Jimmy did come to see her in the hospital, once. He said that she was a terrible mother and that I had died in the fire. He threw a bogus death certificate in her face and said he never wanted to see her again. He said he could never love someone as hideous looking and irresponsible as her. It took her years and countless surgeries to recover physically, but she would never recover emotionally. She’s lived her entire life thinking she was a terrible mother. She could never remarry and never had any more children. She didn’t think it was fair to the child she so painfully lost.
“The fire explains why I’ve never seen a picture of you,” I whisper.
Without saying a word, she reaches behind her neck and removes the locket she’s wearing, then clasps it closed. She places it in my hand, and then closes my fingers around it. Opening my hand, I look at it as if it holds every unanswered question I’ve ever had. I couldn’t move a muscle if my life depended on it. She picks up the gold heart shaped locket, opens it, and then sets it back in my hand. I look at the locket and inside there are two small photos. One is of a newborn baby. The other is a young picture of my mother holding a baby with a huge proud smile on her face. The baby’s fingers are wrapped around her index finger. The smile on her face says that this baby was loved and wanted. The baby in the photos is me. I was loved. I was wanted, and I was lied to my entire life.
I feel so robbed. I feel deprived of a lifetime of love. I never experienced a mother’s love the first time I had a skinned knee. Or the praise that very first time I rode a bike without training wheels. Or, the first day of kindergarten, or the loving words the first time a girl broke my heart. No. Instead, I was told to suck it up and be a man when I skinned my knee. I never had a bike to even learn how to ride without training wheels. I was dropped off by my drunken dad, with a kick in the rear on the first day of kindergarten. And that girl that broke my heart, she never existed either. I never opened myself up to a relationship.
My anger soars toward Jimmy and he better pray that I never run into him. I don’t even trust myself to find him. I can seriously see myself ripping his head clean off his shoulders. I always drew the line, even before I became a licensed PI, when it came to my tactics toward a suspect. But as I sit here seething, I can honestly say I’d probably murder him with my own two hands if ever given the chance.
My cell phone buzzes in my pocket. I had been listening to my mother speak for over an hour. Chloe must be beside herself worried. I didn’t even tell anyone I was leaving. Looking at the display, it is Chloe. The picture I took of her from our ride the other day all decked out sitting on my bike fills my screen. My mother glances at my phone with a smile.
“Is she someone special in your life?” she asks.
I can’t stop the smile that her photo brings to my face.
“Yeah, she is,” I answer.
I answer the phone and tell Chloe I have someone I’d like her to meet. Without even telling her the address, she says she’s on her way.
My angry heart melts for my mother. The anger and resentment that I was made to believe, disappeared even before she told me the truth. The kind nature of her face, told me she was incapable of doing the things I was led to believe.
Chloe drives up in my truck, as I sit on the porch with my mother’s hand in my own. Before she’s even out of the truck, her eyes are filled with tears. She hops out and walks straight up to my mother and engulfs her in a hug. Seeing the woman I love happy and in the arms of my mother, is not something I ever believed would be in the cards for me. My mother tries to hide the burn scars on her hands from Chloe. Chloe sees her attempt, reaches down and takes her hand, and brings it to her cheek with a smile.
Tonight I take my mother and my woman out to dinner. I’m overwhelmed with emotions. I have the love of my life sitting to my right, while my mother sits across from us. Chloe never asked my mother for the story or pried for information over dinner. We didn’t talk about Chloe’s past either. Everyone just enjoys being together. They are two people who don’t know each other’s scarred past. They only knew that they both love the same man. I am one lucky man.
Chapter 13
Chloe
I saw the address and committed it to memory, when Max pulled it up on his computer. I was upset at first when I realized he wasn’t in the office anymore, but I also knew where he went. I decided that it probably was something he needed to do on his own. I had hoped that things would turn out the way that they did. That night after Max and I made love, in what I think will now be my all-time favorite position, doggie-style. He told me the entire story as we laid in bed. We laid side by side, with our fingers entwined together, as he poured out every detail. My heart aches for the lost time they couldn’t spend together. But, I’m also over the moon happy that they get to spend the rest of their lives making up for that lost time. Max didn’t tell my story to his mother, it isn’t his to tell, but he did tell his mom about Chloe’s House. The passion in his voice for this project as he told his mother brought me to tears. We’ve already offered her the job of running the house, as well as to live there. After hearing her story, I couldn’t think of a better person to run the house. It will be close to a year before the house will be up and running, but it will be a year well spent.
Sunday morning, Max and I head into his office so he can get some work done. I brought Savvy some clothes and toiletries that I purchased for her. She has nothing and has to start over from scratch. Max went back to her place to pick up some of her things for her, but found that before Reno left town he cleaned out their place and left Savvy with absolutely nothing. She has this attitude about her that for a woman in her position, you’d think would be depressed out of her mind. But, she’s back to her normal bubbly self. She has a lot to look forward to. She’s in school pursuing her life’s dream of becoming a Hospice nurse. It will take her several years to do this, but in the meantime she has a full-time job here at Max’s and a place to stay until she can find her own. I think Savvy will be just fine.
I brought her a long sleeve shirt so she can cover the bruises on her arms. I also brought my makeup kit to try and cover up her black eye. We stop at Sharla’s to pick her up for Sunday dinner, too. Because you know once Samantha finds out Max’s mother is back in his life, she’d be furious if we didn’t bring her.
Everyone, except Aiden who is out of town on a business trip, is at the house when we get there. It’s pure chaos, as little children run around squealing with joy. Introductions are made and Sharla is made to feel at home, just like I knew she would be. A pregnant Shay waddled around after their other two children, Micah and Makayla. Asher is a big instigator as he terrorizes his own children with tickles. The four of us just kind of sit around on the couch and watch all the craziness unfold with smiles plastered on our faces.
Willow, Ava, Samantha and Amelia call everyone to dinner and we all take our seats at a very full table. No one minds the tight squeeze or that elbows bump at the crowded table. Everyone is just happy to be surrounded by family. A seat stays empty at the head of the table where Samuel used to sit. I watched as several of the siblings passed his chair and ran their hand across the top of the fabric on the way to their seat.
Dishes are passed around and drink glasses clink together in a toast to family. Max scoots his chair back and clears his throat.
“I want to thank this family for always including me as one of your own. I honestly don’t know where I’d be today without your love and support. I stand here with a lump in my throat being surrounded by such a big loving family. My family. Asher, my brother, I love you, man. Mom, I’m so glad to have you back in my life. Chloe, we’ve been through hell and back together. I can’t live without you in my life. I need you like the air that I breathe. You make me want to be a better man. For the first time in my life, I feel what true love is. I never thought love was possible for a man like me. I never in a million years thought I’d be doing this in the presence of my mother,” he says, wiping his brow.
O
h shit, what is he doing in the presence of his mother? Max pulls my chair out from the table and twists it to the side. He bends down on one knee and clears his throat. He produces a purple velvet box from the front pocket of his jeans and opens the lid. Inside is a large black diamond with purple amethyst’s cascading down a platinum band. The first thing that comes to my head is Max in his black leathers and me in my silly purple ones. This ring couldn’t describe the two of us better.
“Chloe, my love for you runs deeper than the deepest ocean. You light up my world every time you enter a room. I never want to live another day without you in my life. I may be rough on the outside, but my heart is pure.”
My world is spinning. The crowded room disappears, and it’s only Max and I in a moment in time that I wish I could bottle. Every girl imagines the day she’ll be proposed to. I never imagined it would be with a man like Max. He’s not rough on the outside, that’s not what I see when I look into his eyes. He’s one sexy hell of an amazing man.
“Chloe, I love you, will you marry me?” comes the best eight words he’s ever said to me.
As embarrassing as it is, I wipe the snot running down my nose and nod my head yes. He slips on the ring and it’s a perfect fit. It’s absolutely stunning. It’s different and unique and it’s exactly us. I love it!
“Yes, I will marry you. I love you!” come the next best eight words a woman can say.
I stand as he gets off his knee and hug the man that someday, very soon, I will call my husband. The rest of the room comes alive with cheers and clapping. My dad comes over to Max and shakes his hand. I laugh as I spot my mother. She has snot running down her nose, too. Kyle gives Max the two fingers eye to eye; I’ve got my eyes on you gesture from across the table. Good Lord have mercy. His eyes come to me and his fist comes to his chest, as he smiles at me. I can feel the love and happiness from my twin’s heart straight to my own.
Dinner is left to sit on the table to get cold. My mom, Samantha, Willow, Amelia, Ava, Shay, Sharla, and Savvy talk a mile a minute about wedding planning. I already have the perfect wedding planned in my brain, and it’s nothing like the one I planned when I was a little girl.
Max
While the women chat about wedding planning, I pull Asher aside in the other room. There’s been something on my mind that I’ve wanted to say to Asher since my senior year in high school.
“Congratulations man! You and Chloe are going to have an amazing life together,” he says a little choked up.
“Thanks, man. But, I owe you a thank you for a different reason.”
“A thank you?” he questions.
“That day in that store when you paid for the items I tried to steal…” I begin to say.
“You don’t owe me anything, brother. I’m the one who owes you, for everything you did to get my sister back.”
“No, I need you to hear me out. If you hadn’t been in that store at that exact time in my life, I don’t know where I’d be today. I probably would have been arrested and put in juvenile hall. My life would not be what it is today. You were placed in a path that was headed for destruction. I was angry at the world and I wouldn’t have cared where I ended up. Even after I moved out of my father’s house, you still helped me. I don’t know how you did it, man. I was barely hanging on and the food and clothes you’d secretly give me not only helped me survive, but you gave me my dignity when you could have torn me to shreds in school. What I did for Amelia doesn’t even scratch the surface of my debt to you and your family. I feel like I have it all and I owe it all to you for your one minute of time to help me in a store. I have Chloe, and my mother, a successful business, and a family that loves and supports me. Brother, what I owe you can never be fulfilled.”
“You don’t owe me a debt, man. We’re brothers, family, and family does for family freely and completely without expectations,” he says and gives me a bro hug.
There’s no point in arguing with him, but my word stands firm. I will always be here for this entire family.
Dinner that night was eaten cold and no one minded. I’m surrounded by love and family, and I pity the fool who would ever try and take that away from me.
Chloe and I drop my mother off at her house, then Savvy back at the office. On our way back to Chloe’s condo, I caught the sparkle of her engagement ring. I had hoped she’d love it as much as she seems to. The black diamond holds such significance to me. Of course, the purple stones are all Chloe. I’ve lived a past of darkness and so has she. A black diamond symbolizes a couple’s love and passion, and strength of commitment. Out of the darkness comes beauty and love. Never forget the road that you’ve traveled, because if chosen differently, you wouldn’t be where you are today. And where I am today, is heaven on earth.
That night after I made love to my future bride, she laced her legs with mine and told me her vision of our wedding. My woman knows her man. It will take a few weeks to get everyone ready for it, but it is going to be fucking awesome.
“What do you want to do about Ava?” I ask the one big looming question neither one of us seems to want to discuss.
“What do you mean, what do you want to do about Ava?” she asks confused.
“We’re going to be married and I don’t think I can move in here with you two.”
“I know,” she sighs. “I’m really worried about her. She’s working way too hard. This obsession with becoming the youngest partner is going to either drive her mad or kill her.” She gets quiet as she traces circles on my arm. “I know! I don’t know why I didn’t think about it in the first place. Savvy can’t live in your office forever. Why don’t we see if she can move in here? That way we still have someone on the inside to keep an eye on Ava. It’s brilliant! Savvy needs a place to stay and Ava needs a roommate.”
“Babe, Savvy will drive Ava up the fucking wall. If you think work is going to kill her, I think Ava’s the one more likely to kill Savvy.”
She swats me in the arm and says, “Oh, stop it. Savvy is one awesome chick and you know it.”
“One awesome pain in my ass, is more like it.”
“It’s a done deal. I’ll bring it up with Ava in the morning. But wait, we don’t even have a place to live yet.”
“Actually, I do,” I tell her honestly.
“You’re cabin? As much as I love it, is way too far away to live in full time. It’ll take us two hours to get to work with rush hour traffic, each way!”
“No, I’m not talking about the cabin. I have another house.”
She looks at me confused, and says, “You have another what, now?”
“I have another home, not far from here. It’s not much. I don’t even know why I bought it, really. The Wellington family all live within a five-mile radius of each other, and this one house always spoke to me. It’s in the “radius”, as the Wellingtons so fondly call it. I always dreamed of being one of them, a part of their family. Being on the inside, one of them, you know? I used to drive by it every day on the way to the office. One day, a for sale sign showed up on the lawn and it wasn’t even a question if I should buy it. I got to work, called the listing agent and offered full asking price in cash. I’ve never lived in it. It’s just a house, but I’ve always wanted it to be a home. Living in a house like I did with Jimmy never made it a home. Since the day I met you, I pictured the two of us living in that house and making it our home.”
“Can you show it to me tomorrow?” she asks with a smile.
“It’d be my pleasure.”
I tuck her into my side and wrap her in my arms. I honestly don’t know what it is about the house, or just why I felt so drawn to buying it, until this very moment. It was always meant to be mine and Chloe’s.
Chapter 14
Chloe
Max dropped me off at work on his motorcycle. A girl can get used to this kind of ride. After work I have a session with Fiona, then after that Max will pick me up and he’ll take me over to the house.
My shift at work is actually one of the mo
re difficult ones I’ve had. There was a challenging delivery and the fate of a little girl in the NICU now rests in the hands of others. But what I didn’t do, was panic. Kyle had the day off, but I handled the situation better than I ultimately expected. Hopefully, the premature baby’s lungs will develop over the next few weeks, and her parents can take her home where they will love and care for her until she’s a brat, and moves out of the house to go to college. Not every delivery will be easy. Not every delivery will be viable. But I’m not afraid of handling any situation.
For my session with Fiona, I also came to the realization that since that man’s house came down, the voices in my head are completely gone. The memories however, are not. But I can live with those.
Max picks me up from Fiona’s, and we stop at a food truck and eat the most incredible pizza I’ve ever tasted. Who knew they could put brick ovens in a food truck? We stopped at a bakery called ‘Amanda’s Sweet Treats.’ It’s my brother, Kyle’s, best friend’s wife, Amanda’s, bakery. Spencer, my brother, and I, were inseparable all through college and med school. Spencer is an ER doc, and we all work at the same hospital. We ordered a badass wedding cake for the reception we plan on having after the wedding.
Running Into Love - The Complete Box Set Page 66