Three Days of Rain (14 page)

Stretching, she smiled and he wondered what he did to deserve her.

“Not really,” she said. “I was thinking about taking some more pictures. Why? Do you have any plans?”

“Well, I did tell Mr. Olsen that I’d stop by the docks later. He wanted me to stock one of the boats for tomorrow. The guys are going out for a twelve-hour run and need to be ready to go by four in the morning. But I was thinking after, maybe we could do something.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Maybe we could run over to Bill’s and get something to eat. Maybe rent a movie or something. I gotta be at work early tomorrow so I have to get to sleep early.”

“Poor baby needs his sleep. What time do you have to be there today?”

Looking at his watch, he frowned. “In about an hour.”

“An hour doesn’t give us much time.”

A wry smile played on his lips. “Much time for what?”

“Breakfast! I’m starving.”

They laughed easily. He reached over and threw her his T-shirt and her jeans.

“Well, get up then. I have just the place.”

She dressed quickly as he grabbed the blankets and bags and threw them in the bed of his truck.

Within an hour, Lily was pulling her Jeep into her uncle’s driveway, and Jake was pulling into the lot at work. Danny pulled in after him.

“What are you doing here?”

Danny responded, “I’m loading the boat. What are you doing here?”

“The same. I guess Olsen really needs it done today.”

“What’s with that look on your face?”

Jake pulled together his best poker face. “What look?”

As Danny pointed at Jake, he laughed. “You were smiling.”

“No I wasn’t.”

“You were! Holy crap! Call the newspapers. Jake woke up happy today.”

“Don’t be an ass, Danny. I can’t win. You bust my balls for smiling, you bust my balls for not. Geez. Give me a break.”

“Relax. I was only—Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Stop the presses.”

“What?”

Clapping his hands together, Danny’s eyes danced with excitement as he wiggled his eyebrows. “You got lucky.”

Jake pushed his brother out of his way and walked toward the docks as he said, “Get out of here.”

“No. No. You did. Look at you! You can’t stop with the teeth. I haven’t seen you look like that in forever!”

“Shut up, Danny.”

“Was it that girl Lily?”

“What? No. Yes. Maybe. Just leave it.”

“No wonder Billy wanted you to stay away from her. Who woulda thought it’d take Jake a whole month to get a girl in bed. You’re losing your touch man.”

Jake stopped walking. “Stop. It isn’t like that okay. I wasn’t trying to, it just happened. She’s different.”

“Dad was right.”

“Dad was right about what?”

“You and her. He said he knew something was up. I told him he was wrong but he knew. He said she’d save you.”

“Save me? What the hell are you taking about? And besides, she’s leaving at the end of August to go to Atlanta. She isn’t staying. I’m just taking this for what it is right now.”

“Yeah? Then why did Billy tell Dad she’d stay if she had a reason to?”

Jake’s heart tripped up at Danny’s words. It was hard enough to understand why a sinner like him had an angel like her even give him another glance. There were times, in the past, that he’d felt evil, but whenever he was around her, he’d felt redemption. He doubted for a second that he would be the reason she’d stay, but as the day went on, he grew more hopeful that he’d be enough.

Later that night, as he sat on the couch with her head in his lap, he said, “I got something for you today.”

“You did? What is it?”

“Well, it’s not much but I think you should have it.”

She smiled as he echoed her own words and watched as he walked to the back of the house. When he returned his hands were behind his back and she was sitting up.

“Now close your eyes.” He laughed as she grimaced and did what he asked. “Hold out your hands.”

He laid his gift in her open palms and when she opened her eyes, confusion plagued her. To Jake, it was the most amazing reaction ever.

She held up his gift between two fingers. “A toothbrush?”

“Yup. You like it? It’s pink.”

“I can see that. A toothbrush? Really, Jake. You might need to take a class on Gift Giving 101.”

He’d known that was going to be her reaction and his smile broadened.

“You see I got you a pink one because, well, mine is blue and in the morning I wouldn’t want to confuse the two.”

“In the morning?” Her head tilted in a way that made Jake smile.

“Well, yeah. I figured that maybe, if you wanted to stay here, tonight, you might be happy if you had one of those.”

“You’re asking me to sleep
here
tonight?”

“Yeah. Tonight, tomorrow night. Anytime you want. I mean, you don’t have to. This is a just-in-case gift.”

Her eyes wide, he saw the confusion slip away into something else.

“You know Jake, you’re pretty amazing. I happily accept this toothbrush. Shall I go put it in the bathroom?”

“Sure.”

He knew as she skipped away that he was losing himself again. But this time, he was losing himself in happiness without any fear to tether himself to.

CHAPTER 19

A week later, Lily was helping Jake de-clutter his house. It was neat enough at first glance but when she saw the piles of stuff stacked in his closets and basement, she convinced him it was time to clean house.

“How can one person have so much stuff?” she inquired one rainy afternoon.

“I don’t know. I’m kind of like my mom was. I don’t throw much away.”

“Well, my friend,” Lily said with her hands on her hips. “I think it’s time to let go of some of this. Reorganize, you know? Figure out what you want to keep and figure out what you want to throw away.”

Jake looked up from his baseball game. “Yeah. I guess so.”

“You guess so?” Lily walked over and straddled his lap, interrupting his focus on the game. “In seventy years, someone is gonna come in here and find you lying in a pile of stuff. C’mon. Let’s fix it. You fixed the outside of the house, now let’s give the inside the TLC it needs. And once we get it all done, we can paint your bedroom like you wanted to do.”

It was hard to deny her logic. Jake was starting fresh with everything else. What could it hurt? Besides, maybe he’d be able to get organized enough to do some updating in there.

He reached his hands around her hips and squeezed her rear. “All right.”

She clapped. “That’s the spirit! Let’s grab some garbage bags. Where do you want to start?”

“The basement?”

She leaned forward to give him a quick kiss before jumping up and pulling him up with her. “Excellent choice!”

The two walked down stairs, armed with garbage bags and a plan. Two piles, Lily had explained—stuff to keep and stuff to throw out.

In four hours, though they’d only organized half of the basement, Jake was impressed. The number of garbage bags with things he’d thrown away had cleared out more than he thought.

“See, Jake? All you have to do is throw one or two bags out a day and before you know it, your house will be clutter free.”

“I gotta say I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get rid of so much stuff.”

“Well, you don’t get rid of things with memories attached like pictures, trophies, and such. You just have to get rid of the junk. Like this flannel shirt. It’s full of holes.” She poked her finger through a hole in the sleeve. “Do you really need to keep it? When’s the last time you wore it?”

“I don’t know. High school?”

“Right. You don’t need it. Toss it.” She threw it, hitting him in the chest.

“But I like this shirt.”

“Really?”

With her hands playfully placed on her hips, she looked as if she meant business. With a salute, he tossed the shirt in the throw away pile. “Yes, ma’am.”

Throwing all this stuff away was cathartic for Jake. He knew it all needed to go, but he’d never been able to figure out how to move past it. He’d held onto the past for so long, letting it go gave him a new sense of freedom.

“And this. Your brother or sister-in-law must’ve left this here. Wanna toss it? I don’t think they need it anymore what with their kids too old for it now.”

He glanced at what she was holding up. It was a blue baby rattle. He knew immediately it hadn’t belonged to his nephews. It hadn’t been Danny or Meg who left it here.

Jake forced the bile in his throat back down to his stomach and held on tight to the present. He couldn’t let Maddie in here, not now. He needed to be alone for that. And he knew she’d come, no matter how hard he tried to keep her out. The blood drained from his face and sweat formed on his brow. Memories of her always made him feel claustrophobic.

“Jake?” Concern filled Lily’s voice.

“Ah, yeah. Keep it. I’ll give it to them later. Maybe they’d want it for, you know, memories.”

Lily noticed the strain in his voice and the paleness of his face but she didn’t mention it. She figured he’d tell her when the time was right, when he needed to get it out. For now, she smiled and put it in the “keep” pile. She was savvy enough to know he needed to be alone, and as much as it pained her to admit it, there were some demons he had to face on his own.

She looked at her watch. “All right. Well, I think that’s enough for today.”

He nodded his head in agreement as he walked over and picked up the rattle.

“Jake, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here.”

He lowered himself to the floor and leaned against the wall, turning the rattle over and over in his hands. “Stay.”

Lily walked over, sadness in her heart at his obvious suffering, and witnessed, for the first time, Jake fall into the past.

As she sat down next to him and pulled his head onto her breast, she squeezed his hand, kissed his cheek, and worried about him as he unraveled a silent memory...

***

“Surprise!” Everyone in the bar yelled as Jake walked Madison into Billy’s place. It was decorated with storks, blue balloons, and gifts wrapped in baby boy paper. She was due in eight weeks and they had been working hard transforming the second bedroom into a nursery. But they still had nothing to fill it with. The shower was Meg’s idea and by the look on Maddie’s face, it was perfect.

“Oh my gosh, everyone! I had no idea!”

“Glad you like it.” Meg walked up and hugged her sister. “How are you feeling?”

“I feel great. My belly’s getting big and other than growing out of my pants, I’m terrific.”

“Let’s get you something to drink.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

Jake walked Maddie around the room as they thanked everyone for the wonderful surprise. She was glowing. Her smile stretched from ear to ear and she looked calm and happy. He was happy, too. After all the stress and garbage they’d been through, they were going to have a family, and a little boy, at that. Everything was almost perfect. There was one thing he still wanted to do and that surprise would have to wait until right before they cut the cake.

They dined on a lunch of finger sandwiches and small bite-sized appetizers before opening gifts. Everyone was so generous. The couple now had all they needed to complete the nursery, including a crib. Jake didn’t even mind that he’d probably spend the next two months putting everything together. As Mrs. Olsen declared it was time for everyone to have some cake, Jake stood up.

“Before you do that Mrs. Olsen, I have a gift for Maddie.”

Of course, all the women in the room swooned with excitement at the gesture as Jake faced the woman bearing his child.

“Madison Olsen. What can I say? We’ve traveled a bumpy road to get where we are today and I couldn’t be happier. You’re an amazing woman and I am proud to say you’re having my child. I’d like to give you this gift. Something for both you and our baby boy.”

He held out a small rectangular package wrapped in light blue with a white bow. She took it gently from his hand and began to open it. When she pulled the lid from the box, she looked inside and a shade of disappointment passed quickly across her face. Jake smiled despite it. Nestled inside was a small blue baby rattle.

“It’s a rattle,” she said with confusion.

“I thought the baby would need a rattle to play with. Take it out. Give it a shake.”

Maddie lifted the toy from its box. A blue ribbon was attached to it, and attached to the ribbon was a sparkly diamond engagement ring. When she looked up with tears in her eyes, Jake was kneeling in front of her.

“Maddie, I know it’s a little late to be asking this, considering we already have a baby on the way, but would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

There wasn’t a dry eye in Billy’s place that afternoon as Madison jumped up and said “yes.”

***

When Jake shook himself free of that day, he was crying. He allowed the memory to overtake him and didn’t fight it as he had before. He let the sadness and anger wash through him as Lily held him tight—let himself cry and feel something other than emptiness.

When he fell asleep in her lap with a small blue baby rattle clutched in his hands, Lily took all the pain he’d released and allowed it to wash over her. Only when he was asleep did she cry for him.

Jake opened his eyes. The moon was keeping watch and Lily was asleep with the wall at her back, dried tears on her face. He quietly tucked the rattle in his pocket and lifted Lily from the floor. She barely stirred as he walked up the stairs into his bedroom and laid her down on his bed, kissed her head, and covered her with a blanket. Sitting on his bed, he turned the rattle over and over again in his hands, much like he’d turned that memory over and over in his mind. It was time to let go of the past, he knew, but he just couldn’t bring himself to release that one. Not yet, anyway. So he tucked the rattle away at the bottom of a drawer and closed it. It was something he’d have to revisit—later.

CHAPTER 20

At the same time Jake was tucking away a memory, Lily quietly lay in his bed, careful not to let him know she was awake. She hadn’t wanted to disturb him, remembering the look on his face when he saw the baby rattle in her hand. She’d been replaying the scene over and over in her mind. This wasn’t a part of him he was ready to share with her. Though he’d slowly begun to open up, she knew there were some big memories he kept for himself—and this was one of them.