Whole Lot More

Chapter Forty Nine

Chapter Forty Nine

The rental car he got from the airport rumbled to life beneath him, the GPS set to her parents' address. The town was nice, small. Definitely smaller than what he was expecting, and especially small for someone who had been living in such a big city for so long.

But it had character.

It was one of those places where everyone knew everyone else, they all knew each other's business, and if you were new to town it was obvious.

The forty minute drive from the airport to her parents' house was nice, full of scenery which kept him busy. And he could definitely see why Brynne would have moved here with her parents when things were tough and it seemed like nothing could go right for her.

It was cute, in a small town kind of way.

Her parents' house was outside of what little town there had been, not another house for miles from the looks of it, and obviously on a bunch of land they owned. Lucky must be loving this he thought.

The dog had never really seemed like a dog that would like to live in a big city, where he had to go outside on a leash and couldn't run free; here obviously he could do just that.

He parked the car in her parents' driveway, hesitating as he got out and headed for the door. He had never met her parents before, much less really heard her talk all that much about them and this place, other than it brought back a lot of memories that were hard on her. So he really wasn't sure what to be expecting when he knocked on the door, or who he was expecting.

When the door opened, a man with salt and pepper hair stood in the doorway, looking at him questionably, "Can I help you?"

"Yes sir, I'm looking for Brynne, Brynne Matthews."

Alan Matthews stood in the doorway and frowned at the young man standing on his porch, "You're looking for Brynne? May I ask who you are?"

Before Martin could answer, Lucky came bounding out the door (through Alan's legs) and jumped on Martin, happily licking Martin's face with his tail wagging happily back and forth. Martin smiled and pet the dog, happy to know that she was definitely staying with her parents and that hopefully he would be able to see her soon.  He had finally managed to track her down.

"Sorry sir," Martin smiled sheepishly, trying to get Lucky to calm down, "My name's Martin. I'm her – her, I'm a friend of Brynne's."

"Oh, so you're Martin," Alan said.

"Has she talked about me?" Martin asked.

"A little bit here and there," Alan shrugged, "What are you doing here, son?"

"I came to see Brynne, to talk to her. I have something really important I have to tell her."

"So why not just call her?"

"She won't answer my calls sir, plus this is too important to tell her over the phone. I had to do it in person."

"Well unfortunately Brynne is out of town at the moment, so even if she did want to talk to you, it's not possible right now."

"Out of town?"

"Yes, she left this morning."

"Is she going to be back soon?" he asked.

"I'm not sure son, I wasn't home this morning when she left, only her mother was. So I really don't have the answer to that question and her mother is not home at the moment either."

Martin sighed because luck just wasn't on his side. She was out of town and no one knew when she'd be back.

"Do you think you could let her know that I was here? I'm going to have to head back to North Carolina here soon, but she can call me."

"I'll do that," Alan nodded, patting his leg and calling Lucky back in the house, "Sorry I couldn't help you son."

"That's okay Mr. Matthews, it was nice to meet you, please make sure to let Brynne know I stopped by and to call me, or I'll – I'll try to call her in a few days or something."

"I will son, have a nice flight back to North Carolina."

So, that was a bust.

*

Back at the airfield, Martin wasn't quite sure what to do. He wasn't going to sit in New York for a couple days hoping Brynne came back and maybe wanted to talk to him.

But he also didn't want to give up this easily.

Who says you have to give up though? You know where she is now, so just give her a couple days and come back again.

He wondered what Alan Matthews would think if Martin just randomly showed up on his doorstep again in a couple days?

It had been hard to read the man earlier; it was obvious Brynne had told them something's about Martin, but what had she told them? Did they know the whole story? How they met? How they fell in love with each other? That it was real? That he had fucked everything up by not telling her about Kaleen and the baby.

Fuck.

Kaleen and the baby.

It had been hours since she had called him to tell him she was going into labor. By now he could only imagine how many messages he had from her.

The plane was already gassed up and ready to go, and he figured why stop the inevitable? He wasn't going to get what he wanted here in New York tonight, and the sooner he got to North Carolina and Kaleen had the baby, the sooner he could get a paternity test and find out whether or not this baby really was his.

And if it was, then he'd do the right thing. He'd take care of the baby; he'd love the baby, just not its mother.

*

Brynne walked in her parents' house after a long day of therapist appointments, grocery shopping and various other errands she had to run.

She had also talked to Tara earlier in the day to see if Brynne were to find someplace new to build a brand new club, if Tara would be willing to move and be Brynne's manager. They had had a great conversation, and Tara had told Brynne she really had nothing else keeping her in Boston now that Fusion was gone so why the hell not?

Funny, that was exactly why Brynne had let her parents drag her back to New York.

So now all she had to do was start searching for somewhere new.

Her parents were sitting downstairs when she walked in, worried looks on her face. "Is there something wrong?" she asked them.

Alan Matthews looked at his daughter and smiled, "Sweetheart, why don't you have a seat?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing is really wrong exactly, but we had a visitor this afternoon, or I guess I should say you had a visitor this afternoon."

"I had a visitor? Did Julie just show up or something? Because I talked to Tara today and she was still in Boston, and no one else knows where I am..."

"Your visitor was Martin, honey. He showed up on the doorstep when you were gone this afternoon."

"Martin?" she swallowed, "Is he still here?" She couldn't help but swing her head around and look, expecting Martin to walk through one of the doors.

"I told him you were out of town."

"You what?" she asked.

"I wasn't sure how you would feel about him being here, so I told him you were out of town."

She didn't even know how she would feel with him being there, but shouldn't that be her choice and not her father's to make for her?

"What did he – what did he say?"

"Just that he had something important to tell you and he wanted to do it in person, but he wanted you to call him when you got in and got the message."

Brynne nodded, "Is that all?"

Alan nodded his head, "Yes, it is."

"Alright." She got up, feeling like her head was in the clouds, still unsure how she felt about Martin showing up on her parents' doorstep and headed upstairs. Hoping to sort some stuff out in her head and decide if and when she wanted to call him back.

*

Only 2 chapters left to go in this one, then it's on to the sequel!!