Unclaimed (20 page)

Every girl that passed by I compared to P
ru and I barely even saw them.  Their eyes weren’t large like Pru’s.  Their hair wasn’t long enough.  Their skin not fair enough, not enough freckles, to tall, wasn’t wearing heels, smile was wrong, and so on and so on.

Pru was in everything I did, every
thought that crossed my mine.  I was so pathetic it wasn’t even funny.

Jonas ha
d forced me to take a day off.  I hated him for it but he was probably right I needed a break.  It was probably more that the shop needed a break from me.

I was sitting on the couch sketching absently like I often did.

“Really, her again?” Jonas said as he plopped down next to me popping open a soda.

I looked do
wn at what I had been drawing.  Pru.  This time it was a close up of Pru’s face, just one eye, her cheek sprinkled in freckles, and part of her lips with her hair falling around her perfect face.  It seemed all I ever drew anymore was Pru.  I had sketchbook after sketchbook of drawings of Pru.  Pru close up.  Pru smiling.  Pru thoughtful.  Pru standing.  Pru as a fairy.  Pru clothed and unclothed.  Pru doing things that I probably shouldn’t be drawing.  I kept those private.  I didn’t want to share my naked Pru drawings with anyone, even if they were just drawings.

Clearly I had Pru stuck in my brain.

“Apparently,” I said under my breath to Jonas as I continued to sketch.  Jonas just sat there and watched me.  He seemed to be considering something.

My phone was sitting on the coffee table and it start
ed to go off.  I knew that ringer.  It was Pru, again.  She had been calling me every day for weeks now.  She left a message every time.  Messages that I both refused to listen to and couldn’t delete.

I stopped drawin
g and just stared at my phone.  I watched as it vibrated along the table.

“You gonna get that?” Jonas asked watching my phone too.

“No,” I said and went back to my drawing when my phone stopped.

“Pru?” he asked.

“Yeah?” I said.  I didn’t want to talk about it or her with anyone.  It was too painful.

“Why aren’t you going to answer it?
”

“What is there to say?”

He didn’t answer my question.  “Does she still call every day?” he asked.

“Yep.” 
Which caused me as much dismay or joy.  I hated that she called.  It made it hard to get her out of my head but I looked forward to it.  It gave me hope.  Pru had not forgotten about me.  I was pathetic.

“Did you ever think that maybe she calls for a reason?” he asked as he took a long gulp of his soda.

I shrugged in response.

I honestly hadn’t. 
I was both happy and angry that she called every day.  Happy because she apparently wanted to talk to me and angry because it was making it harder and harder to just let her go.  We were done, over.  It was for the best but why had she been calling me.

My resolve to stay aw
ay from her was slowly fading.  It was only a matter of time before I showed up on her doorstep, probably drunk, since I spent a great deal of my time that way.  It numbed the pain at times and made it worse others.  I’d probably beg her to take me back.

I wanted her back but she deserved better than me: a bastard son of rock star, a tattoo artist
, a struggling business owner.  Her parents were right what kind of future could I provide for her.  She deserved a doctor or lawyer or something, not me.  After we fought and broke up I knew it was for the best and despite how much it hurt I was determined to let her go.  What was that saying if you love someone let them go.  Well, I loved her, and I was letting her go.  It was best for her.  So why was she still calling me.

“Lincoln,” Jonas snapped apparently I ha
d been lost in my own thoughts.  “Maybe you should talk to her.”

“Why?” 
Jonas just shrugged looking uncomfortable.  Jonas wasn’t very good at hiding things.  He wasn’t good at secrets.  Everything always showed right on his face.  He was clearly hiding something.  He looked uncomfortable and skittish.  What did he know?  What could he know?

“Look, if she calls ever
y day maybe there is a reason.  Pru isn’t Betty, some pathetic cling-on that refuses to move on.  If she’s calling then there is a reason.  Maybe if you talked to her then you could stop moping around here like a little baby.  Maybe you’d both get some closure or who knows you could work things out,” Jonas said as he stood up.  This wasn’t the first time Jonas had given me the same lecture.  Each time was basically the same.  Call her, try to make up, or move on.

“Mind your own business,” I growled as I went back to my drawing
of Pru as she stared up at me.  There would be no moving on for me.  I’d love her until my last breath.  I just hoped there was a better future out there for her.  That’s why I was doing this.  For her.  I just hoped my sacrifice wasn’t in vain.

“I’m doing this for her,” I tried to explain.

“Ever think that it’s not what she wants?” Jonas asked as he left the room and I tossed my sketchpad across the room.

I hadn’t.  I really hadn’t. 
Maybe I was just as bad as her parents, trying to make her decisions for her.

Chapter 17

Lincoln

“I hate the mall,” I told Jonas for the zillionth time since he drug me out of the house and all the way down to the Galleria in Roseville.  “Just in case there was a question as to that fact.”  I slammed the car door and stepped out.

“Don’t worry, I am well aware of the fact that you hate t
he mall.  You have told me every five seconds since we left the damn house,” Jonas said as he slammed his door as well.  Jonas was annoyed with me.  Good.  I didn’t want to be here.  I was miserable, ergo everyone needed to be miserable with me.

Jonas
drug me out of the house telling me I was turning into a workaholic hermit.  I kind of was but it was all I could manage at the moment.  I missed Pru.  I was half a step away from curling up into a ball and completely giving up on the world.  I am pathetic.  I admit it.

Jonas needed to go all the way out to the Galleria because that was where he could get
an appointment for his phone.  Somehow he came to the conclusion that it was his job, as my best friend, to drag me on every errand he ran.  Today’s mission, to get his phone fixed at the snobbiest, farthest mall possible.

“I hate you,” I
grumbled as we started to make our way into the mall.

“
Ahh…and I thought we were in love,” he teased.

We made our way inside and found the store where he was getting his phone fixed.
  Five minutes later his phone was fixed.  I was still unclear what was wrong with it or if anything actually was.

“So you want to shop around?” Jonas asked as we headed out of the store and into the greater mall area.

“No,” I said as three teenage girls walked by and giggled at us.  I wanted to go home, to my pathetic existence and long for Pru.  I wanted to go draw more pictures of her like the crazy person I was.  I was pretty sure I was one step away from actually stalking her like a true crazy person.

Jonas patted me on the back. 
“Come on,” he said as he let out a defeated breath.  “At least let me get you a coffee for dragging you all the way out here,” he said and started to head to the Starbucks in the outdoor promenade.  I followed.  Coffee would at least make the ride back better.

“I’m sure you can sulk just as well with a coffee as without,”
I thought I heard Jonas mumble as we stepped into the coffee shop.

Standing at the counter was the most beautiful backside I’d
ever scene.  I knew that backside.  Long, brown waves brushed the top of the most perfect little ass connected to lean, porcelain legs that ended in heels, all attached to a small frame.  She was positively glowing.

Pru.

It was Pru, my lovely little fairy.

Standing at the counter ordering a coffee
was Pru, the love of my life.  The love of my life that I had let go.  The woman that I missed dearly, that I was losing sleep over, that consumed my every waking thought and every unconscious dream.  I loved her.  I still did.  Pru was it for me.

My chest tightened. 
I considered dashing back out the door before she noticed me and then she laughed at something that boy at the counter said.  I wanted to pummel him.  That was my laugh, meant for me only.  I missed that laugh.  I wanted to hold her and laugh with her.  My chest tightened.  Why had I broken things off with her?  Why was I avoiding her many calls?

I couldn’t flee or attack the cashier becaus
e I was stuck, unable to move.  All I could do was stare at her.  The kid handed her, her coffee and she thanked him.  I vaguely noticed Skyla and Maggie standing on either side of her.  I saw Skyla’s eyes flash to me for only a second before shooting back to Pru.

“Pru,” I said in greeting surprising myse
lf and I’m sure everyone else.  Jonas was silent beside me as he shifted nervously on his feet.

She turned he
r head when I called her name.  She was perfect, exactly like I remembered.  Big, brown eyes, plump lips, a few freckles across the bridge of her nose.

I saw the panic flash through her eyes for only a second b
efore a calm settled over her.  I had to have her back.  What had I done?  Had she moved on?  Was I too late?  Maggie and Skyla turned to look at me.  Neither of them seemed surprised to see me.  They both stepped a little closer to Pru.

She completely turned
to take me in like I was her.  Her breast seemed fuller then they had been.  Then my eyes traveled down to her slightly bulging stomach.  She saw where my eyes were and her free hand shifted to rest protectively over her belly.

Holy Shit!

“What happened to your stomach?” I yelled and every single person in the coffee shop turned to face me, eyes flashing between me and Pru but I only had eyes for her.  She was glaring at me.

“Well you’d know if you could figure out how to answer your da
mn phone,” she snapped back.  Suddenly everything clicked into place.  The never-ending phone calls.  I always thought she was too proud to be so clingy.  It wasn’t that she missed me so much and couldn’t function without me.  She was pregnant.  Pregnant with my baby.  She had been trying to tell me for months and because of my stupid pride I had been ignoring her.  I didn’t even question if it was my baby.  I knew it was.

I took the few steps between us and grabbed her arm so I could drag her to a table in the corner.

“We need to talk,” I said between clenched teeth.

“You think,” she snapped and jerked her arm out of my grasp and I saw more than one person shift into a better position to save her, including Jonas.

“I’m not gonna hurt her,” I snapped to our audience.

Pru
closed her eyes for a moment.  I wanted to pull her into me and hold her, make this all better for her but I didn’t touch her.  I didn’t think it would be too welcomed.

“I’m going to sit outside,” Pru said calm
ly after taking a deep breath.  “I need some air.  Why don’t you go get a drink and join me?  We should talk,” she said.  All I could manage to do was nod before she stepped around me careful not to touch me.

“Try not to hurt her,” Maggie said as we
all watched Pru step outside.  “I think you’ve done enough damage already.”

I turned to snap at Maggie th
en decided not to even bother.  She was right I had done plenty of damage.  I knocked Pru up, told her I loved her and I still did, but then abandon her when she needed me most.

Prudence

I sank down in the warm, metal chair outside and tried not to cry.  The sun was beating down on the sitting area.  It was probably a hundred out today.  I pulled my sunglasses down to cover my eyes just incase my tear ducts started working overtime again.

Lincoln was pissed, not that I could really blame him, but it’s not like
I tried to keep this from him.  I attempted to tell him over and over again.  He was the one that kept himself in the dark.  It was not my fault he didn’t know about our baby.  He had no one to blame but himself.  If anyone deserved to be angry it was me.

We had be
en set up that much was clear.  Part of me was grateful to my friends, since I clearly hadn’t been able to get a hold of him since I found out months ago.  Part of me was furious.  How dare they do this to me?  They could have told me.  I could have mentally prepared myself so I wasn’t sitting here like the emotional wreck I was now.

Lincoln stepped outside coffee in hand and sat
down in the chair opposite me.  We were silent for a long time.  He looked like Lincoln, messy hair, sinful silver eyes, soft tan, tattoos partly covered with a t-shirt, black barbell in his eyebrow and matching studs in his ears.  But he looked tired.

God, I missed him.

“Should you be drinking that?” he asked finally motioning to my coffee.

“It’s decaf,” I said forcing myself to stay civil when I wanted to snap that he had been involved for all of ten minutes so he needed to let me worry about things like my caffeine intake but I refrained.

“Oh,” was all he said.

“When I didn’t answer your calls why didn’t you try to come by?” he asked defeated still just staring at me looking lost.

“I did.”  Apparently he hadn’t gotten those messages.  “I came by the shop multiple time and you never seem to be there,” I explained.  “And I came by your place once.  I talked to Betty.  I refused to subject myself to that again.”

“Betty?” he asked sitting up a little straighter.

“Yeah, she answered your door in your shirt, then informed me that you guys were back together and that she would let you know I came by,” I told him.  I hated how spiteful I sounded.  I hated that he was with Betty, hated it.  It just made it so much worse.  Betty wouldn’t be in five hundred feet of my baby.

Lincoln’s eyes were big. 
“I am not, nor have I been, with Betty since way before you,” he said as he held up his hands.  “Guy’s banging her,” he explained.

I let out a deep breath.  I was relieved.  Thank God. 
I felt the tears pool in my eyes.

“Pru,” Lincoln moaned as he reached across the table
and placed his hand over mine.  I jerked my hand away.  “Don’t touch me,” I snapped.  He looked down at his lone hand resting on the table like he was at a complete and utter loss.

I loved hi
m but I had to protect myself.  He left me.   Broke up with me.  That’s exactly what I was. Broken.  I was barely functioning.  I pulled myself together with the motivation that I had to for the baby even if it wasn’t here yet.  I was only out today because I needed new clothes.  Mine were all getting too small, although, I refused to wear maternity pants.  Who knew they could make pants so ugly?

“How far along are you?” he asked after he cleared his throat.

“18 weeks.”

“Do you know the sex?”

“Not yet but the ultrasound is in a few weeks.”

“Can I come?”

“Of course, I won’t keep the baby from you,” and I meant that especially with the issues in his life.  It had never been my intention to keep his baby from him.  Lincoln would be an amazing father.

“Thank you,” he said a
s he cleared his throat again.  “And us?”

“What about us?” I wanted him to clear
ly tell me what he was asking.  I was not about to assume anything.

“I love you Pru. 
Will you give me a shot to make it better?”

I
let out a bitter, little laugh.  My heart hurt.  I wanted to hear those words from his lips for months and now that he was saying it, it just wasn’t enough.  I loved him too but he had a funny way of showing it.

“No. 
I won’t keep your baby from you but there is no us.  You made sure of that,” I said as I stood up.  My words were simple but my tone was full of venom.  I had months to grow bitter about our break up.  My eyes were starting to water.  Damn pregnancy hormones.  I had to get out of here, away from him before I became a complete sobbing mess.

“Pru,” Lincoln said as he started to
reach for me again.  I jerked away like his touch would burn me.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. 
I had never seen Lincoln act so depressed, so desperate, so unsure.  I couldn’t let myself care.  He had closed me out.  He had done this to us, to me, to himself.

“Me too,” I took a deep breath and didn’t even pretend to fight the tears that were
freely streaming down my face.  “I’ll be in touch.  Maybe next time I call, you’ll answer your phone,” I said and turned to walk away.  I had to get out of here.

Lincoln

I never felt as horrible as I did right now.  I went to stand up to follow her when a hand clamped down on my shoulder stopping my pursuit.  Jonas.

I watched, crushed, as Maggie put her arm around her and guided her out of sight as her entire body shoo
k from her sobs.  Skyla took her bags from her as they ushered her out of my sight and I felt a few tears find freedom.  I dropped my head down and buried my face in my hands.

“How long have you known?” I asked Jonas.

“Awhile.  She’s been coming into the shop for a few months looking for you.  It became obvious not too long ago.”  Jonas told me countless times that she had come by and I ignored him.  He had been hounding me for months to just call her.  Skyla kept telling me that I needed to call her and I just ignored her.  They had no idea the hurdles we faced.  Apparently they knew more than I did.

“She
asked us not to say anything.  She wanted to tell you,” Jonas explained.  I could see that.  I was the world’s biggest ass.  I had been avoiding her for months.  I had abandoned her.  I was no better than my father.

“You set us up,” I stated the obvious.

“Sorry man.  You just couldn’t seem to see reason.”

He was right. 
I don’t know if I ever would have called her back.  How long would I have ignored her and regretted it?