Breathe (Sway Part 2)

  Breathe

  The Conclusion to SWAY

  JENNIFER DAVIS

  Copyright © 2014 JENNIFER DAVIS

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 10:149365179X

  ISBN-13:978-1493651795

  Cover photo used per licensing agreement with Stockfresh.com

  I wanted to include Ryan, Justin, and Katie‘s perspective at times, especially during Annie and Ryan’s separation. During the second half of the story, the main voice is Annie’s with the other characters sprinkled in. I hope you enjoy it :) Thanks for reading!

  1

  Ryan

  Standing on her front porch, I kissed Annie again before I had to leave her. She was crying. She had been all morning. Although she hadn’t said anything, I knew she wanted me to stay with her. To call off the deal I’d made with my mother. I could tell by the way she clung to me when I kissed her, how her fingers closed into fists at the back of my shirt. How she’d held on afterward, and only let go because she had to. Because I was walking away from her.

  I questioned my choice a thousand times, as I wandered to my car, hugging the pillow she’d given me to keep while we were apart. It smelled sweet, like gardenias—like her, which only intensified my feelings of uncertainty.

  I didn’t want to leave Annie, but my mother’s offer felt too good to pass up. If I spent three months getting to know my son and his mother, Katie Hardwick, then I could have everything I wanted without further interference from my mother, which was the best part. She would release the contents of my trust and give me her blessing to marry Annie. The worst part was that I could have no contact with Annie during those three months.

  I met Katie because my mother had arranged for me to take her to my senior prom. At the time, I didn’t care who I went with; my date was a formality. Then I met Annie. She was so different from other girls at school. She saw beneath my sparkly surface, so to speak—the shiny things about me that attracted most girls. My looks, money, and the baseball hype weren’t important to her.

  My mother hated Annie the moment she laid eyes on her because she lacked the social connections that Katie and her family had—connections that my mother desperately craved. So much so that she threatened to sell the property my grandfather had entrusted to me if I didn’t do as she’d asked. She knew how important that place was to me, and that Annie and I planned to live there after we were married. The last thing I wanted was for some asshole to bulldoze everything my grandfather had built and replace it with an outlet mall or condos.

  After prom, I’d gotten drunk and slept with Katie. I didn’t find out about Jacob until after he was born. What happened between Katie and I wasn’t all her fault. I could have stopped it. I could have prevented all of this from happening, but I didn’t, and I’ve regretted it every second since.

  As I drove away from Annie’s house, I didn’t look back. Mostly out of fear that she wouldn’t be there, and my last glimpse would be of her empty front porch.

  My mother was waiting for me when I got home. She’d insisted on taking me to Katie and Jacob, instead of allowing me to meet them on my own.

  “Good morning, Ryan, dear,” she chirped.

  “Let’s just do this,” I said.

  “Fine,” she agreed lightly. “You may be upset now, but I promise you’ll be grateful once you meet that scrumptious little boy of yours.”

  The last thing I would ever be to her is grateful.

  I followed my mother to a park a few miles away. Katie was sitting at a picnic table near the parking lot with a baby stroller beside her. I took a deep breath and released it as I approached her. I really didn’t want to do this.

  Katie looked different than she had the last time I’d seen her. Her almost black hair was much longer. Her skin was still pale and her eyes intensely blue, but slightly tired looking now. She stood up and moved as if she were going to hug me. I leaned away from her. “Don’t,” I warned. Her eyes widened at my mother. “I thought you said he was good with this.”

  “I don’t know what she told you, but I’m not good with any of this.” There was no telling what my mother had said to her, and judging the look on Katie’s face; it was obvious she’d been lied to. My mother ignored Katie’s reaction and announced that it was time for me to meet my son. I leaned over, peeled the blanket away from the stroller hood, and looked at Jacob.

  “He’s asleep, but you can pick him up if you want,” Katie offered. I glanced up at her, and then back down to Jacob, this tiny creature I’d helped create while in a drunken blur. I didn’t feel any sort of attachment or sense of responsibility to him at all. If anything, I was angry that something so small had managed to turn my life upside down, and he was oblivious to it all. In a way, I envied him. I looked at my mother. “Okay, so what now?”

  “Aren’t you going to pick him up?”

  “No.” My eyes were as sharp as my tone, almost daring her to argue with me. Visibly irritated; my mother straightened her posture and stuck her purse under her arm. “Okay then,” she smirked, unsatisfied. “Now we go back to your house and meet the movers.”

  “What movers?”

  “You didn’t think a two-second peek is all I would require, did you? You should know me better than that.” She stepped closer to me, lowering her voice. “You are going to interact with this child in order to get to know him, and the best way for you to accomplish that is to live with him.”

  “You’re moving them in with me!”

  “Of course. Where else did you expect them to stay?”

  “I did not agree to that!”

  “They’re your family, Ryan.”

  “They are not my family!” I growled; teeth gritted.

  “My rules, remember?” my mother asked; an eyebrow cocked.

  I paced in a tight circle wondering if doing this was worth the land after all. I could bail right now and be back with Annie in half an hour. The thought caused my heart to beat faster, my adrenaline to surge. I was going to tell my mother to go straight to hell and leave.

  “I may be going to hell, Son, but I’m not going today,” she interrupted my thoughts, as if she’d read them herself. “If you want to end this, fine. End it. I’ll call my guy, and in three months you can visit the condos under construction where your and Annie’s love nest once was. I could even arrange for you to wear one of those cute little hard hats while you’re there.” The smile on her mouth was so pompous that I wanted to shake her. Ask her why the hell she was treating her own son like this. She was nothing but a bully and I wanted her out of my life.

  “Fine!” I yelled. “I have two extra bedrooms. They can stay in one of those or both. I don’t care how you work it out,” I said and seethed back to my car.

  I spun out of the parking lot and drove to the gym at school. I was too angry to go home. I had to clear my head, burn off some frustration before I said or did something that I couldn’t take back.

  The first thing I did was hit the treadmill. While I ran, I considered everything from moving out of my house to trying to have my mother arrested. Around mile ten, I knew that going through with the separation would be the only way I’d ever have any peace. The only way I’d ever rid of my mother, and her meddling in my life. As much as I didn’t want to, I would have to let her have her way one last time.

  2

  Katie

  “You told me Ryan wanted this!” I snapped at Valerie.

  “He does want this. He just doesn’t know it yet.”

  I held up my hands, shaking my head. “I don’t need the aggravation.”

  Valerie tightly gripped my arm. “I’d hate to have to call your father and tell him that you’re not cooperating. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”

 
Between the two of them, I’d rather deal with Valerie than my father, who is fluent in two languages: English and Asshole. He uses the latter most often.

  My father couldn’t have been more disappointed in me if he tried. When he found out I was pregnant, he instantly blamed my mother, who then stopped speaking to me because I had put her already volatile relationship with him at further risk.

  For the first time, my mother feared that my father might divorce her and move in with one of his mistresses. Which would have been way less scandalous than me having a one-night stand baby.

  Their problems were not my fault, no matter how much they blamed me. Still, I’d been catching hell from both sides at home, until Valerie struck up a deal with my dad, who gladly passed me off to her.

  “I didn’t think so,” Valerie smirked. “Let’s go. You have plenty of unpacking to do.”

  “What do you mean I have plenty of unpacking to do?” It was her idea for me to bring everything I own.

  “They’re your things, dear. Please tell me you didn’t think I was going to help you?”

  “So, you’re just going to leave me alone with Ryan?”

  “Yes.”

  “He clearly hates me.”

  “If you do your job, he won’t hate you. He’ll be begging you to stay with him.” She went to Jacob’s stroller and began pushing him toward her car.

  My job? I thought. This bitch is certifiable.

  Unsure of what I was in for, I grudgingly followed Valerie, convincing myself that whatever it was had to be better than dealing with my parents.

  When we pulled up at Ryan’s house, the movers were there with my and Jacob’s things. As I’d figured, Ryan wasn’t home, so Valerie let us in, but left the second the door unlocked. She’d probably never done any kind of manual labor in her life. Not that I’d done much myself, but if she wanted me to get my hands dirty with this little scheme of hers, she’d have to do the same.

  Staring at the mound of boxes cluttering the living room floor, I had no idea where I was going to put all that crap, or how I was going to make this situation work. Valerie seemed sure that Ryan would want the happy family life she’d dreamt up for us, but to me, he seemed repelled by the notion. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how I felt about her happy family scenario, either.

  Before taking on the mountainous task of unpacking, I looked around the house, at Ryan’s things, touching them, getting used to the idea that this was now my home.

  The house was a beautifully restored craftsman. The kitchen, living, and breakfast areas were open, and tastefully decorated. I crept down the hall and entered the first room I came to. Ryan’s bedroom. His bed was beautiful. I figured Annie had picked it out. It was too romantic for a boy to have chosen. The bed linens were nice, but there was an odd pillow in the mix. While everything else was cream and gold that pillow was covered in a cheaper, pale lavender case.

  On the same side of the bed as the odd pillow was a picture in an ornate silver frame; I picked it up for a closer look. I guessed the girl was Annie. I didn’t know much about her, except for the snippets Valerie had shared with me. I wondered now if any of it was even true.

  She didn’t look how I’d expected. I pictured Annie to be more threatening, and not so mousy looking. She was pretty in a plain way—sweet looking, but something about her; something that wasn’t visible had Valerie Mullins shaking in her stilettos.

  The next room I explored was Ryan’s office. It was full of newspaper clippings and baseball trophies. Photos from the ceremony when he’d signed with Harmon University were displayed in a frame above his desk. Valerie told me he’d gotten a full scholarship, but that baseball was not what he was designed for. She’d said that Ryan Mullins was built for business. From the looks of it, Valerie was wrong. Ryan Mullins was built to play ball.

  Lastly, I toured the rooms Ryan said Jacob and I could have. One of them was empty, and the other was made up as a guest room. It wasn’t as nice as his room, but it would serve its purpose.

  Although I wasn’t looking forward to it, I dragged myself back to the living room and started unpacking.

  3

  Annie

  After reading the letters Ryan had given me, I put on the shirt I’d taken from him and crawled into bed. He’d worn it the day before, so it still smelled like him—woodsy and warm.

  It was one-thirty in the afternoon, but I was mentally and physically exhausted. I just wanted to hide, to avoid being conscious for the rest of the day.

  As I began to drift off, I wondered if I could talk my parents into putting me into a medically induced coma for three months so I wouldn’t have to live through the torture of being without Ryan for eighty-nine more days.

  In order to ask that, I would have to explain what was going on, and since they’re both psychiatrists, I decided to pass. I wasn’t in the mood to discuss my feelings or to have my choices analyzed. I called myself an idiot, curved my arms around my pillow, concentrated on quieting my mind, and then thankfully fell asleep.

  4

  Ryan

  I’d hardly slept the past three days. My mind was overwhelmed by what if’s. I was scared to death that I wasn’t doing the right thing—that I would lose Annie.

  At times, I felt selfish and wondered if she thought I was greedy. The money I could easily part with. As I’d told my mother, I could always make more. But she’d been right when she said I couldn’t make more of my grandfather’s land. It would suck to lose that place, but what I wanted more than anything was for my mother to no longer have the upper hand; nothing to hold over my head. I wanted to be finished with her once and for all.

  Worrying about Annie and how she was feeling was exhausting. Staying busy during the day helped keep me sane. My goal was to tire myself out so that I wouldn’t stay up all night thinking; missing Annie and staring at the inscription on the watch she’d given me.

  True Love Never Dies.

  There were still boxes of Katie’s things stacked all over the house. I maneuvered around them as I made my way to the kitchen. My mother had probably told her to bring all that stuff just to piss me off.

  I grabbed a Gatorade and a protein bar, and slipped quietly out the front door while Katie and the kid slept, just as I’d done every day since they’d been here.

  I knew that putting off dealing with Katie face-to-face would only make it worse, but I wasn’t ready to hear what she expected from me. Why she was here or what she hoped to gain from it.

  5

  Katie

  While Jacob napped, I finally finished unpacking. I’d paced around the boxes thinking very hard about setting fire to them in the backyard, or leaving them at the curb.

  I was about to sit down when my phone rang. It was Valerie. I hadn’t heard from her since she’d dumped me at Ryan’s front door three days ago. I’d had plenty of time to think about her approach, and didn’t care for it.

  I wanted to decline the call, but knew if I did that she’d drive her fancy ass over here and threaten to tattle on me again, which was also the reason I hadn’t started a bonfire in the backyard. Like I said, I’d rather deal with Valerie than my father. There was no way I’d ever win against him. At least I felt I was on the same plane as Valerie, and stood a chance at conquering her if I needed to.

  “First, I have a few rules,” she stated, when I answered the phone. I was sure she did.

  “I want you to focus on Ryan and Jacob only. No going out or bringing your friends to my son’s house.”

  “I’m not much of a partier these days, and since my father forced to me keep my pregnancy quiet, and I don’t really have any friends, keeping my whereabouts on the DL won’t be a problem.”

  “No boys.”

  “Duh,” I exhaled.

  “You don’t have to be so common, Katherine,” Valerie chided.

  “What? Do you expect me to be more proper now? You loved my carefree side when we met last year.”

  “I know that better than anyone. My life is no lo
nger mine. I’ve gone from worrying about nothing to worrying about everything. And the adults in my life are treating me like a puppet. My family thinks I’m a disgrace, but I’ve spent years honing that skill. It’s part of who I am, and not something that I can just shut off overnight. You knew what you were after when you recruited me to be Ryan’s prom date.”

  “I never would have asked that of you if I’d known you were sharing yourself with so many others. And no one told you to get pregnant, or to keep it a secret from our family for so long.”

  “Believe me; getting knocked up was the last thing I wanted. Keeping it quiet was my father’s doing. I’m done being controlled. I’m going to have some say in what happens because I need stability for Jacob.”

  “That’s why you’re here, dear. To gain a family who will love and appreciate you. All you have to do to achieve it is behave, and follow a few, simple rules.”

  “I’m not so good at being couth, but I’m pretty sure that lying isn’t loving or appreciated by the people on the receiving end.”

  “I’m doing what’s best for my son. What’s best for you, and his child.”

  “By deceiving him?” I huffed.

  “Speaking of deceit, Katherine, you weren’t very forthcoming about your night with Ryan. If I remember correctly, you told me that nothing had happened. I had to find out from Ryan’s girlfriend that that was a lie. It was rather embarrassing for me.”

  “Oh, cut the crap,” I moaned. “It was embarrassing, not to mention creepy that my prom date’s mother wanted to know if we’d screwed.”

  “I thought you were ready to capture what belongs to you. To become a respectable woman, and acquire your place in society. Are you going to be a problem for me?” Valerie asked, annoyed.

  Suddenly, I wanted to go back in time and undo all I’d done involving the Mullins family. I hated that I was in this situation. I felt I’d lost the power to choose what was best for me, but maybe I’d never had it to begin with.