This Broken Beautiful Thing (8 page)

I look
up to see my father smiling at me. “That’s a great idea baby girl. Maybe you can show Ann a thing or two about cooking.” He teases and I laugh. “I know she hates cooking and I don’t mind cooking now that I’m here, I enjoy it.”

I finish cleaning aro
und the bar area as my dad sits there sipping on his drink watching me with a grin on his face. By the time we walk back up the stairs to the house it’s already dark outside. Dad tells me he has a meeting with some of the brothers in his office so I decide to lounge on the balcony and enjoy the cool fresh air. I bring my legs up to my chest with my head resting on them. I look down at the street and my surroundings then rest my head on the back of the chair staring up into the beautiful sky lit up with stars.

“What you doin
’ out here all on your lonesome?” Jace says as he sits next to me holding a beer in his hands.

“Thinking…” I say through a sigh.

“Bout?” he asks hesitantly.

“
Everything…I need to tell him Jace. Its eating me inside and I would never be able to hide this from him, even though I don’t want to hear his voice right now, I have to tell him. I just need to tell him and get it off my chest.” I say.

“I know what you mean babe. Come.” Jace says as he gestures for me to take his hand. I get up and place my small
hand in his much larger one, he leads me up the stairs back to his room. He pulls me to the bed, tells me to sit and I oblige.

“Here, call the idiot now and get it over with.” He says throwing me his phone
. My phone was destroyed in the car accident so I’m in the process for getting a new one with the number transferred. I’m not sure having the same number is a good idea though.

“Jace
. It’s not as easy as you think, I’m scared!” I admit, he sits on the bed next to me and puts his muscular arm over my shoulder and pulls me to his chest as he speaks against my hair.

“Babe
it’s as easy as I think. Call him, tell him about the baby and say you will discuss details later. Just get that off your chest, you’ll feel better. I promise.” He says comforting and giving me the courage to take his phone and dial Caleb’s number with my trembling hands.

I hear the dial tone and I wait a few minutes as I stare at Jace who’s looking cautiously at me as he mouths
,
“It’s okay, everything will be fine.”
I nod and give him a reassuring smile but it quickly vanishes when someone answers the line…and it’s not Caleb.

“Ashley?” I ask as I hear her answer the phone
cheerfully.

“Harley! Is that you? Oh my gosh
! Hun I’m sorry! I didn’t want to you to find out about us that way. I’m so sorry, you’re my sister and I never should have betrayed you like that. How are you? How is the baby?” Ashley says in a caring tone but I’m not fooled at all.

My heart aches when she mentions that she didn’t want me to find out about
them
that way.
Obviously they’ve done it before. I ignore her questions and ask flatly.

“Where’s Caleb?”

I hear her sigh, “He’s not in at the moment. Please tell me you forgive me, I love you Harlz, you’re my best friend. Just come back, you can even stay with us.” It breaks my heart at the mention of them living in the apartment that was supposed to be Caleb’s and mine.

A tear falls down my face and I look at Jace who is clutching
the bedding in his fisted hand, his white knuckles on display.

He
grunts , “Give me the phone, NOW!” in an angry tone but I shake my head and move away from him so I’m sitting in the middle of his bed with the phone against my ear.

“I need to speak to Caleb now, where is he?” I ask through a muffled voice as I sniff.

She lets out an irritated breath, “Harley, what do you need to speak to him about? The baby? You don’t have to do that, I already told him about
it
.” She says cunningly and it pisses me off how she calls the baby growing inside of me an…
it
.

I yell at her, “What the fuck Ashley
? I don’t care if you’re together now, it wasn’t your place to tell him! I was supposed to!”

Jace jumps at me trying to take the phone away but I quickly turn around so
I’m holding the phone tightly against my head with my side pushed into the bed and my head in between the pillows in the middle of the bed as he hovers over me. I mouth “
just hang on!”
he gives me an angry look but stays hovering over me.

“Well
too bad because I did and he doesn’t want
it
.” She says in a harsh tone. I gasp and suck in a deep breath as she breaks what little of a heart I had left completely with her words.

Jace snatches the phone fro
m me and yells into the phone. “Slut, listen to me
very
carefully! If you ever come near Harley again or utter one word to her, I will pay you a visit and it won’t be pretty!”

I turn my
face into the pillow and hold it tight against my face as I cry into it. My whole body is shaking and I can’t control the loud sobs and the tears that soak the pillow. I feel Jace back to hovering over me with both his legs on either side of me as his manly built body envelopes me. He leans over and wraps his one arm around me with the other brushing my hair gently.

H
e puts his mouth in my hair near my ear and whispers, “Shhh baby….I’m here…talk to me.” He leans over and rests his head on the same pillow I’m hiding my face in and removes his body that was over mine, I instantly feel cold without him there. He pulls me up so I’m snuggling into his chest.

“He…he doesn’t want…the baby.” I stutter as
I cry and put my face into his neck and squeeze him tight. He squeezes me back and pulls me so that I’m now lying on top of him with our legs scissored between each other’s and my head resting just under his chin. He starts rubbing my back softy trying to comfort me. My body is still trembling but my sobbing has stopped. I can hear and feel his beating heart beneath my ear and it strangely calms me.

There is nothing sexual about the way he holds me, it’s definitely intimate but it’s more of a protective manner than a sexual one and it’s something I
don’t expect from an intensely sensual man.

He rolls me over so that
I’m next to him with my head leaning on his arm, I’m still tucked tightly against his chest. I roll over so I’m lying on my back and take a deep breath. I feel his hands playing with the bottom of my dress before he reaches under, I tense under his touch not knowing what he’s about to do.

“Trust me
...” He says and I nod. His large warm hands reach under my dress and land on my stomach as he rubs me softly the same way he did the previous night.

“You don’t need him. H
e doesn’t deserve you, either of you.” He says softly as he continues to run his palm against my stomach protectively.

“Thanks Jace.” I clear my throat, my tears all dried up. “I don’t know why I wasn’t prepared for that,
I wasn’t expecting him to be so harsh. I don’t understand how he doesn’t want this baby
we
made. I was already in love with the little person growing inside me the moment I found out. How can he be so cruel? I…I don’t understand.” I clear my throat again.

“Babe,
you don’t need him. You have us and we will help you through this. You have me sweetness, I will be here for you and the baby. I will never let anyone hurt you, not again.”  Jace says as he kisses my forehead.

I reach up and
kiss his cheek leaving him with a big grin.

I finally catch my breath
and get off the bed to look at my face in the mirror. It’s a little red and my eyes are still a bit swollen.

“How long am I going to be sleeping next to you?”  I ask him.
He looks up at me from the bed as if I’ve interrupted his thoughts.

“Forever?” he says cheekily.

“No seriously, how long? Sooner or later you’re going to get sick of me hovering around you and I’d rather give you your space before you get tired of me.” I say leaning against his door frame.

“
Babe that’s not going to happen but either way, your bed or mine, you’ll be sleeping next to me.” He says matter of factly, I don’t bother to argue with him because it won’t get me anywhere. I shake my head and leave his room in search for Anna.

CHAPTER 7

I walk up to the fourth floor
towards my father’s bedroom. I knock on the door softly and hear Anna call for me to come in.

She’s
sitting on the bed working on her sketches; she seems shocked to see me in her room as she puts her sketch board down next to her on the bed.

“What’s
wrong, have you been crying?”

I ignore her questions and he
ad over to where she’s sitting.

“C
an I ask you a question?” I sit down on the corner of the bed and cross my legs, playing with a loose cotton piece on the frill of my summer dress

“You have been crying! What happened? Was it Raven? Do I need to get
the bat out?” she pulls me closer to her and holds me tight.

“When dad cheated on you with
Momma, how did you get over it?” I ask her sadly.

“Oh no Hun
, he didn’t? That’s why you didn’t want to see him at the hospital?” she says in disbelief and I nod.

“
I’m going to kill that boy, you two were so good together. I can’t believe he fucked it up. Are you okay babes?” she says as she holds my hand in hers.

“N
o I’m really not but that’s why I’m here, I need to know how to get over it. Jace has been great and most of the time he takes my mind off it but I just can’t stop the hurt that keeps creeping in. I don’t want dad to know about this and after this conversation I never want to speak about him again. I don’t want to mention his name, hear about him or even think about him. I want to forget! How do I just… forget?” I say as I tremble and the tears fall.

She pulls me in for a tight hug
, trying to comfort me and it works.

“It’s very hard my
love, you believe you won’t be able to trust men again but you will. I knew what I was getting in to when I married your father though. These biker boys are hard to handle but I love your father too much to not work on our relationship and make it work. When he had that drunken one night stand with your mother, your father and I were going through a rough patch especially when I just found out I couldn’t have children, I felt useless and I pushed him away. You see babes, these men don’t like being told what to do and they want a woman that’ll submit to them. That’s why so many of them have whores on the side but I wasn’t willing to do that, it’s not in my nature and your father knew that. He told me the next morning that he cheated and I didn’t speak to him for about two weeks, I knew he felt terrible because he wouldn’t stop apologizing to me and each and every apology was so incredibly sincere. It was hard trying to ignore your father and eventually we talked it out. I made it known that if he ever so much as looks at another woman the wrong way I’ll be gone without a second glance and I knew that scared him. About ten months later I knew something was up when he purchased that big pink Harley for the bar with your name and date of birth on it. I didn’t ask or question him and I would always catch him staring at the handwriting with a fulfilled smile on his face. We both had secrets Harley and his biggest one was you. He was always away at club meetings but one day he came back with you at his side. The first time I saw you I knew you were his, I loved you from the very moment I saw your pretty blue eyes that matched your fathers. I only ever wished that I was your mother and that you were mine…” she says wiping away the tears from her face with her tattooed fingers. I sit on my knees and give her a hug as I tell her in her ear.

“
You are my mom, I am yours ….and Daddy’s.” This makes her cry harder and squeeze me tighter, a few stray tears fall from my eyes, this is very unlike Anna, she doesn’t show emotion easily.

“Anyways
, I knew that even though your father cheated on me during one of his vulnerable moments I still loved him and wanted him, you just have to work it out. I swear it will get better. I know its hard babes but you are a strong girl. If you love each other enough, you will find your way back.” She says wiping away all her tears.

“I guess you
’re right but that could never happen… he’s with
her
now, she’s living in the apartment that was supposed to be ours. I lost my boyfriend and best friend in one night. Crazy right?” I say sadly looking down at my nails trying to swallow down the tears and the sobs from escaping.

“Oh no…he’s with
her.
He cheated on you with Ashley!” she asks sounding angry.

“
Yeah, I mean…they are perfect for each other and I’d like to say that I hope they would be happy together but that’s a lie. I hope they betray each other the way they did me and feel the heartbreak they put me through.” I say feeling hatred surging through me.