Broken Dreams (Franklin Blues #2) (12 page)

Being a cop has its advantages; I hop in the SUV and turn the lights and sirens on. I’m pretty sure the two hour long drive only took 30 minutes with traffic getting out of my way and my speeding. I pull up to the emergency room and walk inside. I ask the desk clerk where Amy Masters is, and she asks if I’m family. I tell her she’s my fiancée so I am able to go back. She tells me her room number and opens up the side door. I don’t waste anytime telling her thanks, I run through the doors. My girl needs me.

I get to her room, and I can hear her arguing with someone. I’m not sure who else would be here, but I walk in and see some guy yelling at her. “Who the fuck are you,” I ask as I walk over to Amy.

The guy smirks at me. Bastard. He needs to get away from my girl before I hurt him by making him.

“I’m Jeremy, and I’m talking to my wife if you don’t mind.”

Wife? Seriously, is this guy delusional?

“Jeremy, for the last time, I’m not your wife. We’ve been divorced for three years now. I told you when I told you to go home that I didn’t want you to come back. Now, please leave me alone. I need Lance, not you.”

I smile when I hear her tell him it’s me she needs. I can’t help it, this woman brings out my caveman instincts and to hear her say it is me she needs makes my heart swell with pride. She’s really mine and no one else’s.

Jeremy gives her one last look, tells her he’s not done with her, and walks out of the room. On his way out I stop him by grabbing him by the arm, “I can assure you, Jeremy, you are done with her. I’m not sure how much you know about me, but I’m a cop, and I will make sure that you leave her alone. Now, as she has said, she doesn’t need or want you here, so I suggest that you take that as your last warning and leave her the fuck alone.”

“And who are you to tell me what I need to do? Who was with her when she lost the baby? It sure as hell wasn’t you, but me, who brought her here and took care of her. Now, I messed up, but I’m not leaving her alone. I still love her, and whether or not you want to believe it, she’ll never love you like she loved me. We have too much history, but for now, I’ll leave her alone. When you fuck this up, I’ll be waiting for her to come home to me.”

With that he shakes himself out of my grasp and walks out the door. His words hit me hard. I wasn’t there for her. I should’ve been there for her to get her to the hospital, and I should’ve been there with her when she got the news to comfort her.

“Lance, come here I need you next to me.”

I look over at her and she looks so small in that bed. As I walk closer, I see her eyes are red and puffy from crying. I sit on the left side of the bed since she has IV’s in her right arm, and I don’t want to her hurt more than she already is. I lean down and give her a kiss as the tears I didn’t even know were in my eyes fall.

“Baby, I’m so sorry. I know how much you were looking forward to being a dad. I can’t tell you how sorry I am. I shouldn’t have taken the job and taken it easy. I knew I’d be high risk since I’ve had the miscarriage before and it was so hard for me to get pregnant. This is my fault, and I wouldn’t blame you if you hate me and don’t want to me with me anymore,” she cries.

I pull back and look at her. She’s got to be crazy if she thinks that this is her fault and that I don’t want to be with her anymore. “Amy, Babe, you can’t seriously think that. Now, I need you to look at me.” She looks at me with tear filled eyes and it’s like a knife to my gut. I hate seeing her this upset. “None of this is your fault, do you hear me? This baby wasn’t meant to happen right now. We will have more chances, of that I can assure you. We are both young, and it will happen when it’s meant to. I still love you with everything that I am, and I know that you love me too. So no more talk about how I should hate you. You are my world, the sun that lights up my life. Before you, I was going through the motions of living, not really living at all. I lost Aaron, and I swore I would never open myself to be hurt by losing someone else I love. Yes, I lost my parents too, but towards the end they weren’t the same parents I had when I was younger, so it was like I didn’t need to mourn the people that they had become; I grieved for the loss of my parents long before they died. You, Shawn, Hailee, Scar, and Mason are my family.”

She’s about to say something when the door to her hospital bed opens again. It better not be that fucker Jeremy again or I’ll kick his ass.

I turn towards the door and see the last person on earth I thought I would ever see again.

Aaron.

Aaron

Hearing Amy talk about my baby brother is bittersweet. You can see her eyes light up when she talks about him; she loves him with everything inside her. What I wouldn’t give to see him again, but I’m sure he hates me since my parents did. I’m sure they brainwashed him against me as soon as I was gone.

I have finished my last rounds for the day and I decide to go check on her to see how she’s doing. Even though I haven’t talked to or seen Lance in years, she’s still like a sister to me since I know that they are going to get married, I can tell.

I hear a man talking to her and I assume it’s her ex. I walk in and stop in my tracks. Lance is sitting on her bed, professing his love to her. He looks over at me and it’s like time stands still. She has this big watery smile on her face, and he’s still staring at me like he thinks I’ll disappear.

“Amy, I told you not to tell him that I was here. I thought I could trust you,” I spit out. I’m pissed. I don’t want to deal with this today. I should’ve gone home to Tyler. He would know what to do. He always been the voice of reason to my temper.

“I didn’t tell him you were here. I told him about the baby, and of course he wanted to be here for me.”

He looks from me, to her, and back to me again. He’s shaking his head as if he’s dreaming me standing in the room.

“Wait,” he looks over at her again, “You knew he was here and you didn’t tell me? How could you do that to me? You knew how tore up I was about losing him, yet you were not going to tell me that he was here, this close to me and let me continue to torture myself?”

He needs to not stress her out. Her body can’t handle the stress right now.

“Lance, don’t get upset with her. I’m sure she would’ve told you, but right now her body can’t handle a lot stress.”

He cuts me off, “Don’t you dare tell me what she does or doesn’t need!”

He needs to leave her out of his, “You’re pissed and I get it, but take that anger out on someone other than her. I’m her doctor and I’m telling you her body can’t handle all this stress. She lost a baby for fuck’s sake.”

I don’t see it coming but next thing I know I feel him punch my jaw. I step back from the blow and grab my chin. He goes to hit me again, and like when we were kids, I grab his fist, turn, and pin it against his back.

“Lance, buddy, calm down, like I’ve clearly said she doesn’t need this stress. Look at her right now, she’s over there crying her eyes out. She needs you right now. Be strong for her,” I whisper in his ear.

I hold him a few more moments, and when I feel the fight leave his body, I slowly release him. When I do, he heads back for the bed and wipes her tears away. I hear him whispering how sorry he is and how much he loves her, and I quietly back out the door and head out to my truck. I need a drink after that, and I need to see my man.

Pulling up out front, I see his truck is already here, I usually beat him home so he must’ve had a short day today. I walk in the house and am welcomed with the smell of his famous gravy he makes from scratch. It’s exactly what I need, comfort food after the day that I’ve had.

I walk into the kitchen to find him in his tight as hell Levi’s, paired with a plain gray t-shirt that hugs his muscled frame. He must hear me walk in because he turns to look at me, wearing that damn apron that says ‘Kiss the cook’. His mom got it for him a few years ago, and he loves that damn thing.

“Hey, Babe, you got home earlier than I expected. Dinner is almost done so why don’t you grab yourself a beer and have a seat.”

I walk up behind him as he continues to stir the gravy. I wrap my arms around him and inhale deeply; I need his comfort right now.

“Aaron, what’s wrong? Not that I’m not all for this but I can feel the tension rolling off you. Let me pour this gravy into a bowl so we can sit and talk.”

That’s one the things that I love about this guy; he knows me so well I don’t even have to say anything. I release him, grab both of us a beer, and sit down at the breakfast bar. I pop mine open and take a big gulp out of it. He comes to sit next to me, pops his open, and drinks as well. He grabs my hand and sits patiently while I find the right words.

“I saw Lance today.”

His eyebrows shoot up, and I can tell this was not what he was expecting me to say. He continues to sit there while I tell him all about how Amy came in with a miscarriage, and how I took care of her. I tell him all about making her promise not to tell him, and how when I went to go check on her, he was there. I tell him everything, and when I finish, he sits there looking at me like he wants to say something.

“Well, Ty, please say what you want to say. I can tell by the look on your face that you want to say something, but you don’t want to upset me.”

He rolls his eyes and smiles. He knows I’m right.

“Well Smartass, I was thinking that it’s about time. You were bound to run into him eventually. Maybe it’s time to talk to him, and see how he really feels. You always jump to conclusions before hearing the whole story. I know what happened with your parents when they figured us out, but you don’t know that he feels the same way. You are his big brother, and I know he loves you.”

I sit there and contemplate is words; maybe he’s right, I’m really not sure how he feels about me since we didn’t spend a lot of time together after I came out. Maybe it’s time to put this to rest once and for all.

“As usual, you’re right. I’m not releasing Amy until at least tomorrow, so I can talk to him then.”

As we get up to get our food, I’ve realize that I need to do this to fully move on with my life. The decision is made; tomorrow I will talk to my brother.

Lance

After Aaron leaves, Amy and I talk. We stay up almost all night, talking. I learn what really happened once she got to town, and how she met Aaron. She promised she was going to tell me and how there was no way she could keep something like this from me. I feel guilty that I went off on her like that. Somewhere around two or three A.M., she finally goes to sleep. I hold her because my head is a complete mess. I’m not sure what time it is when I finally fall asleep.

When I wake up, I see Aaron sitting in the chair next to Amy’s bed, and I’m lying with Amy draped over me in her tiny hospital bed. I start to untangle her from my body, hoping she don’t wake up. I finally get out of the bed without waking her.

Aaron looks at me, motioning for us to go out of the room. I look back at Amy and nod. I don’t want to go too far in case she wakes up and needs me.

We stand in the hallway for what feels like forever before my big brother starts talking.

“Lance, I’m sorry about the past ten years. I honestly thought Mom and Dad had brainwashed you against me. I was so afraid that you had stopped loving me because of who I was. I’m still not sure if you can even look at me to be honest.”

I sit in a nearby chair and take in his words. How could he possibly think that I don’t love him all because he loves men? I will always love him, I wanted to be like him growing up, and that will never change. I know for a fact that he’s still a good man, even if I haven’t seen him in a decade.

“Aaron, how could you possibly think that? You were, and still are, my idol. I wanted to be like you growing up. I know when you ‘came out’ that we stopped hanging out, and I blame myself for that. I should’ve let you know that I was still here for you. I always had my suspicions about you and Tyler, and it never mattered to me, you’re my flesh and blood and that out-weighs who you love. I have to admit though, Mom and Dad did try and turn me against you, but I’ll tell you what I told them, I don’t care if you love men or women, you’re always going to be my brother and family sticks together.

“When I came to see you in the hospital the day you were supposed to be released and you were gone, that shattered me. I tried calling both you and Tyler but your phones had been disconnected and his house was empty from the looks of it. All of a sudden, my protector and my best friend was gone, it was like you died. After you took off, things got bad at home. Mom started drinking then turned to drugs. Dad started drinking heavily, and got mean. I can’t tell you how many times he hit me, but I took it so he would leave mom alone.” I stop and shake my head because I can’t continue right now, not when Amy needs me.

“Lance, I know I have no right to ask you this, but do you think I could have a second chance at being your big brother? I fucked up and I should’ve never assumed that you hated me like Mom and Dad did. I read in the paper that they died in a murder/suicide and I should’ve reached out to you then, but I was afraid.”

He looks down at the ground, and I do the only thing I know to do, I hug my big brother. It’s all so surreal to be hugging him after so many years, and I’m really scared this is all a dream. He pats me on the back harder than necessary and we both walk into the room laughing, and the first thing I see is Amy crying on the bed. I rush to her side to see what’s wrong.

“Amy, Baby, I’m here. What’s wrong Darlin’?” I guess hearing my voice sends her further into wherever she is inside her head because she starts to cry harder.

“I thought you were gone. I thought you left me, and I wouldn’t blame you for doing so because I lost our baby. I’m so done trying to do this because I can’t keep getting my hopes up. You deserve so much better than a woman who can’t give you kids.”

She pulls away from me and rolls over, putting her back to me. I look up at Aaron for guidance, and he squeezes my shoulder, telling me he’ll catch up with me later. Traitor.