Redemption (The Bet) (8 page)

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She was on the swing, head bowed low as she swayed back and forth.
She felt more than saw her mother slip into the second swing belt, the chains squeaking at the added weight.

Devlin had built
the swing set last year because Bella had whined for one for weeks. Devlin was nice like that. Always giving them things they didn't need but ended up keeping because it made their mother happy. Devlin was big on that too. Buying their mother's happiness through them.

At first Sophie hadn't minded, she was used to it after all. The men who had come and gone in the past had always deemed it necessary to buy things for them to get in brownie points with their mother. The thing Sophie liked about those guys was that they didn't last long. Sophie always made sure of that. A few embellished lies here and poof, the gullible idiots were no
longer heard from again.

In those days, Sophie had been her mother's protector, saving her from scum until someone more deserving came back. But then Mr. Tall, dark and cheesy had come along and m
uch to Sophie's disappointment Devlin had been a lot smarter than the other morons who'd dated her mother. Every attempt to get rid of him had ultimately backfired, with Devlin grinning at her each time he foiled her plans.

Those
patronizing smiles he always tossed her way made Sophie want to kick shins. Devlin's would've done quite nicely. Especially now.

They sat in strained
silence until Sophie sighed. "You can’t marry him."

"Soph…
"

"You
 can't marry him, Mom. It’s gonna ruin everything!" the sudden leap from swing to grass startled Ellie but she recovered quickly and watched in puzzled fascination as her twelve year old daughter began to pace.

“W
hat do you mean it's going to ruin everything? Baby, talk to me, what's going on?"

"I know you always get upset when I br
ing him up. But I want to talk about him, because…because I want him back. How can we be a family without him?" despite the tears forming in her eyes, she stared resolutely at her mother, fist clenched at her sides, waiting.

Ellie toed at the beaten path with her sneakers to put a stop the gentle swaying of the swing, with fingers wrapped tightly around the looped iron chains she breathed deep. She wasn't going to get upset, she told herself even while trying to decipher the best way to begin this dreaded conversation. Any attempt made over the years in ignoring or hoping that Sophie would eventually forget Nicholas had never happened.

Sophie remembered him, had never forgotten him in fact and that right there was the problem. They weren't even blood yet the attachment Sophie had to Nicholas seemed unbreakable. Ellie sighed, this was delving way too deep. Delving deep were Nicholas Grayson was concerned was never a good thing.

"Come here." Sophie approached her mother. Still seated on the swing, Ellie pulled her daughter further between V of her thighs and locked her ankles to keep her there. She gave a small smile before brushing Sophie's
hair behind her ear. "Alright, you want to talk about, Nicholas? Let's talk about Nicholas."

Sophie licked her lips, hope in her teary eyes. "Really?"

"Yes, really. Here and now is your chance to ask me anything you want and I'll try to answer it as best as I can. But after today, there won't be any more mention of him, deal?"

Quickly bringing her left hand behind her back, Sophie crossed her middle finger over the index and nodded. There where ways of outsmarting your parents without being bogged down by guilt.

"Is he Dylan and Bella's dad?" she didn't waste time as she took a seat between Ellie's thighs, leaned back against her mother's chest and lifted her legs off the ground as they oscillated.

Ellie snorted and rolled her eyes. Of course she started with the difficult questions first. But then again, she hadn't put any stipulation on the Q&A, so really, Ellie had no one to blame but herself. "Yes." She said after a minute.

"I knew it." There was a smile in her voice. "Mom?"

"Hmm?" the warm breeze sweeping over their faces as they steadily swung higher gave Ellie a slight bit of comfort. She squeezed her thighs to keep Sophie firmly settled in place, before pumping her legs further.

"Tell me about him."

"What do you want to know?"

"Everything."

"I thought you remembered him."

"Only how I felt when I was around him. I saw a picture of him but..."

"But?"

"It's not the same. Tell me about him....please?"

How do you begin to describe Nicholas Grayson to a child?

It took a moment for Ellie to find the right words. "He was sweet but only when he really wanted to be. He was very unpredictable. You couldn't really tell what he was thinking and the minute you thought you had him all figured out he'd always surprise you with something completely different. He loved to draw; he was extremely good at it too. He used to own a tattoo shop…"

"Really? That's so cool! Is he the one who gave you the tattoo on your back?"

The green and black dragonfly on her right shoulder blade, done years ago, still looked as though it could rip free of Ellie's skin and flutter away. Devlin had seen it, had asked questions and Ellie had always given him some vague response. The first months they'd made love and Devlin's lips had tenderly swept over the dragonfly, Ellie had felt the gut wrenching feeling of betrayal. She'd given into her body's absurd need for an hour long shower, where she'd embarked on the desperate process of scrubbing her skin raw, especially the place where the tattoo was positioned.

In the privacy of her bathroom, Ellie told herself the tears she wept were because of the pain she had unintentionally caused herself and not because she had somehow managed to betray a memory. To Devlin and the rest of her family, it had been done on a whim, by some random tattooist. The dragonfly held no meaning, just a random picture that had grabbed her attention at first sight and had been chosen for her first tattoo. No one knew the truth and Ellie had hoped to keep it that way.

"Yeah," Ellie brushed her feet on the ground as the swing slowed. "I was really scared, you should've seen me." The memory flew across her mind's eye like a living thing.

"Did you hold his hand?"

Ellie couldn't help the short laugh that escaped. "I couldn't, but he did try to distract me from the pain."

"What did he do?"

Things that no twelve-year old should know about, Ellie wryly thought. "We talked, about you mostly." not exactly a lie since the majority of the conversations they'd ever had revolved around Sophie. "Nicholas adored you," and that was the truth. "He loved you to pieces and spoiled you rotten too. I remember when you were going through your Legos stage and you saw a picture of the empire state building, you wanted to build it so badly, but…"

"But I couldn't because I think I didn't have enough Lego pieces?"

"Yeah, so Nicholas went to the store, bought an entire bucket of new Lego pieces and stayed up all night just to build you your own personal empire state building. He even added your favorite colors as the floodlights."

Ellie
remembered Sophie's joy for weeks afterwards and whenever they came into the living room and saw the plastic-brick building looming it all its colorful glory, Sophie would always look up at Ellie, beam her smile and proudly declare that her ‘Nicky' had built that just for her. Ellie had been choked with tears that someone else could be filled with that much love for her daughter that they would go through so much trouble just to make her happy.

That had been one of the many sweet things Nicholas had done for Sophie, not because he had wanted to get brownie points in with Ellie, but sim
ply because he had wanted too, wanted to do it for the little girl who loved him like he was her blood.

Despite all that had ever transpired between them, Nicholas's love for Sophie had always remained unaffected and for that Ellie had been thankful.

"The first time he met you, he was so scared, you'd think he had been sentenced to the electric chair or something. But I think he was happy to have met you."

"So why'd he leave us?"

And wasn't that the question of the century?

"I think…
we grew apart." A diplomatic answer as any. No need to delve any deeper. The point of resurrecting the memories of Nicholas was to give Sophie closure. Give her a way to move on from the tightly leashed fixation she had over a man who she believed was the father who would eventually come back and give them a happy ending. And as much as Ellie hated destroying her daughter's hopes and dreams of an eventual reunion, Sophie was going to have to face reality and realize that there would be no happy reunion in their future.

Ellie had Devlin and Devlin did everything in his power to make them happy. He put his family first above all other things and soon that family would include Ellie and her children.

Nicholas had been her past. Hectic, wild, and unpredictable but Devlin represented her future. Safe, secure, and happy. She and Nicholas had created Isabella and Dylan during their last month together, the best gifts any parents would be proud to call their own, and with Devlin they would be guaranteed a serene familial environment in which they would grow and be loved by two stable, loving and happily married parents.

"Did you love each other, Mom?"

"Yes, but it wasn’t enough." They'd been children dabbling with things they believed they'd understood. They’d been up in the notion of being in love with love and the consuming passion that had come with it. It swept them both off their feet and left them to free-fall to the hard terrain with nothing to break their fall but the harsh truth that love did not conquer all.

"D
o…do you love him still?"

Ellie sighed, tired of
this conversation. Even thousands of miles away, with the gap of years between them, Nicholas still managed to have devastating effects on Ellie's equilibrium. She grounded her feet, moved forward so that Sophie stood and turned her around. "I love Devlin, Soph. I've loved him for the past three years now and I want to marry him. He's a good man and he'll be an even greater father to you, Bella and Dylan. If I didn't think that he was right for this family, I would never have stayed with him for as long as I have."

Sophie was shocked at the sudden tears brimming in her mother's eyes.

"Mom...Mom, don't cry," she cupped her mother's face in her smaller hands and thumbed her tears away, then bumped their foreheads together. "I'm sorry for pushing. I...I promise not to do it anymore. I won't talk back to you, I'll listen. I promise to be happy if you want to marry, Devlin. I won't bring Nicholas up anymore.” Even in her attempt to comfort her mother, Sophie's tears fell hot and wet down her cheeks.

Ellie wiped at her cheeks feeling silly for crying.
She hadn't meant for the tears to pour and she certainly hadn't intended to wheedle promises out of her child just to make her stop crying! For heaven sakes she was a grown woman!

"Listen, Sophie," She pulled her into a hug. "I don't want you to promise me anything. I just want for all of us to be happy. Like I keep telling you guys, you are the best things in my life. Having you, your brother and you sister is the greatest of joys and I would never ever trade it for anything. We're a family, we've been there for each other and we've helped each other grow and now I think it's time to grow even bigger with Devlin and Roan." Dropping a lingering kiss on Sophie's cheek, Ellie smiled reassuringly at her daughter. "This is going to be good for all of us, you'll see. Just give it a chance, yeah?"

"Yeah." Sophie smiled halfheartedly back as she took her mother's hand, nodding at the offer of chocolate pancakes and putting her thoughts on the back burner for now. There would be plenty of time later to figure out how she was going to play 'Parent Trap'.

Sundays were family days in the Akers home, when Gabe and Ronnie could devote time to each other and their children. The grand opening of Eos last November had forced Ronnie to seek out her then elusive husband and force him into a pact in which Gabe promised that no matter how busy he got, weekends, Sundays especially would be reserved for his family. Restaurant business could be handled by the very expansive manager he'd hired. It'd taken Ronnie almost leaving with the children for Gabe to realize that no business was worth his
family.

The pact had been made and sealed over lingering kisses and tangled sheets. Ronnie forgave Gabe his negligence and had gained an even more devoted husband and father for her children. Watching him now, tossing his daughter in the air and catching her in a flurry of white and pink polka dotted clothes and joyful giggles, Ronnie had to smile at how lucky she was. She had a wonderful family, a very loving husband and a beautiful home that she enjoyed
taking care of on a daily basis. Every day she counted her blessings, thanked God, and lived every moment appreciating all that she had. There were only a rare few who could honestly comprehend what she and Gabe shared while the rest yearned for it.

"Careful babe, you might blow a fuse if you think so hard." Gabe teased as he leaned over and planted a wet kiss on Ronnie's cheek.