Chapter 69: She Will Be Loved

*AMY'S POV*

"What are you doing here?" I ask accusingly after I pull away from him.  Or did he pull away?  Or...oh, it doesn't matter.

He looks surprised and maybe a little hurt, "That wasn't the reaction I was hoping for."

I step back to clear my head.

Just a refresher:  Mac is my ex-boyfriend - he's also Terry & AJ's best childhood friend.  Everything was going great with us before he got transferred to Bridgeport.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that..." I start, but he starts talking.

"No...I just got excited to see you," he admits.

I raise my eyebrows.  We didn't exactly leave on good terms.  It got kind of hostile the last week he was here.

"Well, that's great..." I say hesitantly but he interrupts me again.

"I'm coming home," he says.

My mouth hits the floor, "Wha-?"

"If you'll have me, I want to come home to you," he continues, "I realized I would rather be here with you than anywhere."

"What about work?" I ask him.

"I can work here," he replies, "I've already put in for a transfer."

"But..." I start.

"None of it matters as much as being with you," he admits and those seem to be the magic words.

Before my head can think about anything, my heart takes over.

I pull him in close and kiss him again...this time I know it's me.

As we kiss, I feel something inside me waking up and taking notice.

The part of me that has been slowly decaying over the past year is coming back to life.

The walls that I've been building are breaking away.

As we pull away he asks, "So I guess that's a yes?"

I smile in reply.  I don't think I could speak if I tried.

So Mac and I pretty much pick up where we left off...minus the fighting at the end.  He still has to work in Bridgeport while his transfer is being processed, but he comes here whenever he's not working.  Every five days he has two days off - sometimes it's a weekend, sometimes not.  I guess it's a good thing I work from home.

It's funny how one person can change my whole outlook on life.  In truth, I was probably heading down the road to bitter as hell - if I wasn't already there.  Now that I'm with Mac I smile all the time.  I don't have a whole lot of time for other people when he's in town, but I try to prioritize.

This is sad to say, but Mac is the first guy in a long time that has looked at me as more than just a piece of ass.  I have had such a long line of guys that just look at me as an easy lay that it was seriously starting to have a negative affect on my ego.  It wasn't that big of a deal when I was younger, but now that I'm getting older I actually want to settle down.  I want to get married, have children, the whole shebang.

Being with Mac has reminded me of that and given me hope that it can actually happen.

I am just getting comfortable in my life when I get a call from Rebecca inviting me out to the beach.

Bec looks great when I see her - she has just gotten back from a tour with Josh and she's full of excitement and stories.

"Damn Sis, it seems like I haven't seen you in forever," she starts.

It's true, being with Mac for some reason has made my sisters want to call me more often and I don't have the time to talk to them when he's in town.

"Well, ya' know how that goes," I start.

"Yeah, yeah, get a man and forget about everyone else huh?" she jokes.

"Hmph, I'm sorry, was I supposed to be sitting in a bubble waiting around for the once or twice a month you actually call me?" I ask her, obviously still a little bitter.

"Yeowch!  Damn Sis, I was just joking," she says.

"I'm sorry...it's just...I don't want to neglect you guys...but..." I stammer.

"I get it," she says, "you're in looove."

I gulp.  Mac and I haven't said the L word to each other yet - which is weird I suppose - it's not that I haven't felt it - I just don't want to jump headfirst and break my skull.

"Okay, okay, enough about that, I actually have some news," she wakes me up from my thoughts.

I raise my eyebrows, "You're not pregnant are you?"

"Oh God no!" she exclaims, "Not for lack of gettin' it on though..."

I roll my eyes before asking, "Okay, so what's you're news?"

"We're moving to Starlight Shores!" she blurts out and my heart leaps into my throat.

"What for?" I ask.

I never get to see her as it is.  If she moves to Starlight Shores it will be worse.

"Josh and I are going to try our hand at acting!"  She exclaims, "Besides, Harmony isn't the scene anymore - everything is in Starlight Shores."

"Well damn.  When is all this taking place?" I ask thinking I might at least have some time.

"Um...actually in a couple days." she replies.

My mouth drops open, "What?!"

"Yeah...um...Kelsey is throwing us a going away party...it's tomorrow." she says.

"What the...?  I wish y'all would tell me shit."  I can't help but be a little peeved.  It seems like lately I'm always the last to know everything.  I understand I kinda lost my mind for awhile there, and then I started dating Mac, but I'm still their sister for crap's sake.

"Come on," Rebecca ignores my annoyance and continues, "just come to the party."

"Fine." I begrudgingly agree.  

I can't stay mad at my sisters...trust me, I've tried.

Rebecca and I spend the day on the beach and let me just say it's perfect.  The sun is beating down and Rebecca's skin is turning from sun-kissed to a warm toasted color while mine is moving from alabaster to antique.

Not that I'm bitter, but we are supposed to have Native American blood in our family and apparently I have nothing but the pasty German and English.

So the next night, Mac, AJ, and I head to Kelsey's for Rebecca's going away party.  

For being a cop, Kelsey's house is always full of trouble.  As soon as we walk in, we see a couple guys kicking the crap out of each other as Kelsey watches.

"What the hell is going on?" I ask Josh.

Josh shrugged and laughed, "Kelsey apparently set up two different dates for tonight and forgot about them."

I roll my eyes.

Kelsey is busy keeping her guests from breaking everything in the house when I hear a little coo and a tug on my pant leg.

I look down at Melody's sweet face and my heart melts.

Even though it's still hard sometimes thinking about how lucky my sisters are for having children where I still haven't had any, I have warmed to my nieces.

Melody reaches up with her chubby little arms and I pick her up.

"Well hey there, Mel Bell," I greet her.

I am answered with gurgles and coos.  Kelsey says she talks but refuses to most of the time.

She starts sniffling and closing and opening her eyes, so I'm assuming she's tired.

AJ and Mac are busy watching Rebecca and Josh play dueling guitars, and Kelsey is tending to one of guys from the fight, so I head upstairs with Melody, grabbing a book as I go.

I don't even get through the entire thing before she's out.

I sigh and head back downstairs to the party.  As much as my heart longs for a child of my own, I know I have to pace myself with Mac.  We just started dating again, there's no way we can have a baby now.

*AUTUMN* 

Three months pass quickly and before I can blink, the crisp autumn air arrives.

Mac is still coming back and forth between here and Bridgeport, but we now have a date scheduled for the transfer.  He should be here full time in two weeks, the week after Halloween.

When he comes in, we make plans to go to the Fall Festival.

"I hope you know that your ass is toast when it comes to this contest baby," I joke with him before we start the pie-eating contest.

"Please, like you can out-eat me!" he scoffs.

"Look at your skinny ass," I tell him, "you don't have anywhere to put these things!"

Well, as it turns out, we both lose to this little waif looking chick that is probably going to go throw all the pies up.

I look over at him and bust out laughing, "Look at you!"

He lightly touches a piece of cherry that is stuck to his face and chuckles, "You don't look much better sweetheart."

"Ugh," I laugh some more, "We're both a mess...I don't know how I'm ever going to get all this off."

He turns to me with a mischievous look in his eye and I laugh because I can't help but love this man.

Just when I think he's going to hug me, he plants a big, cherry-covered face kiss all over mine.  Something like that used to make my OCD kick in and freak out about the mess, but now I just laugh.

As I pull away laughing I gasp, "I love you."

He smiles and replies, "I love you too."

It isn't the first time we have uttered those words, but for some reason they feel more meaningful.  

He pulls away from me and I turn around to go when he grabs my hand.

I turn around and he's down on one knee.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

His voice is a little shaky but he starts to speak, "I have never met anyone like you.  I fall in love with you more every day and I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

I gasp as he reaches into his pocket...

...and I am in tears when he pulls out a ring.

"Will you marry me?" he asks.

I can't speak, so I ferociously nod.

He smiles and slips the ring on my finger.

He gets up and wraps his arms around me and I can't help thinking that my life is close to perfect right now.

And for the first time in years I actually have hope that it will stay this way.