My Only - Alex & Jamie (22 page)

“Wow, you made good time!” he heard Hazel’s cheery voice coming from the kitchen.

Joey had already lost interest in his arrival and was back glued to the TV screen watching cartoons. Alex stepped over some toys and rounded the corner to have a talk with Hazel.

“Yeah, funny thing about that. When someone calls with an emergency I usually show up pretty fast.” He kept his tone light and teasing. He had been taught to respect his elders, but she had scared the shit out of him.

“Oh, sorry, hot stuff. I didn’t mean for it to sound like that. Joey was due for his treatment and I just couldn’t get the dang thing started.” She smiled as she spread shredded cheese on what looked to be an unbaked lasagna.

“Alright well, where is it? I’ll take a look,” he said, realizing he shouldn’t take out his overreaction on Hazel.

“Oh, no need,” she waved her hand dismissively, as she cheerfully replied, “right after I called you, I looked down and saw that it wasn’t even plugged in. He just finished his treatment before you pulled up.”

Alex was about to ask why she hadn’t called him back with that fairly important update but stopped himself. He really didn’t want to be disrespectful.

Hazel opened the oven and leaned over, slowly putting the lasagna inside. As she stood, she placed her hand on her lower back and winced “But since you’re here, would you mind staying with him. My back’s been killing me all day. You know seventy-two and still waitressing, on my feet all day. I could really use a night to just kick my feet up and relax.”

He looked at her, trying to see if she had just manipulated this whole situation. But then realized that he really didn’t care if she had, because that would mean she was rooting for him and Jamie to be together. She was Team Alex.

He smiled as he said, “I don’t mind staying with him, just let me text Jamie and make sure she’s okay with it.”

Before the entire sentence had even left his mouth, Hazel had her purse and was half-way to the door, “Alright you do that, and if she does have an issue, I’m just a hop, skip and a jump away. Take the lasagna out when the buzzer goes off.”

When the door slammed shut, Alex was fairly certain he had been tricked. But, he smiled to himself as he thought, Hazel would fit in perfectly with the rest of my meddling family.

After paging Jamie to relay the recent events he crossed the small living room and sat next to Joey. They sat silently watching old episodes of G.I. Joe.

“Can I have another Go-Gurt?” Joey asked, turning to Alex staring up at him with huge brown puppy dog eyes.

Man, Alex thought, how in the hell does Jamie say no to this kid?

“How many have you had today?” Alex asked him.

“Two,” Joey said, looking cautiously hopeful.

“Are you supposed to have more than two a day?”

Joey’s shoulders slumped in defeat, “No.”

Alex couldn’t help but smile, “Hey, you want to go get your Transformers?”

Joey’s face lit up, “Yeah!” And he shot off the couch to collect them.

Alex looked down at his phone. He still hadn’t heard back from Jamie. Maybe she was busy at work.

“Got ‘em!” Joey announced as he dumped a bucket filled with Transformers out on the carpet.

As they sorted through the pile, picking their men for battle, Joey quietly asked, “What happened to your arm?”

It took a second for Alex to realize what he was talking about. He kept forgetting he still had a cast.

“I got hurt at my job. I’m a firefighter.” Alex explained.

Joey’s eyes grew wide with awe. Alex was used to the reaction kids sometimes had when they found out he was a fireman. In their minds, he was a real-life hero. Usually he thought it was sweet but he never took it that seriously. But the way Joey was looking at him now, it made Alex feel like he actually wanted to live up to that look. To be the man that a kid could look up to.

“Did you get burned at your job?” Joey asked.

“Yep, I did. On my back. And a big wooden beam fell on my head.”

Alex didn’t think it was physically possible but Joey’s eyes grew even wider, “Did it hurt?”

Alex nodded, “It did.”

“Did you have to go to the hospital?”

Alex smiled, “I did. But, luckily, I had the best nurse in the whole world.”

“My mom’s a nurse,” Joey said excitedly.

“I know.” Alex said, “Your mom was
my
nurse. And she is such a good nurse that the doctors let me go home early because she took such good care of me.”

Joey sat up a little straighter, his shoulders back and his chin high, “Yeah, she’s good at that. She takes really good care of me when I’m sick.”

“I bet she does,” Alex agreed, “You have the best mom.”

“Yeah,” he said proudly.

Alex reached down to position his next man for battle. As he looked back up, he noticed Joey's shoulders slumped and there was a sadness in his eyes as he stared at the toy he was holding.

“Hey, little man, what’s wrong?” Alex asked, not sure what could have upset Joey.

“Nothing,” he said, still not looking up.

“You know, sometimes if something is bothering me, I talk to my brothers about it.” Alex hoped that little redirection would work.

Joey looked up, “You have brothers?”

“Four of them.” Alex held up four fingers.

“Wow,” Joey said, once again in awe.

“Do you remember at the festival when you dunked that guy in the dunk tank?” Alex asked.

“Yeah,” Joey laughed.

“Well, that's my brother Riley.” Alex thought that might get him some points, and maybe Joey would feel comfortable enough to tell him what was wrong.

Instead, Joey just looked at Alex skeptically. “No, that’s Chelle’s husband.”

Alex tried not to laugh. Once kids put you in a box, that box was where you stayed. “He’s Chelle’s husband now. But he was my brother first.”

Alex pulled out his phone and showed Joey a pic he had on it of all of his brothers right before Seth, his oldest brother, had left to go into the military.

Apparently photographic evidence was all Alex needed to convince him because Joey exclaimed, “That’s so cool that you have brothers!”

And with that, Joey picked up his men and they started their mega battle. Alex figured whatever had been bothering him wasn’t an issue anymore, because Joey seemed to be fine.

They hadn’t been playing that long when the buzzer went off and Alex went to go pull the delicious-smelling lasagna out of the oven. He walked back into the front room and Joey was already picking up his toys. He obviously knew the routine, so Alex sat back down to help him.

“I don’t have any brothers,” Joey said, his voice growing quiet again.

“Well, since you don’t have brothers, if you ever want to talk about anything, you could talk to me,” Alex said, hoping the kid would open up.

“I…” Joey started but then looked back down at his hands.

Alex just waited, patiently. It seemed Joey and Jamie had that effect on him.

“I just…I don’t know who takes care of my mom.”

“What do you mean?” Alex asked, thinking he kind of knew what Joey was talking about but…not really.

“Before we moved here my mom got really sick and she couldn’t get out of bed for three sleeps.” Joey held up his hand with three little fingers. “And I tried to take care of her, but I didn’t know what to do.” Joey’s lip started quivering and Alex felt a pang in his chest for the second time this evening.

Alex pulled Joey into a hug, “Oh, little man, don’t worry. Your mom is the toughest girl I know. And if she ever does need help she has Aunt Hazel, and Chelle, and all the people at the hospital.”

He pulled back and Joey looked a little better. He was nodding his head.

“And she has me. If you or your mom ever need anything, I’ll be here. I promise.” Alex would move in tonight if Jamie would let him. But somehow he didn’t think she would be on board with
that
plan.

--- ~ ---

All day long, Jamie had been off her game. She had always been a great waitress. Not an okay waitress. Not a good waitress. A
great
waitress. Normally when people left her tips, she felt as though she had earned them.

But today, when her tables had left her tips, she knew it was only because they felt sorry for her or they were just being really, really nice people. Honestly, she’d felt like she should be the one tipping her customers as an apology for the misfortune of being seated in her section. No one had complained to Jack, the owner of The Grill, thank God. But it’s not like she wouldn’t have deserved it if that had happened.

As she drove home, she was glad that today she had only had to work at The Grill. At least there she could only mess up people’s food and drink orders. If she had been at the hospital today, who knows what damage she could have done?

She could easily blame her flightiness today on the fact that she had been up taking care of Joey, who had been sick all night and had not gotten more than an hour of sleep. But, she knew that wasn’t what was to blame. In fact, even if Joey had slept his normal eight hours, healthy as a horse, she probably wouldn’t have slept much more than an hour anyway.

She sighed; she could not stop thinking about the kiss heard round the world. Okay, maybe it wasn’t heard round the world, but it was definitely the kiss that rocked
her
world. She was trying to figure out if her response to it had been so
severe
because it had been so long since she had been lip to lip with someone. Six years is a long time to be, not just celibate, but kiss-free as well.

Somehow, though, that logic was just not ringing true to her. It may have been a while, and sure she may have been through a lot in that time - but she remembered what it felt like to kiss someone. She might have limited sexual experience (i.e. only Jeremy) but her lips had been around.

She had always liked kissing, and she had played her fair share of tonsil hockey in middle and high school. It had been a game with her and her friends to try to find the
best
kisser in their school. They had a legit secret ballot system and everything. At the time she had taken their quest very seriously, but looking back, she realized it had just been a way for her and her friends to justify basically being ‘kissing sluts.’

But never in all of her searching - or even with Jeremy, her one and only boyfriend - had she
ever
felt the way she had when Alex’s lips touched hers. He took the kissing experience to a whole new stratosphere. No denying it, that scared the living daylights out of her.

Jamie was terrified for two reasons. One, if he kissed like that, then what would it be like if they ever did go all the way and have sex? Jamie had felt completely out of her mind, crazy in lust from just his kiss. Thinking about what it would feel like to be with him was equal parts exciting and frightening. Jamie liked control. Control was how she kept everything in order. Order was how her life didn’t fall apart. You start pulling at that thread who
knew
what would unravel?

And the second and most compelling reason that she was terrified was that she had not been able to stop her mind from replaying that single kiss on a constant loop all day long. Her work had suffered because of it. When she had originally come up with The Plan and included 'no distractions' as one of the three tenets, she hadn’t had the first clue how much of a distraction just one kiss could be.

As she turned to pull into her driveway she saw that Alex’s truck was parked in it. She looked around and didn’t see Hazel’s Buick anywhere. Oh, no! What if something has happened to Hazel?

Jamie rushed inside the house and found Joey sitting on the floor with Alex, who was saying, “And she has me. If you or your mom ever need anything, I’ll be here. I promise.”

Scenes from her childhood started flashing in her head. When she was six, and Gary had told her he would always be there for her and her mom. When she was eight and Kevin had said if she ever needed anything to call him. When she was thirteen and Lance had promised that he would never let anyone hurt them. More and more memories of similar
versions of the same scene were flooding her mind.

This was her nightmare. This was exactly the scenario she had promised herself she would not let happen to Joey. Sure it was Alex today. But what about when he was ten, when he was twelve? She was so mad at herself for allowing this to occur.

Joey looked up and must have seen the panicked look in her eye because when he stood up and his little chest puffed out in the way it always did when he thought he needed to protect her. “Mommy, what’s wrong?”

Good job Jamie, she said to herself, you are so panicked about not traumatizing Joey and here you are traumatizing him because you're so freaked out.

Jamie took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. “Nothing, little man, I was just wondering where Aunt Hazel is.”

Alex stood then, “Hazel said that her back was bothering her and asked if I could stay.”

“Why didn’t she call me?” Jamie asked, smiling but speaking through clenched teeth.