My Future Stepbrother

Chapter 127

I'd been kept at the hospital for three days. They'd preformed the procedure that confirmed the diagnosis of endometriosis and the doctor set me up with a grief councillor.


Dad hadn't let Jayce come back to see me, not that it actually stopped him, he'd arrive after Dad had gone home to sleep and would stay with me. I couldn't even think about us as a couple anymore, I was numb to everything. I just welcomed his comforting embrace and we’d sit and cry together every night.


When he would leave Brie, Chad or Kallie would take over. I was never alone. Chad had asked me again about the father of the baby, he wasn't being pushy, he actually seemed to care that the guy just knew I had been pregnant with his child. I'd told him he knew and he'd left it at that. That was the best thing about Chad, he just played the hand he was dealt and didn't feel he was owed anything.


Granny and Dad had finally agreed to mine and Brie’s plan, although Dad was resistant at first. Tara had moved Jayce into the pool house, him and Dad couldn't seem to be in the same room without exploding at each other, made worse still by the fact Dad refused to listen to a thing he said.


Tara had come by a few times but she couldn't seem to keep eye contact with me, she was hurt and she knew how close she had come to losing everything but she wasn't angry like Dad, although she had made it clear she'd prefer no-one ever found out about what had happened between us.


Brie had to tell Granny what happened though. She reacted exactly the way I thoughts she would, with hugs and brownies. She was the one that fought with Dad to agree to the current situation I found myself in, unpacking my bags after moving into my old house with them.


Dad had agreed that I could stay here until after graduation. It was only a few months away now and soon I'd be off to college so it seemed the most practical choice. Him and Tara weren't exactly at their best right now with all the emotions still high but at least they were together. Of course Dad had practically threatened to evict Granny if she ever let Jayce in the house, he was being kept under lock and key at the Manor since the last time they caught him sneaking out to the hospital. Dad lost it so we agreed to play by their rules for a bit.


I'd offered to move into the small office room, it was barely big enough for a single bed and nothing else but I would have made it work. Brie wasn't having any of that, she insisted we bunk together, our mini version of when we were going to be roommates in college.


We'd moved all the furniture so we each had a bed and we turned the office room into a closet for me instead.


I hadn't been to school in a week, the doctor had written me a note and even the principal had called to check in on me and make sure I wasn't going to fall behind. The call had started formally but when she spoke about my situation with such understanding I came to the conclusion she must have had her own experience, I was quickly learning how many women had. It seemed crazy that we were all bonded together by these tragic events and yet nobody seemed to talk openly about it. We had to change that, this wasn't a taboo subject that should stay quiet.


I'd always struggled with what my major was going to be in college, bouncing back and forth between so many options but having spoken to so many women in my situation I now knew where I wanted to be, I wanted to start a foundation that helped women feel supported through this process and beyond. Not just women who'd lost babies but also people who'd lost amazing people from their lives like my mum or people who had lost their childhoods like Jayce. The way to do that was to understand the process, I wanted to be the person to do that. I was going to be a grief councillor.


I was unpacking my bags into the closet and realising quickly why I should have been allowed to pack for myself, nothing that gave me any shape was in here but of course I wasn't allowed to step a foot in the Manor anymore.


"You nearly done sugartits? Mr tall-dark and annoying is about five minutes away from Granny taking a spoonful of him and adding it to the sauce to 'sweeten it up' in her words."


Granny had become very fond of Chad and I'm sure his ability to even make her blush wasn't helping. May had developed a little crush on him too, it was the cutest thing in the world. When he walked in she would try to sit up straight and make herself look like a proper grown up, although it would crumble in minutes when he would chase her around the house tickling her. I could already see she had inherited her older sisters flare for making men bow to her every whim, even he couldn’t say no when she asked to play hairdresser on him and he ended up with multi-coloured clips across every strand.


I was doing better, still crying a lot but it wasn't like it was, after the diagnosis was made official I stopped hating myself just a touch although forgiveness was still a way off.


Being without Jayce was getting harder. I hadn’t been to school so I didn't get to see him there either, we ended up mostly talking on the phone but it wasn't the same. Tara was also watching him like a hawk even when he was there, he'd had a scout come to the house and she wouldn't even let them be alone in case he used it as an opportunity to slip out and meet me.


I was going back to school tomorrow and I wasn't sure how it would be between us when we got there, we'd been through something neither of us ever expected, something that had untied us in pain and yet we felt further apart than ever before. It wasn't through lack of trying but there were just so many road blocks now.


I'd just finished food and was saying goodbye to Chad when my phone buzzed. It was a message from an unknown number.


'Walk Chad to his car and stay there when he leaves. J'


Jayce?


I told Brie I was just walking Chad out as Granny went to take May to bed, I knew it would give me a bit of time before she realised I was gone, she wasn't going to break her word to Dad by letting me see him.


Chad didn't try to hold my hand as we walked, he wouldn't try to initiate contact as much since the hospital. He knew I needed some space, he hadn't even asked if I could stay at his place, which I was grateful for because I knew with everything that I had been through I wouldn't be able to let it happen again anyway.


"So you okay with going back tomorrow?" He asked as he slid into the front seat.


"Yeah, I'm okay. Just going to be weird, Kallie has let me borrow all her notes so I'm all caught up now. Just don't want to deal with everyone asking questions." Most people didn't disappear for over a week without people asking where they've been.


"Oh it's okay, I've covered that already. Told everyone you had wicked food poisoning that was shooting out both ends, don't think anyone's going to want to know anymore about that."


I am going to fucking kill him.


I slap him hard on the shoulder. "You seriously couldn’t think of anything else?! Couldn't tell people I was on a Mediterranean cruise or something? No. Your only option was chronic diarrhoea!"


I kept smacking him but he just laughed, my blows probably felt like kitten paws tickling his hard biceps.


"Sorry! It was the first thing that came to mind. Could you please stop hitting me now, I have something I need to ask you?"


I relented my attack slightly but made sure to give him one quick punch to the upper arm first. "What?!"


He smirked. "Can I take you out Friday?"


I froze. What did he mean out? Like outside the house or out out?


"Chill Ally, I don't mean like a date out, there's just somewhere I want to take you if you're feeling up to it. Take your mind off things for the night."


I definitely needed to get out. I'd been nowhere in over a week but the hospital and Granny’s house.


"Not a date?" I just wanted some clarification.


He wiggled his eyebrows at me. "Do you want it to be?"


I really didn't need that right now. I just needed a mate. "Not if you actually want me to come."


He let out a laugh that radiated from his chest. "Not a date senorita, no candles, no flowers and don't dress up. You might get messy."


I eye him suspiciously, what was he up to?


"Okay. Friday. Sounds good." He smiled, grabbing my hand and kissing it gently before pulling off down the road.

The second his car was out of sight, Jayce’s black mustang was in front of me. The window wound down quickly and his husky voice came through. "Get in."


I looked back to see Brie looking at me through the living room window, she glanced up the stairs then put her thumbs up and placed five fingers against the glass. I had five minutes.


I hadn't even got my belt on when Jayce pulled off down the street and into one of the spaces at the exit of the park. He turned the engine off and slid his arms under my body, pulling me from the seat into his lap.


"I'm sorry I couldn't get to you sooner." His face burying into the crook of my neck as I breathed deeply taking in his scent, it was still so comforting.


"We don't have long. Granny checks on me constantly, it's like I'm under police protection or something." I ran my fingers through his hair and he turns up to face me. His skin has lost all its life, this week has been so hard on him. I've been surrounded by people but it looks like he's had no-one, it kills me to see him like this.


"I know, I just had to see you. Your Dad was late getting back and Mum needed to run Milo to the store, I just took the opportunity while I could. I'm pretty sure she's tracking my phone so I borrowed a burner off Harley yesterday and left mine there."


He'd seen Harley? And Josh I guess too. I knew Harley had told Josh about us a few days ago, Josh was cool with it, said it actually made a lot of things more clear for him. I'm glad he had them there for him, although I knew Jayce would only let them in so much.


We just sat there in each others arms for a minute, not talking, I just wanted to feel him. I knew we weren't together anymore but the moment I was with him I just forgot all that. We fit so perfectly, we were practically made to be together but it always seemed whenever we got close to happiness the world would step in and put an end to it. Destiny was not on our side.


"You have to take me back now Jayce." I whisper, my head lent against his shoulder, never actually wanting to leave.


"One more minute. Please." His grip on me tightening, his hand where it always seemed to go at the moment, lent gently against my stomach. "I can't not see you Lee, being apart from you is killing me. I know you're not ready yet for us to be together but I want you to know that you're in my mind every second and when you are, we're going to make this work. We can run from this place, go somewhere it's just the two of us and no-one can keep us apart. Just say the word and we'll leave, I'd go anywhere to be with you."


I wasn’t ready, I couldn’t promise I ever would be but right now in this moment I wanted nothing more than to get back in that seat and let him drive us away together, far far away from here.

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