by Dauphin, M
“They can’t promise it will ever come back.” I say, rolling my eyes at the situation.
“Shit.” Tatum stand up and walks towards Eddie’s door.
“Wait, Tatum!” I stop him before he opens the door. “Just... don’t do what I did. Don’t expect anything from him.”
He gives me a sad smile and turns the handle to enter. The door closes behind him and I stare at it with my hand resting on my baby bump. I look down at it and smile.
“Looks like it’s just me and you, baby,” I whisper as I let a tear run down my face.
“I call bullshit,” I hear Molly’s voice booming down the hall. “BULL FUCKING SHIT, Red.”
“I asked you not to call me that,” I growl, growing pissed that she feels the need to call me out every time I get sad.
I should be allowed to get sad. It’s perfectly warranted.
“You, RED, are his girl. You fought so fucking hard these last four months, you are NOT about to give up on him now. This is when he needs you the most, Gwynn.” She puts her hands on her hips.
I know she’s right and I also know we are starting to get stares from onlookers in the waiting room. I did fight for him. I’ve always fought for him. I told myself I always WILL fight for him. Twirling the ring on my ring finger, the one he gave to me the day of the accident, I contemplate my next move.
I could be sad and devastated. I could sell the house, get an apartment big enough for a kid to run around in. I could keep on training, maybe pick up some bigger names. Maybe even once Angel is born, I’ll start fighting again.
I could do all of that, or I could keep fighting. I am a fighter after all, and a pretty damn good one at that. Fuck, I was brought up to the MMA by word of mouth. I could go weak and pansy, or I could make it my life goal to make him remember me.
It’s happened in movies, it can happen now too, right?
“You’re right, Molly. I did fight for him. And I will continue to fight for him. Thanks for making me realize my prego hormones are making me do crazy things.” I smile and laugh, trying to shake the feeling that this is going to be way harder than I thought.
“Damn right you are. And yes, screw those hormones. Remember, they make you crazy. It’s just the hormones. Definitely no real cray cray going on up in there.” She hugs me and laughs. “Love you, Gwynn. I’m so sorry for all of this. We’ll get him back,” she whispers.
“Stop. You stop. I can’t cry anymore. I’ve hit my tear quota for the fucking day,” I mumble into her shoulder.
Tatum steps out of the room and quietly clicks the door shut, not taking his eyes off of the handle for about a minute. He just stands there, breathing heavily, then his eyes roam the room until they hit mine, and I see the regret.
I knew he shouldn’t have went in there with high hopes.
Fuck.
“Hey, how’d it go?” Molly asks from behind me.
“Uh,” he starts, then looks around the room. “Let’s head outside.”
“Fuck that, I’m going back in there,” I say, pointing to Eddie’s room.
“No, you are coming outside with me for a moment. Now,” he demands and Molly chuckles and grabs my hand.
“Mm, I like demanding Tatum,” she whispers to me, which makes me laugh even more at his uptight ass walking in front of us.
I love the Savages, all of them. Growing up in Texas, I was always warned to stay away from anyone with that name, but I’ve come to learn that they will do ANYTHING for their loved ones. Including ‘taking out the trash’, so to say.
We make it outside and he finds a picnic table off to the side where no one is near.
“Sit.” He points at the table and sits on one side of it.
We both follow orders.
“He remembered me, Gwynn.” Tatum’s words almost broke my force shield of strength I was trying to build around myself.
“But not me?” I ask, already knowing the answer.
He shakes his head, then looks over at Molly.
“Not you either, doll,” he whispers and I see Molly’s face fall.
“Oh. Damn, I guess I never thought of him not remembering me. Shit... yea, this feeling sucks.”
“I can’t begin to imagine how you feel, Gwynn, but we are going to set him straight. Whatever it takes.” Tatum reaches across the table and takes my hands in his.
Anytime Eddie used to touch me, I would get chills from the tantalizing contact. It was never enough, no matter how much we were touching. Now, when other men touch me, it feels like I’m doing something wrong. Even with Tatum, and he’s fucking married!
“Gwynn, I promise you, we are going to get him the best care that money and power can buy. He’s going to remember you, if it’s the last thing I do. Eddie needs you. He is such a better man because of you. He will remember.” His eyes are piercing, emotional. A part of Tatum I’ve never seen before is staring at me, and I now see what Molly sees in him. He really does care, as cold as he can be at times.
“Thank you,” I manage to whisper. The damn lump in my throat refuses to be swallowed down.
“I need to go make a phone call. You girls don’t go in there right now. He needs to process some shit. Give him a while,” he warns, then walks off.
Right, sorry Tatum, but I don’t have to listen to you.
Chapter 14
Eddie
The door opens and I crack my eyes open to see Savage walking through the door.
“Shit, man, you look terrible,” I bitch at him.
“No worse than you, idiot. Way to total your truck, asshole.”
“Oh God, she’s totaled? Dammit!”
I rake my hands through my hair, hating the fact that I have too damn much of it now.
“You look like you’re moving good. How ya feelin’?” he asks, grabbing a chair and spinning it backwards to sit down.
“Like shit, dude. What the hell happened?” More like ‘why the fuck did the doctor tell me I’m engaged’, but I’ll hold off on that one.
“You were in an accident, Eddie. Some asshole ran you off the road and right into a tree.”
“Shit, really? Jesus, and I’m still alive! Ha!” It might not be funny, but dammit I had a will to live. I still had to find my father and kill him.
Okay not really, but I’d like to beat the shit out of him at least once.
“Why are you laughing, dude? This shit’s not funny, you fucking flat-lined. Your fucking fiancé watched you almost die.”
“Why the FUCK does everyone keep saying that? I’m not fucking engaged! Jesus, never. Don’t you remember my rules, Savage? No woman is going to make me break them.” I shake my head. This is all crazy! Eddie Roe doesn’t do relationships.
“Wow. They told me you didn’t remember, but I guess I still held hope. Dude, look at me,” he demands in that Savage way that I hate so damn much. I look over at him and in his eyes I see a seriousness I’ve only ever seen once before.
When he told me about the death of his kid.
“You’re fucking engaged, you asshole. You love that redheaded beauty more than life itself. You bought a house together because the apartment burned to a crisp by her stalker. She’s carrying your fucking child, Eddie. What the fuck is it going to take for you to remember how much you love her?”
I’ve never been speechless before now.
“Get your fucking head on straight, man. That woman needs you so bad it hurts to watch her sometimes. She’s done EVERYTHING by herself since the accident. Now, for you to wake up and not remember her, and be an asshole about her being here, Jesus, you’re.... Shit, man. I don’t even know. Wake the fuck up, Eddie.”
“Son of a bitch. Dude, you aren’t fucking with me are you?” My heart is about to beat out of my motherfucking chest.
I can’t have a fiancé. I can’t have a baby. I can’t be a dad!
“No, man, I’m not. I don’t even wish I were. She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you.”
“I remember nothing about her, thou
gh. If she were that good for me, wouldn’t I remember something?”
“I don’t know, dude, but you really need to start trying.” He shakes his head and walks out of the room.
Shit.
***
I smell vanilla, almost like fresh baked cookies. I can’t quite make out the image in front of me, but then someone speaks. Not me. It’s a woman’s voice.
“Sit here and wait until a reasonable hour to call a locksmith I guess,” she says as she plops her cute as hell ass down next to her shit.
“I have a couch if you are interested. Much more comfortable than a cold floor. Plus you are soaked. Come on in I should have something dry for you to wear.” Please please please say yes. The rational part of me keeps screaming ‘stop! Don’t let her get close to you!’ but every other sense in my body is screaming at me to get closer and closer. Being around her is like a high I don’t want to come down from, which scares the piss out of me. Her eyes meet mine again, every damn time it catches me off guard how intense one look from her can be. She’s thinking about it, I can tell she is just as torn as I am.
After way too fucking long staring into her eyes, I finally speak up. The tension in this hallway is too much to handle. I can see we aren’t getting anywhere fast tonight, so I do the only other thing I can think of.
“Listen, my name is Eddie, since we never had a real introduction. Here’s my key. I was heading to the gym. If you decide that you want a more comfortable, safe spot to sleep, head on in. Just don’t steal anything...I know where you live.” I grin and hand her the key. Stupid, maybe, that I feel as if I can trust this random girl with all of my belongings, but something tells me she is the most trustworthy person I’ve met in a long time.
***
Gasping for air, I sit up straight in bed.
“NO!” I yell to the empty room.
At least I thought it was empty.
“Fucking Christ, Eddie!” I hear her voice before I see her. Then I’m hit with the pillow I assume she was sleeping on.
Smells good, almost familiar.
Interesting.
“Woah, sorry. God, stop glaring at me!” I yell back at her. She’s sitting up on the couch, one hand over her heart and the other over her baby bump.
Shit this must be her. My fiancé.
“Hey.” I try to smile, but I can’t figure out why I’d smile at her. Something tells me to smile at her. Something tells me to be nice to her, but that’s not about to happen.
“Hi,” she says hesitantly. “Sorry I threw my pillow at you.” She laughs.
That laugh. There’s something nagging in the back of my mind about that laugh.
I shake it off, these meds are making me crazy.
“SOOO... how’s it goin?” I ask awkwardly.
I’ve never been awkward in front of a woman before. This is insane, Eddie!
This chick could be incredibly fucking hot, but I don’t screw pregnant people. Something about the thought of poking the baby with my dick really fucking turns me off. I know it really doesn’t happen that way, but no thanks, not for me.
“I’m trying to sleep. This couch is really uncomfortable, though. I don’t know how Tatum and Molly slept on this thing for so long,” she grumbles and stands up, stretching out.
Jesus, those tattoos are exquisite. A full sleeve, practically anyway, covers her left arm. She has some on her collarbone from what I can see, and a scrawling scene wrapping around the top part of her thigh, but I’m sure that’s not all she has. Shit just watching her stretch has parts of me waking up that hasn’t been awake in months.
I clear my throat and adjust myself without her noticing, but the shit-eating grin she just gave me out of the side of her eyes tells me she didn’t miss it.
“Wait, who’s Molly?” I have a feeling I’m going to be asking a lot of these types of questions and it really pisses me off.
“Oh, um... Tatum’s Wife”
“WIFE!?” I yell. “WHAT THE FUCK, HE’S MARRIED?!”
“Eddie, you were the best man in his wedding. They’ve been married... oh, five or six months now.”
“Shit! That hag was never going to settle down!”
“Hag?! Who are you?!” She laughs at my word usage, but I don’t back down.
“Yes, Hag. He’s an old hag. And now I guess he has one to keep him company.”
“Shut the fuck up. Right now. You shut your fucking mouth and listen to me.” She suddenly is standing right next to the bed, her familiar scent flowing off of her, her red hair pulled into a messy... thing... on the top of her head.
“Listening,” I say sarcastically.
“I love you, Tex. See this ring?” She holds up a massive ruby ring on her ring finger. Fuck I bought that?! No fucking way! “You gave me this ring the day you got in the accident. Just hours before. About an hour or so before we found out that I’m carrying your fucking child. It’s a girl, by the way. I’ve been keeping up with EVERYTHING while you have been sleeping away, apparently forgetting all about me and the life you said you wanted so fucking badly. I’m not giving up on you, Eddie. I’m pissed you don’t even seem like you’re trying, though. You could at least try to remember the things you loved so dearly.”
Her voice went from angry to sad, ending with the quietest sob I’ve ever heard.
See, this is why I don’t do relationships. Emotions make me all kinds of awkward.
“I’d love to say I’m sorry, but I don’t think I am. I mean... I’m not NOT trying, but I really don’t know what you want me to do.”
“Just try, Eddie. Don’t brush us off. Please, just... fight. For us.”
She leans in and gently kisses me on the lips before I know what she’s doing.
Fucking Christ, those lips.
They seem so familiar. She smells so familiar, but I don’t remember anything about her! What’s it going to hurt to try, though? I do have a baby on the way apparently. And apparently I’ve been so wrapped up in her that I thought we should get married. I wonder quickly if I did it because she got knocked up. Either way, it doesn’t matter. The doctors told me today the best thing for me to do would be getting back into the life that I left right before the accident, so that’s what I’ll do.
I’ll play along. For now.
Maybe once the baby is born we can figure out custody or whatever that shit is called, and I can finally have my life back.
“Fine, I’ll try, Red.” I say and she gasps.
“What?”
Her eyes go wide and tears fill them before she covers her mouth with her hand.
“Nothing, I... ok. Great,” she says, then quickly walks out of the room.
Fucking weirdo.
Chapter 15
Gwynn
*Three months later*
“Seriously, Eddie!?” I can’t take the cocky attitude any more.
He’s been home for almost two months and I feel like I’ve gotten nowhere with him. There are days that I don’t talk to him at all because it’s so frustrating, but then there are days he seems like he wants to get to know me again. Most days, though, he just sits at his computer in his room and works.
His room.
He refuses to sleep in bed with me. Told me until he remembers it’d just be weird.
Yea, fucking weird sleeping in bed with your fiancé.
“Yes, Red,” he says as he rolls his eyes at me, hands on his hips.
“DON’T FUCKING CALL ME THAT!”
“I DON’T KNOW WHY WE ARE YELLING NOW! AND WHY THE FUCK NOT? YOUR HAIR IS FUCKING RONALD MC DONALD RED! IF YOU DON’T FUCKING LIKE THE NAME, CHANGE THE CRAZY HAIR!” he screams back at me.
This is a typical day now in our house. We fight over stupid shit, I get frustrated and he gets pissed and blows up, then says something stupid like that. This isn’t the Eddie I love. This is a new man. I need my Eddie back, and I’m not going to stop fighting until I get him. I know he’s in there somewhere
“He’s got to be out there somewhere, GWYN
N.” He sneers at me, putting emphasis on my name. I hate hearing it come out of his mouth, but I hate hearing him call me ‘Red’ even more. Because I know when he says it now it’s not a term of endearment.
“Your father is dead, Eddie. DEAD! Why can’t you just remember that!? Or at the very least, accept it and move on?!”
He’s been frantically searching for his father lately and won’t listen to me when I tell him that he’s dead. The only person he would believe is his sister, and she’s nowhere to be found, but I’m about to find her myself if this craziness goes on any longer.
“You say that, but I never saw a body. If I missed my chance to beat the shit out of him, I’m going to be pissed.”
I gawk at the man standing in front of me. In the months since we got home from the hospital he has definitely filled out again. When we came home from the hospital his muscle definition was almost gone from laying in a bed for four months. Now, though, now I see his bulging muscles under the tattoos that cover his skin and it makes me so fucking hot for him I can’t stand it.
“Fine. Go on, continue your game. I have to go to work.”
I storm out of the house, walking right past his new, pitch black Ford F250. Shaking my head at the fucking Ford sitting in the driveway, I head to my car and get in. I have a training session this afternoon at the gym, but I think after that it’s time to find Eddie’s sister. This needs to come to an end. I’ve tried everything I can to get him to remember, even going as far as sucking him off last week with one of the blow jobs he used to love from me. As fun as it was for him, the asshole doesn’t want to touch a pregnant chick apparently.
Thanks to BOB, I at least went to bed partially satisfied that night.
****
I call the station after my session and officer Dillon answers.
“What can I do for you, Gwynn?” he asks.
“I need the next of kin on Eddie’s father.”
“Sure, hang tight, I’ll just text it to ya in a minute,” he says as I hear him walk across the office and pull open the drawer. “You know, I’m surprised you didn’t ask for this sooner. Looks like he has a sister out there. He know that?”
“Yes... he most definitely knows it,” I answer dryly.