Scartissue by T.L Hodel

Epilogue

Shelby

Three months later.

It took awhile for things to get back to normal. We’d lost so much. My father, and both of Finn’s parents. Her body was found in their house afterwards.

Not to mention the emotional scars. But slowly we healed. None of us had any idea where my brother was, or if he was even alive, but I held out hope. Logan promised he’d help me find him.

Mom and Louis–that’s what he insisted I call him–were engaged now. Mags, Mom and I lived with him, in his big ass house. The place was seriously huge.

Louis wanted to give me my own wing. My mom put a stop to that real fast. Most nights I spent at Riley’s anyway. Well, as many as I could get away with. My mom was less than happy to find out I had a boyfriend, and even less happy when she met him. She and Paisley had become close though, so that kind of helped.

Mags insisted on playing nurse for both Junior and Finn. As far as she was concerned, they were her best friends. Finn liked the attention. He always smiled when my little sister was around, and even though Junior grumbled a lot, I knew he liked the attention too. He’d do little things for her. Like bring her favorite cupcake, or make sure she got the last cookie.

I didn’t necessarily agree with his methods–punching a kid in the face for a cookie wasn’t the best way to handle things–but, he meant well. Kind of reminded me of Logan.

Over the months, he’d only gotten sweeter and more terrifying. We’d tried out a few of his toys. He steered clear of the whip though. I wasn’t ready for that yet, and he didn’t want to push me. That day in the garage I thought going anywhere near Logan Hudson would be the worst mistake of my life. It turned out to be the best thing to happen to me. I couldn’t possibly feel anymore loved, and despite his many flaws, he always made me smile.

Riley sighed at me.

“I don’t know about this.”

“You’re the one always talking about closure.” I nodded at the present on the table. “This is your closure.”

“She’s right, you know,” Lana chimed in.

The three of us had become close friends. Harper too, when she was around. I guess she had strict parents or something, because I never saw her outside of school. All Lana said was that Harper didn’t go out much.

“Ugh, fine,” Riley grunted, “But if this makes me cry, I’m punching you.”

“Deal.” I smiled.

Riley’s mother may not have been perfect, but she loved her. As long as that present sat in her closet unwrapped, she’d never be able to forgive her or let her go.

I anxiously watched her tear the paper off and peeked over her shoulder to see what was inside. My heart instantly melted and tears sprung in my eyes. At the bottom of the box was her mother’s thirty days sober chip, and a note:

I love you baby girl and I’m so sorry I haven’t been there for you.

I can’t make up the time lost, but I can be there for the future.

This is proof that this time will be different.

“She wasn’t drunk,” Riley cried, “She did love me.”

“Of course she loved you.” I wrapped my arms around her, tears falling down my face just as fast as they were hers. “Who wouldn’t love you?”

“I love you too,” Lana blubbered and joined our sobbing heap.

Micha’s loud grumble interrupted our moment.

“Oh god, what the fuck did we walk into?”

Parker strutted in the room and rolled his eyes. He’d been really grumpy lately. I’m pretty sure it had something to do with the growing animosity between him and Lana.

I was too busy admiring the gorgeous blond god smirking down at us to care.

“They probably saw a puppy on TV or some shit.”

“Shut up,” I sang, wiping the tears off my face. “We were having a girl moment.”

“Oh yeah?” Logan yanked me off the couch and pulled me into his arms, “I’d like to have a girl moment.”

Riley groaned.

“Do you two ever stop?”

I smiled at her. No, no we didn’t. Logan was insatiable, but that was okay, because he made me insatiable too.

“What’s that?” I nodded at the bag in his hand bumping against my thigh.

“I got you something.”

I swear he got sweeter every day.

“But it’s not my birthday for another couple weeks.”

I’d been practicing my surprise face for the party he had planned. He wasn’t very good at hiding it. I caught on when I walked in the room and heard him ordering a pink unicorn cake. Not sure why he thought I had a thing for unicorns. There were more unicorns in my room now than when I was five.

I just went with it, because that was Logan. My beautifully broken, sweet and scary Logan. And I wouldn’t have him any other way.

He held the pink bag out for me. “It’s not for your birthday.”

Giddily I grabbed the bag and flopped down on the couch. I loved getting presents. Especially from him. I honestly never knew what to expect.

“You’re spoiling her,” Micha grumbled.

I answered him by sticking my tongue out.

Logan laughed and sat behind me. “You’re just mad your girl won’t let you spoil her.”

“I don’t need any of that fancy stuff,” Riley exclaimed, “I do just fine with what I have.”

“I took your car to the junkyard.”

“WHAT!”

Uh oh. This might be Micha Kessler’s last night on earth. I was just starting to get used to the idea of him being my stepbrother. Mason was easier to accept. Especially for Mags. Those two were thick as thieves, and he wasn’t coming home for another week.

“Go back and get it!”

“Can’t,” Micha said, “It’s been crushed into a cube.”

“That was my car, Micha!”

“No, the one parked outside is your car.” He rolled his eyes at the look she gave him. “Don’t worry, I bought it used.”

I left my friend to argue with her boyfriend and went back to my present.

Um, okay?

Pulling the little blue onesie out of the bag, I eyed Logan and sucked in a breath.

“Baby…”

How the hell was I supposed to handle this?

“I love you.” I gave him a smile and reached out to cup his cheek. “And I’d be happy to have your babies one day… But I’m only sixteen.”

“It’s okay, baby.” Logan pulled me in and kissed my forehead. “I’m not mad. You don’t have to hide this from me.”

I was officially confused.

“Hide what from you?”

His green eyes gazed down at me. “Open up baby, let me in.”

“Let me in,” I responded, not having a clue what he was talking about.

He huffed out a sigh. “I found the test.”

“What test?”

“The positive pregnancy test in the trash.”

My brow arched. “I didn’t take a test.”

“You didn’t.”

I shook my head.

“So, you’re not pregnant?”

“No.”

Instant relief washed over his face.

“Thank fucking God. Wait…” Logan stopped and eyed me, “If you didn’t take it, who did?”

We both turned and looked at Riley. Even Micha was staring at her.

“Mouse, if you’re hiding something from me…”

Riley was not impressed. Her blue eyes rolled up at him and she snarled, “If I was pregnant, you’d wake up with a fork in your nuts.”

“Why do you always go to the fork?”

She shrugged. “It’s convenient.”

“Well, someone took it!” Logan declared, throwing his hands up in the air.

That’s when we all noticed Lana trying to sneak out of the room. She stopped and looked back at us with wide hazel eyes.

“Um, I gotta go.” She threw her thumb over her shoulder, “Gotta help Gran.”

No one said anything while she left. I don’t think anyone knew what to say. I sure didn’t know what to say. Lana!? I mean she was so sweet and…

Lana!?

Riley tapped my shoulder and pointed at Parker, who was as white as the walls behind him. He stood there, mouth open, with a can of soda held up in his hand.

No.

Friggin.

Way.

“Holy shit,” Logan said, coming to the same conclusion as me. “Mommy’s not going to be too happy about this.”

Parker’s brows furrowed and he opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but shut it instead.

And then, like the true asshole he was, my boyfriend picked up the bag with the onesie, strutted over to Parker, and hung it off his suspended arm.

“Here you go, man,” Logan said, slapping him on the back and clicking a quick selfie. “Good luck.”