Four Horsemen: A Small Town Romance (A Good Run Of Bad Luck Book 5)

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  29

  Jack

  “I’m so sorry.”

  I jerked awake, rubbing my eyes as I reached out for Christy, but she wasn’t in the bed.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “Daddy?” I heard Brody cry out.

  I got out of bed in a rush, running out of the bedroom and into the hallway. Christy was leaning against the wall, crying as she held out her hand toward Brody.

  “Daddy, what’s wrong?” he asked, his little voice quivering.

  “Go back to bed, Brody.”

  “But what’s wrong with her?” he asked again. This time, I could hear the tears in his voice.

  I grabbed Christy by the arms, but she jerked out of my grasp and flung herself against the wall as she started screaming. “Christy!”

  “Daddy? What’s wrong?”

  I glanced back at Brody, torn between going to him and trying to wake Christy up. “Brody, go back in your bedroom! I’ll be right there.”

  “Daddy,” he cried.

  “Go!” I shouted, turning back to Christy.

  I shook her hard, trying to wake her up, but she was lost in whatever dream was plaguing her. Brody’s door slammed and I could hear him crying on the other side. I shook her more forcefully, but I couldn’t wake her up.

  “Christy!” I shouted again. Not knowing what else to do, I slapped her across the face. She jerked and then blinked rapidly, her breath hitching as she focused in on my face.

  “Jack?”

  I nodded, my whole body shaking from witnessing that. “You’re okay,” I said, pulling her into my arms. She wrapped her arms tightly around me, squeezing me so tight as she cried against my chest. I rubbed her back, trying to soothe her, but then I heard Brody crying, and I pulled back.

  “I have to go see Brody. He woke up and…”

  Her face crumpled as she pressed her face into her hands. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Just go back to bed. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  She nodded and stood, swiping at her face as she headed for the bedroom. I quickly opened Brody’s door and ran inside, seeing him curled up on his bed crying. Rolling him over, I hugged him tight to me.

  “Hey, it’s okay, bud.”

  “What’s wrong with Christy?” he cried.

  “Nothing. She just had a bad dream.”

  “But she was screaming,” he sniffled, wrapping his tiny arms around my neck.

  “I know, but it was just a dream. She’s okay now.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure, bud. I wouldn’t lie to you.”

  “I thought she was hurt,” he sniffled. “I thought she was going to break her promise to me.”

  I ran my hand over his head, remembering what he’d told Christy earlier. “Hey, she’s not going to end up like Mommy, okay? Bad dreams happen sometimes, but that doesn’t mean anything bad is going to happen.”

  He sniffled and gripped me tighter. “Daddy, will you stay with me?”

  “Of course I will.”

  I laid down in bed with him. I wanted to check on Christy also, but right now my son needed me, and he trumped everyone else. He snuggled into me like I would leave him. This was the first time that he’d had any fear of something happening to someone, which meant that he must already love Christy. I’d had bad dreams before, but never to the extent Christy just had.

  I laid there all night with him, terrified to leave him. I didn’t want him to wake up without me. So, as much as I wanted to see Christy, I stayed with Brody the whole night. Eventually, I drifted off to sleep just as dawn was breaking.

  The sound of my phone ringing tore me from sleep. I jerked slightly, rubbing at my eyes as I fumbled for my phone, only to realize it was in the other room. It didn’t take much to wake me up. Even the TV being left on downstairs would wake me out of a dead sleep.

  Brody sat up, groaning slightly. “Daddy, I don’t want to go to daycare today.”

  I kissed him on the side of the head and yawned. “Let me see who’s calling.”

  I got up from his bed and stumbled down the hall, still not awake yet. Christy wasn’t in bed when I walked in the room and she wasn’t in the bathroom either. I snatched my phone off the table, checking the caller ID. I called Carter back, hoping he could handle things today for me.

  “Where are you?” he asked. “You’re an hour late.”

  “Sorry,” I mumbled. “We had a rough night.”

  “Nice,” he said, a grin in his voice.

  “Not nice. Can you cover things today?”

  “Yeah, of course. Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah, we’re good. We just had a rough night. I need to stay with Brody today.”

  “Alright, let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”

  “I will.”

  “Oh, and don’t forget about the Chili Cook-off tomorrow.”

  “Fuck,” I grumbled. “That’s the last thing I want to deal with.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow. Call me if you need anything.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  I hung up and scrubbed my hand over my face. Fuck, I was tired. Walking back into Brody’s room, I plopped down on the bed with him and tossed my arm over my face.

  “Can we stay home, Daddy?”

  “Yeah, bud. We’re going to stay home.”

  “What about Christy?”

  “I don’t know. Should we see if she’s downstairs?”

  He nodded, though unenthusiastically. He needed to see that Christy was okay. I grabbed his hand as we got out of bed and headed downstairs. Both of us were quiet as the stairs squeaked with every step we took. She wasn’t in the living room, but as we turned the corner into the kitchen, I saw her sitting at the island with a cup of coffee in her hand. She didn’t hear us come in until Brody called out to her.

  “Christy?”

  She jerked slightly, setting her cup down as she looked at Brody.

  “Hey, bud.”

  He frowned at her. “Are you okay?”

  She smiled down at him, getting off the stool. “I’m okay. I just had a bad dream.”

  “It must have been really scary,” he whispered.

  “It was, but you know what?”

  “What?”

  “Your daddy was there and he helped me.”

  “He did?”

  She nodded, still smiling at him. “Daddy’s are good like that, aren’t they?”

  “My daddy’s the best,” he whispered.

  It about tore my fucking heart out. She leaned in and hugged him tight.

  “Thank you for worrying about me.”

  “Are you going to stay home with me and Daddy today?”

  Her eyes flicked up to mine in question. I nodded, letting her know it was fine, even though it was her house.

  “That sounds amazing. What are we going to do today?”

  His eyes lit up and he jumped in the air. “Movie day!”

  She laughed and stood up, grabbing her coffee. “Well, who could say no to that?”

  “Hey, buddy. Why don’t you go pick a movie?”

  “Yes!” he shouted, running into the other room.

  Her smile dropped as she stared at me. “I’m really sorry about last night.”

  “Don’t apologize,” I said, pulling her into my arms. “You were dreaming.”

  “I feel so awful. I traumatized him.”

  “He’s not traumatized.” She gave me a pointed look. “Okay, maybe a little, but he’ll be fine. We’ll spend the day relaxing and everything will be fine.”

  She sighed and stared down at the ground.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t come to you last night. I didn’t want to leave him.”

  “Jack, I would never expect you to leave your son to comfort me. He needed you. Besides, you guys looked so cute when I woke up this morning.”

  “Yeah?”

  She nodded, a small smile pulling at her lips. “I took a picture. I’m going
to frame it.”

  I leaned back. “I think that might be taking it too far.”

  “Daddy! I found a movie!”

  I wrapped my hand around hers and pulled her toward me, pressing my lips to hers. “We’re being called.”

  “Well, we can’t disappoint him, can we?”

  I stared at the woman in front of me, worried about what I witnessed last night. She was sleepwalking, dreaming of what she witnessed. I didn’t know how to help her, and I didn’t ever want to see that terrorized look on her face again.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m better now that I have my boys by my side.”

  “What happened yesterday?” Carter asked as Christy took Brody around to the different stalls being set up for the Chili Cook-off. I wasn’t sure how we pulled it off, but we had over twenty people serving their chili today.

  “Christy was sleepwalking and Brody woke up. She was dreaming about the kid that was murdered. It was like she thought Brody was the kid. So, then Brody was freaked out and didn’t want to sleep without me. Christy was a mess.” I shook my head. “I stayed with Brody the whole night, but he didn’t want to go to daycare in the morning. That shit seriously freaked him out.”

  “No shit,” Carter snorted.

  “But don’t say anything to Christy. She feels horrible about the whole thing.”

  “Really? Because I was thinking it would be really smart to walk up to her and say something,” he said sarcastically.

  “Don’t be a dick. I’m just covering all my bases.”

  “Hey, fellas!” Chili Man grinned as he walked up behind us, wrapping his arms around our shoulders as he inserted himself between us. “This is some day, right?”

  I tried to hide my irritation. There were a million other places I’d rather be right now. “Yeah, it’s awesome.”

  “A huge hit, am I right? Way better than the bake-off.”

  Carter side-eyed me. I could tell he was ready to rip off Chili Man’s arm.

  “You should probably get ready for your big speech,” I offered, stepping away from him. “After all, this is your event.”

  “Right,” he nodded. “I didn’t even think of that. People are going to be looking to me now.”

  “Well, you’d better get on it,” I said, slapping him on the shoulder.

  He nodded and turned to leave, but then stopped and looked back at us. “So, I was thinking, now that we’re all…getting along so well, don’t you think it’s time I was invited to the Cortells for poker night?”

  I feigned innocence. “Poker night?”

  “Yeah, you know, the one where you all get together?” He glanced around, lowering his voice so he wasn’t overheard. “Look, I get it, we have to keep the numbers low. We don’t want to let in just anyone. But after I kept Corduroy out of prison, I think I deserve an invite.”

  I glared at Carter. The last thing I needed was to be spending time with Chili Man.

  “You know, that’s not up to us. In fact, we don’t always get invited. It’s more just the Cortells getting together.”

  “He’s right,” I played along. “I’ve only been invited once, and honestly, it was pretty boring. You know how Eric can be. He’s so straight-laced, and then his brothers always talk in that hippie language. It was a real downer.”

  Chili Man frowned. “Hmmm, that’s a shame. I was really looking forward to it.”

  I nodded in understanding.

  Chili Man clapped his hands together and grinned. “All the more reason for them to invite me along. They need someone to liven things up. I’ll wait to hear from you guys on the next poker night.”

  I sighed heavily, staring up at the sky. “Fuck, what are we going to do?”

  “Hell, I don’t know, but he can’t come. I’ll kill him.”

  “Maybe we can get Eric to tell him no.”

  I glanced around the town square, looking for any of the brothers. One of them was bound to have a good idea. Slapping Carter on the chest, I pointed at Josh who was walking around with his family.

  “Let’s go talk to Josh. Maybe he’ll have some idea of what to do.”

  “Yeah, maybe he can get together with Antonio and get rid of Chili Man. It would solve all our problems.”

  I shook my head in disbelief as we headed over. “I think you’ve been spending too much time with them if killing Chili Man is the way you want to take care of this situation.”

  “Maybe you haven’t been spending enough time with them,” he grumbled.

  “Josh!” I shouted as we got closer.

  He nodded his head at me. “Hey, what’s up?”

  “Um…we have a bit of a problem.”

  “What’s that?”

  I jerked my chin for him to follow me over to a quiet area. He had Rici with him, but he was just a baby. “So, Chili Man has it in his head that he’s going to join poker night…”

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No.”

  “And why would we let him join our poker night?”

  I sighed. “Because this jackass,” I jerked my thumb at Carter, “broke into his house to get his cat back. Hell, he even hissed at him.”

  “Like a cat?” Josh asked Carter.

  “I was going through a rough time, okay? There’s no need to be judgmental.”

  “Wait, I thought this was some skit you guys put on for the town. You’re telling me it was real?”

  I nodded slightly.

  “Fuck,” Josh burst out laughing. “It’s a shame that wasn’t live streamed. You missed out on a great opportunity for the whole town.”

  “Well, part of it was live streamed, and that’s the problem. Chili Man is basically holding it over Carter’s head. He would go to jail if Chili Man decided to press charges.”

  “Why hasn’t he yet?” Josh asked.

  “Because we bargained for the Chili Cook-off, and we thought that would be enough. But now he’s got it in his head that he wants poker night too.”

  “No,” Josh snapped. “No fucking way. Carter, this really sucks for you, but I am not spending my night with the guys with Chili Man. He smells.”

  “Look, I have an idea—”

  “No, I’m not spending my Friday nights with Chili Man.”

  “I thought you were his friend?” Carter asked, making it worse.

  “Him, yes. You? No fucking way would I do this for you.”

  “I’m hurt,” Carter frowned. “After all, who do you think kept him off your ass since you came back to town?”

  “Listen, we just have to have him over one time. We’ll make it the worst experience ever and he’ll never want to join us again.”

  “And how do we do that?”

  “Easy. Nathan will bring Penny—”

  “Ooh,” Carter snapped his fingers. “She can bring all her healthy food.”

  “Exactly. We won’t have any beer or anything good to drink. We’ll make sure all the ladies will be there to annoy him.”

  “Eric can walk around complaining about coasters not being used,” Carter grinned.

  “And Andrew and Joe can speak in their Millennial talk the whole time,” I added.

  “It might work,” Josh sighed. “But if it doesn’t, someone’s going to have to find a way to get rid of him, because this isn’t happening more than once.”

  “Then make sure Antonio’s there,” I suggested.

  “You want Antonio there?” Josh asked skeptically.

  “Well, who better to scare off Chili Man?”

  “Fine,” Josh huffed. “But you have to stay there the whole time. Both of you,” he narrowed his eyes at us. “No running off for some emergency. You don’t leave until he does.”

  “Deal.”

  30

  Christy

  “Daddy!”

  I woke from a dead sleep as Jack rushed out of the bedroom. Getting out of bed, I crept down the hall to find out what the problem was. Brody was crying, obviously upset about something. As I got
closer to his door, I could hear him whispering to Jack.

  “I’m scared.”

  “About what? Everything’s okay. I would never let anything happen to you.”

  I peeked around the corner and watched as he sniffled against Jack’s shoulder. “I had a dream Christy died like Mommy.”

  Jack sighed and rubbed Brody’s back. Feeling like an intruder, I crept back to bed and slipped under the covers. I had to find a way to get these nightmares under control. While the other night had been the worst to date, I had woken up other nights also. Had Brody heard me then too? Or was it just the one time?

  I laid there for a good forty-five minutes before Jack came back in the room. Sighing, he got under the covers with me.

  “Is he okay?”

  “Yeah, he’s fine.”

  “I heard what he said, that he thinks I’m going to die.”

  Jack shoved his hand behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling.

  “Do you think you should move back home?”

  “What?” he asked, jerking his head in my direction.

  I sat up and stared down at him. “Just hear me out…He’s going through a lot of changes, and now he’s scared. Maybe he needs to be around things that are familiar.”

  “Are you trying to get rid of us?” he asked. At first I thought he was being comical, but then I realized he was serious.

  “What? No. I just want what’s best for Brody.”

  “And you think leaving, when he’s already worried that you’re going to die, is what’s best for him? You think that will reassure him?”

  I shrugged helplessly. “I have no idea, Jack. I’m not his parent, but I do want what’s best for him. And I’m starting to wonder if that’s me. How many times has he woken up to me screaming?”

  “It was just the one time. Trust me, I talked to him about it.”

  “Then why is this affecting him so much?”

  “Why do you think? You’re the first female role-model in his life that he looks at like a mother. He’s not scared of you or to be around you. He’s scared you’re going to be taken from him. He needs reassurance that’s not going to happen.”