needed to take a nice, deep breath too.

“Jesus,” he croaked, finally managing to suck in some much needed oxygen.

He wiped a hand across his mouth, then leaned back to scowl at me.

“Babies are the cutest?” I offered with an innocent smile.

“I am not getting pregnant!” he declared angrily.  He cursed as he realised his word choice.  “I mean, we - Gin and I, we are not getting pregnant.  She isn’t.  There’s going to be none of that.  At all.  End of.”

“But -”

He slashed his hand across the air in front of us.  “No.  No buts.  And no babies.  And no more conversation.  At least not about this.”

He coughed some more and leaned over to swipe his book from the ground before getting to his feet  Clearly our talk was over, and I’d failed miserably.

“Nearly fucking killed me,” Sal muttered darkly under his breath, finding the page he’d been reading as he walked off down the hall.