How Many Chances (27 page)

“Mr Thomas,” a familiar voice said from the other end of the line. “Mr Thomas, this is Rosie. It would seem Ally walked off without her phone.”

“FUCK!” Cole exclaimed. “Sorry Rosie, I will call you back.” He hung up the phone and slipped it back into his pocked

He stood up and quickly hurried to the door.

“What’s happening?” Sid asked following Cole to the door.

“She forgot her damn phone,” Cole said as he hurried out of the garage and to the car outside.  “I need to go to the airp
ort and stop her before she does something totally stupid.”

“
Cole what if you don’t stop her in time?” Sid asked taking hold of the car door.

“Then God forgive me,” Cole replied. He slammed the door shut and told Liam to get him to Dublin airport as fast as he can.

Ally sat at in the departure lounge waiting to board the plane.

You’re doing the right thing
, she chanted to herself repeatedly but the pain in the pit of her stomach was almost suffocating her. She could barely breathe.

She struggle
d to take deep breaths. But she could fight the tears no longer as they pooled in her eyes and quickly broke free.

“Are you alright miss,” an elderly man sitting next to her asked as he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to Ally. Ally looked up at him and then down t
o the handkerchief. “It’s clean,” he reassured her.

Ally could
n’t help but smile at the old man. He reminded her a little of Pops and she wished more than anything he was sitting there next to her.

“Thank you,” she finally managed to say.

“It there anything I can get for you,” the old man asked. “A pretty young girl like you shouldn’t be so sad.”

“I don’t think there is anyone who can help me right now,” she replied sadly.

“Has a boy broken your heart?” he asked as he patted her on the man hand lightly.

“Something like that,” she smiled at the old man. “It’s complicated.”

“True love always is my dear,” he said with a knowing smile. “The thing is, if the love is strong enough, it can survive anything.”

Ally nodded and smiled.

“So the question is,” he continued. “Is your love strong enough?”

Ally thought about his question for a moment. She thought about Cole. She knew in her heart he loved her more than anything in this world. There was truly nothing he wouldn’t do for her. But him loving her wasn’t the problem. The problem was could he love their baby
too. In her heart Ally wanted to believe the answer was yes.

But she was scared. She had been that child that no one wanted. She had not just one, but two father’s walk away from her.

Then her mind wandered to Gus, had he really walked away from her. There wasn’t one single event in her life he hadn’t been part of. He was there for the good as well as the bad.

He had cared for her and watched out for her just the same as he had his other three girls. Okay he never told her the truth but had he really walked away from her. No he hadn’t.
He had even gone as far as to give her a job and always stood up for her and had her corner whenever she came up against the sexist assholes that came into the garage. He was proud of her. Something she always dream of her father being. She had always wished he was her father. He was her father.

Then she thought of Cole. She loved him with every ounce of her being. He was her soul mate and her best friend. But the tiny voice in her head kept saying “what if he doesn’t love the baby too?” The truth was she really didn’t know.

She looked back up at the old man and smiled.

“Honestly,” she said to him sadly. “I really don’t know. And I am too scared to find out.”

“But the best things in life scare us,” the old man smiled. “If life didn’t scare us. How boring would life be? We need the fear to remind us, we are still alive.”

Before Ally could replied the voice over the intercom announced that her flight was now boarding.

“That’s us,” Ally smiled as she stood up and grabbed her handbag.

“That it is,” the old man said and smiled warmly back at Ally. “Just remember
my lovely, running away from our problems isn’t the answer, and it just creates new ones.”

He turned and walked up to the flight attendant and handed her his boarding pass
while Ally waited her turn in the queue.

Ally walked up to the flight attendant next and the girl smiled brightly at Ally.

“Can I have your board card, please madam,” she said to Ally brightly.

Ally smiled at her and looked down at her boarding pass and then back up at the girl.

            *********************************

Cole rang his assistant and told her to book him on any flight as soon as possible. She was confused by his request.
He told her he wasn’t actually catching the flight he just need a boarding pass to get the through security as quickly as possible Then he opened his brief case and prayed for a miracle.

“Thank you God!” he exclaimed as he pulled his passport from his case. Now all he needed was to get to the airport in time.

He had called the airport and had Ally paged but she didn’t come to the phone. He was panicking now.

His phone rang and it was his assistant informing him
she had booked him on a flight for Manchester.

He knew he was cutting it fine.
They seemed to hit every red light on the way there. He had a feeling of dread washing over him. What if he didn’t make it? But he couldn’t think like that now. Failure was not an option. He had to make it.

Finally he arrived at the set down area at Departure
sin Dublin Airport, where he had left Ally not even ninety minutes earlier
.
The car was barely stopped before he was out and running into the building. He headed straight to the ticket desk and collected his ticket.

He impatiently tapped his fingers on the counter as the girl behind the desk asked him so many stupid question. He willed her to hurry up but she seemed to
be making it her mission to be the most useless person on the planet. It took him everything he had not to scream at her.

Once he finally had his ticket
then made his way to the check in desk and thanked Sally, his assistant for booking him on business class so there would be no queues for checking in.

But still he had to go through the same boring questions that were always asked at check in. Cole was running out of patience very quickly. He checked his watch and he knew he was running out time
too.

When
he got his boarding pass he ran flat out to the security gate. Despite the fact there was a row of security scanners, there was only three operational and Cole groaned. It would have been almost funny if it wasn’t such a nightmare. Once he finally passed them, he checked the screen for which gate her flight was leaving from. His heart nearly stopped when he saw the screen flash the words “gate closing”. He checked her gate number and headed in the direction he needed to go as fast as he legs could carry him.

He
ran faster and faster as he watched the number of the gates climb. He spotted her gate at the far end of the corridor and he ran like his life depended on it. However, when he reached the gate and his heart crashed into his chest. Her flight was closed and the plane was pulling away from the gate.

He was too late. He had missed her by a matter of moments
He ran to the full length window and watched as her flight taxi out onto the runway and then thundered down it before it lifted up into the sky.

“FUCK!” he shouted as everyone around him stopped and stared in his direction.
She was gone.

He pulled out his phone and called Liam, t
elling him to bring the car back out to the set down area and also to arrange to have his plane prepare for a flight to London later that afternoon.

Then h
e called Nick and told him he need to make sure he didn’t miss Ally at the airport and once he had her to take her to the apartment and not let her out of his sight. That he would be there later that day. Then headed for the exit as quickly as he could.

As he climbed into the car
heavy heartily, he felt sick. Even though he had instructed Nick to make sure he found Ally and not let her out of his sight. He knew Ally was determined. She knew he had arranged to have Nick collect her. So if she wanted to keep her appointment a secret she would do her best to get out passed Nick without him seeing her.

He headed straight back to the house to pack a few things before his flight.
His mind was working overtime. He thought of all the things he would say to her and all the promises he would make. He had so much to make up for.

He sat in the back of the car and he felt crushed.
He was so ashamed of himself. He had driven the woman he loved to doing something he knew she would regret for the rest of her life. But she was willing to do it because she loved him so much.

How could he have been so blind not to see just how badly she was hurting?

He could have kicked himself as he thought of every time he told her that from now on it was just him and her. Even that morning, she had tried to talk to him and he had said it once again. He had thought she wanted reassurance about Ben but she was trying to hang on to a little hope and he had given her none. He groaned at just how wrong he had gotten it. How would she ever forgive him?

By the time he reached the house he felt completely and utterly ashamed of himself. If she went through with the term
ination it was be all his fault and she would end up hating him for what he had made her do by being so completely clueless.

He climbed out of the car and up the steps
to the front door with a very heavy heart. He walked into the hall and head towards the stairs but something caught his eye.

He turned around and there she was. Standing in the sitting room looking like a rabbit caught in head lights.
She was breathtaking and heartbreaking all at once.

“Ally,” Cole said as he turned and walked back towards the living room.
He couldn’t believe she was standing there in front of him. “You’re here,”

“I couldn’t go,” she said as her eyes glistened with unshed tears.
He could hear her voice quiver as she spoke and his heart ached for her. “Cole, I am so sorry.”

“Why are you sorry
, my gorgeous girl?” Cole said as he stepped closer to Ally. The tears finally broke free from her eyes and trickled down her beautiful face.

“I tried to do the right thing,
I swear” she said as a sob came from deep inside her. “But I couldn’t. I just couldn’t do it. I love you so much. I really do. But I can’t chose.”

“You did do the right thing
,” he replied as he reached out and drew her into his arms. “You came back to me. You came home.”

Then to Ally’s surprise he reached down and pressed his hand against her stomach and added. “You both came home.”

“Oh God,” Ally cried harder. “You know.”

“
Yes, I know,” he smiled as he fought back the tears now stinging his eyes. “Oh God Ally, can you ever forgive me for putting you through this. I am sorry I let you down. I was so hurt and I was angry over Ben, I just didn’t see you were hurting too. But I swear I never meant to hurt you. I was too wrapped up in my own crap but I swear, if I had have known…” He closed his eyes as he tried to compose himself. He couldn’t bear to look at how broken he had made her. He was so ashamed of himself.

“Don’t,” Ally said
quickly as she pressed her lips to his tenderly. “I should have trusted you. But I was scared. I’m not scared anymore.”

“I love you,” he whispered against Ally’s lips.

“I love you too,” she said through her tears.

“So from now on it’s the three of us against the world,” Cole smiled.

“I guess it is,” Ally replied, as once again Cole claimed her mouth with his.

           The End…… for now!!