New Beginnings {ACM}

Chapter 72

Song of the chapter: I Won't Give Up by Jason Mraz

Emily's POV

"Emily, get Lucy!"

I groaned as I heard faint cries coming from the room beside ours. "No, you get her!"

"I can't," Austin moaned from the bathroom.

"Right, because you're hungover," I mumbled in annoyance as I slipped out of bed and shuffled over to Lucy's room. I opened the door and saw her standing up with her hands on the edge of her crib. "Hey baby," I smiled. "Don't want to sleep anymore?"

She held her arms up to me, whimpering, and I picked her up. I brought her over to the chair in the corner of her room and rocked her a bit to calm her down. She had her head buried in my chest and after a while, her whimpers were starting to stop.

I carried her out of her room to go downstairs for breakfast. Austin came out of the bathroom as I was walking down the hallway in his direction.

"Emily-"

"Don't talk to me right now," I said quietly as I slipped past him.

"But Ems-"

"I said don't talk to me right now!" I kept moving, storming down the stairs into the kitchen. I set Lucy in her highchair and got her food ready. While she ate, I grabbed the wedding catalogue again from where I had left it the night before and sat beside her, skimming through it, but I was only half in the mood.

"Daddy!" Lucy said happily five minutes later, with her eyes planted behind me. I turned around to see Austin slowing walking in the kitchen, bleary eyed.

He gave me a small smile, but I ignored it and turned around again. "On a scale of one to shoot me in the face, how awesome are you feeling today?"

"Kill me," he said.

"Now, Lucy, take a good look at your father. That's what alcohol does to you, and the people who abuse it, like your dad did last night, they feel like dying the next day." She tilted her head at Austin, staring. "Good girl."

Austin walked over and stroked Lucy's head before going to the cupboard, presumably to get an aspirin. "You know, I don't really get why you're mad at me, Emily," he said harshly. "When you were wasted that one night, I wasn't pissed at you, and I actually took care of you the next day; I didn't throw daggers your way like you're doing to me." He started yelling.

I whipped around in my chair. "Yes, I know you took care of me and I appreciate that greatly, Austin. But that wasn't when we were in the middle of planning a wedding, now was it? That was a night to celebrate! You also said that you were going to be going for a couple of drinks last night, not a couple times two. I know you can hold your alcohol good, so don't tell me it actually was only a couple of drinks." I stood up. "I did everything yesterday by myself." I said as I started getting frustrated.

"You had your friends with you," Austin defended, screaming in my face.

"That's exactly my point. They're my friends; None of them are the person I'm getting married too!" I shrieked as I put my hands on my face, starting to cry.

Austin rubbed his eyes. "Okay, yes, I know I should have been there yesterday."

"You think?" I snapped.

"But," he glared. "I can't give up my job completely, Emily. I have a duty to my fans, and since I'm starting the tour up again after Christmas, which in case you hadn't noticed is a week away, I need to be working on my music, too."

I sighed. "I know. Look, I'm not trying to be rude and ignorant here. It's just easier if I have my other half with me."

He shuffled over to me and ran his hands up and down my arms a couple of times. My scar tingled a bit when his hand moved over it because it wasn't fully healed yet. "I promise I'll go with you for the next one."

"My next appointment is for my dress."

"Okay, then the appointment after that." Austin looked at me. "We're okay here?"

"We're good," I smiled.

"Good, because I need to go throw up again." He bolted out of the room.

I turned to Lucy. "You aren't allowed to drink until you're thirty."