Fallen Woman

by Stephie Walls

  When they walked off and I turned back to the huddle, they seemed in awe. “When did that happen?” Max was baffled. “I’ve never met that man before.”

  “He’s great with all of them. You know he adopted Derrick and my three?” They all agreed they knew. “Emmy snagged his heart months ago and won’t let him go. She has him so tightly wound around her finger it’s unreal.” I couldn’t help but smile as I shared.

  “You guys doing okay? We all miss both of you; you know that right?” Drake could be a jerk, but all in all, he was a good guy.

  “We miss you guys, too. Things have been crazy with the Holland stuff and getting married, adoptions. Our lives are just really different now.”

  Just as I finished my sentence, my husband and youngest daughter joined us. Emmy charged the way and waved as she went back down the little hill to play.

  “Crisis averted.” Jase was talking to me, but his friends jumped in.

  “When did you become Mr. Mom? Dude—you have a family!” Their banter was endearing and masculine. They were happy for him, for us. And I hoped we’d be able to move beyond everything with Holland in time and start to live a normal life. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind Jase missed these men, and he needed to find a way to incorporate them into his new life.

  We hung out with his crew while the kids played and then all ate dinner together. Penelope’s festivities ran well into the night, and at almost ten, the kids were struggling and started to whine. Emmy fell asleep in Jase’s lap an hour before the others gave out. The two of them belonged together. They were a Hallmark card in the making. I might be a tad biased, but he was one of the most stunning men I’d ever seen, beautiful actually, and Emmy was perfection. Two gorgeous creatures—her tucked into his chest and his muscular arms securing her there. I wished I had a camera.

  “Jase, we’re going to need to get going. The kids are tired.” I tried to whisper to him so he could make way for our exit. “And maybe you should encourage the guys to come over sometime.” My smile was masked by the darkness of the night sky and softened by the glow of the moon.

  We said goodbye to his family, which seemed to take an eternity. Then, each of Jase’s friends picked up a sleepy child and helped us carry them all to the car. I climbed inside to give my husband a few minutes alone with his buddies. I hoped they’d mended fences and could resume their relationship. We needed them in our lives.

  ~~~

  Mid-morning the following Monday, Jase’s grandfather called the house. I’d met him at the party, and he’d seemed pleasant enough, but a bit stern for my liking. It was easy to see how Penelope railroaded him to get her way, and sadly, I could see Emmy being that way with Jase down the road. We had exchanged pleasantries before he asked to speak with my husband.

  Handing off the phone, I left the room to give him some privacy. He’d predicted his grandfather’s call. Jase knew he’d call him back, but it didn’t sit well with me. The fact the board didn’t even give Jase a chance to explain himself or offer up his side of the story bothered me. My husband had been devoted to that business his entire career, and when things got bumpy, not only did his family basically fire him, but they also bailed on him instead of rallying their support and showing a unified front. Obviously, I have no family, so I didn’t have anything to compare it to other than lame C-list movies on Lifetime, but it just didn’t seem right.

  I kept my mouth shut and my opinion to myself. Jase loved his family and was close to his grandfather. There was no need for me to upset him, and as little as I’d been around them up to this point, it was safe to say they wouldn’t be by on a daily basis. That might change some once Jase had biological children, but I could’ve gotten used to having his mom around all the time—she was a completely different story from the stuffy old men she was related to.

  Flipping through the channels, sitting in my husband’s favorite chair in his cave, I could hear the sounds of the kids playing as they ran around the house. It brought me great joy for them to feel secure and settled, to have a home. They deserved two parents who loved them and wanted the best for them. I didn’t have a role model for what that should look like, but I was feeling my way through it, and with Jase by my side, we’d be okay.

  He startled me from my thoughts when he turned the corner into the room. I’d expected him to be happy, ready to embark on a new day back at the office in the morning. What I encountered was a man who appeared weighted down. I couldn’t imagine the conversation would have gone any other way than positively, but maybe my intuition had been off.

  I scurried to sit up to address him. “What’s wrong? Did that not go well?”

  He flopped down in the seat next to me and lounged backward. “It did. I mean it went like I thought it would. The board approved my return as early as tomorrow. My grandfather loved the kids, thought you were beautiful and charming—obviously well educated. The rest of my family is thrilled for us. You know, the usual crap families tell each other.”

  “So what’s the problem?”

  He took in a deep breath, expanding his rib cage dramatically, then let it rush out in a huff. “I just don’t know how I feel about going back.” Steel gray eyes locked on mine. He held my gaze for a second, waiting for a response.

  “Do you not want to?” I didn’t know what this would mean for us. Jase had assured me money would never be an issue for us or our children, but so much of his identity was tied to that building. To that business.

  His hesitation was a strong indication there was something on the tip of his tongue he didn’t know how to share. “What do you think about selling the house? Moving. Starting over.” Sitting straight up, he faced me and took my hand in his—connecting us physically. Stabilizing himself. Grounding me. “We can pick a place together. Find a house as a couple.”

  My eyes felt large and round, the lids pulled so far back they instantly dried from exposure. “You want to quit your job and move? To where?” Surely, he hadn’t really thought this through.

  “Anywhere. A small town. A slower pace. A community we can become a part of where the kids can thrive. I just need a change.” I watched as he seemed to search for words. “I’m disheartened with my family’s choice to ostracize me when I faced a hurdle. I’ve never been in trouble; I was a good kid. It’s not like this was an everyday occurrence, or someone was constantly bailing me out of jail. I defended my wife—a woman who’d been taken advantage of. But not one of them, not my mother, father, grandfather, the board, took the time to find out why I’d acted so out of character. That bothers me.”

  I nodded my understanding, hesitating to agree or disagree with him. While he may have been venting about his family, that was very different than my doing it. I wanted to be supportive but thought the best way to do that might’ve been to just lend him an ear.

  “Gianna, I’m serious. My future isn’t at Faston. It’s with you and the kids. Our baby.”

  “We don’t have to move for you to leave the company. Your friends are here…your family.”

  “Yep. And they’ll still be here when we leave. This…,” he waved his arms around, indicating the house, “is just too much. It’s not us; it’s a former me.”

  “How did you leave things with your grandfather? Is he expecting you at work tomorrow?” I didn’t want him to rush a decision that would affect the rest of our lives. He wasn’t irrational, or at least he hadn’t been in the past.

  “I told him I needed to talk to my wife about how we planned to proceed, and I would get back with him.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Jase loved Faston. He grew up running in the halls and playing on the elevators. It was always where he’d planned to be…where his family had planned for him to be…until me.

  “So, wife.” He gave me a goofy grin and made some silly face he thought was cute. “What do you say? Wanna throw caution to the wind? Blow this popsicle stand?”

  I learned long ago home isn’t a place. There’s no set destination on a map you
feel safe. It’s a feeling, an emotion you share with someone else. My home rests with Jase—along with my heart. I didn’t care where we lived as long as we were all together.

  “I say you’re the man of the house. You lead and I’ll follow…barefoot and pregnant.” I couldn’t help but laugh. If he wasn’t working and I wasn’t working, I’d likely spend the vast majority of the next couple years in my current state. Ten years ago, I never would have thought that life would appeal to me. It’s funny what a good man can do to your perception. “But, Jase. I do think you should sleep on it and call your grandfather tomorrow. There’s no race for us to uproot our lives. We can do it in our time.”

  Epilogue

  It took a lot longer than we’d expected to make our move. Even with Jase leaving Faston, he still had loose ends to tie up and projects to pass on to other people. We wanted to start over, but it had to be the right way.

  While he was dealing with the family business, I was tied up in legal issues regarding Holland. That coupled with four kids and a baby on the way kept me exhausted. I was right. Holland didn’t spend any time in jail—when you have the right amount of money, it seems you can buy your way out of just about anything, and that’s precisely what he did. There was an enormous donation made to the city police department, and the next day, Hart informed me the rape charges didn’t stick. He ended up with a hefty fine for the possession—not distribution—of Rohypnol and some piddly number of community service hours. All in all, it was a joke, but it got him off my husband’s back, so in the end, I got what I wanted.

  To this day, I’d never seen Holland in person again. The guys all came to stay with us and spent a weekend here and there. Willum and the girl he took to the symphony in my place had struck up quite the affair. I was thrilled for him and made him promise the next time he came to Townville, he’d bring Beth with him so we could get to know her. Max and his husband, Kip, were in the process of adopting a baby and had started spending more time in our tiny town. They’d joked about moving here, but something told me they might’ve really been looking for a place to settle down.

  It’s funny. We didn’t move that far. Only about two hours outside of the city, but our lives were so drastically different. Life here was about experience, not wealth, and so were the people. I’d worried a little about the kids starting first grade somewhere new, and Emmy starting kindergarten, but as long as they had each other, they seemed happy as happy as could be.

  Jase and I fell in love more every day. We’d settled into a routine that enabled us all to spend time doing what we loved. Every time I saw him playing with one of the kids, or holding baby Pearl while she slept, I was reminded of how far I had to fall to appreciate the rise.

  The End

  Acknowledgements

  It’s taken me three years to find my tribe…A group of women who support each other tirelessly and remind me daily that this ride is just as much about the journey as the destination. I couldn’t be more grateful for my TWOTs (Carina, Jeannine, Lauren, Leddy, Nicole, and Shari), LL, Marni, and Kristie.

  Linda. I’m not sure who’s stuck with who but here’s to release number two!

  Candy Sherbert. I’ll never be able to call you by your married name. Without you, I’d still be banging my head against the wall of the dance studio trying to figure out what ailed Emmy. Thank you for chronic lyme disease, entertaining me for hours on Friday afternoons, and never being one of them.

  Thank you to my readers, you give my stories life. Without you, they’re just words on a page. Moe, you go the furthest back and I love your loyalty. Giraffe 2017!

  Leddy, my person, my whore. “You complete me.”

  Jason. There are too many things to list so just…Thank you.

  Magoo. It’s always for you.

  About the Author

  Stephie writes tales of real love and romance. This is Stephie’s eighth novel.

  For more information:

  @StephieWalls

  StephieWalls2014

  www.StephieWalls.com

  stephie@stephiewalls.com

  Also by Stephie Walls

  Beauty Mark

  Metamorphosis

  Compass

  chimera

  Strangers