“She hasn’t been answering, she left town…”
“Hello,” Lisa says.
“Hey,” I reply, and see Aidan’s stunned expression.
“Is there something you need?” she asks sheepishly and I look at my phone in disbelief.
“What do you mean is it something I need?” I laugh.
“It’s just been a really—I have a lot going on Chris” she stutters and I glance at Aidan whose gaze won’t leave his feet.
“Look, I’m going to Chicago with Lauren, and Aidan thinks there's something important you have to tell me. I don’t want anything hanging over my head before I leave. My mom wants to have dinner tonight but since our record with those haven’t been great I'd rather not,” I chuckle. There’s a long pause.
“When are you leaving?” she asks quietly.
“Why does it matter? Are you home?” I ask, feeling my annoyance grow.
“Yeah, but I have…” she stutters.
“Cool, I’ll see you in about an hour,” I say before hanging up the phone.
“Are you coming with me?” I ask him and he only nods.
“You know what, you’re being really weird, maybe you should stay here,” I laugh, leaving him in my bedroom. I head down the stairs and see my dad standing there.
“Can I talk to you?” he asks and I let out a sigh.
“Did you think about what I said this morning?”
“I did,” he says quietly.
“I want to speak with both you and Lauren.”
Chapter 14
Lauren
He’s coming with me.
Chris and I are going back to Chicago. This time there isn’t a question of his motive. He’s told me that he loves me, that he wants to be with me and raise Caylen together. I should be ecstatic, everything is coming together—but on what type of foundation? Secrets and lies? This doesn’t feel right. I can’t shake Dexter Crestfield's smarmy smile from my thoughts. I keep trying to get Lisa's looming secret out of my mind. Helen’s instructions, which I basically threw out the window, are making me rethink everything. I keep thinking that going back to Chicago may not be the right move, but whenever I think about Chris’ dad I can’t imagine us staying here another day.
If we left we could avoid the entire Lisa ordeal until…I don’t know, until…If things somehow become perfect then she ruins it with whatever she has to tell Chris. It’s selfish and stupid but I really just wish she wouldn’t. If it’s not life and death and it will hurt him, I wish she’d just keep it to herself, but then again, whatever it is Aidan thinks it could be the cause of Chris creating Cal. What could Lisa have to do with something so big? But if she tells him, could that be the key to them integrating? I have to know that Chris is committed to that before doing a re-run of what I did last night with him.
“Hey,” I turn and see him standing there a nervous smile on his face and it instantly makes me feel better.
“How is the packing going?” I ask, letting out a pent up breath.
“It was good until Aidan interrupted me,” he sighs.
“Aidan’s here?”
“He just left,” he says, rubbing the back of his head.
“Did he want anything in particular?”
“Other than to irritate me,” he chuckles and I smile relieved. Aidan didn’t budge on telling me anything about what Lisa told him, but he’s a very straight forward guy and doesn’t seem like the type who’d be able to keep a secret in plain sight.
“We sort of had an argument, but he’s going to meet me at Lisa’s later,” he shrugs and my heart speeds up.
“Lisa’s,” I can’t help but repeat.
“Yeah. He said she has something important to tell me. I want to get it out of the way before we leave,” he says, sitting down on the bed I have been sharing with Caylen during this visit.
“Are you okay?” he asks concerned. I swallow the lump in my throat.
“Of course, why would you ask that?”
“Well you’ve folded that shirt over almost three times since I’ve been in here,” he chuckles. I toss the stupid shirt on the bed.
“I’ll admit my nerves are a little on edge,” I sigh, and he does the same.
“This probably isn’t going to help but my dad wants to talk to us.”
“Really? He hasn’t dished out enough verbal abuse before we leave?” I ask sarcastically, grabbing another shirt.
“He says he wants to apologize to you and doesn’t want us to leave on a bad note,” he adds. I look at Chris in disbelief.
“I know my dad’s been a real prick lately,” he laughs and I nod. He’s been more than a prick.
“But that’s not the man he usually is. That’s not the dad I know. It’s just I think this Cal thing…”
“If you want us to talk to him Chris, I can do that, but the moment he says anything negative or remotely insulting I’ll be exiting the conversation,” I shrug and he smiles relieved.
“Okay. Are you ready now?” he asks.
As ready as I’m going to be.
“Yeah, let's get this over with.”
I follow Chris into the dining room. Mr. Scott is sitting at the head of the table, his hands folded but his face relatively relaxed and the hardened frown I’ve become accustomed to absent. When he sees us he even smiles and that shocks the hell out of me. Since I’ve met the man he’s never smiled at me once. I don’t know what Chris said to him after our conversation this morning but it really must have been something. When we’re seated he takes a deep breath, and shifts his body weight towards me.
“First I’d like to apologize to you Lauren,” he says without a hint of bitterness or anger hidden beneath his tone. I nearly fall out of my chair.
“I have been extremely unhospitable to you since you’ve arrived,” he continues. “Just a plain jerk,” he adds with a chuckles.
Yeah you have.
“I blamed you for things that were not your fault. I used you as someone to take my anger out on since they weren’t here for it and I am truly sorry for how I have behaved towards you.”
Has hell just frozen over? Who is this man sitting in front of me?
“Christopher, what you told me this morning really was a wakeup call for me. You did exactly as you should have and stood up for your wife, for her respect and I couldn’t be more proud of you,” he says putting his hand on Chris’. I can’t help but note how pleased Chris looks, how much stress seems to have lifted off him just in these few minutes.
“I want you both to know that, if you choose to stay, it will be different around here on my end. I will be here to support whatever decisions that you make, but both Gwen and I would be thrilled if you chose to stay.”
So that’s what this is about. He wants Chris to stay, God forbid he steps out from under papa’s wing.
“Well dad that’s…”
“You don’t have to answer me now. I’ll give you both time to talk about it. I just know that one of the main reasons you’re leaving is because of the way I have been acting and I couldn’t sleep tonight if I knew that I was breaking up our family,” he says and I can’t believe my eyes when I see that Mr. Scott is actually tearing up. What in the world has just happened? He turns towards me.