Cherishing You (Thirsty Hearts Book 3) (21 page)

“Jonah, do you think you could just listen to me and let me explain?”

“What’s to explain? Being a scheming bitch is pretty self-explanatory. I’m going upstairs to pack your things. You’re not staying in this house.”

“Where am I supposed to go?”

“You can stay in the guest apartment over the garage for a few days. I’ll move your things. Then, call a friend. Call your friend Aaron. Call someone and figure it out.”

“I can get my own things, then.”

“No. You’re pregnant, and I’m not going to make you lug stuff up and down the stairs.”

“I can pack myself.”

“Fine. Let me know when you’re done.”

Her vision blurred with tears. She felt him brush past her. Blinking and clinging the banister as she went up the stairs, she found her way to the bedroom she and Jonah had shared to begin piling her belongings in the duffel she dragged from the closet.

Where would she go in a few days? Penny had a houseful with her own family. Kim only had a couch for her to sleep on. She’d die before she called Jeff. It would be a few weeks before her apartment would be renovated.

She sobbed as she haphazardly filled her bag. She was alone—again—but she would figure it out. She always did.

T
he burn
of gin down his throat temporarily distracted Jonah from the sting of Shannon’s betrayal. Ignoring the blazing “9:13 AM” on the clock in his living room, he raised the bottle to his lips.

Last night, after moving Shannon into his guest house, he realized he’d have to tell his father that he needed a paternity test after all. The specter of that humiliation sent him to the liquor cabinet, sampling its wares until he passed out on the couch.

Maybe he didn’t have to say anything to his family until the deed was done and he knew for sure. If the baby were his, they’d never have to know there’d been a doubt. He wouldn’t live in limbo for long.

Before drowning himself in Hendrick’s, Jonah searched online to find out how long he’d have to wait to see if his girlfriend was pregnant with another man’s baby. The earliest test could be done after the eighth week of pregnancy. They passed that a month ago.

He’d make an appointment for next Wednesday. Jonah knew that Shannon worked at Vivienne’s on Wednesdays and felt certain he could convince his sister to give her the day off—probably forever. Surely, Shannon couldn’t keep working there.

Vivienne. Jonah shot up and whirled around his living room, looking for his phone. He could go see her, but he needed a ride. He could barely tap his phone to bring up Uber.

Half an hour later, he stood on the thick welcome mat under a halo of fall leaf decorations at his sister’s house. Jonah leaned against the door frame to steady himself and pressed the bell.

He swayed, slamming his eyes shut to eliminate the swirling vision around him and, hopefully, calm his now angry stomach. God. What’s taking her so long?

“What are you doing here?” Vivienne huffed, closing herself into the gap in the door and blocking his view into her foyer.

“I need to talk to you. You’re the only one I can discuss this with. Please.” Jonah tilted his head up to see over his sister. “What are you doing? Cutting up a body in there? Lemme in.”

With her robe gathered in her fist, she stepped onto her porch and pulled the door shut.

She squinted at him. “You didn’t drive here did you?”

“Uber.”

“Good.”

“Let me in.”

Vivienne lifted her and stared at him. “I have a visitor. You…need to leave. Call your Uber back.”

She waved her hands toward the sidewalk.

“Shit, Vivienne, I won’t melt if I see you and with a woman. Neither will you.”

“My relationships are private.” Vivienne pursed her lips together almost prudishly.

“I get that this is a big deal for you and all—having me see you and your woman, er, lover or—”

“Jesus, Jonah. ‘Lover?’”

“Whatever! I don’t know! What am I s’posed to say. I don’t give a damn. I need to talk. No joke. I—”

Tears prickled Jonah’s eyes, and he felt like a fool for the hundredth time in the past twenty-four hours. He lifted the paper sack containing his bottle of gin out of his deep coat pocket and took a long swig.

“What are you drinking?” Vivienne’s nose turned up at supercilious angle.

“Gin.” Jonah hiccupped, then laughed at how cliché it was to be hiccupping while drinking out of a brown paper bag like a hobo.

“Oh, good God, Jonah. Hang on.”

Vivienne disappeared inside her house for what seemed like an hour. Then, the door swung open and the curvy, olive-skinned brunette from the charity gala came out, wearing a long, camel-colored Burberry coat and a sheepish half-smile.

“I’ll see you later, Vivienne.” The brunette’s eyes shot up to Jonah’s, and then she hustled away.

He turned back to his sister, who stood in the door. “She’s…fetching.”

“Shut up, and get in here.”

He stumbled in and followed his sister down the hall, through her Italian-tiled kitchen to her den.

“Sit,” she commanded. “Speak.”

First, Jonah took another tug off of his liquor bottle. Vivienne walked over and snatched it away, taking a drink herself.

“Shannon’s nothing b-but a liar.”

“What happened?”

“Her ex-husband got killed by some asshole, and we go to the police. Then, we run into the asshole, and he makes some snarky remark. I ask her. I said, ‘Tell me,’ and do you know what she says?” Jonah’s anger boiled. Vivienne said nothing, but waited for him to continue with widened eyes. “The baby may not be mine.”

Vivienne gasped and drank more gin, coughing as she swallowed. “Hold it. Back up. Who got killed?”

“Her shitty ex-husband. The one who attacked her. He got in a fight with one of his friends, and the guy shot him. The police say it was self-defense so he was out of jail, and we ran into him at the police station. He heard us talking about the baby, and he looked at Shannon funny.”

Jonah shook his index finger in his sister’s face and continued.

“I knew something wasn’t right. The guy said something about Shannon’s being pregnant and I said what business is that of yours…Or I said…none of your business. He said, ‘you sure?’ He sounded all questionable. So, I asked Shannon what he meant by that, and she just explodes with this story about sleeping with him, but not remembering she slept with him.”

“That’s not possible. She loves you. I know she does. That’s…It’s not possible.”

“Well, it is. She told me. When she went back to where she used to live for her friend’s funeral, she slept with some guy.”

“How did that happen?”

“I don’t know. She just did it. She said something about being high and not meaning to do it. She said she didn’t mean to get high, but…I can’t remember. She slept with someone else and let me think this baby was mine. I’m planning and getting attached…to her…the baby. She was lying to me.” He words slurred together into verbal slush.

“It doesn’t mean the baby’s not yours, Jonah.”

“That’s not the point. She’s a cheater and a liar!”

“That’s so awful. That’s unbelievably awful. I can’t believe she would do that to you. She said she was high?”

“Some girl had some drugs. She said it was an accident.”

“How do you get high on accident? Is that what she said?”

Jonah closed his eyes, trying to remember Shannon’s exact words. “She said she didn’t know what was in her drink.”

“Well, that’s not the same thing, Jonah.”

“Do you know what else she said? She said that he looked like me—which he absolutely does not, by the way, total trash. But she thought it was me. Then, poof! She doesn’t remember. She doesn’t know. Bullshit! That’s gonna make me feel better? That I was in her head while she fucked somebody else?”

“I think she meant that she was out of her mind. She’s drinking and then takes something, but didn’t know it. It all sounds like the worst possible mistake.”

“Damn right, it’s a mistake. ‘Cuz I’m done…done with her. Made an appointment at a clinic to get a patern-it-y test done.” Jonah struggled to enunciate. “You can’t tell Dad! Don’t say anything to anybody. Bad enough I have to end things.”

Vivienne put her arm around her brother.

“I love her. I do.”

“I know. You know, this doesn’t have to be the end. People make mistakes, Jonah.”

“What? I can’t take her back. I’d look like a…cock…What’s that word?”

“Cuckold.”

“Exactly.”

“Except that no one has to know. I won’t say anything, and chances are the baby is yours. You had way more opportunities to get her pregnant than that guy who, by the way, took advantage of a drugged woman. That doesn’t sound consensual to me.”

“She said she kissed him. She ‘felt’ him, she said. And she thought it was me. How is she all over him and it’s not consensual? Plus, she kept saying she made a mistake. I think she’s just trying to cover for screwing up.”

“You don’t know that she was all over him. And if she was high, and—”

“I didn’t come over here to hear her defense attorney.”

“I’m not defending her.” Vivienne dropped her arm on the back of the sofa. “Or maybe I am. You don’t know the situations women find themselves in.”

“That’s not what she said. She kept apologizing. She said he felt like me.”

Jonah fell back, eyes closed, room spinning.

“I’ll get you some water. You need to hydrate and pull it together, sweetie.”

The sofa cushion shifted when Vivienne rose, and then, the clink of a glass and swish of running water sounded in what seemed like the distance. His sister’s rustling in the kitchen faded further and further away until he felt alone in his thoughts.

S
pending
the night in a storm of tears left Shannon exhausted and depressed. She called Kim, but then didn’t know what to say. Her hands shook.

“Well, something’s the matter.”

“It’s Jonah. He and I had the worst fight. I can’t even get into it, but I think it’s over. He’s done with me. I’m staying the night in his guest house over the garage.” Straining to talk through her tightened throat pained her.

“I’m coming over.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

Kim either didn’t hear her or ignored her because she hung up. A few minutes later, Kim called her back. “I was half way to your old place before I realized that’s not where you live. What’s his address?”

“I don’t know if you should come over. It’s his house.”

“Until you go elsewhere, it’s yours too. I’ll Google search and find it unless you tell me.”

Shannon gave Kim the address and, twenty minutes later, heard a knock on the door.

“You didn’t have to come over. I only needed to talk. We can do that over the phone.”

“I can’t hug you over the phone.” Kim threw her arms around Shannon and pushed her way into the garage apartment.

“Jesus, his empty guest place is bigger than the apartment I grew up in.” She held up a paper sack. “Normally, I would have brought tequila, but since you don’t drink, I stopped and got two pints of Ben and Jerry’s. One is chocolate brownie and the other is cookie dough. What’s your pleasure?”

Shannon reached for the cookie dough and sat on the couch. “Thanks.”

Kim walked around and flopped down beside Shannon. “What happened?”

“It’s...I can’t...” A veil of tears fell on the world in front of her, and her breath came in fits.

Kim held her, trailing fingers through her hair. After a few minutes, Shannon got control of her breathing and sat back.

“I got snot on your sweater.” She jumped up get tissue from the bathroom, hurrying back in to wipe Kim’s top.

“Don’t worry, honey. I got it. Can you tell me what happened?”

“My ex. Kid. He’s dead. He got shot by this guy. A friend of his. A guy I met when I went back for my friend’s sister’s funeral.”

“Oh, sweetie. I’m sorry. Is that what has you upset?”

“No. Yes, but no. I mean. He’s dead. That’s…I don’t know. Sad for someone. That’s not really it. The guy who shot him. I…He slept with me back in October. I didn’t know. I don’t even remember. It’s so stupid. Not to remember.”

Her pulse kicked up, pulling her chest tight. She felt strangled by what she had to say.

“Calm down. Okay? It’s okay. You don’t have to get into if you don’t want to. I guess Jonah found out, and he threw you out here.”

“Yes. He called me a scheming bitch. He thinks I’m trying to trap him with someone else’s baby.”

Shannon couldn’t control the tears. Her nose ran, and Kim went to the bathroom, returning to the sofa with a roll of toilet paper.

“I didn’t see any Kleenex.”

Shannon sniffled, barely able to see.

“He was so angry. And mean. I tried to tell him what happened. He didn’t want to listen. I asked him and…”

The snarl on Jonah’s face when he called her names anchored itself in her mind. A man doesn’t come back from that. When he looks at you like that, there’s no forgiveness.

“Tell me what happened.”

Shannon explained about Amber and Cori and what Lindsay told her the next day.

“He knew you were drugged. He never should have taken advantage of you. That’s not right, Shannon. It’s not right.”

Kim embraced her friend, squeezing tighter with each of Shannon’s sobs until she pulled away.

“It’s not, but it’s done. Then, I found out I was pregnant. I panicked. I couldn’t tell him. I just couldn’t.”

“What were you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I know the longer I said nothing, the worse it would be. I knew I couldn’t wait until the baby was born and Jonah was attached, and then do a paternity test behind his back. I was a fool.”

“You were scared, and you’re dealing with being violated like that. I mean what kind of guy does that—a killer I guess. He shot your ex-husband. At least, he’ll go to jail for that.”

“No, he won’t. The police say it was self-defense. Kid attacked him. He’s not going to jail.”

“Too bad. That’s where he deserves to be.”

Kim took Shannon’s hands in hers. “Do you still have your drug counselor or someone else you can talk to?”

“There’s my family therapist for me and Jeff and Olivia.”

“Make an appointment. Go talk to him or her or whatever.”

“Her. What’s she going to say to me? I already know it’s terrible. I don’t need to talk about it. I need get over it.”

“You need to wait until Jonah calms down and tell him the truth about what happened.”

“No. He’ll only think I’m making excuses.”

“You can’t act like this didn’t happen.”

Shannon’s voice cracked. “Sure I can. I’ve done it before. I’ve got lots of practice moving on like shit never happened.”

“That’s the problem, Shannon. That shit has to go somewhere or it builds up and explodes all over your life.”

She closed her eyes, not able to look at Kim as she spoke. “I don’t know what else to do.”

“Talk to someone, please. Call a rape hotline. Go to the police even.”

“And say what? That all these people tell me I slept with this guy? That’s how I ended up telling Jonah. We saw Aaron at the police station, and he heard us talking. He made a snide remark, and then Jonah…I just had to tell him. God, if Aaron is the father?”

Shannon’s throat locked up, and this time, no tears fell.

“Don’t think about that right now. Just breathe. Breathe. Then promise me you’ll talk to a counselor or someone professional. Promise me.”