Kara
I wake in Reid’s arms and can’t help the smile that spreads across my face. Last night, he made love to me as though it was our first time all over again. I swear, sometimes, he gets this look in his eyes as though seeing me for the first time.
Suddenly my stomach roils and I have to make a mad dash to the toilet. I only just make it in time before throwing up. Once my stomach is empty and I’m just dry heaving, I flush the toilet and stand at the sink, splashing cold water on my face. I quickly brush my teeth and swill my mouth out so I no longer taste like sick. Deciding it might be best to shower too, I turn to walk back into the bedroom to fetch a towel.
Reid is stood in the doorway, a look of concern marring his features.
“What’s up, baby?” he asks as he reaches out to pull me into his chest. He wraps his arms around me and I sink into him.
“I think it might be something I ate yesterday.”
“Are you okay now?”
“I think so. I’m sorry if I woke you.”
“Don’t be sorry. If you’re ill, I want to take care of you.”
“I’m okay, baby, I just need a shower. I must stink.”
He inhales and pretends to gag. I swat him away and go to fetch a towel.
“Fancy some company?” he asks, his voice mildly flirtatious.
“Umm…not when I smell like this.”
“Damn!”
He sounds like his hopes have been dashed, but he turns round and walks back into our room.
When I’m showered, I walk into the bedroom and dry myself off. Reid is nowhere in sight. I get dressed in a comfy pair of jeans and a sweater. We don’t have any plans for the day, so I don’t have to dress to impress anyone. Reid has seen me at my worst, so he won’t care that I’m in comfy clothes with no makeup on. He prefers me without makeup anyway. So I pull my hair up into a messy bun and tie a band around it.
Walking downstairs, I hear the radio playing in the kitchen. I walk in to see Reid standing in front of the toaster.
“I thought some plain toast might be good for an unsettled stomach,” he says as he pulls out two slices of fresh toast.
I love crusty bread toasted and dripping with butter, but I don’t think that’s a good idea at the moment. I can’t really remember what I ate yesterday. I was so busy with my maid of honour duties that I picked at a plate of food occasionally when I got chance.
“Thank you. You’re so sweet.”
“Anything for my girl,” he says as he winks over his shoulder at me.
Reid pleads with me to text Liam and tell him I’m too ill to come to work tomorrow, so I do. Lee tells me that I better let Reid take care of me and not to worry about going to work until I feel better.
Feeling like absolute hell, I grab a throw blanket from the back of the couch and wrap myself in it before lying down.
“Do you want to watch a DVD or do you want to get some more sleep, baby?”
“Can we watch City of Angels? If anything can make me feel better, it’s Nicholas Cage.”
“Hey!” Reid exclaims in mock offence. “I don’t know whether I should feel slighted by that remark, Miss Scott.”
“You can take offence if you like, but I’m not changing my statement!”
“Fine, I won’t put the DVD in, see if I care,” he teases.
I pout at him and make my bottom lip tremble.
“But pleeease baby,” I whine.
“Tell me I’m better than Nicholas Cage and I will.”
“Baby, Nicholas Cage is damn sexy, especially as Seth, but he doesn’t have a thing on you.”
“Better, but still not good enough.”
“Reid Marks, you are the most amazing man alive. You are gorgeous, funny, sensitive, kind, and much, much more. But most importantly, you are mine.”
He walks over and pulls the DVD from the shelf. He puts the film on and sits on the couch, placing my head in his lap. Although I’m tired and feel like death, I am happy to be laid on the couch with my man, watching a great film. It gets to where Seth is taking a shower in the cabin and I begin to get choked up. The flame from the candle suddenly goes out and I begin to cry quietly. As the scene changes and we see Maggie on her bike, her arms outstretched, my cries get a little louder. Reid strokes my hair in a soothing gesture and I lie in his lap, crying until the very end of the film.
Thankfully, Reid doesn’t make fun of me for crying. Instead, he hands me a tissue so I can dry my eyes.
***
It’s been days and I haven’t been able to go to work. Reid’s also taken time off because he refuses to leave my side. I’ve been so sick and lethargic. I’ve had utterly no energy for anything except sitting on the couch watching films. We’ve watched a few chick flicks, but I’ve let Reid have his way and watched a few action ones too.
Reid has been so attentive. Anything I’ve needed, he’s got for me. I haven’t been able to eat much, but he’s made me eat some dry toast and arrowroot biscuits. I text Zoey to check on her and Brock, to make sure they were enjoying their honeymoon and hadn’t gotten ill themselves. Zoey was concerned for me and told me to drink peppermint tea, but it’s disgusting. The first cup Reid made me was poured down the drain. But considering it’s meant to help abate the nausea, I have accepted drinking it if it has one spoonful of sugar in.
Reid phoned the doctors to make me an appointment, but they said it’s most likely just a sickness bug and they would rather I didn’t go into the surgery in case I give it to the elderly or babies in the waiting area. They say not to go in in cases of a bug and there’s no treatment they can give me anyway, so I’m just eating little bits of plain food here and there, drinking plenty of water, and a cup or two of that peppermint tea crap each day.
Five days after I started feeling ill, I’m beginning to feel slightly better. I’m thinking that half a day at work won’t hurt, so I tell Reid to go to work and I’ll see him at home later. He’s not convinced I should be working, but even with his company, I’m starting to get cabin fever. I need to stop staring at the same four walls, so I said that Liam wouldn’t let me overdo things and would send me home if I felt too ill. After much nagging, I finally got him to agree to let me do things my way. So he’s at work and I’m sat behind the cash register at Chapter & Verse. It’s quiet, so I’m reading my copy of Caught by Her by GL Chapple. Reading about Jake Masters is easily one of my favourite things to do. I’ve read the two book series over and over.
“Kara.”
Just the sound of that voice has the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. She’s got a nerve turning up here after everything she’s done. My blood is beginning to boil and I don’t even know what she wants. I look up and see her standing right in front of me. I want to slap her just for having the gall to come here.
“What do you want?”
I don’t bother holding back the irritation in my voice.
“I know this isn’t going to make amends for what I did, but…” she says as she hands me a piece of folded paper.
I open it and see that it’s a cheque made out to Reid.
“You’re damn right it won’t. I don’t know why you couldn’t just have mailed this. Why are you here?”
“I wanted you to see that I’m truly sorry. I wish I could go back and undo it all, Kara, I really do.”
“So why did you do it, Molly? What possessed you to hurt Reid in the most unthinkable way?”
“Honestly? Jealousy. I knew he didn’t want me. But I loved him, Kara. I wanted him to want me the way he wanted you. But I wasn’t enough to compete for his affections.”
“So you made up a baby to try to bring him back to you? You thought that he would all of a sudden change his mind and fall hopelessly in love with you because you were having his child?”
My voice is raised and I can’t rein back the venom I feel for this woman. Liam must not have been far away because he’s at my side, trying to calm the situation. He suggests we go and get a coffee and talk in the back, but I don’t want to be anywhere near this psycho woman. I want to rip her hair out, claw her eyes from their sockets. I want to make her pay for what she did. But I know I won’t. I’m a bigger person than that. I have more sense than to lash out at her, regardless of my feelings.
“Please, Kara, hear me out,” Molly implores as I give her my best death stare.
“What makes you think you have a right to be heard?”
“Ladies, please, take it down a notch. There are a few customers milling around, and this isn’t good for business,” Liam tries to talk some sense into us, or rather, me.
“Fine.”
I huff and fold my arms as I walk towards the coffee bar at the back of the store. I hear the annoying click-clack of Molly’s heels, so I know she’s following me.
Once I place my order for a latte, I take a seat at one of the tables and wait for Molly to sit down opposite me. As she’s ordering her own coffee, I take out my phone and type out a text.
Kara: Molly’s here at Chapter & Verse. Think you should be here.
It’s not long before I get a reply:
Reid: What the actual fuck? She’s been in hiding for ages and now suddenly she turns up out of the blue? Are you okay? I’m just getting in the car. Be there in 10 minutes. Love you.
Molly sits down and has the decency to look ashamed.
“I’m not sure what there is to say here, Molly.”
“I know that nothing I say can make amends for the way I behaved, Kara. Nothing I tell you will make you forgive me, I get that. But I wanted to try. The cheque is to pay Reid back for all he gave me and did for me.”
“You mean what he did for the woman he thought was carrying his baby. The woman who told bare-faced lies over and over again. The woman who stooped to new lows I’ve never seen the likes of. Do you think that money will make the problem go away?”
“I know what I did was wrong, Kara. The way you feel about me is nothing compared to how I feel about myself. I’m not that kind of person. Not really.”
“Well, you sure come across as that person, Molly. Why are you here having this conversation with me, not with Reid? Do you think I’ll go easier on you?”
My simmering rage is beginning to build instead of ebb. Nothing she says tamps down my anger.
“What the hell, Molly?” his voice booms out as he approaches.
She turns to look at him, then looks to me.
“You told him I was here?”
“Of course I did. He deserves to hear this more than anyone.”
Reid pulls out the chair next to me and sits down. His presence seems to fill the room, anger radiating from his every pore.
“To hear what? What pathetic excuses have you been giving Kara? Did you come here thinking she’d take it easier on you than I would?”
“I…I suppose you could say that,” Molly replies quietly.
“Well, that’s not going to happen,” I add.
“I can see that now.”
“Let’s just get this over with. Say your piece and leave. I don’t want to see you again.”
Reid’s words are harsh, but Molly doesn’t deserve kindness in this moment. What she did was deplorable.
I hand Reid the cheque and he pockets it before returning his stern gaze to Molly.
“I’m so sorry, Reid. You’ll never know how much. As I tried to tell Kara, I’m not that type of woman. I’m not crazy, but I know you both must think I am. What I did was messed up, I won’t deny that.”
“Messed up? You’re fifty shades of fucked up and then some,” Reid bites out, trying to hold back the anger just beyond the surface.
“I never meant for this to happen, Reid. I know I can’t make you believe me, but it was never meant to be like this. All I wanted was for you to love me. I loved you so much, but I could see that your heart wasn’t in it. How could it be when it belonged to someone else all along? I thought if I was having your baby, you’d come back to me.”
“And what exactly was your plan for when your due date came and there wasn’t a baby? Were you going to fake a miscarriage or something? At this point, I wouldn’t put it past you.”
“I didn’t have a plan. I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”
“Well, your non-plan hurt a lot of people, Molly. I can’t and won’t ever excuse that. I was going to be a daddy. As far as I knew, we were having a son and I was excited at the prospect. Jason was going to be an uncle, I know that he and Liam would have doted on the baby. We were all looking forward to the birth of my non-existent son. You shattered a lot of hopes and dreams.”
“I know,” she murmurs quietly as she sips her coffee.
“Is that all you have to say?” Reid nearly explodes.
I place my hand on top of his under the table and he links his fingers with mine.
“I don’t know what more to say, Reid. I can’t make this go away. I can’t make it better. There’s literally not one thing I can do.”
“There is one thing,” he replies.
“Name it. I’ll do anything.”
Reid stands and pulls me up with him.
“Leave. Get out of here and out of our lives. Don’t come around here again. If I ever see your face again, it will be too soon.”
Molly recoils at his tone but she stands and hurries towards the door. The click-clack of her heels recedes and Reid pulls me into his arms.
I can feel his heart pounding under the surface and I am sure it’s breaking that little bit more as the finality of the situation hits home.