Keeping Her (The Lexington Series Book 2) (8 page)

She nodded. “Sounds good, did you
want to tell him by yourself?”

I shook my head. “Absolutely not. He
takes everything better when it comes from you so you’re up.”

She threw her hand on her hip. “Oh no
buddy, we can do this
together.
I say sooner rather than later.”

I shrugged. “Now?”

She sighed and rubbed her forehead.
She downed a glass of water and caught my eyes. “There’s no time like the
present.” She muttered and started up the stairs. We went straight to Max’s
room and he was rifling through his toys. Lucy walked up to him and ran a hand
through his hair. He looked up and when he saw her turned to give her his full
attention. “Hey little man.” She said in a soft voice.

“Hi Lucy, I was just looking for the
Spiderman and Batman toy you bought for me. I can’t find them anywhere.” He
told her aggravated.

She let out a small chuckle. “That’s
ok. How about we talk really quick then I’ll help you find him?” she asked.

“Ok.” He agreed eyeing her warily.
I’m sure he could sense the hesitance in her approach and it immediately made
him nervous. Not to mention the last time we had to talk to him we told him
that his dad died.

Lucy sucked in a deep breath and just
spit it out like she was ripping off a Band-Aid. “Max honey, you’re not going
to be able to stay here anymore.”

His eyes watered, “why? I don’t want
to leave.” He told her.

She sighed and her head dropped. I
bent down on my knee in front of him, “Max, with dad gone now, you can’t stay
here by yourself. You’re going to have to go with James and Sam. You like them
don’t you?” I asked.

He nodded and turned to Lucy grabbing
her hand. “But I don’t want to live there. I want to live here with you. Please
Lucy?” he begged and the tears escaped.

Lucy’s eyes watered. “I know Max but
I’m going to school. You can’t stay there little man. I need you to be a brave
boy for me and stay with James and Sam.” She explained.

His body began shaking and he shook
his head furiously. “No, please don’t. I don’t want you to leave me. Please? I want
to be with you and Landon I’m afraid Lucy. I don’t want to be with anybody
else.” He pleaded.

Lucy sighed and stood. “Give me a
minute honey okay?”

He shook his head again and his grip
tightened. “No. you’re going to leave me. Don’t leave me here Lucy.” He
pleaded.

She placed a kiss to his forehead.
“I’m not leaving I promise. I’m going to talk to Landon in my room for a few
minutes and we’ll come back ok?” she asked him.

He stared in her eyes for a minute
before he made up his mind. He let her go warily and nodded. He looked at me
with pleading eyes and I nodded to him. “We’ll be right back, I promise.” I
assured him.

He went to sit on his bed and Lucy
left to her room. I followed her in and closed the door softly behind me. I
stood there watching her as she paced the floor with her head down. After a
good two minutes she stopped and spun around to face me.

She made sure she had my eyes before
she began, “Landon we can do this.” She said.

I raised an eyebrow in confusion. “What
do you mean?” I asked.

“You, me, Max. We can do it. I’m sure
we can and I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave him with James. I mean I’m
sure he can take care of him just fine but he’s traumatized. The last thing he
needs is to feel abandoned. He knows them but you know he’s not good with
people. You and me he’s comfortable with. He needs familiarity in order to
adjust right from this. We can get a place close but off campus and find a
school. Our classes aren’t late or anything so we can make it work to pick him up
and take him to school. I cook and stuff anyway so there’s no hardship there.”
She gave me hopeful eyes.

I was shocked. This was the same
argument that I tried to give her about our baby. The one she said we wouldn’t
be able to take care of because we were too young. I frowned, “don’t you think
we’re too young for that type of responsibility? I mean you’re basically talking
about raising him you know?” I asked her.

She glared, “Landon we can do fucking
anything. And this is Max, we love him. He’s ours, he’s family. He’s worth the
additional sacrifices don’t you think?” she snapped at me.

“Oh really?” I asked her.

She threw her hands on her hip. “Yes
I am. We can raise him just fine Landon it’s not like we aren’t already doing a
lot of the things required anyway. We love him and that’s enough to push us
through.” she argued.

I met her challenging stance, “but
wasn’t it not too long ago that you told me that we were in no position to have
kids or anything while in school? That we wouldn’t be able to handle it?” I
asked.

She paled and her hands flew to her
mouth. “That was different” she whispered.

“How?” I asked feeling my anger
rising.

Her mouth opened and closed a few
times as she looked around the room frantically. When she met my eyes again she
had tears there and it only took a few seconds before they began to fall. She
stumbled back and fell onto the bed. She covered her face with both of her
hands and began to sob. “Oh Landon what did I do?” she asked in a hoarse
whisper.

I walked over to her and sat next to
her. “You made a choice Lucy. This is what I was thinking about the whole
situation, but you got scared and jumped to what you thought was safest.”

“Oh my god I can’t believe… I’m a
fucking monster. Why didn’t I just fucking listen and talk to you first. I was
afraid and confused and
dammit
… it just made so much sense. We were
starting school in like a week from when I found out and all I could think
about was our futures going down the drain. I wouldn’t have been able to start
school and thought it would affect my acceptance into the art program or your
fucking position on the football team and scholarship would get ruined. I was
busy thinking of all the bad things that would come out of it for us that it’s
as if all the good things or possibilities escaped me completely. I let my fear
and worries rule my decision and consume me and look what I did!” She looked up
at me. “How could you forgive me for that? How can you even stand to
look
at me?” she asked.

I sighed and ran my hands through my
hair. “I never forgave that decision, but I forgave you. I know why you did it
and it’s too late. After everything that’s happened recently I don’t think we
can afford to remain angry at each other about things we can’t undo, we can
only move on and learn from our mistakes. But this is not the time to beat
yourself up about it we have other pressing things right now. I agree with you,
we can take Max. I’ll need to work out something with school since we’re
supposed to live in the dorm for the football players. But I’d do anything for
him and you know that.” I told her.

She nodded and leaned over to put her
head on my shoulder. She took a few minutes to calm herself and then whispered,
“Landon I’ll never ever do that again. I swear. I mourned both of our loses and
I know that you talked about having kids constantly but I always told you that
I thought we weren’t ready. It’s not an excuse for anything I know because
neither one of us was particularly cautious… but this time around, we need to
be.” She told me. I only nodded because she was finally getting where I stood
on the matter. I rubbed her back until her breathing returned to normal. She
placed a call to James to tell him of the decision we made. He fought with her
a bit about it, knowing the responsibilities that came along with it. After a
few minutes of going back and forth and seeing we weren’t budging he sighed and
said he would make arrangements. He promised to work things out for me and my
living situation at school and find us somewhere close to the campus and where
there would be a good elementary school for Max. We told Nick next and he said
he would be moving in with us for the extra help. Unlike the football team, the
basketball players didn’t have rules on housing. When everything was confirmed,
we told Max and he tackled me then showered Lucy with kisses.

We spent the next day packing up his
stuff and getting it ready to be shipped. James headed up towards the school to
find us a place and get any paperwork done. He used his connections to ensure
that he would have the options he needed in order to choose a place that same
day. We would have a week to find furniture get it delivered and everything
before Max arrived the following weekend. James would be getting him enrolled
in school and everything during this time. We left to go back Friday and James
met us at the campus to give us keys and the address. I drove us over to the
place. It was only about 15 minutes from campus so that wasn’t bad. I looked
over at Lucy and Nick, “you ready?” I asked.

LUCY

I looked up at the place that James
found. I was expecting an apartment but it was a modest sized home in a decent
and quiet looking area. I took in the two story eggshell colored home with blue
roof and door. There was a front porch and the steps, the chimney, and bottom
edges of the house were brick. There was a large looking garage off to the
side, I’m sure all three of our cars would fit in and my heart warmed. This was
already perfect. It wasn’t a mansion or anything and it was pretty without
drawing too much attention. There weren’t any white picket fences or even a wraparound
porch. It was just a simple home.

We went inside and entered the foyer
with shiny hardwood floors. I trailed off to the right first and walked into a
spacious living room area. I turned and went to my left and found the dining
room area. There was a chandelier hanging in the room and I smiled. It reminded
me of Dean’s home. I continued walking down a hall and passed a half bathroom,
I’m assuming for guests. I kept down the short hall into the next room and
passed a pantry going to the kitchen. I ran my hands over the electrical oven
and took in the perfect black marble of the countertops. I walked away from
there and to the center of the room to the serving bar. The countertop was the
same black marble. I was happy with the amount of cabinet space in here that I
had to work with. I walked further and there was an open section for another
seating area but it seemed more casual. There were French doors there that
opened up to the backyard. I decided to explore that later. I walked into
another open space that appeared to be a family room. The living room and
dining room that I first saw in the front appeared to be for nice things and
show for when you have company over. Back here it’s like where you can just be normal.
There were floor to ceiling windows with shutters so that you can block the
view from the outside. This room was bigger than the living room and I could
only imagine what they’re going to put in here. I kept walking and there were 2
steps leading to a door. I opened it and it was a large bedroom with an ensuite
bathroom. I realized that I basically rounded the entire first floor since on
the other side of this room had to be the front living room. After thorough
review I spun on my heels and hightailed it back to the foyer. The stairs were
a dark brown wood unlike the rest of the flooring but it blended well. They
were short steps that went up in a curve. They were encased by glass walling as
it disappeared from view. I followed the steps up to the top level. Straight
ahead of me was a laundry room and I sighed. That was fucking convenient. Right
next to it on my left was a bedroom with a bathroom. I walked out and followed
the path. It was open on both sides with the same glass encasing. I could see
right down into the family room and even the foyer from here. It wasn’t narrow
but it wasn’t large either. Anyone down there looking up would see me now.
There were two bedrooms on this side with high ceilings and a shared bathroom.
The larger room had window seats, but it was barely larger. So far the three
bedrooms I saw were all freaking large. I went back out and towards the last
door on the top floor. It had to be the master bedroom. It was large with floor
to ceiling windows with the shutters. There were French doors that led to a
balcony overlooking the backyard.  There was an arched opening that led to a
pretty big sitting room. There was a large walk in closet that could fit 10x’s
the stuff I owned. Probably more if I’m being honest. I walked back into the
main bedroom and into the closed door that was another bathroom. There was a claw
foot bath, shower, His and her sinks, and a linen closet. I examined the tub
more closely and saw that it had jets like a Jacuzzi. 

I turned to Nick and Landon, “My
room!” I squealed and they laughed.

Landon shook his head. “No babe, our
room. We’re sharing.”

Nick sighed, “I’m taking the one
downstairs it’s big and well on the opposite side of the house on another
floor. I don’t want to hear the two of you.” He told us and we all laughed.

I looked at Landon. “We could put Max
in the room right on the outside of ours or we can put him across the floor?” I
asked him.

He thought about it for a minute. “I
think we should put him next to us. We’ll use the rooms across as guest rooms
for Mel and Erica or whatever.” He said.

Nick cleared his throat. “You mean
Erica right?” he asked.

I laughed and Landon sighed, “You
know what I meant. And that room on the side is bigger, so depending we could
always move him into a larger room… but it truly isn’t that much bigger.” He
told me and I nodded in agreement.

Landon grabbed my hand. “We’ve seen
the place now we all need to go to our rooms and pack our shit. We need to get
up early. It appears we have a lot of shopping to do.” We agreed and all headed
out and went to campus. When I broke the news to Naiyla, I just said my dad got
me a place off campus. She was sad but she’ll have the place to herself. It
didn’t take me long to pack especially since she helped. I crashed shortly
after that it’s been a long damn day.

I woke up the next day excited. I
called Landon and turns out I woke him up. He laughed at my enthusiasm and said
he was getting ready and would be here in an hour with Nick. I jumped up and made
me something to eat then hopped in the shower. I was just throwing on my shirt
when there was a knock on the door. I skipped to the door and threw it open.
Nick was standing against the wall across from the door while Landon was
leaning on his arm against the door jam. It felt like I was looking at the
cover of a GQ magazine with these two. Three girls walked down the hall and I
saw they couldn’t get enough of the sight they made. Nick with his messy brown
hair and chocolate eyes, his dimples were deep and were hiding perfectly
straight white teeth. He was tall over 6 feet and he had some amazing abs and a
great ass if I do say so myself. Landon’s arms had gotten more muscular over
the last few months. He definitely has a man’s body, all tall and lean. Just
looking at him in his shirt you could tell that whatever it was covering was
impressive, and boy was the six pack he had impressive. His blond hair and
intense green eyes and those dimples made up his strong angular face.

I heard a throat clear and my eyes
snapped up. They were just trailing to his crotch to check out
that
package. Nick was watching with an amused look, “well would you two mind
waiting until later to eye fuck each other? We
do
have things to do.” He
commented.

I smiled sheepishly. “Let me grab my
jacket.” I said and went to my room to get it. When I came back to the door
Landon and Nick were talking and the three girls were still in the hallway
standing in front of one of the rooms a few doors down… staring. Well hell I
can’t blame them. I stepped out the room and closed and locked it behind me.
When I was done Landon leaned down and kissed my temple before grabbing my
hand.

We hit a few furniture stores first
where we got beds and dressers, couches, tables, and well
everything
. Afterwards
they dragged me to best buy so they could get all their guy things. Humongous
TV’s, video games, DVD players, and who knows what else. It was my turn and I
dragged them to target. We
were
basically starting from scratch.

“Lucy, seriously? How many damn
towels do we need?” Nick complained.

I scowled, “You want to be able to
wipe your ass when you get out the shower?” I asked him.

He rolled his eyes, “fine.” He went
down the aisle and came back 5 minutes later with like 40 different towel and
washrag sets and tossed it in the cart. I rolled my eyes. I pushed the cart
into the bathroom aisle and contemplated which sets to get to decorate the
bathrooms. There were four and half of them.

This time it was Landon, “Lucy does
it really matter? Can we just get one set of each color and call it day?” he
asked.

I frowned and put my hands on my
hips. “No we cannot. Yes I am the only girl living there but there is damn well
going to be some pretty in this place. Now stop complaining and let me think.”
I fussed. He sighed and walked down the aisle looking at stuff.

By this point the cart was full and
we needed another one. Nick took the full cart while Landon got a new one. We
entered the kitchen stuff next and Landon grinned. “I like this aisle. This is
for all the cooking stuff.” He said and I snorted.

I proceeded to pick out a bunch of
pots and pans. I made sure to get a deep fryer, crock pot, blender, toaster, and
vegetable chopper for when I was in a rush, electric can opener, and a ton of
other things the second cart was super full from that aisle alone so I went to
get a third. I encouraged them to get toilet paper, paper towels, and cleaning
supplies from here. Of course I had to make sure that we had all the equipment
we needed to clean the different surfaces in the place. We checked out after
that and loaded the stuff in the car. We needed to drop it off to make space in
the car. Landon the big baby that he is wanted to go somewhere else for sheets
and things for the bedroom so we went to his place next.

“Lucy, I would love to see you
wrapped up in these.” Landon told me with an eyebrow waggle. He was holding up
some expensive but extremely comfortable looking red sheets. I shook my head
and sighed.

“If that’s what you want Landon.” I
told him. I picked out some neutral stuff for the extra rooms and some
different character stuff for Max’s room. After we got a few extra sets of
bedding and curtains and stuff we headed out. We planned on moving in over the
weekend since we were able to convince the other stores to have everything
delivered to us over the weekend.

Next was grocery shopping and Nick
was practically bouncing on his toes. We had nothing, so again it took a couple
of carts. We had to buy seasonings and food and well…
everything
. By the
time we were done I was completely exhausted. We dropped that stuff off and put
the food away then went back to campus. Landon dropped me off first and I
packed up my last few things. We were going to move our stuff there early in
the morning… well at least I knew I needed to be there since they were coming
to install the cable and internet sometime between 9 and 11. When I was done I went
to lie down and fell asleep immediately.

My alarm went off and I rolled over
with a groan. I looked at the time and saw that it was 7:30. Goddammit. I got
up and showered then threw on a sweat suit with sneakers. I moved my boxes out
from my room into the living room and sighed. I forgot about having to get all
this shit to my car. I looked at the time and saw it was 8:15 I needed to start
moving. I opened the door and pulled one of my boxes to prop it open. I went
back in and decided I should start with the heavy first. I picked up the
heaviest box and turned around to head out and almost died. I screamed and
dropped the box because there was someone just standing in the doorway. I heard
chuckling and growled.

“You nearly killed me you dufus.” I
told Landon.

He laughed harder. “You thought we
were going to make you carry this shit down four flights of stairs by
yourself?” he asked.

I sighed. “Good you’re forgiven.” I
said and pecked him on the lips. I slapped his ass as he walked past me and
told him, “now get your ass to work.” He chuckled again.

I took the lightest box down and
Landon took the rest. He refused to let me help any further. He already had his
stuff packed in to his car and once we were done loading me up we drove over. I
asked him about Nick and he laughed and I already knew the answer. His ass was
still asleep.

We got to the house and Landon
unloaded our stuff into the house. I cooked us some breakfast and the cable
people came by the time I was done. They setup cable in all of the bedrooms and
the family room along with the internet. We waited until they left to eat. We
had bought inflatable beds just in case our beds weren’t delivered until
Sunday. They said with the amount of furniture we ordered it would be two
separate deliveries. Landon blew one up and took out his laptop and we watched
Netflix, thank you Wi-Fi. Nick arrived around 11 and with him there they took
all the boxes upstairs to our rooms. The first delivery was from Best Buy and
they had all of the boy’s toys. They were like two big ass kids as they walked
the people from room to room for setting up the TV’s and such. When they
started that, I decided to work on some other stuff. I went into the kitchen
first and loaded up the dishwasher and let it run. I’m grateful it’s large
because there is a ton of damn things that we bought. They’ll all need to be
cleaned before being put away. While that was running I started in on the
bathrooms and getting things setup in there. I put down the floor mats and put
away some towels and cleaning equipment. By the time I was done, the boys were
still setting up stuff, they had gotten surround sound and things so I figured
it’ll be a while. I unloaded the dishwasher and put in a new batch of dishes. I
put up curtains in the rooms so that everyone outside can’t see us inside, that
thought was kind of fucking creepy and was bugging me. While the guys from best
buy were there the people with the furniture came so I helped show them where
to put everything. They had all the couches as well as a bunch of the smaller
pieces like dressers, tables, night stands, lamps, etc.. When we picked out
items, we did it by bedroom so I knew what room each item was for. They also
had me and Landon’s bed and one for one of the guest bedrooms.