Alone in the elevator, I feel we can carry on our conversation. “So what did you see?” I ask.
“I see that he only sees you, Alyssa. We have to give them time alone, to bond. Your presence is stopping that from happening.”
“I can talk to him. We don’t have to leave. That’s not the answer, Eden. My best friend needs me right now. I’m not leaving her,” I tell him.
Eden opens the door to Laura’s hospital room. I take the tray of pancakes and set them down on the little table. “I found you some pancakes, Laura,” I say.
“Hey, Laura, you look a lot better. I’m really glad to see that,” he tells her.
“You are looking gorgeous as usual, Eden. Do you have any flaws?” Laura smiles as she asks him.
He smiles back at her. “Many of them. You know, Laura, I can see a glow about you,” he tells her as he sits down on the bed next to her. I hang back a little.
“He told you, huh?” she asks.
He nods and takes the back of his hand, running it over her pale cheek, then letting it rest on her shoulder. “You have nothing to fear. All is as it should be. I have seen the future, Laura, and it is good.”
He’s lying to her!
I can’t believe he’s making this up. I have to stop him. I move closer to him, reaching out to touch his shoulder to try to stop him from giving her any more false hope.
As I touch his shoulder, images begin to appear in my head. There’s a small boy with a head full of golden curls swinging in the backyard of the house we gave to them. Laura looks beautiful. She’s pregnant and smiling. Kyle pushes the swing and the little boy is laughing.
“Can you really see that?” she whispers.
“I can. Ask Alyssa. She saw it too. You’ll be a very happy family. There’s nothing to worry about,” Eden tells her as he pulls her hand up and kisses it gently.
A tear rolls down my cheek and I notice Laura has tears rolling down hers as well. “Eden, you have made me feel so much better. You have no idea.”
The door opens as the doctor comes in. “Hi guys,” he says as he enters. “Oh, tears. We can’t have any of those around here. How would you like to go home, Mrs. Stevens?”
Laura smiles at him. “I would love to go home.”
“Then get dressed. Eden, come with me, and bring your magic card so we can get her paid for and out of here,” the doctor says.
“Yes, sir,” Eden says as he follows him out of the room.
The doctor stops and turns around. “Laura, come see me within a month. My address is on the paperwork. I like to see my mothers once a month, as soon as possible. The nurse will be bringing some prenatal vitamins to you. Please take one a day and try to take them a bit more religiously than you did your birth control pills, young lady. Tell your husband congratulations for me, and I hope I’m invited to the real wedding, Ms. Tanner,” he tells her, then walks out.
Laura and I look at each other, then laugh. “Well, there you are, Ms. Tanner. Looks like you and junior are in good hands,” I say.
“Guess so,” she says as she gets up out of the hospital bed. “Now home we go. Am I ready for this, Al?”
I put my arm around her shoulders. “Probably not, but this life has a way of making us get ready for things we never expected.”
A nurse comes in to take Laura out in a wheelchair. “I’m fine. I can walk,” she tells the nurse.
“Hospital policy, Mrs. Stevens,” she says.
“Come on, Mrs. Stevens, just accept the free ride,” I tease her.
Eden meets us in the front of the hospital in Laura’s car. He jumps out when he sees us and helps Laura into the back seat. To my surprise he reaches across her, buckling her in.
“You doing okay?” he asks her.
“I’m fine, Eden. You don’t have to fuss over me,” she says.
“Let me fuss. I like it,” he tells her as he closes the door, then turns to help me in, buckling me in as well.
“He’s so attentive,” Laura comments.
“Yes, he is. I forget how attentive he can be,” I say offhandedly.
Eden gets in and drives us home to find Kyle laid out on the sofa, still asleep. “Looks like Big Daddy is catching up on his z’s,” I say.
“Alyssa!” Eden admonishes me. “Let’s go out back so they can have their privacy.”
The last thing I hear as Eden pulls me out the patio door is Laura’s voice. “Kyle, wake up. We have a lot to talk about.”
CHAPTER 70
KYLE
“Are you sure you’re okay with me doing this, Ally?” I ask.
“I think that, given the circumstances, it’s the best thing to do. In a normal situation, though, I wouldn’t really think it was the thing to do,” she answers.
“You said you saw us together and happy, so it must be the right thing to do,” I say as I take the small black box off of the dashboard of my truck.
I asked Ally not to show me what she saw. I prefer to be a little bit surprised.
I get out of the truck, putting the black box in my pocket, then turn to help her out of the truck. I reach up to catch her as she slides off the seat and into my arms. I hesitate before putting her down, looking into her deep blue eyes. I have to blink back the tears I feel welling up.
“You’re not okay with this, Ally. I hate that I’m making you feel this way. Shit, why did I have to hurry this thing with Laura?” I ask myself.
“Don’t blame yourself, Kyle. I’m the one to put all of the blame on. I should’ve handled it extremely differently,” she says as a tear runs down her cheek.
I wipe the tear from her cheek. “I don’t want you to do that to yourself. You had no choice, Ally. I did have choices. Unfortunately, I made some bad ones. I should’ve taken more responsibility. If I had done that, then this wouldn’t be happening right now,” I tell her, then pull her to me, hugging her tightly.
“You’ll be a fantastic husband and father, Kyle. I know that because you’ve been so good to me in real life and in our dreams. I just hope we can stop this dream marriage we have going. It’s making this so much harder for me to take,” she confesses to me.
I kiss the top of her head. She pulls her head off of my chest and looks up at me. Her eyes glisten with tears. These damn dreams are confusing me, and her too it seems. We fall asleep and wake up in a world where we’re making a life together. I feel closer to her with every dream we share. Now I’m going to be someone else’s husband and have children with her.
Ally shakes her head and says, “What kind of a brat am I? I’m happily married to the best guy in this world. Here I am wanting to have it all. I’m selfish to the core. My best friend needs you. You need her too. You can’t live the rest of this life without knowing what true love in the physical world is like. It wouldn’t be fair to you.”
“I guess you have to be careful about what you wish for, Ally. You have gifts you’ll need to learn to control. Maybe you can stop the dreams if you try hard enough. I don’t want to put a lot of pressure on you about it, but life is going to be kind of tough if I have to live like this forever,” I tell her.
She smiles up at me. “I believe you might be right, Kyle. I’ll make an effort to stop the dreams. If my wish to see what life would have been like with you came true, then I should be able to wish for it to stop.”
Taking her hand, I lead her to the house. “Things sure have changed quickly for all of us, Ally. My mom is going to freak out. I don’t even want to think about what Laura’s mom’s going do. Thankfully, you gave us this house. It’ll make things a lot easier,” I say as I open the door.
Laura’s sitting on the sofa, watching TV. “I’ll disappear out the back door so you two can be alone,” Ally whispers to me.
My heart is pounding in my chest. I make my way to her and she smiles up at me. A real smile, a genuine smile, a happy to see you smile. When Laura smiles, it radiates over her whole face. She’s beautiful and good, and she’s carrying my baby.
This is right
.
“Hi,” I say.
“Hi to you too.”
I kneel in front of her. My hands rest on her knees as her smile fades. “I love you, Laura.” My voice quivers and I swallow hard to steady it. “I want to ask you something and I don’t want you to answer right away. There isn’t just one reason why I’m asking you this. It’s for many reasons.”
Her light blue eyes darken and she frowns. “Kyle, wait,” she says and places her hands on top of mine. “You don’t have to do this. I’d never keep this baby from you.”
Moving my hands from under hers, I run them along her thighs. “Laura, please listen to me. You’re strong, smart, funny, and beautiful.” My hands run up to her waist and I pull her to me as I lean toward her. I place a light kiss on her lips. “You’re sexy as hell and make me feel like I’m the only guy on the planet you care to show that side of yourself to.”
The touch of her hand on my cheek makes me turn toward it and kiss her palm. Her words are quiet as she says, “You are the only one I care to show that part of myself to.”
Pressing my forehead to hers, I forge ahead. “I respect you, want the best for you, and for our child. Just know that I’m not asking this for the baby, Laura. I know you’re incapable of hurting a child to spite anyone. This is not something I’m doing to ensure you let me be a part of our child’s life.”
Her hands cup my face and she tilts my head, placing a kiss on my cheek. “It’s okay. I get what you’re saying, Kyle.” Gently, she pushes me back to my knees. “You’re a great guy. I know you want to do the right thing. We’re young and we’ll change as we continue to grow up. We’re nowhere near who we will become.”
I press my finger to her lips to silence her. “I know that, Laura. There are no guarantees in this life. There is the time you live in at the present and that’s what matters is right now. And right now, we love each other. Right now, I can’t think of spending a day without you. Right now, I can’t think of spending a night without you. And lastly, right now, you and I are going to have a baby and I want it done right.”
My finger still rests on her lips and she takes my hand, pulling it away. “I suppose you’re right. My mother left my real father when she got pregnant, panicked, and ended up marrying someone anyway while she was still pregnant. Their divorce, and the person I thought was my father leaving us, never to return, messed me up. I don’t want that for this child.”
“That won’t happen to this child,” I say, with a tap on her leg. “I’m not your father. I’m solid and you can count on me. We have this house, we have all the money we will ever need, and we have one another. Now I’d like for you to share my name. That way we can be a real family. Not a couple of kids who went and got knocked up.”
Her eyes glimmer with the beginning of tears and I lean up to kiss her. Her hands catch in my hair, holding me to her as if she doesn’t ever want to let me go. Finally, I pull back. “Kyle, you can ask me now. I’m ready.”
I get on one knee and pull the box from my pocket. The large, three-karat diamond shines like the sun as I open the case. Her hands fly to cover her mouth as an audible gasp falls out of it. “Laura Tanner, would you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?”
Tears flow over her pink cheeks and she leans towards me. A sob comes out of her mouth, then her arms are around my neck as she hugs me and whispers in my ear the one word I’ve been waiting to hear, “Yes.”
CHAPTER 71
ALYSSA
Eden is sitting by the swimming pool. He looks up at me when I walk out of the back door. He sets his cell phone down on the table and stands up, taking me in his arms. Tears flow out of my eyes as my cheek touches his shoulder.
“I know this is hard for you, Alyssa. You know it’s the right thing for them to do. You’ve seen that everything turns out well for them,” Eden tells me.
“Why does everything have to be so damn hard?” I ask him.
“To make us stronger,” he answers me.
“Just like your devil trainer, Beck, almost kills us with his workouts and somehow that makes us physically stronger?” I ask him.
“Pretty much the same, I guess. Maybe we all need our heart broken at least once, so we know what it feels like when love is lost. That way we know exactly how precious it is,” he tells me.
I pull my head up off of his shoulder. “Eden, you somehow always know the exact words to use to make me understand things I never thought I would.”
“It’s my job to make you feel better. You are my world, Alyssa,” he tells me.
“Eden, you’re my world too. I don’t know why I’m such a brat, but I intend to try my hardest to stop,” I tell him.
He wipes the tears from my eyes. “I have received some news that will take your mind off this for a while.”
“What?”
“We have to go back home in the morning,” he says.
“Eden, no, we can’t leave. Not right now when Laura will need me so much.”
“I have been shown what our next mission is. We have no choice,” he tells me.
“How bad is it?” I ask him.
“It’s a little hairy and pretty far away. We have to go get our passports.”
“How hairy?” I ask, feeling nervous.
“Where we are going, the weather can get rough pretty quickly. A small boy is going to get lost in the forest near his home. If we don’t intervene, he will die in a storm which comes up suddenly,” Eden tells me.
“This boy must be pretty important.”
“I guess he will be, but right now he’s an orphan and I’m afraid no one gets very upset at his disappearance. In fact, no one looks for him at all,” he says.
“Eden, that’s so sad. What are we supposed to do?”
“We have to go to him and bring him to safety.”
“So where are we going?” I ask.
“Korea,” he tells me, like it’s nothing.
“South Korea?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “The other one—the one where they hate Americans.”
“We have to do most of the mission as birds, don’t we?”
He nods. “It isn’t going to be easy, Alyssa. We’ll have help from some people in South Korea. A family there will take him in and raise him. We just have to get in, get him, and then get him over to them without being spotted by anyone,” he tells me, like it’s not a big deal.
“Eden, how old is this kid?” I ask.
“Three years old. He’ll be afraid of us, Alyssa. He’ll have no idea what we’re doing to him,” he tells me.
“I doubt there will be many times when we’re helping people and they realize we’re not there to eat them,” I say.
“Alyssa, you certainly have a unique way of looking at things,” Eden tells me.
The back door opens and Laura walks out. “Ally, can I talk to you for a minute?”
“I’ll leave you two alone,” Eden tells me and then walks back into the house.
Laura walks up to me, holding her hand out for me to see the engagement ring Kyle gave her. “It’s so beautiful. Thank you for helping him pick it out for me.”
I smile at her. “I’m happy you decided to accept his proposal. You two will be happy together and you’ll have a beautiful family.”
“Thank you, Al. Thanks for everything. You have no idea how much I appreciate it. Kyle and I have decided to go back to Cloudcroft to get some of our personal possessions and to tell our parents everything. There is so much to tell them,” she says.
“That’s good. You can get that out of the way and begin to move forward. Eden and I have to take off for home and then head off to North Korea to save a little orphan boy,” I say.
“Okay, just like that, huh?”
“Apparently. It came to Eden just a little while ago. He’s getting so in tune with his gifts. I guess his openness to all of this is helping him to figure these things out more quickly than I’m able to,” I say.
“You’re doing pretty well with it too,
Al. You sure are better at accepting the bizarre than I could’ve ever imagined,” she tells me.
“Once you guys are back and settled in, we’ll come for a short visit. I want to give you guys plenty of time to bond and get into a normal routine. You know you can use that credit card for all of your needs and wants, so please treat yourselves to some nice dates.”
She smiles back at me. “Damn, Al, this is all so generous. I can’t imagine how we can ever do enough for you guys to deserve it all.”
“You kept our secret, didn’t you? That’s a lot right there. You will do so much more for us in the future as well. You both deserve everything you get. I just want you to know that, Laura,” I tell her.
“I love you, Alyssa Fontaine. I’m going to miss you guys.”
“We haven’t done anything since we got here. We should all go out to dinner to celebrate your engagement and new baby,” I say.
Laura takes my hand and leads me back into the house. “Let’s go make the guys get cleaned up and take us out.”
Kyle stands up when we walk in the door. “Can you believe she said yes, Al?”
I smile at him. “Yes, I can. She would have been a fool not to. Congratulations, you guys. Laura and I have decided you two need to take us out to a fancy dinner to celebrate. I was thinking about the dinner cruise in Marina Del Rey that Eden and I went on.”
“Marina Del Rey, California?” Kyle asks.
“Yes, if you think that you can handle it, Laura,” I add.
With a nod, she says, “I would love to go. What do you think, Kyle?”
“I think, hell, yes,” he shouts.
Eden smiles at me. “Then let’s get ready and I’ll let Jeffrey know we need him to come and get us.”
Eden and I follow Kyle and Laura up the stairs to our rooms to get ready. I notice that Kyle and Laura look so much happier than they have in the last few days.
The thought that this is the way it’s supposed to be makes me feel better. I find that I’m feeling thankful for knowledge of the future. Without it, this would be practically impossible for me to take.
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