Chapter 31
THIRTY-ONE
LARS
“What the hell?” a voice shouted, startling Lars awake. He blinked as his eyes adjusted to the sunlight, confused. Until he saw her.
“Melanie.” He bolted upright but quickly grabbed the blanket to keep him and Aaron covered before remembering they’d put their pants back on last night. “I—”
“Are you kidding me?” she yelled, and he winced. She was going to wake up the girls if he didn’t get the situation under control. The last thing he wanted was for them to run in here right now.
Aaron slowly grabbed his T-shirt off the floor where he’d thrown it the night before. He pulled it on then stood, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck.
“How long has this been going on?” Melanie glared between them. “Is this why you called off the wedding and then stayed here?”
Aaron tossed Lars his shirt too as he said, “No, of course not.”
Lars saw the panic in his friend’s eyes and quickly added, “This just started.” He tugged on his shirt then stood, trying to keep his own nerves under control. “Mel, can we—”
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” she asked Aaron as he started toward the door.
He turned with a sigh. “To intercept Chloe and Allie before they run in here wondering what’s going on. I’ll take everyone down to make breakfast while you two talk.”
“You’re part of this conversation,” she said, lowering her voice as if just realizing she would, in fact, wake them.
“I know.” Aaron stepped closer to her, glancing once at Lars. “And I love you both. But the girls don’t need to hear this. They don’t need their reunion with their mother marred with,” he waved a hand about, “this. So, you two talk, then come down to see them. Okay, Mel?”
Her jaw visibly clenched, but she nodded in agreement. He patted her shoulder before leaving the bedroom, shutting the door behind him.
“Mel,” Lars whispered after a moment. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t want you to find out like this.”
She let out a humorless laugh. “What, that you’re sleeping with our closest friend?”
He opened his mouth then shut it again, unsure how to respond.
“And you just expect me to believe you two haven’t been doing this all along?”
He sat on the edge of the bed with a sigh. “I don’t know how to convince you we weren’t. It started last week.”
She stared at him for a moment, not saying a word. Her brow furrowed though, and he knew she was trying to put the pieces together. “That’s why you called to ask me about dating.”
Lars almost laughed. That felt like so long ago, but in reality, it had only been a handful of days.
“No, actually. That night, we were going out, and he was determined to play wingman. Except, he kept getting jealous every time I spoke to someone else. We ended up going back to his apartment—well, technically his old apartment, which is another story—and that’s when we… ”
He trailed off, realizing he was rambling. But Mel just kept watching him with a peculiar look in her eyes. She took a step closer, crossing her arms. “You promise me nothing happened before then?”
Taking a deep breath, he admitted to fooling around in high school before he asked her out, and to there being one other moment last week. “But throughout our marriage, I swear, nothing happened. I never even considered it.”
She nodded and lowered her gaze to the floor.
“You said you were fine with me dating,” he said softly. “So, what’s bothering you more: that he’s our friend or that he’s a man?”
At that, her eyes snapped up to his. “I don’t care that he’s a man, Lars. I care that you’ve made this entire situation more complicated by hooking up with your best friend. Unless you want to tell me that’s all it is—two lonely, horny friends having fun.”
When he didn’t respond, she sighed.
“That’s what I thought.” She moved to sit next to him. “You’re not a casual person.”
“I know,” he whispered. After all, the moment he found out she was pregnant, he was all in. Despite the fact that they’d only been dating a few months. When he proposed right away, she initially called him crazy. But he didn’t know how to love small.
“Now, no matter what happens, I’m going to look like the villain here.”
His brow furrowed, focusing on the present once more. “What do you mean?”
She angled toward him, and he dreaded the words he knew were coming. “I got the job.”
Lars’s stomach sank, his pulse starting to race.
“And I’m taking the girls with me,” she added in a firm tone, shattering his world.
“I was going to ask you to move with me too. It seemed like the simplest solution, but now… that would mean leaving Aaron, which would’ve been hard enough before you two started this.
” She tucked a piece of fallen hair behind her ear.
The action reminded him so much of Allie.
“Now, it means choosing between us and him.”
Lars shook his head. His breathing grew labored; it felt like the entire universe was imploding around him.
He loved Aaron. Yes, they’d only been together a handful of days, but they had been friends basically their whole lives.
And as soon as that line had been crossed, as soon as he’d realized Aaron had similar feelings, it was like everything finally felt right.
Like he’d been pushing through all of this just to make it to him one day.
But he would never give up his girls.
She couldn’t just do this, could she? This was their home. Regardless of the situation with Aaron, he didn’t want to move, and he sure as hell didn’t want the girls to leave.
This wasn’t fair. Mel was the one choosing to leave; why should he have to suffer? Why should their daughters? Why should Aaron?
He remembered what his mom told him the other day.
Pushing to his feet, he shook his head again and again.
“No. You can’t just do this, Mel. That’s not…
We promised that we’d always be a family, that we’d put the girls first, no matter what happened between us.
” He ran his fingers through his hair before throwing his arms to the side.
“Otherwise, what was the point of continuing to live together the past two years? What was the fucking point, Melanie?”
He was yelling now, something he never did. But he was done being the calm pushover in this relationship.
She stood to face him, but he didn’t let her argue.
“For seven years, I have done nothing but support you,” he continued.
“I quit baseball in high school to get a job the second you told me you were pregnant, even though I’d planned to play in college.
Even though it was my dream to go pro one day.
I didn’t even go to college because I was so busy working two jobs and taking care of Allie so you could go to school. ”
“Lars—”
“When we started having problems, I’m the one who suggested couples counseling. You didn’t want to go.” He was seething now, but he lowered his voice to hiss, “We had Maddie because you were sure another baby would fix things.”
Not that he would change that. He adored his youngest daughter and wouldn’t give her up for anything. That was precisely his point though. He would fight for his girls. He would do whatever it took to keep them in his life.
“That’s not fair,” Mel said, tears lining her eyes.
“None of this is fair! I’ve sacrificed my entire life to take care of the four of you, and I’m not going to just stand by while you try to take them from me now.”
“I’m not trying to take them from you.”
He scoffed. “You’re trying to take them from their home, their schools, their grandparents, their friends.
And you’re giving me an ultimatum—move to another fucking continent to be with my daughters or lose them.
Either way, I’d be starting a whole new life, and let me be perfectly clear.
” He stepped into her space, looking down into those blue eyes he knew better than his own.
“The latter? Living without them? That’s not an option.
I don’t want that fucking life, Melanie. ”
As she started to cry, she shook her head. “You said we’d figure things out. You told me to go to the interview and said we would work out the rest.”
“That was before you came in and just announced that you were taking them.” He clenched his fists, digging his fingers into his palm to keep himself grounded.
He knew he was crashing out, but he didn’t want to worry the girls or scare them by yelling.
“You didn’t try to talk through a solution; you came in with a plan already in mind.
One that takes my babies away. And I won’t let that happen. ”
“What are you saying?”
Crossing his arms, Lars held her gaze and said clearly, “If you start this job and try to take them with you, I’ll sue you for custody. I’ll hire the best fucking lawyer I can find and fight like hell to keep those girls here in their home.”