Constantine: Britain’s Story Part 2 (Spearhead Lake)

Chapter 27

Britain

I change into another bikini and throw a sleeveless knit dress over, while Liam walks out of his closet in just a pair of swim trunks. I bite my lip and smile when I see him. He’s fucking mine. He joins me as we open the door, giving me a quick kiss and running a hand over my bump. Then we turn to make our way downstairs when the sound of the front door slamming shut startles me. Liam immediately bypasses me on the stairs, putting his body in front of mine.

He walks straight to the front door to open it, and when he does, I hear yelling. Matthias. I blanch and freeze, fear taking hold. Liam looks back at me and says, “Stay,” in his sternest voice, then closes the door behind himself.

Carly, hearing the commotion, comes out from the kitchen with a concerned look on her face. But after seeing me, her concern turns to fear. “What’s wrong, Brit? Are you okay?”

I just nod. “Are the kids still down at the lake?” I ask.

“Yeah, do you want me to go check on them?” I nod vehemently.

“Yes, please. Make sure they stay there for right now.” She turns and heads straight to the back deck.

On shaking legs, I walk towards the front door and when I get to the foyer I can make out loud voices, but the words are imperceptible. I press down on the latch to release the lock, and immediately the yelling fills my ears.

It’s not what I hear, but what I see that surprises me most. Alex stands between Liam and Matthias, trying to prevent them from coming to blows. Alex is here? I stand frozen on the front porch as I watch the scene unfold.

“All of you, and that fucking whore, are nothing but scum of the Earth white trash. I mean, who could blame her, though? It’s not like Georgia could keep her legs closed. Is it any wonder Britain can’t either?” The pain I feel from Matthias’ words is searing. He told me he loved Georgia.

Liam gets a murderous look on his face and is just about to speak when Alex beats him to it. “The only reason you’re not already unconscious is because you’re too fucking weak to take a swing,” Alex says viciously. “Your ass would be fucking toasted and you know it. But if you really wanna talk about scum of the Earth, it’s you, bud. I should’ve fucking ended you 17 years ago. You’ve grown to be such a big man, talking about women like this.” Alex scoffs, “Pathetic. You are your mother’s son, Matt.”

At that, Matthias loses all control and takes a swing at Alex. And surprisingly, it lands. Alex only takes a step back for a moment, then slams him back with a deafening blow. Matthias falls down, and stays down, clearly knocked out cold. When I gasp, Alex and Liam immediately turn to look at me.

“Baby, I told you to stay!” Liam yells as he runs over to me. “I need to make sure Matthias stays down. Alex already called the sheriff. They’ll be here any minute.”

I ignore Liam trying to usher me back into the house and walk over to Alex. “I’m so sorry, Alex. Are you okay?” I look up to see the red mark where Matthias caught his jaw.

“I’m alright, Brit. I had to let him hit me so I could lay his ass out,” he punctuates the statement with a charming grin. It’s almost enough to make me smile, too, but then I look down at Matthias. Who are you? Did I really hurt him so badly? I want to feel guilty, and maybe I do a little bit, but the things he just said…he was unhinged. And mean. So mean.

“When did you get here, Alex?” I ask.

Alex looks to Liam, then back to me. “Ahh, a couple hours ago. Liam asked me to come hang out for a little while he took the girls out.”

“I didn’t want to leave you alone, in case something like this happened,” Liam rubs my back supportively.

“Um, th-thank you then.” I direct my thanks to Alex.

“Britain, can you please go back inside? I don’t want you to have to deal with this when Matt comes to and the sheriff gets here.” I nod absentmindedly and head back through the front door. I walk, in a daze, to the back deck, and wave for Carly to come back in.

When she gets to the top level of the deck, I let her know that it’s taken care of and the sheriff will be here soon.

“Maybe we should take lunch down at the dock, if that’s okay?”

“Absolutely, I’ll bring it out as soon as it’s done,” she says.

“Sorry, to make it difficult, Carly. I appreciate it.”

“Brit, please don’t worry about it. I’m happy to help.” She lowers her voice, “Do you think I should send James out there?”

I shake my head. “No, not at all. Alex could take the whole town of Spearhead single-handedly. They’ll be fine.”

Carly laughs. “Oh, okay…” but trails off to head back into the kitchen.

I make my way down the steps to the dock to find Jess sitting in an Adirondack chair with Eden in a Pack-n-Play napping beside her. Caroline, Elodie, and James are all out in the cove paddle boarding. Thank god.

Jess sees me and immediately knows something is up. “What happened?” she asks, sitting up abruptly and sliding her sunglasses to the top of her head.

“Umm, Matthias is probably getting arrested on the front lawn right now.”

“Shut the fuck up!” Jess says, little to no real concern in her voice. “I thought it was weird Alex was just hanging around this morning. Girl, what is going on?” She gets up, pulling another Adirondack chair closer to hers, then guiding me to sit.

“So much, Jess. So, so much. I don’t even know where to start.”

“Well, start at the Greek Fest because I’ve been dying to know what’s going on since then.”

I inhale deeply, and I back it up and tell her. All about the Greek Fest, meeting Julie, running into Liam, deciding between him and Matthias. Ha, that’s fucking laughable now. I tell her about sleeping with Matthias, and how he left things on Saturday night. I tell her about Liam finding me on the porch, and staying the night. Then me reading the letter and coming here. I conveniently leave out the part about Gina. I’d like Liam to stay in her good graces.

But I tell her about the argument and how that led to me fainting, the hospital, and Liam staying with us, just to have us now staying with him. I tell her about us fucking in the closet that morning, and how since then we can’t seem to stop. She finally interjects on that note.

“Yeah, I mean, I could deduce the fucking. I would highly recommend not giving one of the girls the room I’m staying in because I can hear you guys, FYI.” Fuck. Good intel, though. I tell her about Liam begging for my forgiveness, and how I’m still so fucking madly in love with him.

“And so you knew I was supposed to meet with Matthias today. I was going to tell him that it’s officially over, but when I texted him, he got pissed and called me. He was yelling at me, calling me a whore and a desperate little slut with daddy issues. And yeah, it was a lot, but I thought that was the end of it. I felt like crap about it, so I stayed upstairs just fucking crying until Liam and the girls got back. And then we, um, had a thing in the closet, and we’re back together now. But when we came downstairs, we heard a door slam, and Liam went out, and there’s Matthias yelling at Alex.”

“Whoa, he was fucking closet crazy?!”

“I guess. It doesn’t fully make sense to me, though.”

“You fucking ripped his heart out,” Jess says.

“But that’s the thing, I don’t think I did. He’s pissed, but like he was fighting more with Alex than Liam. That’s weird, right?”

Jess shrugs. “I don’t know, girl, but apparently that’s one powerful pussy you have right there. You’ve got one man falling to his knees and another losing his mind.”

I burst out laughing. “Okay! Shut the hell up! But, hopefully, that’s the end of all that craziness because I really just want to hang out with you and enjoy the lake.”

“And get some good dick,” Jess laughs out.

“Are you talking about me or you?” I turn to look at her, but she’s sort of staring off now. “Jessssss,” I shake her arm, “talk to me, please. I just told you Liam forced me back into a relationship over anal. Come onnnnn.”

Jess looks at me and says, “Okay, yeah. I need to hear how the fuck that happened because you left out a few crucial words when you just told me a minute ago.” I laugh at her.

“Not until you talk to me first.” I’ll take a page out of Liam’s book.

“It’s just really hard.” When she turns to look at me, she has tears in her eyes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jess cry. Scratch that, I know I’ve never seen Jess cry before.

“Babe…” I reach out for her hand, and she lets me take it.

“Tommy wants to open up our relationship.” Oh fuck.

“Oh, okay. How do you feel about that?” Open relationships aren’t bad, just as long as both people want it.

“Like I don’t want to have an open fucking relationship with my husband.”

“Yep. Understandable.” I nod my head up and down.

“And you won’t fucking believe this, but–”

Jess is interrupted by the sound of Carly coming down the deck stairs. “Lunch is ready!” Carly’s timing, always impeccable.

I squeeze Jess’ hand. “I want to hear the rest of this, okay?” She just nods, but then seems to glass over, dropping her sunglasses back down. Damn, I hope she’ll tell me soon.

I stand up to call the kids back in, then move chairs to get the outdoor table on the dock set up for lunch. Once the kids are close enough to the dock that they can hear me, I ask them to head upstairs and help Carly with the rest of lunch. James is the first to respond.

“I’ll help her, Mrs. Scott.” Mrs. Scott. It doesn’t even sound like my name anymore. Mrs. Millar sounds better.

“James, you have to start calling me Brit or Britain, okay?”

“Okay, yes ma’am,” he says as he helps pull the girls’ boards out of the water, racking them up. Ugh, ma’am. I mentally roll my eyes, even though I do appreciate his manners.

When I turn around, Liam and Alex are walking down the stairs, arms filled with plates, napkins, and serving platters. Liam and I exchange a knowing glance and he nods in affirmation. It’s all taken care of.

He sets down his load and comes to me, pulling me in tight, then whispering into my ear, “I’m sorry, baby. That won’t happen again.”

I run my hand up and down his back, appreciating how warm and safe he makes me feel. I won’t worry about it because I know he’d never let anything happen to me or the girls. Not even Jess or Eden. My heart swells for this man.

He releases me when the girls make their way over to the table. “James, go tell your sister to come down and eat, yeah?”

“Yes, sir. I’ll be right back,” James replies, then jogs up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

I watch everyone get settled in, but I focus on Liam. His calm demeanor, the smile he gives the girls. The way I feel towards him seems impossible. I didn’t think I could love him anymore, but seeing him interact with our family, it’s like he was made for this. He’s the missing puzzle piece of my life. He was meant for me.

As soon as we’re done eating lunch, I know what I need to do. I really need to talk to the girls and make sure that they’re okay with being here. If they don’t like it, even a little bit, we’ll move back to the Robles Lake house. It would suck for me, but if they need that, we can.

“Hey girls, do you think you’re ready for that walk now?”

The girls both look at each other and Elodie shrugs, so Caroline says, “Yeah, let’s go.”

Liam gives me a look of slight concern, though. “Can you take your phone and not go too far, please?” he asks. I nod and make my way up the deck stairs to wait for the girls.

When I go to pick up my phone, my hands get clammy. I’m scared of what I’ll see. I’m imagining 20 missed calls, and a slew of nasty text messages, but luckily, there’s only one.

Unknown

Hi Britain, it’s Constantine Scala. I just want to apologize on behalf of Matt about today. It will not happen again. I also wanted to see if you would come have lunch with me this Friday? (This invitation is unrelated to anything that happened today.) I would love to catch up and chat. Let me know.

I know he said it’s unrelated, but I can’t help but feel like he’s going to sit me down and preach to me all the virtues of his son. Or maybe he just really wants to talk about Georgia. Georgia. I’ve been so busy the last week, I’ve hardly thought about her at all. A pit in the bottom of my stomach grows when I realize I’ve left her box at the Robles house. Shit. I need that here. It’s become something of a security blanket the last few months; I don’t like being away from it. More than anything, I’m terrified that something could happen to it, and all of Georgia’s memories would be gone forever, just like her.

Britain

Would Matthias be at this lunch?

Constantine

No.

Okay, then yes, lunch would be nice. Let me know where and what time.

Does noon at my house work?

His house? I’ve never been to the Scala family house before. Matthias drove me past it a few times when we were dating the first time, but he never took me there. Him and his brothers shared a house closer to the college, which is where we were most of the time.

Yes, I will see you then.

Wonderful! I can’t wait!

His response makes me laugh a little bit. Constantine is not Matthias, I remind myself. He’s a good man, he treated Georgia with love and respect — at least I thought he did. I hope he did.

“Mom! We’re ready,” Elodie yells up to me. Right, our walk. As I walk down the stairs, I realize I’m nervous. I want so badly for this to all work out.

I find Caroline and Elodie waiting for me in the foyer. Elodie is bounding on her toes, ready to go, but Caroline seems to be carrying herself in a somber manner. Crap. Hopefully we can talk through it. I’m sure she knows what’s coming.

We step out into the afternoon sun and head north, down the main road. I let us fall into an easy gait as I formulate how to approach this all. The girls remain quiet, clearly wanting me to lead this.

“So girls, I, um, really wanted to talk to you about everything that’s been going on lately.” I pause, waiting to see if they have any feedback, but neither of them says a thing. Okay. “I know this has probably been really confusing, and I’m very sorry that you’ve both been caught up in it. I never wanted either of you to have to deal with any of this–”

Caroline cuts me off. “Mom, just out with it, you’re speaking in euphemisms.” She surprises me.

“Oh, okay. Well. I really love Liam, and I want to be with him, and I want to make sure that that is okay with the both of you. And if it makes you uncomfortable at all, just tell me and we’ll move back to the house at Robles.”

“I like staying with Liam at Spearhead,” Elodie says. Well, there’s at least one.

“I mean, aren’t you worried he’s going to hurt you again?” Caroline asks, her tone a bit colder than I anticipated.

“No. I mean, the realist in me knows it’s a possibility, but that could happen with anyone. Liam makes me happy.” I shrug, I don’t want to deep dive on my feelings with the girls because Liam makes me feel a lot more than just happy. He makes me feel everything.

“I know, Mom. It has been nice to see you smile lately.” When Caroline says this, I think about Georgia, and how foreign it was for me to see her smile. I want the girls seeing me smile all the time.

“I really love being here, but it’s important to me that the both of you can also be happy here. We are a unit, okay? We all deserve to be happy, so I’m asking you both: Do you want to stay? And are you okay if I get back together with Liam?”

“Does this mean we’d have to go to school here?” Elodie asks. I laugh lightly.

“No, not at all. I’d still go back to Virginia with you when school starts.”

Elodie nods. “Okay, then yeah, I want to stay. And it’s okay with me if you get back with Liam.”

We both turn to look at Caroline. “I mean, I don’t hate it here…and I know Liam makes you happy…” she trails off in thought. “I guess it’s okay with me.”

Her tone and her words don’t match. She’s saying yes, but everything else says no. “Caroline, just be honest. I want to know how you really feel.” She doesn’t say anything for several moments, just kicking a pebble down the road every couple of steps.

“I mean, don’t you think he needs to work a little harder to win you back? He, like, really messed up your life, Mom. And I just think it’s too soon. And I don’t like him.”

I know she’s probably right about the first part, but I have to know. “Is there a reason why you don’t like him? Did he do something?”

“I just don’t think he deserves you mom. I don’t like him for you.”

My shoulders droop in disappointment at Caroline’s words. I knew it was probably too good to think both girls would be on board with this.