All Of Me

55

Tripp's POV

Brooke's reaction to finding out Paige was alive was tremendous. I sat in a chair in the hallway while Paige and Brooke were reunited in room 277. The sobs could be heard down the hall. Paige had been beaten, had a cracked jaw, four broken ribs, and her foot and forearm were both badly fractured.

I still couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that Josh, my best friend through high school, was the one doing this. And the same night I find out he was a pimp, I also find out he's dead.

I knew he was into drugs, and I knew he always had girls at his house, but most people in highschool smoke weed, and Josh was popular, it stood to reason that there would be girls there a lot. He was a player. No, he was pimp. My mind corrected me and I shook my head, trying to shake away the whole situation.

The sound of heels clicking down the hall brought me back to the here and now, and I looked up to see Leanne walking toward me. By the way she was dressed, I assumed she had gotten a job with Brian's bank. She dressed in a ladies suit, with her newly bleached hair pulled back into a tight bun.

"Where are my daughters?" She pushed her purse strap further up onto her shoulder and looked down her nose at me. I couldn't help but roll my eyes a little and simply gesture to the room two doors down from where I was sitting. Who called her?

It wasn't long before I heard bickering coming from the room, and eventually I could see Leanne's back where she was about to leave, and Brooke's voice was soft but stern. "She's my daughter," Leanne sounded almost emotional, but Brooke heaved a sigh. "You put her out on the street just like you did me, so don't stand here telling me you have any interest in her well-being." I nodded, agreeing, even thought they couldn't see me. I strained to hear the rest of their conversation.

Leanne let out a deep breath, "She's seventeen. She should come home with me." She tried to argue but Brooke laughed a little. "Stop being selfish, mother. If you really care about what's best for Paige you'll let her go back home with me." My heart stopped, and somehow I knew she didn't mean home to the apartment.

Brooke's POV

"She's seventeen. She should come back home with me." My mother's words didn't shock me. I knew she would eventually show up here pretending to be a doting mother that only cared for her daughter's well-being. I glanced back at a sleeping Paige, all bruised and broken, and couldn't help but feel slightly amused at my mother. "Stop being selfish, mother. If you really care about what's best for Paige you'll let her go back home with me." The words leaving my mouth shocked even me. My mother swallowed and her eyes widened. "You're going back to Texas?" Her eyes flashed between my face and my extended round belly. I nodded. "There's nothing left for me here, or Paige, and we need to go home. We both need to heal. Not that you care." My voice trailed off at the end, and I turned to walk back to Paige. "Close the door on your way out." And a moment or two later, she did.

I eased back down into the chair beside Paige's bed and squeezed her hand. This was it. I had made up my mind. The best thing for Paige and me was to go back to Texas, and get away from this place and all of the pain it had brought to both of us.

For a moment, my mind wondered to Tripp, and just as the pain started to sink in, I heard a tap at the door and looked up. There he stood in jeans, and a black t-shirt. Looking as good as ever. But instead of my usual cheerful greeting, I began to cry. He rushed over and pulled me into his arms like he had done so many times. I was so broken inside. I had to get away. To heal. To recuperate from all the pain I had endured in the past almost seven months.

He stepped back from me, and knelt down on his knee. I gasped and he shook his head, "I have no ring, but here's my proposal. Not right now, but when the time is right, if the time is ever right, you'll come back to me, and you'll marry me. When you've had time to heal." I let his self-less words sink in. Staying in Gracetown wasn't an option for me. It would only cause more hurt. More confusion. And he understood that. I loved him for it. I loved him for everything he had done. And I would marry him when the time was right. That time just wasn't right now. If the time was ever right, I would marry him. I promised myself, and him.

I nodded, and we shared a deep, passionate kiss. Full of love. Full of promise. Sealing a commitment that one day, if life dealt us the right cards, I would be his wife, and he would be a father to Luke.

Luke.

"But Luke," I started and Tripp took a deep breath, his hand traveling to the back of his neck, a pained expression coming over his face. "Email me pictures. Please. I--I want to see him grow." His voice cracked and my heart almost ripped completely in two. Why did life have to be so hard?

I nodded, and Tripp walked out after giving me one last kiss on the forehead and whispering the reassuring words, "You're going to be an amazing mother, Brookie." I gave him a smile and nodded.

He disappeared out the door of room 277, and I listened to his foot steps echo down the long hospital hallway until he was completely gone. And that was the last time I saw Tripp Sparks.