Chapter 7
Ty drove over to Liz's apartment. She parked the car, got out and climbed slowly up the stairs, thinking about the last 24 hours and how much things had changed. She opened the door and Liz looked at her in surprise.
"I thought you'd be in bed all morning."
"I had shit to do." Ty said, walking over to the couch and sitting down. She kicked off the stilettos and groaned. "Remind me to never wear crappy shoes to tramp around the neighborhood." She rubbed her feet together, trying to relieve the pain shooting through nerves that had been numb until she took the shoes off.
"So…what does the whole you being naked in Billy's bed this morning mean?"
"Mean? Why would it mean anything?" Ty's lips broke into a radiant smile that threatened to split her face in two.
"You haven't talked about it." It wasn't a question. Liz knew her sister too well.
"Billy, talk about feelings? Never!" Ty laughed which got Liz laughing and it quickly degenerated into hysterical fits of giggles punctuated by desperate gasps for air. Several minutes later they both calmed down enough to speak again.
"I've missed you Liz." Ty said, wiping the tears of laughter off her cheeks.
"When you ran from Billy, you didn't have to run from me too." Liz looked at her, sadness evident in her eyes.
"I know. I'm sorry. I just thought that it would be easier to deal with being gone if I didn't have to see anyone from my past that I really cared about. So, tell me what's going on with you and Joe." Ty said, uncomfortably changing the subject. She knew she should tell her sister that she was back to stay but she just wasn't ready to commit to something that big right now. She knew she wasn't going to leave Billy again but, for now, she wanted to keep that to herself.
Liz sat down on the couch next to Ty and prepared for girl talk. "Well, we were kind of halfway dating when you left. I had to move in with them and Joe and I got pretty serious real fast. We've lived together ever since. Billy moved out like a year ago and we've started talking about getting married. I don't know if he really wants to or if he's just doing it because of the baby." Liz concluded, chewing nervously on her thumbnail, her brows creased in worry.
"Oh, honey." Ty said, hugging her sister and holding Liz's head to her chest. "He's a Darley. He doesn't say things that he doesn't mean. You know that just as well as I do."
"I know. I'm just worried." Came the muffled reply from the general area of Ty's chest.
Just then the door opened and Joe walked in. "Liz? What's wrong?" Joe shot Ty a worried glance and rushed over to the couch.
"Nothing baby. Just catching up with my sister." Liz said, sitting up and wiping the tears from her cheeks.
"Bullshit. I know you too well to believe that. Something's wrong, now tell me what." Joe sat down next to Liz, gripping her face lightly with his hands and not letting her look away.
"I'm just worried." Liz finally admitted, biting nervously at the corner of her lip.
"About what? The baby?" Joe asked, caressing Liz's cheek with his thumb.
"No…well, yes but that's not what I'm worried about right now. I'm worried that I'm forcing you into talking about getting married and you might not really want to then if we do get married we will hate it and each other and then we'll end up getting divorced." Liz blurted.
Instead of answering, Joe dropped to one knee in front of Liz and pulled a small blue velvet box out of his pocket. Opening the box, he looked up into Liz's eyes and smiled. "Don't ever think I don't want to be with you. I love you and I always will. Elizabeth Celeste Mills, will you marry me?" Liz started sobbing and dropped to her knees in front of Joe. He wrapped her in his arms and held her until she calmed down. "Can I take that as a yes?" Joe asked, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. Liz nodded and a muffled "yes" could be heard coming from Liz's mouth where it was buried against Joe's chest.
"Congrats guys. This is a bit too sappy for me, I'll see ya'll later." Ty said, slipping on a pair of flip-flops and walking out the door to her car. Getting into her car she started driving around, checking out the neighborhood to see how much things had changed.
After driving around just thinking for several hours, she found herself at the Office. She noticed that none of the normal vehicles were there. Neither Billy's or Heco's cars were in evidence and she started to worry. She got out of the car and went into the building.
"Hey. Is anybody here?" She called as she walked around, finally winding up in the main room where they cooked their product. "Shit." She said, walking over and turning off a burner that had been left on. She was definitely starting to get slightly panicky now. No car here, obvious signs that whoever was here, left in a big hurry. She flipped her phone open and pushed the speed dial number two. She cursed when it went to voicemail and she dialed the number again. This time someone answered but it wasn't Billy…
XxXxXx
Thanks to Extraho. HermioneandMarcus and lauraxxx for the reviews. This update was a tiny bit faster but very much shorter than I wanted it to be. I'm diligently working on the next chapter. My muse deserted me for a while there but it's back and the next chapter will be better.
I'm sorry if Joe seems a bit OOC but that's the way he wanted me to write it…sometimes the charaters have a mind of their own…lol
Anyway, thanks for the support and hopefully this update will be much quicker.