Liam Spencer does not deserve this at all

The Fourth of July is supposed to be about freedom. After Bill set Steffy free, she was eager to lock Liam down in holy matrimony, but the pregnant Hope sentenced Liam to a lifetime of daddy duty first. Will Liam's new responsibilities and attention to Hope drive Steffy to Bill?

What do you get when you breed two mama bears with a cowardly Spencer? You get more drama and scat than the jobless papa can shake a stick at. The Logan mama bear is already up on her hind legs about sharing Liam with Steffy and her cub. Even though Steffy says her family is growing, the truth is that she doesn't want Liam anywhere near Hope. Steffy had better go ahead and make room in her pockets for Hope Jr.'s dirty diapers.

Usually, baby makes three, but in Los Angeles, baby makes five. There are two women, two children, and two families. But there's only one Liam, who flip-flops harder than a fish fresh out of water. Can Steffy hold onto him, or will he flop out of her frying pan and into the Logan fire this summer on The Bold and the Beautiful?

This year, Independence Day didn't come with a sexy photoshoot barbeque by the pool, but it did have fireworks. From morning until dusk, there was one explosion after another, and the grand finale rocked Steffy and Liam's aspirations for a peaceful happily-ever-after. It began with Hope snapping at everyone to the point of a literal nausea that led her to take a pregnancy test, and it ended with Steffy vowing that the baby storm clouds wouldn't rain out her wedding day.

Bill set Steffy free to either marry his son or run back to him when Liam lets her down once again due to his entanglement with Hope. Though Steffy intends to hang onto her family, a stalker might launch Liam into protection mode and land another mother and child in the middle of Steffy's marriage. Let's get Two Scoops deep into a day of fireworks that turned into one big dud for some of our Los Angeles residents, this week on The Bold and the Beautiful.

In case you missed it

Hope is supposedly the sweetest person in town, but she's sure ticking a lot of people off. One of those people just might be a timebomb waiting to explode all over her. Hope has been making decisions that have left some of her team members feeling disappointed or screwed. Maya doesn't appreciate not being the HFTF model. Emma is disappointed that her dance moves might not be in the showing, and Sally did not expect Hope to crap all over Sally's first day at work like a scorned wife getting revenge on a mistress.

Thorne took note of Emma and Maya's attitudes and figured one of them is behind the threatening posts on the HFTF website. Unbeknownst to him, Pam seems to be off her meds, and Sally felt the need to send a message in the middle of passionate fireworks between her and Wyatt on the holiday. Who does that? No wonder Sally's relationships don't work.

Brooke accompanied Hope to visit Dr. Phillips for a pregnancy test. Dr. Phillips has got to be the most dramafied OB/GYN in the city. When she delivered Kelly, it was a ten-ring circus of things wrong with the delivery. It was a circus when the doctor delivered Hope's pregnancy results, too.

At first, Dr. Phillips hinted that Hope might want an abortion, using that code word, "counselor." I don't recall the other doctor asking Steffy if she needed any "counseling" about her pregnancy, not even after Steffy brought in father-son DNA samples for her paternity test. Hope picked up on the lingo and was like, "I'm grown. I'm rich. I can raise this baby just fine by myself at my mama's house."

Once the results were in, Dr. Phillips said something like, "Statics show that home pregnancy tests give false negatives more than false positives. The odds of you getting a positive positive are rare. Hypothetically rare, that is, because I'm just ad-libbing until the director says 'cut."

Hope looked around befuddled and guessed she wasn't pregnant. Dr. Phillips was all like, "Psyche! You're pregnant! Unless you want to talk to a counselor. You sure you don't want to talk to a counselor?" When Liam shows up to Hope's next appointment, Dr. Phillip is definitely going to refer them to a counselor, but this time, it'll be a psychiatric counselor.

In the Spencer camp, Justin was relieved when Bill's roman candle for Steffy finally fizzled out, and Bill admitted that he'd gone too far in his obsession. Though he still believed that Liam would disappoint Steffy with Hope, Bill set Steffy free to figure out what she wants in life on her own, without the threat of him dropping the prison bomb on Taylor.

Bill had believed that Steffy was denying her feelings for him. When he suggested it to Steffy, she just stared blankly. He figured that she still couldn't admit it because her feelings for him scared her. The best Steffy could muster was that she wouldn't have done it with him if she hadn't had any type of feelings for him at all.

"Thank you for that," Bill said. Though grateful for the scrap, he pressed his luck and asked if he'd ever be in Steffy's life again. Steffy said it was up to Liam. Bill asked her to call him at any time or never.

Never, Bill. It's gonna be never. Now, back up so Steffy can close the door in your face.

Another person who can't take never for an answer is Brooke, who, against Ridge's wishes, has declared a baby duel to the death between Steffy and Hope. Brooke believes that Hope is better than Steffy, and everybody knows it. In Brooke's view, Steffy blew it when she slept with her father-in-law, a gutter Brooke was sure Hope would never roll around in.

Is Brooke sure she wants to be Steffy's judge? Apparently, not in front of Ridge, she doesn't. When he and Brooke debate about it and he asserts that Liam will be with Steffy, Brooke just makes squinty faces and hints that Steffy will need her father by the time it's all over. Ridge is worried that Hope will try to pull something, but the offended Brooke said her daughter doesn't do things like that.

Brooke is right. Hope doesn't do things like that, which is probably why Brooke will take it upon herself to do the pulling for Hope. Ridge isn't an innocent bystander, either. Every chance he gets, he pushes Liam to hurry up and marry his daughter. How long can Brooke and Ridge keep the tug-of-Liam-war from affecting their marriage?

In other news, Eric and Quinn didn't throw a pool party at the mansion this year. Instead, they stopped by the cliff house for a baby fix. Quinn even offered to help Steffy clean up and to make her a necklace or tiara for the wedding. Quinn catering to Steffy was a bizarre sight. During their small talk, I kept flashing back to lioness Steffy mauling the gazelle Quinn in a courtyard in Italy.

When Liam finally broke the news about the new pregnancy to Steffy, she was crushed but resilient. Instead of falling apart, she got a grip and decided that their family was getting bigger. Liam was surprised that Steffy took such a stance. Me, too. I mean, is Steffy sure she doesn't want to maul Hope down in a courtyard first? Steffy really has changed.

Most people struggle just to get one of everything in life, but Liam always gets to have two.

Liam can't have just one career, just one company he works for, just one girlfriend at a time, and now that Hope Logan is pregnant, Liam can't have just one family, either. Unfortunately for him, Hope doesn't want to be family B. He can't be a husband to more than one woman at a time, and this dilemma might just be the crack Bill needs to slither through to finally get close to Steffy.

"One night -- and our world changes!"

The freakout of the year goes to Steffy. When she got the news about Hope's pregnancy, Steffy moaned and gasped as if she'd walked into a room full of spoiled diapers. Now she knows what Hope felt like when Steffy ran down to the beach altar to whisper to Hope's groom that she was pregnant. Now Steffy knows what it felt like to have to confront the fact that the man she loves shares something sacred to her with another woman.

Liam stammered about it just being one night. He couldn't understand how it had happened. This is the third time Liam has been in this situation, the fourth time if we count Amber's trick, so it's high time someone explained it to him. It only takes one time, one egg, and one sperm, but it might be prevented by one condom. Abstinence works best, and that is what Liam should have been practicing after all he's put the women in his life through.

Steffy asked if the baby was Liam's, and Liam gave her the "dude...come on..." look. Steffy wondered if he'd even asked Hope, and Liam confidently -- and a little arrogantly -- replied that it was his. As if goody-goody Hope couldn't possibly have ever had sex with anyone in her whole life except for him -- and Wyatt, of course.

Hope is the infallible princess. Even her mother uttered -- out of Ridge's earshot -- that Hope was a better woman than Steffy. Is Hope a better woman or just a different brand of pathetic?

When Hope told Liam about the pregnancy this week, fireworks shot off in the sky. Liam and Hope were together, but he didn't understand a word she was saying or how she was feeling. It took me back to another Fourth of July, years back, when fireworks boomed over the city as Hope and Liam made lackluster love for the first time. Liam had no idea what Hope had been feeling then, either, or how she'd had to take pills in order to have sex with a married man.

I recalled another Independence Day when Liam was supposed to be with Hope, but he took off for Paris to find closure with Steffy, leaving Hope confused and rejected at a pivotal time in their relationship. Here we are again, watching another big moment for Liam and Hope fizzle out under another colorful, sparkly fire display because Hope's dream of being married to her baby's father just disappeared. Once again, it's because Liam left Hope with no options except to do what was against her own heart and principles to do.

Brooke says the baby is destiny. Hope and Liam are destined, all right, but is it destined to be together, apart, or just plain miserable? Hope thinks she and Liam just have bad timing. I wanted to believe Liam and Hope were star-crossed lovers, but it's seeming more and more like a bad pairing than just bad timing. No amount of helping along "destiny" can cure a bad pairing.

Steffy asked if she and Liam would have Hope's baby half-time. Liam said he didn't know and claimed that he and Hope hadn't talked about it. Either Liam is lying, or he has hearing problems, because Hope made herself perfectly clear to him.

Hope is not interested in sharing Liam. If Hope can get her child's parents under the same roof, that is what she wants. She told Liam to his shocked face that it seems possible to have what she wants because he isn't married. So what part of any of that led Liam to believe he and Hope didn't discuss it?

Who do you root for or sympathize with in a situation like this? Frankly, my scoopers, I don't give a damn who Liam ends up with because Liam isn't worth a damn.

Liam shouldn't have had sex with Hope, let alone become revenge-engaged to her. Hope should know by now not to accept proposals from Liam while he is still married, let alone sleep with him before his annulment. It didn't help the last time, and it didn't help this time, either. And Steffy -- I'm still shocked that her dumb ass left the paternity test hanging out of her purse!

As far as I'm concerned, they all sexed up their sheets, and now they can all lie on them together. I am a bit miffed because I don't believe Liam deserves any of this. After all the flip-flopping and women sniffing he's done, the last thing he deserves is to have his pick of the family he wants to spend his future with. All of this started with him sniffing around Sally.

Brooke is over at her house, priming her daughter as if she's about to enter Hope into a beauty contest or something. Ridge tries to get his Logan to see that it's a waste of time to be throwing mama pageants for Liam's benefit because everyone knows Liam is going to choose Steffy -- or Ridge is going to make Liam disappear. It's that simple.

Ridge has been keeping two eyes and a set of contact lenses on Liam ever since he got back with Steffy. Every time you look around, Ridge is throwing Rudyard Kipling's "six honest serving-men" in Liam's face, asking, "Where are you going? What are you doing? Who are you working with? Why are you around Hope? When are you marrying my daughter? How come I'm not your father-in-law?"

You know why? It's because Ridge knows Liam is just like Ridge, and if Liam is just like Ridge, it means Liam is vulnerable to any blonde Logan, especially one born of Brooke. Stephanie kept Ridge on the straight-and-narrow Taylor path, and Ridge knows that he better herd Liam all the way to the altar or risk Bill calling him "Pops" in the near future.

Ridge has gotta be motivated by the lesser of two evils, right? Steffy will either be with Bill or the spawn of Bill. For what other reason would Ridge tolerate Liam putting Ridge's daughter and stepdaughter through this same BS twice? Ridge's love for Kelly and disdain for Bill have to be the only reasons that Liam isn't looking for dental implant insurance right now.

The worst part for Ridge is that Liam carried on like this on Ridge's property! Can you imagine being the stepfather as your ex-son-in-law bakes a bun in your stepdaughter's oven on your own property? And then the guy walks out on your stepdaughter to go back to your daughter? If I were Ridge, I'd say to Liam that his flip-flopping days are done, son, or the next flop he'll be doing will be into a shallow grave dug out by the cabin.

Even though they are butting heads about it, I'm glad Brooke and Ridge are talking about the triangle. Hopefully, it means Ridge isn't running his mouth to trigger-happy Taylor about it. Now that I think of it, Steffy ought to make sure her father does not tell Taylor one thing about it before Taylor winds up shooting up Brooke's mansion on the next cold and windy night.

On a side note, the other week, I thought Steffy might feel sorry for her mother and give in to Bill's demands to keep Taylor out of prison. Boy, was I wrong. Not only did Steffy dig her toenails in about marrying Liam, but she didn't even call to check on Taylor after Taylor left the cliff house as a nervous wreck. Steffy hasn't even called Taylor to let her know that Bill promised not to turn her in. Steffy just forgot about poor Taylor, who's probably curled up, shivering in an attic somewhere, hiding from the mailman at the front door.

Assuming that Hope gives birth, Liam is destined to be a part-time father to one of these kids. The only question is whether he chooses which family to be with or if one of the women chooses for him. If it were the Hope of old, I'd suspect that she would have already told Liam that, as long as he couldn't commit to her, he wasn't good enough for her and her baby. This new Hope, however, seems content to wait until Liam decides her future for her.

I have a feeling that Steffy might be the ultimate decision maker. We all know spineless Liam isn't going to walk out on the woman. The woman has to walk out on him, and as of right now, Steffy is determined to stick with Liam. Who knows how she'll feel once Dr. Phillips accidentally starts calling her to confirm Hope's doctor's appointments or once Liam starts spending extra time with Hope to protect her and the baby from the stalker. I really want a sizzling summer stalker, can't you guys tell?

Once Bill gets news of the pregnancy, he'll be right there to say he told Steffy so. Bill will perpetuate the belief that Liam is bonding with Hope and her baby and making them a priority over Steffy, something that Bill would never do. Maybe if Steffy starts to believe that, she'll let her guard down and realize her feelings for Bill -- if she actually has any, that is.

When Steffy said to Liam that it was just one night but it changed everything, my mind immediately flashed to her one-night stand with Bill, which had been the first night that changed everything for the Spencer family. Had she not fallen in bed with Bill, none of the rest of it would have happened -- unless, of course, Hope and Liam really were destined to have a baby, too.

Bill believed that Steffy actually had feelings for him but was being too stubborn to admit them. What if he's right, and watching Hope and Liam go through the pregnancy together becomes the catalyst that revitalizes Steffy's feelings for Bill?

In a look ahead

Here's a small scoop of the upcoming action on B&B. To check out our spoilers in detail, Click here. According to the video trailer, the claws come out, the accusations fly, and hell freezes over.

Next week, Sally becomes the lead suspect in the Internet stalker case. Thorne and Katie hire Ken, Bill's former IT specialist, to trace the perp's webprints, but Sally denies she's the culprit. If Thorne and Katie team up to find the stalker, does that mean Liam won't take the lead on protecting his baby mama after all?

A mysterious woman named Zoe arrives in town, but her beef, whatever it might be, is with Xander, not Hope. Emma's posts of her pictures with Xander piqued Zoe's interest. Could the mystery woman spice up an otherwise average summer internship?

Liam seeks advice from Wyatt about his two families. Why not? Wyatt was married to both women, after all, and he almost had a child with Hope. Bill decides he's ready to mend fences with Wyatt, and when Bill visits his son, Wyatt tells him about Hope's pregnancy. I hope Wyatt saves some of his own business to tell, such as the fact that he's shacking up with Showdown Sally, who turned the beach house living room into a shooting gallery.

Steffy makes it clear to Liam that her favorite shape is not a triangle, and she isn't interested in raising her daughter in the same messed-up mess she and Hope went through as children. Steffy asks Liam if he still wants to get married. I have some advice for Steffy about his answer. If he says, "I don't know," she needs to go with the last "word" he sounded out -- the word "no."

"I don't know" means "no" until Liam does know, and Steffy and Kelly do not have time to wait until Kelly designs her first couture collection for Liam to figure out which family he wants.

Let us know what you think about the baby fireworks on the Fourth of July. Do you think Liam deserves to have two beautiful women and two children just waiting around for his love and affection? Should he get to decide which family he'd prefer to spend forever with, or should at least one of the women teach him that it's too late when you hesitate?

Until we scoop again, if you can't live with the baby drama, abstinence ensures there won't be a baby mama. But if you can't resist the attraction, your protection had better be bold and beautiful, baby!

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