CHAPTER 18
Carter
“You got Brooklyn?” I ask Christina who’s holding her on the couch in my living room.
“I’ve got her. Now go get your girl.”
“That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
I shove the front door open and march over to Steven’s house. It wasn’t thirty minutes ago that I called Christina and told her what’s been going on and she drove right over.
And now I’m going over to Steven’s house to tell him to.
I don’t care what he thinks. All I care about is what I did earlier today and making it right.
Do I respect my friend? Yes.
Do I want to remain friends? Absolutely.
Is it the most important thing to me in the world? Not a chance.
She is and it’s time to get back to acting like it.
I pound on the door with the side of my fist.
“Coming. Hold your horses,” comes from the living room.
“I’m not holding back anything,” I mumble under my breath.
“Carter. You look like a man possessed.”
“I am. We need to talk.”
“Everything okay?”
“That’s up to you.”
“Woah buddy. What’s gotten into you?”
“Steven you’ve been my friend for a long time but you haven’t been acting like it lately.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Hiding out beside my house. Dropping by unannounced for fake reasons you care nothing about. I know what you’re up to.”
“What I’m up to? What in the hell are you up to?”
“Exactly what you think I’m up to. I’m in love with your daughter.”
“Well, you son of a bitch!”
Steven’s hands shoot toward me and just as he makes contact with my chest I grab his wrists sending us both flying off the steps.
And then all hell breaks loose.
“I’m gonna kill you,” he yells.
He’s on top but not for long.
“You’re not in control here. I am,” I say.
I get my legs wrapped around him and flip him up and over my head, landing right on top of him. Am I ever glad for that Krav Maga and judo training at the station we conducted last month.
He tries to punch up at me but he can’t get anything, with me holding his shoulders on the ground.
“You respect us and let us be or I don’t let you up.”
“You don’t have to let up, because I’m gonna get up myself and when I do I’m gonna kick your ass.”
Steven tries for a leg lock before coming around with an elbow that catches me squarely in the jaw.
I’m temporarily stunned, but I’m not letting him up. Not until he gives up and I’m not just talking about this scuffle. I’m talking about gives up his sneaking around so Alyssa and I can go about our lives in peace.
“You’re not kicking anything. I’m sorry you had to find out this way, but I didn’t have a lot of choices. I was gonna ask her to meet her father the day I ran into you, but things just snowballed too quickly.”
“Don’t rub it in my face.”
Steven gets his hip rotated and gets my body leaning. I lean into him and wrap my arms up and underneath his armpits in some sort of messed up wrestling hold.
“Get off me!” he yells.
“Not until you promise you’ll let us be.”
The porch lights in the neighborhood come on one right after the other and I can hear mumbles.
“The cops are coming!” I hear a voice yell.
“You willing to lose your job over this?” Steven says.
“I’m willing to lose everything for her,” I say.
Not twenty seconds later a squad car comes roaring around the corner and pulls up right in Steven’s front yard. Part of me is proud my team answered the call so quickly, and another part of me knows the embarrassment that awaits.
But nothing is as embarrassing as what I’ve already gone through. Suggesting to Alyssa that we had to hide from her dad. What was I thinking? I thought I was putting other people first and even helping her out, but then I realized the person who always comes first is her. That’s the real way to help her out, make her life better, and show her what I really think about her.
“Captain Donovan?” a voice yells.
“Arrest him!” one of the neighbors yells.
I feel four hands grabbing me from behind but I don’t let go of Steven.
I manage to hold on for another twenty or thirty seconds until a second unit arrives and four hands become eight plus one well trained German Shepherd who’s knife like teeth are mere inches from my face.
The team gets us separated and pulls us around the side of the house.
“Captain, I don’t know how to proceed,” the officer who is junior to me says.
“Do your job officer. If you have to arrest me, arrest me.”
“A citizen’s arrest?” he asks.
“Ask him,” I say motioning towards Steven.
“Sir, would you like to have this citizen’s arrested?”
Steven knows he’s in a catch twenty-two. He put his hands on me first and this is public humiliation for both of us. Our names are already going to be in the blotter, now it’s just a matter of how many paragraphs they give us and whether this winds up with the other police calls or on the front page.
“Sir? Are you pressing charges? Neighbors said he had you down, and he’s considered a deadly weapon.”
“He’s not a deadly weapon,” Steven says. “I was just about to pin him.”
A moment passes where nothing is said and then I can’t take it anymore. I bust out laughing.
“I was. I had you. I was letting you wear yourself out,” he says.
“Just like you did after football practice that one time?”
“That was different.”
“Riiiight,” I say.
“Sir? It’s a yes or no question.”
“No,” he says before pausing. “I don’t want to press charges…although a restraining order against seeing my daughter might work out better.”
“Come see me tomorrow and I’ll fill the paperwork out for you,” I say. “Before I stick it in the trash.”
“The girl from the parking lot?” one of the officers asks.
“Who doesn’t know about that now?” I ask.
“Sorry, sir. People are asking questions.”
I turn and see Alyssa standing on the front steps to her house.
She looks sad, her eyes tired from crying.
I’ve got a question for her that’s going to make her cry even more, but in a totally different way.
“It’s time I ask some questions?” I say.
I walk over to Alyssa and take a knee.
“Being without you for even just a few hours brought me enough grief to make it feel like a lifetime. I was wrong earlier. I made a mistake. A mistake I won’t make again…if you give me another shot. Alyssa, will you marry me?” I ask.
She looks down in my eyes and then walks down the stairs.
“Get up,” she says, as she brushes grass off my forehead. “So you can kiss me.”
We kiss and I feel a rush of energy come back shooting through my entire body.
“Yes,” she says. “ I’ll marry you and I promise to be the best mother I can to Brooklyn…and to all the children we’re going to have.”
“Good,” I say. “Because I’m hoping you’re up for a whole lot of them.”
“A whole house full,” she says.
I slide my ring on her finger and we’re right back to kissing.
Cops are known to come in, fight the bad guys, and save the day.
Well, Steven’s no bad guy and I’m off duty, but true to form I feel like I did save the day…from myself.
Just when it looked like I’d lost it all I got my girl back and I’m never going to let her go.
Even if we have to move to her college town for her last semester. She’s mine and I’m not going to miss a minute of this life we’re creating together without her.
And neither will Brooklyn…our daughter.
The first of many.