Piecing Together Sydney (A Sydney West Novel Book 3) (10 page)

“Order for Amelia,” a guy said, putting out our tray of food. I grabbed it, and we walked to the back where there was a free and clean table.

I sat down and grabbed my food and pushed the rest to Amelia. She unwrapped her burger and just looked at it.

“It’s not going to eat itself,” I said, taking another bite of my own burger.

She stuck her tongue out and rewrapped her burger. “Have you ever noticed how much grease there is when you squeeze it? Ugh, it’s making me sick to my stomach.”

I looked at my burger and shrugged. “I like it.” I shoved a fry into my mouth and smiled at her.

“Yuck, Syd.” She sighed, pushing the burger away from her. “I’m not hungry after all. The smell in here is starting to make my headache worse.”

“Don’t worry. I think that’s the first trimester. Once you hit your second you’ll be eating like crazy.”

She dipped a fry into her shake and took a bite. “Yeah, I’m afraid of that. I’m going to get super big.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s natural. Crazy coming from me, I know, but back to how to tell Hunter.” I chewed on a fry and thought of how one could reveal a pregnancy. Never thought that would happen just a year after my wild party days in Malibu.

She nodded and tore a fry in half, dipping one piece into the shake and eating it. The other half she smashed between her fingers and put back on the tray.

“Maybe it should be simple, just having a nice dinner somewhere and showing him the ultrasound picture?” I finished the fry and took another bite from my burger.

She sighed. “How do I tell everyone else? People do that ‘Prego’ thing with the sauce. Then there’s the time passing photos of her getting bigger in seconds, and then there’s the photos with blocks and—”

“Shit, Amelia. How much time do you spend on Pinagram? Plus, why are you looking at those kinds of pics?”

She took a sip of her shake and grabbed a napkin, patting her lips. “It’s on my feed. We have a lot of friends who have kids.”

Fear washed through me. Just about everyone from high school was married and/or had kids, and now we were joining them.

“Yeah, I know. Insane to think about.”

Amelia looked down at her food and wiped her eye. “This sucks.”

“You’re going to be—”

“You don’t need to keep saying that, Syd. I’m just hoping I don’t throw up what little I ate.” She picked up a fry and broke it in half.

“Yeah, that wouldn’t be good.” I didn’t want that in my bathroom. No wonder she was always in there. Pregnant women always had to pee and sometimes barf.

“Maybe I’ll make him a playlist or collage. What do you think?”

I sat back and pictured her playing all these random songs about babies, I’m guessing and making Hunter so confused. Poor guy. “I don’t know about the playlist, but pictures could help.”

“Yeah, but it should be something good, yet simple. I don’t want more planning. I have your wedding and—”

I finished the last bite of my burger and said, “I don’t want you to stress on my behalf. I can take over my own wedding and—”

She pounded her fist on the table, drawing the attention of a man walking by. “No. That is mine. You can’t take it.”

I held up my hands. “Sorry. You can have it…but what are we doing for my bachelorette party now that…you know…”

She hiccupped and took a sip of her drink. “We’ll still party. I’ll be the designated driver. My other job will be to make sure you don’t do anything stupid.” She gave me a wicked smile.

“Pfft.” I clenched my chest as if stabbed in the heart. “I do something stupid? Unheard of.”

“Mmm-hmm. I have plans, don’t worry, and my new condition doesn’t change much for it. I am a bit worried about my dress though. I ordered it a few weeks ago, and what if it doesn’t fit?”

“Get it tailored really fast?” I bit a fry with too much salt and gagged. “Blah.” I took a swig of my soda and looked out the window to the Chinese place across the way. “I know a way to tell Hunter.”

She tilted her head. “It came to you as you choked?”

I narrowed my eyes. “I wasn’t choking, just dying from salt overdose, but thanks for caring.”

“Sorry, go on.” She motioned for me to continue with a wave of her hand.

“Take him out for Chinese and make a special fortune cookie that says something like ‘in nine months you’ll receive a bundle of joy’ or something.”

Her smile was huge, making her hazel eyes sparkle. “I love it. Simple, yet creative.”

We finished eating and headed home. The house was blasting Mötley Crüe, and I knew the boys were back from surfing.

I nudged Amelia as we stood on the porch. “Don’t worry, take a deep breath and later tonight Hunter will be overjoyed. For now we need to print that piece of paper for the fortune and get the people to put it in the cookie.”

“I thought they were premade cookies, so don’t we just—”

My hand was on the doorknob. “Most are, but that place across from Burger Queen makes their own. They’re the best.” I opened the door and smiled as Jason greeted me with a bronzed chest.

“Hey baby, what’s up?” I asked, resisting the urge to bite his neck when he hugged me.

“Nothing much. A bunch of wannabes took over the beach so we took off and waxed our boards. Took the liberty of waxing yours too.” He grabbed my ass and kissed my lips. “How were the table-decorating supplies? We good?”

“Yup, all good.” I hated lying to him. The decorating was done by Amelia a while ago when we did the food, but he didn’t need to know that for now. I was going to tell Jason once Amelia took Hunter away later. Until then, my lips were sealed.

“Thanks for taking care of my board.” I walked over to where it hung on the wall. She shined in the sunlight. I loved the swirl of blue and purple on my board. It was basic yet pretty. “She looks amazing.”

“No problem.” He put his arm around my shoulders. “Need to take care of my woman.”

“Hmm.” I shrugged him off. I didn’t like possessive terms used on me. “Want to watch a movie, my man?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “Sure.”

The four of us sat around the TV in the living room watching
The Breakfast Club
and then we watched
Zombieland
. Amelia got up to go to the bathroom at least twenty times and not all to pee. Once I was called and had to hold her hair back as she puked up what little she had of lunch. That was fun.

When it was around six, she took Hunter out for dinner and I convinced Jason to stay home with me and order a pizza.

“Why aren’t we going with our friends again?” he asked, watching them back out of the driveway in Hunter’s truck.

“Because they need to talk…alone.” I flipped through the channels, looking for something good to watch.

He plopped himself next to me on the couch. “Oh. About what?”

“Baby stuff,” I said, side-eyeing him.

His face turned white as a ghost. “Amelia’s pregnant?”

“Yup. That’s where we were. I’m sorry for lying, but she had to confirm before telling him, and I had to keep my promise to her.” I sunk into the sofa, hoping Jason wouldn’t freak out too much about not telling him.

He scratched his chin. There were a few short hairs there he missed shaving. I wanted to kiss his chin and his lips. I wanted to forget what happened at the doctor with my best friend and just be with the man I loved and be happy.

“Geez. That’s going to be fun. Do you think they’re going to get hitched this summer while we’re here?”

I stopped breathing for a second in panic. “No, I never thought of that.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I don’t think so, because Amelia would not give me control of our wedding, so I doubt she’d plan two right now.”

He nodded. “So…what happened with our table stuff? Do we have that stuff? Do we still have food ordered?”

I laughed, smacking his arm. Only he would care more about the food than my little white lie. “Of course. We did the table decorating with the food order a few weeks ago because we needed the food on the invites so people could RSVP with their food choices.”

“Oh, right. I need to pay more attention.”

I grabbed a fistful of his brown hair, still silky despite being in the ocean all day. “Just pay attention to my needs, baby.” I pulled his hair, moving his head to an angle where I could kiss and bite the column of his neck.

A moan escaped him. “We have time, don’t we? Before the pizza?”

“Yes,” I breathed.

He picked me up and walked toward the stairs. “I’m going to make you come so hard you’ll forget how to surf.”

I laughed, running a finger along his jawline and turning his head to the left. “I doubt that. Don’t you see my trophy over there?” My surfing trophy from a few years ago sat proudly on top of the bookshelf.

“Yes, but you didn’t have me then.”

I raked my nails down his back, making him meet my gaze. “I’m sorry to break it to you, baby, but I could still beat you after the best sex ever.”

He looked hurt and fake sniffed. “Damn, that’s not good if you could surf after that kind of amazing sex.”

“Hmm.” I laid my head back as he walked up the stairs and down the hall. “I guess I’d need a few hours before surfing. But you wouldn’t surf right after, either.”

“Deal. We’ll fuck each other until we’re dehydrated and seeing double.” He tossed me onto the bed and ditched his clothes.

“I like the sound of that, but wear a condom. Maybe double it? I don’t know, but I don’t want to be in the same boat as Amelia right now. My pill helps too, I guess.” I took my shirt off and tossed it to the floor.

“Don’t worry. I know how to drive you wild in more ways than one.” He pinned me to the bed and undid my jeans. His left hand ran up my hip after throwing my jeans onto the floor. That hand went up my abdomen all the way to my mouth. I bit the pad of his thumb. The fingers of his right hand went up my inner thigh until they rubbed against my sweet spot in-between my legs.
Talk about having a magic man in bed.

I pushed myself into the mattress and felt the rush go up my body, making me feel wild and perfect. Jason had a touch no man ever did. I’d never need the look or anything from another after him. He just knew how to make me come undone.

As Loretta Young once said.

Love isn't something you find. Love is something that finds you.

I sipped my iced coffee while browsing the newly released films on the stand next to the first set of glass doors in the media section of the bookstore. Amelia walked off to look at the pregnancy books so she didn’t have the temptation of coffee hanging over her. Though lately everything made her sick, so the smell probably would make her run to the bathroom more than want it.

Amelia wasn’t obsessed with coffee. It didn’t pump her heart and move her blood like it usually did for me. How would I take pregnancy without my black coffee and whiskey daily? I shook my head. That stuff wasn’t important right now. I wanted something new to read. My eyes burned from looking at too many bridal magazines. All I wanted was a good book to read while sunbathing on the beach.

It was sad to think I hadn’t been in a bookstore since I left my job in Tempe for the summer. Luckily, they didn’t care, because a lot of college kids leave around that time so it’s the slow season for them. The smell of books would forever be relaxing. I ran my fingers over the spines of the fiction books, walking toward the front where the new releases laid waiting for me. I vaguely remembered one of my favorite authors coming out with a new book in June but forgot its title.

As I moved past the stand for the latest fantasy book about dragons and something else, I bumped into a man wearing a brown shirt with the Aerosmith logo on it. His eyes were familiar, and that smile. He was Jason’s father, Daniel!

My heart choked me. I muttered sorry and stepped around him. In my head, I prayed he’d not know me and let me go on my way.

“Sydney?” His voice echoed in my head. Damn, he recognized me.

I turned around slowly, wishing my skin to be torched off rather than stand in a bookstore talking to Jason’s father. What would I say? Jason was going to flip if he learned of this. He’d swear up and down his father was stalking me, even though stores were open to the public.

“Hey…Daniel, right?” I sounded like a fool. My voice was too damn high, like a fifty-pound weight fell on my foot and I was trying to mask the pain I was in.

“Yeah…” He looked around me and frowned. “Is Jason here?”

“No. I’m here with my best friend, Amelia.” Who I wish was with me right now so we could make up a reason why we needed to leave.

He nodded. “He sure hates me, doesn’t he?”

I rubbed the back of my neck. The answer was clearly yes, but did he truly want me to answer, or was he just saying stuff to fill the air?

“He’s…mad…yeah…” I looked down at my black stilettos.

“Kylie has told me a lot about you. Said you go to college in Arizona, yet you’re amazing at surfing. Won a contest, I think she said.”

“Yeah. I did.” I licked my lips and dug my fingernails into the palms of my hands to keep from fidgeting. “I’ve surfed every summer since I learned how to as a kid. Some years, my parents and I would come here for other reasons than summer, and I’d surf then too.”

“I taught Jason to surf. Did he tell you that?” The hope in his eyes made me shift my gaze onto the bookshelf next to me.

“Jason never told me that. He only said he loved surfing and it helped clear his mind…from things…”

Daniel scratched his chin. “I see.”

As soon as I said, “I should look—”

He said, “How’s the wedding pl—”

We both stopped talking and gave each other an awkward smirk.

“You go,” I replied.

“The wedding planning, how’s it going?”

I looked past him, seeing Amelia. She was hugging two books to her chest and had turned her back to me to look at a new released book about a father and son. Hunter was so excited to be a father and Amelia was going to spoil him with soon-to-be dad stuff. I couldn’t think about that right now. My legs burned with the urge to rush over to her and drag her out of the store with me.

I cracked my knuckles and focused my attention back onto the older man in front of me. The guy was my future father-in-law, and I didn’t know a damn thing about him. Just that he was a shitty father and took off. Why didn’t Jason tell me his father taught him to surf? Maybe it was too painful. We never talked about how we learned, anyway. How strange. We needed to talk more, I guess. Would he tell me then? If I brought up the subject and told him how I learned to surf through new friends that were grandchildren of my grandma’s friend at the time?

“Good. We have just about everything done and planned out. Maybe some things here and there, but it’s going well.” The smile I forced on my face hurt a little.

He shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, looking a lot like Jason when he did. “I’m glad it’s smooth sailing so far. Wedding plans can be a real pain. Any ideas for a honeymoon yet?”

I moved a piece of hair that fell in front of my left eye. “Jason does, but he doesn’t want me to know yet. I’m trying not to think of that though.”

Ugh, he had to remind me that Jason was doing our honeymoon. We hadn’t talked about that in months, since Jason said it was all taken care of, and we were solely worrying about the wedding the first day of summer.

“Aw. You don’t like surprises, I’m guessing.”

I shook my head. “Not when I’m not in the loop. I can do surprises on others, just don’t like them on me.”

Where is Jason going to take me? Now this is going to bug me.

“Well, maybe you could—”

“I looked all over this place for you, Syd. I found Amelia, and she pointed me over here…” Jason stopped dead in his tracks, holding two iced coffees.

“What the hell are you doing here? Are you stalking Sydney?” Jason turned into a crazed beast within a heartbeat. It was scary, yet good to know I’d never have to worry about some asshat bothering me.

Jason pushed me behind him and stood almost chest to chest with his father. “Well, old man?”

Daniel sighed and looked almost lifeless, his color drained and his eyes sunken in. It seemed his hope died, and he finally realized Jason would never have a relationship with him again.

  “I’m sorry, Jason. I truly am. I didn’t come in here to bother your fiancé, honest. I came to get a book on…it doesn’t matter, but on my way over there, we bumped into each other, and I said hello to her. I’m not rude, and we started talking, and—”

Jason snorted and pointed an ice coffee at Daniel. I thought he’d rather point a certain finger, but we were in public and his hands were full. “You, rude? No, never.” He cackled, sending a chill down my spine. “But you’re a disappointment, a lousy husband, and a terrible dad. Do you know how many nights I wondered where you went? What I did wrong? How many times I had to wipe away Kylie’s tears?” Jason stopped and let out a deep breath.

For a moment, all was quiet. I couldn’t hear anything: not fellow booklovers chatting, children laughing, my heartbeat, nothing.

His father rubbed his chin again. “All I want is five minutes with you, Jason. Let me tell you my side of the story.”

Jason’s face turned red with anger. His mouth opened, but nothing came out. It appeared he was about to explode all over again.

Amelia came up behind me, touching my elbow. “We should get going.” She lifted up her bag. “I’m all checked out. You want anything here?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m good. Come on, Jason. Let’s go…” I grabbed his arm and pulled him away from Daniel.

Jason kept muttering under his breath as we left the bookstore and entered the mall. Amelia flashed me a sympathetic look and gave me a side hug.

“Here.” Jason handed me the iced coffee he’d been holding for a while. It melted some, but it was still good. My other drink was pretty much gone. I tossed the old cup and drank from the new one.

“Can you believe that man?” Jason shouted, making Amelia and me jump. He looked over at us and had to have seen the horror on our faces. “Sorry.”

“Jason, I know your father is rotten and an asshole and everything else, but I do think you should talk to him.”

“What?” he growled.

Amelia took a few steps away. “I’m going to the baby store. Let me know when—”

I nodded her along. “I’ll text you. Don’t worry.”

She gave me a small smile and left. Stress wasn’t good for a growing baby, and she didn’t need to be a part of this issue. It didn’t involve her, so why make her worry?

“Sydney, I can’t believe you.” He pulled on his hair. “If you knew—”

“I don’t need to. My father was shit too, remember? He did things to me as well. But there were good times too, I guess. Like when my father would take care of me when I had cough attacks at night. My mom would just moan, hoping I’d shut up. It was my
father
who got me more pillows so I could sit up and try to stop coughing my guts out. Daniel told me he taught you to surf, and I—”

He held up his hand. “Wait, I see what he’s doing. Trying to use you against me and—”

I pulled on a strand of my hair. Why was it so hard to get through his thick skull? “Jason, this is a second chance. The man only wants to talk. You can tell him off afterwards. I think you might regret it later. I know I regret not saying things to my father, and now…you know…” I dropped the piece of hair and looked over at the couple walking by. They were smiling and holding hands, strolling to who knew where, but at least they weren’t fighting over family issues. What I’d give to have the simple life of not having such a shitty family and letting it make me bitter for years.

Jason touched my cheek and ran his thumb under my right eye, brushing away a stray tear. “I know you’re right, Syd. It’s just…so damn hard.”

It was surprising to see Jason break down so quickly. How was I able to do this? I was the one who needed to be talked down from going insane.

You’re his better half…

There was no possible way I was better. Jason was usually the one who was everything I wasn’t. Well…until now. Both of us had shitty fathers, but I let my heart feel that pain, and it shattered. Now it had been pieced back together. Jason held onto his with a steel grip, being bullheaded and not letting the truth shine through.

“You can do this. He’s probably still in there if you…”

Jason pressed his forehead to mine. His hands squeezed my shoulders and slid down to my lower back. We stood in the hallway of a mall hugging, trying to mend the scars those who were meant to love us gave as presents. My eyes burned, but it wasn’t for me. Jason was just like me with all that anger and hate inside. For so long he tried to bury it and be positive, until that demon who hurt him the deepest returned. I wanted to cry for the boy who lost a father and had to console his older sister as she cried.

“I’m here for you, just like you were there for me during my darkest time with my father. I’ll even sit with you two and be the middle woman.”

He made a noise that sounded like a defective laugh, as if the joy behind it was murdered. “Fine. Let’s go before I change my mind.”

I took his hand, and we walked back to the bookstore. My heart pounded in my chest. All I heard was blood rushing through my ears. Jason’s grip on my hand hurt. It felt as if he was going under the knife and might not make it. We entered the store with a beautiful scent of books like we were about to face Death.

Daniel looked defeated, as if his favorite football team was slaughtered at the playoffs and was so close to making it to the Big Game. He leafed through a business book with a blue cover, but the way he was flipping the pages, he didn’t seem to be paying much attention to what the book had to say on the subject.

Jason stopped in his tracks. He was like an anchor, pulling me back. I let go of his hand and whispered, “Let me talk to him first, and then we’ll find a place for us all to sit down. Okay?”

He nodded and grabbed the closest book to look through. The boy had no idea how much he looked like his father doing that.

I stood up straight and closed my eyes.

God, please let this go well.

Look who’s grown up and trying to mend the past and not pretending it never happened by partying life away?

Damn that voice.

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.

A quote by George Bernard Shaw. What was life trying to fight with the past? It could never change, but the future had so many possibilities and that was what we should look forward to.

“Daniel?” I forced myself to say his name before I passed him and blew this whole thing. I was scared out of my mind, but Jason needed me to help him with this. I didn’t want him to learn of his father’s death and have everything he wanted to say but never did hang over him.

He looked up and blinked, as if not believing I was addressing him. “Sydney?”

“Yeah. Umm…” I looked over my shoulder to make sure Jason didn’t take off on me and make me look like an idiot. He stood in the same spot where I left him. For a heartbeat, he looked up from the book and met my gaze before looking down again, as if the book was fascinating.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” He had to be confused, and having me talk in single words wasn’t helping.

“I talked Jason into having a conversation with you. I don’t know how long he’ll listen, but I got him to agree.”