by Nikki Ash
“You may kiss the bride,” the Ordain Minister says and they kiss. Because of the small ceremony Kayla insisted on, Liz and I are her only bridesmaids and Cooper and Caleb are the groomsmen. Everybody claps and then we take off to Kayla and Bentley’s new home for their reception-slash-house warming party. As an engagement present, Bentley surprised Kayla by purchasing the home of her dreams, which is also right down the street from Liz’s house. I look over at Caleb and he gives me a small smile. He looks sexy as hell dressed in slacks and a button down dress shirt, but I still prefer him in nothing but a towel hanging from his hips. It’s like he knows what I’m thinking when he raises a brow and gives me a cocky smirk.
I shake my head and walk over to him. “Heading over to the house?”
“Yeah. You?”
“Yep, I guess I’ll see you there.” I’m about to walk away when he grabs me by my elbow, forcing me to stop in my place in shock. Caleb has never willingly touched me.
“Hey, do you think maybe we could grab a bite to eat one day?”
“Like as a date?” I don’t want to assume anything.
He contemplates my question for a second. “Umm… As friends.”
It’s a good thing I didn’t assume. “Friends… Yeah, sure. Just let me know when.”
His phone dings, alerting him of a text message and he frowns at whoever is texting him. He puts it back in his pocket and looks back up at me.
“That was Marco. He didn’t realize the gym was closed and needs me to meet him there to give him some money. I’m trying to figure out how to help him without turning his mom into the Department of Children and Families. I’m looking into some rehab facilities that run off private donations to those with kids who can’t afford it, but even then she would need someone to take care of them unless she can do outpatient or something.”
“That’s really sweet of you. He’s lucky to have you in his life. If you need any help, please let me know.”
“Thanks.”
We both head out to our cars and go our separate ways, him to the gym and me to the party.
A little while later he arrives at the reception looking completely distracted.
“Hey, is everything okay with Marco?”
“I’m not sure. Marco is acting off. I think something is going on at his house. I’m going to head over there after the party and check on him.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
“No, I appreciate it, but I would rather you not be in that area. It’s not a good neighborhood.”
“Okay, well, if you need anything let me know.”
“Thank you, I will.”
I give him a smile and reach for his arm to give it a friendly squeeze before I remember he’s not keen on me touching him. I pull back just in time, give him another smile, and walk away. God, he must think I am so weird.
Walking over to the kitchen to grab a drink, I spot a bunch of people dancing outside in the backyard on the makeshift dance floor. I make myself a Malibu lemonade and head out back to watch the drunken silliness.
“Get over here, Roberts!” Alex yells over the music. I shake my head. “C’mon! Now!”
I can’t help but laugh. He is definitely one of those drunks.
After he begs some more, I give in.
After taking another sip of my drink, I put it on the table and walk over to join him on the dance floor. The music is pumping, so I sway my hips to the music. Alex stands behind me and dances up against me. I look over and see Caleb watching us. He almost looks… pissed? But that can’t be right. He wouldn’t care who I’m dancing with. The song changes to a slow song and the deejay tells the newlyweds to get on the dance floor to join in. Caleb’s eyes still haven’t left mine. He walks my way and I’m frozen in place. I hear Alex saying my name, but I tune him out, only focusing on Caleb.
“I’m cutting in,” Caleb says to Alex, his eyes never leaving mine.
A second later I’m in Caleb’s arms swaying to the tune of Jason Derulo’s Marry Me. Knowing he doesn’t like me to touch him, I have no idea what to do with my hands. He notices and frowns. Then, taking my hands in his, places them around his neck, as he pulls me closer to him. He wraps his arms around my waist and settles his hands at the small of my back. We dance for a few minutes in a comfortable silence staring into each other’s eyes. I can’t help but think how natural it feels to be in Caleb’s arms, like this is exactly where I belong.
Unfortunately his phone vibrates in his pocket ending the moment too soon. He looks down at his phone and then back up at me. With what looks like a silent apology, for what I don’t know, he gives me a small kiss on my cheek and whispers, “It’s Marco. I have to go. Thank you for this dance.”
As he walks away, my heart pounds against my ribcage from his closeness. His words do crazy things to my body, and when his lips brushed across my cheek, I wanted to grab his face and not let go. But I know he needs to be there for Marco, so without saying a word, I watch him walk away.
Chapter Eight
Caleb
Seeing Kayla laughing and smiling makes my day. That woman deserves her happily ever after, that’s for damn sure. It has taken a little while but Bentley and her are finally in a good place, and as their best friend, it makes me damn happy to see them like this. The wedding was nice and simple just like Kayla wanted. The reception at their place is a whole other story. There are decorations everywhere including a huge sign announcing their marriage. There’s catered food aligning the walls inside, and outside there’s a deejay playing music. The kids have all left and it’s just drunk adults left celebrating their wedding as well as New Year’s Eve.
Grabbing a beer after talking with Hayley, I head outside to find Kaden or Cooper when I see Alex and Hayley dancing close on the makeshift dance floor. I have never wanted to dance with a woman as much as I do right now. She has her head thrown back in a laugh at something he said and it reminds me of the other day in the gym. I want to be the guy making her laugh.
The music shifts to a slow song and throwing caution to the wind, go for it. It will be my choice to ask her to dance. She looks over at me and gives me a small smile. She is absolutely stunning and I can’t even take my eyes off her.
“I’m cutting in,” I let Alex know. He nods and walks away. As I try to dance with Hayley, I notice she isn’t putting her arms around me. I don’t blame her. Every time she’s attempted to touch me, whether on purpose or on accident, I made it clear her touch wasn’t welcome. I need to change that.
Taking her delicate hands in mine, I bring them up and wrap them around my neck and then wrap mine around her perfect waist. We dance to some song about getting married, but the only thing on my mind is how for once in my life the touch of a woman feels good. Her small body fits perfectly in mine. We don’t talk, but it’s not awkward. Looking into her eyes is like finding water in a desert. I suddenly feel replenished.
My cell vibrates in my pocket. I want to ignore it, but the fear that it might be Marco makes me grab it out of my pocket to look. Sure enough, it is.
Marco: I need you to come to my house.
Knowing I just left there from dropping him off and giving him some money, it must be important. I look at Hayley and wish I could ignore the text and continue to dance with her, but also know Marco can be in trouble. I try to relay to her I’m sorry.
Before I can walk away I give her a kiss on her cheek. It’s warm and a bit flushed and it makes me want to kiss her in other places. “It’s Marco. I have to go. Thank you for this dance.” Before she can respond, I walk out needing to get to Marco.
Arriving at Marco’s place, I see a couple cars along the road in front of his house I don’t recognize. This shit can’t be good. I jump out of my car and can immediately hear screaming from inside. Without knocking, I go right in and take in the sight in front of me. Marco’s mom is on the floor naked, on all fours being fucked from behind by one guy, while another guy is holding Marco back from trying to stop it from happen
ing. I can also hear the baby crying in another room. I assess the situation and don’t see any guns drawn. They probably didn’t think it would be needed since Marco and his mom would be helpless against them.
I take one look at Marco’s pleading eyes, the tears silently falling, and I lose it. I grab the guy fucking his mom by the neck, pulling him out of her, and push him up against the wall. I start punching him in the face repeatedly, hoping to knock him out. In my peripheral vision I see the other guy drop Marco from the wall and stalk toward me. Leaving the guy bleeding against the wall, I turn toward him to find out I was wrong about the gun. He grabs the gun from the front of his pants and shoots me in the shoulder.
The pain is unbearable, but I can’t go down without a fight. I should have called the police. I should have called someone, but I didn’t. So now I’m here and need to try to at least save Marco and his sister before I bleed out. I walk up to the guy with the gun and knock it out of his hand before he can shoot me again. We start rolling around on the floor grappling. Both of us are getting punches in and I just pray I can hold on long enough to beat the shit out of this guy to the point he will black out so I can call the cops.
Unfortunately before that happens the door swings open and two more guys I don’t recognize walk in.
“Go shut that fucking baby up!” the guy booms and Estella, Marco’s mom, runs to the room to calm the baby down. They grab me by my arms and I know I don’t stand a chance. There’s too many of them. They begin punching me in my ribs over and over again. When my legs give out on me, they throw me to the ground and begin kicking me, and then I hear a gunshot and everything goes black.
Chapter Nine
Hayley
There is no way I’ve been asleep more than a few minutes when my phone goes off. I attempt to ignore it, keeping my eyes closed so I don’t get dizzy. I didn’t get ridiculously drunk tonight, but I definitely drank enough to have a hangover in the morning. I ended up taking a cab home after the ball dropped, leaving my vehicle at Kayla’s house. I’ll have to ask someone to take me to get my car in the morning. I was hoping Caleb would return, but he never did. I hope everything is okay with Marco.
My phone rings again. Whoever is calling must really need to get ahold of me. Looking at my cell phone, I see it’s four in the morning and Kayla is the person who keeps calling me. Jeez! I was actually asleep for almost three hours.
“Hey! Everything okay?” For Kayla to be calling me on her wedding night, something has to be wrong.
“No, it’s not. Caleb is in the hospital. We don’t know the details, but it’s not good, Hayley.”
This wakes me up. I grab some clothes on the dresser that I didn’t get around to putting away yet and quickly get dressed. As I’m looking around for my keys, I remember I have no car. Shit!
“Hey can you swing by and get me? My car is at your house!”
She tells Bentley to pick me up. Luckily my house is on the way to the hospital so they don’t have to go out of their way. We hang up and I go outside to wait for them so they don’t have to stop for too long.
We get to the hospital and Bentley goes to the nurse to get answers on Caleb. We don’t know anything about his family, but Caleb having no emergency contact listed other than Bentley is a good indication they aren’t in the picture. The nurse tells us to have a seat and she’ll come out to update us as soon as she can.
A few minutes later she begins explaining Caleb’s condition as Cooper and Liz come running through the door out of breath along with Kaden and Ashley.
“Is he okay?” “What happened?” Liz and Cooper ask at the same time.
“The nurse is about to tell us right now,” Bentley says, turning back to the nurse and indicating for her to continue.
“Mr. Michaels is currently in the ICU but stable. We’re prepping him for surgery. He was brought in a couple hours ago, but we needed to stabilize him and assess his injuries. He experienced two gunshot wounds, one to the shoulder, and one to the chest. Luckily the one to the chest didn’t hit any major arteries.”
I gasp hearing he’s been shot. Immediately my mind goes to those guys going after Marco.
“He was beaten pretty badly. We think he has several broken ribs and his leg appears to be broken. We’ll know more once he’s finished being prepped and taken into surgery. Please stay out here and once we know more we’ll let you know.”
“Thank you,” Bentley says. I can’t help but wonder how this happened. He left clearly worried about Marco. It had to have had something to do with those drug dealer guys from the other day.
While waiting to hear something, I decide to seek answers. I can’t get this horrible feeling out of my head. If this has something to do with Marco, is he okay? Just as I make the decision to find a police officer, I see Marco come in and with him is a police officer holding his baby sister. Marco isn’t crying, though. He looks numb. His baby sister is crying loudly and he’s attempting to soothe her.
“Marco, what happened?”
“My mom is dead and they beat up and shot Caleb.”
Oh God! I knew it! I knew this had something to do with Marco. Trying to remain calm, I put my hands out to take his sister from the police officer.
“Are you a friend of the family?” the officer asks.
“I’m a friend of Marco’s. I’m a doctor at the gym he works out at and the gentleman who was at his house, Caleb, is a friend of ours,” I say, pointing to everyone around me.
The officer hands me Chloe. “We need to get them both checked out to make sure they’re okay.”
Marco and I sit down and I rock Chloe, trying to calm her. Marco rubs her back trying to soothe her as well. The nurse comes over and hands me a bottle of formula. After thanking her, I feed the precious baby. With her belly full, I burp her, and within minutes she passes right out in my arms.
A few minutes later, the nurse calls Marco and Chloe back, and I go with the officer to have them checked out. Once the doctor confirms they’re both healthy and not injured in any way, the police officer takes Marco’s statement.
In a nutshell, the men came to Marco’s house to get money from his mom. When she said no, one guy forced himself on her while the other guy held Marco back. Caleb tried to save them and was beaten and shot. Marco’s mom went to the room to quiet Chloe down because her crying was making the men mad, but she never came back out of her room. When the police got there and Marco went in to let her know the cops were there, he found her dead. She overdosed on drugs in her bedroom.
It’s absolutely heartbreaking to listen to his recount of what happened, to hear what he witnessed. Once he’s done we go back out to the waiting room and I sit next to Kayla.
“Have you heard anything on Caleb yet?”
“No, not yet. Are the kids okay?”
“Yeah, the doctor said neither of them were physically hurt.” I don’t have to say anything for her to know what I mean. Marco is going to need to see a therapist. He’s going to need a loving and supportive home and somebody to talk to. Luckily his sister is too young to remember anything.
“I’m assuming this is Marco’s sister?”
“Yeah, she’s a sweet thing, isn’t she?”
I see the officer standing in the corner and want to ask him some questions. “Would you mind holding her for a few minutes. I want to speak to the police officer.”
“Absolutely.”
I carefully hand her Chloe and then look over and see Marco is sleeping. I can’t even imagine the nightmares he will have. Walking over to the officer, I reintroduce myself.
“Excuse me, I was wondering if you have contacted the Department of Children and Families?”
“Yes, ma’am. Somebody is on their way.”
“Did you catch the guys who did this to Caleb?”
“We have them in custody. Because the neighbor called so quickly after hearing the first gunshot we were able to catch them leaving the scene. We’re compiling evidence now, but we should have enough to put
them away for a long time.”
“Good. I hope they rot in prison. Thank you, officer.”
I head back to Marco and, putting my arm around him, hold him close. He may have had a shitty mom, but losing her can’t be easy, and to be the one who found her, my heart is breaking for him.
Within an hour a sweet woman from DCF arrives. Marco moves closer to me when she says she needs to place them in an emergency foster home for the night.
“Can he please stay with me?” I beg. The kid has been through enough. “I’m actually an approved foster parent.”
“What about Chloe?” Marco begins crying. I completely forgot about Chloe. My only thoughts were taking care of Marco. It doesn’t surprise me that even after everything Marco has been through his number one concern is the welfare of his sister.
“I can take her as well. I just don’t have a crib or diapers or anything for a baby.” I begin to panic, mentally making a list of everything I would need.
“We can take her,” Kayla says. “We actually have an application in to foster since it’s the first step to adopt. We recently submitted it and it might even already be approved. Because of the holidays I haven’t checked.”
“Okay, I’ll need a copy of both your driver’s licenses and social security cards. I’ll call my supervisor and check on your fostering statuses.”
“Thank you,” I say, continuing to hold Marco close, letting him know I’m not leaving his side.
I look over at Bentley and Kayla cooing over Chloe and can’t help but wonder if maybe this was God’s way of intervening on these children’s behalf—taking a tragedy and giving them their own little miracle.
While waiting to hear back from the DCF worker, a doctor comes out and lets us know Caleb is out of surgery. Looking at the time, I see it’s just after seven in the morning. Marco is asleep with his head on my shoulder and Chloe is still asleep in Kayla’s arms.
