My Happy Ending Part 2, page 14
“I don’t think anyone could pry Talli out of there right now.”
“I... I need to be getting back in there,” he said with a short laugh. “Holy shit, I’m gonna be a dad!”
“You’ll be a great one, Pete. I know it.”
He merely grinned as he slipped back into the room, where Jaden was with my mom and Talli. I shuffled down to the waiting area, choosing a seat by the far wall just like I always did, and I settled down to wait for news. I leaned my head back onto the wall behind me, closing my eyes for just a brief moment, the memories of our son’s birth surrounding me.
”I can’t do this,” she said, gasping as she laid her sweat covered head back against the pillow.
“Are you kidding me?” I asked, leaning down and taking her hand in mine. “This... this is so much easier than Baby Girl, right?”
“Wouldn’t know,” she replied. “I was dead at the time.”
“Would you quit with that?” I asked, actually laughing softly. “Come on, baby... next contraction, he’s going to be here.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, panting. I glanced down to where Dr. Stewart was working to turn his tiny face just a little.
“Oh, I’m positive.” I began to move, to place my hand back on her leg, but her whispered plea stopped me.
“Don’t let go.”
“Never, baby,” I promised, placing a kiss on her damp forehead. “You ready?”
“Yeah... yeah, let’s do this.”
“Okay, Talli, let’s go,” Dr. Stewart said as the next contraction began to build. “Push!”
She raised up, bearing down as she pushed with all her might. She was squeezing the hell out of my hand, but I didn‘t mind. It was worth it. She was worth it. He... was worth it.
She gasped, falling back onto the pillows as one tiny squawk sounded. “Jase?”
“He‘s here, baby,” I sobbed, raining kisses on her face. “He‘s here.”
“Jase.”
I jumped slightly, a smile touching my lips as Talli’s beautiful face came into view. She was beaming, radiantly happy, two large tears tracing down her cheeks.
“He’s here,” she said, squeezing my hand. “And he’s got a head full of dark hair, too. He looks so much like Jaden, and...” Her smile lit up the entire room, just like it always did. “Jase, you’ve got to see him. Come on.”
I followed silently... or, I should say, was drug silently to Jaden’s room, Talli’s hand securely around mine. I could barely hear her voice above my pounding heart.
“She did so wonderful, Jase! She was exhausted, but I didn’t hear one complaint from her. And believe me, I’m used to complaining. And... remember when Michael was born? How he just kinda squeaked and didn’t cry anymore?” She turned to me, her cheeks flushed, her smile so warm and inviting.
“Yeah,” I finally managed to say.
“Ethan did the same thing.”
“Ethan?”
“Yeah, Dork. Our nephew.” She giggled, opening the door to the room, dragging me in before I had a chance to respond. She immediately moved away, going to Jaden’s side, leaving my hand empty even as my heart was full of love.
“Wow,” I said as I took in all the hair on top of my nephew’s head from his perch in his mother’s arms.
“I know.” Pete was beside me, sniffling slightly. “I know.”
I pulled him into a warm embrace, rubbing his back as he let go of a little sob. “My baby brother is a dad,” I said, choking back tears of my own.
“God, I hope I’m as good at this as you are,” he said in a rush, and I let out a laugh.
“Ah, Pete... learn from my mistakes, okay? Don’t fuck up the way I have. Just love them both, let it grow every day, and don’t let go. Just... don’t let go.”
“Not even if hell froze over.”
I pulled back, wiping my eyes and following him over to the other side of the bed, where I glanced down in wonder at my nephew. Talli was right; he did look just like Jaden. His dark eyes were open as he stared intently at his mother’s face, and Jaden was beaming as she looked down at him.
“I’m gonna do right by you, you know,” she whispered to him, and my heart jumped up in my throat.
I’d made that same declaration to my children, all of them. Hell, I’d made that declaration to Talia. I watched Talli’s face as she blinked back her tears, and I knew she was thinking of the same thing: all the promises I’d made, only to break later.
How could she ever forgive me, when I couldn’t forgive myself?
CHAPTER 10
TALIA
SHE’S A MOM.
My best friend, my sister in law, my reinforcement, my rock... is a mom.
And she damn near broke my hand while she pushed to bring that little boy into this world, too. Oh, he was so gorgeous, from minute one. Jase was able to joke with Pete, tell him that Ethan was only that cute because he didn’t look a damn thing like him, which was payback for Pete saying that about Emily. Which led to Jase reminding him how he’d gushed over Elizabeth and Michael, and then led to some lovely brotherly bickering that Jaden and I once again paid no attention to.
I was sitting on the side of the bed where she laid propped up to a sitting position, her newborn son in her arms. “Why Ethan?” I asked her softly, reaching out to touch his hair.
“Ethan Frome.”
“The book?” I asked, and she nodded. “Jaden, it’s so depressing.”
“It was my dad’s favorite,” she said, tracing the side of Ethan’s precious face with her fingertip. He instantly turned his face to the side, his mouth open like a little bird. Jaden never spoke of her father much, other than to tell me that he’d passed away when she was very young. I put my arm around her, giving her a little squeeze.
“It’s perfect.”
“How are you?” she asked, still mesmerized by her son’s face.
“Oh, I’m fine; don’t worry about me.”
“I do worry, Talli. Although I gotta say...” She looked at me then, her tired eyes so sincere. “Your living arrangements agree with you.”
I blushed slightly. “Not really,” I mumbled. “But we’re gonna do what’s right by the kids, so...” I shrugged.
“So, what?”
“So I suppose that’s it.”
My eyes drifted to the far side of the room, where Jase and Pete were laughing as softly as the two of them could. His eyes were narrowed, the soft, faint laugh lines so endearing, making my heart ache, longing for simpler times.
”What are you doing?” he laughed, pushing my fingertips away.
“Just touching them,” I replied, shifting slightly in the bed.
“Them?”
“Your laugh lines.”
“Oh, way to say I’m getting old.”
“No!” I said, curling myself into him, my body instantly responding to that skin-to-skin contact. “I love these.” His eyes slid shut as I caressed the sides of his face, my fingertips tracing the soft laugh lines at the corners of his eyes. “They... they show me when you’re happy.”
“You make me happy.” His eyes were a brilliant green when he opened them, a smile on his perfect lips. “All four of you.”
“Three and a half,” I said with a giggle that faded to a moan as his hands caressed me. He gently urged me onto my back, his hand coming to rest on my lower abdomen.
“I love that we’re having another baby.” His eyes were so vibrant, conveying his message, and I knew despite my misgivings he was telling the truth.
“You just love how completely fucking horned up it makes me,” I teased and he laughed, placing a kiss on my forehead.
“That’s one of the perks,” he said, his kisses trailing down my face, along my jaw line, and down the side of my neck.
“You, sir,” I moaned, “need... to... to not start... any...thing...”
“I can’t finish?” he asked when I was unable to speak, his fingers pressing inside of me. I merely nodded as he laughed soft and low, pulling my leg up as he slid inside of me. “You...” he breathed as he began to move, “fuck, you should... know better...”
“What are you thinking about?” Jase’s voice brought me back to the present. I glanced over at him, watching his hands as he eased the rental car out of its parking space. I knew I was blushing, I could feel it.
“Reminiscing,” I replied honestly, although not adding any of the details.
“You too?” he asked, smiling wistfully. I turned my head away to hide the impish grin I could feel coming on. “What’s this?” he asked, pinching my cheek slightly.
“Shut up,” I muttered, giggling and swatting at his hand when he continued pinching my cheek.
“Ow, damn!” he laughed. “Abuser.”
“I could do much worse.”
“Why? What did I do to...”
I know he saw my change of expression, and his changed almost simultaneously. He returned his hand to the steering wheel, his fingers drumming along softly to the song on the radio. His cell phone was on the seat beside him, its screen lighting up when it began to buzz. He glanced down, silencing the call, but not before I saw who was calling.
Kaitlyn Evans.
I rolled my eyes, shaking my head as I looked out the side window, my annoyance growing. Why not answer it? Did he have something to hide? Hell, he’d been hiding things for this long, why stop now, right?
“What?” he asked, and I glanced over at him. “You rolled your eyes, Talli. What?”
“Nothing,” I said with a shrug.
“Fuck... fine, Talli. Fine. You’re right. It’s nothing.”
“Are you really going to start a fight with me?” I snapped.
“Who’s starting a fight? I’m not the one rolling my fucking eyes at...”
“Just answer your damn phone,” I cut him off as it began to buzz again, Kaitlyn’s name on the display. He glanced down at his cell, scowling and muttering a curse.
“Don’t fucking start on me,” he said, his tone dark, reminiscent of the dozens of arguments we’d had over his discretions.
“I wouldn’t fucking dream of it,” I said through clenched teeth, silently seething the rest of the ride back to the house.
I WAS IN A BAD MOOD. Hell, that didn’t even begin to describe it. Nothing was helping. Not talking to Jaden, not visiting with Tommy, not watching the children run around and playing with Beth, not the nap I’d taken. Obviously, I was destined to be in this mood, this awful state of mind when I rounded the corner, hearing Jase’s booming laughter.
Wow, I was not in the mood to see him, or to hear...
“Evans, can you believe it? My pain in the ass little brother is a dad! Yeah... yeah, I spent some time earlier up there with them. He’s really cute.”
He spent time up there.
Not we spent time up there. Hell, no mention of me being in Groves Point at all.
“Yeah, I got in pretty early this morning.. Now? Um... no. Not such a good time right now.”
I rolled my eyes, turning and walking away from him. Apparently, I wasn’t quick enough because I could hear his voice as he rounded the corner, his conversation cutting abruptly short.
“I gotta go, okay? Yeah, I’ll call you later.”
How lovely. He doesn’t say goodbye to her.
“Were you spying on me?”
I turned around, my eyes narrowed as I looked at him, spitting back my reply. “Get the hell over yourself, Jase. I heard your voice, I walked away.”
“No, you stamped away loud enough for me to see what the hell was going on,” he said, standing so close I could smell his body wash.
“Whatever,” I muttered, shaking his hand off when he put it on my arm. I took the stairs two at a time back up to the room I would be in by myself, if I could handle staying under the same roof as...
“All right.” He shut the door as he entered, his chest heaving, his eyes dark and angry. “I’ve had enough of you acting like a child.”
“I’m not the one running around with something to hide, Jase. That would be you.”
“What’s there to hide? I was on the phone with one of my oldest friends.”
“Whose call you couldn’t answer when you were in the car with me.”
“Because I didn’t want you to overreact!”
“Who’s overreacting, Jase?” I asked, holding my hands up. “Am I following you around, starting arguments?”
“No, you don’t have the balls to argue with me, sweetheart.”
“Oh, really? Well, let’s have it, Mr. Warner. Last I checked, even as a woman I have more balls than you. I don’t go sneaking around, I don’t lie to you,”
“How am I lying to you? How am I sneaking around on you? Oh... OH. Of course.”
Yeah, of course. The elephant in the fucking room, asshole.
“Just go, Jase. This is your grandmother’s house, I don’t feel like having this conversation with you now.”
He scoffed at me saying, “A conversation is hardly the worst thing we’ve done in this house.”
“And you think with your dick still, nice.”
He came so close to me our chests touched with every breath, his teeth clenched as he said, “How the fuck would you know?”
“I walked in on...”
“You don’t know what you saw.”
“Oh, so it was the innocent friend you were consoling bullshit, you just happened to do it with no clothes in our bed.”
“Since when had it been our bed, Talia?”
My eyes grew wide as I mustered up all of the control I could. “You were screwing around on me, and it’s my fault?” I asked in hushed tones.
“You know so much about what was going on how, Talli?”
“Because I walked in on you fucking her, that’s how.”
“Like you fucking cared.”
That was just it. That was the problem. I did care. I didn’t just care, I was crushed.
“You have been completely indifferent towards me for so goddamn long, what was I supposed to do?”
“You just... gave up,” I snapped, not correcting him, not telling him that indifferent was the last thing I had been. “You gave up on me, you gave up on us, you ran to the first thing that would spread her damn legs for you, and you’re... you’re doing it again.”
“What do you mean, again?” he asked, leaning down slightly.
“Oh, what, were you screwing her this whole time, too?”
“You’re fucking kidding me!” He stepped back, running his hand through his hair as I continued.
“Am I supposed to believe that you weren’t? Bree was just a friend, remember? Bree was just someone you worked with, someone you wanted to help through a hard time, someone who would never take my place but she did, because you! You... you let her. You’ve said the same fucking thing about Kate for how many years now?”
He opened his mouth to say something, closing it and his eyes shut and he grabbed a fistful of his hair in the back.
Oh, hell no.
No, this fucker started it, he wasn’t going to get off that easy.
“Say it.”
I stepped closer to him, a muscle in his jaw twitching as he seemed to be fighting that inner demon, the one that brought him up here for this fight to begin with.
“Say it,” I demanded a little more forcefully, my eyes watching Jase’s face as he inhaled deeply, closing his eyes for one brief moment before he opened them, his gaze hard, unrelenting.
Fucking pussy.
I stepped up to him, pushing at him with both of my hands, using all my might. “Say it!”
A gasp escaped my lips as I was pushed roughly against the wall, strong hands holding me captive, unable to say a word as his mouth covered mine.
Hard.
Demanding.
Seeking.
Punishing.
And as his tongue caressed mine, I lost all coherent train of thought.
I was just...
Lost.
JASE
“SAY IT.”
Fuck, please, Talli... please don’t come any closer. You don’t want to hear what I have to say...
“Say it.”
Oh God... oh God, oh God... Talli, I love you. I love you, I miss you, I want you
“Say it!”
One moment she was pushing me, and the next... the next I just snapped. It wasn’t my intention to touch her, I swear I didn’t mean to push her up against that wall. And in that second, that one split second, I didn’t think at all.
I felt.
I acted.
Logic, common sense, and my heart be damned.
Those beautiful full pouting lips that called to me were suddenly beneath mine, and it was like a dam bursting forth. One touch, one kiss was never going to be enough. She was my drug, the one that I had craved for so long, the one I’d been denied, and I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t let go. Kiss after kiss I opened her up to me, pressing up against her, waiting to be pushed away even as she whimpered, fueling the desire that was already consuming me.
Just tell me to stop... just push me away... I’m not strong enough to stop on my own...
But she didn’t stop me, even as she held herself back. Her quickened breaths only egged me on, each touch of lips punctuated with a moan or a sigh. I could feel her trembling beneath me as I held her captive, nibbling slightly on her lower lip, another soft gasp leaving her as my hips moved of their own accord, grinding up against hers. I couldn’t help myself, couldn’t stop myself, not even if I had wanted to... and as my tongue stroked against hers—fuck, how long had it been?—I could feel it. I could feel it within my very soul right as it happened.
She let go.
Oh... god...
She leaned forward, melting into me as our kiss reached a fevered pitch immediately, her hands wrapped in my shirt front, her breasts pressed up against my chest, driving me over that edge that I’d been teetering on for so long. There were no soft, gentle caresses, no words of love whispered as my hands trailed down, grasping at her hips tightly before frantically pulling at those damn yoga pants to get them the hell out of my way.
