Chapter 548) Heartbeats

“True love is quiescent, except in the nascent moments of true humility.”

~B. H. McGill

Windenburg
Hayes Residence

She put on her makeup, carefully, hoping to remember every step Hailey and Maddie had taught her, so she would look as effortlessly great as they always had made her look – or at least as if she made an effort. She did her hair just right, perfectly imperfect, and picked out her favorite new dress, the one that underlined her summer tan just so, which made her smile as she put on the expensive perfume.

She wasn’t getting ready for a date, or maybe in a way she was, one that came to her and officially was everything but a date. Sophie’s heart and romantic core just couldn’t help themselves. She was in love with the man, still, despite and after all he had put her through. And he was coming here. And she was excited and wanted to impress him the way his looks had impressed her at Bri and Iris’ birthday party. To think THAT hot tatted up guy with the smoldering glare was the father of her kids. Her husband. Ex-husband. Either way, to this day, all Sophie ever saw in the mirror was a wallflower, too thick, too plumb, too plain. Boring. Yawn.

Even at his worst, Stryker had a certain charisma about him, something that always eluded her. Knowing he would come here, she had tanned, bought a new outfit, had a balayage put in her hair, bought all the makeup Hailey and Maddie had used on her when she asked them how to enhance her looks without looking ridiculous. Oh well, but he still seemed interested in her, and man, was she ever interested in him, even though mostly covertly, for more than obvious reasons. Her parents, her twin brother Silas and their sister Emmy knew Stryker was coming to spending a week with her, her brother Ewan lived far away and had his head and hands full with other things, and Sophie already dreaded the moment her sister Esmée would find out. Oh gawd, that would be a lecture from hell. It all came from a place of deep care and love, but still all their concerns and pleading were just cringe to her. Reminding her of things that had scarred her for life, things she has been trying too hard to forget, had done nothing to change her mind.

While Jackson was away on vacation with Briar Rose, Iris Marie and Jasper for a week, Sophie had invited Stryker to stay with her and their kids. Officially to help Jackson and Connor out, and Stryker, so he could rebuild his relationship with his children more. Unofficially because she saw her chance and took it, she wanted him here. And now he would be here soon. Very soon. Any minute now. Sophie realized this was what stage fright must feel like. Her heart was beating out of her chest for excitement.

Just like last time, Connor would drop him off briefly and unceremoniously, somewhere outside the gate, so the children wouldn’t be exposed to the strange and inexplicable vampire talents. Sophie’s entire side of the family, her parents and all four siblings, had always kept such things under wraps to instill a sense of wholesome normalcy, even though two of her sisters were married to occult men, it wasn’t ignored or denied, just never brought up. They were just Uncle Connell and Uncle Michael, not a vampire or a werewolf. Their special abilities – and needs – were never displayed or discussed. They were just uncles. Fathers. Husbands. Brothers-in-law. Sons-in-law. Nothing else. Same with Connor and his side of the family. And all the other occults, hiding in plain sight, neither a secret, nor a topic.

To Sophie’s kids, daddy just walked up with a suitcase, probably after getting out of a taxi.

The welcome was hearty, even family dog ‘Arno’ was excited, even though he wasn’t quite sure what about, as he didn’t really know Stryker, but he was happy cos the kids were. And Stryker clearly noticed Sophie’s efforts, when the kids were falling over themselves talking over each other, he looked up at Sophie and smiled, mouthing what looked like ‘beautiful‘ to Sophie, making her so giddy, she turned and walked off to make coffee, her heart racing.

The four youngest had come around during his last visit, spoken on the phone with him a few times since, and were excited about their dad staying for a week, Spencer was grumpy and stand-offish at best during the welcome dinner, and downright unbearable the rest of the time whenever Stryker was present.

Tired of his mother constantly calling him to order, he spent most of his time either at friends’ homes, even overnight, or in his own room, music blaring. Sophie let him, exhausted by his antics, she had tried to talk to him every which way, as had her parents and siblings, even Connor had made an attempt when he came to check on Stryker half-way through his weeklong visit, but Spencer called him ‘his sperm donor’s lover boy’ and just stomped off, so she just left him be, as he clearly just couldn’t be reasoned with.

The original plan had been for Stryker to stay in the guestroom upstairs, usually dedicated to friends of the kids staying over, but since that room was close to Spencer’s room Sophie felt all that would bring was conflict, so she put him in the guestroom downstairs instead, the official excuse being that stairs were still a little much for him. Secretly, Sophie liked the idea of him being closer to her bedroom, which also was downstairs, just a small hallway away. Stryker enjoyed it, the fresh paint, lush blankets and pillows and modern new furniture felt luxurious compared to Jackson’s rustic furnishings and lack of decor at his small ranch.

It took one late night staying up long after the kids had all been tucked in, their parents relaxing over some TV and snacks together, giving both old timey melancholies, for Stryker to be invited to spend the night with her.

Everything remained PG-13, but both got the best sleep in almost two years snuggled up together and both rose the next morning with a smile.

The next nights went similarly but involved some light kissing and slightly less clothing.

It always went the same way, the moment all had remained quiet for a while, she snuck him into her room like contraband, and the kids were none the wiser, it was school nights, and they were past the age where they would wake and run to find mommy at night. If one woke from a nightmare, it was always a sibling that would comfort them.

Stryker would sneak back into the guestroom the moment Sophie’s alarm rang, when Sophie rose to start the morning routine, he would eventually join them from the guestroom, so the kids only ever saw him going into and coming out of there. Family dog Arno always slept in one of the kids’ rooms upstairs, so even he didn’t rat them out.

But, as such stories often go, one night, things suddenly developed a different undertone than the nights before, Stryker and Sophie both felt it. There was a sort of static in the air, Sophie and Stryker kept being in each other’s ways, trying to get changed and bed-ready in Sophie’s bathroom.

A few mildly awkward moments arose, until finally Stryker just kissed her. Not like the few times before, the careful, exploratory kisses, like teens on their first date, testing the waters. His kiss was passionate. Intense. Demanding. Begging. Pleading. Reminding them. Remembering a marriage that had spanned a decade and a love that had lasted even longer.

Sophie leaned into it, until something else caught her attention and she pulled away, looking up at her ex-husband.

“Stryker … I thought you said … that doesn’t … work anymore.” she pointed downwards.

Discombobulated and confused he first stared at her, then at what she was pointing at, until he realized what she meant.

“Holy crap! It doesn’t! Didn’t. At least hasn’t for almost two years. How in the world …? I swear I didn’t take any blue pills or anything, I can’t because my heart … I don’t know where THIS is coming from now … I have no explanation for it! I didn’t do it on purpose.” he looked down on himself, genuinely shocked, then at Sophie, her eyes widened.

After staring at each other for a moment, Sophie couldn’t help but burst out giggling.

“I am sorry, so rude of me, but this is too funny. ‘I didn’t do it on purpose’, he says. Oh my God, I am so dead! Who did this? Come out and show yourself! HAHAHAHA!” she snorted.

He chuckled too, then shrugged.

“I think there was a time where I would have taken offense at you laughing at my arousal. Now I kinda agree. What the actual fuck is this now again? I swear Soph, I wasn’t lying. I even begged Connor to run tests, which isn’t exactly easy, but we both came to the conclusion my downstairs is purely decorative at this point. Guess it’s also interactive if you got your Midas touch.” he smirked.

“Well, not to sound brazen, but you wanna put your downstairs decor to the test, since it’s already … like that? See how lasting it is? I mean, mostly in the name of scientific research, so you know for sure what it can or can’t do, right? And I don’t know about you, but it has been a LONG time for me since … ya know, I last applied my Midas touch to a man’s downstairs.” she giggled nervously, blushing.

Stryker’s eyes widened at her very clear, and very unexpected offer, then he smiled and nodded, before he began to kiss her again, gently pulling the nightrobe she had just slipped on off her again, pushing her towards her bed. Pressing lips or hands onto each other’s mouths to keep from getting too carried away and noisy, they did what neither thought they would ever do again. Especially not with each other.

Afterward, both lay breathless in an embrace, both lost in their thoughts, until Sophie fell asleep, exhausted from the excitement of the entire situation.

Stryker was exhausted too, but also too wound up to be able to sleep. He wiped a tear off his cheek, basking the in the sensation of it all, but also mourning the fact that there were only two and a half days left, Sunday afternoon he would have to leave again, there would be an entire continent in between them. He closed his eyes and thought about the fun time he had with his kids since he got here, the family meals together, games, play time, family movies, lots of laughter, then the private time with their mother being close, and now even and most unexpectedly, this.

All things he truly had deemed well out of his reach, lost to him forever, because of his failures, his mistakes, his illness. Suddenly, all his – and Connor and Jackson’s – hard work over the past year and change paid off more than it already had. He finally saw a point in still being alive, something he had questioned greatly for a long time, feeling lonely, an outcast, before that one time when Sophie had come to see him at Jackson’s ranch with Phoenix. That had given him so much hope, but also reminded him of what he was missing. The time with her at Chase and Hailey’s party, then the next time visiting here for just some hours, even that time at Liam and Nick’s law firm had given him reason to hope, then seeing Sophie again at the party … and her invitation to stay with her … and now THIS. Suddenly Stryker felt like he had a LOT to live for again.

Stryker’s heart began to beat harder again. Maybe there was real hope. He was getting ahead of himself, but at least there finally was a silver lining on his horizon, not just dreams, but something of substance. Something to work towards again.
Careful not to wake up Sophie, Stryker rolled out of bed and went into her bathroom to splash cold water in his face.

He stopped and pinched himself, grimacing at the brief discomfort then looked up at his reflection in the mirror, where he finally saw a man again, not just a caricature of his former self.

“Wow. This was real. Not a dream this time. Wow. Am I really getting my chance? I swear, if I do, I will not squander it this time. I won’t fuck up again. I swear on my life! Let this be real. I need this so much. Sophie needs me too. The kids. Please, let this happen. Please.” he mumbled quietly at his mirror image, when he realized his heartrate still hadn’t calmed down as much as it probably should, so he had to go get his pills from his room and some water from the kitchen.

And maybe a glass of water for Sophie too, she’d probably be thirsty too when her alarm would get her up to make breakfast and wake their brood to get all of them ready for school in only a few hours from now.

Spencer caught him coming from the hallway that dead-ended in Sophie’s bedroom, apparently also on his way to the kitchen, Stryker skipped getting the pills from his room to try and talk calmly to Spencer about what the boy had seen, but it instantly turned into a whisper-yelling concert by Spencer, while Stryker tried all he could to keep his oldest child from waking everyone, when, after freezing his father out for the most part of his stay so far, now suddenly had a lot to say to him, none of it good, until is crescendo’ed in the harshest way.

“I hate you! HATE YOU! I can’t believe she let you back in her bed! That is so nasty. You are nasty! Disgusting! I am so embarrassed to be your son!” yelled in a low voice at his father, but his understandable assumption that they were intimate again when seeing his father come from his mother’s bedroom in the middle of the night, even that hadn’t been true until just hours ago, the thought clearly drove the 14-year-old to say the ultimate worst a child could throw at their parent no matter how carefully Stryker tried to calm him and explain what really happened.

The boy just didn’t hear him for anger. Or didn’t WANT to hear him. Spencer just yelled right over Stryker talking.

“I hate you so much, I wish you were dead! I wish you had died that night when Bri, Chase and Connor saved you! I wish mom didn’t talk you into putting the gun down before you had all my siblings! I wish you had shot yourself then! I wish you were DEAD! Why couldn’t you just do one thing right in your life and just DIE!” Spencer’s voice got louder, and he was spitting for anger while yelling at his dad, nearly foaming at the mouth.

Stryker’s already damp eyes widened, he started gasping for air, his lips turned an odd shade as he clutched his chest, making gargling noises.

Without warning he just collapsed to the ground, where he twitched, gasped and gargled for a brief moment until he stopped moving, lying motionless in an awkward position.

“Stop it. Stop the show, that doesn’t work on me! You might be able to fool everyone, but not me! I said STOP THIS SHIT, you dumb fucker! This isn’t gonna get you out of it. I know what you did and I know who you really are! I hate you even more for playing now!” Spencer yelled.

When Stryker didn’t move at all, Spencer started to doubt himself, inched closer to his collapsed father, kicked him, lightly at first, then harder, when Stryker didn’t react, Spencer crouched down and poked him sheepishly, when Stryker still didn’t move, Spencer screamed at the top of his lungs, jumping up and away from his father’s lifeless body.

“Hey …. Dad? DAD? Dad, come on now. Please. Okay, I didn’t mean it. Oh God, DAD! DAAAAD! MOOOOOOOOOOM MOMMMMMM!” Spencer kept screaming for his mother.

Shortly thereafter, the light was flipped on, and his mother appeared.

“Oh my God, Stryker! Spence, call Connor! NOW! Tell him to come NOW!” Sophie screamed, while lifting Stryker’s head, trying to wake him up.

When she looked up and noticed her son was just staring at her like a deer in the headlight, stiff for shock, she yelled at him

“Spencer – SNAP OUT OF IT. CALL CONNOR NOW!” Sophie had never yelled at her son, but it did wake him from his trance, and he pulled his phone from a pocket in his pajama pants, fumbling with it as if he had never held a cell phone before, dropping it twice trying to exit the game he had been playing before coming downstairs, while staring at his mother frantically administering CPR to his father.

“Connor, come FAST, I killed my dad!” Spencer finally said into his cell phone, sobbing, staring stiffly ahead, unable to move or talk, seconds later Connor materialized in his PJs, pushing Sophie out of the way to grab Stryker and disappear with him.