My Only - Alex & Jamie (29 page)

“Break's over,” she said wishing she could just stay on the patio all night with Alex.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, sensing her shift in mood.

“Nothing.” She shook her head.

He didn’t look convinced.

“I just missed you today,” she answered him honestly, as she gave him one more hug goodbye.

“I’m not leaving. I texted Jason and Bobby and they’re coming down to have dinner.”

“Oh.” She smiled from ear to ear, not even trying to hide how excited that news made her.

He grinned down at her seeming happy with her response, “I tried to sit in your section earlier, but it was full.”

“I know, it’s so weird,” she said as they made their way inside the restaurant, “It’s like I’m slammed one minute, getting seated all at once, or completely dead. If I was the paranoid type I would think the hostess hates me.”

“That might not be paranoia,” he said as he followed behind her.

She spun around, stopping before they turned the corner that led to the dining room, “You didn’t.”

He just shrugged, not looking very proud of himself.

“Talia?” she asked, still not quite believing it and wanting to make sure that they were talking about the same person.

He just stared at her.

“Wow,” she shook her head. “She just seems…so…mean.”

“Yeah, I kind of figured that out tonight.”

“How long have you known her?” Jamie asked, puzzled. She had thought that they both grew up here.

“Since fifth grade,” he confessed sheepishly.

Jamie started laughing, she couldn’t help it.

He smiled, looking relieved that she thought it was funny.

She shook her head as her laughter died, “What am I gonna do with you?”

“I told you.” He pulled her into his arms. “Anything you want. I’m yours.”

“You’re mine and
only
mine,” she teasingly clarified.

“Only yours.” He dipped down and gave her a brief kiss before spinning her around towards the dining room and playfully swatting her on her rear.

She looked over shoulder her eyes wide. “Hey, what was that for?”

“That was for all the pillow throwing,” he smiled.

“Oh,” she said sassily, “Well in that case, maybe I should throw more pillows.”

He groaned and she noticed was his jeans were growing tight once again.

She turned into the kitchen to clock back in, smiling with the knowledge that with Alex, things would never be boring.

“Seriously bro, look at yourself. It’s hilarious.” Jason said as he held up the pic that someone in the restaurant had taken when he was surrounded by KiKi, Brenda and Tiffany and had posted it on Facebook.

Alex looked at it and Jamie was right, he looked scared.

“So you and Jamie, huh?” Jason asked as he flipped to the next picture in which Jamie and Alex were kissing.

Alex nodded, “Me and Jamie.”

Bobby set down his beer, “So where does her kid fit in to all of this?”

Bobby’s tone took Alex by surprise. He and Bobby had always been close. Out of his four brothers, he considered himself closest to Bobby. Seth and Riley weren’t around much even before they had left for the military. He and Jason had always gotten along but there had been some contention when he would try and act like Alex’s dad when he was only two years older than Alex.

But he and Bobby had been inseparable. They hung around the same group of friends and had even shared the same room until Alex had left to go to basic training. In all those years, he had never heard Bobby speak to him like that.

“What do you mean ‘where does he fit in’?” Alex said trying not to get pissed at this line of questioning, but doing a bad job at it.

“I mean, she’s a mom, Alex,” Bobby stated, his tone slightly condescending as he raised his eyebrows. Apparently, he thought he was shedding some sort of light on the subject.

“I know she is. She’s an amazing mom. That’s one of the things I love most about her.” He heard his voice rising with each declaration.

“Hey guys, sorry to interrupt,” Jamie said, setting down a platter in the middle of the table, her cheeks a bright shade of pink, “Just needed to drop off these wings. Do you guys want another pitcher?” she asked motioning to the almost empty pitcher at the edge of the table.

“We’re good, thanks,” Both Jason and Bobby answered at the same time.

Alex shook his head. Way to make things more awkward, guys.

“Okay!” She chirped, overly bright. She quickly turned to leave and Alex reached out and grabbed her hand.

She looked at him and the tension he had just felt building up was gone. One look in her eyes and it just vanished. They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment before her mouth started turning up into a smile and she pulled her hand out of his and walked away.

“Wow.” Jason stared at him, mouth agape, “All I can say is woooow.”

“What?” Alex asked defensively.

“You guys don’t even have to talk; you just silently communicate through sexy stares. I gotta try that with Katie.”

“Katie would need to talk,” Alex said as he grabbed a few wings and set them on his plate.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Speaking of Kit-Kat, she met with Jamie today,” Jason mentioned casually.

“I know,” Alex said.

“Although she didn’t tell me what they said, for obvious reasons, she did pass along a message for me to give to you,” Jason said, grabbing a few wings of his own.

Alex sat and waited for him to continue. When had his brothers become like girls with their dramatic pauses and veiled questions? What the hell?

After Jason ate a couple of wings, he set the bones down and leaned in, “Katie wanted me to tell you that if you hurt Jamie, she will kill you.”

“Did that sound threatening?” Jason jokingly asked before turning to Bobby, “I was going for Goodfellas.”

Bobby smiled as he rolled his eyes.

Alex had no intention of ever hurting Jamie, so Katie had nothing to worry about. He sure didn't feel like he needed to defend himself to his jackass of a brother.

He looked over and saw Jamie as she moved from table to table, refilling waters, making sure that everyone had what they needed to enjoy their meal. Alex still couldn’t get over how beautiful she was. He wasn’t sure if he ever would.

“Hey Alex, you still with us?” Jason loudly asked.

Alex turned back to his brothers who were both staring at him as if they were expecting him to say something.

“Any reason you guys are just sitting there staring at me?”

“Any reason you paged us to come down here when all you want to do is watch Jamie?” Jason asked.

“I needed backup,” Alex explained.

“Obviously.” Jason picked up his phone.

“So you’re really serious about her?” Bobby asked, his eyes searching Alex’s with his own as if they were optical lie detectors.

“Yes. I’m serious.” He wanted to tell them he was ready to walk down the aisle with her tomorrow. Hell, if there were a pastor or a priest here tonight he would marry her right now. But since they seemed to be having trouble even accepting the fact that Alex was ‘serious’ about Jamie, he really didn’t think they were ready to hear that.

“Well, I knew it would happen one day,” Jason said, glancing over at Jamie, “I just didn’t think that something would
literally
have to knock you upside the head before you figured it out.”

“Why did you guys let me act like such a douchebag for so long?” Alex asked, honestly wanting to know why his brothers hadn’t called him out on all of his hook ups.

“You were never a douchebag Alex. David is a douchebag.” Bobby said, referring to David Price, Chelle’s ex. That d-bag had dumped her for his pregnant eighteen year old secretary, a mere month before they were supposed to get married.

Thank God he had, though, because that had made Chelle head out of town, which led to Riley going to check on her. If David hadn’t left, Chelle might be married to a lying, cheating douchebag. Now she was happily married to his brother and they were making him an uncle for the first time. Alex could not be happier for them.

“Really Alex, you weren’t. We would have told you if you were.” Jason tilted his head as if he was considering something, “Well, we probably would have kicked your ass first, but then we would have told you.”

“No one was getting hurt,” Bobby explained, “As far as I know you never lied to anyone. You were having fun. The girls were having fun.” Bobby shrugged and then repeated, “You were never a douchebag.”

Alex knew his brothers wouldn’t lie to him, so he dropped it. Although he still wasn’t too happy about some of the things he had done, what was the point of beating himself up over it? It was behind him. He looked up and saw Jamie greeting a table that had just sat down. Why would he think about the past when his future looked so good?

Jamie sat, eyeing a length of string as she held it out in front of her, trying to decide where to cut it. She looked up at Chelle, who was turning in a slow circle so that everyone could try to make a visual guess at her belly’s circumference. This was the first baby shower Jamie had ever been to and she was having a blast.

Joey was in playing video games with Chelle’s niece, Emily who looked like she was going to be a heartbreaker when she grew up. Joey hadn’t been thrilled about coming to the shower today, but as soon as they had walked in the door, Emily had asked him if he liked Skylanders. The rest was history. They had been sitting in front of the big screen, controllers in hand, ever since.

The party was being held at Jason and Katie’s house. Jamie had heard there was a lot of debate over whether or not to throw a co-ed party, since those had become trendy, but the final consensus had been to keep it Girls Only. Even though she had to admit she would have really liked to see Alex, she was having so much fun with the ladies here. She had gotten to meet Katie’s mom and Aunt Wendy. They were both lovely, and Wendy definitely seemed like a firecracker.

Amber, her neighbor and the owner of Bella - a boutique clothing store that Jamie was dying to go check out - was seated beside her. She had already won the first game they had played. In that game, Katie had brought out a tray filled with baby items, which she displayed Vanna White style for sixty seconds before taking it away. Everyone then had sixty seconds to jot down all of the items they could remember.

Amber had guarded her page like it had nuclear codes written on it. At first, Jamie thought it was a little extreme, but just as she was about to tease Amber about it she saw one of the nurses from labor and delivery trying to sneak a peek. Jamie couldn’t believe it. These were baby shower games, not the SATs!

Amber ended up recalling twenty-six of the twenty-seven items. She missed a baby thermometer. However, Amber immediately refuted the score because she said that there was
not
a thermometer on the tray. Katie gladly retrieved the tray as evidence and, lo and behold, the thermometer had been covered up by the tiny pink washcloth.

Jamie had leaned over to Amber and asked her if she had a photographic memory. Amber just shrugged and said, “I think so,” as if it was no big deal to have a photographic memory. Jamie just shook her head.

After all of the strings had been measured, Vickey turned out to be the winner. She turned and smugly stated that her win meant she retained her crown as Queen of all Things. Everyone laughed.

After the games were over Jamie went into check on Joey again. He was still lost in the fantasy world playing out on the screen before him. She stood watching him sitting next to his new friend and just couldn’t get over how fast time flew.

He wasn’t a baby anymore. In two weeks he would be six. That reminded her - she really needed to do some party planning. Wow, she thought, nothing like waiting until the last minute.

When she returned to the shower, she noticed that everyone seemed to have broken off into little groups, naturally gravitating towards their friends, family, or co-workers. Jamie was headed to go and sit with her Aunt Hazel, who looked to be having a heated debate with Wendy about the best at-home hair dying products. Before she had made it two steps, Chelle called her over to sit with her, Katie, Sophie, Amber and Alex’s cousins Haley, Becca, Krista and Jessie.

Amber scooted over to make room for her. As soon as she sat down, all eyes turned her way.

“What?” Jamie asked, her eyes widening.

“I heard a phone beeping and I pulled this from behind the couch pillow.” Amber held up Jamie’s phone.

“Oh,” Jamie re
ached for the phone, not really sure why that was a big deal, “It must have fallen out of my purse.”

“Well,” Amber paused as if she was unsure whether to tell her, “you got a text.”

Jamie felt her stomach rolling; she was almost scared to look down.

Katie must have sensed her hesitation and being the only one who knew anything about her situation jumped in to put her mind at ease, “Oh, no, honey, it’s not bad! It’s from Alex. He, um, wants to see you later.”