Chapter 9 #3
“Eighteen. Yeah, I remember, and it was so fucking embarrassing,” Ryan growled. “Although she grew up nicely. She could follow me around anytime, now.” They both laughed.
“You know she’s like eight months pregnant, with Jake’s baby, and oh yeah—she’s married now,” Drew teased back.
“Hey man, I got to go—times up.” And, with that, the line went dead. God, he hated only having a few minutes to talk to Ryan. One day soon, they’d have time to catch up and have a few beers. He couldn’t wait to hang out with his brother again.
∞
Drew knew that he was being sneaky, but it was his only way to find out where Karlie was.
He drove three hours to Karlie’s old apartment to talk to her former landlord.
He knew that Mr. Angel would have returned the guy's call and given him Karlie’s new address.
Drew had tried for another two weeks to get Karlie’s address from her dad, but he wasn’t giving up the information.
The man could have been trusted with national secrets because he wasn’t giving up anything.
He admired Mr. Angel for protecting Karlie, but enough was enough.
He was going out of his mind without her.
He got rid of his bed and got a new one.
When Karlie came home with him, he wanted her completely comfortable and happy, and he did not doubt that she would be coming home with him.
His next step was to hire a detective to find her if this plan didn’t work.
Drew found her old landlord in the rental office.
The older gentleman looked as tired and run-down as the complex.
He couldn’t believe that Karlie had lived in this dump.
God, where was she? What if she were in someplace even worse than this hole?
He ground his teeth, trying to keep his anger at bay.
“Excuse me, sir.” Drew was going for polite, though he didn’t feel it.
“I’m wondering if you can help me find someone. ”
The old man just rolled his eyes, “We don’t rent rooms by the hour, son. Try down the road.”
“No, sir,” Drew couldn’t help his smile. “I am looking for a woman who used to live here—Karlie Angel. I believe we spoke a couple of weeks ago. You called me for her dad’s phone number.”
“Oh, yes. I remember you; you’re the girl’s boyfriend.
She told me, well, to—um, send you packing if you ever came here looking for her.
She said some other things about you, but I can’t repeat them.
I don’t like cussin’ much.” Drew laughed.
God, he missed her. He hadn’t laughed like that since Karlie left.
The old man just looked at him like he was off his rocker.
“Yeah, that sounds like my girl. We had a little—um, well, fight. She ran, and I need to find her. I need to make things right with her. I love her, and she needs to know that I didn’t do what she thinks I did.”
The old guy looked amused, “So, you didn’t cheat on her with the, um—let’s just say that she called the other woman a witch with a capital B.”
“Yeah, but my girl would have said the B-word, right?” Drew was still smiling.
“Yeah,” the old guy admitted. “She sure liked swear words, your girl. Listen, if I tell you her address, do you promise to treat her right? I liked Miss Karlie. She was a sweet young woman with some rotten luck.”
Drew’s smile faded. “I promise you, Sir, I love that woman with my whole heart. I plan on taking care of her for the rest of my life.” The old guy nodded at Drew and motioned for him to follow him into the office.
Drew’s heart skipped a beat knowing that he was one step closer to Karlie.
He prayed she hadn’t run too far because he wanted to get to her as soon as possible.
∞
Karlie was having another bad day. She woke up and was too sick to even get out of bed, again.
She was hoping that this morning sickness would start to fade since she was starting her second trimester and thought she was almost out of the woods.
This baby had other ideas, most of which had to do with being difficult.
She had been sick in the morning, noon, and night.
She talked to her dad a few times, and he begged her to talk to Drew.
Apparently, Drew was being quite persistent about trying to find her.
He was hanging around, waiting for her dad to go anywhere.
Drew followed him to see if it would lead him to Karlie, and her dad was pretty angry about being stalked.
The whole scene just made her giggle—Drew stalking her dad was pretty damn funny.
She was starting to believe that maybe she did need to just sit down with Drew and get it all out, letting the chips fall where they may.
She needed to be an adult and accept his relationship with Lisa, although her dad was pretty sure that there was no relationship between the two.
She just couldn’t get her hopes up. What if her dad was wrong?
She couldn’t go through more weeks of crying herself to sleep.
Heck, she couldn’t wear eye makeup for two weeks after she left Alabama.
All she could do was cry and eat. God, she missed eating.
She called her doctor, and he told her that morning sickness was normal.
She just had to keep down a little food and some liquids, so she didn’t dehydrate. Yeah, easier said than done!
So far, she had spent the past two days in a constant holding pattern between the bed and the toilet.
She probably reeked, and she knew she looked like death.
She worried obsessively about the baby—what if she wasn’t getting enough food?
Karlie hadn’t found out the sex of the baby, but she just had a feeling that it was a girl.
Her doctor told her that pregnant women usually had pretty good instincts about guessing the sex of their baby.
She would love a little girl—she wanted her daughter to look just like her daddy with his beautiful green eyes and brown hair.
She had dreams at night about the baby, and she looked so much like Drew that it made her heart hurt.
Her dreams haunted her, making her ache for Drew—his touch, his kiss.
She was afraid that she would forget him, forget what they shared.
She closed her eyes, crying, trying to picture his face, and she let the darkness envelope her.
∞
She must have fallen asleep because she was startled awake by a pounding at her door.
She jumped up and suddenly felt nauseous, bending over to hold her belly.
She was just wearing a pair of panties and one of Drew’s old T-shirts that she mistakenly grabbed while she was trying to run out of his house.
None of her clothes fit properly. They all felt too tight and restricting, especially when she felt sick or was trying to sleep.
And truthfully, she liked having a piece of Drew.
She slowly made her way to the door and yelled, “Who’s there?
” No answer. With no peephole, there was no way she was opening her door. So, she tried yelling again.
“Karlie?” the muffled response told her that the person on the other side of the door at least knew who she was.
The only people who knew where she lived were her dad and a few people from the new office where she worked.
She told them that she was sick with the stomach virus again and needed a few days off, so it must be her dad.
She slowly pulled open her door, too sick to move quickly, and found Drew standing in her doorway, and he looked pissed.
Why the hell was he standing in her door, looking at her like she had been the one who cheated?
“Drew—what are you doing here?” She could barely stand up, and her voice was hoarse from vomiting for two days straight. Drew’s eyes widened, and he rushed to help hold her up. It was a good thing, too, because she felt so light-headed, she knew that she was about to hit the floor.
“Baby,” he whispered, “tell me what’s wrong. Are you sick?” She tried to shake her head, to tell him that it was the baby, but her world went dark again before she could explain.