Crashed (16 page)

The little grey haired lady appeared next to Avery, walking down the aisle to Emily and the desk. They had become inseparable in a matter of moments.

“So, this is the one?” the little old lady asked. Emily turned around with the biggest smile on her face as she and Avery replied at the same time.

“Yes!” Both burst out laughing.

“This one is a favorite of mine,” the little lady explained. “She’s been here for some time. I’m not sure of the history, but doesn’t she look like she has a lot to say?” she asked, speaking of the history of the magnificent desk.

“Oh yes, she certainly does. This is everything I’ve always dreamed of for my office.” Emily gushed over the desk.
Thank God we brought Avery’s truck!

***

Emily tackled her desk like a hurricane, busting out her sander to lightly sand the old paint off the desk. Dust flew all over the soon-to-be-office, but nothing a vacuum and a little elbow grease couldn’t clean. Then she carefully hand-painted the entire desk with a cream colored paint, aptly named Polished Pearl.

Once both pieces were painted, she finally took a break to give poor Avery a little bit of attention on his day off. She found him downstairs on the back deck, sitting with Gran. They were deep in conversation about something, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying over the waves crashing loudly. She stood in the doorway, watching them for some time before Avery stood, wrapping his arms around his gran and started to turn toward the house, catching Emily in his sight.

A smile spread across his face as his eyes fell on her paint stained attire, something he was getting used to recently. Messy was a sexy look on her.

“How long have you been standing here?” Avery asked, slipping his arms around her waist and kissing her cheek.

“Not long. I just finished painting the desk. I just figured I would come down and be sociable. I kind of got carried away.” She chuckled to herself. She felt guilty, but once she got started, there simply was no stopping her.

“I am freaking exhausted now, though. I could sleep for a damn week.” She yawned as she spoke. She had a giant burst of energy when it came to working on her dream desk, but now that she was finished, she wanted to curl up in bed with a good book, and read until she passed out.

“Thirsty?” He started making his way for the kitchen, pulling out the big pitcher of sweet tea Gran insisted on making daily. It was just so damn good.

“I can always go for Gran’s tea, and you know that, Avery Martin!” Emily laughed as she followed him into the kitchen, plopping down on one of the barstools positioned at the breakfast bar.

She let out another yawn before lying her head down on the cool blue granite.

Avery placed her glass next to her, before walking around behind her to rub her shoulders. Immediately all the tension in her body vanished.

“That feels so good.” Emily let out a small moan. “Ya know, Avery. You don’t have to stay in tonight and be a bum with me. We both had lives before each other.” She sat up in the chair, giving him a smile of reassurance.

“I just don’t feel right leaving you alone, not with everything that’s going on. Maybe I can have a couple of the guys over tonight? We could grill and have a few beers, and you can do whatever it is you did before I came into your life.” He smiled back, giving her a charming wink.

“Before you? Avery, I would be soaking in my tub with a book, or my iPad. Nothing fancy, that’s for sure.” She laughed. Nothing beat a good Indie book by one of her favorite authors. There was just something about the indie community which was far more attractive than those big, boring best sellers.

“I don’t mind if you have the guys over. Just don’t scare your gran.” Emily smiled while texting Becca to see if she wanted to join her for a movie in bed for the night. They were past due for a girl’s night.

***

Emily insisted Becca’s bold language and brazen personality was going to scare Gran into an early grave. She’d tried to warn Avery’s grandmother of Becca before she arrived at the beach house, but she didn’t think anyone could have prepared the seventy-two year old, reserved, country lady for the whirlwind they called Becca.

“I brought vino, ladies!” Becca exclaimed as she busted through the front door without as much as a knock.
Yup, this night is about to get interesting.

The women surrounded the breakfast bar in the kitchen as Becca continued emptying her bag of tricks. First came the wine, followed by a handful of movies, several Chinese food containers, and last, a small pint of Jameson whiskey which she placed on the counter with a flourish and a calculating grin.

“There is no way I am touching that, B, no damn way.” Emily pointed at the small alcohol bottle shining on her kitchen counter. “In fact, I think I will be sticking with some tea tonight. I haven’t felt so hot this week and I am already pushing it with the Chinese.” Just thinking about the General Tso’s chicken from her favorite Chinese food place made her mouth water. It had been too long since she indulged in it.

“Only whiskey?” Gran questioned with a laugh. “That’s the hard stuff for y’all?” She laughed, questioning their choice of hard alcohol. Emily had guessed Gran wouldn’t be joining in drinking, but it was starting to look like Emily was really wrong.

“Whiskey is our
party
alcohol, which is normally what our girls’ nights are about, but I just want to relax and lay low tonight. I think the boys may get rowdy enough for all of us,” Emily said, pulling a stack of plates out of the cabinet for their take-out dinner.

“Y’all are lightweights.” The old lady laughed at the girls while their jaws hung, staring at Gran in disbelief. “You ain’t had nothin’ till y’all had some of our good ol’ bathtub moonshine.” Was Emily hearing her correctly? Bathtub moonshine? Who was this lady and where had sweet old Gran run off to?

“Don’t make me get Avery in here!” Emily threatened as she burst out laughing. Maybe there was more to this petite, silver haired firecracker than she had originally thought.

“Go on, Suga’! Get him. Who’d you think taught that boy how to drink?” She smirked at the girls before peering inside the take-out containers.

“What the hell is this?” Gran asked as she continued examining the containers. Apparently, she had never had the pleasure of Chinese take-out.

“There is a first time for everything, right, Gran?” Becca laughed before Emily started to explain the different ingredients in the various Chinese dishes. By the end of the culinary lesson, Gran settled on a little bit of everything to try. These girls would certainly be broadening Gran’s horizons.

After a half dozen of Becca’s cat jokes to go with the Chinese food, everyone was done eating, just as a flood of firemen made their way onto the back deck. Gran and Emily worked to clean up the small mess, and pack away the leftovers in the fridge.
I won’t have to fight Gran for those!
She clearly hadn’t cared for the take out, but politely finished her dinner.

Becca stood by the back door until she eyed Tom. She quietly slid out onto the back deck to maul him before returning to help, or at least pretend she was helping once everything was already finished.

“You gonna finally spill?” Emily asked her. They had briefly spoken about her and Tom, but she continued to keep to herself when it came to him. It had been a long time since Becca had anything more than a one night stand, and it was clear Tom was becoming a repeat performance in her night life.

“We’re just having fun.” Becca smiled before picking up her copy of Magic Mike and heading for the living room.

“Did you seriously bring Magic Mike?” Emily howled with laughter as she eyed the cover, donned with gorgeous half naked men. Gran was really in for baptism by fire tonight.

“Come on, Ems! You know Gran is going to want to Channing all over his Tatum by the end of the movie, just like the rest of us.” Becca laughed while looking over at the confused old lady. Emily and Becca would be going straight to hell for this one.

***

Only minutes after turning the DVD player on, they had an audience through the tall glass windows only feet away. The guys continued to hoot and holler, trying to distract them from the movie, but it wasn’t until Joe Manganiello, dressed as a sexy fireman slowly stripping his clothes off, that they all flooded through the back door into the sprawling living room.

One-by-one they all started throwing their shirts off, re-enacting everything Joe did on the big screen. Gran froze in shock, as her jaw hung open in amazement. She laughed hysterically when two of the rookie firemen made their way to her. Hysterics continued to fill the living room while they all made a drunken spectacle out of themselves.

Emily looked over to Becca and found her mauling Tom, as he ground into her lap, shirtless to boot. Avery did the same in front of Emily. Her body felt like it was on fire. She wanted him in the worst way possible. Right then and there.
Damn all these people in my house!

“Okay, boys! Back outside before you send the lady into cardiac arrest!” Avery’s voice boomed through the living room as he tried to corral the men back onto the deck. Emily reached up, running her fingers under his shirt and over his glorious abs before pulling her hand back and yanking him in for a chaste kiss, then swatting him on his ass as she sent him on his way.

Did that really just happen?

Chapter 10

Doctor Says

Avery’s days off from work flew by in the blink of an eye, and he was already starting his second day of a twenty-four hour shift as Emily walked through the doors of Halifax Medical Center for her follow up appointments. First, she would see her primary care doctor for a general checkup. With all the medications she’d been put on after the accident, they wanted to draw blood and check her liver function and all that happy medical crap she would never understand.
Blah blah blah
is what it all sounded like, with a hint of German.

She sat in the waiting room reading a copy of People Magazine, waiting for her name to be called. The office usually worked quickly and efficiently, but this morning it seemed as if half a dozen emergencies continued, pushing her appointment back. She tapped her purple glittery heel on the floor while she waited.

“Emily Taylor,” the nurse called, shuffling through a stack of papers in her arms. Emily stood and made her way to the door, tossing the magazine back onto the large coffee table on her way. “Looks like Dr. Bennett wants urine and blood. Your lucky day,” the nurse said with sarcasm while she tried to crack a smile. She looked like she was having a damn bad day. The nurse handed her a small plastic specimen cup and pointed her in the direction of the bathroom.

“When you’re finished, just twist the lid back on and place it in the window. Then you can come have a seat here to wait for the Lab Tech.” She slid the folder with Emily’s information into a clear plastic holder and made her way to exam room two.

Emily went through all the motions, first peeing on her hand while desperately trying to aim for the tiny cup the nurse provided her with.
They get ya every damn time!
She thought as she scrubbed a layer of skin off her hands, cleaning away the pee.

Next, she stopped to have her arm pricked a total of three times before the Lab Tech-in-training got it right and extracted half her blood supply into three giant tubes. All this before noon, a beer would be in order way before five o’clock.
Hey, it’s five o’clock somewhere!

Lastly she made her way into exam room two, and waited for Dr. Bennett to grace her with his presence. It would be a while, since she was sure he would want the results of her blood work before he even walked through the door. The jeopardy theme music started playing in her own mind while she fished for her cell phone at the bottom of her junk filled purse. Facebook and Words With Friends would have to do to pass the time.

Finally, a half hour later, Dr. Bennett walked through the door with a stack of papers. “Mornin’, Miss Taylor, how are you feeling?” he asked with a smile on his face. Dr. Bennett was a shorter fellow, not much taller than Emily, but he certainly was attractive for an older man. Mid- forties, his dark brown hair was just starting to gray around his sideburns.

“I am doing good, Dr. Bennett. Much better than the last time I saw you,” she said with a chuckle, remembering him sitting by her bedside after the car accident. He looked down, nodding at the paperwork. Flipping from page to page, reading over the results of the tests, he occasionally wrote a note before continuing to the next page.

“So tell me, Miss Taylor. Have you been a little more tired lately?” His question took her off guard, but now that he’d mentioned it, she had been feeling that way. She was downright exhausted by the end of the day, almost every day. She thought back to Saturday night, how she was out cold by nine while Avery had a ton of the firemen over for drinks. She hadn’t even heard a peep from them.

“Now that you mention it, yeah. I have been a bit.” She gazed at him with a look of confusion. What the hell was wrong with her now?

“What about your last menstrual cycle? Do you know the date of that?” Again his question took her completely off guard. What the hell was he getting at?

“Not off the top of my head. They’ve never been consistent since Dr. Barker put me on the pill so many years ago, so I just stopped paying attention,” she answered honestly. She couldn’t remember the last time she had a
real
period.

“Hmm. I see,” he said, writing some more notes down on her chart.

“Is there something wrong?” Her nerves got the best of her. Anxiety started shooting through her, thinking she had some kind of strange disease caused by her birth control pills. The hypochondriac in her was out in full effect. She had a month to live and it was the end of the world.

“Emily, relax a little bit. There’s nothing terribly wrong, take a deep breath,” he said, placing his hand on her shoulder and coaching her through a mild anxiety attack. It wouldn’t be the first Dr. Bennett had witnessed, but damn it was the first one Emily had in a long time.

“Ems, you’re pregnant.” His words echoed in her head. The room started to spin. She felt like she was going to pass out. She continued to breathe, bringing herself back from the brink of unconsciousness as the nurse from earlier rushed in with a cup of water, encouraging her to drink.

She grabbed the cup, chugging it back like it was a beer on a hot summer day. Pregnant? That wasn’t possible! She had been on the pill for years. Years upon years. This had to be some kind of misunderstanding. That damn phlebotomist-in-training fucked something up!

“Emily, it’s okay. Calm down and we’ll talk.” Dr. Bennett slowly talked her down off the edge. She came back to planet Earth eventually, listening to Dr. Bennett go on about medication interacting with other medications. She’d been put on some extremely hefty antibiotics after her accident which very well may have reduced the effectiveness of her birth control.

“By the looks of the HCG numbers, you’re about four or five weeks pregnant, but because of your unpredictable cycle, we’re going to need an ultrasound. I can’t do that here in the office; you’re going to have to go upstairs to radiology. I will have Debbie at the front desk call over and they’ll get you right in. Okay?”

Dr. Bennett looked at Emily as she continued to stare at him with a blank look of shock on her face. Holy Hell. This wasn’t happening. This was the worst possible news Emily could have ever received.

***

Forty-five minutes later, Emily was spread eagle with a vaginal probe, moonlighting as an ultrasound machine shoved uncomfortably in her vagina. When Dr. Bennett had said ultrasound, this was not what she’d bargained for. Minute by minute this day was getting worse.

The ultrasound technician clicked away with glee, typing on her keyboard occasionally and barely acknowledging Emily at all. A few more clicks and an uncomfortable shift of the probe finally made the woman start talking.

“Here we go!” she exclaimed like she’d just found Black Beard’s hidden treasure nestled inside the fluffy walls of Emily’s uterus. “Tricky little bugger.” She laughed. Emily tensed as the woman continued her work.

“Looks like you’re almost five weeks along. Little guy has a faint heartbeat. Would you like to see?” The question didn’t really register in Emily’s mind. She nodded yes without even understanding what she was agreeing to. She was officially running on auto pilot at this point. The real Emily had checked out the moment Dr. Bennett started questioning her last period.

“That little flickering on the screen, that’s the heartbeat,” she said, pointing her neon green manicured finger at the screen. Emily squinted to focus in on the tiny flash of light as a small tear streamed down her face. She was going to be a damn mother and she was scared shitless.

A few moments later the technician removed the alien probe and started printing a plethora of ultrasound pictures for Emily to take with her. She slid her jeans back on as quickly as she could before waiting for further instructions from the technician, bursting into the hallway of the hospital. She came to a screeching stop when she ran into a chest that could have doubled as a damn brick wall.

“I’m so sorr—” Emily froze in shock, one hand clenching on to her ultrasound pictures, the other holding her purse. The chest she’d run into was the last chest she wanted to see. Jared stood, looking down at the ultrasound pictures with rage in his eyes.

Emily quickly turned away, increasing her pace for the waiting area while Jared stayed put in the middle of the hallway, staring at her as she continued to retreat. The look in his eyes had been like a knife to the gut. She had to get out of the hospital as quickly as she could.

Fuck the neurologist this afternoon. I am going directly to the safety of the fire house.

When she finally reached her car, she tossed her purse and the photos on the passenger’s seat before she repeatedly hit the lock button on her doors. Her pulse was through the roof as she threw her car into reverse, then flew out of the parking lot, never looking back.

***

Emily dashed into the parking lot of the Fire House, throwing her car in park as she clenched the steering-wheel, her hands shaking uncontrollably and her stomach flip-flopping in her throat. She took deep breaths, talking herself through it. But nothing was working. Tom and Avery walked up to her window and began tapping on the glass. She continued looking straight in front of her, frozen inside her own mind.

Without thinking she leaned over, pushing the unlock button. Avery opened the door, pulling her out into his arms and Tom went to work cutting the engine.

As Avery cradled her in his arms, right in the parking lot for everyone to see, Captain Sullivan made his way out to check on the scene unfolding at his house.

“Is everything okay, Miss Taylor?” he questioned her with concern written all over his face. As if she was snapped out of a magic spell, she turned to the Captain and answered his question.

“Yes, I am just...a little shocked.” With her words he rubbed her shoulder and walked into the fire house with Tom by his side. Emily looked at Avery, running her finger down the side of his face before tears started falling.

“Emily, it’s okay. Tell me what happened.” His tone was slowly becoming frantic.

“Jared. I walked out of the exam room and ran right into him. His eyes. His eyes were filled with rage. If there weren’t people all around us, I don’t know what he would have done. I ran. I ran until I got to my car and sped the whole way here.” Her words became more panicked as the tears started falling faster.

She stood up, reaching for the door of her car. She climbed over to the passenger’s seat and pulled the strip of ultrasound pictures.

“Avery,” she said in a whisper, meek and afraid of what he’d say. Hell, she was still reeling from her own reaction. The idea had not fully settled into her mind, but she knew there was no way she could go on without telling Avery.

He turned to meet her gaze as she held up the strip of ultrasound pictures. While she tried to bring herself to smile, she started to sob uncontrollably instead. The look on his face went from shock, to scared, settling on ecstatic in the matter of seconds. Before Emily could speak, he picked her up and spun her around the parking lot, shouting with excitement while raining kisses all over her tear stained face.

“When? How? We’re going to be parents?????” he yelled, slowly attracting a crowd in the open bay of the firehouse.

Emily nodded before she finally spoke, “Yes, we are going to be parents, Avery.” She finally kissed him back, and the small audience of firemen they had attracted started cheering in the distance.

“The medication from the accident, Avery. It apparently murdered my birth control.” She let out a small chuckle, trying to make a joke and get back to being herself after having an out of body experience the last half hour. Avery continued to smile, even with the crappy birth control news. He wasn’t upset like Emily automatically assumed he would be.

“But, Avery. Jared knows. When I ran into him, I had the ultrasound pictures in my hand. He looked at them and instantly filled with rage. I could see it all over his face. He wanted to fly off the handle, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t do it at work. So I ran.”

Her words paralyzed Avery’s happiness, and his face quickly became serious. His protective instinct kicked in more than ever before. Not only would he need to keep Emily safe, but there was no way he would let someone harm his baby. Over his dead fucking body.

“Ems, I want you to go home and turn on the security system. I will be home as soon as I can get there. I’m going to call Detective Denton, and tell Captain Sullivan. This ends. TONIGHT.” Avery’s tone became harsh. She’d never seen him this upset, but she would follow his words and head directly home and wait for him. As much as this all took her off guard, there was no way she was going to let anything happen to her, or her baby. No damn way.

***

“I need you here until at least nineteen hundred hours, Avery. I can’t get coverage in here before then,” Captain Sullivan said, shaking his head with disapproval from the other side of the desk. In the past hour Avery had spilled everything which had happened over the past two weeks, adding the pregnancy as icing on the cake. He was sure the Captain was going to jump over the desk and strangle him before he spit out his desperate plan to ask Emily to marry him.

Once Gran knew there was a
bun
in the
oven
she wouldn’t allow her boy to get away without some kind of a ring firmly planted on Emily’s finger. His planning hadn’t made it past the ring, though. He was still in shock over the situation as a whole. The look on Emily’s face when she held up the strip of ultrasound pictures clearly explained to him that she was just as surprised. In fact, she looked downright horrified, like she’d seen a ghost.

It certainly wasn’t something they had planned, but it also wasn’t the end of the world. His chest swelled with pride in the typical macho, “
my boys can swim”
kind of way. But what warmed his heart was the fact that everything felt right. Minus the fucking psycho stalking the love of his life.

As he turned to leave Captain Sullivan’s office, the man of few words spoke again, “Avery, none of us will let anything happen to her. Especially Denton.” Avery turned and offered his superior a nod before walking out of his office. His phone buzzed in his pocket repeatedly, the caller ID flashing Detective Denton again.