by Ellen Hutton
He was even more nervous when she opened the door to let him in. He walked in and he was surprised to see the little boy standing next to his mother and giving him a curious sideways look. Scarlet stepped back and urged the little boy forward.
“Logan,” she said in a soft melodious voice, “I want you to meet Lucas, he’s an old friend of your mothers.”
Logan smiled when he heard that Lucas was her old friend. He turned to look up at Scarlet.
“Can I show him my rocks?” he asked
“Yes, sure darling” she replied, “just try not to take all night”
“Okay,” the little boy said excitedly.
To Lucas’ surprise, Logan grabbed his hand and tugged him forward. Lucas relished the feel of the little fingers tugging at his hand. He followed him to his room where Logan proceeded to unload all the rocks in his collection. Lucas was impressed, they were all perfectly polished and well organized. He reminded him of himself which was odd since they had never met. He had imagined that if he had a son, this would be the types of things they did together.
“We should have dinner,” Scarlet said standing in the doorway. “I made mac and cheese for everyone.”
“My favorite” Logan exclaimed
He jumped to his feet and ran out of the room and into the kitchen. Lucas rose to his feet at a pace much slower than the little boy. He was shocked at how old the little boy made him feel.
“You doing alright?” Scarlet asked as he approached her.
He had been doing his best to focus on his son, but he couldn’t ignore how beautiful she was tonight. He had been shocked today when she offered to let him have dinner with them. He had been even more shocked when she told him she would let him into the child’s life. It was so new to him; if it had been his family, there wouldn’t have been any forgiveness. In retrospect, he had been wrong at every step, yet still, she opened up herself to him. He knew that he would never find another woman like her but after her speech, he knew that she would never accept him again. He had broken her heart and their son was the constant reminder.
“I’m doing great,” he said, “thank you again for this. I don’t deserve this but I’m glad you did it anyway.”
She nodded and turned towards the kitchen. Together they sat down to dinner. He was quite pleased with the lively conversation Logan kept up and he knew it was because Scarlet herself was so vibrant.
“Alright, you’ve had your fun tonight Logan,” Scarlet said after dinner, “Lucas here will be helping you to get ready for bed, is that alright?”
The little boy looked up at him as if he was assessing whether or not the man could do it. With a shrug of his little shoulders, it was decided that Lucas could help them.
“Okay,” Scarlet said, “just show him how it works.”
Logan walked out of the kitchen and Lucas followed. The little boy took him to his room and began pointing to things and giving instructions. Soon enough, he had helped him into his PJs and gotten his teeth brushed. He went to tuck him in and as he was about to stand the little boy tugged at his hand.
“Are you mommy’s husband?” the little boy asked with hopeful eyes.
Lucas could hear a voice saying ‘I wish’ in the back of his mind but he held it in.
“No” he replied with much more regret than he planned to let on.
“Will you come again?” he asked
“As much as you’d like me to” he replied
“Alright,” Logan said with a wide smile, “we can become best friends.”
Lucas felt as though his heart would burst. He tucked Logan in and stood to leave. When he got to the door he turned to look down at him one more time. Back in the kitchen, Scarlet was busy with the dishes he walked over to her and took a stack of plates from the table and put them on the counter next to her.
“Do you need some help?” he asked
“No, I’m just going to put them in the dishwasher” she replied looking up at him
Her green eyes twinkled, and he wanted to say something but he wasn’t sure what it was.
“I would like to come again.” He said
“You’re always welcome here” she replied, “I think we can also schedule a few days when you can take him. Maybe introduce him to your family.”
The thought fit perfectly into his mind, he would love to have his son and he would love to show him off to the world.
“Why are you doing this?” he asked
“He’s the best thing that ever happened to me.” She replied, “I have you to thank partially for that, and there’s enough love here to share.”
Lucas smiled wondering how he had let this woman out of his sights. He wanted her, he wanted all this, but he didn’t deserve it, at least not yet. He would work for her and prove that he was worthy of her love and their son’s love.
Chapter 21
Scarlet inhaled sharply to dispel another wave of nausea that hit her. She looked down at Logan who was happily eating his breakfast and cursed the school for sending him home with all sort of viruses. This was the second of its kind that she had caught, and she was doing her best to ignore the symptoms. After the company had been bought out by Lucas, she had decided to take an extended vacation to deal with her family issues. It had been two months since she reconciled with Lucas and they were still figuring out how things worked. They now spent most of their nights together and she had begun learning to deal with not having her son over the weekends, it was hard sharing but she loved the relationship that had developed between Logan and Lucas. They hadn’t signed any papers as yet because of Lucas’ lawyers but she thought it was time Logan learned Lucas was his father
There was a knock on the door and she rushed over to answer it. She looked through the peephole and saw her sister Cecile.
“Open up!” her sister shouted
She opened the door and found a smiling Cecile looking up at her.
“Wow, what happened to you?” Cecile asked
“Logan needs a more sanitary school” she replied
“I agree” Cecile replied
“What’s up,” Scarlet asked as she walked into the apartment
“I got my grades,” Cecile said, “all A’s and I have an exhibition coming up in two days. You have to come.”
“I’ll be there” she replied
“Alright so how are things with you and Luas, last I heard you two finally got this co-parenting thing going.”
“Yes, we have” Scarlet admitted.
She was both happy and sad. It was great that Logan had his father but the more time she spent with Lucas the more she loved him. He was a great man and she saw the love he had for his son. She couldn’t have imagined a better version of him. The only problem was that she didn’t think he loved her and she didn’t think it would be wise to reveal her feelings and mess up the tenuous bonds they had created.
“How do you feel about him now?” Cecile asked
“I have no idea” she replied, “I still love him but now I don’t know if it makes sense to feel that way seeing that we can’t ever be in love.”
“That’s not true” Cecile replied, “you should talk to him, see what he has to say.”
Scarlet was about to say something when another bout of nausea hit her. She rushed to the bathroom and emptied the egg sandwich she had managed to scarf down a few minutes before.
“Yikes, what did Logan bring home?” Cecile said coming into the bathroom and handing her a towel.
“I have no idea, but I’m moving him,” Scarlet said wiping sweat from her forehead.
“Is he sick too?” Cecile asked
“No, he’s fine” Scarlet replied, “I’m the only one who’s sensitive to these things.”
“So how do you know it’s a stomach flu?” Cecile asked
“These are the symptoms of it” she replied, “I’m tired all the time and I’m sick all the time.”
Cecile looked up at her skeptically and Scarlet felt a bit uncertain,
�
�Scarlet,” she said, “how is it that you’ve been pregnant before and you still can’t tell that you’re pregnant.”
“Wait what?” she asked incredulously “I’m not pregnant”
“You’re so pregnant.” Lianne said with a smirk, “wait, is it Lucas’ baby again!”
“Oh god,” Scarlet said lolling her head back. She was mortified.
“I have a pregnancy test n my bag, let me get it,” Cecile said
“Wait why do you have a test in your bag?” Scarlet asked as her sister ran out of the bathroom
“For moments like this” Cecile said from the sitting room.
She came into the bathroom and handed the box to Scarlet. Ripping it open., Scarlet looked over at her sister who was still standing there and watching her
“I see you vomit, I can see you pee?” She said
Scarlet shrugged and flushed the toilet before sitting down to pee. It took her a while to get anything out but finally, the test was complete, and they sat to wait the five minutes it would take the results to come through. It was the longest five minutes of her life and she prayed that the test wouldn’t come back positive.
Before she could take it up, Cecile grabbed it and stepped away from her.
“Now, before I tell you the results, you need to promise that you’ll tell him your feelings.” She said
“I can’t make any promises,” Scarlet said,
“Promise me,” Lianne said,
“I’ll talk to him about it,” she said
She grabbed the test from her sister’s hand and held it to her chest.
“I’ll talk to him eventually,” Scarlet said
She smiled but when she looked down, her smile turned to a frown. She was pregnant, and the obvious father was Lucas. How was it that she managed to get pregnant for the same guy twice? What were the odds that her one-night stand would turn out so tragically?
“I was right,” Scarlet said looking down at her.
“Unfortunately,” Scarlet replied
“You should talk to him” Lianne replied, “he may feel the same.”
Scarlet sighed. She couldn’t talk to Lucas just yet. He was out of the country for the next three days and she didn’t think this was the type of conversation they should have over the phone.
“I’ll talk to him when he gets back,” she said more to herself than to Cecile, “for now just keep this between us please.”
She would talk to him and then she would have another of his children. At least they had developed a good enough relationship to continue co-parenting. Even with these reassuring thoughts running through her mind, she still couldn’t help the sadness that engulfed her when she realized that she was building a family with the man she loved yet still he would never be hers. It was a hard pill to swallow and even harder to accept. Maybe she could start the process of letting him go once she had this baby, maybe she could find love elsewhere. She banished the thought; as long as Lucas was in her life, she could love no-one else.
Chapter 22
Lucas was nervous. He had never been this nervous in his entire life, in fact, he felt as if he would throw up.
“You got this” Melvin said patting him on the back.
He looked around the art studio that he had rented for this exact moment. Candles littered the room and he had filled it with red roses that gave off a beautiful smell. For a month he had spent all his time mooning over Scarlet until he realized that she loved him just as much as he loved her. She hadn’t said it, but she had shown him every day. She had accommodated him, treated him as if nothing had happened between them. If he could have gone to her home every night, he would have and she would have let him. She didn’t need to say anything, it was evident.
“Are you sure she’s coming?” he asked her sister Cecile who had helped him to set all this up.
“She couldn’t miss this” her sister replied, “I would literally kill her.
“Good,” Lucas said
Not long after they heard the sound of a car pulling up. Lianne went to the door to greet her and Melvin left the room. He waited for her for what seemed like an eternity. The moment their eyes met, he knew this was what he wanted, it was what he was missing, and it was what he needed.
“Scarlet,” he said stepping forward
She looked around in obvious confusion.
“Lucas, what’s this?” she asked
“I think we should talk,” he said
“Okay” she replied walking over to where he stood in the middle of the room.
“I have loved you since the day I laid my eyes on you” he said as she stepped closer, “you were this bright bubbly redhead with curls that confused and bewitched me”
She smiled, and he could see a tear roll down her cheek.
“When I was nineteen I made you a promise and I broke it. I have no one but myself to blame for that.” He said, “Now we’re much older and we have much more at stake. And I want to take back all the hurt and begin anew.”
“Lucas” she whispered
“Scarlet I love you.” He whispered falling to one knee. “I’ve always loved you, all those years we’ve been apart I never stopped. I want you to be my wife, I want us to raise our son together and I want to have many more babies with you.”
He watched her and saw the tears falling from her eyes. They weren’t sad tears, he had seen that look enough times to know that those were tears of happiness. Reaching into the breast pocket of his jacket, he pulled out the brilliant ruby ring he had bought for her. It glinted in the light and he saw the way she smiled.
“You remembered” she whispered
He smiled, he had gone for the ruby instead of the diamond because many years ago she had confided in him how much more she loved the stone.
“Will you marry me?” he asked
“Yes” she replied, “I’ll marry you”
He stood and pulled her towards him for a hug.
“I love you so much” he whispered,
“I love you too” she replied,” you lied to me, you told me you would be gone all week.”
He pulled back and looked down at her.
“I will never ever lie to you again my love,” he said
She looked away and he wondered what she was thinking.
“Is everything right?” he asked
“I have something to tell you.” She replied, “I wanted to tell you in person.”
“Don’t tell me you have another husband hidden somewhere?” he said jokingly
He had meant it as a joke but he was beginning to hope he wasn’t right.
“No, it’s,” she said avoiding his gaze, “I’m pregnant.”
He was so stunned that he stopped breathing altogether. His hands immediately went to her stomach where he felt the smallest hint of a bulge. She was pregnant, and he was confident the child was his.
“It’s yours by the way,” she said confirming his suspicion, “I found out two days ago.”
“You’re pregnant.” He said as a new happiness began to fill him, “how did I end up this lucky?”
She looked at him with surprise and he pulled her back into his arms.
“You don’t know how happy you’ve made me,” he said
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy before,” she said, “and here I thought sleeping with you would make me love you less.”
“It’s the best thing that ever happened to me,” he said, “I’m happy you had our son, I’m happy you made me the happiest father ever and I’m thrilled to be spending the rest of my life with you.”
“Thank you,” she said,
He could see the relief in her eyes and he knew deep down he would never again give her a reason too doubt his love and commitment to her.
“Finally,” her sister said walking into the room, “I knew this would happen eventually.”
“Same here,” Melvin said walking up to him, “I know love when I see it.”
They all laughed.
Lucas allowed h
er to go to her sister and he watched her in disbelief. He couldn’t believe the way things had turned out. He thought for a long time he had lost her and his chance at love, but it turned out she had loved him all this time and had cared for their son selflessly. He didn’t think there was any way he could make up for the pain he caused her in the past, but he would spend the rest of his life making her and their children happy. Everything he thought he would never have was right here for him all at once.
About The Author
Ellen spent a good part of her youth traveling. She feels of these gorgeous places, wishing she could live in them all—at least for a while. And she does in her books. She lives in New Mexico with her husband and children. When not writing, schlepping, or volunteering, she can be found in her tiny kitchen, channeling her inner Barefoot Contessa.
She has helped thousands of writers all over the world find the joy in writing through her popular online courses, in-person workshops, and books. In her off time, she likes to travel, read, jog, flail on a yoga mat, and explore New Mexico.
Connect with Ellen at
www.ellenhuttonauthor.com
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