Forever Came Calling

by B. C. Falls

  Thing is, I’m done running.

  Dane laughs. “Mom, this is Royce,” he stretches his hand out to me and I take it. “Royce, my mom, Christy.”

  “Hi, Mrs. Stone,” she scowls at me for a second before her smile comes back.

  “You better call me Christy, or mom. I will not have any of that Mrs. crap.” I laugh. “Now, come let me get a good look at you.” I step closer to them. “You are a very beautiful young woman,” her fragile hand takes ahold of mine. “And I heard you have a daughter.”

  “Kady, yes.” I look out towards the ocean. “Well, adoptive daughter technically, but yes.”

  “Same thing dear, same thing.” I smile. She looks down at Boxer and rubs his ears. “Aren’t you a cutie? This is the dog Dane got you?” she asks.

  “Yes. Boxer. He’s a real treat,” I smile down at him.

  “Such a good boy.” She stops rubbing his ears, which he absolutely loved and looks back up at me. “Take an old lady for a walk, would ya?” she asks.

  “Sure!” I wrap my arm through hers and Dane let’s go of her giving me the weight, which isn’t much.

  “This way. Try to keep up now!” I laugh as we walk away from Dane and the rest of the beach crowd with Boxer following closely. “So tell me sweetheart, what do you do?”

  “I’m a substitute Biology teacher at Miller Falls High School. Though, I wish it wasn’t a substitute position.”

  “In good time right?”

  “Yes, all in good time.”

  “What brought you to us?” We slow down a bit when I notice she’s having trouble keeping up. I make sure my steps are slower.

  “Kady. I wanted her to have a good family surrounding her,” I pause and she can tell. “And my best friend.”

  “Hmm.”

  “She’s got some trouble behind her and I’m trying to help her.”

  “The things we do for love, huh?” I simply nod. “The government gave you Kady in exchange for your help,” I stop walking and turn towards her. “I don’t suppose Dane told you what I did for a living?” I shake my head at the though. “Well for a while it was just checking up on foster families and such, but eventually I got to be a social worker. I had a couple cases that were hard. One little girl had a teacher who wanted to adopt her. After years of trying, she eventually got to be her foster parent. A year after that the adoption went through.” She reaches up and touches my cheek. “I see the pain you carry in your eyes. I also see it disappear when you look at Dane. I bet it dulls when you look at Kady.”

  I can’t help the smile that breaks out on my lips. “It feels like it does.”

  “Do you love him?” she asks. I simply nod, with no hesitation at all. She closes her eyes, turns her head towards the sun and just breathes deep. “I’ve got breast cancer. Stage four. It’s only a matter of time now.”

  “Christy,” I want to cry but she points her finger at me and I stop myself.

  “Now, don’t go shedding no tears for me. Enough people do that already.” She turns her head back towards the sun again, smile back in place. I do the same. “Dane’s father, Jimmy, moved me out here after the last round didn’t take. This is a beautiful place to live, Royce. A great place to have a family. To grow old. No better place to live.” When she stops I turn back to look at her. “Don’t run from my boy. He’s done enough running for the both of you.”

  “I won’t,” I promise.

  “Good girl,” she laces her fingers with mine again. “I’m a little tired.”

  “I have you,” I tighten my hold on her arm taking more of her weight. We make it back to the house just in time to see Kady walking up towards us with a huge smile on her face and Maddie just inches behind her, out of breath.

  “I won!” Kady states proudly. “Dane, I won!” she goes to him first and he hugs her up tight, telling her how proud he is of her.

  “That girl has some fins on her!” Maddie says laying down about five feet from us. “Hey Mom!” She smiles up at us. “Did you interrogate Royce?”

  “Oh shush, loser!” Maddie gasps at the word loser but Christy says it in a joking matter. “I’m gonna head inside. You four come in, Maddie make sure you give our victor a towel please.”

  Maddie jumps to her feet. “Yes ma’am,” she says moving towards her mom.

  “Can I walk you?” I ask.

  “No, no, you stay,” she pats my hand. Kady comes next to me and I wrap my arm around her even though she is soaking wet. “You must be Kady?” Christy says.

  “Yes,” Kady says shyly.

  “Well Kady, I’m going to go make us some cookies. Chocolate sound good to you?”

  Kady’s smile is bright. “Yes ma’am!”

  “Good, good,” she touches Kady’s cheek before turning and walking back towards the house.

  For another hour, we are all over the beach, running around and swimming in the ocean. Being a normal family. Not that Dallas and the rest of my family aren’t normal, but I’m not used to this. Being surrounded by people who obviously care for you is so new to me. I was used to just Blake and Kady for years.

  “You are getting sand in my shorts!” Dane groans. Because of his back and his lack of girlie parts he got voted into getting buried in the sand.

  “Come on in!” A strong booming voice says from behind us. We only got up to his stomach. “Dinner is ready!” the man yells. I look up and see it’s a spitting image of Dane, only smaller and this guys skin tone is more like mine then Dane’s. Did I mention he’s smaller? Like way smaller. This man is lean and tall, but he looks like he hasn’t been to a gym ever.

  “Well ladies, looks like you’ll have to bury me alive another time.”

  “No!” Kady yells out trying to get him to stop moving so she can get more sand on top of him.

  Before Dane can get to his feet I smack a kiss on his lips knocking him back. It was meant to just be a simple one that would give Kady an advantage, but he quickly grabs my face pulling me down in the sand with him.

  “Get them both!” I hear Maddie yell before a mountain of sand from Kady and her is dumped on both of us. Boxer starts barking making our laughs drown out.

  After the sand slowly stops, Dane and I pull away from each other looking up at the girls with scowls. “What?” Kady shrugs.

  “Come on!” the man yells again.

  “Dad?” I ask Dane.

  “Yeah, that’s the old man,” Dane gets to his feet and pulls me up with him. He stops and I give him a look but he quickly dismisses it.

  Maddie has already led Kady towards the house, I gather up our things making sure I don’t miss a shoe or two. Dane is standing to the side not bending down for his stuff. “Need help?” I ask him.

  “No,” he tries to bend down for it but stops before even gets half way. “Yes,” he barely says.

  “Yes?” I ask just to be sure and to give him a little less trouble.

  “Yes, I need help babe.” I smile and happily pull his things from the sand. I hand them to him and give him a kiss to make him feel better. “Thank you.”

  “It’s not a problem, baby.” I lace my fingers with his and we walk slowly towards his house. “I like your mom.”

  “She is amazing.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me about the cancer?” He shrugs. “That’s kind of a big deal.”

  “I don’t talk much.”

  “Which is fine.” He chuckles. “I’m sorry, Dane.”

  “For what baby?” We stop in front of the fence that separates the beach from home.

  “It can’t be easy. Knowing you are going to lose your mom.” Dane moves his arms around me pinning my hand behind my back and bringing me flush against him.

  “It’s not, but she makes it better. For a while now we’ve known. She’s always been our rock, the person who we can count on for literally anything and everything. The only thing she has ever asked of us is to not make it harder for her to go. She wants to go knowing she’s loved and surrounded by us being happy. So we all kind
of cried for a couple weeks after we first found out that she wasn’t going to make it. We spent a lot of time with her and talked a lot. It’s not about accepting it, we haven’t. I don’t think we ever will, but it’s just something we don’t really talk about anymore.”

  “I’m here Dane,” I tell him. He leans his forehead down on mine. “I’m done running,” he takes a deep breath. “Not that I ran all that much.”

  “Felt like you were a couple times.” I can’t help but laugh. “Baby, we’ve fought too much, but I think we fought because we’ve felt a lot so quickly and we never got to fully experience the whole getting to know each other stage. I’m done with all of that now. I just want to make you happy.”

  “You do, Dane. Every day. You make me happy.”

  He leans back looking at me. “Then you have to tell me everything and I have to tell you everything.”

  “Tonight. When we go home. I’ll tell you okay? I’ll tell you everything.” He simply nods. “Can I meet your dad?”

  “Yes,” Dane leans down kissing me and when he kisses me it tells me everything I need to know. He’s with me. “Come on sexy,” he smacks my ass when I move past him to go to the house.

  “Sexy huh?” I smile at him over my shoulder. “You could use one that a bit more.”

  “Noted,” he winks. Fucking winks! How the hell am I going to avoid jumping his bones? Oh yeah… stupid back.

  Dane’s dad is a hoot. Way less brooding than Dane. He’s hilarious. All night he’s made Kady and myself laugh more than we have in our whole life. I’m sure of that. Christy is all smiles and once in a while I catch her looking between Dane and I as if she see’s something she never has before. Maddie has been picking on Dane all night and of course I try to butt in every now and then, but she’s better at it.

  “So?” Kady puts her elbows on the table and leans towards Jimmy. “Got any good baby pictures of these two?” she asks pointing towards Maddie and Dane. Everyone around the table laughs. Sometimes she surprises the hell out of me.

  Jimmy looks over at Christy who then looks at Dane and mouths I’m sorry. “Come on, then,” Jimmy and Kady scurry off to find the infamous baby albums so Maddie and I start cleaning up the table.

  “That was really good,” I tell Maddie as we walk to the kitchen with all the plates and extra food from the table. “Does your dad usually cook that much food?”

  Maddie dumps the little bits of food from our plates into the trashcan then hands it off to me at the sink. “He’s always cooked way more than necessary. Dane would usually eat two of everything but since he’s slightly grown out of that, dad gets to cook less.”

  “Gosh, the day I have a boy is the day my wallet will be empty.”

  I hear Maddie gasp and look over at her confused. “Royce,” she whispers with a hint of a smile playing at the corner of her lips.

  “What?”

  “I can’t believe I didn’t even think of it!” I can feel my body start to tense. “Last week when you said you were having a bad reaction to the medicine! The nausea and your blood pressure spiking randomly.”

  About a week after the new medication started to kick in I felt a little bit off, but nothing major and we put it off thinking it was just my body getting used to it. Then about a week ago I got nausea and we couldn’t get my blood pressure to stay within a healthy range. We thought going back to the old medication would do it but I’m still not where we both want us to be.

  “What about it?”

  “You’re pregnant.” I drop the plate in the sink and it shatters. Both of us quickly move to clean up the pieces, luckily no one noticed. “We can do a test,” Maddie whispers.

  “I take birth control,” I whisper back.

  She reaches out and takes my hand “Sometimes the medication has side affects. Making your birth control basically inactive is one of those side affects.”

  “But you would’ve told me that and I would’ve made Dane…” I put my hand to my mouth. “I would’ve…”

  She pulls me towards her, wrapping her arm around me. “We talked about it, I told you it was a possibility. A one in one hundred possibility but….” she reaches out and touches my shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

  “How… When can you do a test?” I ask suddenly too warm to be in this kitchen.

  “Tomorrow.” Boxer starts barking from his place at the entry to the kitchen. I jump at the sound. “Are you okay?” she asks.

  “I need my pills,” I tell her nodding towards Boxer. “It’s probably high right now and I usually take them right before I eat.” I hadn’t thought about them for a while and Boxer only barks when I need them badly. “He warns me.”

  “Okay, just take a couple deep breaths. I’ll get them okay?” Boxer keeps barking and I know Dane is going to come in here. “Royce, look at me,” she says and I do. “Calm. We don’t know anything yet.” I nod trying to get my heart rate to slow and my nerves to die down.

  “Royce,” Dane’s stern voice comes from the dining room and my heart rate starts up again. “Royce,” he says coming into the kitchen. “Where are they?” he asks. I point towards the door. He takes off quickly and in a matter of moments he’s back in the kitchen with two pills. “Here,” he all but shoves them in my mouth.

  “Don’t be mad at her,” Maddie says punching him in the arm. He ignores her and watches me until I swallow the pills.

  “Done,” I say looking over at Boxer. He comes over to my side and licks my hand, I pet him letting him know I’m okay. “I’m sorry,” I say to him and Dane. Maddie has discretely left the kitchen thank god!

  “Are you okay?” He doesn’t even look worried. He looks pissed.

  “Yeah. I just got a little upset after I broke a plate.” I lie, and I lie good. Usually I can’t lie for shit around him, but for some reason he believes me in this moment. I reach out and wrap my arms around his waist pulling him closer to me. “Meeting your family for the first time… its a lot.”

  “I know all of your family,” he states like it’s literally nothing.

  “But you already knew them when I met you.” Dane wraps his arms around me. “Sometimes life is just—”

  “I probably didn’t help,” he leans his head down and kisses my neck. “I keep saying I’m going to be honest and up front about everything and demand the same from you, but then I don’t mention things like my mom’s cancer or how my back feels. It’s not fair.”

  “We’ve only known each other for four months Dane. What do you expect?”

  “I expect more from us because we both know we feel already. I expect openness because we want our forever.”

  “We’ll get it. Sometimes, the rockiness comes first.”

  “I believe that, baby,” Dane pulls back and reaches his hand up to cup my cheek. “Forever,” he seals the promise with a kiss and forever holding my heart in his hands.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Royce

  I’m cleaning. Why am I cleaning? Well, you see, when I get stressed out or get worried about something or when I’m on my period, I clean. I clean until my body gives out.

  Boxer has been following me around the house, Dane is in the other room sitting in an area I haven’t touched yet, and Kady is out with Lacey and some friends. I’m cleaning. Fucking cleaning.

  I am in the kitchen, at this moment, scrubbing the floors with a rag instead of a mop. Why am I stressed and worried? Because the test came back positive. I’m pregnant. I can’t be pregnant, though. I seriously need to not be pregnant right now.

  I’m supposed to pull money out of the account tonight and take it over to Jeff in the next town. We’re expecting someone to show up, but this whole baby thing is really freaking me out.

  “Babe!” Dane yells from the couch.

  “Yeah?” I yell back, dropping my rag to the sink. He doesn’t respond so I get up and go over to him. “What’s up?” I ask stopping behind the couch.

  “Here’s your phone,” Dane hands it over his shoulder and I grab it. “Someo
ne’s been calling.”

  “Thanks,” I kiss his head before glancing down at it. Jeff, I have four missed calls from Jeff and two from Leah (Blake). “Dane, it isn’t what you think.” I still haven’t talked to him about everything. It’s been almost a week since we met his parents and we just haven’t had a chance to talk. I hate myself for holding back, but at the same time I’m still trying to protect everything I’ve worked for. For Blake.

  “I know baby. I trust you,” he looks up at me and all I see is what I’ve been seeing for months. “Come sit, baby. Take a break,” he’s offered to help me so many times but I keep telling him no. “Please?”

  “Let me just call Leah back.” He smiles up at me before turning back to the sports center.

  I dial Blake’s number and wait impatiently as it rings. “Oh my God, Royce! You’re okay!”

  “Of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?” I whisper going back to the kitchen.

  She takes a deep breath like she’s preparing to tell me some serious shit. “They got a hold of that low level ass that’s been stalking me and he told the Marshal’s that they knew where you were and who you were. They don’t know you are working with the Marshal’s but the guy said it could be possible. They were talking about kidnapping you. Torturing you until you gave me up.” I’m pretty sure if she could see me right now she would see white. “Are you okay?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Jeff called in his dad. They are sending security down there.”

  “I’m supposed to go to the bank tonight,” I tell her. “It’s supposed to be the last drop.”

  “That’s why the Marshal’s aren’t getting too worried about this. They are only seeing what they want to see.”

  “What am I supposed to do?” I ask. “This was it—” I almost say her name. “We were gonna be free,” I reach down and put my hand over my stomach.