What Was Meant To Be, page 26
“Should I be writing this down? I feel like that was a nice little speech.” Chloe says with a chuckle and I give her my middle finger.
“I agree.” I hear his voice from the door and then he’s moving through it, already dressed for dinner. With gray slacks and a black cashmere sweater, he looks gorgeous and a picture of style and sophistication and I bite my lip. Unlike me, who still hadn’t showered and was covered in food.
“Baby, I said let me help.” He moves toward me before pressing a kiss to my temple.
“You did! You peeled all the potatoes.” I point. “And I am going to need you to flip the turkey in a little.
“Anything you need.” He looks down at me. “Anything at all today, alright?”
I nod, hearing the implication in his voice.
An hour later, just as I’m finishing getting dressed, the doorbell rings and I hear it open. Fuck. I wanted to be down there.
My hair is still in a wet bun from my shower and I curse myself for washing it because now I still have another twenty minutes before I’m ready. My phone beeps with a text message and I see it’s a group thread with Chloe and Mason.
Chloe: Our parents came together. Hurry up.
Mason: Why did you think this was a good idea?
One from Jacob shows up while I’m in the process of responding.
Jacob: Your parents are here. Take your time though. It’s going to be fine, angel. I love you.
Me: I love you more. Be down in a second.
I opt to let my hair air dry, knowing that nothing matters at this moment but being with Jacob. When I make my way downstairs, it feels like the temperature has gone down several degrees. My parents and Chloe’s parents are in the living room and the sounds of JP and his brother and his mother are coming from the kitchen.
“Hi, honey,” my mom says as she comes toward me and wraps her arms around me before pressing a kiss to my forehead. I hold on to her for an extra second, missing the warm feeling of her arms around me. She gives me a small smile and then a wink and I’m choosing to believe that means everything is going to be alright.
“Hi Dad,” I whisper and he looks at me for a second before I see the moment of defeat in his brown eyes. The last time I saw them they were cold and full of anger but now I see a small glimpse of my dad.
“Come here,” he says as he holds his arms out for me and I practically run into them.
“Dad,” I whisper just as I press my nose into his chest letting the nostalgia take over after not seeing him in over a month. The tears are falling down my face rapidly and when I sniffle and stifle a sob, he pulls my face away.
“Hey, none of that.”
“You hate me.”
“No. Never.” He shakes his head and I don’t miss the tears in his eyes either. “You understand me? Never that.”
My heart squeezes in my chest thinking about my next words. “You hate him.”
“Never that either.”
My lips tremble as more tears trickle down my face hearing those three words fall from his lips.
A throat clearing breaks us apart and when I turn, I see JP with a smile on his face. “Whitney, I just wanted to let you know the food’s ready, but take your time.” I turn back to look at my dad that’s looking at JP with a look of… hurt? Maybe? Although he’d only shown his anger, I knew my father was hurt. For reasons aside from the fact that I was his daughter. My dad used to always say there were no secrets between him and JP. Both of them knew where all the bodies were buried and that was that. So, I wonder if a part of his anger came from the fact that he didn’t know. There was something about Jacob Price that he didn’t know. Sure, maybe that’s childish but after twenty-five years of the kind of friendship that they had, I get it. I get that my father was hurt that Jacob fell in love and couldn’t tell him. That he didn’t get to be happy for his best friend for meeting the love of his life.
That maybe he’ll never get to be happy for his best friend for meeting the love of his life. Because now Jacob has to assume the role of son-in-law when he’d only ever been his best friend and his daughter’s godfather. It was a mindfuck that I hadn’t realized until this moment when I see my father looking at Jacob as if he’s not sure if he needs to scream or punch something or apologize.
I hold my breath waiting for him to speak, but he doesn’t. He just walks out of the living room and toward the dining room where we are planning to have dinner.
Dinner is quiet. The only sounds to be heard are the clinking of metal utensils against plates and the quiet questions of passing food around the table. Chloe tries to keep the conversation going, but it’s hard for one person who seems to be the really only neutral party, even though anyone with a brain knows she’s on my side only. Dinner ends almost as quickly as it begins and if we were at my parents’ house, a three-hour long dinner turns into dessert and games and more drinking and karaoke and reminiscing about the good old days and dancing and then it’s two thirty in the morning and no one can drive home so it becomes a familial sleepover. My eyes turn to the clock which reads half past nine and everyone is ready to leave.
No one was in the mood for partying.
I’m putting some of the dishes in the sink when my eyes catch something on the back patio. Seated in front of the outdoor fireplace is my dad and JP.
Shit.
The sounds of the crackling fireplace and the forest behind my house move around us as I wait for Kevin to start. He’d asked to talk, and I was more than willing. I knew that if he didn’t ask, I was going to.
“Whitney, man.” He finally speaks and when he looks over at me he’s holding a glass of whiskey tightly in his hands. “Of all the people…”
“I know. I know.”
“You don’t though. You couldn’t possibly know what this is like and you won’t until you have a child of your own. A daughter. A sweet, precious little person that you vow to protect with every ounce of you. Then you’ll know this feeling. This feeling of being lied to and betrayed and by someone that you trusted more than anyone. The family we made for ourselves. That’s what Michelle called you. When her parents died, and my mom died and your dad died, we were there. We’ve always been there.” He sniffles. “How could you do this to me? Did our friendship really not mean anything to you?”
“Fuck. That’s not what this is about, Kev. Your friendship means the world to me, it always has.”
“Then how could you touch my daughter!” he screams.
I have nothing but the truth. “I fell in love with her.”
“That first time? Bullshit. That was you getting hard for someone you had no business touching. The forbidden fruit or whatever the fuck.”
“That first time, Kev. I don’t know. It all happened so fast and… I didn’t… I don’t know.”
“Not good enough,” he grits out.
“But it’s all I have. I don’t know why she looked different to me that night. Why I felt attracted to her then when I never had before.” He’s staring down at his whiskey, his hands shaking and I don’t know if it’s out of anger or sadness or both. “I would never do anything to hurt you and Michelle,” I whisper.
“You did.”
“I know and I’m sorry.”
“That’s all you have to say?” He jumps to his feet and part of me wonders if he might attack me again as he begins to pace in front of me like a wild animal ready to charge.
“What the fuck can I say, Kev?” I shout. “Tell me. Tell me what I can say, what you want to hear that will make this better?” He doesn’t say anything. I stand up to face him before I continue. “There isn’t anything I could say. The only thing that would make this marginally better and easier for you would be if I said I would leave her. That I was sorry and I made a mistake but I value our friendship more than my relationship with Whitney. But I can’t say that. I won’t say that. I am not giving her up.” I stop as I prepare to unleash the words that will change everything once again. “I want her to be my wife, man.”
Kevin downs the rest of his drink and slams it forcefully down on the table so hard that I wonder if he may have cracked the glass.
“So, what is this? Are you asking for my permission? Because you don’t have that,” he snaps.
“I figured as much. But this is me coming to the father of the woman I love and telling him that nothing you say or do is going to make me leave Whitney. You will actually have to kill me first.”
“Do not tempt me,” he grits out and I can’t stop the hint of the smile finding my face.
“I am in love with her,” I tell him. “You’ve known me a long time. Forever. When have I ever been like this with anyone? Even when I was engaged to Emily.”
“You barely liked Emily,” Kevin groans and I resist the urge to chuckle over the fact that Kevin and Michelle were never Team Emily.
“I just mean… I could barely even stand the sight of another woman in Mexico. I kissed one or two. That’s it. I was in Mexico for three years and I didn’t sleep with anyone.”
“Do you want a medal or something?”
“No, I want you to see that I have very real feelings for Whitney that I sacrificed for you and it hurt. It really fucking hurt. I don’t want to lose you and Michelle over this but I can’t lose her again. And maybe you want to say to hell with my feelings or that you don’t give a fuck about them. But what about her? You yourself said how miserable she was when we broke up only you didn’t know the cause. But she loves me too, Kev.”
He lets out a breath and doesn’t say anything for a while before he finally speaks. “You know what I’ll do to you if you hurt her?”
Relief floods me because while that doesn’t sound like any type of blessing, it does sound like acceptance which is a big fucking step. “Kevin… I won’t, ever.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
“I know you will.”
He clears his throat. “You have a ring?”
“Not yet.”
“She know it’s coming?”
I nod. “Yes.”
He lets out a breath. “You take care of my girl, Jacob, so help me, God.”
I smile, and he narrows his eyes.
“Do not look at me like that. I still do not approve but… I want to walk my only daughter down the aisle.”
“She would love that.”
“And I promised you a long time ago to be your best man whenever you got married.”
I had asked both him and my brother to be my best men when I was going to get married before. “And I still want you to be. I still want you and Michelle to be my people.”
A few weeks have gone by since Thanksgiving and while things aren’t perfect, we’re moving in the right direction. It’s the Saturday before Christmas and we are all going to Kevin and Michelle’s like usual for dinner.
I’m cradling my phone between my ear and my shoulder as I’m moving the cartons around trying to find what I’m looking for. “Baby, does it really matter which eggnog ice cream brand I get?”
“Yes, of course it does! It has to be Turkey Hill; you know my dad is so picky about it! You are barely back in his good graces!” I sigh, knowing that Kevin was in fact very picky about how he made his strong as fuck egg nog. I’m standing in the freezer section of the grocery store staring at every other brand but Turkey Hill knowing this means I have to go to another store.
I sigh. “Alright, I have to go to another store.”
“Okay, hurry pleaseeee, I miss your face. I need some time with it before we go to my parents’ house and I have to behave.” She giggles. Much to Whitney’s annoyance, I did actually go back to work a week ago and have been super busy at the hospital while I get re-acclimated which has meant that Whitney and I have really only had late nights and very early mornings together. I move toward the end of the aisle when I spot someone I recognize coming toward me. He’s dressed like he might be going to a Christmas party in black slacks and a black button-down under an overcoat with a bottle of wine tucked under his arm.
“I’ll call you right back, beautiful,” I say into the phone before I press the end button.
He must recognize me as well because his face turns to anger. “I always wondered what I would say if I ever saw you again,” he starts.
I’ve always known what exactly I would say, so I do. “You tried to destroy her family, Parker. My fucking family. You cheated on her and then you refused to trust her…”
“Because she was fucking you!” He points at me, and I am definitely not about to allow him to fucking yell in my face.
I glower at him. “Not the whole time, Parker.”
“I knew about you the whole time.” He lowers his voice.
I do not think Whitney knew that. “What?”
“I didn’t know who you were exactly but, in the beginning, when I met Whitney, she talked in her sleep sometimes.” I frown, never knowing Whitney to talk in her sleep, and I’ve stayed awake at night watching her for hours. “She would talk about you. ‘JP.’”
“What did she say?”
“‘Don’t go,’ usually.” Well shit. Unease washes over me thinking about how heartbroken Whitney must have been to be talking about me subconsciously. “When I was in New York and you showed up at her house she said your name and… I just started thinking that the J in JP could be for Jacob. The timeline matched. You’d been gone. When she broke up with me, she told me it was because of you. At the time, I didn’t know you were the same person…” He narrows his eyes judgmentally. “You were really sleeping with your goddaughter?”
“That’s none of your goddamn business,” I snap. I was already being judged on some level by over half of the people in my life, I didn’t need it from this asshole who didn’t even matter.
“Except it was, because she was my fucking fiancée.”
I let out a sigh. “It was a shitty thing that we both did and I’m sorry that we hurt you but what you did in retaliation was unforgivable. Dropping that bomb to her parents? That was ugly and vengeful.”
“So is cheating, so as far as I’m concerned, we’re even.”
I take a step closer to him. “I ought to put my fist through your face for causing Whitney the amount of pain you did. For sticking your—what I assume to be a tiny—dick in another woman, for trying to control her and then for trying to destroy her family. I ought to kick your ass.” I growl at him. “But it’s the holidays, and I’m feeling generous, so consider this a Christmas present.” I take a step back. “But if you ever so much as breathe the same air as her again, you will regret it.” I don’t wait for his response before I turn around again. “And if you ever find yourself in the need of medical attention? Do not come to my hospital.”
Two Years Later
“Are you sure you’re ready?” my father says as we watch Chloe, my maid of honor, begin her procession down that infamous aisle toward the love of my life.
Jacob Price.
I am marrying JP today.
Oh my God.
Goose bumps erupt on my flesh at the thought and I can’t even stop the squeal from leaving my lips. “Yes!” I turn to my dad, who’s equally teary-eyed. “Absolutely.” I grin. “Is he ready?”
He chuckles, blinking the tears away. “What did I tell you both about making me switch roles between your dad and his best friend?”
It had been a long road of crying and even more arguments but my parents had finally accepted me and Jacob together. Jacob’s relationship with my parents wasn’t ever the same as it was before, but if possible, it had transformed into something even better.
I giggle and give him my best eyes, imploring him with a look just as the song indicating it’s time for me to take that walk begins to play. “Yeah, Whit. He’s ready.” He links his arm through mine as the doors open to the outside and I’m greeted with the eyes of one hundred people staring at me. “I’ve known him over half his life and I’ve never seen him in love before.” He nods to the end of the aisle where Jacob stands with Trey and my brother behind him staring at me with tears in his eyes.
I have a veil over my eyes and I have to be at least forty feet away but our eyes are locked as I make my way down the aisle stepping on the white rose petals beneath my feet.
I meet my mom’s teary eyes as she rests her hand over her heart. I love you, she mouths.
I love you too. I mouth back just as we make it to the top of the aisle.
Jacob’s eyes finally leave mine as he runs his gaze down the length of my gown and then back up to my face.
“Wow,” he whispers.
My father slides my veil up from over my face and kisses my cheek. He places my hand in Jacob’s and moves to stand directly behind him. “You are so beautiful,” he murmurs quietly. “How are you mine?” he says, his eyes wide and unblinking like he can’t believe I’m standing in front of him.
The rest of the ceremony flies by and then he’s leaning down, only an inch or so above me and his hands cradle my face like I’m the most precious thing in the world. “Mrs. Price.”
And then his lips are mine, kissing me so deeply that I hear my father clear his throat behind him and Chloe chuckles from behind me.
When I pull away, I catch the fleeting look in his eye that said, the second I have you alone.
Six Months Later
“You are the most beautiful woman in this restaurant,” JP whispers in my ear as he presses kisses down my neck. “I can’t wait to get you back to the hotel.” Jacob and I had flown to Aspen for the weekend because it was December and also the first time he’d been off work for three consecutive days and he wanted to, and I quote, “have uninterrupted time with my wife’s pussy.” Now we are sitting in a rounded booth, his entire body wrapped around mine because he hasn’t been able to take his hands off of me since we got here yesterday. “As a matter of fact, why did we even come down here? We should have just ordered up to the room.”
