Fireflies From Heaven (23 page)

“Reed Bentley?”
Brooke gaped at him. “You’re Ellie’s boyfriend?”

He didn’t
answer, but Brooke didn’t give him a chance to reply. “How did this happen?”
Brooke asked, shocked. “I didn’t even know you knew, Ellie.”

“I didn’t know
that you knew this guy,” Davis whined at Brooke. “He isn’t another one of your
ex-boyfriends, is he?”

“Reed and I are
old friends from high school,” Brooke explained, relishing Davis’ obvious
jealousy and placing her hand on Reed’s chest. “Isn’t that right, Reed?” She
smiled shamelessly up at him with a suggestive glint in her eyes.

“Sure,” he
agreed, and listened patiently while Brooke introduced Reed to her parents and
Davis stewed. Uncle Jonathon shook Reed’s hand, Aunt Lacy looked like she’d
sucked on a lemon, Brooke flirted shamelessly with Reed, and Davis seemed like
he was plotting how he could murder Reed and hide the body.

Isabelle seemed
entertained. It was Reed that smoothly and effectively ended the drama by
telling them how nice it was to meet them, and saying goodbye to Brooke and
Davis. Before she left, Brooke wrote something down on a piece of paper and
handed it to Reed. I couldn’t help but notice how her hand lingered over his. “Send
me your address and I’ll mail you a wedding invitation,” she told him, her eyes
offering more than an invitation.

I frowned at
Brooke.

Finally, the quartet
left to find Davis’ parents.

Isabelle
shrieked with laughter.

I was still
irritated with my cousin, and Reed was looking down at the piece of paper
Brooke had handed him.

“She actually
gave you her number in front of her parents and her fiancé!” Isabelle smirked,
her dark eyes flashing.

My eyes swung
to Reed. “Brooke gave you her number?”

He nodded and
tossed the paper Brooke had handed him onto the table. Brooke’s digits along
with the words CALL ME written in all caps, punctuated with three exclamation
marks but instead of dots she used hearts.
 
I could not believe it.

“I don’t want
you thinking I’m keeping it from you.
 
We have enough between us as it is.”

I couldn’t
disagree with that, and I felt awful for Brooke and for Davis. “Did Aunt Lacy
or Davis see this?”

“Your aunt
seems too self-absorbed to notice much going on around her. The fiancé couldn’t
take his eyes off you. I’m not sure about your uncle,” Isabelle stated.

I wasn’t sure
if I was relieved or disturbed.

“I’m outta here,”
Isabelle told us suddenly, looking from Reed to me. “Reed, make sure she gets
home. Kiss and make up,” she called with a smile.

 
Reed gestured at Isabelle’s abandoned
seat, and looked at me questioningly.

“You want to
kiss and make up?” I asked, deliberately misunderstanding him. “Sure, let’s do
it.”

I should be
used to the affect Reed’s smile had on me, but I was startled at how my stomach
quivered.
 
I was flat out shocked
when he leaned over and brushed his mouth against mine, kissing me softly. My
heart pounded in my ears so loudly I wondered if he could hear the powerful
beat.

“Ellie, I’m
sorry about last night,” he said when he pulled away, studying me. “You don’t
look like you’ve been crying.”

“Isabelle meant
well. She thought we should talk. Are you only here because you thought I was
inconsolable?”

I saw some of
the tension leave him, and he sat down. “No. I only sped here because of that.
I wanted to see you. I’m sorry about last night.”

“I don’t need
an apology Reed. This is my fault, and I’m not going to complain because I got
hurt.”

His gaze
narrowed, and I saw the uncertainty in his eyes and knew him well enough to
know what he was thinking. “I liked the sex, Reed. That’s not what I meant. Don’t
even think about apologizing for it.”

“I was only
going to apologize for the part where I acted like an ass.” His gaze caught
mine. “Hell, I wasn’t sure what I needed to apologize for or how much I needed
to make up to you.”

I saw his gaze
fall to where he’d gripped my arms last night, and I shook my head. “You didn’t
hurt me physically. Like I said, this is my fault. Being fuck buddies isn’t the
same as dating.”

Reed scowled.
“No. It’s not,” he agreed. “I hate that term, and it doesn’t apply to us."

“I’m not
complaining,” I added quickly. “I just didn’t understand how different it would
be, but I don’t want us to stop seeing each other.”

“You don’t?” he
asked carefully.

“No. Next time
I won’t get upset if you want to take me home right after we have sex.”

He closed his
eyes for a moment. “God Ellie. You’re killing me.”

I wasn’t sure
exactly what he meant, but I was beginning to think he might be as hurt as I
was.

The waiter
brought the check, and Reed reached for his wallet, withdrew two twenties and
dropped them on the plastic tray with the ticket. He shook his head when asked
if he needed change, and I grabbed my purse, but Reed wouldn’t take my money.
He did get up and take my hand. “Come on,” he said softly. “We’ll keep our
clothes on tonight, I promise.”

Embarrassingly,
I let out a sound that was a cross between a laugh and a snort. “Oh good, I was
concerned that you’d want us to start stripping and have mind-blowing sex as
soon as we left the restaurant.”

Reed’s lips
twitched. “Watch it, sweetheart. I’ve only got so much control around you.”

I wasn’t sure
what to expect or where we’d go, but Reed drove to Lake Houston. Even though it
was almost Thanksgiving, the cold weather hadn’t set in and it was still a warm
seventy degrees, though the weatherman predicted a front coming in the
following week.

We got out of
his truck and sat on a wrought iron bench facing the moonlit water. “I’m sorry
about Brooke. I don’t know what she was thinking.” His leg brushing against
mine sent a tremor through my body.

“She only did
it because she thinks we’re together. Brooke has always been jealous of you.”

“I doubt that.
I saw the way she looked at you, like she wanted to have you for desert and
breakfast.”

He shrugged,
seeming unaware of his devastating affect on the female population. I couldn’t
stop noticing the way women’s eyes lingered on Reed, following him and stripping
him bare with their ravenous gazes.

“Don’t tell me
you didn’t notice,” I replied with disbelief.

“I was too busy
looking at you and glaring at your ex-boyfriend who couldn’t keep his eyes off of
you.”

Frowning, I
prayed that what he said about Davis wasn’t true. “I hope they don’t hurt each
other.”

I felt his eyes
on me even before he spoke. “How do you do that, Ellie?
 
You’re always thinking of everyone else
instead of yourself, and I’m not just talking about Brooke. Last night you had
every right to hate me after the way I treated you, but instead you tried to
convince me you liked it and told me not to apologize.”

“Reed, I loved
having sex with you last night and every night before that.” I meant every word.

He turned and
placed his hand on the side of my face. My breath hitched and my pulse kicked
up a notch. “Last night I wanted to punish you.”

His admission
rippled down my spine. “Because I hurt you,” I whispered knowingly, not needing
him to confirm it.

“I wanted you
to feel some of the pain I was feeling, Ellie. I ended up feeling like shit for
treating you that way.” His voice caught on the last words and he cleared his
throat.

“Maybe I wanted
you to punish me for what I did to us,” I admitted.

His eyes
flashed with surprise and something else. “It’s not too late to get it right.”

“I hope not,” I
said softly.

He kissed me
and I forgot everything but the feel of his mouth over mine.

All the next
day I replayed what had happened between Reed and I, unable to stop thinking
about how he’d made love to me as if he cherished me. He hadn’t told me that he
loved me, and we didn’t try to define our relationship or talk about the
future. We’d lived in the moment and it was hot and sweet.

I could not
wipe the smile off of my face, until the phone call changed everything.
 
I’d just gotten back to the apartment
from the grocery store when my cell rang, and I set the plastic bags on the
counter before fishing my phone from my purse and answering.

“Eleanor
McAllister?”

“Speaking.”

“This is Dr. Mitchell
from Northwest Emergency Clinic.
 
I’m calling about the results of your blood work.”

I hesitated a
moment, since it had been so long since I’d thought about that night. “I
thought I was given all the test results. Is something wrong?”

“No, not
wrong,” he assured me. “We were reviewing your paperwork, and I saw your
pregnancy test came back positive.”

I was stunned.
 
At first I thought I might have
misunderstood. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know I was given a pregnancy test.
 
There must be some mistake.”

A moment of
silence followed my comment, and finally he spoke again. “Miss McAllister, I’m
sorry if this isn’t good news for you, but there’s no mistake.
 
You’ll need to see an OBGYN soon, unless
you choose to terminate the pregnancy.”

My heart lurched
at the words ‘terminate the pregnancy’.
 
Dazed, I thanked him and hung up the
phone. It had to be a mistake. I was on birth control and I hadn’t even missed
my period. Quickly, I began to think back but realized I couldn’t recall the
last time I’d had my period. I grabbed my keys off the counter and nearly
barreled into Cora on my way out the door.

“What’s the
emergency? Did you forget to buy coffee?” Cora laughed. “Or are you in a hurry
to see Reed?”

“I need to get
a pregnancy test.”

Her eyes
widened, and I filled her in about the Doctor’s phone call.

“I’ll drive,”
she said.

A half an hour
later, I paced in the bathroom, glancing at my watch. Cora picked up the little
white test and frowned. “What the hell do the lines mean?” she muttered,
picking up the instructions. “You’d think someone would be able to invent
something more user friendly.”

“What does it
say?” I asked anxiously.

Cora looked
over at me her expression stoic. “There are two dark lines. I think it’s
positive.”

I sank down on
the closed commode lid, overwhelmed. “I’m pregnant?”

“It looks like
it. There’s another test if want to take it.”

The next test
also came back positive. I was going to have Reed’s baby. My heart swelled
imagining a tiny baby, a little boy or girl that was a part of Reed and me, a
small person that I realized I already loved.

“You’re having
a baby,” Cora whispered in awe, wrapping her arms around me.

“Hearing you
say that feels strange. It doesn’t seem real. Oh God, that night I drank those
shots—“ My hands flew to my stomach and gently rested there protectively.

“You can’t be
that far along. I’m sure it’s fine.”

“I haven’t felt
sick, and I don’t even remember missing my period. I’ve been taking birth
control pills!”

“Ellie, your
baby is going to be alright,” Cora assured me.

I closed my
eyes thinking of what I would say to Reed. We weren’t even dating anymore, and
he was spending Thanksgiving with Amber and her family.
 
As much as that made me burn with
jealousy, I didn’t want to push things with him yet and I was hoping he’d tell
me on his own what was going on between him and Amber. When I mentioned this to
Cora, she didn’t seem like she understood why I didn’t want to push Reed.

“The time for
taking things slow ended when you peed on that stick. Now is the time to tell
him he’s going to be a daddy and take him to a jewelry store to pick out an
engagement ring.”

When I was a
kid I always dreamed of my wedding day, and, like most little girls, I imagined
myself in a beautiful dress with a bouquet of flowers surrounded by family and
friends, and the man I would marry smiling at me as I walked down the aisle to
him. Cora was only joking around, but I didn’t like what she’d described at
all. It seemed wrong.

“We don’t have
to get married because we’re having a baby.”

“Yeah, I’d like
to hear what your dad is going to say about that.”

I winced,
thinking of how disappointed and upset he’d be. “I’m not telling him yet.
 
I’m not telling anyone until I figure
out what to do.”

“What do you
mean what you’re going to do?” she asked frowning.

“I mean I need
to think about what’s best for me and my baby.”

Cora looked at
me uncertainly. “You mean what’s best for the three of you.”

“No.” I took a
deep breath. “Cora, I don’t have the words to describe how much I love Reed,
but I can’t plan our future when he might still be in love with someone else.”

“I don’t know,
Ellie.”

“I found a
hotel room number written in a woman’s handwriting in his bedroom.
 
It’s the same hotel where Amber
works.
 
He’s also spending
Thanksgiving with her.”

“I can’t
believe you didn’t demand to know what the hell it was when you found it.
 
It’s what I would have done, just like
I’d tell him that you want him to spend the holidays with you.”

“You make it
sound simple.”

“It is simple.
Now, get your ass up and go get your baby daddy.”

I couldn’t help
but smile at her use of ‘baby daddy’.
 
Cora was right.
 
I was going
to have to confront Reed and settle things between us once and for all. “Okay,
I’ll do it.”

“Good luck!” Cora
called to me as I headed out the door.

Ten minutes
later I pulled into Reed’s driveway, more nervous than I’d ever been in my
life. I got out of the car, breathless and jittery despite my resolve to remain
cool. When I rang the doorbell, my heart tripped at the sound of the chime.

 
I waited.

He didn’t
answer.

Ringing the
doorbell again, I tried to peer through the glass. A moment later, the door
swung open and Amber filled the doorway, dressed in one of Reed’s button down
shirts and nothing else.

“Oh. Ellie,
hi,” Amber said smiling slyly.
 
Her
cheeks were flushed and her hair was tousled as if a lover had just ran his
fingers through it.

I gripped my
stomach to ease the violent pain that ripped through me.

“Ellie, are you
okay?”

As if from a
distance, I heard her talking and I tried to focus despite that my head was
swimming. “I want to talk to Reed,” I somehow managed to say.
 

“Sure, come on
in.” Amber stepped aside and pulled back the door. “He’s in the shower, but
he’ll be done soon.
 
Or I can get
him?” she suggested helpfully with a little smile that said she’d be more than
pleased to get him out of the shower.

Shaking my
head, I stormed into the house and headed straight for Reed’s bedroom,
expecting to find it empty but the sound of the shower running crushed any hope
I had that this was all a mistake. His wallet was on his dresser, but still I
looked into the bathroom and saw a naked Reed through the solid glass shower
door.

Reaching for
the dresser to steady myself, I choked back a sob.
 
I’d been so sure he wasn’t at home,
positive that Amber had been lying, but Reed was here.
 
He’d had sex with Amber when he’d made love
to me last night. Turning, I ran from the bedroom and out of the house.

“Ellie, wait!”
Amber called to me.

I didn’t want
her to see me cry, but still I turned to see what she wanted.

“I’m sorry.”
Amber looked as if she might say more. “I’m really sorry,” she repeated and I
thought she meant it.

I wasn’t ready
to face anyone yet, and didn’t want to go home. Knowing Dad was at work, I
drove to his house and sank down onto the sofa to cry with Jack faithfully
curling up at my feet.
 
I cried
until my chest ached and I had no more tears.
 
The last time I’d cried over Reed it was
my own fault, but not this time.

 
He’d betrayed me, broken my heart, but I
couldn’t afford the luxury of falling apart. I had my baby to think about, and
I had to pull myself together and go to work tomorrow. When I’d finally calmed
down, I vowed that this was the last time I’d cry over Reed Bentley.
 

Focusing all of
my attention on my patients, I went to work the next day determined to make the
best of things.
 
I smiled and
pretended that I hadn’t had my heart shredded to pieces the day before, and I
made an appointment to see an obstetrician. I refused to think about Reed.

The night
before Thanksgiving Reed called me, but I declined the call. He left a message,
which I deleted. Instead I sent him a text.

Me: It’s over.
Don’t call me again.

He didn’t text
back, but he did call several more times and left messages, but I wasn’t going
to listen to anything he had to say after what he’d done.
 
It was probably unfair of me because I
broke up with him and told him to work things out with Amber, but he’d lied to
me about not having feelings for her and I could not get over the hurt of him
making love with her the very next day after he and I had been together.

Even Cora,
who’d championed Reed from the start, told me to move on.
 
I still hadn’t told Isabelle about the
baby or finding Amber nearly naked at Reed’s house.
 
I felt guilty for once again keeping
things from her, but Reed was her brother and I didn’t want to put her in an
awkward position.
 
Cora agreed with
me.

Thanksgiving
day rolled around like any other day, which was unusual for me because I loved
family dinners, the cooking, baking, and the start of the Christmas season.
This year I wasn’t feeling any of it, but I went through the motions and made
cornbread dressing and a turkey.

Dad made three
pies, pecan, pumpkin and apple.
 
Cora
made sweet potatoes, broccoli and rice, a green bean casserole and homemade
rolls. The three of us spent a quiet day at my dad’s house, eating and watching
old Christmas movies.
 
It was a
relaxing day, until Dad asked about Reed.

“We broke up.”
I acted like it wasn’t a big deal, and I was surprised that Dad seemed
genuinely upset about this.

“What
happened?” he asked.

“His ex-girlfriend
happened,” Cora explained. “Ellie walked in on them naked, and--.”

“What?” Dad
exploded.

“Cora! That’s
enough!” I shot her a silencing look, which she ignored.

“He needs to
know what happened,” Cora told me.

“All he needed
to know was that we broke up.”

“Does Isabelle
know about this?”

I frowned, not
really understanding why he was asking that. “I didn’t want to put her in the
position to choose between Reed and me.
 
Why’d you ask?”

“I saw her yesterday
and she didn’t mention it,” he replied thoughtfully.

“Oh, you ran
into Isabelle, Mr. McAllister?” Cora’s eyes widened, and although she asked the
question as if was no big deal, I knew she was as curious to hear the answer as
I was.

Dad nodded, his
expression guarded. “I invited her and Reed over for Thanksgiving.”

“You did?” Cora
asked, surprised.

“They’re
spending Thanksgiving with the Fosters.”

“That’s Reed’s
ex-girlfriend’s family,” Cora supplied as if Dad didn’t already know that.

Dad shook his
head. “That’s not what Isabelle told me.
 
She said she and Reed were spending Thanksgiving at his house. I thought
it was odd that she turned down the invitation. Now that I think of it, she
wasn’t as friendly as usual.”

Cora turned to
me, but said nothing. Later I tried calling Isabelle, but she didn’t answer.
She didn’t answer my texts or any of Cora’s calls either. Apparently, Isabelle
knew what happened with Reed and she’d taken her brother’s side. I didn’t blame
her, but it still hurt.

“Something’s
not right,” Cora told me, as we listened to another commercial for Black
Friday.

“That’s an
understatement.”

“I meant with
Isabelle not talking to us. Reed is family. I get that, but she wouldn’t ignore
us if she knew what he’d done to you.”

I’d thought the
same thing, and to hear Cora say it only solidified the idea in my mind. I
glanced at my cell and thought of calling her again. “You think she doesn’t
know about Reed and Amber?”

“It’s possible,”
Cora said pensively. “You didn’t actually talk to Reed that day.”

Something in
her voice tickled my senses, and my eyes flew to Cora’s.
 
“I told you what happened. He was there,
naked in the shower. I didn’t just take Amber’s word for it.”

“It looks bad,
Ellie.
 
I’m with you on that, but it
bothers me that you never spoke to him.
 
You need closure.
 
You’re
also going to have to tell him about the baby.”

I thought about
what Cora said, and even when I tried to push it from my mind so that I could
rest, sleep wouldn’t come. She’d planted a seed of doubt in my mind and it took
root and grew like a weed. The next day I was feeling the effects of my
sleepless night, but I was driven by the hope that I might have been wrong
about what I’d seen that day.