Chase's POV
"Emma?" I called out to her. We'd spent the last two days together.
I spent every hour of those days reassuring her that I was there for good.
Meanwhile, my dad had been put under house arrest, meaning that we needed to go through due process to see him, or Emma's mother.
"Yeah?" She replied softly.
"How are you, really?" I asked her.
"I remember the first and last time we had a conversation like this." She said, turning in my sheets. They looked so perfect around her. Two days with Emma, and life was just what it was meant to be. "You were gonna propose the next day." She said, I searched her face for annoyance, or residual hurt, but there was none.
"I had my heart in my mouth all the while." I confessed. "It's a thing with doing the right thing with the wrong motive."
"Don't ever pull that stunt on me again." She said,
"I swear." I replied. "Could you please sleep back? I was gonna do a 'breakfast in bed' type of thing." I poured playfully.
She had a smug and silly look on her face, after which she poked her head in the bed.
"I miss him though." I said, drawing the curtain blinds.
"That's too bright!" Emma winced. "I'm sure he'd come around. Should've said goodbye at least."
I heard her feet shuffle as she got off the bed.
Nothing was more pleasurable than seeing Emma in my clothes.
"Don't be sad." She said, hugging me from behind.
"I can't not think about it." I said. Gray's disappearance hurt me pretty good. I hated to admit that I missed him so much.
I didn't like how my life of late had been more of a 'win some, lose some' situation.
"I know." Emma said, "I still think about Lily too." She confessed. "How shocked she'd been if she ever heard that we got back together."
"Are you ashamed of it?" I asked her. It was somewhat in the nature of people like Emma to be, well, validation seekers.
"Yeah." She said, rubbing my belly from behind. "So ashamed I wanna scream about it from the Eiffel Tower."
She nearly got me.
"Come here, you naughty little woman." I said, turning and grabbing her.
The maxi shirt she had on rode up her fresh thighs, exposing the legs I'd had my head between for the longest time.
"I love you." It's probably the one millionth time I said it. "And I mean it every single time I say." I assured her.
I lay her gently in the bed, locking eyes with the absolute love of my life.
"I'm too grateful for whatever force brought you my way." I said, my heart was full.
"Me too." She said, meekly.
My phone rang, distracting us from our moment.
"You might wanna pick that." She said,
She didn't look too happy with the distraction, so I decided to ignore.
"Not if you have that look on your face, no." I replied to her.
The call cut, after which a text dropped.
"Check that." She said,
"Are you sure?" I asked her.
"Yeah, definitely." She looked less grumpy, so I grabbed my phone to check who it was.
With my dad being under house arrest with Emma's mom, I didn't get so many calls anymore.
"Gray?!" I screamed as his name flashed bodily on my screen.
"Can't deny my mystical powers." Emma gloated.
"Come on!" I said in joy, what are the chances of this happening.
'I'm on my way to you.' His text read.
"That's great?" Emma said, half asking.
Then I remembered that we didn't part on exactly good terms.
"I don't know." I said truthfully.
"Are you worried?" She asked.
"Well, we found out his mom had an affair with my dad. Can't say how he feels about that, plus my dad's been after her. He thinks she's the one behind the case blowing up." I explained to Emma.
"That's shitty." She remarked.
"Yeah." I replied. "it is." I added.
"What are you," She said and stopped abruptly, "what are WE going to do?" She asked.
It felt so surreal to be cared for by someone.
I hadn't felt the type of love Emma showed me since after my mom.
"Nothing's gonna happen." I assured her, kidding her forehead.
That promise was a bit of a stretch, seeing that the last time Chase was in my house, he had a loaded gun in hand.
"I'll be up here." She said, and sighed.
I hated that the mood had changed.
"Come on babe." I teased her, "what changed your mood so fast. It's nothing, really. We haven't seen each other in over a month, it's just a friendly call, no biggie.
"Can I go down with you then?" She asked.
"Of course." I replied, "I'd very much appreciate that."
"Alright." She muttered.
I was beginning to feel a tug in my chest, punishment for putting her in funny situations.
I wondered just how much shit she could tolerate before leaving me.
"There's a knock on the door." She said,
I pulled my joggers on, and wore a funny pair of sandals she ordered for me the day before.
"Can you run in those?" She asked, laughing. At least she wasn't as tense as I thought.
"I'd rather die in them." I said, and picked her up from the bed.
Our worries were baseless. Grayson was really emotional, and could be irrational at times, but he was still my man.
"I'll come after you." She protested, begging me to put her down. Well, the Mr Romantic I was couldn't budge.
"Surprise!!" It wasn't just Gray.
"Lily?!" Emma and I screamed in surprise, ignoring Gray.
"Come on man. You can't say you don't see me standing here." Gray said playfully.
I hugged him while Emma bear hugged Lily.
My man had all the colors he'd lost back. His cheeks were rosy and his eyes so bright.
"What the fuck man?!" I screamed, looking at Lily who was right there in my living room, in flesh and blood.
"She had the doctors tell that to us." Gray explained, giving some surface level explanation.
"Thanatol." Lily said, smiling so beautifully. "I OD'd on Thanatol. It causes no permanent harm, but mimics death." Lily managed to explain from the choke hold Emma had her in.
"Why would you do that?" Emma said, crying happy tears. "We held a memorial for you already!"
"I was kinda tired of it all." Lily said quietly,
"Ladies and gentlemen, I've got booze!" I announced, lightening up the mood.
"Bring it on." Gray said.
"Why are you in a suit, man?" I asked him.
"Mom and dad are getting married today." He announced, smiling so sheepishly. "Remarried." He corrected. "We'd been on the other side of town. You dads men were pressing down on us." He said.
I started racking up words to apologize for the inhumane things my dad had in mind to do.
"It's alright man. They're gone, for good." He said.
I looked at him, shocked.
"What does that mean?" I asked him. "Thought you said you didn't care about the case?"
"Uncle Mike was a state offender himself." He said. "Police are dropping the case against your dad." He announced. I didn't like my dad much, but my heart leaped for joy, it was still good news.
"That's beautiful." I replied immediately. "I'm sorry about your uncle, man."
"Let's drink to happy things." He said instead.
The ladies were already chattering non-stop.
I served everyone sparkling wine, it was a good way to start such a divine reunion.
"So what are your plans?" Gray asked me.
He was always so direct, so straight to the point.
"College." I said.
I noticed Emma quietened a bit.
"That's great." He said.
"Lily and I are going into modeling." He looked so smug, so happy, so joyful. "Together." He added. "I'm not dropping music yet though."
"You're a man with many choices." I said, "You're multi-talented." I added.
"You've got several talents yourself man." He deflected. "If I had to compete with you on the runway, I would quit it."
"Not really." I laughed. "What do you think I could model?" I joked.
"A condom." He said and burst out in laughter. The ladies had their own convo, and had their eyes on us.
"They let guys with babies do that?" Emma asked, looking at Gray and avoiding my eyes.
"Well, that'd be bad PR." He laughed. "Chase, is there something you wanna tell us?" Gray looked at me, still smiling, "or Emma, is that your way of keeping his penis to yourself?" He asked her, Emma blushed.
"You're so uncouth." I muttered.
"I'm pregnant." Emna blurted. There was pindrop silence for a minute, after which Lily pulled her close and hugged her.
I was too stunned to speak.
"I'm so happy for you, little mama." Lily said.
So Patty was right, I didn't know how to feel about it.
On one hand, we were young, and still had our whole lives ahead of us, on the other, it's kinda great to have someone to take care of, with the girl I loved the most.
"Uhhh." Gray muttered, "Let's give y'all space." He took Lily's hands and went upstairs, leaving just Emma and I.
I saw a wet spot on her gown, and her face was bent downwards.