The Key West Anthology (59 page)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Jude

We sat off in our own secluded corner, Callie’s back pressed against my chest as I held her in my arms, while Harper and Easton shared their first dance as man and wife. When they said they only wanted a small, intimate wedding, they weren’t lying. The only people invited were immediate family and very close friends.

The kids were tucked in safely at Callie’s parents’, and the night was ours. Callie and I had only lived together for two weeks, but I felt like she had been by my side for years. Everything with her just felt so natural, which was crazy because I had spent so long fighting my feelings.

Now I would do anything to make sure she was mine forever.

I let my gaze wander around the room, taking in our friends and being extremely thankful for each and every one of them. They didn’t give up on me, no matter how hard I fought them, and they stood by me every step of the way.

Callie turned her head to the side, looking back at me. “What are you thinking?”

I kissed her and grazed the side of her nose with mine. “I’m happy,” I told her. “And I know Katelynn would want this for me.”

Saying my sister’s name had grown easier. There were days, of course, when even thinking of her brought tears to my eyes and that excruciating pain to radiate through my chest. But as more time passed, I’d made peace with her death. The pain she had to endure for years was finally over, and Callie insists Katelynn is watching over us every day, smiling right along with her kids as they grow. Prior to meeting Callie, I never would have believed that shit, but it was hard not to give in to the idea. And it helped me heal as well.

“She would,” Callie whispered, and I kissed her once more.

The music changed, and I eased back from our kiss. “Dance with me?”

She nodded as she started to stand, but I gripped her hips and pulled her back to me. “I love you, Callie,” I whispered. “I’m glad you waited for me to stop being such an ass.”

“I wouldn’t say you were an ass,” she replied. “Stubborn and hardheaded, yeah, but not an ass.” She arched her neck backward and kissed my jaw. “Now come dance with me.” She slid forward, stood, and turned to face me, holding her hand out.

“I am one lucky sonofabitch,” I told her as I stood and took it.

“That you are, Mr. Calvert,” she said with a wink as she linked our fingers and dragged me toward the dance floor.

***

The restaurant was extremely busy for a Sunday afternoon. I had orders out the ass, and I was down a man. Rick had called in sick, but I knew it was more like a hangover. He had just turned twenty-one, and this had become a reoccurring thing. I made a note to talk to Jett about his continued absences when I got a break. But with the orders coming in, I knew it would be a while before that happened.

“I need another clam chowder and one tomato bisque,” Rachel said as she hung a ticket on the only empty clip at the window.

“Coming up,” Marco hollered as he grabbed two bowls and began filling them.

I turned back toward the large plate of shrimp, one of the three orders I was working on, and began positioning them. As I placed the finishing touches on all the dishes, I ignored my vibrating phone in my back pocket. I would have to call them back. I put the plates on the counter at the pickup window just as Diana, another waitress, walked up.

“Thank you.” She offered me a wink as she put them on her tray and hurried off to deliver the food.

Finally, the orders were lessened as things became slower. I’d picked up two more of the tickets, both orders for our daily soup special, when the kitchen door swung open. I looked up and found Jett standing there with a blank stare on his face.

“What crawled up your ass?” I said as I looked down at the tickets once more.

“I need ya to take a break,” he said.

“Yeah, that’s not possible right now. I got orders to fill,” I said without looking up.

“Give ’em to Marco.” His voice was clipped, and when I looked up again, his mouth was pressed into a tight line, and I could tell by the look in his eyes that something wasn’t right.

I snapped my fingers to get Marco’s attention and gestured to the plates before me.

“Got ’em,” he assured me, and I stepped away from the counter to follow Jett out of the kitchen.

“What’s going on?” I asked once we were alone. The vibe I was getting from Jett was making me uneasy.

“I don’t want you to panic.”

“Too fucking late. What happened?” I asked.

“Callie’s at the hospital,” he said, and I didn’t need anything more. I pushed past him in a hurry. When Jett gripped my shoulder, I jerked away. He held his hands up in surrender. “Let me drive you.”

I was freaking the fuck out, so all I could manage was a nod. Once I was in the passenger seat of Jett’s car and had taken a few moments to calm down, I realized I still had no fucking clue what the hell had happened. I knew she was spending the day with the girls. They had gone shopping and planned to have lunch together. Turning to Jett, I finally asked, “What happened to her?”

“Quinn said they were walking out of the mall and Callie’s heel got stuck in the drain just at the edge of the sidewalk. She bent down to wiggle it free, and some jackass ran into her. She stumbled backward, and before she could regain her balance, she tumbled down the stairs that led to a side entrance into the mall. It was only about six stairs, but when she landed, she hit hard.”

I hung my head and tried to get the image he had just described out of my mind.

“She was out cold for about twenty minutes and was just waking up when the ambulance was loading her up.”

No, it wasn’t as bad as I had originally thought, but it was bad enough. I hated the idea of Callie being hurt in any way.

“Quinn called me before the ambulance had even pulled away. She knew Callie would want you.”

And Quinn was right, because the moment I rushed into her room at the hospital, Callie looked up at me and started crying.

I hadn’t even waited for Jett to park. I insisted he drop me off at the front entrance, where I leaped from the car and jogged inside, demanding to know where Callie was. Now I was standing at her side, holding her hand while the doctor examined her.

“Well, Ms. Raine, it appears you may have broken you wrist.” The young doctor carefully placed her hand, opposite the one I was holding, back onto her lap. “But we’ll get an X-ray to be sure. As for the bump to your head, you’ll need a few stitches.”

The doctor stood from the chair at her side and looked over at me. “Your wife is very lucky she didn’t have a major concussion. She does in fact have a broken wrist and needs a few stitches, though.”

I nodded, not even taking the time to correct his slipup. Somehow the comment about Callie being my wife didn’t bother me. And by the look on her face, she didn’t seem affected by it, either.

After the doctor left the room, I smiled at Callie. “What am I gonna do with you?” I asked, and she looked up at me in embarrassment. “Do I have to hide all your high heels and force you to wear tennis shoes only?” I joked.

“You wouldn’t,” she said, her eyes growing wide.

“This whole ‘trip to the emergency room by ambulance’ thing scared the hell out of me, Cal,” I confessed as I sat down on the edge of her bed. “I spent enough time here watching people I love suffer.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. Before we could talk further, the door opened and the technician that would be taking her to get an X-ray entered the room.

“I’ll be right here when you get back,” I told her before kissing her softly and stepping back as they wheeled her out.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Callie

“I got that,” Jude said just before taking the bowl of pasta from my good hand. My left wrist was now covered with a bright pink cast covered in decorations the kids had already drawn over the entire surface. I did have a slight concussion, but considering I had tripped and fallen down a set of concrete steps, I knew it truly could have been worse. But with the way Jude and the kids were acting, you’d think I was in such a terrible state I would have needed assistance with the simplest tasks. They wouldn’t let me do anything, and I was bored out of my mind.

Jude told, not asked, Jett that I would be out from work for at least a week. When he told me what he’d done, our conversation turned ugly quickly, and it was the first real fight we’d had since I moved in with him.

But tonight, four days after my fall, I had decided to make dinner. I wanted to surprise Jude and have it all set up before he got the chance to stop me, but I had failed. He walked in to find me placing the serving dishes on the table and rushed to my aid.

“You do know that I am perfectly capable of setting the table,” I said as I crossed my arms over my chest.

“You could, but I don’t think you need to,” he said as he put the pasta on the table and went back to the counter for the remaining dishes. “I told you not to worry about this shit. I got it. You need to be resting.” He walked past me and set the vegetables and sauce on the table.

“You are so stubborn,” I groaned and turned toward the stairs, intending to retreat to our bedroom. His overbearing take-charge attitude was irritating, and I didn’t want to fight about it.

“Oh,
I’m
stubborn?” he said to my back as I walked away. I chose to ignore him. Once I reached the top of the stairs, I took a moment to peek in on the kids before walking toward my own room.

I could hear Jude’s boots hitting each step as he followed closely behind. Instead of leaving the door open for him, I closed it and walked straight for our bed. There, I crawled over the comforter and curled on my side just as the bedroom door came open.

“So you’re gonna be mad at me because I don’t want you overdoing it?” he asked.

When I didn’t answer him, he let out an aggravated growl. “Seriously, Callie, I didn’t come home to fight with you. I just want you to heal, sweetheart.”

“I’ve been stuck in this apartment for four days. I’m clawing at the walls for something to do, and you just keep insisting that I rest.” I sat up and turned to face him as he took a seat next to me on the bed. “You won’t let me even make dinner, Jude. That is a simple task.”

His jaw ticked, and we sat there in silence.

“Is it really that bad, that I want to take care of you?” His question threw me off because I had expected him to still be irritated. Only now his voice was laced with sadness, and it broke my heart. “You’re so independent, and rarely do I get the chance to spoil you. This was me taking advantage of being able to do just that. Sorry if I went overboard.” He looked up at me and shrugged.

And instantly I felt like shit.

I moved toward him and crawled over his lap, and he wrapped his arms around my waist. “You wanna spoil me?” I asked, hoping to ease a little of the tension that had built over something so minor.

Jude nodded, and a smirk pulled at the side of his mouth. “Very much,” he whispered.

“I’m stubborn, huh?” I asked.

“We both are.” He chuckled as he leaned forward and kissed the tip of my nose. “I’ve just spent so many years taking care of the kids and Katelynn that I’m used to it,” he confessed. “It’s my nature, and I guess I just find that I want to do the same for you.”

I straddled his lap and slid closer, placing a hand on each side of his face. “I’ll stop being so stubborn if you do something for me,” I wagered.

“What would that be?”

I leaned in and softly kissed his lips before pulling back just enough to answer him. “Let me take care of you too.”

He stared back at me, his eyes scanning over me slowly as he ran his palms along the outer part of my thighs before resting them on my hips. “Okay,” he agreed before he took my mouth with his.

***

“Twins,” Harper said with a look of pure horror. “Not one, but two little Eastons growing inside me.”

Avery, Quinn, and I sat around the table at the local coffee shop as Harper gained the attention of every guest with her overly exasperated, high-pitched news. She and Easton had just gone to a checkup with her obstetrician two hours ago, and at this point, she was extremely animated and overwhelmed with the news. In fact, I couldn’t imagine how surprised she must have been the moment the doctor laid everything out. I couldn’t help but feel just a little sorry for Easton.

“That means two of everything,” she said with widened eyes. “So yeah, the matching outfits and shoes could be a blast, but the other stuff is what is freaking me out. That is twice the feedings and twice the shit.”

I looked around the room as she pretty much yelled the word
shit
, but only a few guests had chanced a look in our direction.

“I am going to be buried in dirty diapers and vomit. I can see it now. I’m going down at the hands of Easton’s spawn, and all he can do is laugh.” She sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. “Well, he can keep on thinking this is going to be a piece of cake, but wait until I tell him that he’s relieving me three days a week for unlimited hours at a time for me to get a break. Then we’ll see how happy he is after a day of shit and puke.”

Avery snickered, and Quinn covered her face in embarrassment. I just stared ahead at this person, wondering how I could get away unscathed. She was possessed, and at any minute, I was sure she’d start foaming at the mouth and growing fucking horns.

“How do you know they’re gonna be like Easton?” Avery asked. “They may be just like you instead.”

Harper beamed at those words, and Quinn lifted her head from her outstretched hands. The look on her face could only be explained as horror as she imagined not one but three Harpers running around torturing all who crossed their path.

We all turned our attention to Avery as she snorted with laughter. Gripping her stomach, she laughed even harder. “Oh my God,” she gasped. Another snort was followed by an exaggerated, deep intake of breath. “Poor Easton,” she said as she wiped at the tears that had now started rolling down her cheeks.

By now it was hopeless. The entire staff and the few guests that were still lingering were all focused on the four crazy women tucked back in the corner. Our quiet girls’ day at the coffee shop had now turned in to
Girls Gone Wild
. All four of us sat there, being the center of attention as we laughed until we cried. I was grateful for the love of these girls. Their friendship had carried me through some difficult times, and I was positive it would for a very long time.