More Than Forever (Providence Series Book 2) (9 page)

“Luke, oh my God! I’m so glad you called. How are you? Where are you?” She babbled out in a rush. 

“We can’t tell you right now, Ma, but I’ve got some news for you. Is Dad around, too?” I know he already knew, but if Mom found that out, there would be hell to pay and Dad tended to bend over backwards to make sure that that never happened, so we would have to make this play.  

She fumbled about trying to put the phone on speaker until Dad eventually grabbed it and did it for her. Technology and my mom were not a match made in heaven. 

“Okay, sweetie, go ahead!” 

“Isla’s pregnant…” I just managed to finish the end of the word
pregnant
before Mom started screaming and crying while Dad tried to calm her down. I listened to the sobs and her wailing about being a Grandma until she settled slightly and then added the rest. “With twins…” 

Making myself comfortable with a big smile on my face I listened to her cry, knowing how happy she was, and waited for Dad to calm her down again. If I could get Isla to trust me again, to accept how much I loved her, then this would be us in around thirty years time; I couldn’t wait! 

“I think she’s semi settled now, son,” Dad said. “Congratulations to both of you…” Mom grabbed the phone back from him and took over. 

“How far along is she? How is she feeling? Have you said sorry yet? When is she due? Are you looking after her?” Answering the questions one by one as patiently as I could, I looked over toward the hammock where she’d been lying and saw her standing inside the door looking worriedly at me. I know she was scared that people would think that she’d done it on purpose, but hopefully hearing my Mom’s excitement would help her see that that just wasn’t the case with my family so I put it on speakerphone, too. 

As Mom went on and on talking about going baby shopping and finding Isla the best OBGYN in the area, I saw Isla relax and the beginning of a smile on her face as she took more steps toward me. When she was close enough, I reached out and gently moved her onto my lap and rubbed her back to try and get rid of the tension that I could feel in it. 

“Ma, Isla’s here. Why don’t you ask her?” She tensed again on my lap until Mom started her crying and babbling and Isla joined her; maybe this hadn’t been my best idea? I hated it when Isla cried because I knew what she went through at home when she was younger and not once did she breakdown. She’d just taken it and carried on, so when she cried you knew it was something that was hitting her hard.  

After a couple more minutes of them bawling and chattering back and forth, Dad took the phone back from Mom. 

“Luke, take me off speakerphone.” 

Isla stood up and went in the direction of the bathroom as I did it. I almost missed what he was saying as I watched her walk away from me. Everything about Isla turned me on including her new baby bump, but watching her ass sway as she walked was making it difficult to pay attention. 

“Luke!” Dad snapped. 

“Sorry, Dad, what were you saying?” 

“Your safe was fire proof, so I have the contents here. The necklace was given to a guy of Coleman’s who is flying out to Singapore to meet with Baz.” At this rate Coleman wouldn’t have any of his team left. Poor bastard had guys going out left right and center.  

“Thanks, Dad, I appreciate that. Have they found out anything on the bombs yet?” 

“Coleman’s bomb expert found what he thinks is the device that caused it, but they’d also turned the gas on so that it looked like a gas leak.” I could hear the frustration in his voice and knew just what he was feeling. 

“And Isla’s car?”  

“A detonator was attached to the ignition. Once the ignition was turned on, it tripped the bomb. It’s a fucking miracle that Cole got out of there with only the injuries that he did. Cooper, too!”  

“How is he?” No one had been able to tell us anything about his condition and I really needed to know that he was okay. 

“He’s alive son, that’s what counts. Coleman has all the details now, so I’ll call you when I get an update from him.” 

“Who’s doing it, Dad? What the fuck have we done to deserve this bullshit? I mean, what if Isla had gone into my house first? Or been in the car?” My hands were shaking again and the tightness that I got in my chest when it came to her safety was almost overwhelming. 

“She wasn’t, Luke, so don’t think like that. We don’t know who and why, but we’ll find out. For now, look after that beautiful girl of yours and those precious babies. I’m so proud of you, son, congratulations.” He choked at the end of the sentence and almost had me choking up with him. 

After talking a bit more and some warnings from Mom about looking after Isla, I hung up and went to go and find her to see if she wanted to phone her Gram or one of the three stooges. She wasn’t anywhere in the cottage and I started to panic. Rushing out of the house as fast as I could with the pain in my leg, I ran into one of Guntur’s men, who was pretending to walk along the pathway that went the length of the beach. 

“Isla’s missing! We need to find her.” I whispered. 

“She’s there, Sir,” he said pointing towards the beach where I could see Isla standing with her feet just in the sea, watching the sun set. 

Walking up behind her, I put my arms around her and put my face in her neck. “You scared the shit out of me.” 

I wasn’t sure where we stood, but fuck if I could stop touching her. I needed to feel her and to hold her, she grounded me; in fact, she always had.  

“I’m sorry, I saw it getting darker and wanted to watch this. Apparently sunsets in Indonesia are beautiful.” 

I looked over her shoulder and saw that her hand was back on her baby bump and put my hand on top of it. This was how I got my peace; standing watching the sunset on a beach in Bali, with my world under my fingertips. 

I
sla
 

At dinner that night,
Luke asked the question that I’d been dreading. “So, when do you want to call your Dad and tell him about the babies?” 

I’d thought about this quite a lot since I’d found out that I was pregnant and the more I’d thought about it the more adamant I was that I wasn’t going to tell him. Quite frankly, he wouldn’t give a shit and Calista and Jodie would just crap on the news, and I refused to give them that power. I knew he was back in Piersville for a while because of the issues on sites and George had called a strategy meeting. In fact, Dad had tried to contact me in Singapore, I guess I’d made the right grade for him to acknowledge me, but I’d ignored him. I couldn’t care less about them all, just like he hadn’t cared about me when he’d had an affair with Jodie. Mom had moved away and was then killed by a drunk driver, so he would never be anything to me again and hadn’t been since the day Gram took me in after finding me sitting in the snow in a pair of shorts and a tank, thanks to Calista and Jodie. 

Shrugging, I pushed what was left on my plate around with my fork while I tried to think of an excuse of why I wasn’t going to tell them. Granted, it wasn’t a secret how they had all treated me, but it was a secret how it had made me feel. 

“Maybe when I get back to Piersville? I really hadn’t thought about it.” 

Luke sat back in his chair and watched me. He always had a way of making you think that he saw and knew everything so I made sure that my face was blank and looked back at him. 

When he lifted his hand to rub his bottom lip with his finger, an action that I knew from experience meant that he was reading the person, which made me nervous, I couldn’t help watching his finger move. He’d kissed me a couple of times today, but they had been gentle and brief and I really wanted one of his
kisses
which irritated me. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about us being an us and if I’d ever be able to trust him again. 

“You’re not going to tell them are you?”  The question snapped me out of my fog and I made the mistake of looking him right in the eye and letting him see that he’d read the situation correctly. “You’re scared about what they’ll say about the babies and you.” 

Shrugging a shoulder again, I reached for my glass of water so that he wouldn’t see me fidgeting, which was one of my tells. “I really don’t know, Luke. As I said, I haven’t really thought about it. In any case, it’s not like we’re actually close,” or that they give a shit about me, “so why would they want to hear the news?” 

“Maybe because they’re family?” That question had me going from cold to boiling. They weren’t
my
family; they never had been. 

“You know better than that, Luke,” I was whispering now because regardless of how much I despised him, my Dad was still my Dad and part of me still wanted him to care about me and give a shit about what happened to me. “Has he even called to see if I’m okay after my car exploded?” 

Luke’s face went stony. Apparently he hadn’t thought of that. 

“In any case, it’s not like it matters. The people who need to know will know and that’s what’s important. I don’t need them in my life, I never have.” I made sure to stop there to let him know that the conversation on this topic was over; I was done. 

“I wonder who Mom has told already?” Luke mused. 

“Most likely everyone,” I burst out laughing because that was probably putting it mildly. Colette had been so excited by the news and making so many plans that I didn’t doubt that as soon as we hung up, she’d been on the phone spreading the news. Gram was gonna kill me for not telling her myself, and I bet Johnny, Reed, and Caleb would be planning Luke’s castration.  Baz had called when Luke found me on the beach earlier and had explained that right now only the secure lines could be called and that they would be setting them up for Gram and the boys. 

“Isla,” Luke took a deep breath in and looked up at me. “We need to talk about us. I need to explain it all fully to you, would you let me do that?” 

I’d been dreading this topic also, and right now, I just didn’t know that I could face it either. “Luke, I need time still. What you did with Kendal
hurt
. You may have thought that it was for business reasons, but how would you feel if you had been in my situation and had all of those photographs shoved in your face. Knowing that you’d stayed home waiting for me to call or give you five minutes of my time while having no idea that I was out dining and socializing.
And
passing off someone else as my boyfriend?” I was going to cry, I was sure of it, and that really got to me because I didn’t cry and just now it was all that I seemed to be doing. It must be the damn hormones. “I just don’t know if I can let myself get hurt again. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, but fooling me a third time…” I couldn’t finish that thought. 

Luke, lunged across the table to grab my hand and the look on his face shocked the hell out of me. “Isla, there won’t be a third time; that I can swear on everything. And before you say anything, no, it’s not because of the babies.” Proving that he could read faces. “I have loved you since we were kids. I fucked up in high school at the prom and I fucked up not being honest with you over Kendal, but I’m not going to fuck up again.” He let out a frustrated breath. “I don’t do emotions and lovey dovey shit, Isla, you know that, so this isn’t easy for me to put into words. I’ve never had to before.” 

That last bit started my stomach churning again, which was really unfortunate. Guntur had agreed that I didn’t need the IV put back in after we had arrived because I was keeping down the crazy amount of fluids that I’d been drinking recently. I didn’t want to go back to being sick and end up back on an IV. 

“Yeah, because you were too busy fucking your way through life and sharing them with your buddies right?” I knew I sounded bitter, but come on - everyone knew the rumors and stories, and it had eaten away at me. Those photographs that I’d had shoved in my face a couple of months ago may have been photoshopped, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t stuck in my mind. 

“Isla, I haven’t been a saint. You know that and I know that, but they weren’t you. You are different, you’ve always been different.” He immediately nudged my chin back up again when I looked down at the table. I knew I was different, he had always gone with swans and I would always be the ugly duckling; this wasn’t news to me. “I didn’t care about them like I care about you. They were dispensable, you aren’t!” 

“Really? That’s your excuse for the threesomes with your friends and the crazy amount of ‘dispensable’ women?” Yes, I used the air punctuation marks, but the word dispensable left such a bitter taste in my mouth. What guarantee did I have that I wasn’t ‘dispensable’, too? Even the fact that I was carrying his babies meant nothing, this I knew first hand from my Dad and how he’d treated my mom and I. 

“Threesomes?” He looked so confused that I honestly wanted to punch him.  

“What? Did you think I didn’t know?” I snorted. “Luke, everyone knows you
shared
with whomever else wanted to join in! Don’t try and make out that I’m stupid.” 

Pulling my hand away, I leaned back and watched him as he stared at me. What I never expected him to do was throw his head back and burst out laughing like I’d told him the funniest thing known to man.