“Well, thank you, everyone, for the gifts. They really are great. I appreciate the love,” Jamie says, trying to diffuse the tension. Everyone murmurs their “your welcomes.” Harper gets up from her seat.
“I’ll go slice up the cake.”
“I’ll help you,” Dakota says, and Casey goes to follow them.
“I’ll get the plates for you guys,” she says, and they disappear from the living room. Aiden takes Jamie aside as Mason and Bianca talk amongst themselves.
“So I wanted to tell you while your mom was here, but this seems as good a time as any. I have another present for you.” Jamie looks curious. “I know I haven’t been around as much as I should have, and I’m really sorry for that. I can’t even imagine how long it would take to make it up to you, but I plan on trying the best that I can. And I think the only way I can do that is by being closer to you.” Jamie’s eyes narrow.
“What do you mean?” Jamie asks.
“My company is opening a branch here in Blue Moon, and I asked if I could be in charge of running it. I’m moving to Blue Moon,” he says.
“What?” Jamie says.
“What?” Harper says from behind them.
“What?” Dakota says from behind her.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” says Casey from behind him. Jamie looks at his dad, trying to figure out what he could possibly be thinking.
***
Harper
“What are you thinking, Dakota?” Harper says when Dakota emerges from the bathroom. It’s the end of the night, and everyone has said their goodbyes and last birthday wishes to Jamie. After Aiden’s announcement, things got pretty uncomfortable for everyone. After about a half hour, everyone decided to leave for night. After Jamie and Bianca and Mason helped cleaned up the place, the three friends retired to the porch and Dakota and Harper decided to head up to bed. Harper could feel that Dakota’s mood had changed from the moment Aiden walked in the door, and she hated that he had the power to do that. Something had happened between Aiden’s arrival and Aiden’s leaving, and Harper wanted to know what.
“I’m not thinking anything,” Dakota says softly. Harper brings her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around them, looking up at Dakota as he gets into the bed next to her.
“Don’t do that, Dakota. We need to talk about what happened today.” Dakota rubs between his eyes.
“There’s nothing really to talk about, Harper,” Dakota says.
“I know you’re not okay with what’s happening, so tell me. Tell me how you feel about Aiden moving here.” Dakota sighs deeply.
“I think it’s great Aiden wants to be closer to Jamie. It’s something Jamie has always wanted no matter how much he pretends that he doesn’t.” Harper nods her head, agreeing with him. “But I also know Aiden is a dick, so he probably has more on his mind than just strengthening his relationship with his son.”
“What, like strengthening his relationship with me?” Harper asks.
“Yes. I know that’s what he’s up to. He’s going to try to steal you away from me.” Dakota removes his T-shirt. He lays on his side facing her and holds his head up with his hand.
“I love you, Dakota,” she says. “So as far as I am concerned, he can’t steal me away because I belong to you.” They stare at each other for several seconds. The atmosphere in the room changes completely. Dakota swallows and then clears his throat.
“I love you too,” he says. Harper smiles at him, blushing slightly. Dakota lays flat on his back, and she rests comfortably on his chest. He wraps his arms around her, amazed at how she fits every curve of him like a puzzle. Harper feels drunk and disoriented from his scent. She presses her forehead into his naked chest so her nose fills up with his fragrance. Dakota has a slight intake of breath as she rubs her hands up the sides of his chest. She curls up closer to him, throwing her leg across his so there is no space between them at all. Her lips brush the tiny hairs on his chest. Dakota catches his breath quickly, but the reaction does not go unnoticed by Harper. She looks up at him, surprised.
“Are you okay?” she says, looking concerned as her heart races a mile a minute.
“Yes, I’m fine,” Dakota says, pressing his lips together slightly. Harper giggles as he pulls her on top of his lean body. She brings her legs to either side of him and finds his lips.
“Dakota,” she says breathlessly between kisses, feeling her foggy head is going to fall off her shoulders, it feels so light.
“Yes,” he says, connecting his forehead to hers.
“I want you…all of you,” she says, licking her swollen lips. Dakota doesn’t respond to her with words; instead he makes her lips part again, showing how much he cares.
Chapter Eleven
“Christmas Eve in New York. Is he fucking kidding? Why did he have to pick Christmas?” Harper mouths an apology to the people surrounding them in the cafeteria as Casey has yet another outburst from their conversation.
“Casey, keep it down,” Harper says through clenched teeth, half amused and half exasperated. The transition from being a nurse to a nurse manger has been challenging, and Casey has been there every step of the way, but at the top of the list of challenging things was keeping her friendship with Casey at work intact even though, technically speaking, Harper was now her superior. Simple things like not complaining when she had to schedule her for some Saturday nights were like pulling teeth. But there were some perks like getting first choice on her break hour and maybe not assigning her to the more obnoxious patients first. But Harper promised they would always have their lunch together, and that’s what they were doing currently.
“You can’t expect me to react quietly when you tell me that your ex wants you and your son to spend Christmas Eve together in the most magical place there is. I mean come on, have you seen the end of Home Alone 2? You have a little over a month. Are you prepared? Thanksgiving is in a few weeks.” Harper shakes her head.
“There is nothing to prepare for. What, am I supposed to say no, Casey?”
“Yes. In fact, you say hell no. You say no fucking way are you kissing him under a mistletoe in Central Park.”
“But what about Jamie? He seems so…excited about the idea of all three of us spending time together. I mean, I know he would never admit how much he wants it, but he does. Should I let him down?” Casey shakes her head. She sighs and puts her fork down on her tray, her grilled chicken salad nearly finished.
“Have you talked to Dakota about all of this?” Harper nods her head.
“Yeah. I mean, he’s not excited about it. He doesn’t trust Aiden’s intentions, but he thinks it’s important for Jamie to see his mother and father getting along. And it’ll be the first Christmas we’d all be together.”
“I don’t trust him either. He gets his eyebrows professionally waxed. I don’t trust guys who get their eyebrows professionally waxed.” Harper chuckles and takes a bite of her sandwich.
“I mean what’s the worst that could happen? Aiden makes a move on me?”
“Yes.”
“And then I set him straight. Done.”
“But what about ice skating?”
“Jamie will be my partner.”
“But what about the tree?”
“What tree?”
“The huge magical tree in Rockefeller Center.”
“Seriously, Casey, your obsession with Christmas is scary,” Harper says, chuckling. “Look, nothing is going to happen. We’re going to give Jamie a great Christmas Eve, and then we’ll come back Christmas Day to give him another one with Dakota. It’ll be great.”
“Okay,” Casey says, half enthused.
“All right, now, there’s something else I have to tell you about Aiden.”
“What?” Casey says before finishing her water.
“He’s going to the game with you, Jamie, and Bianca tonight.” Casey spits her water out all over her tray.
“What the fuck?” Harper bursts into laughter and spends the next half hour pacifying her best friend.
***
Jamie
“Aunt Cas, just think about how much you love me,” Jamie pleads on the phone in his bedroom a few hours later.
“I don’t know if I love you this much, kid.”
“Mason couldn’t get out of work. Dad was with me when I got the call when he picked me up from school today, and it would have been rude not to invite him. I could tell he wanted to go. I’ll-I’ll make it up to you. How about I do your grocery shopping this month? Next week?” Jamie could hear keys rattling in the background. He suspected she was getting in her car leaving from work. There is a long pause, he hears a door slam shut, and her car start up.
“Ugh, you are so lucky I love you,” she yells, causing Jamie to laugh.
“Love you too, Aunt Cas.”
“Mmhm. I’ll pick you and Bianca up in a couple of hours.”
“Okay, see you soon.” Jamie hangs up the phone. As soon as he does, his phone vibrates. He looks at the screen and Bianca’s name appears, showing that he has a text from her.
Be Be: I’ve been knocking for ten minutes.
Jamie: Sorry, Be Be. I was in the shower. The door is open. Come in.
Be Be: Kk. And stop calling me Be Be.
Jamie laughs as he slips on the pair of jeans lying on his bed. He buttons them up just as he hears footsteps approaching his room. Bianca knocks lightly.
“Come in,” Jamie says, towel drying his hair.
“Getting all pretty for the college girls?” Bianca asks. Jamie chuckles at her sarcasm but doesn’t miss the sincerity in her eyes or the way they linger on his chest. She flops down on his bed behind him, staring at his back for a few seconds before looking down at his navy blue comforter. He wasn’t ripped by any means, but he was for sure nice to look at. This wasn’t the first time she had seen him shirtless in the last few months they had been friends. Jamie wasn’t shy about his body. She found that out when he answered the door in a loose pair of sweat pants and nothing else one night she came over to help him cram for a biology test.
“What are you thinking so intently about?” Jamie asks once he successfully slips on a t-shirt and socks. Bianca looks up at him.
“How awesome this trip is going to be,” she says. Jamie smiles.
“Yeah?” He grabs his towel to dry his hair again.
“Totes. U of A is my first choice.” Jamie nods, remembering her mentioning that once in passing. Bianca gets up on her knees and takes his towel and begins drying his hair. Jamie grins, wondering what caused the gesture. He’d have to analyze it later as well as whatever she was wearing today. She smelled like strawberries. She always smelled like strawberries, and it drove him mad.
“Your dad went there, right?”
Bianca nods. “Yes, and Mom and grandmas and aunts and uncles and big cousins. It’s a family tradition.”
“That’s cool. It’s nice you want to continue it.”
“Where do you want to go?”
“Art school for photography.”
“Like Dakota?” Jamie smiles, loving that Bianca remembered that fact.
“Like Dakota,” he says. Bianca rubs his head softly one last time and then sinks back down on the bed. She wads up the damp towel in her lap. She ruffles his hair.
“Hair’s dry,” she says in a tada type voice. Jamie chuckles.
“Thanks,” he says. “You’re pretty good at that. Might make you my permanent hair dryer.” Bianca blushes and rolls her eyes. Jamie takes the towel from her lap and throws it in a hamper in the corner of the room.
“Why don’t you ever show me your pictures?” she asks, folding her legs like a pretzel as she sits on the foot of his bed. Jamie sits in his desk chair. They both seem to agree on giving each other lots of personal space right now.
“They aren’t really good yet.”
“What’s good, exactly?”
“I don’t know. The way Dakota’s pictures come out.”
“Dakota’s had study time. You haven’t. Can’t compare. Let me see some.”
“Let me read one of your short stories.” Bianca’s eyes narrow in defeat. Jamie had been bugging to learn about that side of her. The creative writer.
“Exactly. It’s not that easy. I mean…showing you my pictures is like showing you the world through my eyes, the things that I love, find interesting, and beautiful. It’s like a piece of my soul. I’m not sure I’m ready to share my soul with you yet, B. Are you?” Bianca licks her lips.
“You finished that collection of poetry book I lent you, didn’t you?” she says, diffusing the tension. Jamie chuckles and nods.
“So what are you doing here so early, anyway? Casey won’t be here for another two hours.”
“I was bored. Parents are working late and Grams had her bingo friends over. Not the coolest crowd in town.” Jamie laughs.
“Well, nice to know where I stand in the cool department.”
Bianca nods, chuckling. “So Daddy-O’s coming tonight, huh?”
Jamie starts to spin absentmindedly in his desk chair. “Yep, first time we’ve ever gone to a basketball game together. Weird, right?”
“Not surprising, since this is the first time he’s been consistently in your life since forever. This past month must have been pretty cool for you.”
“I don’t like to talk about it too much because I don’t want Dakota to feel any sort of way, but yeah. I really like having my dad around.”
“I’m sure Dakota understands how you feel about your father. He wouldn’t be mad at you.”
Jamie nods. “No, I know that. I just…I don’t know.”
“Have you talked to Dakota? Like really talked to him about the changes?” Jamie shakes his head. “I think that should happen.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“Always,” Bianca says, smiling.
“I’m glad we’re friends,” he says softly. “Tonight should be fun.”
Jamie smirks, satisfied. He had talked to Dakota about something important, but it wasn’t about Aiden moving to town. It was about how to win the heart of a girl like Bianca Bradley. They hatched a plan, and Jamie was starting to think it was working. It was working very well.
Chapter Twelve
Harper
“So I was thinking since Jamie’s gone tonight we could cuddle up on the couch and have a Criminal Minds marathon.” Harper vigorously dries herself with the soft towel after her shower. It felt so good to wash away the cares of her day. She was looking forward to an evening with her man. Dakota is lying across the bed reading one of her girly magazines and chuckling to himself.
“That sounds amazing, babe, and at some point you should take this quiz too. Find out what fashion season you are. I’m a spring,” he says proudly. Harper laughs as she settles into her yoga pants and white t-shirt. She pulls her damp hair up into a high ponytail and puts her hands on her hips, ready for the night.
“You’re so weird, Daughtry.”
“You enjoy every minute of it, Montgomery.” Harper chuckles and crawls onto the foot of the bed. She lies flat on her stomach and props her hands up under her cheek, holding her head up to look at him. Dakota closes the magazine.
“I was thinking about something,” Harper says, sighing.
“What?” Dakota says, pushing a few stray hairs out of her eyes and behind her ear. Harper forgets what she was going to say for a second but recovers in the same beat.
“I know we’ve only been dating for a couple of months, and I don’t know about you, but it feels like a lot longer, doesn’t it? I mean, it doesn’t really feel like much has changed besides, you know, you sleeping in my bed most nights.” Dakota smirks. Harper blushes.
“I feel the same way,” he says. “Nothing has ever felt so right. So natural.”
“And I know you’ve been uneasy lately about Aiden moving here, about not getting as much of Jamie’s attention as usual.”
“Did Jamie say something to you?”
Harper shakes her head. “He just
said that he wasn’t sure how you felt about everything. That you haven’t sat down and hashed things out.”
“He’s just been so busy. Aiden’s been getting him every day after school and I’ve had shoots booked every weekend. Just haven’t been able to catch him.”
“Yes, exactly, and why haven’t you been able to catch him?”
“Because when he’s coming in, I’m leaving,” Dakota says, his eyes narrowing as he tries to figure out where their conversation is going.
“Yes and that made me think.” Harper sighs. She sits up in front of him. Dakota sits up too, feeling like he should be upright for the rest of this conversation. “What if you…moved in…with me and Jamie?”
“Moved in, move in?” Dakota says softly.
“Yeah. I mean, I figure we’re together and it’s working, your lease on your apartment is up in a couple of months, and you’re always here anyway. What’s really stopping us from taking everything to the next level?”
“Next level?” Dakota asks.
“Yes…” she says. “What do you think?”
Dakota looks down at the silk comforter he is sitting on. He follows the lines of the pattern in it with his fingers and inhales and exhales deeply.
“What do I think about moving in, moving in with you and Jamie and taking it to the next level…” Dakota says mostly to himself.
“Why do you keep repeating everything I say?” Harper says, biting her lip nervously.
“I’m just making sure this isn’t a dream. That I’m hearing you correctly.” Harper smirks slightly.
“Because if Ashton pops out announcing he’s rebooting Punk’d starting with me, I’m going to be really, really annoyed.” Harper crawls into his lap, facing him. She puts her arms around his neck.
“Not a joke. Not a prank. Not a dream. It’s real. Move in with us.” Dakota kisses her sweetly.
“I would love to take things to the next level. I would love to move in. I can’t imagine being anywhere else but here.” Harper hugs him tightly, and Dakota hugs her back, closes his eyes, and absorbs the moment when he fell in love with this woman all over again.
Maybe Forever (Missing Pieces Book 1) Page 7
