Forever and Always

Chapter One: Tristian

*Present Day- Four years after Luna and Aiden’s story*

Tristian

I was pissed.

I mean, that’s nothing new. It’s a constant state I’ve been in since I could remember, but this is a whole new fuckin’ level of pissed off-fuckery.

We were sitting in our conference room at Locke and Brother’s, the main office for our businesses, in a fuckin’ last minute emergency meeting with Tony. God, I hate this asshole. He’s caused so much crap over the years.

Yeah, he’s turned over a new leaf, but that doesn’t change s**t. I can’t hate him entirely though, he is family after all, even if I didn’t want him to be. I still have prickly feelings about him. Not because of how he does his job, he’s gotten better over the years to the point where he is trustworthy and his guys are pretty spot on. No, the feeling I have is one hundred percent personal. I honestly don’t know how Austin can look at him. If it were me, he wouldn’t be walking.

Wait, he doesn’t. He always glares at him when Tony isn’t looking because of their past regarding Hannah. I let out an impatient grunt as I looked at my watch, watching the seconds tick by while we wait for Eli to bring the girls. Whatever is going on is bad because we rarely involve Hannah, Bella and Sarah, only when they could possibly be in danger or if one of the kids is in trouble.

And this smells bad.

“How much longer until he’s here?” Tony asked as he gripped the coffee cup in front of him. His knuckles were turning white the harder he gripped it. I'm suprised it hasn't snapped yet. They were also trembling slightly. You could almost miss it if you didn’t know what to look for, but it’s something he’s been doing since we were kids.

“Should be any moment.” Austin sighed as he leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes. He’s been more tired lately and paler. I’ve been watching him every time we’re together and something just doesn’t seem right, but he insists he’s okay, “Gage and Aiden are on their way too. Are you sure you don’t need Archer?”

He shook his head, “I think this is better left without him for the moment.” He mumbled, looking up at the clock on the wall, “You’ll understand when I tell you but he’ll know when it’s time.” His eyes traveled to Austin and he gave him the same look I was, concern, “You okay?”

“Yeah. Sorry.” He sighed as he looked at both of us, “We had the grandkids over last night and they were more rambunctious than normal.”

“Are the twins still driving you up the wall?” I asked, laughing.

The years have flown by in a blink of an eye. The grandkids range from Miles, who is fifteen all the way to four, baby Jay. Everyone might not be blood, but they’re all family.

“While we wait, catch me up on the fam?” Tony smiled. He knew talking about the kids was our weak point, but he also hasn’t been around since Gage moved here about five, six years ago.

“Miles is fifteen, almost sixteen and man, has he grown up.” I smiled, “He’s playing travel hockey during the summer and going out for Varsity when school starts in the fall. Johnathan came to one of his games and put in a word with the owner of the Stars and the coach, so they’re going to come to a few of his games and watch him play.”

“Holy s**t, really?” Tony grinned, “That’s fuckin’ awesome.”

“Yeah. The boys are following his lead too. Lucas and Mark are playing in the same league. Trey though…” I laughed as Austin chuckled, “Decided to follow his dad and play football, despite what we all wanted. Trey and Elianna are eleven and absolute terrors. The amount of times Dylan and Ray get called from their teachers is ridiculous. They have to keep them in different classrooms it’s so bad.”

“Hey, no reason to be saying s**t about my grandbabies.” Austin laughed, “But it’s true. They’re hellions. Get them together with Ellie, who’s what, twelve now? And Brooklynn, god, she’s ten.” He shook his head, “And Ivy, who’s eleven going on twenty-one, the sassiest of them all, it’s hell, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. We’re so not looking forward to full blown puberty.”

“I can’t imagine. You have what, eight grandkids all within two years of each other? It’s going to be rough.” Tony laughed, “What about the K-twins?”

“Kinsley and Kennedy? They actually have been spending a lot of time with Luna and Drew, same with Harper. They decided to buy the café in town and co-own it together, since they’re both amazing cooks and bakers. Sawyer helps out too. It’s a family thing and the girls are all over it. They insist on waking up early and going in with Luna and Drew to help bake.”

“And the youngest ones?”

“Phil, Sam and Jay.” I grinned, “They’re playing t-ball this summer, thank f**k some of the kids want to play baseball.”

“Right?” Austin chuckled, “But yeah, I had the twins over last night with the K-twins and Harper, and it was crazy. I woke up in the middle of the night with shaving cream all over my face and my toe nails painted with glitter glue. I went to get up and to go the bathroom to wash it off only to put my feet in my slippers and step in homemade slime…made wrong.” He shuddered, “Hannah thought it was the most hilarious thing in the world.”

“That’s because it was.” Hannah smiled as she, Bella and Sarah walked into the room with Eli following them, “I’m glad they’re targeting you and not me.”

“That’s so wrong.” He grumbled as he stood up to kiss her. I pulled Sarah into my lap and held her tight, kissing the top of her head.

“Are you okay?” she whispered as I shrugged.

“I don’t know, I have a bad feeling about this. Where’s Gage and Aiden?”

“Here.” They both said as they walked in the room, dressed in their uniforms fresh off duty. Gage came over and shook my hand with a smile. Things have been pretty fuckin’ awesome when it comes to him and Drew. I was skeptical of their relationship with my daughter, but once I gave them my blessing and seeing them grow together, I have no doubts that it was meant to be. Is it still weird to see her with two men? Absolutely. But she’s happy, happier than I’ve ever seen her and that's all that matters.

I looked at my brothers, my friends, family, and can’t help but feel a twinge of jealously. Yeah, we’re all family, but I can’t help but feel like part of mine is missing. No, I don’t mean my b***h of an ex-wife. She could disappear for all I care. No, I miss my other daughter, the one I should have adopted when her mother walked away from her.

I think about her all the time. I wonder if she’s okay, safe, settled. Last we knew, she was engaged. Did she get married? Does she have kids? Is she happy? Does she miss us?

Taylor saw her last, four years ago, with Sawyer, Ray and Ava. Taylor said the whole thing was weird, that something wasn’t right, but Jo has her number in case she needed it for any reason. So far, she hasn’t reached out.

I could use my resources to find her.

Okay, so I did locate her, but all I know is she lives four hours away. I was about to go into her history a bit deeper, but Sarah stopped me, telling me it was an invasion of her privacy. I guess she was right. At least I knew where she was.

I can’t fight the feeling that I should have gone see her and dragged her ass back home. Maybe, just maybe, things with my nephew wouldn’t be so bad.

Archer hasn’t been himself in years and we’re all worried about him. He’s been more closed off, avoiding family functions, hiding himself away in his apartment when he isn’t at work or at the rink. He’s working himself to death at this point and the kids are on edge around him because of his temper. He would never hurt anyone, but it’s not him. He was always the collected one and he’s gone.

We are understanding, but there comes a time when you need to give someone a swift kick in the ass and that time is almost here. I can see the pain in Hannah’s eyes when she sees him. She misses the man he used to be. This version of him, we don’t recognize.

I turned and looked back at Tony who was talking to Gage, catching up, “Enough of this.” I grumbled, holding onto Sarah a bit tighter. She’s my anchor, “I have things to do and frankly, if you have nothing to tell us right now, I’m going to leave and I’m going to be even more pissed than I am now.”

“And here I thought talking about the grandkids would soften you up a bit.” He sighed, “But I do have something I need to tell you and it’s serious…”

We just didn’t know how serious it was until he caught us up on everything.

And s**t just went from okay, to fuckin’ terrible in a nanosecond.