Picking up the Pieces (15 page)

“And there goes our Hallmark moment.” Savannah sniffled through her smile. “Go on,” she said.

“Honest to God, I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought if I cut off all contact, Emmy would find a guy that actually deserved her and she’d be happy. If I’d known she was pregnant, I would have done everything differently.” I raised my hand when she started to interrupt. “It’s no one’s fault but mine that I didn’t know about the baby. I didn’t give her the chance to tell me, and I’ll regret that until the day I die. But I need you to know that I’d give my life to take away the pain that girl has gone through.” I leaned forward so she could see how serious I was. “I’ll do anything, Savannah. I’d walk through fire for her. I need you to help me get her back.”

I was terrified that I’d just spilled my guts, and she was going to kick me out the door. I wouldn’t blame her if that were the case, but she was the only person who could help me get through to Emmy. I wasn’t above admitting that.

“Fuck!” she huffed. “I really don’t want to like you.”

I threw my head back and let out a deep belly laugh, thankful that Savannah could make light of a tense situation. “Does that mean you’ll help me?

She blew out a breath and looked at me with a smirk. “Yeah, I’ll help. But I want something in return.”

Uh oh.

“What’s that?” I asked cautiously.

“You see, I’ve got these speeding tickets…”

CHAPTER 28

EMERSON

It had been a few days since my talk with Ilene Allen and I was still reeling. What she said hit me so deeply it was the only thing I’d been able to think about for days. Our conversation and thoughts of Ella ran through my head on a continuous loop. It took a great deal of concentration, but I managed to pull myself out of my head just enough to get my work done at the diner. I was in the middle of the lunch rush and wasn’t paying full attention when the bell over the front door of Virgie May’s rang. When I turned to greet another customer, I was assaulted with the stench of cheap perfume. Allison was standing there in all her slutty glory. She had one hip cocked with her hands resting on them. The smug smile that was spread across her face wasn’t really that intimidating, considering she had a busted lip and the proof of Savannah’s ass kicking was still very evident with all the black and purple bruises.

“Sorry, no dogs allowed in the diner.” I grinned back at her then turned to help my customers.

“Bitch,” she mumbled under her breath because she was too chicken shit to say it out loud. “I just wanted to let you know that I’m pressing charges against you and Savannah.” She had a cat-who-ate-the-canary look on her face. “I’m going to make sure you bitches pay for what you did to me.”

I turned back to her and cocked my hip as well, mimicking her stance. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about, Allison. What did Savannah and I do to you?” I asked with fake confusion.

“Oh, please. Don’t give me that shit, you stupid skank. You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

I tilted my head to the side and feigned thinking
, then I turned to all the diners sitting at their tables, staring at the exchange between me and Allison with blatant interest. “How many of you were at Colt’s two nights ago?” I asked the entire diner. More than half the people raised their hands. “Do any of you recall the events of that night?”

Missy Clearwater spoke up then. “I don’t recall you and Savannah doing anything, but I clearly remember Allison tripping and falling on her face.” Missy looked in Allison’s direction. “Sweetie, you really should rethink heels that high if you’re planning to get completely shit-faced. It’s just not wise.”

I tried so hard not to laugh at Missy. I wish I’d had my phone on me to capture the moment, because the look of disbelief on Allison’s face was legendary. “Anyone else remember Allison falling on her drunk ass that night?” I asked.

Mr. Clements stood then. “I do remember seeing you and Savannah leaving Colt’s the other night. Neither of you fine ladies even glanced in Allison’s direction, so I’m not sure what she’s talking about.”

It was then that I remembered why I loved living in a small town so much. I might have had my fair share of shit to deal with in the past, but Savannah and I were loved by the people in this town, and when you have the love of a small town, they will back you through thick and thin.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Allison shrieked. “Y’all all know what those two bitches did to me. Just look at my face!”

“Now, there’s no need for name-calling, Ms. Crabtree. If you can’t be polite to our little Emmy here, then you just need to go on,” Mr. Clements stated. God, I loved that man.

“Unbelievable!” Allison’s shrill voice was really starting to give me a headache. “Well, Luke was there, and I know he’ll back me up.”

Right at that moment, as if he was just waiting for the perfect opportunity, Luke walked through the doors of the diner with a determined look on his face. He was heading straight for me when he caught sight of Allison. She immediately grabbed on to his arm with a death grip and plastered a pathetic look on her face. “Honey, you know what Savannah and Emerson did to me Thursday night! Everyone is claiming I slipped and fell, but I know the truth and I want to press charges.” She batted her fake eyelashes at him, causing me to throw up in my mouth. “You’ll help me, won’t you, baby?”

Luke looked at me with a blank expression then glanced back at Allison. “Ms. Crabtree. You can’t press charges against someone just because you got drunk and fell down in a bar. The law doesn’t work that way.”

“But…” she started. “Baby, you know. You saw what they did to me.”

Luke pulled his arm from her grasp and came to stand beside me. “I didn’t see anything,” he stated in a voice so cold, I almost felt sorry for her. Almost. “But I do know one thing, if you weren’t such a conniving bitch, maybe the people in this town would back you up when you needed them.” Whoa, I honestly didn’t expect that to come out of Luke’s mouth. I was even more shocked when he continued. “Despite what these people saw or didn’t see, I feel confident when I say that you got what you deserved. Now you need to get the hell out of Emmy’s diner.” He stalked over to where Allison stood, and if his size wasn’t enough to intimidate, what came out of his mouth next most certainly was. “And don’t come back. If I ever see you near Emmy or Savannah again, I’ll arrest you for harassment.”

“This is bullshit!” Allison yelled.

When Luke got in her face, I was scared for her. “Woman, are you deaf or just plain stupid? Get. The. Hell. Out.”

Allison spun on her heels and practically ran out the door. When she was gone, Luke turned back to me.

“You’re about as welcome here as she is, Lucas.”

“Luke,” he replied.

I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. “Excuse me?”

“Luke. Not Lucas. You only call me Lucas when you’re pissed at me.”

He has a lot of fucking nerve,
I thought.

“Well, seeing as I can’t stand the sight of you, saying your full name is kinda fitting, don’t you think?”

He leaned down and his face got soft as he looked at me. He reached up and tucked a strand of hair that had fallen from my ponytail behind my ear. “I don’t care if you can’t stand the sight of me. I don’t care if you hate me until the day you die. I’ll always be your Luke.”

All of the air seemed to have been sucked out of the room. I couldn’t breathe when he looked at me like that. I didn’t have any fight left in me. “Please leave,” I whispered weakly. I didn’t have any witty comebacks or mean things to say. I just wanted him to leave for my own piece of mind.

He nodded his head and the heartbroken look on his face stripped me raw. He walked out the door without turning around. It took all of my strength not to run after him.

***

I sat on the bright green grass and ran my fingers over the grave marker. “Hi, sweetie.” I’d occasionally come to the cemetery and just sit at my daughter’s grave. Other times, it gave me some comfort to talk to her. I knew she wasn’t there, that her spirit wasn’t in the ground, but it gave me peace to talk to her. Today was one of the days I needed that peace. “I don’t know what I’m doing, honey. I’m so damn lost right now. Your Daddy really is a good guy.” I traced the name in the grave marker over and over.
Ella Michelle Grace
. If you were here, he’d be tied around your little finger. He would have been a great daddy.”

I sat silent for several minutes. “I don’t want to love him,” I said in a hushed voice. “But I can’t stop.”

“No one said you had to,” came a voice from behind me. I jumped, startled, and spun on the seat of my pants to see Savannah standing behind me. “I thought I’d find you here,” she said as she sat next to me. “Hi there, honey bunch,” she spoke to my daughter.

After several quiet seconds, I turned back to my friend. “What are you doing here, Savannah?”

She took a deep breath and met me eye for eye. “You’re my best friend, I know you. And this stuff between you and Luke is really taking its toll on the both of you.”

I looked at her curiously. “Both of us? How do you know how he’s taking it?”

She looked at me, and the expression that crossed her face was one of worry. “Okay, I’m going to tell you something, but you need to promise not to freak out on me. Deal?”

I was getting nervous because of how she was acting. “What’s going on, Savannah?”

She turned away from me before answering. “Luke came to see me yesterday.”

I jerked back in shock. “What do you mean, he came to see you?”

“He came to my house. He wanted to tell me some things in the hopes that I’d change my opinion of him and help him attempt to change yours too.”

I let out a humorless laugh. “The dude must a have death wish. He should know better than that.” When she didn’t respond, I turned; she was worrying her bottom lip. “Savannah?”

“Ithinkyoushouldtalktohim.” She spoke in such a rush that all of her words blended together.

“You what?”

“You promised not to freak out on me,” she said as she held her hands up.

“I didn’t promise shit. What the hell do you mean you think I should talk to him, Savannah? You’re the one that’s practically made it your life’s goal to make him miserable. You
hate
Luke.”

She pulled her hair into a ponytail at the nape of her neck before releasing it again. “I know I said I hated him… hell, I
did
hate him for what he did to you.” She looked at me pleadingly. “But he told me some things that explain so much, Emmy. You owe it to yourself to hear what he has to say.” She took both of my hands in hers. “This is killing you. You aren’t being fair to yourself. I don’t know anyone who deserves happiness as much as you do. You’re the only one standing in the way, honey.”

There was no way I could be mad at her when she spoke with so much heart. Savannah was typically sarcastic by nature, so I knew to take her seriously when she got emotional. “Traitor,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood.

“You know I’m always on your side.” She leaned over and wrapped me in a hug. We sat there for a while, just looking at my daughter’s marker. “She’d have been so lucky to have the two of you as parents.”

Savannah saying that made me laugh and cry at the same time. “Luke and I might drive each other insane, but I don’t doubt for a second that Ella would have had more love than any child could handle.”

Savannah grinned and kissed my temple. “The two of you would have driven her fucking crazy. She would have had to run to her Auntie Savvy on a regular basis just to escape being hugged to death.” My heart felt lighter just listening to Savannah talk about me and Luke as parents. She was right. If Ella were around, I had no doubt Luke and I would drive her crazy trying to hug and kiss on her all the time.

“You gonna talk to him?” Savannah asked as we stood and started back toward our cars.

I bumped my shoulder into hers and smiled at her. “I’ll think about it.”

CHAPTER 29

LUKE

Trevor looked at me with a combination of concern and humor. “You sure you wanna do this, man? He was really fuckin’ pissed the last time you saw him.”

I grabbed my keys and started for the front door. “Hell no, I don’t want to do this.”

Trevor threw his hands up in the air. “Then why are you?”

He didn’t understand the complexity of the situation. If I had any chance at all of making things right with Emmy, I also had to make them right with the other two people who hadn’t come around. I already had Savannah behind me, so that meant I just had one person left.

“It’s just something I gotta do, Trev.”

“I might’ve been a field medic, but I can’t work fuckin’ miracles, Luke. You come back here busted to hell, I’m just gonna have to take your ass to the hospital.”

I gave Trevor a slap on the back and opened the front door. “That’s a risk I gotta take, man. Wish me luck.”

I was out the door and heading down the stairs when he hollered down “You won’t need luck. You’ll need a goddamned body bag.”

***

I hit the lights on the cruiser and sounded the siren. The pickup in front of me slowly pulled over to the shoulder of the road and put on its hazards.
Here goes nothing.
I sucked in a deep breath and made my way to the truck. “License and insurance,” I said, following procedure as closely as I could, considering this wasn’t a routine traffic stop.

“You gotta be shittin’ me,” Brett replied, pissed off beyond belief. “What the fuck am I being pulled over for?”

“Why don’t you take some of the sass outta your voice and step out of the car.”

“Is this some kind of joke?” Brett threw his truck into park and opened the door to step out. “You wanna tell me why you’re pulling me over…
Deputy
?” He was clenching and unclenching his fists by his side. It wouldn’t take much for me to push Brett over the edge.

“I think you and I need to talk,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest trying to look as intimidating as possible. I didn’t want to fight with Brett but I had to be prepared for anything.

He mimicked my stance as we stared eye-to-eye. “You planning on us having some Lifetime movie moment or something? Because I gotta tell you, I’m really not in the mood to go all chick with you.”

My need to bust his lip was quickly taking over my need to make things right. But I knew I had to keep my shit together if I wanted a chance with Emmy. “Look, I get that you don’t like me and that’s cool. I don’t blame you for feeling like you do, but you need to know that I’m not going anywhere. What I did was fucked up. I was an asshole to each and every one of you, and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have bailed the way I did. I’m trying to make shit right, and that includes apologizing to you.”

I had to take a deep breath to keep my thoughts straight. “I’d give anything to go back eight years and change what I did. I just wanted to tell you, face-to-face, that I’m gonna do everything in my power to get Emmy to forgive me. That girl means more to me than my own breath, but I also wanted to tell you that I would like to make it to where we can at least tolerate each other.”

Deep breath… I can do this.
I lifted my arms to my sides and looked at Brett. “So do what you gotta do, man.”

He looked at me like I’d grown a third eye. “What are you sayin’, man?”

“Take a shot. I’m giving you a free pass. I won’t duck or hit back. If this is what it takes to get you to accept me back in this town and in Emmy’s life, then go ahead… take a shot.”

Brett glanced from side to side like he was expecting someone to jump out and taze him or something. “Have you lost your mind, Luke? I’m not gonna hit you. You’re in uniform for Christ’s sake!”

“This isn’t a set up or anything,” I declared as I dropped my arms back to my sides. “I’m out of ideas. I don’t know how to get you to believe that I’m serious about this shit.”

Brett ran both hands through his hair and started pacing back and forth in front of me. “You realize this is twisted, right? I’m not going to just wail on you just to prove a point.”

I threw my arms up in frustration. “Then what do I have to do, Brett? I’m trying to prove myself to you, and I don’t have a fuckin’ clue how to do that.”

He placed his hands on his hips and hung his head as he let out a breath. “Well…” he started, then paused. “I gotta respect you for putting it out there like that, even if it’s kind of sick.” A smirk spread across his lips. “You serious about this? You’d really let me kick your ass just so you could get my stamp of approval for Emmy?”

It was my turn to laugh. “Not just for that…” At the risk of sounding like a chick, I pushed forward. “You were my best friend before I left. I bailed on you too, man. I want to get Emmy back more than anything, but I’d like it if you and I could be cool again.”

“There’s the
Lifetime moment I was talking about,” he exclaimed as he pointed at me and laughed.

“Yuck it up, asshole.” I felt like a thousand-pound weight was lifted off my chest. In all the time I’d been back, Brett and I hadn’t been able to say more than three words to each other without one of us exploding. It was progress that we not only managed to not kill each other, but also reached common ground.

I reached my hand out to Brett. “We cool, brother?”

He looked down at my hand skeptically, and the lightness I had just been feeling started pressing down again. Maybe I’d misjudged the situation. Taking in the look on my face, he let out another laugh and shook my hand. “Yeah, man, we’re cool.” He pulled me to him and gave me a slap on the back. “But I’m just gonna say this once. You pull that shit again, and I’m gonna hunt your ass down and end you.”

“Deal man. I’ll even give you that in writing.”

“Then I think we’re good.”

Thank God!

After handing Brett’s license and insurance card to him, he took off and I went back to finish my shift. When I walked through the apartment door, Trevor was kicked back in the recliner watching football. “Well there’s no blood, so that’s a good sign.”

“Do you work at all?” I asked, kicking his foot as I walked toward the kitchen.

Trevor got up and followed me. I tossed him a beer and leaned up against the counter. “It’s funny you mentioned that,” he said after taking a pull of his beer.

“Why’s that funny?”

“I’ve been scoping out locations to open up a tattoo parlor. I just made an offer on one today.”

I’d known Trevor had skills when it came to ink… hell, he was the one that did mine. He’d never really talked about it, so I didn’t know he was interested in starting up a business in Cloverleaf. “That’s awesome, man. Where will you be setting up shop?”

He took another pull off his drink. “Well, fingers crossed, it’ll be that building off Main about three blocks from Virgie May’s.”

I thought back to what building was there. He couldn’t possibly be talking about what I thought he was talking about. “You’re kidding, right? The old insurance company? That building’s a bigger piece of shit than this one,” I said as I waved my hand around the apartment we were standing in.

He walked over to me and gave me a slap on the shoulder. “Sure is pal. Better be prepared for some manual labor if everything goes according to plan.” With that, he walked out of the kitchen.