The Devastatingly Beautiful Series (19 page)

12

Molly

It’s a bad day today. Ever since the knock on the door last night I can’t help shake this feeling, and unwelcome thoughts keep running through my mind. I’m trying to stop them, but I can’t help it.

He hates me. He hates what I did to our baby, and he hates that he’s stuck with me.

But he did come back for me.

But that was before he knew my body betrayed us.

I can’t stop the swirling thoughts, going back and forth. He says he’s here for good. That he’s not going anywhere. He spoke the words, but now that he knows I can’t have his kids, does he mean them still? I need to stop thinking for a little while. I know we need to talk, Tatum knows we need to talk. It’s just, I don’t want to talk. I don’t want to say the words out loud. I don’t want to hear that he feels stuck with me. I don’t want my heart to break again. Instead, I throw myself into the only thing that has never let me down: my business.

The Delany wedding is four days away. I have four days to finish preparing things, which luckily are almost done due to my awesome dedication (and lack of anything else to do when Tatum was absent last week). After these four days, I’ll be shooting the biggest wedding of my career, creating the most beautiful pictures for the bride and my portfolio. Hopefully things will settle down a little after this wedding, but right now I’m turning all of my attention to the big show.

On Monday I wake up and start to get dressed for the studio. Tatum rolls over and looks at me with tired (and sexy as hell ‘how did I get so lucky’) eyes.

“Where do you think you are going?” he asks groggily. Jesus he’s sexy, even half asleep.

“Work. I have a lot I need to get done to catch up from missing the weekend. The wedding’s in four days. Are you coming in to help out?” I ask, hopeful that he does. If anything just to be near him, so when I have one of my inevitable breakdowns that I know will happen he’ll at least be there for me.

“Uh…what?” He sits up and glares at me. He looks incredibly confused for a man that just woke up looking incredible sexy two minutes ago. “You aren’t still shooting the wedding this weekend, are you?”

I laugh. Loud. We’re not having this fight again.

“I am. I need this Tatum. More now than before. I’ll be keeping you on as assistant this weekend, though, whether the Delany’s like it or not. I need you there with me, supporting me.” I plead.

He runs his fingers through his hair and sighs loudly. I know his brain is working pretty hard right now since he just got up and I threw a curveball at him before he was fully awake. I wait there, at the side of the bed as he processes my decision.

“Molly sit. I need to tell you something.”

His voice gives me a hint I’m not going to like what he’s about to say.

“Listen, I was going to wait to tell you all of this until I had it figured out, but with you still doing the wedding I think you need to know. Stay here,” he says, then he walks out of the room. A few minutes later he comes back with a box. Sitting it in front of me on the bed, he nods at it.

“Open it,” he grinds out, then walks to the other side of the room as I’m left sitting on the bed next to the mystery box. I open the flaps and look inside. A tiny blue baby blanket is folded inside. It’s dirty and there’s a note card setting on top. I pull the note out and read both sides, chills running through me as the meaning of the card set in.

“What is this Tatum?” I whisper as he stares out the bedroom window.

“It’s my son’s baby blanket. The one he died in.” His words are so cold, but full of so much emotion.

I gasp and pull the blanket out of the box. It’s light blue with tiny darker blue stars and incredibly soft.

“Why?” What’s all this mean?

“I don’t know, exactly. This showed up on the porch last week. The night you stayed late at the studio. I don’t know who it is from but I have my guesses. Molly, this blanket along with everything else from the time in my life was ordered to be destroyed. I didn’t want anything to remember it. It sounds cold but I was hurting. It shook me to the core when I opened the box. Then when I found the note I was actually spooked. I don’t do mind games well, and someone is obviously playing one with me.”

He then fills me in on the Delany connection to him, why he thinks Rob hates him so much, and why he believes Rob is in the lead for prime suspect. He doesn’t trust him, that’s for sure. I can hear his voice pleading with me to back out of the wedding and take myself out of the connection to the Delany family, but I can’t do that. Not with four days left, they would never find someone able to do it on that short of notice.

“That’s a lot of speculation, Tatum, without any hard proof that it was actually him. I can’t back out of the wedding now.” I say, shaking my head at the mess that we’re in.

“I realize that, and I don’t think you need to. I honestly don’t think he’d ever hurt you, you’ve formed a friendship with him. People know that you two have been hanging around each other,” he grinds. I hate that those three days Tatum was gone, Rob spent most of them at the studio with me. I did enjoy his company, but there’s nothing there between us. “Just know that from here on out I will not be leaving you alone when there are Delany’s around.”

I’m okay with that. After all, I was starting to get the feeling from Rob that he wants a more personal relationship with me. He’s sexy, but I just don’t look at him that way.

“Fine. That’s all I can ask of you. Now get dressed. We have a very demanding Delany to deal with this morning.” Oh I know he’s going to be pissed that Tatum is still on board. Hell, by the way he was looking at me last week he’s going to be pissed that Tatum is back in the picture at all.

***

We grab a coffee on the way into the studio. When we make it in, Tatum gets to work on finalizing some of the props for the wedding and I head into the front office to make sure messages are clear and everything is set for the weekend. A few hours into the day, Rob walks in and smiles brightly at me, obviously unaware that Tatum’s here.

“Hey you. How’re you feeling? You gave everyone a scare last week. That’s decaf coffee, I hope,” he says as he glances at the cup in my hand. How do I respond to him? Does it matter if he knows or not?
The truth shall set you free, I guess.

“I’m not pregnant anymore, Rob. Thanks… though,” I say awkwardly.

“Oh. God, Molly, I’m so sorry to hear that,” he says as he walks over and brings me in for a hug. Of course, that has to be the time that Tatum walks back up front from the storage room.
Of. Fucking. Course.

“Need another one of those eyes blacked out, Delany?” he growls as he casually sets down the boxes I had him bring up.

Rob chuckles and backs up.

“Well. Back in the picture are we Tatum? Shame, Molly. I thought I had you pegged for someone a little smarter than that.” He’s such an ass.

“Actually Rob, I am glad you stopped by. I have been wanting to tell you that I will not be in need of your assistant’s services this weekend. A photographer is only as good as their right hand man. Mine is Tatum. Take it or leave it. I don’t shoot the wedding unless he is there.”

There. It’s said. I’m holding my ground on this one. He glares at Tatum for a moment, then moved those piercing black eyes straight at me.

“That’s a very bad decision, Molly,” he says through gritted teeth.

“Then find another photographer.” I’m done playing him games. I don’t need them money that badly, and the public knows how difficult it is to deal with a Delany, so my reputation won’t get hurt too badly. Hopefully. I stand there, hands on my hips, ready for a verbal lashing from the second hottest man I’ve ever laid eyes on. Instead, his lips turn up into a half smile, and he nods his head, then turns and leaves. Whatever he came here for must not have been that important.

I smile to myself, pleased that I was able to stand up to the infamous Robert Delany, especially with those beautiful eyes staring me down. I glance over at Tatum. He’s watching me with so much love in his eyes I feel like I could burst.

“My God, Molly. You are one amazing woman,” he says and finally starts walking towards me.

The butterflies that I’ve been missing the last few days finally comes back when he looks at me with those eyes. Rob’s eyes hold nothing to Tatum’s. The connection between us right now is unbreakable. He’s radiating love for me. That I can tell just by his body language. He cups my face and tilts my head up to look at him.

“I love you so fucking much it hurts when you aren’t near me. You make me want to be a better man for the rest of my life. One day I’ll show you how much you mean to me. Words alone aren’t enough. One day, Molly. God, I love you,” he says, and his lips slam into mine, causing me to grab his arms as I kiss him back.

Good Lord it feels like it’s been a lifetime since he’s kissed me like this. I was really starting to believe he didn’t want me anymore, but this kiss just blew all other kisses in the history of lip locking out of the water! A mixture of urgency and tenderness, his lips dance across my skin, leaving a trail of goose bumps along the way. When he breaks the kiss I almost fall into him. His hands begin running up and down my arms, as he looks down at our connection.

This man.

He’s all I need.

Tatum

“I can’t say enough how sorry I am that I wasn’t here for you, Molly,” I say, resting my forehead on hers. I feel like I always need some type of physical connection with her. It isn’t good enough to be next to her, I need to be touching her.

“I know, Tatum. I know how sorry you are, but even if you were there the outcome wouldn’t have changed. I’ve forgiven you, you need to forgive yourself,” she says with determination to make it true.

I chose my next words carefully. I don’t want to spook her, but she needs to know that we aren’t out of the dark yet. Nothing’s been done yet about the note I received, not with the events of this past weekend weighing down on us.

“You know. When you were in the hospital after what Brian did to you, I walked in the room to see you for the first time and freaked out. It took my dad finally opening up and treating me like his son in order for me to walk back in for you. I was so afraid that by being mine, you would end up getting hurt far worse than you would without me.”

She watches me quietly, letting me speak.

“The pain I felt after I left you was the second worst pain I’ve ever felt in my entire life. I don’t want to feel that again. I’m so fucking worried about this whole Delany situation, and I can’t shake the feeling that something awful is about to happen. All because of me.”

“Don’t you dare say that, Tatum. This is not your fault.” She shakes her head.

“It’s not. I agree. It wasn’t me that put him the car the wrong way. It wasn’t me who ran the red light. It
was
me, though, who let her leave when she was obviously upset. It was me who let him go with her in that car. I could have fought, but I didn’t.”

“You need to stop blaming yourself, Tatum. What happened was not any part your fault.”

“The Delany’s seem to think differently. Why else would they send me that note, and his blanket?”  I can’t stop the feeling that this is just the beginning of a bigger battle. I hate being in the dark. I think it’s time to call the old man again.

“Call your dad, Tatum,” she says, as if she can read my mind. This woman amazes me every single day. I nod and excuse myself to make yet another phone call for help. It’s funny, I thought when I left a few months ago we wouldn’t have to cross paths ever again. Come to find out, I need him more now than I ever have before. Strange how things work out.

I call his cell first, hoping to catch him before he gets home to my mom. I know I’m going to get grief for not coming home this past weekend, but it wasn’t even an option I wanted to run by Molly. Thankfully he answers on the third ring, right before his voicemail picks up.

“Hello, boy. I got your e-mail. I hope everything is alright.” He likes Molly, I can tell from the worry in his voice.

“Yea dad. Things are ok, considering the circumstances. It stinks, but it’s nothing we can’t work through.”

“You know, your mother miscarried three times before your brother came along, God rest his soul.” That’s new news to me, but I know my mom is a quiet woman when it comes to personal matters. Without any daughter’s to talk with I’m sure she’s holding in all kinds of stuff.

“I didn’t know that Dad. That’s terrible.”

“It’s a way of life. Sometimes, it just isn’t meant to be.”

I grunt in response. It might not have been in the master plan, but damned if I’m not still upset about it.

“Anyway son, what do you need? You don’t typically call to chat.”

“No. I don’t do I?” I should fix that. Maybe my dad and I can fix our strained relationship once and for all. “Listen Dad, some funny things have been happening lately. I need your take on it.”

I then proceed to fill him in on the note, the blanket, Molly’s connection with the Delany family, and the fact that Robert Delany is Candace’s brother and we didn’t know anything about it. He knows bits and pieces of the story behind the note, but when I put it all out there in one conversation it sounds outrageous. Jesus, this all seems so messed up. I finish up and the line goes silent, all expect for a low whistle coming from my dad’s end of the phone.