Forever & More: The Friend Zone series (25 page)

He then moves to her closet and pulls out outfit after outfit, taking it all in. His face is covered with damn trails. He spins in a half circle and stops, I know he missed it earlier but it’s right there in front of his face now. It’s become real for him now, he’s going to be a dad and I’m going to be a mom.

He hits the floor and covers his face. His shoulders shake and I start to become alarmed. The chair squeaks when I attempt to get up, but he’s at my feet before I can get onto them.

“You named her after me?” I laugh and start crying with him, nodding my head.

“I don’t deserve that, Chloe. I don’t deserve her or you. I’m so sorry,” he cries into my lap.

“Don’t you dare say that!” I scold him. “You can’t possibly feel that way.” I grab his face and make him look at me. “You have been there for me time and time again. You have stood by my side and never gave up on me. You were there when I needed you and even when I didn’t. You took care of every single want or need I had. You saved me, Skye; don’t you see that? You saved me by giving me Skylar. If it weren’t for you or her, I would probably be dead by now. I was dead on the inside already. I was rotting on the inside and waiting for it to bleed out and takeover on the outside.” I take a breath. “If anyone deserves to have someone that can love them unconditionally, then it’s you, Skye. I can’t think of anyone more deserving than you.”

He kisses me, hard.

This kiss is different than the last, this one is meant to speak without words. It’s telling me everything I already knew. He loves me. He loves our child and he will do whatever, whenever, to make sure that we have everything we’d ever want or need. He’s promising to be a good dad, to always put me and Skylar first. And I repeat every single word back to him.

I pull from our kiss and notice that Sara and Harley have given us some privacy.

“Skye?” I say and he looks into my eyes. “Welcome home, baby.”

He smiles and kisses me again.

“So do I get to give her a middle name?” he asks.

“Actually, I already have one, but we can change it I guess.” I don’t really want to, but for him I’d do anything.

“What is it?” He cocks his eyebrow.

“Cheyenne.” He looks confused, so I clarify. “Do you remember the little girl in the hospital? Her mom came to visit me.” I still get nothing so I go on. “Her father had beaten the little girl and that’s what put her in a coma. She never recovered. She was so little, Skye. She didn’t get a chance to live. This was my way of giving her life. She deserved to live and be happy. To dance in her room like a ballerina, to get her first kiss, and to fall in love. She deserved to have what we have, but she didn’t. I want her to have that and this was the only way I knew how to give it to her.” I start to cry.

“Shh, don’t cry, it’s okay. That’s perfect. Skylar Cheyenne.” He repeats her name a couple of times as if he were scared he’d forget it.

“You really like it?” I ask.

“Uh, yes, ma’am. First off, you gave our kid my kickass name, and then naming her after that little girl is… well, I don’t know what it is, but I’m proud of you and the reasons you’re doing it. You’re amazing.” He kisses me again. The moment my lips meet his, my stomach growls.

Skye and I both start laughing.

“I guess baby thinks that’s enough mushy stuff for the night,” Skye kids. At least he better be kidding because I have so much more mushy stuff planned for him tonight I don’t think either of us will be sleeping.

“Skylar’s not growling at you, dummy. I’m starving.” He helps me get up from the glider. Before we exit the room, he looks around one more time. Skye’s face is still lit up in awe like he can’t believe he’s here.

I grab his hand and pull him into the hall. We enter the living room and find Sara sitting on the couch with Harley. Her legs rest in his lap and her back is flat on the couch. Two weeks ago, Sara went through a procedure to reverse the damage in her back that caused her to be paralyzed. The impact from the accident fractured her spine, which in turn, pinched a nerve that resulted in her being immobile. She’s done physical therapy since she was released from the hospital but still hasn’t gotten better. A month ago, I went to the doctor with Sara and she finally agreed to the procedure.

The doctor told us that he wasn’t sure if it would be a success since she waited so long but that we could give it a shot. The past two weeks have been painful for her. The surgeon made a small incision and removed the dead nerve and then fused the ends together. He has her on some pretty intense medications that Harley guards with his life. I think he’s scared I’ll relapse or that Sara will become the person I was.

Harley takes Sara home to her apartment every night since I decided to do the nursery. But every morning, they come bouncing in the door and don’t leave until I go to sleep. I know they’re scared to leave me by myself and I love them for it. Their fierce need to protect and look after me warms my heart, but it’s no longer needed. They need to focus on getting Sara back on her feet. I know that Harley’s planning on proposing to her, but I’m not sure when he’ll do it.

She’s stated many times that she wasn’t going to get married if she couldn’t walk down the aisle. I told her that was the dumbest shit I’d ever heard, but she doesn’t care what I think. That girl is one pigheaded woman. Luckily for her though, she started feeling a tingling sensation in her foot last Thursday. She described it like when your foot goes to sleep. I’m glad she’s starting to get feelings in her legs, but I don’t envy her, I hate it when my foot falls asleep.

The doctor doesn’t want her trying to get up and walk much, to Sara’s dismay.

“So what? I’m still rolling, just now with a tingly foot? I thought this was supposed make it better!” Was what she yelled at her doctor the next morning when I took her to her follow-up. One day at a time is how he told us to take this process.

“Babe? You okay?” Skye calls to me.

“Yeah. Sorry. I guess I zoned out.” I walked into the kitchen and noticed a new stack of envelopes on the counter.

I grab the first one and notice it was from my bank. I haven’t worked in a long time, but days before Tom died, $500,000.00 was deposited into my account. I thought it was weird at first and wouldn’t touch it, but as time passed, I started to realize that he knew what was going to happen. I think he knew he was living dangerously and that it was going to catch up to him eventually. I open the envelope and pull out the statement. It looks the same as it always does. I scan the months ending balance and it’s the same as it was last month.

“What the hell?” I ask aloud.

“What’s wrong?” Skye walks to me. He sits next to me and studies the papers. A defeated sigh escapes his mouth.

“Remember when I told you about Jay? How I was being bribed to get her that money back?” I nod. “Well, remember when I told you we found a bank in the Caymans with a shit ton of money in it and how your name’s on it?” I wish he’d just get to the point so that I can stop holding my breath. “Somehow he’s set up a draft from that account to your personal one. If you look at your statement, it shows a direct draft to your account for three thousand dollars a month.” How the hell did I miss all of this? “We need to get you down to the bank. See if they can give you any more information about when all of this was set up.”

“Well, let’s go.” Harley slides out from under Sara’s legs and begins to pick her up.

“Wait a second. So what do I do? Just withdraw a million dollars and hand it over to Jay?” Could it really be that simple?

“Now you wait. What the hell are you talking about?” Sara asks.

Skye fills Sara in over the next few minutes. Her face looks murderous, I know that she’s about to lose her shit on him and I can’t handle that right now. Harley sits her in her chair, then stands silently at her side.

“Let’s get down there. The sooner this is over, the sooner we can move on.”

Moving this along won’t deter Sara from expressing her opinion about the situation, but it will hold her off a bit. I swipe up the bank statement, grab my purse, and am the first one out the door. The three of them trail behind me, lost in their own thoughts.

I approach Skye’s Jeep and wonder if we’re going to take it or not, but Harley clicks the key fob answering my question. The guys load Sara while I climb into the passenger seat. My hands fidget nervously in my lap. Once everyone’s in the car, we set out on the short drive to the bank. Winter’s in full effect now; Christmas decorations line the streets and for the first time since I was a kid, I’m excited about the holiday.

Usually, we celebrate with alcohol and dancing, but it’s time to start a new tradition. One with ball covered trees and stockings hung by the fireplace.

“You ready?” Skye pulls me from my thoughts.

“Yep.” I grab my purse, then climb out of the Jeep and patiently wait for everyone to join me on the sidewalk.

We enter the bank and my nerves get the best of me. I hate walking into to something and not knowing what’s going to happen. My gut rolls from facing the unknown. A million and one questions swirl through my mind. Is the money from his drug stuff? Who was I kidding, of course, it was; BAR didn’t pull that kind of business. Would the government take it from me when they found out? I really didn’t care if they did. It’s nice to have, but I don’t want it if that’s where it came from. If they didn’t take it, I would donate it to a charity or something. The scariest thing that kept popping into my mind was what happens when Skye takes it to Jay. Would she kill him and then take the money? Would she let him just walk away? I knew better than that, I’ve watched too many CSI and Dateline shows to be naïve enough to think that he could just walk away.

“Can I help you?” the blonde banker cheerfully asks.

“Yes, ma’am. Can we speak to the branch manager?”

The happy teller doesn’t look so happy anymore.

“Sure,” she says with uncertainty. She turns to face away from us, phone in hand, and whispers in a low voice into the receiver. Turning back to us, she informs us Mr. Daniels will be with us shortly and directs us to wait in a tiny room to our left.

A few minutes after we are seated in uncomfortable leather chairs, a round, grey haired man in a matching smoke colored suit approaches us.

“Good afternoon. I’m Mr. Daniels.” He reaches his hand out to Skye in greeting. Skye meets Mr. Daniels’ hand with his own. “How can I help you?”

I step forward and offer the same gesture he did Skye. “Mr. Daniels, I have a few questions about my account. Can we go somewhere private, please?”

He leads the four of us in a secluded office one floor up from the room we were previously waiting in and plops his large body into the chair behind his desk. Skye sits next to me in the sage green high-backed chairs.

“Now, what can I do for you?” I reach into my purse and pull out my statement.

“I haven’t been well these past few months, so I just noticed the change. But I have funds being deposited into my account every month from an account in the Cayman Islands. Tom Anderson, a friend of mine, passed away earlier this year and has left me the beneficiary. It seems he has a substantial amount of money in these accounts that are now in my name. I’m not sure when all of this took place and that’s what I would like for you to find out for me. I also need to withdraw a large sum of money from this account, and I’m hoping that you can help me do that.” He takes the statement from my hands and then begins tapping on his computer.

His eyes go wide and pass from me to the computer screen several times before he finally speaks.

“Ms. Thomas, were you aware that you have a safety deposit box in your name at our establishment?”

“No, I didn’t. Are you sure it’s mine?” This whole bank situation is really starting to freak me out. What would be in a safety deposit box and how in the hell did he manage to do all of this without my consent?

“Yes, ma’am. I need documentation that Mr. Anderson is, in fact, passed away. A death certificate would do. Did you bring that with you today?”

“Actually no, all of this is new to me and I wasn’t aware that I would need it. I have one at home I can get and come back.”

“No. Skye, give me a few minutes and I’ll run and get it and come back,” Harley interrupts me.

“I’m not sure we have time,” Daniels says with uncertainty.

“I live just a few minutes away. He will be back before we finish with the rest of this,” I reassure him. “Harley, it’s in my room, top drawer, in the manila envelope. Just bring the whole thing.”

He grabs the keys from Skye and heads out of the office.

“Now, I need to know what is in that account and who set it up,” I inform him.

“I need three different forms of identification.”

I pull my bag into my lap and begin digging in my purse. I find my wallet and hand him what he needs. He begins tapping on the keys again.

“The account was set up June of last year by Mr. Anderson. He made you the beneficiary over the account and in the event of his death, he set up a direct draft to your account for $3,000.00 a month for living expenses.”

“How was he able to do this without my consent?” I ask.

“Well, making you the beneficiary over his accounts doesn’t require your consent, just your social and account number in this case. Account holders also do not need your permission to deposit funds into your accounts. Now, if he were trying to withdraw, then that would be a completely different story.”