Forever We Fall: Broken #4 (The Broken Series) (27 page)

Lee

"Hey stranger," Karen's voice chirped in my ear, startling me from where I'd been day-dreaming over a cup of coffee. "I haven’t seen or heard from you in a while," she added, sliding into the seat opposite mine. "A little birdy told me you got married in March. Thanks for the invite."

"It wasn't planned," I blurted out quickly, feeling terrible. "I swear I would have invited you otherwise."

"Relax, Lee," she chuckled. "I was joking." Stroking Hope's head softly, she grinned at me. "I heard about the trial. How're you holding up?"

"I'm still in a blur," I admitted with a small smile. "It's a pinch-me moment. I guess I'm still getting used to it." Shrugging, I added, "It will take some time to forget about her."
Impossible now she's sending more damn letters…

"Yeah," Karen sighed. "I can't imagine what you've gone through," she added in a quiet tone before smiling. "So…how did the wedding go?"

"Great," I breathed, grinning like an idiot. "I still can't believe it, Karen. We're married." I waved my hand in front of her face like an idiot, showing her my plain gold wedding band. "I've never felt so…" I paused to think of the right word. "So content – so secure in our relationship."

"I'm happy for you, Lee," she said softly, her brown eyes warm and smiling. "You deserve your happy ever after."

"So, what about you?" I asked brightly. "How's Jordan?"

"Big and bold," she chuckled before checking her watch. "I'm actually collecting him in a few minutes from daycare. We're going to the park if you girls would like to join us?"

"I was supposed to wait here for Kyle," I mumbled, the weight of Rachel's folded letter in the back pocket of my jeans weighing heavily on my mind.

Karen's face dropped and I felt bad immediately. "I'm in," I blurted out impulsively. "The fresh air will do us the world of good."

****

"It's so beautiful out here," Karen mused as we strolled through Chautauqua Park. "The views are something out of this world."

"I know," I replied softly. "I remember when I first moved here I was in awe of this place." We'd left Hope's stroller in Karen's car, and my arms were starting to ache from carrying her.

"Here," Karen chuckled, hold her hands out for Hope. "Give your arms a rest."

"Thanks," I sighed as I passed Hope to Karen. "I can't wait until she's steadier on her feet. She's already a third of my size."

"That wouldn’t be hard, Lee," Karen teased as she walked beside me, making faces at Hope. "Kyle's huge."

"Can I hold her?" Jordan asked, tugging on my jeans. "I promise I won't hurt her, Mrs. Carter." His green eyes were wide as saucers. "Please?"

"Why don't we sit on the grass," I coaxed, my heart squeezing for the adorable little boy staring up at me. "And you and Hope can play together then."

He nodded eagerly and I bit back a chuckle. Hope definitely had a fan in Jordan Valentine. Plopping down on the grass next to Karen, I sighed in contentment as I watched Hope and Jordan play happily.

"He's crazy about her." Karen smiled, pointing to where Jordan was picking daisies out of the grass and handing them to my daughter. "He hasn’t stopped talking about her since they met."

"He's so freaking cute, Karen," I gushed. "I would've loved a little boy."

"Why don't you?" she asked. "You're a married woman now." Poking me playfully in the ribs, she leaned back and rested on her elbows. "Now's as good a time as any."

"I'm infertile," I said quietly. "I can't have more children." Leaning on my elbows, I rested on the grass beside her. "Kyle's crazy for another baby, but it's not going to happen for us. The odds are completely stacked against us in that area. Nothing works right since the shooting."

"You never know, Lee," she replied, craning her neck to watch the kids. "You're so young. Things could change."

I chuckled. "That's what Kyle says." I twisted on my side to face her, enjoying the heat of the early May sunshine. "But we've been trying for over eight months." Shaking my hair out I sighed and said, "With Hope it happened the first time, so I wouldn’t hold my breath."

"I saw you at Linda's funeral," Karen whispered, turning to face me. "I wanted to say hi, but…" She exhaled heavily. "I didn’t want to intrude. Kyle looked in a bad way."

"Yeah." I nodded sadly and forced the memory of those dark days from my mind. "He's much better now."

"That's good," she replied. "I felt awful for him. I remember when I first started working at the hotel, those two were glued to each other's sides."

"Linda was his surrogate mother," I told her. "Kyle had a tough upbringing… She was the first solid relationship he ever formed. She was his rock for half of his life. He was never going to accept her death easily." I rubbed the skin over my chest and sighed. "I was so afraid for him," I confessed. "I thought he'd fall into the same depression Derek fell into after Cam's death."

"Derek your housemate," Karen whispered.

"Yeah," I nodded. "He was so sick for such a long time." I wiped away the tears I felt on my eyelashes. "I was terrified the same thing would happen to Kyle. Thankfully, he seems to be dealing with his pain."

"What about you, Lee?" she asked. "How did you deal with your friend dying?"

I smiled to myself. "I was wrapped in cotton wool by the two men in my life." Chuckling I added, "They're a little protective of us." I pointed to Hope. "But I watched her die, Karen," I told her. "I held her in my arms, so I was under no illusions of where she was and why." My whole body shuddered. "I'm still sad, it still hurts like nothing else, but at least I have my memories of Cam. I cherish my memories and in my heart she lives on. She's never gone from my mind."

"I don't know what to say, Lee," Karen confessed, red-faced. "She sounds like she was an amazing person."

"She was." I smiled at Karen and sat forward. "I'm starving. Would you like to come over for dinner?"

"I'm not sure," she mumbled, brushing her hair back from her face. "I probably shouldn’t."

"Come on," I coaxed. "We're friends now, right?"

"Yeah," she smiled. "We are."

****

Kyle

"You need to calm down, Kyle." I didn't know why Derek was even bothering trying to talk me down. The only thing that was going to calm me was finding my girls. "Everything is gonna be fine."

"Derek, it's getting late. She's on her own with my baby and she's not answering her fucking phone," I roared, clutching the wheel as I took the bend on the road too tightly. After my meeting with David, I'd collected Derek from therapy, completely forgetting to take Hope and Lee with me. When I'd – belatedly – remembered the girls and got back to the hotel, they were already gone.

"Slow down, asshole," Derek hissed, clutching the door. "She probably called a cab from the hotel and went home. You said Theresa saw her with one of the cleaners?"

"Yeah, but that was hours ago. Goddammit, this is all your fault. You and your fucked up
therapist
." It wasn’t their fault. It was all my fault and I knew it. But it was easier to put the blame on Derek, because he wasn’t the one who'd forgot about his wife and child.

What the hell was wrong with me?

"My fault?" Derek shouted in outrage. "Oh, so
I'm
the one who spent the bones of three hours droning on about carnal
urges
and going through the twelve steps to a successful marriage? Step. By. Step." Shaking his head, he hissed in disgust. "Apart from the fact that you have no goddamn shame when it comes to talking about
anything
sexual, you've put me off relationships for life. Good job. Thanks for that, asshole."

"She should have stayed where she was supposed to be," I grumbled, ignoring Derek's rant. Fuck him, he was a big boy and he was the one who'd asked me to pick him up. If he didn’t want to hear what I had to say, he shouldn’t have invited me in. He knew by now I had a problem with my mouth.

"Why can't she just do what she's told?" I moaned. This wasn’t Lee's fault either, but I needed to distract myself while I made a plan of what to say when I found her and Hope. Find her. Grovel. Make up. Yep, my plan sucked.

"Ah, let's see, because she's a woman and not a dog, Kyle," Derek countered. "You can't say
'stay Lee'
and expect her to."

"I swear to god, Derek," I snarled, ignoring his sarcastic retort. "I am going to find her and when I do, I'm going to handcuff her to my fucking arm."

"I don't know why you're getting all mad at Lee," he muttered when I pulled up outside the gate of our house and keyed in the code. "You're the one who forgot her in the hotel." I flinched and Derek continued to torture me as the gates opened and I sped up the lane. "Yep, suck on that, control freak. You screwed up. Colossally.
Imagine
that."

"It's not funny," I whispered as fear gnawed at my gut.

"Hey now, see." He nudged me in the arm as we pulled up outside the house. "She's home. Safe and sound."

"Yeah," I whispered, sagging in relief. I could see Hope's bedroom light was on, but who the hell owned the piece of shit Honda parked in front of my house?

Practically falling out of the car, I rushed up the steps and opened the door. "Princess?" I called out as I stalked into lounge. "Baby, I'm so sorry…" my voice trailed off as my eyes took in the dark-haired kid, kneeling in front of the TV with an Xbox controller in his hands.

"Who are you?" he asked with curious green eyes.

"Kyle Carter." I stepped towards him, finding myself drawn to the kid for some weird reason. "Who are you?"

"Jordan Valentine."

"Cool name, kid," I muttered as I scratched my head in confusion. I'd heard that name before. I'd seen this kid before…

"Thanks, dude," he said before turning his attention back to the TV and I gaped at him. Dude? What toddler said dude?

"So…" I coaxed, shifting around in discomfort. "You here with anyone?"

"Yep," he said with a smirk. "Hope. She's my friend. I'm gonna marry her when I'm big like you."

"What the fuck?" I gaped at the kid who was what, two at the most?
Jesus Christ, keep the head Carter. He's only a baby…
"No, you're not," I added quickly. "She's…not on the market."

"That's not fair," he yelled. "You can't tell me what to do. You're not my daddy."

"Who's your daddy?" I demanded. "Who's your mommy? Where the hell did you come from, kid?"

"I don’t have a daddy," the kid shouted angrily and I felt like a piece of shit.

"Neither do I, pal," I said in a softer tone. "And I turned out just fine."
Not even close to fine, but he didn’t need to be infected with my bullshit…

He studied my face for a moment before turning back to face the TV. "Are you Hope's daddy?" he asked as he tapped on the controller in his hand. "'Cause my Uncle DJ says that boys are 'posed to ask the girl's daddy first, right?" Frowning, he turned around and narrowed his green eyes at me. "My uncle Danny says I'll have my pick of the bunch." Shaking his head, he grinned up at me. "That's silly, right? Who wants to marry a banana?"

"A banana? Uncle DJ? Uncle Danny?" I raked my hand through my hair in frustration. "Who the…what the hell is going on here?"

Turning around, I went to go search for Lee, but froze to the spot when my eyes fell on… "Karen Valentine?"  I shook my head in confusion. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Hi," Karen said sheepishly. "Lee's upstairs with Hope. Poor thing was exhausted after dinner."

"Mom, that man is weird," the kid piped up.

"Mom?" My mouth dropped open in shock as awareness dawned on me.…

"Jordan Valentine."

"Thanks, dude."

"My Uncle Danny says…"

"This is Danny, my friend from Addyston I was telling you about…"

Green eyes. Familiar green fucking eyes…

"I fucked his sister, dude…"

"I took off afterwards and haven't seen him in over four years…"

Karen looked up at me with a desperate expression. "Please," she whispered, shaking her head. "He doesn't know."

Oh. My. God.

Holy fucking shitballs.

"Which one?" I asked completely stupefied. "Which one doesn’t know?"

"Both of them," she mumbled, red-faced. "Neither of them."

"Is it safe to come in?" I heard Derek call out and Karen's eyes bulged. "You guys aren’t fighting, are you? There's no flying fruit? I'm pretty sure I'm infertile since your last drama session."

"I'm pretty sure you're not," I muttered, covering my mouth with my hand to hide my shit-eating grin.

Derek sauntered into the lounge, his step faltering when his eyes landed on Karen's face.

I watched as a multitude of different emotions flittered across his face. Surprise, worry, fear, hunger?
What the hell…
"Karen," he said in a gruff tone, his cheeks coloring red. "What are you doing here?"

"I…oh god…" Clasping her hands together, I watched as my housekeeper swayed on her feet.

I moved to help her, but Derek lunged forward. "You okay?" he demanded as he rushed towards her, grabbing her elbow to keep her from falling. "Jesus, you're as pale as a ghost."

"I'm so sorry, Derek," she sobbed, tears trickling down her cheeks. "I should have told you sooner, but I was so afraid…"

"Shh, don't cry, sweetheart," he said soothingly as he wrapped his arms around her.

Sweetheart?

I gaped –fucking jaw-dropping-and-hitting-the-floor-gaped – at the scene rolling out in front of my eyes.

"Who's he, mom?" the kid asked, pointing at Derek.

"Mom?" Derek froze, all the blood drained from his face, as awareness kicked him straight in the teeth.

Stepping back from Karen, he pointed his finger at the spitting image of himself and whispered, "Whose is he?"

****