The Love Series Complete Box Set (34 page)

Some ‘better man’ you are walking out on your pregnant girlfriend.

I’m a shit and I know it, but I can’t go back in there right now. No matter how much I just want to wrap my arms around her and swear to God that I’ll do anything she wants me to so that she’ll take me back, I know that won’t fly with her. Yeah, she wants me to forgive my mother, and to make peace with my past, but she wants me to do it because I want to do it—not because she wants me to do it. And no matter how much I love Maddy, I’m just not sure that I want to do those things; I’m not sure that I can.

My misery over missing her soon turns into anger and frustration at her. It’s not her place to tell me what the fuck to do in
my life.
Sure, I love her and I want to be with her, more than I’ve ever wanted anything actually, but I’m not going to just back down on this. My frustration and anger get the best of me and I can’t help but pound my fists against the steering wheel. How on earth can I choose between losing Maddy and facing my past? Right now both choices seem like hell—my hell.

These are the times that I wish Shane was around. He was always my sounding board. God, I miss him so fucking much. It’s not lost on me that if he was here, I wouldn’t even be in this situation. I wouldn’t have to choose anything; my past wouldn’t be haunting me.

Stuck in this internal battle over what I want to do and what Maddy wants me to do, I can’t help but wonder would I have even met Maddy if my past wasn’t causing me so much pain? The thought of possibly loving someone else instead of Maddy causes bile to rise in my throat.

I’ve gotten myself so wrapped up in loving her that I never, not even for a second, thought about what I want. I’ve devoted pretty much every single moment of the last few months to making her happy and I haven’t once thought about what would make me happy. Holy shit! I became
that guy.
You know the pussy-whipped boyfriend who bends over backwards for his girl.

But I don’t hate that version of me all together—at least I don’t think I do. My brain is a scrambled mess over all of this. I really need to figure out what the hell I want out of this whole fucked up situation and do it for me, because I want to—not because Maddy thinks I should. I can’t hide the fact that part of me thinks that she’s right. I do need to face down my past. Maybe that’s why I met Maddy? Maybe that’s the reason for her being in my life?

I’ve never been one to believe in that line of reasoning that suggests everything happens for a reason. If you tell me that there’s a reason why sweet little ten year old Maddy had to lose both of her parents, or that there was a reason for Shane to feel so much pain and heartache that he’d rather end his life than fight for it, then I’d say bullshit. Sometimes horrible, fucked up things happen to good people, but in this moment of enlightenment—in this epiphany like state—I can’t help but feel a little bit lighter knowing that if I can’t have Shane as my best friend, that maybe, in some sort of strange cosmic coincidence, maybe he sent me Maddy in his place.

She’s the only one who has ever meant anything to me. Maddy is the woman who makes me want to be a better man; she makes me want to be whole and complete, not just because she deserves this better version of me, but because I do. I have no clue how it happened or why it was her. I never in a million years would have thought that I’d be boyfriend of the year or anything like that. Sometimes people change. They change when they have a good enough reason to change. Maddy is my reason, and now I just have to figure out how to be me, how to do what I feel is right, while still managing to keep her in my life.

Her love makes me feel worthy and I’ve gone and turned my back on her. Thinking of her moving on without me, of her forgetting me and finding someone else to love makes my eyes burn with unshed tears. She might not want to be with me right now, and God knows she’s got some pretty rock solid reasons for feeling that way, but I
will not
lose her.

It hits me like a ton of bricks. I
will not
lose Maddy to my past. I
will not
let my demons ruin a future with my angel. I might not have been the best person in the past, but Maddy has made me want to be better. I belong to her and her strength has inspired me to be strong.

Shane is gone because of the way my parent’s treated him; they took him from me, but I’ll be damned if they’ll be the ones to keep me from Maddy.

Feeling rejuvenated and, more importantly, motivated by my own desires to lay the past to rest, I shift the car into drive and head back to the hotel to pick up Jack and Cammie. I can’t help but laugh inwardly as Fun’s
Carry On
starts playing over the speakers. That’s exactly what I have to do right now. I have to carry on with my life, even if Maddy is not physically in it for the moment. She will always be in my heart; she is my heart, but right now I have to work on fixing who I am if I can ever have the hope of being worthy of her love once again.

I’m not sure how it will all work out, what my next step is, but I do know that I will conquer my pain and I will get Maddy and my baby back. I shake my head at that last thought. I’m going to be a father—holy shit!

For the first time since I was sixteen, I’ll be whole again; I’ll find peace and, God willing, when I do find it, I hope that Maddy will be there stretching out her arms to embrace me back into her life.

Chapter 2

Monday December 10, 2012

Watching Reid leave me is the single most devastating sight I have ever witnessed. His shoulders are slumped and his feet shuffle along the ground. He looks as broken as I feel.

Collapsing onto the bed, I rest my elbows on my thighs and hang my head in my hands. The sobs are coming; I can feel them. Echoes of our fight ring through my ears and my gut twists in pain knowing that I’ve lost him.

Vaguely, I hear Momma at the door saying that she’s just going to check with the nurse one last time before we leave. When the door softly clicks behind her, I lose the will to hold back my pain.

I want to cry, wail, scream; I want to do anything that will take away this pain, but I know nothing will. Nothing, no one, can ever fill the void that is there now that Reid is gone.

My sorrow and pain quickly transform into anger. What the fuck is wrong with me that I told him he doesn’t love me? He trusted me with his deepest, darkest secrets. He opened up to me in ways that he’s never done with anyone before. Reid bared his soul to me and because of my lingering insecurities, I told him that he wasn’t good enough for me.

There were so many times in my life that I thought I couldn’t go on—so many times that my pain got the best of me and swallowed my happiness whole. Those times pale in comparison to what I’m feeling now.

I don’t even know what you would call it. Heartache? That’s a fucking useless word for the pure and unadulterated soul twisting pain that I feel. Reid is gone and I am alone. Rifling through my bag, I search frantically for my cell phone. I need to call him.

When I get to the bottom of my bag, I realize I’m well and truly fucked. I forgot that I lost my phone in the accident. I haven’t needed it all week in the hospital, but right now, it’s the only item I need.

Burying my face into the sterile and overly bleached hospital pillow, I only hope that my scream is muffled enough to not raise any concern. There is just so much anger swirling through my veins that I have to let it out; I can’t contain it any longer.

I scream and yell into the pillow until my throat is raw, until the physical pain outweighs the emotional. Though the complete erasure of emotional depravity never comes, I eventually tire of my outburst.

Flopping over onto my back, I stare up at the drop-tile ceiling and start counting the black dots in a vain attempt to calm down. When my breath no longer catches in my throat and the sobs begin to recede, I come back to one clear and unavoidable truth—I’m having a baby.

I place my hands tenderly on top of my belly and get lost in thoughts of whether it will be a boy or a girl; will the baby look like me or like Reid. My lips quirk up in the corners and I laugh at my complete inability not to think about Reid for more than two minutes.

I miss him so much already and I know that I can’t do this on my own. I pushed him away; I made him feel unworthy. I broke us.

Wiping away my own tears, I resolve to fix things. A simple apology won’t do and even I know that. I owe him so much more than that and I vow to prove to him just how worthy he is.

I can only hope that he’ll listen and that, maybe, if I’m lucky enough, he’ll let me back into his heart.

My body aches and it takes so much effort to stand after being crammed in this damn car for the last few hours. The sob-fest from earlier really took its toll on me. My lungs burn from the sobbing and there’s a constant, dull soreness radiating from my still-healing broken bones.

I want to say that it feels good to be home, that I can’t wait to sprawl out on my bed and let myself heal, but no amount of time or comfort will mend my broken heart. The gnawing and twisting feelings over having pushed Reid away stayed with me for most of the car ride. I was so lost in my own anguish that I barely interacted with Momma or Mel at all.

I can’t believe I actually told him that he needs to be whole, to be complete before he can love me.

That’s fucking bullshit and I don’t know why I couldn’t see it just a few hours ago as he was standing in front of begging me to leave his past alone.

He did love me completely—hopefully still does. He never once made me feel unloved or uncared for. Maybe he was right? Just because I’ve made peace with my past doesn’t mean that he has to with his.

He’s been nothing but amazing with me and I pretty much told him he wasn’t good enough. What a bitch! I shake my head at my stupidity as I replay the scene over and over in my head; it’s a wonder that he didn’t just tell me to go fuck myself as he turned away. His venomous words twist my gut.

So, get off your fucking high horse, Maddy, and deal with it.

He’s right and I know it. I have to no right to dictate what he does in his life.

Except to bring him back to me. I have to make that happen.

What a fucking mess and there’s really no one to blame but myself. It would have been amazing for him to jump up and down with joy when I told him that I’m pregnant, but that’s just so unfair. I sure as hell didn’t react like that when Dr. McNamara told me.

I haven’t even told Momma or Mel yet. It was on my mind the whole car ride, but there really isn’t an easy way to work it into the conversation. It’s just too much. If I tell them I’m pregnant, then I have to tell them about leaving Reid. That’s just too painful to share right now. I don’t even know what I’m going to do. Will I go back to college in the spring? Should I just transfer to a school closer to home? Where is home? Can I expect to live here with Momma? How will she react? How the hell am I going to take care of a baby?

It’s too overwhelming. I just want to curl up into Reid’s arms and let him tell me that everything will be okay, but that’s obviously not what he wants. He didn’t follow me here. He hasn’t called—sure it’s only been a few hours, but still.

While all of these thoughts race through my mind, I try to get comfortable on the couch in the den. My room is upstairs and right now my ribs are still too sore to go up a flight of stairs. Melanie immediately ran out to the pharmacy to fill my prescriptions—all except the one for the pre-natal vitamins. That one is tucked securely in my pocket.

Momma really has done her best to make it as comfortable as possible and I love her for it. The couch is covered in freshly cleaned sheets and blankets. I really couldn’t ask for more from her, but I know that when I tell her I’m pregnant, that’s exactly what I will be doing.

“Here you go, sweetie.” Momma walks gingerly into the sunken den carrying a bowl of chicken noodle soup. She places it on the snack table in front of me and sits down next to me.

“Thanks, Momma. I’m so hungry. That car trip was a killer.” I bring a spoonful up to my lips and blow to cool the soup a little. Even though I know it’s out of a can, it’s delicious. Knowing that Momma’s first task upon arriving home is to take care of me makes it taste even better. There’s just something about being comforted by your mother’s cooking that soothes the soul.