Into the Light, page 21
part #2 of Dark Angel Series
“You’re her best friend, I’m sure you can answer that,” I shot back.
Jen motioned for me to sit; I sat on the large couch and began to speak. I explained to them my intentions and the fact that I needed their help to pull this off. Jen rushed to my side, hugging me, and I sat there feeling somewhat uncomfortable. Not knowing what to do, I hugged her, this stranger that I barely knew.
“You broke her, you know… she was a mess,” Logan spoke quietly.
“I know,” I simply answered, always so aware of my actions.
“I’ve been wanting to do that since the moment you left town.”
“I know, I deserve it.” It was the truth; even I had to admit that.
I looked at my watch; my driver would be here in a minute. I handed the ice pack back to Jen; she squeezed my hand and gave me a sincere smile.
“Listen, I need to go, it would mean a lot if you could do this for me, and in return, how about I forget the fact that your broke Charlotte as well - sexually. Truce?”
“I’d hardly call that a break… more like a slight tear.” Jen laughed
“Fine” I held out my hand and he reluctantly shook it.
“For the record, guys – that fight was totally hot.”
“Edwards, leave my home now. You,” he motioned to Jen “put those kids to bed. I’ll show you what’s hot.”
I closed the door behind me, ready to take my bruised face back home.
…
It was just before midnight when I arrived home on Sunday. I entered the bedroom and although Charlotte said she would wait up for me, she was fast asleep.
I was eager to be inside her but instead I stood and I watched. Her tiny snores barely audible, her eyes shut tight, her face nestled into her pillow. Her complexion was glowing, I couldn’t help but bask in her beauty knowing that our child she was carrying would mirror her beauty, it was impossible not to. I pulled my cell out of my pocket for like the hundredth time today and stared at my home screen. Our baby. It was one of those moments where I took a minute and appreciated everything good in my life and all of it was lying in our bed, fast asleep.
It overwhelmed me and my desire to have her kicked in, I stripped at a fast pace and climbed into bed, she made a whimper and as much as I knew she needed her sleep, selfish horny Lex needed her more. I nestled into her back and without warning I slid my cock into her pussy, maybe a little too fast but after a few strokes I felt the moisture built up, and her moaning increased.
“Lex…” she murmured, reaching behind to pull my head into her neck.
“It’s me baby, I missed you.” I said as I slammed into her harder on the verge of an orgasmic finish, she cried out, her body tensing. I didn’t want it to end - I never wanted it to end but …
“Come with me Charlotte…Please…together…” and just like that I pulled her into me tight, and tugged on her erect nipples causing her to scream my name, her pussy contracting around my cock. I held onto her hip trying not to hurt her.
“Fuck!” I screamed loud, enough that the neighbors and possibly the whole apartment block could hear.
With our breaths shallow, she turned around to face me.
“It’s late, and …I missed you too.”
I stroked her cheek and kissed her, unable to hide a smile as my mind wandered.
“What’s the smile for?” she asked smiling in return.
“Just happy to be home,” I whispered.
First the first time in my life I found it – not a place but a person to call home.
Chapter 18
Charlie
As I stood on the porch staring blankly at the door, Lex held onto my hand and squeezed it tight. I was way beyond anxious and I felt my palms start to sweat as I began fiddling with the rings on my left hand. When Lex suggested we fly back home to Carmel and finally announce the news to my Dad, I tried my best to come up with every excuse under the sun. Turns out, every excuse had a solution. Bulls assured me she could hold down the fort at work and the doctor told me it was safe to fly since I was only in my second trimester. As I said, they were all conspiring against me!
Lex even played the ‘I’m offended you won’t come out in the open with our relationship’ card; it came across like he was mocking me. Maybe it was my imagination.
One week later I was standing here on the porch at the place I once called home. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell my dad that I’m back together with Lex, (more to the point, I was now married to him) I was just anxious that his gun collection may have tripled in seven years and the last thing I wanted was a Benny Hill chase all over town.
“It’ll be okay. It’s been seven years, Charlotte,” Lex spoke calmly.
“I don’t feel well,” I moaned.
“Morning sickness again?”
Whoever came up with the term morning sickness must have been a male. It should be called all day sickness. The list of food that repulsed me was growing longer by the day; on the plane ride here I officially added oranges to my list. The man beside me had the need to eat three of them in a row and I had the need to puke three times in a row in the tiny ass restroom.
“Yes…err no…” I mustered up the courage and knocked on the door.
Seconds felt like hours, my heart rate picked up, but then I remembered Lil Bubba and I tried my best to calm down. Lex was right, seven years is a long time.
“Charlie?” Dad stared at me in shock as he opened the door.
“Daddy!” I cried running into his arms.
It had been a year since I had seen him last, but unlike every other time I saw him, this was so much more emotional. I was here, no longer his little girl, but a woman pregnant with the baby of the most amazing man that existed. I held onto him, his smell embraced me, a mixture of Old Spice and laundry detergent, a sign that he had a good woman taking care of him. He pulled away, no smiles but a stare so cold that I could have sworn the birds flew out of the trees like a sixth sense as to what was about to go down.
“What the hell is Edwards doing here?” he raised his voice.
“Dad please, we need to talk.”
“He’s not welcome here.”
“Dad! Can we please act like mature adults and talk?”
“Mature adults? He was an adult, Charlie, when you were a teenager. An adult who took advantage of you,” he shot back.
“Dad…” The walls of my stomach weakened and I knew the signs “I need the bathroom!”
After a nasty ‘let’s see what I had for lunch’ situation in the bathroom, I stood at the basin, splashing my face with cold water. Seriously, when the fuck was the morning sickness going to stop? I opened the door and heard my Dad and Lex speaking, the voices were muffled and I couldn’t really hear the conversation. However, I’m guessing it wasn’t be pleasant.
I entered the kitchen and interrupted what looked like a heated debate.
“Errr Charlie…”
“Dad. If you are talking about the small minded folk in this town, I really don’t care what people say, they can talk about us as much as they want. I know who I am. I am a woman that fought hard to put that behind me. I studied and graduated from Harvard Law School. I opened up a law firm in New York City. I have been given a second chance with the only man my heart has ever belonged to, and now… now…we are having a baby.”
There, I blurted it out, no sugar coating, it was the real deal. I decided to hold onto the information about us getting married on a whim in the Hamptons. One piece of information at a time, Charlie…
His face changed; it was a look I had never seen before. I looked nervously at Lex who shrugged his shoulders, obviously just as curious as I was.
“I’m going to be a granddaddy?” he asked with a slight croak in his voice.
I nodded, and instantly he pulled me into a big hug. Thank fuck! The tension eased and right on cue, my stomach grumbled. Oh shame.
“Time to get some grub in you… doesn’t mean you’re off the hook Edwards,” he warned.
“Dad, let it go. And please don’t use the word ‘grub’. That sounds like something you found dead on the road and decided to barbeque.”
“I was thinking your favorite Buffalo chicken wings,” he said proudly.
“Nothing with wings,” I answered queasily.
“How about Debbie’s pot roast?”
“Uh too meat juicy like.”
“Well, what do you want?”
I thought about it for a moment, and like a lightning bolt, it hit me.
“A peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a side of ketchup,” I said proudly, the thought making my mouth drool.
“What?” they both asked in unison.
We all laughed and Dad got straight to it. Ten minutes later I sat in front of their disgusted faces and dipped my sandwich into the ketchup. It tasted like heaven and hit the spot.
“So how long are you here for?” Dad asked.
I looked at Lex, unsure of how long he expected us to stay in Carmel.
“Four days, Sir,” Lex answered.
“And where will you be staying?”
“Um, we were hoping here, but if it’s a problem we can find a motel,” I quickly spoke.
“You know you’re welcome to stay here…in separate rooms,” he added.
“Uh hello, Dad… I think the jig is up. Unless of course you think this baby was immaculately conceived?”
Lex laughed as my dad cringed. We spoke a little bit more about life back in the city when Debbie arrived home. I was excited to see her; she was possibly the best stepmom you could ask for. Lex headed out, saying that he needed to pick up a few things from the store. I shouted out, “Hey, if you’re heading that way anyway, how about you pick me up a tub of vanilla fudge ripple ice cream?” With Dad cleaning up and Lex gone, it gave Debbie and me a chance to catch up in the living room.
“Honey, I’m so glad you’ve come back to visit. We’ve missed you.”
“It’s actually nice to be back. I probably wouldn’t have been able to say that a few months ago.” It was the honest truth and I thanked my lucky stars that nightmare was over.
I told Debbie all about Julian and how Lex and I ran into each other, including every insane thing that happened since then, excluding the nuptials, the angel on my shoulder whispering, “Your dad will kill you, with his bare hands.” Debbie nodded and listened intently, and by the end she was hugging me so tight that I could feel her tears drop onto my shoulder.
“Oh, Charlie. You deserve to be happy…and a baby? What a blessing. Your dad has been waiting to be a granddaddy. We both knew it would be you before your sister.”
“Awww please, Melanie? Unless a baby could travel in her backpack, there’s no chance in hell,” I laughed.
“It’ll be nice to have a baby around,” she said with a smile on her face.
It dawned on me that Debbie was also waiting in anticipation for this moment. She never had kids and by the time she met my dad they were both too old to start a family. “Well, Lil Bubba can’t wait to be spoiled by its grandma, too,” I said softly as I placed my hand over hers.
Her face lit up, and with ease, she pulled me into a tight hug, not letting me go for what felt like an eternity.
…
Lex had some work he needed to catch up on, so I took the opportunity to head down to the local fire station. The building looked exactly the same, its worn out brick gave it history; built sometime in the early 30’s if I remember correctly from history class. The bright red trucks sat horizontally in front of the building, and coming from inside were the sounds of rowdy men yelling and cussing at the TV.
“Talk about productivity,” I said out loud.
They all turned around to look at me; Logan’s face lit up as he ran over and grabbed me, lifting me high in the air as if I was light as a feather.
“Charlie, are you kidding me? Is it really you?!”
“In the flesh,” I grinned.
“How…why?”
“We need to have a long chat. When are you off?”
“In about two hours…I’ll pick you up, say, around three?”
“It’s a date.” Smiling, I said goodbye and headed back into town.
Exactly two hours later, the doorbell rang. I couldn’t have run any faster, Lex and my dad scolding me for almost tripping down the stairs. As I opened the door I was met with that goofy grin that belonged to my childhood best friend, Logan Rodriguez.
“Hey, girl.” Logan wrapped his arms around me, I missed his suffocating hugs, although I did not miss his man sweat.
“Hi Mark, Alex,” he nodded.
Oh, he called him Alex. Lex didn’t correct him. In fact, Lex smiled at him, which was weird. Was I missing something here? Mister ‘she’s mine and no one can touch her including that Rodriguez kid’? Okay, Charlie, seriously that was so 2005 Alex, not Lex standing before me.
“You wanna grab a bite to eat?” Logan asked, eyeing Lex.
“Sure, let’s go.” I kissed Lex goodbye and thank god he understood I needed some alone time with Logan. Last night when I raised the topic I thought he would go off his nut demanding he be there, but much to my surprise he shrugged it off and said to have fun. Have fun? Okay, seriously, something was up with the universe.
As we sat in the local coffee shop, I knew there was no better time than now to let it all out in the open.
“Go, ask me your million questions,” I said as I shoved the most appetizing chocolate cake into my mouth.
“I have no questions. You broke it off with Julian and you’re back together with Lex.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s the main…wait, did you just call him ‘Lex’?”
He shuffled his feet but laughed it off, “Sorry I heard you call him that once and it must have stuck.”
“When did I call him that?” I asked confused.
“Must have been Jen then, I don’t know. Anyway, so Alex and you are back together.”
“Don’t you want to know what happened?”
“Charlie, I’m a guy, we don’t care for sordid details. Unless of course it’s dirty, but since I look at you like a sister that is just plain wrong. Actually, it’s super plain wrong that I called you a sister when we did it twice.”
“Foot in mouth disease, welcome to my world,” I laughed.
“Okay, so what I meant is, if you’re happy, Charlie, then that’s all that matters.”
“I’m pregnant, Logan,” I blurted out.
He almost spat out his strawberry milkshake, which I kept hogging His face had a slight anger to it. Shit, did I ruin our happy reunion?
“Don’t tell me you’re with him because of that?”
“Logan, really, do you think I was raised in the 1950s?”
He remained silent and I allowed him a moment to let it sink in.
“You know babies cry all night,” he spoke.
“I know.”
“And you need to change their diapers like thirty times a day.”
“I’m aware of their bowel movements, yes.”
“And you can’t have sex for like six weeks after the birth.”
“Yes, I know… wait, six weeks?” I said a little too loudly; the old lady behind Logan turned around.
He smirked, bastard. Bulls never mentioned that, probably because she was doing something else to compensate. Mental note to ask her later.
“It’ll be okay, Logan, and besides you’re only a phone call away. An experienced parent like yourself should be able to answer all my questions.”
“Congratulations, Charlie,” he smiled.
I placed my hand over his and held onto it tight. “Hey, I got an idea, you up for some law-breaking fun?” he asked with a mischievous look on his face.
“Sure, why not! I can always represent myself,” I cheered.
…
“When you said ‘law-breaking fun’, I didn’t think you meant breaking into Carmel high,” I sighed.
“Charlie, don’t you miss high school? We had so much fun.” Logan reminded me.
I stood in the hallway, giving myself a moment to take in my surroundings. It was surreal to be here again, walking down the same hall I used to walk down every day. Not much had changed, the lockers were still the same, maybe the walls had been painted. The trophy case still stood there in all its glory. Unconsciously, I made my way to my old biology classroom. The door was unlocked and without hesitation I found my old desk, the one that sat beside the window near the fish tank. I ran my fingers over the desk top, remembering how many times I would sit here and stare out the window daydreaming about Lex. After prom, I would sit here and daydream about how he fucked me on this very desk. I carefully lifted the lid and low and behold there it was, engraved in the corner where only I could see: the initials CM 4 AE. It was all very juvenile, but I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic over this tiny reminder.
“Logan, we should get out of here before we get busted.”
“Yeah, but let me take you to one more place.”
He held my hand and led me down the corridor til we were standing in front of the gymnasium. God, I hated this place. The amount of times I was hit by the dodge ball has left me scarred for life.
“No offense, Logan, but sports just weren’t my thing back then…we aren’t going to reenact gym class, are we?”
“Will you just shut up for just one second?”
I rolled my eyes at him as he opened the doors.
“Welcome to prom night,” he announced.
My eyes were unable to take in the scene spread out before me. The gymnasium was turned into prom, and when I say turned into prom I mean exactly like prom night seven years ago. The disco light shone around the room, the spotlights focusing on the massive Eiffel Tower that stood in the corner, just as I remembered it. The Parisian street signs were arranged throughout the room. Adriana must have had something to do with this.
Aside from all that it was the most perfect man, my Dark Angel, that stood in the middle of the room in a dark tuxedo that caught my attention. Perhaps my mother painted him wrong; maybe the Dark Angel wasn’t so bad. What if it was possible that the Dark Angel had a heart and his heart belonged to me?
I walked towards him, trying to catch my breath and take it all in.
