Disclaimer: All the events and character description taken place in this story is COMPLETELY FICTION. No copyright infringement intended. All characters are copy written to their respective owners. No profit is being made from this story. It should be viewed only as entertainment.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
"You doing okay back there, little man?" Kurt asked, his eyes quickly darted to his escalades' rear view mirror in order to catch a glimpse of his baby.
The two of them were well on their way in their seven hour journey to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Angle was a bit nervous traveling with his eleven month old without the supervision and guidance of his wife. He worried that stopping to check the baby's diaper when the SUV needed gas wasn't cutting it.
Andrew was a good little traveler. He was sucking happily on his pacifier and every once in a while, speaking gibberish out from around it. His mommy had attached his pacifier to his little shirt with a blue strap so that he wouldn't lose it during the long trip. Kurt was glad his wife did that because the baby had a habit of throwing his pacifier and then crying for it.
"Time for a pit stop!" Kurt announced as he pushed the turn signal switch up and began to drift over to the exit lane for the upcoming rest area complex.
Angle drove behind the service station in into the area that was designated parking for big tractor trailers. It was remote parking where he wouldn't have to worry about making a scene which would mean having to sign more than a dozen autographs before he could even change his son's diaper. Here in the back parking he was surrounded by parked eighteen wheelers and his only company was an elderly woman a yard or so away who was walking her little white poodle.
Kurt grabbed his cell phone from the cup holder and stuck it in his back pocket before he went to get Andrew. Little Andy was more than happy to be taken out of his car seat and into his daddy's arms. Kurt, with the baby in one arm, went around to the back of his white escalade and opened the back hatch. It was there in the ample cargo space that Kurt laid down a white changing mat and then his son on top of it.
"Someone's a stinky boy. It's a good thing we stopped." Kurt commented, his voice full of enthusiasm as he peeled back his son's soiled diaper. Andy giggled and spoke his baby talk with the same inflection while his daddy lifted his legs to take the diaper off him and replace it with a clean one.
Angle then took a moment to take his cell phone from his back pocket and found his ex-wife's cell phone number from list long list of contacts. He pressed the cell phone to his ear with his shoulder when it began to ring and he resumed his diaper duties.
"Hi this is Karen, I'm not here right now, leave a message and I'll get back to ya!" Karen's voice mail played followed by a beep to signal when it was time for him to leave his message.
"Hey Karen, this is Kurt. Listen, RAW is in Pittsburgh tonight. I'm on my way now actually. I was hoping I could stop by and visit with Kyra and Kody. I've got Andrew with me so his brother and sister can see him. Anyway, call me back as soon as you can. I should be in Pittsburgh in an hour or two."
"Hey glad you could make it over today. Come on in, Aurora is in the living room watching her cartoons. I'm sure she will be happy to see you." Stephanie told her ex-husband with a smile on her face as she motioned for him to cross the threshold of the Angle home.
Paul returned the smile as he entered the house. He was beyond thrilled when he got the call from Steph earlier in the day. Spending the day with his two favorite girls without hide nor hair of Kurt Angle or his offspring was his idea of a perfect day.
"Aren't you happy to see me?" Paul asked giving his former wife a flirtation smile as he closed some of the space between them so that she was looking right in his hazel eyes. The eyes of the man she was once deeply in love with.
"Of course I am. It's great that you could come over. I have so much work that I need to get done and this is the perfect opportunity for you and Aurora to spend some quality time together." Steph replied fixing the collar of his polo shirt.
Paul had made a point to dress nicely for his visit. Spending the day with his Stephy was of course considered to be a special occasion and he knew how much she loved him in polo shirts. In fact, every single one including the one he had on, she had bought him when they were married; He wondered if she noticed.
Paul's heart raced as his eyes darted down to her hand as it fixed his shirt. He loved it when she had her hands on him, even if it was just his clothing. It reminded him of when they were married and she used to lovingly fix ruffles out of his clothing or even run her hands through his long hair when it wasn't fixed just so; Simply sensual touches from her that he had taken for granted when she was his.
"Hey Aurora, your daddy's here to visit with you!" Steph hollered aloud, letting her voice echo through the large home while she walked down the hall toward the living room.
Paul was following Stephanie close behind. His eyes couldn't help but wander to her beautiful smooth long legs and her voluptuous rear. She was in black spandex shorts that were like they were molded to her body. It was definitely his favorite view of his ex. His thoughts drifted back many years to when he would goose her with a pinch to her perfect ass while she sat on his lap for a backstage segment. It was how he first let her know he was interested in her. Her laughter and playful punch when their scene was over had shown how much she, in turn, was into him.
If only it were that easy now. Giving into his impulsive desire would mean him running his hand up her leg and caressing the contours of exquisite backside. Of course her reaction to his touch would definitely not be what he wanted. It would most likely be a stiff slap to the face or even worse, her calling off their day together followed by her rescinding the invitation to the weekend birthday party. That birthday party meant more time with his Stephy, something he wasn't going to give up.
"Woah, sorry about that." Paul said with a boyish chuckle after his large muscular frame collided into the back of Steph making her stumble forward only slightly.
Paul had been so preoccupied fantasizing while ogling at his former wife that he didn't notice that she had stopped when she had reached the living room. He was quick to place his hands at her waist line in a false attempt to steady her, even though he knew full well that he didn't bump into her that hard.
"You're fine, Paul. Don't worry about it." Steph replied turning her head around to give Paul a smile as she tapped on his hands with each set of her fingers as an unspoken signal for him to remove them from her waist which he promptly did.
"Yeah, I know I'm fine." Levesque then told her, making his pecs flex from underneath his dress shirt which he was sure she would take notice of.
"Will you just go visit with your daughter? I have to get back to work." Steph said as she tried to stifle her laughter. She had always thought Paul's humor was so quick and witty. It had been one of the reasons she had fallen for him. Of course, he knew this and was able to use his keen sense of humor to play to his advantage.
"Hey Aurora, look who came to visit with you today, it's your daddy!" Steph announced to her daughter in an attempt to garner her attention away from the animated cartoon characters up on the television screen.
The three year old only look away from the screen for a brief moment to see who was standing with her mother before she went right back to watching the cartoon.
"Hey Aurora, what are you watching, sweetheart?" Paul asked walking further into the living room so that he could approach his child.
"It's Max and Ruby." Aurora said aloud as she pointed to the screen, not even taking her eyes off of it.
"Oh wow, are Max and Ruby those two white rabbits?" Paul asked sitting down next to his child on the sofa.
"Yeah, they are the white bunnies. And the gray bunny is their granny." She explained further before she gave her father a quick smile.
Stephanie took their conversation about the Nick Jr. show as her cue to retreat back to the study and resume work on the final draft of the RAW script. Without saying a word, she slipped out of the living room and back to her study.
When Paul looked away from his child, he saw that his ex-wife had left him alone with their daughter. He had hoped that Steph would have at least hung out with them for an hour or so before going back to work. Now here he was with the three year old watching preschool cartoons in Kurt Angle's living room.
"Wanna color wif me?" Aurora offered in a somewhat shy voice as she got from the sofa and knelt down at the coffee table where her coloring book was. She was actually coming out of her shell and directly asking her daddy to play with her.
"Maybe later…" Paul muttered focusing his eyes on a nearby framed picture that was sitting on glass side table next to the sofa. Aurora looked disappointed by her father's rejection as she protruded out her little pink bottom lip before resuming her coloring.
His eyes first concentrated on Stephanie smiling in the picture. He loved her smile, especially the way her nostrils would flare when she'd be beaming with happiness. She had been truly happy with him.
In the picture, her face was a little fat because she had been pregnant with Angle's kid when the picture was taken. Even with the extra baby weight, she was still gorgeous. She was in a two piece bikini and seemed to be somewhere tropical. It would have been a nice picture of her if it wasn't for the fact that Angle was in it as well. There he was behind Stephy with his arms around her, his hands resting on her pregnant belly. He too was dressed for the tropical climate wearing swimming trunks. Kurt had on his smug smirk that would always make Levesque want to smash his face in. The picture was probably taken on their honeymoon. Just looking at it was annoying him, so Paul used his right hand to turn it over so the picture was facing down on the glass table. It was then Levesque realized that by laying that picture down, he had revealed three smaller pictures that were each of Stephanie and Kurt with both Andrew and Aurora.
"How many fucking pictures do they have?" Paul muttered under his breath as he quickly got up from the sofa.
"You not stay and play?" Aurora asked as Paul began to leave the living room. Her question caused him to stop and turn around to face her.
"I'm just going to go see Mommy. I'll be back." He told her before walking out of the living room before the three year old could reply.
Not knowing exactly where the study was, Paul followed the hallway, peeking into each room until he finally came to the right one where the hallway ended. There was Steph typing away on her laptop keyboard, not even blinking as she stared at the screen.
The home study was in a pretty large room having to accommodate for two great wooden desks; one obviously for Stephanie and the other for Kurt. There wasn't much on Angle's desk other than a PC and a few pictures of Steph and the children. Stephanie's however was covered with colored stick notes lined up in a sequential order that only made sense to Steph because of her chicken scratch shorthand.
"Still a work-aholic, huh?" Paul ask leaning up against the doorway of the study as he still eyed his ex-wife.
Hearing his voice caused Stephanie to immediately look up at him. She gave him a quick smile before immediately going back to typing. She was far too busy to stop what she was doing in order to chit-chat with Paul.
"Where's Aurora? The point of you coming over today was to visit with her while I got work done." Steph asked while her fingers stayed in motion moving effortlessly across the laptop keyboard.
"She's coloring and watching her show. And you know this visit wasn't just about me seeing her. This visit was for the both of us to visit with our daughter." Levesque replied while he ventured further into the room to get closer to her.
"You really need to get back into the living room. When she's quiet is when you have to worry. Who knows what she's getting into being left by herself." Steph mentioned completely changing the subject when Paul had pointed out that they should both be spending time with Aurora.
Paul began to walk around the desk to the side where Stephanie was sitting. His eyes focused on her wedding ring that was shimmering as her fingers moved finding the keys. It was quite a large engagement ring that had been joined with a wedding ring making it even more impressive. He was ashamed to say that it was even bigger than the one he had given her when he proposed back in early 2003. Leave it to Angle to make it a point to show him up. Maybe Angle's baby could use that hunk of diamond as a pacifier and choke on it. The last thought made Paul smile as he leaned over and grabbed the back of Stephanie's office chair before leaning in to talk to her.
"I'm giving you a ten seconds countdown to finish up in here…10…9…8…" Paul said as he began to slowly roll the chair away from the desk.
"Paul, will you stop? My God, you are such a child! You used to pull this crap when you wanted me to come to bed with you!" Stephanie hollered letting out a forced laugh as she tried to pull the chair back to where she had it.
"Do you think it will still work?" Paul whispered in a sexy voice that he knew would always turn her on in the past without fail. He then took a deep breath, savoring her smell. She was intoxicating.
Stephanie completely straightened her back as she took her hands away from the laptop keyboard. She could feel a bit of awkward tension in the air especially with her ex leaning in so close to her.
"If you don't move your ass back into the living room to be with your daughter right now, I'm going to roll this chair right over both of your feet." She threatened Levesque with an evil smile. She leaned forward and pretended to be ready to push herself back.
"Okay, okay, Stephy, keep your shirt on." Paul told her as he moved away from her and began to walk out of the study. It was when he reached the doorway that he turned around to have the last word.
"Better yet, go ahead and take it off." He said moving his eyebrows up and down showing his excitement at the thought.
"Get!" Stephanie yelled through laughter as she threw one of her sticky note pads at him causing him to exit the room.
Kurt and Andrew arrived in Pittsburgh later than expected due to some heavy traffic approaching the city. Baby Andrew didn't seem to mind the delay for he was comfortably asleep in his car seat with his pacifier half hanging out of his mouth. To Angle's surprise, he had yet to hear back from Karen. Did she not get his voice mail or was she simply ignoring him? Kurt didn't care what the excuse was. Time was now of the essence and he wanted to spend this extra hour with Kyra and Kody before he had to report to the arena.
Angle decided that he would drive by Karen's house and see if she and the kids were home. Of course he knew where she lived; it was still in the same house that they had built before their marriage had ended. He had given her everything in the divorce settlement after moving out right when the first separated. Thanks to him, Karen was now a millionaire. It didn't bother him though, as long as his two children were taken care of.
The white escalade began to slowly drive down the street of the gated community in which his children lived in. It felt weird driving there since he no longer lived in the posh neighborhood and was simply a visitor who wasn't even invited.
Nothing could have prepared Kurt for what he saw when he pulled up to the home of his ex-wife and children. His jaw dropped as he slammed on his break almost jarring his infant son out of his slumber. It was what he saw staked in the front yard that had taken him aback. A white wooden post held a hanging Pittsburgh realtor sign was moving slightly as a gust of hot summer breeze swept through the front yard.
"What the fuck?" Angle said aloud when he noticed the big red letters in the rectangular sign on top of the post that read "Sold".
He quickly put the SUV in park and climbed out, leaving the engine running. With large strides, he almost ran across the front yard and up to the front door of the house of his two children. He brought his cupped hands up to the glass window that narrow glass windows at the side of the door and used them to help him peer inside. The house was completely empty. The walls were bare, not one piece of furniture was left. Everything was gone; including his two children.