Broken Dreams (Franklin Blues #2) (8 page)

Lance

Ever since Amy came home from her girl’s day with Hailee she’s been acting weird; she’s quiet and distant. I’m beginning to lose my mind over it. Maybe she doesn’t want to be with me anymore and she doesn’t know how to tell me. I’ve tried asking Shawn about it, but he shrugs me off and tells me it’s probably nothing. He’s been acting weird too, and every time I bring up Amy’s name, he changes the subject. Being a detective, I know something is going on but I can’t figure out what it is yet.

I’m driving to work, and even though I’m still on desk duty, I still love my job. I can’t believe they’re making me see a damn shrink. If I could remember what happened then I might need to talk to someone, but I still don’t remember what happened while I was under cover.

I’m drawn out of my thoughts when I hear sirens behind me. I look in my rearview mirror and see Shawn behind me. I’m confused on why he’s pulled me over so I get out of my car.

“Shawn, why am I getting pulled over? You know I wasn’t speeding or anything.”

Shawn looks like something is troubling him, but before I can ask he takes out a pair of handcuffs.

“Lance, something has come up with that case you were working on and you’ve been accused of assault with a deadly weapon. You know I don’t want to do this, but it’s my job. Lance Underwood, you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford one, one will be appointed to you. Do you understand these rights as I have read them to you?”

I nod my head. I can’t believe I’m being arrested for something I can’t even remember. Shawn opens the back of his patrol car and I slide in. I’m not sure what I’m going to do and Amy is going to go apeshit when she finds out.

We pull up to the station, and Shawn helps me out of the car. We walk into the front of the station and as soon as everyone sees me, it gets quiet. Hailee comes up to me and tells me that my union rep is already waiting on me. She has finally started working the front desk after much convincing from Amy and Shawn.

I walk into an interrogation room and sit down next to a man I’ve never seen before. I’ve never been in trouble so I’m proud of the fact that I’ve never met this guy. The DA comes in, and my rep tells me not to say anything, so I sit and clench my jaw, because this is all bull shit.

“Mr. Underwood, it’s not looking good for you as of right now. You’re facing at least 18 years for this. If there’s anything you want to say, you better say it now.”

“With all due respect, I don’t even remember my time undercover, so how in the fuck would I have any idea what to say to you right now?”

The DA sits there and stares at me. I’m not sure what’s going through his head, but he’s starting to worry me. I can tell he’s thinking, and usually I can get a pretty good read on people, but for whatever reason, with this guy I can’t.

I’m looking at the table when the door opens, and when I look up, I see Amy walking in. I’m not sure what she’s doing here, but she’s not supposed to be here during an interrogation.

“Lance, how are you feeling about the length of your sentence? Are you okay with that long of time being served?”

I’m so lost. “Uh, no actually I’m not. I may not remember my time undercover, but I sure as hell don’t want to spend the next 18 plus years away from you. I love you Amy.” Her eyes start to fill with tears and I hate that I’m the reason she’s crying.

“Well Lance, since you don’t seem to want to spend time away from me, how about we spend the next 18 plus years connected?”

Okay, I’m a pretty smart man, or like to think I’m one, but I’m completely lost. She looks over at the DA and nods; now I’m even more confused.

He slides the folder over to me, comes around the table and undoes my cuffs. I rub my wrists a few times and grab the top of the folder to open it. At first glance, it’s a little blurry, but the more I look at it the more it clicks.

“Amy, please tell me I’m not seeing things. Is this what I think it is?” I look up at her and the tears that were swimming in her eyes are now falling down her cheeks.

“Lance Underwood, you’re going to be a daddy. You are now sentenced to 18 plus years being connected to me. So tell me, how do you plea?”

I’m in shock, the best kind of shock there is. She never thought that she would be able to get pregnant but here she is, and I have to admit that I must have some pretty damn strong swimmers. I walk up to her and place my hands on her cheeks, cradling her face.

“But I thought you couldn’t get pregnant, how is this even possible? I’m more excited than you could ever know, but I need to make sure that everything is fine before I start jumping up and down here.”

“Lance, I was told I’d never conceive a child, and as of right now I’m fine, and the baby is even better. I’m about seven weeks along, so it was conceived the very first time I gave into you.”

I can’t take it anymore; I pick her up and swing her in circles. I can’t do as much as I would want to because we’re still in interrogation. I set her down, and crush my lips to hers. I don’t care who is watching because the love of my life has just told me I’m going to be a daddy, so today is the greatest day of my life.

“So everyone was in on this, right? Shawn, the union rep guy, the DA; you planned all this? Everyone knew but me. You guys are good. I have to admit, you really had me thinking that I was going to go to prison for the next 18 plus years.”

“Lance, as much as I love you, you never gave me your plea. How do you plead in the charges of knocking up your girlfriend?”

Does she really think I’m going to plead anything else other than guilty? The thing is, I may be guilty, but I couldn’t think of a better punishment or way to spend the next chapter of my life. “Absolutely fucking guilty as charged, you can lock me up and throw away the key.”

Amy

Lance gets in my car since they towed his off the side of the road after his “arrest”. He decides to drive so I get into the passenger seat. We sit in comfortable silence for a couple minutes, holding hands and listening to the radio. I look over to Lance, and he’s got the goofiest little grin on his handsome face. He almost looks like a kid on Christmas.

“What are you thinking about over there? You’ve got the cutest smile on your face.” He looks over at me, and the grin turns into a full blown smile, one that lights up his entire face.

“Well, I can’t believe you pulled that off for one. That must’ve taken a lot of planning. I can’t believe Shawn was able to keep it a secret, he tells me everything, and it had to kill him not to tell me. Most of all, I’m thinking how excited I am that I am going to be a dad, and that you’re now my Baby Momma.” His southern drawl is more pronounced as he says ‘Baby Momma’.

“Let’s get something straight Mister; you will never refer to me as your Baby Momma. We may be southern, but we are not redneck, southern white trash. I am the mother of your child, and your girlfriend. Those are the only two things I will accept being called. Now, I’m starving and your baby wants wings so can we please go to B-dubs?”

He quietly chuckles to himself and nods his head. We go back to the comfortable silence and holding hands. I’m watching the scenery as we pass it by, thinking about how wonderful it feels to be pregnant when I have been told that it would never happen. I am supposed to be sterile, that’s what Dr. Pierce had told me. I can’t help but think that maybe this wasn’t supposed to happen with Jeremy. It’s like it was fate that decided I would never get pregnant with him. Now, I’m 27 years old and more stable in my life. I’ve got a great job that I love, friends who have become like family to me and the love of my life right by my side. I haven’t felt like I’m right where I belong since I was ten years old, when I had my world ripped away from me.

“Amy, earth to Amy. We’re here. What were you thinking so hard about over there? We’ve been sitting here for about five minutes with me trying to get your attention.”

I look at him,
had it really been more than five minutes? I must’ve really zoned out.

“I’m okay, thinking about how happy I am right now. I haven’t felt this at peace in a long time. It’s like everything is finally coming together the way it should, and I’m finally going to get my happily ever after.”

He looks over at me and winks, “Damn straight you will be. I’m going to do everything in my power to take care of you and our little one in there,” he says rubbing his hand over my still flat stomach. I get butterflies in my stomach as soon as his hand made contact with my skin. I look up at him and he has a look of awe on his face; I fell in love with him a little bit more right then.

Lance gets quiet and I’m wondering what is going through his head. He’s looking all around the restaurant, but not looking at me at all.

“Lance, is everything okay? You’ve gotten really quiet and you won’t look at me. Are you having second thoughts,” I ask as a million and one things run through my head. What if he doesn’t want to be with me now? What if he doesn’t want that type of responsibility? He must’ve seen the look on my face because next thing I know he is getting out of his seat and forcing me to move over in the booth so he can sit beside me. He cups my face in his hands and kisses me oh so softly.

“Amy, you couldn’t be more wrong. I am so ecstatic about having a baby with you. I have never wanted anything more in my whole life. I am trying to figure out a way to convince you to move in with me. I want to be able to take care of both of you. I want to be there for the moodiness, the late night cravings, and everything in between. I want to watch every day as you get bigger with the life that we created.”

I can’t help it, I start crying again. Damn hormones. I start to think it’s too soon to live together, and then I realize that life’s too short. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my parents’ death it’s that you can never rely on the fact that tomorrow is going to come, and we had basically lived together when I was his nurse.

“Lance, I would love to move in with you. If I’ve learned anything in life it’s that tomorrow is never promised, and I never want to regret not doing something in case one day down the line something happens and you’re no longer here.”

Lance gives me that panty dropping, megawatt smile and leans in to kiss me. His kiss is gentle yet has a sense of urgency about it. We’re making out like a couple a teenagers when my phone rings. I look down and see its Caroline, my boss.

“Lance, it’s my boss I’ll be right back.” I give him one more peck and walk outside for a moment.

“Hello, this is Amy.”

“Amy, how are you dear? I was calling to ask you if you could fill in for one of the other nurses. Every nurse we send to this guy gets fired within the first two days. You’re the last option I have right now and I know you recently came off of an assignment. I know its short notice but, can you get your butt to Crossville by tomorrow morning?”

I can’t breathe. The one place that I swore I would never go again, and now I’m being forced to go. I don’t think it’s Jeremy, but you never know. Crossville is the town I ran away from three years ago. I really don’t want to go back, but I can’t let Caroline down.

“Amy, dear are you still there? You’ve gotten really quiet, Amy?”

“What, sorry. Yeah, I can do it Caroline, but can you give me a few days to get everything in order here first?”

“Of course dear, we’ll tell him he’s stuck for a couple days with this last nurse and a replacement will be there as soon as you are available. Thank you so much Sweetie, you’re a life saver.”

I don’t remember hanging up the phone or walking back into the restaurant, I feel like I’m having an out of body experience or something. There’s only one thing going through my head, and I don’t like it one bit.

Jeremy.

Lance

Amy comes back to the table, and she looks like she’s seen a ghost. I start to ask her about it, but she shakes her head. She knows I’ll ask about it later, but for right now I want to spend a nice afternoon with her.

“Okay, this is not the way I wanted to do anything, but I want you to move in with me. Now that you are going to be having my baby, I want to take care of you and our baby. Please think about it.”

She looks at me for a moment before she gets the biggest smile on her face. She nods her head up and down so fast I’m sure she’s going to give herself a headache.

“Lance, today is a day of celebration. We are starting a family, and now I’m going to move in with you. I need to tell you something though. That call I got a couple of minutes ago, it was my boss. I have a patient I have to go take care of. Something about a bad accident at work and now the person is home bound. One of the reasons why I don’t want to go is because it’s my hometown. I’m almost sure it’s not Jeremy, but I don’t want to run into him. I’m so in love with you, but I still don’t want to have to see him and my old best friend together with their child.”

She starts to look away, but I refuse to let her feel sad on a day like today.

“Hey Babe, if you don’t want to take the job, then don’t, hell, if you never want to work again then don’t. I make more than enough to provide for you and Little Bit here. Now with that said, I know you won’t quit working, but I want you know you have that option.”

She gets really quiet as the waitress drops off our food. We eat in silence, but it’s kind of comfortable, although I can tell this conversation isn’t over yet.

“So, when do you want to grab your stuff to start moving in? I’m off for the rest of the day, thanks to you. I thought we could go ahead and get it at least started today then spend the night relaxing. What do you think about that?”

She nods in between bites. I can already tell I’ve said something to upset her because she’s never this quiet.

We go and get my car from the tow lot. When I have the car, I tell her I’ll meet her at her place with boxes. She nods her head and takes off down the road, leaving me in the dust. I get in my car and take off to the store for boxes. I want her in my house and in my bed as soon as humanly possible.