Page 118 of Broken Butterfly
“Our dreams,” I argue.
“Our dreams,” he concedes. “If you want to finish college and medical school first before starting a family, that’s fine with me. If you want me to knock you up tomorrow, I’m down with that too.” His grin is downright lascivious. I punch his chest and kiss him silly.
“The only thing I really want is you, Ryder. Everything else is just the whipped cream with a cherry on top.”
“Ditto.”
We lie in our intimate bubble stroking one another. I may have dozed off for a minute if I’m being honest.
“Do you think he’ll come back?” I ponder aloud.
“I don’t know, sweetheart. For you, I hope he does. If he doesn’t, I would think he would definitely come back for Julien and Elijah’s wedding.”
Freda and Mitch came over with Julien and Elijah this afternoon. We all sat down and had a long talk. Jayson called his parents earlier today and spoke with them. He told them that he wasn’t going to come back home anytime soon. He doesn’t know where he’ll end up and he said that he was going to let the road take him wherever it leads; he needed time to figure out what to do with his life; one without me in it. Freda and I cried together for a long time. I was sure that she and Mitch would blame me, even hate me, but they don’t. They’re heartbroken over how things ended; not only because their boy is gone, but also because they always expected me and Jayson to eventually marry. They ended the conversation by telling Ryder and me they loved us and congratulated us on our engagement.
Before leaving, Julien gave me a letter from Jayson, one he apparently wrote before he left. I’ve been too scared to open and read it.
My thoughts are interrupted by a light knocking on Ryder’s bedroom door. It’s past one in the morning, so my first thought is that it’s Fallon.
Ryder slips on a pair of boxers and pads over to crack the door open. “Hey, man. What’s going on?”
I hear Trevor ask if I’m awake and decent. I slip out of bed and throw on the clothes I left hanging over the bathroom doorknob. Then I join Ryder.
“Hey Trevor. I’m up.”
“Fallon needs you guys.”
I step out into the hallway. “Is something wrong with Fallon?”
Trevor’s breath catches a few times. “His father… my father… Fallon just got a call. Both his parents were killed tonight. Their Cessna crashed in Maryland soon after take-off. That’s all I know right now.”
“Take us to him.”
I don’t know what to expect when we find Fallon. His relationship with both his parents—if you could call them that—was basically non-existent, and what was there was filled with years of abuse and hatred.
We follow Trevor outside to the back patio where Fallon is sitting on the steps in the dark. I go over and drop down beside him. He looks over at me like a little boy who is lost in a world that has been turned upside down and doesn’t make sense.
“They’re gone, kitten. Should I feel bad that all I feel is relief about that?”
I gather him in my arms, and he rests his head on my chest. “You have a right to feel whatever you are feeling, especially about them.”
Ryder and Trevor join us on the steps. Trevor places his hand on Fallon’s knee. “I’ve got you little brother. I’ve got you.”
Chapter 37
We’re at the Montgomery mansion in Highland helping to box things up and doing what we can to make things easier for Fallon. Ryder and I postponed our New Year’s trip so we could be here for him. Trevor has really stepped up in the big brother role, and—along with Mr. Worthington and a slew of other lawyers and business partners—has been helping Fallon navigate what needs to be done. The long list includes funeral arrangements, maneuvering Fallon to step in as interim-CEO of Montgomery Pharma, and dealing with the hoard of press and paparazzi that have descended around Fallon like vultures eager to pick the scraps off of bones. He’s holding on by a bare thread as more and more responsibilities get heaped at his feet. I know it’s only a matter of time before he either explodes or implodes. And I refuse to allow Fallon to slide back into that dark place. He saved me and brought me back from the brink. I hope I get to return the favor for him.
“Babe?” Ryder calls me from somewhere within the expansive mansion.
“In the kitchen!” I answer, adding more turkey slices to the hoagies I’m making for everyone.
The last time I was in this kitchen was at Fallon’s party in high school. Not the memory lane I want to skip down at the moment. That party was all sorts of fucked-up—from the big fight with Marshall and his football goons, to Jayson getting slipped a roofie in his beer and me finding him half-naked in bed with Jacinda later that night, to Ryder coming through my window in the middle of the night, then lastly to visiting Jayson in the hospital the next morning.
“I always forget just how big this place is.” Ryder walks in and comes over to give me a kiss before swiping a piece of turkey and eating it.
“Hey!” I smack his hand away, then I add some lettuce and fold the two halves of the hoagie roll together and hand him the completed sandwich.
“Thanks, babe. I was starving,” he mumbles with his mouth full.
