Young Revelations (Young Series) (5 page)

“Not a fan of vampires, Bonnie?” I ask teasingly.

“Those aren’t vampires,” she scoffs. “Anne Rice writes vampires and they ain’t these girly-looking sparkling ones either.”

“I’m not disagreeing with you,” I say, chuckling.

Bonnie sets herself on a stool behind the counter and looks over at me. “How was your vacation?” she asks knowingly.

Rolling my eyes but smiling, I hold out my left hand, which she immediately snatches, and, adjusts her glasses while holding my hand up to the light, examining it closely. “Vacation was wonderful,” I tell her, not mentioning the drama between Matthew and me before he proposed. “I take it you knew?”

She smirks at me. “Small town, little girl,” she tells me. “Now, give me the details. How’d he do it?”

Over milk and pie, I give Bonnie the details on Matthew’s proposal and she is duly impressed. “If I was a few years younger,” she tells me, shaking her head sadly. “That boy wouldn’t know what hit him.”

“Well, we’re not married yet,” I say leadingly, raising an eyebrow.

She scoffs, patting my hand. “He’s a bit much for me now,” she replies. “Not sure I can handle his energy level…”

I’m choosing to believe she’s referring to Matthew’s constant need to be doing something and not sitting idly around twiddling his thumbs. “I think I’d forgotten about that aspect of his personality,” I say wryly.

“But you’re happy?” she checks.

I actually consider the question for a few moments. Am I happy? After three of the best years of my life, I left the only man I would ever love and settled with my best friend into a life that was mediocre at best, but one that provided stability for both me and my son. Five years later, Matthew comes blasting back into my life, bringing with him danger and excitement and the resurrection of feelings I had believed to be long gone. For two months, I thought he was gone forever, right when we were on the cusp of regaining all we’d lost. Kidnapping. Hospitalization. Waking up to find Matthew standing in my room. The shock and realization he hadn’t been in that plane. Finding out I was pregnant…

A smile begins to very slowly grow on my face and I look up at Bonnie, biting my lip and nodding. “I’m happier than I’ve been in far too long.”

“And I hope that happiness includes that baby in your belly,” she says leadingly.

My eyebrows shoot up. “Small town again?” I ask.

She chuckles. “Eager, overexcited father, actually,” she tells me. “Matt dropped in before you left for your vacation and showed me the ultrasound picture.”

My eyebrows shoot up at this news. I had been under the impression he and I were going to tell people together. Though I should probably be annoyed that he’s changed his mind, I don’t think I have it in me. Bonnie has been a champion for us since I first met her. She helped Matthew arrange his first marriage proposal with the fireworks by preparing dinner for us. She was with me the day I went into premature labor with Tyler and got me to the hospital. In the weeks that followed, Bonnie sat with us in the NICU while our baby fought for his life. When Matthew’s building was attacked and he nearly died, she was an integral part of my support system. While Matthew went through months of very intense, very painful physical therapy to regain use of the arm he nearly lost in the bombing, she stuck by me when I needed to talk or a shoulder to cry on. She was the first person to welcome me back when Tom, Tyler, and I were relocated to Matthew’s for our safety. I’m glad she knows.

“It does,” I say, finally responding to her original statement about the baby. “I’m terrified, but incredibly happy.”

She gives me a sympathetic smile. “Well, the doctors will know what to look out for this time around,” she tells me, patting my hand comfortingly. “It’ll all be fine.”

I smile very slightly. “That’s what Matt keeps saying,” I tell her softly.

“Maybe you ought to listen to him, then,” she suggests gently. We sit quietly for a few minutes before she clears her throat and I look over at her. “I was going to come see you in the next couple days.”

“Oh?”

Bonnie nods, sighing. “I’m going to have to cut back on my time at the store,” she says. “I’ve got a few medical issues that need to be dealt with and are apparently a bit time consuming.”

My eyebrows shoot up in concern. “Is everything okay?” I ask in a whisper.

She waves me off. “It’s nothing,” she says dismissively. “My point is I need someone I trust to keep an eye on the place and while I could probably find someone in the town to do it for me, I was hoping you might be interested.”

“Oh,” I say, surprised. “I’d love to, but are you sure?”

She rolls her eyes at me. “Of course I’m sure, Samantha,” she says sternly. “Much time as you’ve spent in this place over the years, you know it as well as I do. And you won’t have to do it all alone; I can still do a few hours a day for now. Anyway, I know you’ll get bored in that house while Matt’s at work and Tyler’s at school. And I’m sure you’ll want a distraction from the wedding and baby preparations… What do you think?”

I grin at her, hardly knowing how to respond aside from walking around the counter and hugging her tightly. She chuckles and hugs me back. “I’ll take that as a yes,” she tells me. “Excellent. Come on, I’ll get you familiarized with everything before those boys of yours come home…:”

––––-o––––-

As I pull up to my parking space at home, I almost wish I was back at work so I won’t have to have the conversation with Samantha that I know we have to have. The rest of my day was nothing but a giant cluster fuck of frustration and anger. I feel betrayed and confused and angry, and I’m not entirely sure who those feelings are directed towards. I certainly don’t want to take everything out on my fiancée; we’ve had enough arguments in the last several weeks to hold us over for years. My father certainly deserves the brunt of my ire if for no other reason than his assumption that I’m marrying Samantha because of her pregnancy. Though deep down, I’d been expecting that reaction from several people. They don’t know why Sam and I broke up to begin with and this is all incredibly quick from an outsider’s point of view; naturally that will be their first reaction. But they couldn’t possibly be anymore wrong.

And as for Samantha supposedly blackmailing my father… I’m disgusted he would even suggest something so horrible about the woman I love. He never even attempted to get to know her; from the moment he set eyes on her, he assumed the worst. It didn’t seem to matter how often I told him I loved her and that I wanted to spend my life with her; he never cared. He wanted me under his thumb at every turn; he wanted to make my decisions for me; he wanted to mold me into becoming him. I almost hate him for it. But when it comes down to it, he’s my father and I love him. Doesn’t mean I have to like him…

Running a hand roughly down my face, I remove the keys from the ignition, grab my laptop bag, and get out of the car. Maybe what I really need right now is to be with my family. I smile at the thought. How often over the last five years had I come home from work to an empty house and wished desperately I’d done things differently? Of course I know, despite everything I’ve developed over the years, even I haven’t figured out time travel, and therefore, there’s no point dwelling on the past. All I can do is ensure my family’s happiness in the future.

Inside the house, I’m met with silence and for the very briefest of minutes, I panic at the thought I’d dreamed up the last several months and that Samantha and Tyler are still in Omaha. There’s a shriek out in the backyard and I begin breathing again at the sight of my son running around the jungle gym I bought for him, playing some imaginary game with himself. I then laugh at my apparent overreaction. Even I couldn’t dream something so vivid as punching out a guy in a bar because he was hitting on my pregnant girlfriend…

Feeling relieved, I can suddenly hear humming coming from the kitchen and, grinning to myself, I head in that direction to find my wonderful fiancée standing at the stove oblivious to the world around her. The radio plays softly in the background and she’s singing under her breath as she stirs what I assume to be dinner. Unable to maintain the distance between us any longer, I enter the kitchen, walk up behind her, wrap my arms around her middle, and chuckle softly at her jumpiness. It only takes her a moment to get over her apparent scare and she leans her head back on my shoulder, smiling at me.

“Hi,” she whispers as I bend down for a kiss. “You’re late.”

I snort a laugh. “I know. I’m sorry,” I tell her sincerely. “I got a little caught up in some things at the office.”

“It’s okay. Ty and I were late getting home too,” she says, looking back down to the stove.

“Why?” I ask curiously, resting my chin on her head and softly rubbing her belly with my hands.

“Visiting Bonnie,” she says, sounding utterly content to be in my arms. I smile to myself. “That took up a couple hours, then we went to the grocery store.”

I nod in acknowledgment and we fall into a comfortable silence together as she finishes cooking dinner, neither of us willing to move away from our embrace. Eventually it becomes a necessity, as she has to remove the baked chicken from the oven. Even still, I’m reluctant to leave the room to change or play with my son before dinner. I’m not sure why I’m suddenly feeling clingier than usual to Samantha; maybe because of the confrontation with my father today; maybe because of my brief panic when I walked in the door and didn’t hear anybody. Whatever the cause, Samantha is starting to realize something’s off.

She turns around briefly. “How was your day?” she asks quietly.

My entire body tenses at her question and I glance around the kitchen with the hope of finding an answer to pacify her for now. Dinnertime is not the best time for this conversation, especially since I know it will upset Samantha and I don’t want Tyler to have to see that if I can help it. “It was fine,” I lie. “Busy.”

Her brow furrows and I realize I can’t lie to her. “Matt…” she whispers, looking at me with an almost pleading expression. “I thought we—”

I don’t know what it was she had been about to say; Tyler enters and immediately locates me, wrapping his arms around my legs and looking up at me toothily. I grin, reaching down to pick him up as he tells me all about his day in very fine detail. Catching a glimpse of Samantha as we leave the set the table, I know we’ll be having a very in-depth conversation later on.

––––-o––––-

After Tyler is tucked into bed, I make my way back through the house to find Matthew. Though our evening was carefree while we entertained our son and I once again felt the wave of guilt over having kept these two separated for so long, my mind was preoccupied by the thought that something is bothering Matthew. We went through this phase eight years ago—something would upset him, but he didn’t want me to worry about whatever it was, so he kept it to himself. I can’t even remember the number of arguments we had because of this tendency. I wanted to know him better, to share in whatever was on his mind; he wanted to protect me from the world. It was maddening. Eventually we came to an understanding that if we wanted our relationship to succeed, we needed to act like mutual partners. There were still some things he
couldn’t
tell me for any number of reasons, but he was much more open to me than we’d ever been. With five years between us, I can understand his reticence to share things with me, especially as we’re still trying to get to know one another again after so long of keeping things to ourselves. He’s so accustomed to bottling things up—so am I for that matter—and I know if we keep on like this, it will only lead to arguments.

“Hey,” I say quietly, entering the basement. Matthew is sitting on the edge of the couch, head bowed as though he’s in prayer, a glass of what I assume to be bourbon between his hands. His eyes snap up to meet mine and he gives me a small smile, patting the cushion beside him in invitation. Setting aside his drink, he instead wraps his arms around me before I’m even sitting down completely. I chuckle, resting my head on his shoulder and feel his entire body relaxing. As much as I want to keep the tension away from him, we need to talk and I really have no idea how to broach the subject without seeming like I’m prying.

Like always, though, Matthew has a sixth sense of what I’m thinking and feeling. He sighs heavily, tightening the arms around my waist before he begins to speak quietly. “My father came to see me today.”

It’s my turn to tense up. Of course that would be the reason for his bad mood. The mere mention of his father is enough to ruin my contentment of being in Matthew’s arms. “Oh?” I say quietly, my eyes scanning the room looking for some unknown thing.

I feel him nod, resting his chin on my head. “He got word about the engagement,” he tells me, somehow managing to keep his tone even. “And he wasn’t pleased.”

“There’s a surprise,” I murmur, though I hadn’t intended for it to be out loud.

Matthew snickers. “Indeed,” he replies wryly. “And I might have let news of the baby slip as well.”

Despite his attempts to keep me exactly where I’ve been for several minutes, I shoot up from his chest, staring at him with what I assume is an expression of horror. “What?” I breathe.

He nods, not meeting my eyes. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I know this wasn’t how you wanted people to find out, but it slipped.”

“And what was his reaction?” I wince, already coming up with a number of possibilities.