The Key West Anthology (38 page)

Chapter Eleven

Kade

I’d spent the last week fighting the urge to drink. My mother had read me the riot act when I showed up at her place looking like I’d been on a week-long drinking binge. I knew if I didn’t straighten up she would lay my ass out. My mom may be tiny, but she packed one hell of a punch. She spent a lot of years taking shit from me and had reached her limit long ago. These days, she had little tolerance for my self-pity and poor choices.

Instead of drinking, I buried myself in the shop, taking myself out of boss mode and handling all the work I could. I needed the distraction. If my hands weren’t busy with tools, they were itching to grab the nearest bottle of alcohol.

I couldn’t help thinking about Avery every time I looked over at my Mustang, for more than one reason. The way she told me the story about the movie she’d watched, something with Nicholas Cage in it, and her enthusiasm as she explained in detail the meaning behind it was cute.

So after closing the shop down for the day, I stopped by the rental store in search of this car movie. I spent five minutes trying to describe it to the guy behind the counter. He looked at me like I was insane until some girl overheard me and told me the movie’s name was
Gone in Sixty Seconds
. She then led me right to it.

I hadn’t sat down to watch a movie in a long time. I considered calling Avery but decided that was a bad idea. I didn’t need to keep playing with her head. So I sat through the movie and smiled from ear to ear during the scene she’d told me about that night, where Nicholas Cage called the Mustang his unicorn.

The need to see her became even stronger.

Going against all my better judgement, I turned the movie off and stood from the couch, then grabbed my keys from the hook on the wall just to the left side of the front door.

I drove my truck to the shop and parked just to the right of the garage door. After unlocking the side door, I went straight for the Shelby, and for the first time since my father passed, I fired up the engine. The purr sent an excited chill through my body as I eased it out of the garage. In that moment, the joy I felt made me think of Avery. After I exited the garage, I jumped out to lock the shop back up before I drove toward her apartment. There, I pulled into the space next to her car and killed the engine, then took the pizza I’d stopped for along the way from the passenger seat and climbed out of the car.

My stomach tightened as I approached the door. I wasn’t sure if she would even open it when she saw me on the other side. Taking a chance, I knocked on the door. When it went unanswered, I tried once more, but my loud knocking only gained the attention of her neighbor.

“She’s not home.” The young brunette offered as she poked her head out the door. “She left a few days ago, and I know she said she would be gone for ten days total.”

My stomach dropped. “Do you know where she went?”

“Some guy picked her up and took her on some cruise. Not sure where.” She offered me a kind smile, and I nodded before stepping away and walking back to my car, disposing of the pizza in the dumpster along the way.

Knowing she left with another guy irritated me more than I had the right to be, and knowing she was on a cruise ship, probably in the arms of another man, made my blood boil. The knowledge that I could have prevented this all from happening if I hadn’t acted like a dumbass in the first place only pissed me off even more.

I’d pushed her away time and time again, and now she’d found someone willing to give back what I couldn’t.

I only had myself to blame.

Chapter Twelve

Avery

I’d been on the cruise ship for five days now, and there were two more to go before my feet were once again planted on solid ground. I was not cut out for this. I was motion sick after the first day. The waves and the swaying, oh my God. I needed it all to stop, because this was a very, very bad idea.

Don’t get me wrong. The ocean was beautiful, like nothing I had ever seen before, but I’d prefer to have my feet on flat land. I spent most of my time hovering over the toilet or lying in bed, sleeping away my days.

I had just gotten out of the shower and was scheduled to meet my parents for dinner in less than an hour. The idea of food only turned my stomach more, but I was going to give it a shot. I’d opened up my suitcase in search of a bra and panties when my gaze landed on the package of tampons tucked securely to the side of all my socks. The calculations began immediately in my head. I should have been almost halfway through my period, yet I was looking down at the unopened box.

Panic shot through me, and I frantically searched for my phone. When I found it, I pulled up my calendar, and my heart immediately sank, only making me feel more uneasy.

“Oh shit,” I mumbled.

I was four days late. I was never late.

***

I had spent the last couple of days in a haze, still silently praying for my period to arrive while the tampons in my luggage still sat unopened. My stomach was in knots.

The moment we landed at the airport, I was already calculating the time it would take to get to my apartment and then to the nearest drugstore. I had to know, but I wasn’t ready to share this bit of information with my mother. It could be a false alarm.

After Robert helped me get my luggage inside, I watched out the window of my apartment as they pulled out of the driveway. Once I could no longer see the back of their car, I darted out the door, squeezing my car keys in my hand.

My hands shook the entire way to the store and continued to shake as I walked down the pharmacy aisle, evaluating the number of different pregnancy tests in front of me. I wasn’t sure which one to choose. After finally settling on the midpriced one in a pink-and-white box, I made my way to the front. My hands shook again as I handed the cashier the money. Then, rushing out to my car, I sent a text to Quinn, because damn it, I needed my best friend.

Me: Meet me at my house, please. I need you.

Only a few seconds passed before she sent a response.

Quinn: On my way.

I impatiently waited as I paced my living room floor. It felt like forever until she arrived, yet it had been less than five minutes. I pulled the door open as she walked up the sidewalk with a worried look on her face.

“What’s going on?” she asked as she entered my apartment. “You’re scaring the shit out of me.” I hurried her inside and shut the door behind her without answering her question. “Seriously, Avery, I’m starting to freak out.”

I pointed toward the test lying on my kitchen counter. “I bet you’re not as freaked as I am.”

She scanned the area I had pointed to, and her eyes widened the moment she saw the box. “Are you?”

I shrugged. “I was waiting for you to get here before I took it. I can’t do it alone.”

She nodded, still staring at the box. “Okay, well, let’s get moving, then. The suspense is killing me.” Quinn walked to the counter, picked up the box, and headed toward the bathroom. She paused when she noticed I wasn’t following. “Are you coming?”

“What if it’s positive? What am I gonna do?” Tears welled in my eyes at the thought of carrying Kade’s child.

“Hey, first things first, let’s make sure you even have a reason to ask yourself that,” Quinn insisted.

I walked to her and took the box from her hands.

“I’ll wait right here,” she said, and I entered the bathroom.

Inside, I opened the box and quickly read through the instructions. Once the task was complete, I wadded up some toilet paper and placed the test atop it before setting both in the sink.

As I exited the bathroom, I walked right into Quinn’s welcoming arms. She held me tightly as she guided me to the couch.

“No matter what that test says, everything will be okay. I promise,” she said.

I nodded against her shoulder, hoping like hell she was right.

Chapter Thirteen

Kade

The cab pulled up in front of my apartment and slowed to a stop. I opened the door and concentrated on crawling out. Once my feet were on the ground, the stumbling began, and it was a miracle I didn’t fall flat on my face. I started early today, and driving home from the shop was not an option. As I focused on placing one foot in front of the other, I hadn’t noticed anything around me.

“So you’re still drinking away your days and nights, huh? Pretending your issues will just disappear if you have one more drink.”

I looked up a little too fast and had to brace myself against the wall at the side of my door. Avery sat hidden in the dark just outside the entrance of my building.

“I see you’re back from your cruise,” I mumbled as I concentrated on placing my key in the lock. When I missed a couple times, she finally grew impatient and grabbed the keys from my hand to do it herself.

I stepped back, turning just enough to admire her from the side and letting my mind wander over what she may have been doing these last couple of weeks. My thoughts only made me crave yet another drink.

Once the door was open, I walked straight for the fridge, leaving her standing in the doorway.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” she snapped, annoyance lacing her voice.

I ignored her question and twisted the cap off the bottle I pulled from the refrigerator. I was surprised when Avery reached over my shoulder and yanked it from my hand. Before I could stop her, she tipped it upside down over the sink.

“What the fuck?” I barked out in frustration. The harshness of my tone surprised even me.

“You need to sober up, asshole, and stop trying to drink your damn life away.” She glared at me in disgust. Avery was clearly in a bad mood; she rarely raised her voice. She took a step toward me. “I’m not asking you for romance, and I don’t expect you to love me. But you sure as hell will be in our child’s life. I won’t let you rob him or her of a father because you want to drown your sorrows daily in a bottle of whiskey.”

She walked toward the garbage can and slammed the now-empty bottle into it. It clicked loudly against the bottles I had already gone through.

Avery hung her head for a moment, as if trying to clear her thoughts. She then gently shook her head, and I would have missed it had I not been staring at her, watching her every move.

“Wake up, Kade. You didn’t die that night. She did. I’m sorry to be so blunt, but Jenna is gone. She is not coming back. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t my dad’s fault. It was an accident, and living in that moment for the rest of your life won’t bring her back.”

Avery’s chest was heaving, and her eyes were glistening with tears she was fighting back.

I had honestly lost track of everything she had said after one specific sentence.

“Our child?” I questioned. I had to have heard her wrong.

“Yes,” she whispered before taking a few calming breaths.

My heart was racing, and I was feeling a little sick. “You’re pregnant?”

When she nodded, my heart rate picked up, and I felt a little dizzy. I mindlessly wandered over to the table and sat down with a hard thud, the chair scooting across the floor with a loud screech.

“It’s mine?” I asked, and her eyes narrowed in anger.

“Yes, Kade. Contrary to what you think, I am not a whore.”

“What about the guy that took you on the cruise?” I asked.

Her eyebrows crinkled in confusion. “I went on the cruise with my mother and stepfather.”

“Your neighbor just said it was some guy.”

“Yeah, well, Nancy is nosy and should mind her own damn business,” Avery mumbled.

Silence set in as I stared back at her, shifting my gaze from her eyes to her stomach. “Are you telling me I’m gonna be a father?” I asked, still feeling like this had to be some sort of a dream.

She only nodded in confirmation.

“Are you sure? I mean…” I paused, because my mind was all over the place. “Have you been to the doctor?”

“I took the test today. I figured it out while I was on the cruise, but there aren’t many places to buy a pregnancy test on board a cruise ship.”

I ran my hand through my hair and rested it at the back of my neck. The idea I was gonna be someone’s father still felt impossible.

“You need to sober up, Kade. I’m not saying I can’t do this alone, because I can. But having you on board would make things a whole lot easier.” Her eyes moistened. “I know firsthand what it feels like to have a father that couldn’t care less. I don’t want our child growing up with that same experience.

“You need to do everything you can to clear your head. Whatever it takes to let go of this guilt and anger you have inside of you, you need to find it. Because you have someone else to think about now. Someone that will look up to you and seek your guidance. If you’re drunk and oblivious all the time, what kind of example are you setting?”

Avery walked toward the door, and I suddenly panicked, her words having pulled me out of my shock-induced daydream. I didn’t want her to leave me. I took a step in her direction and stopped quickly when she spoke again.

“If you can’t sober up for yourself, at least do it for your child,” she said before exiting my apartment quickly, leaving me with the word
child
running through my head like a freight train.