Wrecked (Clayton Falls) (20 page)

“Shit.” I leaned down to see what I’d stepped on. It was one of Noah’s little train toys. What the fuck was I doing? I hobbled over to the sink, that damn toy had hurt, and poured my glass down the drain. It wasn’t enough. I grabbed the bottle and poured it out. I ran the water for a minute to wash it away. Whatever was going on, the only way I was going to get answers was to talk to Emily. I loved her and Noah too much to give up.

“We need to talk.” Jake didn’t bother with pleasantries when I opened the door.

“What’s wrong?” I’d just put Noah down and was ready to go to sleep myself. That is until I saw Jake’s face. He looked horrible.

“Why didn’t you tell me about your brother?”

“What?” I felt sick. It couldn’t be a coincidence that he was asking about my brother when Austen was in town.

“Did Austen come to see you?” I wrapped my arms around myself.

“Answer me, Emily.”

“I didn’t know how.” I looked down.

“What does that mean? How could you not know how?”

“I didn’t want you to think he had anything to do with why I was with you. Or that I was trying to mess with you or anything.”

“What am I supposed to think now? We’ve been together for months, you’re supposed to be moving in with me, and you lied to me about your brother.”

“I didn’t lie.”

“Fine. You misled me.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know what to think. If I didn’t love you so damn much I’d probably just walk out the door, but I can’t. Why are you with me? Why did you want to date me in the first place? Is it because of him? Do you want to fix me, make sure I don’t screw up like he did?” The absolute despair on his face almost killed me.

“No. Or maybe there was some of that when I gave you my number, but it all changed.”

“Why? Why did it change?”

“I fell for you. I fell completely in love with you.” I put my arms around him. “I didn’t want to change you, because I fell for you the way you are.”

“I want to believe that.”

“Then believe it. It’s true.” I knew he had every right to be mad. I should have told him about my brother, but how could I?

“Are there any more secrets? You kept both Noahs from me, and I need to know if there are any more surprises.”

“I understand if this changes things…” I refused to cry. I couldn’t. My life was just a series of mistakes.

“I’m not letting you go. I need you, Emily. I don’t care if you only dated me at first in some misguided attempt to save me, because the truth is you did save me. For the first time in years, I’m happy. I’m not losing you.” He took my head in his hands.

“You’re wrong, Jake.”

“No. I’m not.”

“You’re the one who saved me. You think you’re the only one who’s finally happy? I love Noah, love him more than life itself, but I didn’t feel like this. I didn’t feel alive until I met you.”

His lips brushed against mine. “No more secrets.”

“I promise.”

“Then I need to come clean.”

“About what?”

“Austen came by after practice.”

“So?”

“So? Don’t you want to know why I’m only here now?”

“Okay.” I leaned into him more.

“I picked up a bottle of Jack Daniels and poured myself a drink. I didn’t know what else to do. I was so damn close to taking a sip too, but then I stepped on one of those trains of Noah’s. I poured the glass and the whole damn bottle out.”

“That took three hours?”

“I went for a walk and ended up at Cole’s. He’s the one who drove me here.”

“I love you.” I kissed him.

“I love you too.”

He pulled me against him. “Can I stay? I doubt Cole’s willing to come back to get me.”

“I wasn’t going to let you leave.”

He smiled. “I don’t think I can sleep yet.”

“Me either. I need to show you something.” I took his hand and led him into my room. I dug out the photo album I kept in my bed stand.

I handed it to Jake, and sat down next to him on the bed. “This is who Noah’s named after.”

I started with the pictures of us as kids, and we moved through them until I found the one of us at his high school graduation. “He was an incredible brother. An incredible person.”

“I’m sure he was.”

I leaned my head against his shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here. I couldn’t sleep alone.”

“Just a few more weeks, and you’ll never sleep alone again.”

I leaned over and kissed him. “Neither will you.”

“Hey Coach!” I turned toward the dock from the deck of the boat I was working on, shocked to see Becca standing there with Molly.

“Hey! What are you doing here?” I wiped the grease off my hands before walking over and pulling Becca into a hug.

“We’re spending Christmas in Augusta, so we thought we’d stop here on our drive down.”

“That’s cool. I was wondering when I’d see you again.”

“I also wanted to show this off.” She held out her left hand.

I checked out the large diamond ring on her finger. “Wow. You’re engaged?”

“Yes! Gavin proposed last week!” She popped up on her toes. She was beyond giddy.

“Congrats. That’s awesome.”

“I know it’s pretty fast, but it feels right.”

“They’re not getting married until this summer though.” Molly jumped in. She was grinning too.

“Cool, cool. I’ll definitely be there.” I wouldn’t miss it. It was nice to see Becca so happy. “How long are you in town for?”

“Through the weekend. We’re actually having everyone over to Gavin’s place Friday night.” She glanced down at her ring, before looking up at me.

“Awesome. We should be able to make it. We usually spend our weekends in Wilmington, but they’re moving in next week anyway.”

“What?” Becca’s jaw dropped. “How did I not know this?” She looked at Molly. “Why aren’t you surprised? He told you?” She didn’t look happy at that thought.

“Of course not. Emily did.”

“Probably during one of the times you called to ask her one hundred and one baby questions.”

“I do not do that! I just call to talk.” Molly looked flustered.

I figured Emily would kill me if I got Molly mad at her. It was good they got along. “Emily likes that you ask her for advice. She likes to feel useful. None of her friends have kids yet.”

“Okay, that’s what I thought.” Molly visibly relaxed.

“So what are you two up to this afternoon? Plotting a takeover?”

“Very funny. We’re going Christmas shopping. Emily and Noah are coming.”

“Wait, she didn’t tell me that.”

“That’s because we just set it up an hour ago.”

“Are you meeting her in Wilmington?” They were coming up in a few days, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to see them sooner. I remembered Emily telling me she’d switched shifts and had the afternoon off.

“You’re not coming shopping with us. Don’t even ask.” Molly crossed her arms.

“Fine. I’ll watch Noah so Emily can actually enjoy herself.”

“Wow. That’s incredibly thoughtful of you. I’m impressed.” Becca grinned.

“It’s called being a good boyfriend. Maybe yours should try it.”

She laughed. “He’s my fiancé now, you know.”

“Whatever. What time are you leaving?”

“At two thirty. Can you get out?”

“Yeah, if Ben ever shows up.”

Molly rolled her eyes. “He’ll be here. We’ll pick you up.”

“See ya then.” I waved as they walked away.

I finished up the work that had to get done and was getting ready to head into the office when Ben showed up. “I’m your ride to Wilmington now.”

“Do I want to know why?”

“Molly wants me to babysit Noah with you.”

“She does realize I watch him by myself a lot, right?”

“This isn’t about you. She thinks I need more experience with kids.”

I laughed. “You do know your baby isn’t going to be a walking, talking toddler, don’t you?”

He shook his head. “All I know is Molly told me to do it. I figured it couldn’t hurt.”

“This might be interesting.”

“Go get your stuff. We can stop by your place so you can get cleaned up.”

“I don’t know, maybe Emily would like the grease.”

“Shut up and go.” He walked back toward the parking lot.

“Nice, long day of work you’re putting in,” I called after him.

He turned and gave me the finger. “I got here at five for a fishing tour.”

“Likely story.”

***

“Thanks for watching Noah.” Emily kissed me on the cheek after I took five huge shopping bags from her hands. Since Becca and Molly’s hands were empty, I assumed they left their bags in the car.

I put her bags down on the counter, the one spot Noah couldn’t reach. “Not a problem, we had a good time. Noah’s still out cold. We should probably wake him up soon.”

“How’d he do?” Molly pointed to Ben.

“He did all right.” I snickered.

“What happened?” Molly looked between us.

“Ben needed some lessons in diapers.”

“Shut up, it wasn’t that bad.”

“Dude, you tried to put the thing on backwards.”

The girls all busted out laughing. “This is one of those conversations that needs to be recorded.” Becca grinned.

Ben looked flustered. “Both sides have Elmo on it, how can you tell?”

Emily put a hand on my arm. “Be nice, Jake. Or do you want me to tell them about the first bath you were here for?”

“No. I think that can stay between us.”

“What happened?” Ben asked.

“Nothing except that I left the room for two minutes and Jake was just as wet as Noah.”

Molly laughed. “Now that would have been worth seeing.”

“That incident aside, Jake’s got it down. I can’t promise he’ll know how to handle a baby, but your son or daughter will have a good babysitter for an uncle.”

Molly leaned over to whisper something to Ben.

“Fine, we can tell them.”

“We were going to wait to tell your parents the news at the same time, but we had another ultrasound today. Remember how they couldn’t tell us the gender back in September and we decided we didn’t need to know? Well, it was pretty obvious this time.”

“What are you having?” Becca and Emily asked simultaneously.

“A boy.”

“Nice. Congrats, man.” I patted Ben on the back.

Becca hugged Molly, and then Emily took a turn. “Is that offer of giving us Noah’s old clothes still on the table?”

“Of course. We can go through them when you’re ready.”

Ben and I found a game on TV while the girls talked babies. An hour later, Becca and Molly walked over. They both had conspiratorial looks on their faces. Emily was trying to get Noah to clean up some of his toys.

“What are you up to?” I asked.

Becca sat down on the arm of the couch next to me. “How would you like to go out with Emily tonight?”

“Is that a real question?”

She rolled her eyes. “We were thinking that this would be a perfect night for Molly and Ben to watch Noah.”

Ben was suddenly interested in the conversation. “Is there a reason you’re volunteering us for babysitting?”

Molly sat down on the couch. She maneuvered awkwardly to get comfortable. Women really had it rough with the whole pregnancy thing. “You can’t change a diaper, Ben. We need practice.”

“Great. Jake gets to go out with his girlfriend while we babysit.”

Molly swatted at his arm. “Get used to it.”

I laughed. “You do realize the person to ask for permission is Emily.”

“We already asked. She was more than happy to lend Noah to us for the night.” Molly grinned.

“You really want to babysit?” Ben asked her.

“Yes, but Jake needs to do something really special.”

“I do?”

“Uh huh. She’s had a hard week at work, treat her to something.”

I knew exactly what we should do. “Would you mind watching Noah back in town? I want to take Emily out there.”

“You’re choosing a date night in Clayton Falls over Wilmington?” Becca asked incredulously. She was such a city girl. Not that Wilmington was a bustling metropolis or anything—but it was a heck of a lot bigger than Clayton Falls.

“I have my reasons.” They were good ones. “How long are you keeping him for?”

Molly shook her head. “I don’t want to know why you’re asking that.”

“Just so I can time everything up.”

“As late as you want. I figure Noah can fall asleep at our place. I don’t mind keeping him over night, but I doubt Emily’s going to go for it.”

“I’ll be right back.” I needed to make a phone call to an old friend.

***

“It was so nice of Molly and Ben to babysit tonight.” Emily took a bite of her chicken parmesan. We were having dinner at La Trattoria, a new Italian place that just opened in town. The chef had relocated from New York a few months before. It was the first new restaurant to open in years, so I figured it was about time we tried it out.

“Oh, come on. You know Ben didn’t volunteer.”

She laughed. “Maybe not, but he agreed.”

“I don’t think he can say no to Molly.” I finished off my Pasta Diablo.

“You say it like it’s a bad thing.”

I shrugged. “Not bad, just fact.”

“I think it’s sweet how in love they are. Their story is so romantic. High school sweethearts reunited years later.”

The waiter came over and cleared our plates.

“You’re not thinking about reuniting with anyone, are you?” I knew Austen wasn’t actually in love with her, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have feelings for him.

“Not at all. The only one I’m thinking about is you.” She looked down at the table. She always got so shy when opening up about her feelings. She didn’t need to be.

I reached across the table and took her hand. “How’d I get so lucky?”

“Lucky?”

“To have you. Sometimes I think I’m still unconscious or something and I’ll wake up.”

“You’re conscious.”

“Good.” I squeezed her hand.

We ordered chocolate cake for dessert. We shared it, but I let Emily have most of it. I loved watching her enjoy each bite.

“Are you up for a movie?”

“Sure. Should we check the times or just head over?” She knew the closest movie theater was in the next town. It would be a fifteen minute drive.