Redemption (The Bet) (19 page)

"They must be here." Dina announced waltzing to Ronnie's side with two steaming mugs of coffee in hand. She offered Ronnie one and took a sip from the other while they silently listened to the murmur of voices from the foyer. Ronnie saw Gabe's infuriated face first over the rim of her mug followed closely by Phillip, neither one smiling.

They entered the room seconds after the other and reclaimed their positions by the kitchen entrance.
They shared the same dark expression while their twin gazes zeroed one the entryway. Ellie was the first to enter and her daughter, like a member of Marie Antoinette's court facing death by guillotine, toddled behind her. Head lowered to her chest, her dress rumpled, the weight of certain doom rested between her shoulder blades.

Nicholas Grayson
followed suit, strolling in with all the pretension of a King honoring his lesser with his divine presence. The image Ronnie had of the brash, motorcycle riding boy of years past was dashed away by the man who now stood in Ellie's living room.

The years had been
generous, Ronnie silently remarked. Nowhere, from the well-coiffed dark head, to the tailored tux, down to those shinny designer shoes, did Ronnie find Nicholas lacking in the looks department. In fact, she was feeling incredibly sorry for Ellie at this moment. With Nicholas looking this good, it would take a woman with a very strong resolve to resist the temptation he presented. Ronnie prayed Ellie did not succumb to the lure of forbidden fruit.

"Alright, Grayson, you did your job and dropped Sophie off, now
 do let the door hit you on your way out." Gabe's scathing remark perforated the straining silence.

Nicholas thinly
smiled. "Good to see you haven't changed, Gabe. Still the same cantankerous watchdog we all love to hate." Gabe vacated his position by the door in record time making his way to Nicholas, who unsurprisingly stood his ground and waited.

Ronnie shot to her feet. "Gabe!" Gabe
stopped midstride. Joining him, Ronnie held onto his arm then turned to Nicholas. "Thank you for bringing Sophie home, Nicholas. We're all very appreciative and we're sorry if she's inconvenienced you in any way. But I think maybe it's time you left. My husband, Ellie, her parents and myself believe that this situation can be handled among family."  

"That's right, Grayson," Gabe sneered, "this is a family matter and seeing as you're not family or anything close to it, we'd all like it if you got the hell out."

Disregarding Gabe's ire, Nicholas coolly assessed both Ronnie and Gabe before addressing everyone in the room. "Ah, but you see I am family. I am the father of Ellie's children and however much it irks 
you
 or anyone else in this room, she and I are a family. The children we've created bond us for life and like it or not, I'm here to stay."

“Yeah, see, I knew I should’ve shot you when I had the chance.”

Nicholas laughed without humor. “I’m not so easy to get rid of.”

“You cocky sonofa---”

“Enough!” Ellie said firmly. “We’re not doing this again.” She turned to Nicholas. “Thank you for bringing Sophie home, I appreciate it.” It took strength to say that. “I understand we need to discuss the twins and I’ll be more than happy to do it with you, tomorrow if you want. But please understand that Sophie doesn’t concern you."

Nicholas met her hard gaze with a forlorn sigh. “She did
once. I’ve never stopped caring about her.”

‘Nicholas…
”

“I’ll go. But before I do, know that Sophie’s presence in car was my fault.”

“What do you mean?”

H
e gave a noncommittal shrug of broad shoulders. "I wanted to know more about Dylan and Isabella, so I asked her to wait for me in my car. We lost track of time.”

Ellie regarded him, hard-pressed to believe the crap he’d just spouted. Honestly did he believe her that dim? Nevertheless, she turned to her equally bemused daughter to ask.
"Is this true?"

Sophie tentatively met her gaze only to look down when Ellie frowned at her. “
Yes.” She murmured, but Ellie heard her all the same.

He was lying to protect her. Noble as it may have been, Ellie couldn’t abide the lying. But
she held her tongue for the time being and instead gave Nicholas a curt response that did not bear mentioning before she watched him take his leave. The soft click from the front door indicated to all attendance that he was gone.

Ellie found it a lot easier to breath. One obstacle down and another right behind it, Ellie turned to her daughter with a frown.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes.”

“What the heck were you thinking? Sophie, you could’ve gotten hurt or worse. What you did was selfish and dangerous.”

“But I was with Nicholas, Mom.”

“That’s not the point. You had us all worried and on top of it all, you lied to me.”

“I’m sorry, Mom. But I just wanted to talk to him, see if he was Ok. After all this time, Mom, he finally came back and he knew me!” she said, barely able to contain her joy. “He knew me and he was ha
ppy to see me. I didn’t think…I’d hoped that he would…”

Ellie
sighed. “You have absolutely no business meddling in matters you do not understand.”

“I do understand.” Sophie said resolutely, squaring off with her mother. “
Mom, he cares about me. He wants to be a part of our lives and I think you owe him that much.”

“Listen to me very carefully little girl, you are walking on very thin ice and this discussion stops here and now. Do I make myself clear?”

Sophie took a step back, the anger radiating from her mother scorching. “Yes, Ma’am.”

“Get upstairs!
” Sophie bolted.

“
Damn it.” Ellie spat, falling into the suede couch. With an arm across her forehead, she heaved a sigh and closed her eyes. “I don’t know what’s happening.” She admitted to her support system. “Everything is spinning out of control and I’m helpless to stop it.”

“Oh, sweetheart.” Her mother, the eternal optimist was at Ellie’s side in seconds. “It’s going to be ok. You’ve had a tough couple of weeks; it’s only natural that you’d feel stressed. I think you just need a goodnight’s rest and you’ll see that things aren’t as bad as they seem.”

“God, Mom. I messed up so badly.”

Dina opened her arms to her, cradling
Ellie just so. “It’ll be alright, dear. There’s nothing that’s truly ever broken that can’t be fixed with prayer and patience. Have a little faith, sweetheart, everything will work out in the end.”

“How are you so sure?”

Dina smiled. “A little birdie told me.” she brushed Ellie’s hair back. “Now come, I think we could all benefit from a goodnight’s rest.”

Ellie stood, feeling slightly bolstered. “Thanks, Mom.
You guys head up, I think I’ll make myself some tea and wait for Devlin.”

With a hug for both her parents, Ellie watched them head upstairs to the guestroom.

"You handled him pretty well." Gabe said, following her to the kitchen, Ronnie just behind them. "I'm proud of you."

Ellie snorted putting the kettle on the stove.
"You wouldn't be so proud, if I told you that he pushed me into a corner and kissed me and I just stood there and took it."

"Ellie…
"

"Before you start prepping your lecture, let me just say that it meant nothing. There was nothing there, no sparks, no rekindled feelings, just his lips and mine and a whole lot of nothing."
 And wasn’t that the biggest load of crap she’s ever spouted?

She could lie as many times as she wanted, but the truth of the matter was that Nicholas's kiss left an impression
, a very long lasting one that even now still tingled across her lips. And it may not be tonight, or tomorrow, or even the day after that, but soon, Ellie would have to own up to those feelings her ex-lover evoked.

"Just make sure that at the end of the day, you remember who makes you happy." Gabe
said gravely.

Leaning against the kitchen sink, Ellie her arms across her chest and frowned.
"You think I still have feelings for him?"

"I think you should be careful. History has a
nasty way of repeating itself and I won't see it happen to you."

"It won't. Nicholas has stopped meaning anything to me a very long time ago. The only
things he and I have left between us are the children.”

"Good, I'm glad to hear it. Now all we have to do is get your daughter to realize it too."

"God. I don't understand her anymore. She was never like this!"

"It's called being a pre-teen, Ellie. Soon she'll be filled with teen angst and
rebelling, yelling out things like how much she hates you and the world. That's when the real fun begins."

Ellie glared at her grinning godfather. "This isn't funny, Gabe. That's my baby girl up
there, talking back to me, trying to get me back together with a man who broke both our hearts. I just don't get it!" She released her frustrations in a drawn out sigh.

"Maybe you should explain to her exactly how that bastard broke your heart, that might knock some sense into her."

"It's not like I haven't tried. She just won't listen to me. It's just so strange that she has this unbreakable bond with Nicholas, I mean for gods sakes, she was just a baby when they met!"

"As much as I hate saying
this, I think that might be it."

"What might be it?"

"Sophie was only a baby when she met Nicholas right? Well maybe she feels so attached to him because Nicholas is the only father figure she's ever known."

Sighing, Ellie chewed the corner of her bottom lip, before saying. "I think you might be right. It's not like Tony was around long enough for Sophie to remember him as her dad. But Nicholas was and I'm starting to think that this was all my fault."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, if I hadn't fallen in love, then Soph wouldn't have been so attached. I mean, this isn't the first time I've wished I'd never met Nicholas and seeing as he's going to be a permanent fixture in my life now, it won't be the last time either. I just wish that Sophie hadn't been caught up in my stupid romance."

"As much as I'd love to agree with you there, I can't say that you being with, Nicholas was entirely bad. Sure the asshole put you through hell but he gave you Bella and Dylan in return. Making mistakes is part of life, it's what makes us human, Ellie, and that includes falling in love. You've kissed your share of toads before and now that you have Devlin I think it's time you let yourself be happy."

"I hate it when you're right."

Gabe grinned. "You should be used to it by now, kiddo."

Ellie stood. "It's sick that you're happy picking on your goddaughter this way."

"Let me have my moment goddaughter, it's rare that I get to be right about anything, living with such a perfect wife." Gabe waggled his eyebrows at Ronnie, who grinned despite herself.

“Much as it pains me to say it, Gabe is right, Ellie. Regardless of
what’s happening with, Nicholas, you deserve to be happy and if Devlin brings you that happiness than I think you’re set.”

Ellie smiled, thoughts of her fiancé putting it there. “He makes me
very happy.”

“Well then, to hell with Nicholas Grayson. At least where you’re concerned.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Gabe said, having retrieved a bottle of Heineken from the fridge.

~*
~*~*~

Saturday morning dawned dreary and somber in the Holbrook household. Outside of Ellie's living room window the rain continued its torrential spiral towards earth, pelting and soaking anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in its wake. Every now and then the grey skies flashed
white from noiseless lightening while the resonating boom of thunder inevitably followed. Every time the thunder roared Bella raised her hands to her ears, beneath the Afghan, seated at her mother's side on the couch, she anxiously waited out the storm.

Ellie
remembered the first time they'd done this. Bella had been three and the storm had been loud, incessant and frightening to a child so young. The claps of thunder had roused her from sleep and not knowing what else to do she opened her mouth and screamed her frenzied mother to her bedroom. Ellie had entered her daughter's room expecting the worse, but only found a red faced Bella screaming bloody murder.

After reassuring a concerned Sophie that she was alright and putting her twin brother back to bed, Ellie had lugged Bella to the living room and comforted her through the worst of the storm. Ever since that night, thunderous rainy days for Ellie were spent on her living room couch, entertaining her daughter and relaxing.

Breakfast had been made and eaten, relatives were kissed goodbye and shown the door. Dylan and Sophie were spending the day with Gabe, giving their sick sister some time with her mother.

"Here we
go hot chocolate all around." Devlin had arrived in the middle of night, drenched and cold from the rain. He'd divested his clothes and very thoroughly loved Ellie into exhaustion the rest of the night.