Rekindled Love

I Promise

The entire day, my head had been spinning. I know better than to take Carl's threats lightly but I also refuse to do what he wishes because I don't want Albert to fall into this crap again and I don't want the girls to find it under their own roof.

I just seemed to have gotten Ruby's trust, she was about to tell me yes, I was sure of it.

After the brick crashed through the window, she seemed pretty frightened so I told her to go upstairs and lay down for an hour or two. Meanwhile, I cleaned the mess up and called for a repair man to fix the window either today or tomorrow but preferably today before the children come back.

Luckily, the repair man said he'd be here in half an hour. I picked the pieces up in the living room and tossed them in the trash while I waited. "So how'd this happen?" The repair man said, once he arrived and began to do his job. His name tag read: Sal.

"I'm not really sure, I didn't get to see who it was." I lie, "But if I had to guess, I'd say it was probably one of the mischievous kids from the neighborhood. You know how kids can be, right."

Sal nods, chuckling. "You got that right. I bet you were pretty lucky that you weren't standing in the way of it, huh."

I nod. "Yeah, it was just me and my girlfriend here at the time and luckily we were both no where near that window." Sal nods in agreement, in a few minutes he has already removed the ruined window and began to replace it with a new one. In total, it must've took him about an hour or so to finish it completely.

"That'll be fifty-eight dollars." Sal says once he finished packing his equipment. I hand the money to him and thank him for his service. "If I were you, I'd say something to the neighbors. Just to keep a sharp eye on their kids, y'know?"

"Yeah, that's a good idea." I breathe. "Thanks, again." He gives me another nod and walks out the door. Once closed, I hurry to the kitchen to get started on dinner. A few minutes or so later, i hear Ruby walking down the stairs. She makes her way into the kitchen with me. "How do you feel?"

"I'm alright," She smiles. She never really gave me her answer, I just assumed it was a yes. Now with her right in front of me, I can't help but wonder if my assumption is right. It has to be, doesn't it? What else could she have said?

I continue to stir the pasta a little more until it's time for me to pour the water out and toss in the meatballs. I then pour the sauce and give it another stir, letting it boil for a minute longer before turning it off.

"I see you made your famous spaghetti and meatballs." She beams, "it smells delicious." This dish has always been her favorite.

"You could have a little, if you want." I offer, "the children won't be home for another hour or two." She shakes her head.

"Thanks but I actually wanted to talk to you about earlier." Her answer. She's going to tell me yes!

"Alright," I act cool. "What about it?"

She breathes in and out for a quick second before she opens her mouth. "The incident with the brick and the window sort of freaked me out a bit," she says. "I was wondering if you had any idea as to who it was? As the owner of this house, you can report it as vandalism. I'm sure you'd get some type of —"

"That's really not necessary." I thought she was going to tell me yes, instead, she tells me about the darned accident with the brick? She shouldn't even have to worry about that. It was just Carl being his stupid and idiotic self.

"But —"

"Really, there's nothing to worry about." I say, walking out of the kitchen and up to my bedroom.

I know I have no right to be hurt or angry that she didn't say the one word I really want her to say but I am. I'm disappointed that she didn't say what I hoped she'd say. I got my own hopes up for something that I guess deep down I knew wouldn't happen. But you can't blame me. You can't blame me for being a human with the ability to hope.

I glare at my phone, laying on the bed.

If I don't do something about Carl, Ruby would. She'd report the vandalism and it'd get her involved in this and I don't want her anywhere near it.

Huffing, I snagged my phone from the bed and typed a message to Carl. It's better that I deal with him myself rather than Ruby to beat me to it. Carl wouldn't care if she's a woman, if he gets busted because of her, he'd hunt her down.

Nicolas: If you're going to make threats, make them directly. Not in my home where either of the girls or my son could be harmed. Got it?

I guess I wasn't anticipating his response because when the phone beeped, alerting me that I had a new message, I sort of jumped in surprise.

Carl: You're man enough to send me a message but not man enough to do what I asked. Stop kidding yourself, Nicolas.

Carl: Besides, you of all people, should know that I take my threats seriously and I keep my damn word when I do. You're no exception. You're another victim.

I don't get a chance to reply because a soft knock startles me. "Who is it?" Silly question, no one is home besides me and Ruby.

"Um." She says, "Me?"

"Come on in," I allow, "It's open."

The door swings open and she offers me a warm smile, careful enough to not make me angry even though it has nothing to do with her. "Nicolas, about what happened a while ago down in the kitchen," She fumbles nervously. "I didn't mean to make you angry. That's not even what I wanted to originally tell you. I guess I just chickened out. I'm sorry if I made you angry."

I shake my head. "It has nothing to do with you," I say sincerely. "What did you really want to say?"

She smiles again, brighter. "Yes."

"Yes?" I beam, "Yes!? Oh thank goodness!" I couldn't hold on my enthusiasm. I wrapped my arms around her in an instant. I even went as far as swinging her around. I just couldn't believe it.

I've been wanting this second chance for a long time and I finally have it.

I set her down and place a gentle kiss on her lips, "I won't hurt you, you won't regret this, mon ange, you won't."

She releases a soft chortle, smiling up at me. "I sure hope not because I don't think I could handle it again."

"Never," I cuff her face in my hands. "Never again would I hurt you. I promise."

Is this going to go well? Or not?

I know most of you didn't want these two to get back together because of the awful things Nicolas has done to Ruby but she's a naive yet hopeless romantic who managed to fall for her first husband, what can you say? We can just hope he doesn't fuck this up.

So, she said yes to dating him but there is still so much more for this story. And if you've read the epilogue for "The Forbidden One" you know what I'm talking about. (I hope) ;)

See you soon!