Fallen Interlude

Fallen Interlude

J. Fitzgerald

2004

Bored. I was completely, thoroughly bored. Sighing, I slung my legs out the window of Tommy’s car and laid across the back seat. Absentmindedly, I rubbed my hand over my stomach, then chose to stare at it. Pregnant. At twenty-one. What a terrifying thought. It was all his fault that we were in this damn predicament…all Tommy’s fault.

Alright…so maybe my dating his best friend Dylan hadn’t helped my situation out. But how the hell did I know that I was dating the guy at the top of Organized Crime across the United States? I knew he’d been involved in some crime world, but no one ever informed me of his stature there. I also hadn’t expected him to get shot in that back alleyway last spring or that I was about to join the Unwed Mother’s Club soon after. Let’s just tie into this the fact that the cops for some reason thought I had something to do with it…and Tommy? Tommy saw it his obligation to take care of me now that his best friend was dead.

I guess that pretty much catches you up to where we are today…sitting in some gas station in the middle of nowhere…end of summer heat piercing through the window’s of the old Ford we’d stolen…driving around and avoiding the cops at all costs.

I never thought that I would ever be stuck in this predicament.

Confused?

Yeah, maybe I haven’t explained this as well as I thought I had…

You see, it all started because I was working in this restaurant…

.--.

“Hailey, dear,” my boss, old Patrick Mattoni, asked swamped down in the back kitchen of his family owned restaurant. It was this quiet Italian place in the middle of New York City that had the best Italian food around. I was simply working there to earn money to keep my tuition up at a Psych student at Columbia. “Can you get that table in that back corner? Normally I’d go help them myself because they’re old family friends, but I have all these orders coming in and…”

I smiled at the old man and nodded. Pat was a good guy…nice…and he paid my bills…like I could turn him down. Picking up my notepad, I waded my way through the crowded dining room towards the one lone table in the back where it seemed ten very close friends were having dinner. Two of the men were older and talked most amongst themselves, but the eight people who were left all seemed to be around my age or a little older.

I stopped at their table and put on my nicest smile. “Can I get you all something to drink?” I asked, awaiting the onslaught of drink orders, which surprisingly didn’t come.

A blonde guy sitting towards the head of the table gave me a warm smile and nodded. “Your nicest bottle of Merlot.”

“Will do.”

As I turned to walk away, a pair of deep green eyes caught my gaze as they pierced intently into me. The guy they belonged to was one of those tall, dark, and handsome types…in other words, dangerous. Embarrassed that I had been staring, my cheeks heat up and I hurried back towards the kitchen. As the doors shut behind me, I caught my breath.

“Ah. I see you’ve met some of New York’s finest out there,” Pat said, a teasing tone in his words.

“Who are they?” I asked, trying to pass it off as if it weren’t a big deal.

“A mix of different families known throughout the city…a few Verettas…a few Giovannis…and a few who are higher up on the ladder.” Pat’s eye was sparkling now as he spoke of them. I just gave him an utterly confused look. “Come on kid! You can’t tell me some of these names aren’t familiar?!” I shook my head stupidly. “We’ll just say they’re known through the city for keeping things in order and making sure that people don’t act up when they’re not supposed to.”

The Mob.

Or something to that effect.

Sure, Pat was this nice old Italian guy, but you couldn’t tell me that he wasn’t involved in organized crime somehow. I mean the guy had secret meetings in his restaurant on an almost daily basis.

“Which one caught your eye?”

I let out a laugh and playfully hit Pat on the shoulder. “Now Pat, why would one of them catch my eye? They’re a bunch of rowdy guys.”

“Well two of em are taken, married away…but the younger two…”

“I have no idea who you’re speaking of.”

“The blonde and his best friend…good ol’ green eyes.”

There went the blazing cheeks again.

“Ah ha. She did notice them.”

“Shut up,” I said, as I headed towards the area of the kitchen where we stored the wine. “Who are they though?”

Just as I’d pulled out a finer year of Merlot, a head popped through the door and created quite a stir. “Dylan!” Pat exclaimed, going towards the blonde guy I’d seen minutes before. The two hugged. “How’s it going?” As the two caught up on time, I collected wineglasses and got them ready to take out and serve, but the blonde guy stopped me.

“Who is this beauty?” he asked, to which he got a nice roll of my eyes. His arm grabbed mine gently and took a few of the wineglasses I held.

“That’s Hailey…best waitress I got,” Pat explained.

“I can see why,” he said.

“Don’t listen to Dylan,” Pat began. “He sweet talks em all over town.”

“I can see that,” I said, pulling my arm away from his grasp and set the wineglasses I held down onto a tray. “It’d be appreciated if you’d keep your hands off of me.”

“What a spitfire,” Dylan laughed and Pat just shook his head. Pat gave me this look and mouthed ‘Watch out for this one’ and returned to preparing meals.

“I have drinks to deliver and bills to pass out,” I said to him as I blew out the door.

I’ve never been one to deal with boys. To me they remain immature until they die, so avoiding them all together seemed like a good plan. After all, I had bills to pay, an education to attain, and a job to keep. Guys didn’t exactly fit in there anywhere. As I waded towards the back table, balancing my tray, I had one focus, get the job done.

Not so easy when someone sweeps by and grabs up your tray and begins carrying it to the table you’re headed towards. This Dylan guy was not helping me. “I didn’t get your number,” he said, carrying the tray towards his back corner.

“Maybe because I didn’t give it to you,” I spat, trying to get the tray back.

“Maybe you should.”

He winked at me and I rolled my eyes. Once we got to their table, he began passing glasses around, even though that was MY job and then poured wine which was ALSO my job. I was fed up and the whole time this Dylan character was amused. As for old green eyes, he simply shot me a secretive grin and I turned and stormed back into the kitchen.

“He’s so selfish and stupid and dumb and God! I hate boys!” I shouted, throwing my hands up when I was once again alone with Pat.

“You say that dear…but do you mean it?”

.--.

That night as I was walking back towards my dorm building thinking about an early test I had to study for, someone caught up to me and it was much to my disdain that it was that Dylan character. “Look,” he began. “I know that I come off a little strong but…”

“No way!” I said sarcastically. “You? Strong?! Who would have ever noticed?!”

“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I tend to act a little immature around girls that I find attractive.” If he thought I was going to blush, he was mistaken. Instead, all he received was yet another eye roll as I continued in the direction of my dorm. He didn’t take the hint, though, that I was ignoring him and he kept walking next to me and babbling. “Can I take you out sometime for dinner?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Groaning, I stopped and turned to face him. “Dylan, I don’t know you and in case you haven’t noticed, you don’t know me. I’m a full time student. I hold down a job. I’ve got a life already.” Truth. I was only telling him the truth.

But apparently he thought I was playing hard to get or some such.

When he latched onto my arm, I spun and faced him, my fury full boil. “I’m serious here,” I spat out. “You’ve got a lot of money. You probably don’t know what it’s like having to work for things you want.”

“All I want is your number so that I can see you again. I’m not expecting you to commit to me. I’m expecting just to get to know one another.”

I made the mistake of looking in his eyes. Eyes are always my downfall. The gray shade pulled me in then and I was a goner…it was useless trying to get away from this guy. He obviously went after whatever he wanted…and in this case, what he wanted, was me.

“One date,” he said simply. “And then if you still hate me, you don’t have to see me ever again.”

I sighed deeply and tried not to cave in, but it was useless. “Got a pen?” I asked.

.--.

On my first date with Dylan, I was ready to blow the guy off. He’d been so cocky when I’d met him at my workplace, that there was no way I even saw a future with this guy. Gangsters weren’t typically my type.

But he totally blew me away on that date.

He was a pure gentleman in every sense of the word. He opened doors for me, he pulled out chairs in my presence, and he let me go first when we ended up playing mini golf. Yes, that’s what the great womanizer had planned for our first date: dinner and mini golf. By the end of the night, though, I was so enamored by the guy that I didn’t know what to do any longer. Before, guys had never fit into my future, but here was this boy who was nothing but good to me…

And before I knew it, Dylan was a very big part of my life.

When we were both free, we were always together and he would drop into work just to see me. It wasn’t until a few weeks after that first date that I really had to encounter Tommy, Dylan’s best friend since childbirth, supposedly.

And I really didn’t like the guy.

He came off as a really tough guy who hid any and all of his emotions like a girl hides her childhood crush. The night that I first met him, I had been transfixed by his eyes…but the first time I actually had to go out with him and Dylan, I got over those green orbs. They guy’s first words to me were, “Got a looker there, Dyl. Bet she’s good in the sack.”

Not a way to win the way into the girlfriend of your best friend’s heart.

So Dylan and I ended up spending most of our time together alone and away from any of his friends or associates. We never really ever discussed what he did for a living, but deep down, it kind of bothered me. I knew self-consciously that my boyfriend committed some of the murder’s I saw on the news every night before I fell asleep.

But it wasn’t until a few months had passed in our relationship that I really became bothered with what Dylan did for a living.

.--.

Dylan was supposed to pick me up one night around seven and take me to dinner, but three hours later he still hadn’t shown. Before, he had always been early to pick me up. So this development kind of worried me. Something had to have been wrong or else he would have called me. I called his cell phone number countless times, before deciding to cave and call the one person who could tell me what had happened…Tommy.

I located his number on my desk where I’d thrown it carelessly one night after Dylan had given it to me for emergencies. Sighing, I dialed the number into my phone. He was the last person I wanted to call, but I had to be sure that Dylan was okay.

The phone rang once before a deep voice said over the line, “O’Brien.” I hadn’t known Tommy’s last name, but the voice sounded similar to his, so I decided I couldn’t have dialed wrong.

“Tommy?” I asked, for extra measure.

“Yeah. Who is this?” he demanded. “And where’d you get my home number from?”

“It’s Hailey,” I said softly, hoping that my calling him close to eleven wouldn’t piss him off. “Dylan gave me your number in case there was an emergency. I hope you weren’t busy…”

Tommy let out a rough laugh that took me aback. Why was he laughing? His friend was missing. Didn’t he know that? “What’s going on?”

“He was supposed to pick me up around seven and he never showed,” I explained. “I’ve tried calling him and he hasn’t answered at all.”

“I just talked to him…he’s fine. Don’t freak out.”

“Is he safe? Where was he? I’m just scared that…”

“Listen Hailey,” Tommy cut me off. “Dylan is my best friend, don’t get me wrong…but don’t lose your head in this relationship.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, extremely confused from the way the conversation had turned.

“You seem like a nice girl. Just be careful.”

And then the dial tone greeted me.

In one night I had blown off and hung up on.

Deciding that was enough for one night, I climbed into my bed and fell asleep, Tommy’s words dancing around in my head, still not making any sense.

.--.

Sure enough, the next day Dylan stopped by when I was working…and he acted completely normal. It was like he didn’t even realize he had blown me off and not given me even a single phone call. This only served to piss me off.

When he hadn’t fessed up to his whereabouts the night before, I lost it. “Where the hell were you?” I demanded finally, when I wasn’t actually busy serving one of my customers.

“I got caught up somewhere last night. I’m sorry.”

But his eyes didn’t actually seem to be feeling that last statement.

“Whatever.”

But yet, I continued to be naïve…and when he asked me out later that night, I finally agreed to go.

Three weeks later, though, he stood me up again and I pretty much repeated the last conversation I’d had with Tommy. He even hung up again.

Something was going on…

And I wasn’t being informed as to what it was.

.--.

One night when I was walking home from the school library, I happened to pass by this little out-of-reach bistro that I liked to go in from time to time. Deciding I needed a latte to help me forge through all the studying I had to do that night, I went inside and got in line to order…and who was in front of me?

Tommy O’Brien.

I didn’t know if this meant that I could approach him and I didn’t know if I wanted to even do that. He was alone though, so I figured it wouldn’t harm me. After all, he hadn’t yelled at me after I’d called him a few nights before to find out my boyfriend’s whereabouts again…

Tapping him on the shoulder, I waited for him to turn around and glare at me.

But I wasn’t met with his cold green eyes…

In fact, he looked surprised to see me, not angered.

“Hi Hailey,” he greeted. “What are you doing out now?”

I shrugged. “Had some work to get done for a few of my classes.”

“Oh the college days,” he said simply. “I remember fondly. I just graduated a couple years ago.”

I don’t know why I was so surprised, but the fact that a boy who was in the Mob, or whatever it was Dylan and Tommy belonged to, had a college degree, but it did. “What was your major?” I asked.

“Psych.”

This amazed me even more since that was my own major. “Me too,” I said, genuinely not uncomfortable to be having a civil conversation with the last person I ever expected to have a civil conversation with. We kept up our small shat as we ordered and when Tommy offered to walk me back to my door, I accepted. After all, it was dark outside and you never could be too safe in New York City.

We walked slowly towards my campus, when the conversation turned in the last direction I wanted it to. “So have you seen Dylan since the other night?” Tommy asked.

“He hasn’t called me,” I said simply, trying not to get upset. “Has he been busy?”

Tommy shrugged his huge shoulders. “I guess so.”

“Don’t you get busy in your line of work?”

He laughed. “From time to time, but I know when to take a time out.”

“And he doesn’t?”

By this point, we’d reached the door to my dorm and Tommy turned towards me slowly, those green eyes piercing into mine. “Hailey, at first I blew you off because Dylan…he doesn’t really take girls too seriously and I figured you wouldn’t be around long enough to get to know, but tonight I realized how real you really are…and I really do mean it when I tell you to be careful with yourself around him.” I didn’t know how to react to this, so I didn’t say anything. “It was nice to talk to you. I honestly mean that. If you need anything, you know my number.” I nodded dumbly and watched as he walked off.

I still had no idea what was going on, but that wouldn’t last all that much longer.

.--.

Finals week rolled around and my stress level was ready to go through the roof. Tie in the hours I had to put out at work and the research I had to do on papers and you can guess just how relaxed I was. Dylan was still being sketchy and growing more so by the days. My calls to Tommy had become more frequent, but I still didn’t understand his warnings until one night before my most stressful final was to take place.

I was walking back to my dorm one night when I went by the same bistro I had met Tommy at just a few weeks before. And who did I happen to see cozied up to some other girl in the corner? Dylan. When I say cozied up, I mean that any minute I just expected them both to rip free of their clothes and do it right there on the table.

My face grew warm as the betrayal unfolded right before my very eyes. He hadn’t been working those nights he had blown me off. He had been meeting other girls. Suddenly, all of Tommy’s warnings made sense to me. He knew if he had come right out and told me what my boyfriend – soon to be ex-boyfriend – was doing that I would have called him a liar and cut him off. While I didn’t want to admit that he would have been right, I realized that he really would have been.

Dylan, the boy that I had for some reason or another devoted the past few months to, was cheating on me.

The ideal thing would have been to go inside and confront him, but that had never been the way I acted. Instead, I turned and ran all the way back to my dorm and punched the number into my phone that had become most familiar to me in the past few weeks. Let’s face it…betrayal hurts. It doesn’t really matter who it is or what the situation or even exactly what that person meant to you…it stings. So the tears that rolled down my cheeks were very real, very hot, and very painful.

“O’Brien,” Tommy said, answering after the first ring as usual.

I couldn’t even form words. Instead, a giant sob that I had been trying to choke back erupted from me and the only sound I could make was from my crying.

“Hailey?” Tommy whispered. “Hailey, what’s wrong?”

“He…he’s cheating.”

It took me at least five minutes to spit those few words out.

“Hang on. I’ll be right there.”

And true to his word, ten minutes later, Tommy O’Brien was at my door.

After thirty minutes of crying, I finally managed to feel like I could talk about what happened and what I had witnessed. Since the rest of my dorm room was a mess, the only place for the two of us to sit was on my bed. Well, it was more like I was curled up into a ball on the bed and Tommy was rubbing my back, waiting for me to calm down enough so that I’d finally talk to him. When the words tumbled out of my mouth and he had heard the whole story, I watched as Tommy’s jaw clenched tightly. “You know, you don’t deserve this, Hailey,” he said softly. “I thought it was going on, but I didn’t want to call him on it for fear of what I would do to him.”

“Why would he hurt me like this?” I asked. “I’ve devoted months of my life to him and what do I get in the end? Only a bunch of hurt feelings.”

I was surprised when Tommy’s arms wrapped me up into a hug and held me close to his strong body. As he stroked my hair, Tommy whispered, “You deserve so much better, Hailey. So much better.” He continued to hold me in his arms and rocked us back and forth and my tears, slowly, began to subside. Tommy cared and his care seemed genuine. I hadn’t felt that feeling from anyone in a long time, especially from my own boyfriend.

Tommy pulled away slightly and framed my face in his hands. His thumbs wiped my tears away softly and I found myself being pulled into those powerful green eyes again. This time the emotion was not ready to be easily read and I had no idea what was going through that head of his. I took everything in, from his messy dark brown hair, the way his eyelashes softly swept his cheeks and covered those gorgeous eyes, so the way his mouth formed a saddened look. He was so drastically different from his best friend…his looks, his personality, his caring emotions…why hadn’t I talked to Tommy that night instead of his best friend?

“Are you okay,” he whispered, his hands still resting on my face, his breath softly fanning across my skin. It was that simple action that caused me to realize how close we were to one another. I couldn’t speak as my gaze got caught up in those eyes again. So instead, I nodded softly as Tommy took one of his hands and swept a stray piece of my hair behind my ear. “I’m so sorry he hurt you so much, but you really do deserve so much better, Hailey. So much better.” His words were barely registering, I was so caught up in those depths of green. I was trying so hard to figure out what he was thinking, but I was lost…utterly lost. This boy hid his emotions so well. His breath was soft on my face and at that moment I couldn’t think of the situation that had brought him there…all there was, was Tommy and myself. That’s it.

“Hailey,” he whispered. “I…”

But he never finished what he was going to say, because I guess the distance was too far for him too. Before I could calculate the move, his lips were pressed softly against mine and I broke contact with those eyes to squeeze my own shut. The kiss took me by surprise, but I kissed back anyway. That was what I had wanted, after all. Tommy pulled away after the simple kiss, but when he ran his hands down my arms to bring me closer, his lips reclaimed mine. Dylan had never kissed me and stirred up so many emotions, so many feelings. If I would have been standing, Tommy would have brought me to my knees with all the emotion that was coursing through my veins. When the kiss deepened, my hands traced across Tommy’s strong back and up into that messy brown hair.

Upon pulling away, Tommy managed to say, “We shouldn’t be doing this…you’re hurt and I’d just be taking advantage of you.”

“It feels right,” I managed to say as his mouth trailed kisses down my neck.

“But it’s not.”

“Tommy,” I whispered. “Please. I need you.”

I guess that was all he needed to hear. His lips reclaimed mine and what followed was so gentle, so touching, and so emotional, I could have cried from happiness when it was over. As I fell asleep that night cradled in my boyfriend’s best friend’s arms, all I could think about was how I’d passed Tommy over before. He meant so much to me and I had been oblivious to it all. Maybe my future wasn’t looking so bright with Dylan, but who said that it couldn’t look bright with Tommy?

.--.

Tommy had left sometime during that night, leaving a note that he had some work to finish up, but that he’d call me whenever he was done. He also wished me luck on the final I had that day, which I somehow managed to pass.

When he did stop by my dorm later, though, he was distant. He gave me a soft kiss, but I knew that something else was weighing heavily on his mind. “I like you, Hailey,” he whispered. “I really do. But I can’t do this. You’re still with Dylan and he’s my best friend.” These were words that I hadn’t exactly wanted to hear, but I had to respect them. I couldn’t get mad and blame him for anything. What had happened between us the night before had been consensual…and there was no one to blame. He kissed my forehead softly. “I thank my lucky stars though that I got to be with you, even if it was only for a night.”

And with those words, he left…and I didn’t see him again for quite some time.

.--.

The day of Dylan’s death is still quite foggy in my mind and I can’t tell you what happened exactly, because I don’t know all of the details, myself. I had broken up with him a few weeks before, but he had called one day and asked me to meet up with him so that he could apologize for what had happened between us. I needed to talk to him too, after all, I had slept with his best friend…Deciding to let the guy clear his chest and knowing I needed to clear mine, we agreed to meet in the alley behind his apartment…and when I arrived, I found him in a pool of blood.

Dylan had been shot and I had been the first to find him.

.--.

The funeral was on one of those rainy days.

Not many people showed up, because it had been open only to close family and friends. Since I supposedly fit into that category, I went. I’d been interviewed by the police countless times since I’d found the body…but deep down I knew they had me pegged as a suspect. It was the perfect scenario. Girl gets cheated on, so she kills her boyfriend. But I hadn’t done it. I knew it, but the police didn’t believe it…

So I thought.

At the funeral, I saw Tommy for the first time since he had left and when he looked at me, his eyes were cold.

I tried to ignore him, even though I couldn’t figure out why he was so angered at me, but that didn’t work. During the funeral, I felt myself begin to grow somewhat ill. As time wore on, so did my stomach ailment and before I knew it, I was inside the church bathroom, spilling the contents of my stomach into the toilet. I’d been having these aches for the past few weeks, but figured it was just some flu that was going around…but the more I went on thinking this, the more I realized how stupid I was. Denying the obvious wasn’t me, but I didn’t want to fully accept what had happened. Staring at the tiled floor in the church bathroom, though, it really hit me.

I was pregnant.

As another wave of nausea fell upon me, I leaned forward and let loose. A warm hand landed on my back and pulled my hair away from my face, as I tried to make the room stop spinning.

“Thanks,” I said to the owner of the hands, but when I finally turned to acknowledge who they belonged to, another form of nausea filled me.

“You’re in the men’s room,” Tommy explained as if the reason he was there was so obvious.

“Sorry.” I stood, wiping my mouth, and went to leave, when Tommy stopped me.

“Are you okay?” he asked, those green eyes still cold.

“Just dandy,” I said.

The silence stood between us and it was rather uncomfortable. Finally, sick of those cold green eyes piercing into my skin, I blurted out, “What the hell did I do to you?” He just shrugged his shoulders. As the reality of the situation dawned on me, I shook my head. “You think I killed him.”

“No, I don’t.”

But he was lying.

“Tommy, I began. With everything that’s happened, I think you’d know me well enough to know that I wouldn’t kill him. That’s not how I am. I thought you knew me better than that.”

“You found him.”

“That’s right. But that’s all.” I pulled out of his grasp and continued to walk towards the door to leave when he stopped me dead in my tracks.

“You’re pregnant, aren’t you.”

It wasn’t a question, but a statement. I couldn’t lie to him…I just didn’t have it in me. “Yeah,” I managed to say finally. “I think I am.”

“I really don’t think you did it,” Tommy whispered. “But you know…I just…I don’t know what to think. I’m sorry he won’t be around to help you out. He would have made a great father.”

The statement made me straighten and turn around to look at him. The expression on his face was unreadable again.

That was Tommy O’Brien for you.

Not ready to get into a full-blown argument with him, I turned and flew from the bathroom.

But the police were waiting for me outside with a warrant for my arrest. I tried to find somewhere to hide, but was accepting I was fully screwed, when out of nowhere, Tommy grabbed my arm and began tugging me in a direction away from the cops.

“What are you doing?!” I exclaimed, as he pulled me out a side door and pushed me into a Ford that I hadn’t ever seen before.

“Getting you out of here. No child deserves to be born in a jail cell.”

.--.

Which pretty much brings things to where we were before. Sitting in the old Ford, pregnant, still on the run with a guy who was only cold towards me now. I watched out the window as he used a payphone and tried to breakdown how someone who had at one point cared so much, now cared so little. Sighing, I pulled my legs from the window and crawled into the front seat. That wasn’t an easy task, thanks to my pregnant state. As much as I tried to regret getting pregnant, though, I just couldn’t. I knew that this child I would give birth to would be showered in nothing but love…as soon as I quit running across the United States from the cops.

Tommy loped back over to the car, his jeans dirty, his plaid red, short sleeved shirt half unbuttoned, his collar up and tried not to admire how his messy hair made him that much more attractive.

Sure, he had been taking care of me…but he hadn’t been nice while he was doing it.

I didn’t understand, why if he cared so little, he was even dealing with me.

It didn’t help me feel very comfortable, especially since I was keeping something from him. Tommy climbed into the driver’s seat of the car and turned to look at me, the first smile I’d seen him wear in the past few months upon his face. “You’re off the hook,” he stated happily.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Off the hook?”

“They arrested someone else for Dyl’s murder.”

“Who?”

“The husband of one of the girls he was screwing around with.”

“Are you serious?” The news was too good to be true.

“We’ll stop for today, check into a nice hotel, then drive back to the city tomorrow.”

Without anymore conversation, we drove for thirty miles and then checked into a hotel nicer than the ones we had been staying in. Tommy even used his real name instead of some alias he would have made up. When we got into our room, Tommy decided to take a shower in a bathtub that wasn’t infested with roaches and I climbed into a bed with clean sheets and fell into a deep, comfortable sleep.

I was off the hook.

It was too good to be true.

When I woke up a few hours later, Tommy was looking out the window and talking on the phone. When he hung up and turned around to face me, he was more relaxed, but still looked at me with cold eyes.

Finally fed up with avoiding the topic for so many months, I finally just blurted, “What the hell did I do to get you so pissed off and hate me these past few months?”

Taken aback by my outburst, Tommy walked across the room and sat on the bed across from me. “We need to have a long talk.” He didn’t continue after that though. How were we supposed to have this talk if he didn’t even tell me what the hell had been going on?

“Do you still think I killed him?” I asked.

Tommy shook his head. “I quit thinking that months ago…I realized that you weren’t the kind of person who would have any motive to ever do that. I’m sorry I even thought it…especially for so long.”

“Then what is it?”

“I was mad.”

“But about what?”

“The fact that you were having his baby.”

I didn’t even need to think before I blurted out, “WHAT?”

“I’m jealous, okay? I’m jealous that you’re having his baby.”

I laughed, as I realized he hadn’t hated me these past few months, he was just so jealous, he hadn’t really known how to act. He still liked me…and as much as I didn’t or hadn’t wanted to…I still liked Tommy.

“You’re stupid, you know that?”

He looked surprised that I’d said that. “Why is that stupid?”

“Because I’m not having Dylan’s baby, you fool. I never had sex with him.”

“Then who’s is it…”

“Yours, you idiot. I thought you would have figured that out already.”

His face looked totally taken aback. “What?”

“I said that it’s your baby.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?!”

I laughed. “You were so mad at me, I figured you’d just think I was lying or trying to make you happy.” Tommy’s head fell into his hands and he groaned loudly. My hand landed on my stomach as I rubbed the swell where our baby grew. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“Not as sorry as I am, Hail.” His eyes met mine again and he smiled at me. “I just…didn’t think that there would be a chance in hell that it was mine.”

“Do we need to run over what happened that night in my room?” I teased.

“I remember,” he said softly, grinning to himself. “Trust me, I remember.”

“So you aren’t mad it’s yours?”

“No,” he said, as he stood from the bed and came to sit next to me. “I was so enamored by you that first time I saw you in that restaurant,” he whispered, looking down at his feet. “But then you started dating my best friend and you were off limits…so I decided that I’d just be there for you in case you ever needed me and then that night…that one night, you were mine and I couldn’t believe it. But then Dyl told me that you’d broken up, but you were meeting up with him anyway and I figured that you two were going to get back together.”

“I was going to tell him I was pregnant with your baby,” I explained. “And I wanted to tell him what I felt for you and see if it was okay to try to pursue something with you.”

Tommy’s hand landed on mine softly and he twined our fingers together. “I’m sorry I was so blinded by jealousy that I didn’t see what was going on.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before.”

And just like that, all those months of tension were fixed and Tommy and I were back to being Tommy and me.

“Can I…touch it?” he asked softly, looking down at my belly.

I just took his hand and pressed it against my stomach. When he finally looked up into my eyes, he looked like he could have cried. “That’s our baby,” he whispered. “We made that baby together.” With his other free hand, Tommy, took my hand in his and said, “And we’re going to raise it together.”

Leaning over, I kissed him on the lips.

“It’s a deal.”