Until Forever (Providence Series Book 3)

by Mary B. Moore

  “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.” And it was true, I wouldn’t have. Over the last couple of months, we’d become close and had met up for coffee many times. That asshole Adam Montgomery was missing again, thank fuck. If he’d been around, I might have had to break my “orders” and take care of him.

  Looking at Red as she spoke to me with her eyes twinkling, I wondered if she knew what Montgomery was up to? What he really did while he was away? If he comes back and starts taking up her time or sniffing around her, I was gonna have to find a way to let her in on his secrets. Let’s see if she thinks he’s the shit after that.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Cole

  It had been ages since the night of animalgate. In fact, it seemed like forever since we’d all been out as a group. I guess someone wanting you dead and pregnancy will do that to a social life. Baz had been reluctant to let us go out tonight, but there were enough undercover security and obvious security personnel dotted around Ethan’s club that, regardless of which of us went where, we’d be covered the whole time. Ethan had also briefed his own security and Mace wasn’t drinking, so I was thinking we’d be cool.

  Isla and Maya, neither of whom were drinking because they were still feeding the babies, were both watching their men with a mixture of amusement and adoration as they knocked back a couple of drinks. Ebru, Ava, and Scarlett had taken it upon themselves to drink Isla and Maya’s ‘alcohol entitlement’, which I assumed meant what they couldn’t drink the girls would. I couldn’t blame Eb, after everything she’d been through recently, she needed to let her hair down and have some fun.

  Mom had almost snatched Crystal from Ren when they’d brought her over to theirs, and as we were leaving, she was arguing with Gram over who got to hold her. They were both baby hogs of the biggest kind and had wanted the twins too, but George and Christy had them, and there was no way they would have given in to foregoing grandparent time with those two rascals.

  “So, have you used the breast pump yet?” Ava asked, giving me a shit-eating grin. I don’t know what the hell she had to grin about; that thing was fierce.

  “Wow, is this the type of conversation that we’re reduced to?” Tony grimaced as he rubbed his stomach. The guy now had a serious phobia of all things baby, aside from the babies themselves. Although, he still glared at Dewi from time to time. He’d shown up with Lars which had been a shock to the rest of the group, but Ebru had told me that they were dating and I was happy for them. Tony was a great guy with one of the biggest hearts ever, and Eb thought the same of Lars; they made sense as a couple.

  “Yup, when you have babies everything changes,” Maya grinned at Tony. “For example, at dinner the other night, we were discussing the ‘poo charts’ that the hospital sent home with Crystal.”

  The entire table went silent. “Poo…chart?” Ethan looked bemused by this news, but I was just relieved that he’d asked it instead of me.

  “Yeah,” Isla nodded, leaning into Luke. “When they released us, they gave us this chart of what the babies crap should look like for the first two weeks.”

  “Doesn’t it just look like, well, uh crap?” I wasn’t an expert, but I’m pretty certain shit looked like shit regardless what age you were. Although, I knew for a fact that the twins and Crystal’s asses smelt like death.

  “Nope,” Ren was grinning. “For the first two weeks, baby shit changes in colors, so you check it against this chart that they give you.”

  “It changes color? Like a mood ring?” Tony looked somewhat intrigued by this, and the mental image of your shit changing color depending on your mood had me chuckling.

  “No, like for example - the first day, that shit is black like tar,” Ren explained. “Then it goes a dark green color, and then like this luminous yellow mustard type color, and then…”

  “Someone make him stop,” Tony whined covering his ears, but I was finding this fascinating even though I’d never touch mustard again.

  “Why does that happen? I mean, don't they all drink milk or something?” I thought those were valid questions because how the hell can something that exists on milk and air have different colored crap?

  “It’s because up until then they were fed by the umbilical cord,” Ebru the medical expert at the table explained. “Then their stomachs have to adjust to having milk in it, and the baby basically gets the nutrients from whatever the mother is eating through that too. So, it needs to clear what it got from the cord, and then adjust to the milk, and then the milk changes from colostrum to…”

  “How do you know what day is going to look like what, though? I mean, they’re not going to know what the mother’s eating, so how do they know?” Ava looked as confused as I felt at this moment.

  Ebru and Lars looked at each other and smiled, and I wasn’t sure if they existed, but I figured a ‘medical joke’ had just passed between them.

  “Wait a second,” something had just hit me. “How do you know if it’s the right color? Is there a general description?”

  “No, way better than that,” Ren grinned at me. “There are photos!”

  “I’m outta here,” Ethan got up and walked in the direction of the bar.

  “Do you remember when we used to talk about normal shit and not baby shit?” Mace asked, looking completely serious.

  “Yeah, and this is way more interesting.” No one was distracting me from this topic. “So is it like a paint chip that you hold next to Crystal’s diaper?”

  The responding smiles on Ren and Maya’s faces answered that question for me. I wondered if they did a paint that’s shade was called ‘baby shit day 3’?

  “Did the twins get this too?” Ava asked Isla.

  “They did,” Luke answered for her, picking Isla up and putting her on his lap for a cuddle. “And I’m keeping it for the next one too.” It took me a second to catch on to what he was saying, but when he started rubbing her stomach, the penny dropped.

  “You’re pregnant again?”

  “No,” Isla sighed, and rolled her eyes. “But Luke wants another one. I’m happy to wait a while longer seeing as how I pushed two babies out only a couple of months ago.”

  “Don’t you dare,” Tony got up and glared as he pointed at her. “I will not go through that again. Do you know what being shot by a baby does to a man? Do you? Do you?”

  “Calm your glitter,” Isla was struggling not to laugh. “I didn’t say that we were going to have another one now, I said that Luke would like another one now. Then again, he didn’t give birth to the other two. So, he can say he wants another one, but we’re both enjoying the two that we already have, so it won’t happen for a while.”

  Still glaring at her, Tony plopped back down on his chair with his arms crossed and huffed, “You see that it doesn’t,” before pointing at Maya and saying, “and that goes for you too.”

  “Please, tell me we’ve moved on from baby shit,” Ethan begged, as he sat down again and a waitress put a tray full of drinks on the table.

  “Yeah, but I’m so going to the hardware store tomorrow to see if they do a range of paint that has the colors ‘baby shit day…’ on them.” And it’s true, I was.

  “As…thrilling as this has been,” Mace drawled as Ethan glared at me. “Can we move onto something that isn’t baby shit related?”

  We all broke off into our own conversations, and I took a second to sit back and look around the table. Ebru looked relaxed and was laughing at something that Scarlett had said to her and again it hit me how far she’d come. We’d discussed her parents yesterday and although she hadn’t forgiven them, and I still didn’t think that it would ever be possible for her to fully forgive them, she now accepted them and was supporting her mom through her treatment. I was struggling to understand how two people could have ever stomached treating their daughters the way Finn and Enya had, but I was no psychologist, so I doubted that I’d ever get my head around it.

  I’d spoken to Finn this morning af
ter Brett’s lawyer had called me with an update on the case against the girls that stabbed Eb. They were pressing charges against them all and against the bitch’s dad too, but Eb was going to have to go and give a statement to the police. This was something that happened all too often for my liking in my family just now, but it would be worth it. I was waiting to break the news to Eb, though, but Finn had been relieved and was determined to fight for justice. Was it a case of too little too late? I really didn’t know, but he seemed genuine. I also would never let on my true thoughts to Ebru about her parents’ actions because I know she’d been devastated and hurt enough. I knew her well enough to know that if I said something that made her turn her back on them, and something happened to her mom, she’d never forgive herself.

  “How are things with your dad?” Ava asked Isla as I tuned back into the conversation.

  “Okay,” Isla shrugged. This was something that I’d wanted to ask her because he was another example of how not to parent, and I personally struggled to understand how she could forgive him. “He’s great with Kali and Dewi and comes around to see us almost every day. He asked not to get sent on any overseas posts and to remain Stateside so that he can spend time with us.”

  “Do you trust him?” The question popped out before I could stop it.

  She looked at Luke and then back at me and shrugged again. “I don’t know. I want to, and to a degree, I guess I do, but I can’t forget what happened.”

  “Rome wasn’t built in a day honey,” Ebru said, echoing the mantra that I used on her regularly just now.

  I was about to change the subject when Ren looked over my shoulder, and a look of hatred crossed his face. Turning around expecting to see someone like Francheska, my heart sank when I saw a drunken Adele stumbling her way through the club toward us. How she’d gotten into the VIP section, I’ll never know, but I’m thinking that Ethan’s security wasn’t as shit hot as he thought.

  “What is she doing here?” he fumed. Good question!

  Everyone turned in Adele’s direction just as she caught sight of us all and started weaving her way in our direction. I had a sinking feeling that this was not going to go well.

  “Who’s that?” Scarlett asked. Apparently, she hadn’t been privy to the last group meeting with the snake.

  “Cole’s ex,” Ebru murmured, just loud enough for Scarlett to hear as she watched Adele get closer with a look of fury on her face.

  “Cooooooole,” she squealed and started doing a drunken run towards me. It was one of those hands and arms flapping and legs going everywhere runs, and if we didn’t have the history that we did, I’d have found it amusing. Like everyone else at the table, though, I was far from laughing, and they didn’t even know the full story.

  She was a couple of feet away from me when Ebru stood up and put herself between us. Adele immediately lifted her hands to push Eb out of her way, and that was me done.

  “Don’t touch her,” I growled, getting up intending to catch her hand, but Ava got there first. I hadn’t even seen her get up, but then when someone intends to hit the woman that you love you focus on that. Well, I assumed that any man would.

  “I’m shooooooo glad ta see ouuuu,” Adele slurred. Her eyes looked like someone had punched the space between them and they’d fallen out, because they were pointing in opposite directions. But that wasn’t what really stood out about them. Her pupils were like pin pricks, and they were glassy too. What the fuck had she taken?

  “Leave.” Standing behind her, I put my arm across Eb’s chest and gently moved her back into me, making it blatantly obvious that I’d protect her. Or at least, I hoped it was obvious, but then with Adele being in the state that she was, it was hard to tell what would stand out to her and what wouldn’t.

  The viper’s eyes dropped down to my arm and narrowed before she looked up at me and a false smile took over her face. Actually, I think she was looking at me. After all, her eyes were facing in opposite corners of the room so it was hard to tell where she was actually looking. I wonder if she had chameleon vision?

  “I come heeaaaah,” she pointed at the floor in front of her, so I assumed that she was saying the word here, “ta sheeee ya.”

  “I don’t want to see you, though, so it was a wasted visit.”

  Movement behind her caught my eye, and I saw two of Ethan’s security guys making their way towards us with Baz behind them. I’d known that he was watching everything, but he was also aware of who she was from that night at the bar, so I wasn’t surprised that he was going to intervene.

  Adele was on some slurred rambling rant when they reached her. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave, ma’am.”

  Then all hell broke loose as she lunged in mine and Eb’s direction and started screaming at us, drawing the attention of everyone in the VIP area. I moved Ebru behind me and looked at Mace making it clear that I wanted him in front of her before I turned back to the poisonous banshee who was now being dragged away. In the scuffle that I’d missed, she’d lost a shoe, and her skirt was up around her ribs as she kicked out trying to hit the guards.

  “What the hell is it with these sluts showing their sausage wallet to the world?” Tony groaned as he covered his eyes. Lars snorted and rubbed his shoulder as he whispered something in Tony’s ear which made him laugh.

  “Did she mean that little to you? Did she? DID SHE?” Adele screamed. The fact that she wasn’t slurring anymore and her movements looked more controlled had me realizing that the drunken fumblings from before had been an act. Then the words hit me and started to feel sick; she wasn’t going to scream it out across a club in front of my family. Please God, please don’t let her do it. “I’m the mother of your child.”

  I heard the chorus of shocked gasps behind me as well as a ton of expletives, but I was too caught up now in the devastation of what she’d just done.

  The second she was dragged out of the doors, the room came back into focus for me as I stood there numbly registering the looks of shock and a couple of disgust. Whether it was directed at me or her, I didn’t know and didn’t want to think about right now. Turning around with the intention of getting Ebru and getting the fuck outta Dodge, I saw my friends and family all staring at me in anger.

  “That lying fucking cunt,” Ren yelled, wincing when Maya elbowed him in the gut.

  “Oh she’s a dead bitch,” Ava snarled, looking like she was ready to go after her.

  They all seemed to start shouting and swearing at the same time, and I realized that they were angry for me, not at me.

  Ebru walked up to me and put her arms around me with her forehead on my chest, holding me tight.

  “She’s not lying,” I croaked out, and felt her squeeze me.

  “What the fuck?” Ren looked horrified. “So, where’s the goddamn motherfucking baby then? Or is she pregnant? Because, I saw that bitch’s eyes, and I’m telling you, that baby is fucked ‘cause she was as high as a fucking kite. I hope you’re doing a DNA test!”

  I was at a loss on what to say back, but thankfully Ebru turned around and took over. “I don’t think that this is the place to have this conversation. Why don’t we all go back to ours and Cole will tell you everything there, okay?”

  One by one they nodded and we started packing up. As we walked through the VIP section towards the exit, I got various claps on the shoulder from people or a squeeze of the arm. I hadn’t seen a majority of these people since I was at school, and sure as hell hadn’t socialized with them, but at that moment the support meant everything to me.

  “Explain,” Ren demanded as soon as we were all in the living room, he made it sound so easy.

  “After things ended between us, she told me that she was pregnant.” I blurted out. I figured going for the band aid approach would make it easier. Pacing back and forth now, I continued. “I was fucking wrecked when she said it. I didn’t even like her; she’d only been with me to get to you and Brett, ya know?” The room was silent a
s I worked my way through it all. “I took some time to think it over and on the Friday I went to meet y’all at Jilly’s and she was there, drunk out of her fucking skull. I’d just accepted it so I was pissed because that shit couldn’t have been good for the baby.”

  I walked over to where Ebru was, picked her up and sat down with her on my lap. I needed the closeness to her right now, and this was my favorite position to sit in anyway.

  “So where is it?” Ren asked grimly. He knew that he wasn’t going to like the answer.

  “She got rid of it,” I whispered. The whole thing had gotten easier since I’d become a part of Ebru’s life and had put it all into perspective given what she’d been through, but I hated saying this part. “She told me that she didn’t want my bastard.”

  I heard the sniffs and some sobs around the room, but didn’t want to look up to see the expressions on people’s faces. I didn’t want the pity, and I worried that they’d be angry with me for not stopping it or stepping up sooner. I had always wondered if I had taken responsibility sooner, if it would have stopped her from having the abortion.

  “Why didn’t you ever tell us?” Ren rasped. He sounded how I felt when I’d found out, and how I still felt when I pictured what the baby would have looked like.

  “I couldn’t do it,” I mumbled.

  “Is this why you go to the lake and get shit faced?” Mace spoke up. The anger coming from him was palpable, and I found the courage to look up as I nodded at him.

  Putting Maya on the couch and standing up, Ren started pacing. The muscles were visibly flexing in his arms as he went back and forth. “That fucking bitch. That fucking bitch,” he roared. Mace, Adam, Ethan, Tony, Lars and Baz, who’d been standing in the corner looking like he was ready to kill someone, nodded as all of the females looked like the world had ended and were in various degrees of tears.

  “I think y’all need to take some time to get your head around this,” Ebru suggested. “You need time to think of questions or whatever details you want to know, and right now Cole needs time to get over what Adele did tonight.”