Enemies To Lovers: A Second Chance Romance Series (Book 3)

by Wood, Lauren

  “That sounds pretty ominous.”

  “It kind of is, Frank. I am freaking out over here. I don't want you freaking out as well.”

  “I'm quite sure that I won't freak out. I can usually hold myself together pretty good.”

  Of course that's what he would say and think. I just wasn't sure if he quite understood what I was talking about. This was a serious situation, or at least it felt that way to me. I had a child growing inside of me and quite honestly, it was freaking me out. I don't know how I was supposed to feel about it, just that I felt like a ticking time bomb. I was happy, I really was, but at the same time, I was afraid, because this didn’t feel like it was going to end well.

  Instead of sitting there lamenting for an eternity, I just came out with it instead. It seemed easier that way.

  “I am pregnant, Frank. That's what I wanted to tell you.”

  He looked at me a little funny and I can imagine that it was the last thing that he was thinking about. I wanted things to be over between us, but a baby together, dragged us back together in a real way and I don’t know if I would be able to hold it together. I was a mess and my emotions were on a rampage. These hormones were no joke.

  “You’re what?”

  “You heard me, Frank.”

  “It’s mine?”

  “We didn't use protection and now I'm pregnant.”

  He still had this vacant look in his eyes and to be honest, it was starting to frustrate me. I didn't want to see that look on his face. It wasn't just me that was in this, we were supposed to be in this together. He wanted to be together, or at least he did until he heard about this. Now he was looking at me, like I was a ticking time bomb as well.

  “You have to say something, Frank. Do you know how hard it was for me to say that to you? You have to have something to say about it.”

  I was starting to get frustrated, because he was just staring at me like some kind of idiot. The more I thought about it, the more upset I got and the more I wanted him to stop looking at me that way. Did he understand what his reaction was doing to me?

  “Lisa, it's just going to take me a minute. I don't really know what to say right now.”

  It didn't seem to make me feel any better, if I was honest with myself. I wanted to know how he felt about it, but he was still in the middle of being in shock. I really couldn't get upset about that, because it took me quite a while myself, to get over the shock of it. I had not been expecting any of this to happen.

  Now that it had happened though and I was over the surprise of it all, I was actually looking forward to having a child. This, telling Frank, was the part that I had been dreading the most and it felt like it wasn't for any reason. Obviously he was not handling it as well as I would have liked him to.

  “Well, I thought I would let you know. I am going to go outside for minute. I think I need some air.”

  I was shaking when I got out there and I knew that it was because of how Frank reacted. I had been naive to think that he would be happy about it. While I told myself that he probably wouldn't be over the moon about it, I had still hoped for something better. Now that hope was gone. He didn’t even think it was his.

  I went outside and tried to pull myself together. I felt a really hard knot in my throat and it basically refused to go down. My hands were shaking as I grabbed the railing and I had to fight back tears. His silence was far worse than I gave it credit for.

  I think the worst part of all was the absolute fear that came over me. There was not an ounce of happiness anywhere to be found. I couldn’t see it anyways.

  I don't know how long I stood out there, but I was actually cold when I finally got away. I just left. I didn't say a word to anybody. I was too wrapped up in my own thoughts.

  22

  Frank

  I was still in shock when Lisa's parents came back into the room. Her father sent his wife out into the kitchen to get something, but I knew what it was. He wanted to ask me what happened between me and Lisa. That was really something that I did not want to discuss with him or anybody else. My mind was still trying to process what she had just told me.

  “Are you okay, son?”

  “Yeah, I just got some news that I wasn't expecting.”

  He asked me if it went as bad as my face made it out to be And I had to agree that it did. It couldn't have gone any worse. Not only had she given me the information that I was finding very hard to process, but she also walked out because I was left just looking at her. I should have said something or done something. I should have done more than just look at her, but I really didn't know what to say. She had just come out with it quickly and then I didn't get much time to work through it.

  “You don't want to tell me what happened, do you?”

  There was a part of me that actually did, because then he would be able to give me some kind of help. Maybe he knew what to do in this situation, because I sure the hell didn't.

  “If I tell you, you have to promise not to tell her that you heard it from me. Your daughter is already livid with me.”

  He waved me off like he wouldn't say anything, but he did not know what I was going to tell him. I had a feeling that his idea of staying out of it was not going to last very long.

  “Your daughter just told me that she's pregnant.”

  For a minute, I think he wanted to hit me. That's the only thing that I could think of and he had this look in his eyes.

  “She's pregnant?”

  I agreed and tried to be as casual about it as I could be. It was a big deal and I was freaking out about it, but it seemed like he was far more upset about it than I was.

  “So why did she rush off like that?”

  I shrugged. “She caught me by surprise and I don't think that she liked my reaction.”

  He put his arm around my shoulder and asked me if I wanted to drink. That was definitely something that could help at the minute.

  “You know, when I found out about my oldest son, her mother and I weren't married yet. That came later, but it was a mess at first. I passed out, literally. I will never admit to it again but right here. I think this is good news. Her hormones are raging, but she will calm down soon.”

  He was taking it better than I was and he went on to tell me that they had been waiting for a grandchild. Apparently, they had not had one yet and had given up on Lisa ever giving them one. She had made it clear for a while now that she was not too invested in marriage.

  “Well, I'm glad that you're happy about it. I did not handle it well and I don't know if she's going to forgive me. Again. I ask a lot of her.”

  “Just give her a little time and I'm sure she will. She's just like her mother. She gets mad quickly, but doesn't stay mad for too long.”

  “I hope you're right about that. Because at the moment, I don't think she wants to talk to me.”

  He told me that I just had to give her some time.

  I went home with this sick feeling in my stomach and I tried to call Lisa. She wasn't picking up, but that wasn't really a surprise. I knew that she was going to avoid me, but she wasn't going to be able to do so for very long. We had to go to work tomorrow and then I would find a way to finally have a conversation about this. I told myself that I would do better the next time around.

  The more I got used to the idea of it, the more I actually liked it. This was what I had been waiting for. I had not thought about having children, but when I had, those few times, it was always with Lisa in mind. She’s always been the one and now she couldn’t walk away from me, from us. Now we were connected forever.

  I cornered her at work the next day. Admittedly, it wasn’t my best move, but by the way she was acting, it seemed like it was my only one. Lisa gave me a dirty look and told me to get out of the way. I was standing in front of her in my office, but I wasn't going to move until she gave me a few minutes of her attention.

  “I really do not have time to do this right now, Frank.”

  “Well you keep running off from me,
so when are we going to talk about it?”

  “I don't think there's really anything to talk about, is there?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, that you made yourself clear the other night and you've made your decision. Now I'm going to have to make mine.”

  I didn't like the sound of that at all and a part of me was worried that she would run off again, like she had done before. The last time was my fault as well. I reacted badly then too. Then it might be another ten years until I see her again and she would have my child this time around.

  “We have a lot to talk about. You're pregnant with my baby. How would we not have anything to discuss?”

  “Like I said, you made yourself clear and I am not going to push the matter anymore. I almost didn't tell you at all, and I kind of wish that I hadn’t now.”

  “How can you even say that? That is my kid. What do you mean you weren’t going to tell me?”

  “Because I knew better. I knew that if we were together again, it would somehow hurt me and it has. You have never understood what you did to me before. I don't even think you care, but I am not going to let myself get dragged down again.”

  The more she said, the more she got upset and I felt even worse.

  “I am sorry that I handled it so badly. It was just a shock. You have to give me another chance.”

  I really couldn't imagine going back to not seeing her anymore. I had been too long without her and I refused to walk away from this. I was not going to make the same mistakes again. There had to be something that I could do to make her see that I was a different man.

  “Are you just going to stand there or are you going to move?”

  I moved out of her way and watched her take off in the other direction. As much as I wanted to believe that everything I felt for her was returned, the truth was I didn't know. Had it been too long and I had really lost her for good?

  She stalked off and I tried my best not to let it get to me. It really wasn't possible though. The whole day I sat there wondering how I was going to fix this. I knew that a big gesture had ended things between us so long ago and now it was going to take an equally big gesture to get us back on track. I just wasn't sure what yet.

  23

  Lisa

  “What do you mean that you want to leave the company?”

  “You heard me. I want to try something else. I don't think that this is for me. I want to thank you for the opportunity, but I am going to find somewhere else to work. I just think that it's the best thing to do.”

  “Why in the world would that be the best thing to do?”

  I looked over at my dad and I just made this face at him. He should know what he is doing. I know that he doesn't pay much attention, but even he knew that Frank and I had been together. I don't think he really knew how it all ended between us, but it obviously had not ended well. He wanted us to not be together and that was exactly what happened. I think after that, he probably didn't care how it had happened.

  “I can't let you do that.”

  “Usually it's not really your choice. I have made my decision and I have already found another place to work. I don't need a reference or anything. Everybody knows the work I have done here.”

  “I would never try to stop you from getting another job, Lisa. But…what are you thinking?”

  “I'm thinking that for one reason or another, you brought Frank back into my life. I really don't know why you would do that, but I cannot work with him any longer, so I must go.”

  “This has to do with Frank?”

  I agreed that it did, but I wasn't sure why he was so surprised about it. Surely he would see that working with Frank with our history would be complicated. It was just more complicated than I was willing to deal with.

  “Does he know that you are quitting?”

  “Why would it matter?”

  “One thing, he’s your boss.”

  “And that is one of the main reasons I'm leaving. After all this time, you would give that job to him. It just makes no sense to me. What was the point of teaching me everything you knew if I was going to be second in the end?”

  “Are you saying that he hasn't done a good job since he took over the position?”

  I gritted my teeth for a moment because I didn't want to admit the truth. The truth was that he had actually been doing a very good job with it all, but that did not change why I was upset. I have been working for the company for almost ten years since I moved out here, and while he had never told me that I would get the company, I guess I had figured that would be what happened. Now I could see that I have been naive in that area as well. Even my own family has let me down.

  “No, I'm not saying that at all. But I'm your daughter. I guess I thought that it would mean something to you.”

  I was almost afraid to talk to my father that way. Nobody did and by the look that he was giving me, he was not appreciating my candor at all. I decided to wrap it up because that seemed like the best way to go about it.

  “Well, I just wanted to tell you what was going on. I am going to officially put in my two-week notice with HR but I wanted you to hear it from me first. I know how you don’t like surprises.”

  “If I got rid of Frank, would you stay on?”

  The question actually threw me off for a minute because it was so out of what I thought would happen. My dad was always worried about business first, so the idea that he would fire someone for me, was actually really nice. I liked the idea that he would do it if I asked, but I knew that I couldn't ask for such a thing. I didn't want to get Frank fired. I just wanted to put some distance between us. Especially now that I was starting to show. The last thing I needed was to see him around with a constant reminder of how everything had fallen apart.

  “No, I don't want you to fire him.”

  “Then what do you want?”

  The truth was that I really didn't know. All I knew for certain, was that I needed a little bit of space between me and Frank. I certainly wasn't going to get it here.

  “I don't know. I just think I need a bit of a break. All of these emotions are going through my head and these pregnancy hormones aren’t helping. I need some time to think it all through and I don’t think that I can do that here.”

  He just shook his hand and told me that it wasn't going to happen. “Come to dinner tonight and we can work through this.”

  “Every time I come to dinner, you have Frank over there. I'm really not in the mood tonight. You can’t just keep throwing us together and hope for a different outcome.”

  “I keep putting you guys in same room together because I was hoping that you could figure it out by yourselves. I know that you're pregnant and I know from being with your mother, that there is a lot of differences going on, that make you say and do things that are not what you would usually say or do.”

  He was way too careful with his words and it frustrated me. He was acting like I was delicate and going to break at any moment and of course, I was being silly about it all. For some reason, that just aggravated me even more. I wasn't just some woman that was being too emotional. I had a reason and working with my ex-lover while I was pregnant with his child was just far more than I was willing or able to deal with.

  He wouldn't let it go, until I agreed to go to the dinner. I knew that Frank was going to be there, yet I still did not know why my father kept pushing us together. It couldn't be because of the baby, right?

  I might have actually believed that, if he hadn't been pushing us together long before the pregnancy. What was he up to?

  I made it to my parents’ house a little bit later than I said I would be there. I almost canceled, but I knew that it would just bring about more conversations. It’s not like my dad was going to forget about it and not bring it up anymore. He would and I was just not in the mood to talk about it. So, I was going to play his little game for a while, and then I was going to leave.

  What I told him was true. I had put in several places for a n
ew job and I found one that would hire me. It was our competition, but I didn't want to get out of manufacturing altogether. It was what I knew best after all. It was what I had spent all of this time learning and I didn’t want to waste the last decade of my life.

  Frank was waiting for me when I got through the door, but I really wasn’t all that surprised. I knew that something was going on, even if it didn't make much sense to me. For a family that hated Frank so long ago, they really seemed to have changed their minds about him. Now all of a sudden he was the golden boy. It would have been nice if they had done this a long time ago. When we were still together and I wanted to be with them, it would have been helpful. But even then, I don't know if that would have kept us together. He was someone that had broken up with me, not the other way around.

  “I need to talk to you outside, Lisa.”

  “I don't think that would be a good idea.”

  “I think that it is a good idea or we can discuss it right here, although I don't know how much you want your family to know about our sex life. That is up to you.”

  I gave him a dirty look because I did not like being played like this. He was hoping that I would just give in to him, like I always had before. I had learned my lesson from the past. The amount of drama that was caused from a few hours of pleasure was still rocking me to my very core. How could I pretend like everything was okay when it so obviously was not?

  “Fine, Frank, but you’re going to have to make it quick. I'm not going to be staying too long. I don't know why my father has been putting in a good word for you, but I don't want to hear it. It's bad enough now, my own father, trying to get me to forgive you. I just don't know what you did to him.”

  “I didn't do anything to him, Lisa. He just realizes that we’re meant to be together and that I care for you deeply. He also thinks that you care for me as well.”

  I didn’t want to discuss this in front of the family. They were in ear-shot distance and I was already pretty embarrassed. I pulled him outside and waited until he shut the door to say anything more.