Dear Somebody

Chapter Five

                                                                                   Four Year Later       

        A knock at my bedroom door pulls me from my journal. I lay my bookmark in the page before closing it and slipping it under my pillow. I look across into the mirror on the wall and sigh at my puffy red eyes. I should be happy today, I'm getting what I always wanted.

    I just don't feel it.

    "Open up Harley," Ace calls through the door.

    I watch as my mouth turns into a smile, before quickly being replaced with a scowl.

    I yank the door open and cross my arms, "I thought you had my children."

    He holds both hands in front of him and smiles, "Down mama bear, Clara took them this morning so I could help with the heavy lifting."

    I drop my arms and blow out a breath, sending a wayward piece of hair in the air. 

    We stand and stare at each other for a few seconds, before he opens his arms and I fall into him. 

    "It'll get better Harley." Ace whispers while combing his fingers through my hair and resting his cheek on my head.

    "I'm not so sure about that."

    "You're stronger then all of us, with everything you've been through. You should be a jaded asshole right now, but you aren't. You're still my sassy loving Harley."

    I let out a laugh and stand straight placing both hands on his cheek and squeezing till he looks like a fish, "I seriously couldn't have done it without you, any of you."

    He sticks his tongue out between his lips causing me to laugh and drops my hands to my sides.

    "How were they?" I exit my room and walk towards the kitchen, grabbing my list of last minute things to pack on my way.

    "Great. DJ slept through the night in his own bed."

    "And Casey?" 

    I know the answer before he says it, but I can't help but make him admit that the little girl has him wrapped around her finger.

    "She fell asleep in her bed."

    "Then?" I ask double checking my list and checking off the few things I did last night when I couldn't sleep.

    "She crawled into bed with me, and I couldn't just kick her out."

    I look up at him with a s**t eating grin, "When do you admit she has you hook, line and sinker Stud?"

    "It's not just me."

    He's pouting, and it's hilarious.

    "Oh I know, each of you is stuck. Well except Rascal but he'll come around."

    "He wasn't like this with DJ."

    I shrug and walk around the kitchen double checking I grabbed everything, "After what happened to his daughter I get it. He needs to realize it wasn't his fault. We're working on it."

    Dalton flashes through my head, but I push him back. It's never far enough.

    I hear the alarm beep indicating the front door has opened. Laughter and voices bounce off the now empty walls. I stop and look over my shoulder at the three other men that enter. My smile growing wider when each appears.

    "Jackie just called from your new place, says the movers just arrived." Quinton says, ever the first to pull me into a hug.

    Landon is next kissing each cheek, "Clara says her and Todd are heading out for brunch before meeting at the house later."

    Rascal steps up to kiss the corner of my forehead before helping check the rest of the cabinets.

    I watch as the guys follow, checking the list and going to look and make sure it's packed up and waiting for the second smaller truck we rented for ourselves.

    Why were they able to stay and not him? He wasn't the only one of the group that was struggling, they all were. They didn't walk away, they didn't make me feel loved only to abandon me. It's still as fresh as it was four years ago. They think I'm crying for my late husband Casey, when really it's always been Dalton.

    "Harley?" Rascals voice pulls me from my own head. "You okay?"

    I give him a watery smile and wrap my arms around myself, " Yeah James, I'm good."

    He drops his head back and groans, "Are you ever going to tell me how you found that out?"

    "Not in this lifetime."

    "Stop teasing Rascal, Harley." Landon calls out from the back of the condo.

    "But it's so much fun." I whine dropping my arms with a laugh.

    "You sound just like your daughter."

    I hold a hand over my heart, "Don't compare me to that spawn child."

    Landon's laugh booms down the hallway, "Never change Harley, I love you too much."

    "I love you too!" 

    I shout it loud enough for the whole condo to hear. My heart almost busts when the resounding I love you's boom back at me.

    I wasn't lying earlier when I said I wouldn't have gotten through this without them. Each man brought something to the table that when combined was too hard to ignore and get stuck. I'll admit, I felt off those first few months, believing with everything inside me that he would come back.

    He had to.

    News flash, he didn't.

    Then I found out about DJ and I knew I had to pull myself back.

    Packing the rest of the things gets done in no time and soon I'm driving off North of Brooklyn with the small moving truck behind me. Rascal and Landon sit in the truck with me singing along to some country song that I'm not really listening to.

    My new house is only a forty minute ride from Brooklyn, as well as my new little small town bakery. I didn't think I'd stay in New York after everything that happened, then I met Casey and things changed.

    Again.

    The movers are pulling out of the driveway as I pull in, I wave them off and pull all the way up to the detached garage. Ace backs in behind me and kills the engine.

    The men step out of the truck, but I can't seem to bring myself to move. I always thought I'd be doing this with someone by my side. If it wasn't Dalton then I thought it would be Casey. 

    That was always a dream that I knew was going to end in a nightmare. I knew from day one he wasn't going to be a forever, yet I still went in head first. Maybe I was stupid to think I wouldn't fall for a man who just wanted a baby to leave is life earning to.

    I don't think either of us expected to actually love each other enough to get married and actually have a baby together. It still breaks my heart that he passed only a few days before Casey was born.

    Step out of the truck and turn to watch Clara and Todd pull into the drive way.

    Neither looking happy. 

    Then I see the Dodge pick-up pull in behind them and my heart stops.

    "Shit."