“—I’m no cheek turner. . .You kill my dog, you better hide your cat.” Muhammad Ali
“I’m leaving to go pick up the girls,” Avery told RJ’s nanny. Her girls loved attending the school that Meesha had partly been responsible for founding. The school had grown and was considered as one of the best private schools on Fisher Island and Miami Beach.
Unlike Meesha, Avery didn’t have a permanent live-in nanny and housekeeper until RJ was born. Before giving birth to her son, she preferred to take care of her own children, relying on a babysitter only when she and Ryker had an outside engagement or entertained at home.
Avery soon accepted that Ryker had been right. The live-in nanny helped her a lot with not just RJ, but with Heather and Lexie, too. On occasion, Avery would spazz out—which is how she described it to her therapist— and refused to nurse her cute, chubby little boy. During her better days, she made sure she pumped and bottled as much of her breast milk as possible. She loved the little boy, but sometimes when she looked at him, all she could think about was the way Carlton had dismissed her and made light of what she thought they had together. Other days she was irritated or angry toward the girls and Ryker. The littlest things annoyed her, and there were times she felt resentment toward everyone in her inner circle. Feelings of sadness, emptiness, and numbness saturated her soul without giving her a moment’s warning.
The weekly therapy sessions seemed to slowly help Avery, and she began to connect with the baby. She told Ryker that she was starting to feel better and insisted that he could let the nanny move out, but Ryker convinced her that the nanny should stay at least until RJ was six months old. After that, they could reevaluate the situation. Avery finally relented. She had to admit, if only to herself, that the nanny took a lot of pressure off of her and she was able to mentally take her time adjusting to raising an infant again. Heather and Lexie, now ages eleven and nine, could present a whole other set of pressure for the sensitive woman Avery was.
She left home early enough to make a pre-planned stop at one of the pharmacy stores she’d seen on her daily trek to take the girls to school. The plan she had devised would be put into motion as soon as she picked up the over the counter DNA test. Recently, she had received in the mail two Ancestry DNA kits she’d ordered. She easily convinced Ryker that it would be fun to find out about their family history.
After purchasing a DNA kit from the pharmacy, Avery chuckled as she drove to Perfecting Your Faith Academy. Avery’s plan was to tell Ryker that he was taking the Ancestry DNA test, which he was, but what he wouldn’t know and hopefully would never find out, was she was going to also do the over-the-counter test to determine if RJ was his kid. She wasn’t going to be caught up like Peyton and Carlton were when it came to Liam’s paternity. If RJ turned out not to be Ryker’s son she would have her answer because that meant her baby’s daddy was none other than the infamous, finer than Morris Chestnut, Pastor Carlton Porter.
“Ryker, the Ancestry DNA kit arrived today. Do you want to do it this evening? I got one for you and one for me,” Avery told him later that evening.
Ryker was stretched out on the sofa in the family room watching an episode of “Power.”
“Yeah, let’s do it when this goes off. I want to see what Ghost is up to. I think Tommy is going to cross him,” he said, referring to the characters on the popular cable network show.
“That’s fine. I was just letting you know it came. I’m going to go upstairs and take my shower. When you’re done watching that, just come on upstairs.”
“RJ asleep?” he asked, looking over his shoulder at her.
“Yes, he might even stay asleep for most of the night. He’s doing so much better sleeping longer.”
“Yeah, he is.”
“It’s time we let him start sleeping in his crib, Ryker.”
“We’ll talk about it later. Whoa, I knew that was about to happen!” he said, when someone was shot on the show.
Avery threw up her hands, turned around, and walked out. There was no talking to Ryker when he was watching that show. Yet, she wasn’t bothered by it at all—it was one of his few guilty pleasures. She was more concerned about him letting the nanny do her job and about RJ sleeping in his own room instead of between the two of them every night.
Tonight she had different plans. She had already talked to the nanny and told her that she wanted RJ to sleep in her room or she wanted the nanny to sleep in the room with RJ. Whichever one worked best for her, as long as Avery could have some alone-in-the-bed time with her husband.
The nanny more than agreed. She had talked to Ryker and Avery on more than one occasion about it being best for RJ to sleep in his own bed. It was safer that way and healthier. Now all Avery had to do was convince Ryker that RJ would be just fine sleeping with the nanny.
Ryker came upstairs an hour later. Avery had showered, gotten the DNA tests and the Ancestry DNA kits, together. After he took his shower, Avery approached him again about taking the test.
“Honey, are you ready to do the test?” she asked as he came out of the shower.
“Yeah, in a minute. Does the nanny have RJ?”
“Yes, and he’s asleep. You remember what she told us, and how many times she’s told us, Ryker. We have to let him sleep in his own crib.”
“Too much can happen with him being in that room by himself. He can sleep in here. He has a crib in here. Plus, I don’t see what’s wrong with him sleeping in the bed with us until he’s older.”
“You know what she said. It’s safer for him to be in his own bed, Ryker. We could easily turn over on him during the night and never know it. He can get underneath us and, well, I don’t want to think about what could happen. Let’s just try it for tonight. We can take one day at a time. She’s going to sleep in his room with him, so we can see everything that’s going on, on the monitor.”
Ryker turned the monitor toward him, looked at it, and saw the nanny asleep on the twin bed they had in the room. RJ was sleeping soundly in his crib.
“We’ll see how it goes,” he said reluctantly.
Avery had already swabbed RJ’s mouth and now she had to get Ryker still enough for him to take his test.
“You ready?”
“Yep, let’s find out where we come from for real,” he said, and laughed lightly.
Avery read the instructions out loud for the Ancestry DNA test. Ryker listened and when she was done she administered the test, only it was not for the Ancestry DNA; it was for the DNA test.
“That was painless,” Ryker said.
“Oh, darn, I think I did it wrong.”
“What do you mean you did it wrong?”
“I want you to do it again. I don’t think you had enough saliva,” she lied. “I’m glad I paid for an extra kit. Here you go. Do it again.”
This time she used the Ancestry DNA test so she could have both tests taken.
“You bought three test kits?”
“Actually I bought four,” she lied again. “I know how I can lose things so I thought better safe than sorry.” She finished the test and returned the accessories to the container like the directions stated.
Ryker smiled at his wife, shook his head, and said, “You’re so funny, Avery Mitchelson.”
“That’s why you love me,” she replied.
He grabbed her by her butt and pulled her close to him while he sat on the bed.
“Let me go put this up so I can send it off first thing tomorrow. Then I’m all yours,” she told him, kissing him on top of his head.
She turned around and he swatted her on the butt.
“Don’t you start nothing you can’t finish,” she said, smiling.
“Oh, I plan to start and I plan to make it wayyyy past the finish line,” he told her.
Her plan worked like a charm. She had both tests completed and ready to mail. She returned to the bed and for the first time in weeks, she slept like a baby, but only after she and Ryker made love like there would be no tomorrow.