Page 108 of Empowered
“Hey,” he greeted. “You freaked a few people out today. I knew something was up when Mrs. Monroe called me directly to ask about your whereabouts.”
“Yeah.” Sarah sat on the edge of the bed. The scent of the lovemaking she enjoyed with Lucas lingered in the air, asking her to curl up against the pillow and relive those kind memories. “I had a bit of a meltdown. I’m over it now. I’m with Lucas tonight. He’s talking to his ex-wife about some stuff.”
They were silent. The line was always silent when they called each other. Just knowing that her brother was on the other line, ready to listen to whatever she had to say, was enough for her to feel better.
“He’s a good guy, I think.”
“I think so, too.”
“And he’s got a little boy.”
Sarah didn’t miss the subtext of that observation.Victor could never be the son I lost, but…She couldn’t have kids. Not the old fashioned way. The more Sarah acknowledged her love for Lucas, the more she acknowledged this fact about herself.Ifshe and Lucas decided to have a child together someday, it would have to be done in a lab with a surrogate. Her genetics were good, supposedly. It was her body that couldn’t do the work anymore.
It would be a lot of stress. Pain. Needless money lost. But that was something to address in the future. For now, Lucas had a wonderful little boy from his first marriage. Victor Blackbourne had the name and potential good looks to coast through life, but everyone around him knew that coasting wasn’t good enough. That kid needed a team of people to act as role models and to guide him to becoming a great man when he grew up. That team included parents. He needed to see his father in a successful relationship, with a woman who could step up when Jill was at her lowest.
Perhaps it was best for Sarah that way, too. She wasn’t ready for full-blown motherhood. Not after that heartbreak. Having that clear role in Victor’s life that was “mother figure and wife of my father” was easier to understand than some nebulously replacement mother.
Besides, for all her faults and regressions, Jill still looked to her son as her biggest reason to stay sober. He needed to be in her life.
Lucas knew that too. Which was why, when he returned to the bedroom, he patiently waited for Sarah to hang up on her brother before telling him what had been decided.
“When she’s sobered up again, we’re going to meet with our divorce lawyers and talk custody and living arrangements.” Lucas sat down next to his girlfriend, one arm instantly wrapping around her. “I sincerely offered to move her and her family to Copenhagen so they can be near Victor if – no, when – I get full custody and can take him back home. She tentatively agreed but obviously I can’t take that at face value when she’s drunk and upset.”
Sarah kicked at the carpet beneath her feet. “Did her sponsor come and get her?”
“Yes. They’re heading back to her place right now.”
How embarrassing for her.Sarah took no joy in that. Jill was sick. She knew the damage her alcoholism caused, and to have her sponsor see her fall off the wagon must have made her sicker. Even if people claimed to show no judgment, they still did. It was human nature. Lucas, Sarah, the sponsor, Jill’s parents… they could all say that they didn’t judge her, but they did to varying degrees. Lucas’s judgment was probably laced in heartbreak.
Sarah’s? She wondered how a mother could keep falling that far down.
But judgment also made people hypocrites. Sarah had no room to judge when she had her own issues to sort out.Time to go into therapy, I guess.
Sarah hopped off the bed and picked up her cast-off wig from the floor. Although tangled and a little dirty, it still looked good on her head.
“One day I’ll wear this wig and still be myself.” She said that as much to her reflection as she did her boyfriend.
“You’re beautiful either way.”
“It’s kind of a token, isn’t it?” Sarah pulled the wig back off her head and held it in her hands. “A symbol of when we first met.”
“If that’s how you see it, Angel, then that’s how I see it too.”
She giggled. Sarah Clayborn, who almost never girly laughed in her life,giggled.“We’ve had some pretty good times.”
“And some not so good times.”
Sarah placed the wig on the nearest table. “We’ll have way more good times than not so good ones.”
“If you say it that way, Angel, then it must be true.”
His reflection grinned at hers in the mirror. Sarah couldn’t stand it. She rushed into his arms, tackling him against the bed and covering his scratchy face in heavenly kisses.
Even with all the crap that had gone on lately, it was still the happiest she had ever been in a long, long time. A man who could make her this happy was clearly a keeper, yes?
From the way Lucas kissed her back, the verdict was in: absolutely.
