Chapter Thirty-Five

Axel

After we’d put Bobby to bed that first night, I’d taken Savannah to bed. She’d taken a long shower to scrub off any sign of Duke, and then climbed into bed with me. The moment her head hit the pillow, she started to cry. Small cries at first which developed into deep sobs. I knew she’d been holding the tears in for Bobby’s sake. I pulled her toward me, wrapped my arms around her tenderly and held her. We lay like that for a long time until she finally fell asleep. I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before, so I was just as tired. In fact, I hadn’t slept properly since she’d left. The moment I felt her fall asleep I closed my eyes and slept too. When I woke up, it was already late afternoon. We had all sleep the day away, but it was obviously what we all needed. We climbed out of bed and found Bobby sitting in his room, playing calmly with his toys. As promised, we made a late lunch and played with him.

After that, we spent the night watching movies, making pizza and relaxing. Nobody wanted to go out. I called Pop and Spike to let them know what had happened and they told me to call them if we needed anything. I could hear the deep sense of relief in their voices. That night, we all fell asleep early despite the fact that we had slept so much during the day. Bobby asked if he could sleep with us and we said that he could. He made himself comfortable between the two of us, and we all slept like babies.

The next day I checked the fridge and realized that food was starting to get a bit sparse. We would have to leave the house eventually. But for now, we were still okay. I made everyone pancakes for breakfast at the insistence of Bobby and created funny shapes as per his instruction. We then spent yet another day doing very little. We played games; we watched movies; we read books. But mostly, we just relaxed. We all laughed a lot, which was the best feeling in the world. And Bobby went back to entertaining us whenever he could. Savannah had told me that Bobby hadn’t been the same since she took him away. He had been quiet and forlorn. I could see how happy she was to see her son back to his normal happy self. We called Pop and handed the phone to Bobby, and the two of them conversed with each other for about an hour, with Bobby telling Pop a million and one stories. We sat and listened to him speak, and chuckled the whole way.

Later that evening, I started to wonder what I was going to make for dinner. I knew we should’ve gone out to shop but I was having too much of a good time at home to leave the place. I wondered if we should call for takeout. I was lost in thought when my doorbell rang, and I jumped in surprise. I looked at Savannah, and I could see she was just as nervous by the sound as I was. We weren’t expecting anyone to come over. Did Duke know where I lived? It was possible. It wasn’t exactly the hardest thing to find out. I walked over to the door with trepidation. I could feel my heart beating out of my chest. Should I take something to protect myself with? I was grateful that my neighbors were close by. If I screamed, they should be able to hear me. I opened the door and then breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Dominic and Candice standing there. There must’ve seen the look of panic on my face.

“Sorry, we should’ve called.”

I laughed. “No, that’s okay. I think I’m just on edge. I’m so glad to see that it’s you guys.”

“Is this an okay time to visit? We bought food. Figured you would want something to eat.”

I chuckled and opened the door wider for them. “Are you kidding me? That’s the best news ever. I was just thinking that I had no food in the house. You’re lifesavers. Come on in. I know Savannah is going to be happy to see you.”

We walked into the living room, and I saw Savannah’s worried face crinkle into happiness when she saw who it was. She stood up and ran forward to hug them.

“Oh, it’s so good to see you both. I’ve missed you so much. Oh, look at little Stacy. She’s so beautiful. Oh, you must be so proud.”

Candice smiled. “We are.”

“STACY!” Bobby yelled. He had been in the bathroom and was excited to come out and see that we had visitors.

“Shhh, keep it down,” Savannah said. “Stacy is sleeping.”

“No, it’s okay. Stacy sleeps through anything.”

“Can I play with her?” Bobby asked.

“I tell you what,” Dominic said. “I’ll put her down here, and you can read to her. How about it? She loves it when people read to her.”

“Yes. I have so many cool books,” Bobby said and rushed off to get them.

I smiled gratefully at Dominic. “Thanks, man. He’s missed Stacy so much. Come on, sit down. Let me get you all a drink.”

I poured drinks for everyone, and we all went to sit in the living room. Candice had bought curry from Pop’s favorite place and handed some out to everyone.

“You better not tell Pop that you went to this place without him,” I said in between mouthfuls. I was reminded again of how delicious the food was.

Candice chuckled. “We got him some too. We stopped by on the way to give him some. There was no way we could get some without him. So, a big congratulations for winning that race, Axel. It was really something seeing you speed through the finish line like that. That Jock guy had no idea what he was in for. I wish you had seen it, Savannah.”

I looked at Savannah, and the two of us grinned.

“What’s so funny?” Dominic asked when he caught the look between us.

“Oh, Savannah was there. She saw the whole thing.”

“What do you mean?”

I explained the whole thing to Dominic and Candice, and they sat listening in shock. I forgot that they hadn’t known about the sabotage. After that, I explained how I got Savannah back. Even just hearing it from my own voice seemed unreal. It was like I was talking about someone else. As if the whole thing had happened to another person and I was just retelling the story.

“That’s crazy. Wow. Well, I’m glad you’re back,” Candice said. “I thought I went through a tough time with Dominic, but this is so much worse. For what it’s worth, we go through everything together and so will you. I know it hasn’t been easy, but it’s probably brought you closer than you ever would’ve been before. And Savannah, I’m looking forward to getting to know you.”

Savannah smiled. Her cheeks were pink from happiness, and I couldn’t help but think of how beautiful she was at that moment. Beautiful, happy, relaxed.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know you too.”

“Yeah, and it’s good to see Axel finally in love. I thought there was no hope for this guy,” Dominic said.

“Wow, was I that bad?” I asked. Although, they didn’t have to answer. I already knew the answer to that one. I really had been that bad.

“You’d sworn off love. You said it wasn’t for you.”

“Yeah, well I lied. I was obviously holding out for Savannah all this time.”

“They’re going to get married,” Bobby said out of the blue. We had all forgot about him sitting in the corner with Stacy and his words took us all by surprise. We hadn’t said anything about marriage. He didn’t seem to notice the embarrassed looks on all our faces though and continued to talk as if he hadn’t just dropped a bombshell on us. “I had a dream about it once. And Mommy looked so pretty in her dress.”

“Are you going to get married?” Dominic asked him, clearly trying to move the subject along for us.

“ME?”

“Yes. Are you going to get married one day?”

Bobby thought about it for a while and then nodded. “Maybe to Stacy. Or she’ll be my best friend. I haven’t decided yet.”

We all chuckled. Things were so simple in Bobby’s life. I wished that we could look at life the way he did. There was a lot to be learned from that boy.

“So, who wants to hold Stacy?” Candice asked, and we all put up our hand like we were answering to a teacher.

We all took turns with Stacy. I watched as Savannah held her with ease, and was surprised by how natural she looked with a baby in her arms. Sure, she’d done it all before, but that had been six years ago. I wondered if it was just some sort of natural instinct that she had that was kicking in. It suited her, that was for sure. It was hard not to love Stacy. We all took turns holding her and kissing her little cheeks. She was pure perfection. Even Bobby got to hold her. We put her on his lap and showed him how to hold her, and he was beside himself with happiness. It was by far one of the best evenings we’d had in a long time.

After some coffee and cookies, Dominic and Candice said they had to go home.

“You can stay,” Bobby said. “Stacy can even sleep in my room.”

“Ah, I wish we could,” Dominic said. “But we need to go home. That’s where all her stuff is. But you are welcome to come and visit her anytime you want, okay?”

I smiled at the two of them as they held Stacy. They looked like such a happy family.

“Where’s home now?” I asked. With everything that had happened, I had forgotten to ask them about where they were staying while they were here.

“Oh, didn’t we tell you? One of our friends has moved to London, so he has given us his house to use while he’s away. We’ll more than likely end up buying it as I don’t think he’s coming back. That way we have a place to stay every time we come back. We’re still undecided on where we want to live, so having this second home is a huge help.”

“That’s great news. That means we get to see you more often.”

“Definitely. Family is important, you know.”

I looked at Savannah and Bobby and nodded. “Yeah, I couldn’t agree more.”

We said our goodbyes and I closed the door behind them. It was getting late, so we put Bobby to bed. He spent the whole time talking about Stacy. He was completely enamored with her, and it was the sweetest thing to see. I think he enjoyed not being the youngest one anymore. Once he had finally fallen asleep, I took Savannah’s hand and led her to the bedroom.

“That was nice,” she said as she climbed onto the bed with me. “What a great evening. Such a normal evening. I love normal.”

I laughed. “You and me both. I used to live for adrenaline. Not anymore. I just want a normal life. Speaking of, I have a question.”

“You do? What is it?”

“Do you want another baby?”

She looked at me in surprise. “A baby?”

I nodded and took her hand. “Savannah, I love you.” It was the first time I had said the words out loud. “I think I’ve been in love with you from the moment we raced together six years ago. But boy, do I love you even more now.”

She smiled. “Axel, I love you too.”

“So, does that mean you want to have a baby with me?”

“Are you serious? You really want us to have a baby?”

“I love Bobby so much. I will never stop loving him. But yeah, I want another one. And I want to be there for the whole thing.”

“Here’s the thing,” she said. “It doesn’t always happen on the first try. So, we’re going to have to have to have a lot of sex to get it right.”

I grinned at her. “Oh, well, what can we do? If we want a baby, we’re simply going to have to put in the work for it. How about we start now?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”