Fairytale Lost (11 page)

“
E
mmalyn
, you need to go. You’re going to be late for your appointment.” Isabel fussed and frowned. She’d known Em was going to do this.

“I’m almost done. I just need to back the files up to the server before I shut down. It’s not as if they can start without me, you know.”

“Damn it, Emmalyn, you are infuriating!” Isabel slammed shut her laptop and stomped over to Emmalyn’s desk. As usual, it was a disaster of papers, books, and sticky notes. Isabel took it all in and wondered what kind of genius Em was to be able to function in such confusion. “Are you scared? Do you want me to go with you?”

Emmalyn laughed, never taking her eyes off the screen. Two more clicks of her mouse, and she was finished with her task. Finally, she shut her laptop. “See. All done. And no, you don’t have to do that. Lukas is meeting me there.”

Isabel and Emmalyn were interrupted by their boss. Meanie Martin was a tall skinny man with thinning, mousy-brown hair and pasty-white skin that hadn’t seen sun in ages. He considered himself a ladies man, though none of the women he dated would have been considered a lady by any stretch of the imagination. “Emmalyn, good, you’re still here. Charleston has accepted your request to transfer. If you agree to the new terms, you are to report there once you’ve completed your maternity leave. Congrats on the new bundle of joy. Good thing you don’t sleep much.”

His creepy laugh could be heard as he walked down the hall away from their office.

“Seriously,” Isabel asked, totally creeped out. “What a dick!”

“I know. But I can’t worry about that weirdo at the moment. Gotta get to my ultrasound.” Emmalyn smiled brightly. She was so excited to finally learn her baby’s gender.

“Just remember, if it’s a girl, you have to name her after me,” Isabel called to her.

“Of course. And just so you know, Zavia made me make the same promise to her, and I have no intention of following through on either request.“

“
H
e’s coming
. I think. I mean, he said he’d be here.” Emmalyn looked at her watch and contemplated calling Lukas again. She had tried to call him on her way to the doctor’s office to remind him, but his phone had gone to voicemail. He was late, but she knew he’d be there. They had just discussed the appointment a couple of days ago. Emmalyn smiled lamely at the nurse, who was clearly trying to get this appointment over with.

“Do you have any questions we can cover before your husband arrives?” The nurse was adjusting the machinery so that when Lukas arrived, all she’d have to do was fire everything up.

“No.” She paused. He was fifteen minutes late. She sighed deeply. “Just go ahead. I’ll tell him what he needs to know later.”

“I can record the ultrasound and put it on a DVD if you like,” the nurse offered sadly, slightly guilty at rushing the sad woman on the table.

Emmalyn couldn’t smile, so she said, “Okay, thanks.”

The nurse gave her a pitying look before switching everything on. Emmalyn closed her eyes and listened to what the nurse was telling her, and nothing she did could stop her tears from falling.

“
H
ey
, man, is that the door?” Jaxon was battling for his life, this marathon game of Halo was now entering its fifth hour. Brian and Lukas were so focused on the game that they couldn’t hear whoever it was knocking loudly.

“Damn it, come in,” Lukas bellowed, his eyes never leaving the screen as hundreds of zombie-like creatures swarmed their little team.

“What in the entire fuck do you think you’re doing?” Emmalyn’s voice was rough from having cried on the drive across town. Her eye makeup had run, and she looked a frightful mess.

The game carried on as the three men turned to face the exceptionally angry pregnant woman standing nearby.

“Emmy, what are you doing here, baby? You get off early today or something?” Lukas dropped the controller and walked slowly around the sofa, approaching Emmalyn like a trapped animal. “You look pretty.”

She narrowed her eyes at him as a half dozen ways to end his life flipped through her brain like a Rolodex. “Lukas, what day is this?” she ground out through gritted teeth.

He gave her a lopsided smile. “I’ll go out on a limb and say Thursday.”

She didn’t smile. Her eyes welled up, and her throat threatened to release yet another sob. “Are you going to stand there grinning at me like a goddamn idiot? You missed the ultrasound appointment! Playing video games. You don’t even have a good reason this time.”

His eyes went wide with fear and confusion. “Oh no. That appointment isn’t until tomorrow. You said the twenty-fifth.”

Em walked over to him and slapped him across the back of his head. “Lukas, you horse’s ass, it is the twenty-fifth.”

“Jesus, Emmy, it was just one doctor’s appointment; you’ll have others. Why are you getting so bent out of shape?” He wracked his brain for possible reasons for her going off the deep end like this and came back with nothing. He turned and walked back to the sofa, having concluded that Em was hormonally overreacting and his game needed his attention.

Emmalyn could feel the tears about to start up again and turned to dash out of the house. Lukas stared at her back as she left the apartment. He couldn’t move until he heard the door slam.

T
he tears flowed
in streams as Emmalyn rushed down the stairs and out of the building.

“Young lady,” came a concerned voice. “What’s wrong, Emmalyn?”

Lukas’s dad reached for her, and she pulled away. She knew he didn’t like her and didn’t want him seeing her in this state.

“Nothing. I’m fine,” she muttered, sniffling loudly.

“Clearly, that’s not true. What has my idiot son done now?”

She shook her head. Let Lukas explain his actions to his own father. She just wanted to get away from there.

“Ask him,” she spat out. She reached in her bag and pulled out the DVD of the ultrasound. Pop looked at it then back at her. “Tell Lukas I’ve accepted the job in Charleston.”

She didn’t wait for him to respond. She rushed over to her car and fought with the handle. Of course, she wouldn’t be able to get the damn thing to work.

“I’m getting a new car tomorrow
,
” she thought to herself.

Pop had followed her out to the parking lot. “He loves you,” he cut through her frustrated thoughts, “you know, always has. No matter how much I tried to tell him it wasn’t a good idea, he still loved you. If you leave, it’ll break his heart.” Pop reached out and touched Em’s arm, hoping that she’d look at him. When she did, he wished he hadn’t said anything at all. Her eyes were glassy with unshed tears. He could see what Lukas saw in her, and it broke his heart.

“What’s the point in loving people if you can’t rely on them? If they aren’t there when you need them? If I have to do this by myself, then I may as well be by myself.”

The lock on the car popped, and she got in as fast as her growing belly would allow. Emmalyn gave Pop a last sad smile then drove off.

Pop walked into Lukas’s new apartment and found the house under attack. Lukas was furiously throwing boxes around, yelling.

“Fucking Christ, I forget one little thing, and she just goes off. I can’t read her. I mean, what is her deal?”

Finally finding what he was looking for, he booted up his tablet and tried to get the calendar to open.

“Lukas, she’s gone.” He handed Lukas the DVD. “She’s taking the job in Charleston.”

“But … she said she wasn’t. She said she was going to stay here.” Lukas ran around looking for his keys and phone. “I’m going to talk to her. She can’t take my kid away from me.”

“Kids,” Pop corrected. “Take a look at that disc. And I wouldn’t recommend going after her. She’s in no fit state to talk to you right now, not to mention, all this stress can’t be good for the babies.

Lukas stared dumbly at the disc. “Shit,” he whispered.

Brian walked over and took the disc from him. “I’ll put it in the player, man.”

Lukas and Pop followed Brian to the living room. Brian handed the cover back to Lukas and sat down. The screen blinked on, and the sound of the baby’s heartbeat could be heard before the picture came on.

“Sounds like the heartbeat has an echo or a heart murmur,” Jaxon mumbled, sounding confused.

“It’s twins. She’s carrying twins.” Lukas passed the disc cover over to Jaxon, who promptly swore under his breath. The picture flickered on, and the faint outline of the first baby could be seen. The picture shifted somewhat, and there, to the left of the first pair of legs, another leg. Then a second head could be seen. “Shit. I missed finding out the sex of the babies.”

“How did you miss this?” Pop asked angrily.

“I forgot. I figured it was just another appointment. She has so many. I didn’t think it would matter.” Lukas paused and watched the screen again. It had stopped moving, and the scene was frozen, the camera seeming to hover over the babies’ heads. The disc cover had said baby girl A Chase and baby girl B Chase. Girls. He and Emmalyn were having twin girls. Lukas’s body went limp as the realization of what he’d really missed washed over him. He felt like the horse’s ass Em had called him earlier.

He understood now—all of it. She had every right to be angry with him. He needed to find her and apologize. Lukas jumped up, keys in hand, phone still missing.

“I gotta go talk to her,” he said, frantically looking for his phone. He was going to call her and find out where she was and get there as fast as humanly possible.

“And say what, man? Sorry I missed out on seeing our babies for the first time because I was in the middle of a Halo firefight with my boys?” Incredulous, Jaxon was equal parts furious with and sympathetic toward his brother.

Lukas wracked his brain for something, anything, that would fix the mess he’d caused. He and Em were finally getting to a place where she wasn’t so guarded with him. Now none of that was going to matter. She’d go back to shutting him out, and he’d go back to watching from the sideline.

“I have to tell her I love her, that I’m sorry, that…,” Lukas didn’t know what else to say. He had to think of something and fast. He loved Emmalyn with all his heart and wanted to be with her and the babies. “I can’t lose her again. There has to be something I can say or do to win her heart back.”

His father walked over and stood directly in front of him. He put his hands on Lukas’s shoulders and looked him squarely in the eyes. Lukas steeled himself for another lecture on how Emmalyn wasn’t good enough for him.

“The woman I saw just now outside this building is so much in love with you she can’t see straight, no doubt about that. But she’s hurt, and she’s scared. You don’t need to win her heart because her heart is already yours. You need to figure out a way to convince her brain that you aren’t going to keep letting her down.”

Lukas laughed sadly. “All I ever do is let her down.” He fell back against the wall, lost. He looked at Brian and Jaxon for something, anything, but they were just as lost as he was.

“Then maybe you need to figure that out before you go chasing after her.”

Lukas slunk back down, perplexed about what he should do. He knew his father was right. A pain grew in his chest as he realized he had absolutely no idea how to make it happen.

L
ukas sat parked
outside Emmalyn’s house for a good ten minutes trying to work up the nerve to go in and talk to her. He’d spotted Zavia and Isabel's cars in the driveway and had had second then third thoughts about what he wanted to say. He was about to drive away when the memory of the babies’ heartbeats came back to him, steeling his resolve to see this through. His carelessness had created this mess, and he needed to make sure he tried to fix it.

He got out of his car and slowly walked up the drive, practicing exactly what he wanted to say. As he reached the stoop, he found the door slightly ajar, and the sound of music playing in one of the upstairs rooms could be heard. Then he heard Emmalyn’s tone-deaf singing and knew she was okay inside.

Knocking loudly and hoping not to startle anyone, he opened the screen door, stuck his head in, and yelled a hello. The music cut off abruptly, and repeated the word in a lower, friendlier tone.

“Lukas?” Zavia was the first to reach him, and her tone was decidedly less friendly. “Get your busted ass out of this house this instant. I warned you…,” Zavia stopped talking as Emmalyn came around the corner.

She gave him a half-smile. “Lukas, I’m glad you’re here. We need to talk. Guys, please. Give us a minute.”

She took his hand and pulled him through the first-floor den and out to the back porch.

“Emmalyn, look, I’m sorry I screwed up again.”

Emmalyn waved him off and smiled, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I’m sorry I reacted that way. We’ll say it was the pregnancy hormones causing me to be so bitchy.”

He eyed her suspiciously. She’d never apologized for overreacting, especially when he was clearly at fault. He looked around the yard and noticed all the patio furniture had been wrapped and stacked as if waiting to be taken away. The pain in his chest that had started a few days ago came back full force. “I guess you’ve accepted the position in Charleston. I thought you weren’t leaving until after the babies came.”

“I found a renter for my house, so I asked if I could go earlier.”

“Em…,” Lukas started, but words failed him.

“Lukas, this is how it needs to be. I’m not going to deny you access to your kids, and I will do everything in my power to make sure they know you and spend time with you. But I won’t make it through this pregnancy with all the drama that goes on between us. The doctor wants me to remain stress free and focus on staying healthy. We both know I’ll never do that here. It’s too late for us.”

She held up her hand when he opened his mouth to argue with her, but it was the sadness and resignation in her eyes that truly stopped him from speaking up. He closed his eyes and leaned back on the house and didn’t open them until he heard the sliding glass door close behind her.

Desperate now to get away, he tried to go through the gate, but it was locked, and he didn’t know how to open it. His only option was to go through the house. Without making eye contact with Isabel or Zavia, he rushed through the house and out the front door. He didn’t look back before getting in his car and driving away.

Emmalyn watched from an upstairs window as Lukas’s car sped off. She crumbled to the bed, tears streaming over her cheeks. Unable to stand it any longer, she lay down on her bed and cried.

Zavia and Isabel hovered just outside the door, unsure whether they should go in or not. Zavia cracked first and went in, sitting beside Em and pulling her into an embrace. Isabel followed, stroking Emmalyn’s hair.

“He left me,” Em said between sobs. “He just walked out.”

Isabel and Zavia exchanged confused looks. Zavia shrugged her shoulders and went back to rubbing Em’s back.

“But, sweetie, you said that was what you wanted,” pointed out Isabel, gently.

“He didn’t even argue. Shouldn’t he have at least argued a little bit?” Em sounded pathetic, and she hated Lukas for it.

Both Zavia and Isabel fully understood why Emmalyn was upset, and though neither of them said anything, they were happy he didn’t argue. This pregnancy was affecting Emmalyn’s health, and she’d been so wrapped up in Lukas and his issues that she wasn’t taking care of herself. She hadn’t been putting on weight like she was supposed to, and the doctor was far more worried than Em had let on to Lukas. She’d finally told her friends about the issues she was having and the real reason she needed to get out of Charlotte. Emmalyn had developed gestational diabetes, and the resulting fatigue was causing stress on her organs. Zavia could see how everything was wearing on Emmalyn, and though she’d miss her best friend fiercely, she agreed that leaving was the best thing for her.

L
ukas rushed
around his apartment like a mad man. In the two week’s since Emmalyn had left Charlotte, he’d spent all his spare time preparing to go after her. His father, brother, and best friend were less than supportive, but he didn’t care. His whole life had just moved to Charleston, and nothing and no one was going to keep him from following.

After the sale of his and Brian’s online marketing toolset to GlobeComm, he didn’t need to worry about money. He worked with Brian to divide up their work for their next mobile launch. With Charleston and Charlotte only three hours apart, he didn’t think it would be a big issue. He’d gotten an apartment not too far from where Emmalyn was staying despite his brother’s repeated accusations of stalkerish behavior. He didn’t care. He just wanted to be near his kids—and the woman he loved.

He walked through the apartment, checking items off his mental list, then began packing things in his car. Jaxon and Brian arrived to help just as he started moving the bigger boxes into the moving trailer he’d rented.

“Jesus, Lukas. You could have waited,” Jaxon laughed. “You sure are anxious to get rejected.”

Lukas gave his brother a look that said “don’t start this again.” Jaxon held up his hands in surrender and helped his brother with the box he was carrying.

The three worked in silence, getting as much as they could into the trailer. It was a tight fit, and a lot of things were left for the big moving truck that was coming the next day.

Brian and Jaxon sat on the sofa, having pulled the last of the cold beers out of the sparse refrigerator. Lukas grabbed the one held out by Jaxon and sat down next to them.

“Remind me again why you couldn’t just have the movers do all this when they got here?” Brian took a long drink and leaned his head back on the sofa. Lukas had no idea how to pack a box, he thought to himself. “Your boxes are crazy heavy,” he whined.

“Yeah, I guess I put too much in there, but I thought that would take up less space.”

“Hmm,” Jaxon mused. “You guessed wrong.”

They were in the midst of a good laugh when Pop walked in. He took in the empty apartment and shook his head in disgust.

“So, you’re going through with this ridiculous plan of yours,” he growled angrily.

“Pop, I refuse to have this conversation with you again.”

“And what am I supposed to do? Your brother has to report back to the base in a couple of weeks.”

“You are not helpless. You’ll be fine. You were fine while I was in San Diego,” Lukas pointed out.

His father opened his mouth to disagree, but his son was right. And he was tired, tired of arguing, tired of worrying. He understood that Lukas was completely dedicated to being there for his kids, but he was an old man. Selfish as it sounded, he enjoyed having someone around to help him.

“Just tell me why you are chasing after someone who clearly doesn’t want you? She left you even after you apologized. Why put yourself through that kind of pain?”

Lukas put his beer down and walked over to his father. They’d gone around and around about this over the past two weeks. His father knew perfectly well why he was going. Lukas couldn’t understand why his father didn’t see the need for him to go after his kids, to be there for them and for the woman who was carrying them.

“I need you to really listen because we are never, ever, having this discussion again. I’m going to be where my kids are. So, Emmalyn could move a thousand times, and that’s how many times I would go. She didn’t get herself into this by herself and I’ll be damned if she’s go through this alone. She may never forgive me, and I’ll learn to live with that, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be there for her as a friend, that I won’t be there for the twins when they are born and before.”

“Lukas, I never took you for a fool.” He tried to walk around Lukas and go further into the room but Lukas blocked him.

“I love her. I have always loved her. And if wanting to make a life with the woman I love and our children makes me a fool, then that’s what I’ll be. Every. Day.”

Lukas stormed out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him. Jaxon and Brian watched him go, but his father couldn’t bear to accept that his son was just about lost to him.

Jaxon sensed exactly what his father was thinking. And as he always did, he paid little heed to good sense and said exactly what was on his mind. “You’re wrong, Pop. Lukas isn’t a fool. He’s doing what he needs to do to keep his family together.”

“And what do you think I’m trying to do?” he snapped. “I’m trying to keep your brother from getting his heart torn to shreds.”

“Emmalyn isn’t mom. The sooner you accept that, the less likely it will be that you’ll be barred from seeing your granddaughters.”

Jaxon frowned at his father before following his brother outside.