Winter Wonderful (Summer Unplugged Book 7)

by Sparling, Amy

  The clothes aren’t what’s weird. It’s my body that’s weird.

  I turn to the side and lift up my shirt, watching in awe at what’s revealed in the mirror. I run my hand over my belly, which is now just a little soft and a little more protruded than it used to be. Wow.

  I am almost completely the same size as before the pregnancy.

  A little thrill of excitement courses through me and I want to jump up and down, but instead I just smile like a goofball at myself in the mirror. I wasn’t a fat cow like I thought I was. I just had a baby inside of me.

  Plus my boobs are still huge so that’s kind of awesome.

  I lower my shirt, giving myself one last smile in the mirror and then return to the hospital room.

  Becca comes to visit a few minutes later, carrying a big balloon that’s shaped like a little blue baby foot and another vase of flowers. They’re sunflowers which I’ve decided in this very second are my favorite type of flower.

  “Where’s Bayleigh?” she asks, turning around right as I exit the bathroom. I crash into her, pulling her into a bear hug. “Wow, you’re skinny!” she says, tapping my belly when I pull away from the hug.

  “Thanks for coming,” I say, and for some reason I’m almost in tears. She’s my best friend, of course she would come. But this is a huge occasion and I’m just so excited to be sharing it with the people I love.

  “Don’t kid yourself, Bay,” she says sarcastically. “I came here for my Jett not for you.” She sticks her tongue out at me and then rushes over to Jett. Jace hands her the baby and then steps aside so she can sit in the recliner with him. She tells us that Jett is absolutely beautiful and even though I already know this fact, it turns out I can’t get tired of hearing it.

  Jace’s phone beeps and he checks the text message. “I’ll be back in a minute,” he says, kissing the top of my head. I should probably really take a shower soon so he can stop kissing my unwashed face.

  When he returns, Becca looks as happy as I do. His best friend Park is with him, looking a little disheveled from the flight he took from California to get here. He’s holding a massive floral arrangement with a little blue teddy bear on top of it. “Congratulations, Bayleigh,” he says, leaning over and giving me a quick hug. “These are for you.”

  “Thanks, Park. They’re beautiful.” I point him to the table against the wall so he can set the flowers down and he lets out a breath when he sees my other flowers. “Well then, I see my gift is not very original,” he says with a smile.

  Jace shakes his head. “Nah, man. She’s obsessed with flowers. You did a good job.”

  I’m not sure I’d say I’m obsessed, but, I mean, seriously. You have no idea how much you’d love a room full of flowers until it happens to you and suddenly you’re sitting in a room full of flowers that people brought just for you.

  It is pretty awesome.

  Park holds out his arms to get a hug from Becca and she looks so bashful when she leans into him. I swear that girl is so crazy in love and so crazy in general. Those two were meant for each other.

  “So when are they letting you out of here?” Park asks when it’s his turn to hold Jett. He makes these little goo-goo noises toward the baby and I’m pretty sure Park has never been around an infant in his entire life. Becca seems totally enraptured by the way he plays with Jett, though. Maybe she’s thinking about having a baby herself.

  That would be so freaking awesome to be best friends and have children the same age, but I know better than to say that out loud right now.

  Jace tells him we’re supposed to stay two days so we’ll get out of the hospital the day after Christmas. “Cool,” Park says as he lets Jett wrap his tiny little hand around Park’s pinky finger. “I’m guessing we’ll cancel the Christmas party, or maybe just do something low key. Since our little man Jett wasn’t supposed to be here yet, I can just get a hotel so I’m not bothering you guys.”

  Wait.

  What?

  The Christmas party! How had I forgotten the freaking Christmas party?

  Since Jett wasn’t supposed to be due until a few days after Christmas, Jace and I had planned a party with our friends in our apartment. Park had already planned to visit Becca this year since his parents are off doing some lover’s retreat thing in Hawaii for their Christmas vacation. Since he usually crashes with us when he comes to visit her, he was part of the reason we were going to throw a party.

  “I’m not sure I’ll have the energy to party,” I say. With the new baby, it’s so hard to remember that we still have a tree at home with presents under it, whimsical Christmas lights strung up all over the place, and stockings over the fireplace. It’s as if I’ve forgotten everything else in my life in the last twenty four hours. “But don’t get a hotel. You and Becca should totally stay with us!”

  “Are you sure?” Park asks.

  I glance at Jace and he nods. “If Mom doesn’t mind, I don’t mind.

  And that is the first time I’ve been called ‘Mom’.

  “Of course I don’t mind. You guys come and we’ll do presents and hang out. It’ll be like some sitcom show where the four of us take care of a baby in his first few days of life.”

  “I’ll do everything but change diapers,” Park says. Becca hits him. “Okay, fine I’ll change diapers.”

  I laugh. My friends are here. Jett is here. I am skinny again. Everything is going to be perfect.

  Right?

  Chapter 8

  Park and Becca laugh from the kitchen as they prepare dinner. We’re finally back home and our two best friends are insisting on cooking, which is fine with me. I’ve taken up residence on our fluffy couch, lying with Jett all bundled up on my chest. He has the most beautiful blue eyes and the softest hair and the most adorable little baby nose.

  Jace keeps complaining that I’m stealing too much time from our baby but he can just get over it. Right now he sits on the end of the couch, rubbing my feet that are in his lap while he watches TV. It’s almost exactly how we were just two days ago before Jett was born. Something tells me it won’t always stay this way. I can almost picture Jett as a two and three year old, running around tearing up the place. I can’t wait for those days.

  But these days are good, too.

  We’d had a nice hospital stay and the nurse was right—I needed the sleep. Last night was our first night at home and Jett woke up every two hours on the dot to be fed and I am totally exhausted. Since I’m breastfeeding, Jace can’t help me but he did wake up and sit with me until Jett went back to bed.

  My grandparents had visited us in the hospital, which was so cool of them to drive all the way from Salt Gap. Grandpa has changed a lot since he first met (and hated) Jace. Now they act like they’re old friends.

  Jace’s parents still haven’t been able to fly out from California because of his dad’s business work, but they’re hoping to be here after the new year. His mom even offered to come stay with us a while if I needed the help. At first I said no, thinking I would be fine.

  But now I’m pretty sure that not only do I want the help, I need the help. Babies are hard. Mostly because I’ve been living like a human zombie for two days, running on an amount of sleep so small I didn’t think it’d be possible to still be alive. Maybe I am a zombie. Either way, I am still in love with my life. I never would have imagined in a million years that I’d end up this ridiculously happy.

  The next morning, Becca makes us pancakes and bacon for breakfast. I sip on orange juice and cuddle Jett while she complains about her community college classes. What she really wants to study (art) is not what freshmen classes entail. I can see why she hates being forced to take math and history and government classes because those are the same stupid classes we took in high school. Unfortunately, until they invent a “only take the classes pertaining to your major” college, we’re all screwed. At least she gets to go to college at the moment. I’ll be starting a couple years late and that’s awkward enough.

  But I don’t tell
her any of this because that’s not what a good best friend would do. I listen and enjoy her breakfast and let her vent to me. The boys are gone for a while. Jace had some important client to train and since it was scheduled back when we thought Jett wouldn’t be born yet, he had taken the client and their money up front. Jace wanted to cancel and stay home with me, but I insisted that he go. Money is money after all, and Becca and I have things under control here.

  “I just can’t believe you have a baby now,” she says as we settle on the couch for some mega movie watching time. “I mean…we’ve had nine months to get used to it, but still. You’re a mom.”

  “Tell me about it,” I say with a laugh. “Life is crazy though.”

  Jett is sleeping in the bassinet that I’ve rolled into the living room so I can be near him at all times. He’s wearing a tiny little onesie with a t-rex on the front and a little blue beanie on his head to keep him warm. It’s pretty cold outside even though we’re in Texas.

  He is so tiny and fragile and perfect and cute. I love everything about this kid.

  Becca gushes about her Christmas with Park and how everything was so romantic it made her want to die. I am really excited for her. How cool is it that my best friend and Jace’s best friend have found each other? I know there’s a million people who will say that young relationships will never last, but I refuse to believe it. Jace and I are one in a million and Becca and Park can have that, too.

  “Unfortunately, I have to head back home so I can get to work on time,” Becca says, frowning as she checks the time on her phone. “I was hoping Park would be back so I could tell him bye.”

  “Just swing by Mixon and tell him before you leave.”

  She shrugs and shakes her head at the same time, as if the mere idea of going to see him at Jace’s work is something she could never, ever, ever do. “I don’t think so. I’ll just text him.”

  I throw a couch pillow at her. “You are so weird.”

  She throws it back at me. “I know.”

  With Jett asleep again, I go into Jace’s home office and power up his computer. It’s after six o’clock and his training session was for eight in the morning. He never takes this long on just one client. And he hasn’t answered his phone since the last text he sent me.

  I check my phone again while I wait for his computer to power up. My last text from Jace said: Love you, too. See ya’ll soon.

  The “ya’ll” was me and Jett. It’s going to take a while to get used to being part of a duo instead of just a single person now. He sent that text at ten in the morning, over eight hours ago. Where the hell is he?

  With the computer running, I feel only slightly guilty for snooping into his stuff. But it’s just work stuff and he doesn’t keep it password protected so hopefully he’ll get over it. I find his scheduling calendar and pull up today’s date.

  Max training session 8-10

  Only two hours are blocked out on the calendar, plus he’s only charged for two hours, but what are the chances he really meant eight in the morning until ten at night?

  Zero, I realize as I slump down in his computer chair and stare at the screen. Where the hell is he?

  Unlike Becca, I’m not afraid to go to his work to see him. But now I have a four day old baby under my care and I don’t want to wake him up and load him into my car for no reason other than my own insecurities.

  Is that what I am, though? Insecure?

  Jace has always been good to me. But still, ideas of him going off to some party to forget all about his wife and kid at home fill my mind no matter how hard I try to push them back away. I know it’s totally stupid to even think that. He probably just got caught up at work, which happens all the time.

  Of course he’s never gone so long without calling and checking in on me and that was before we had a baby. I thought he would be calling twice as much now.

  The feeling in the pit of my stomach makes me want to throw up. My first thought is that this is the mother’s intuition that everyone talks about—that the sickening feeling of fear filling up my body right now is coming from an awareness that everything is wrong.

  But I refuse to believe that. Jace isn’t home. There is a reason why.

  A loud beep fills the parking lot outside of my apartment. It sounds like a school bus backing up or something, which is really annoying because our apartment is usually a quiet place.

  As if on cue, Jett wakes up from all the noise and starts crying. I let out a long breath of air and shut down Jace’s computer. I peek in on Jett in his bassinette and his little face is scrunched up and annoyed as his cries turn into sniffling sobs. It looks like I’ll get lucky and he’ll fall back asleep.

  I walk to the window in the living room and pull down the blinds an inch so I can see what’s making that awful noise. Hopefully it’s not some construction crew settling in for some long, noisy project on the road outside of our complex.

  It isn’t a crew though, it’s just one truck. A tow truck by the looks of it. Jett settles himself back to sleep and I look over at him to make sure he’s still lying on his back. When I turn back to the blinds, the tow truck has parked right in the front of our apartment.

  That’s when I notice the mangled piece of metal resting on the bed of his trailer.

  Jace’s truck.

  Chapter 9

  Every terrible thought in the world goes through my mind. I’m out of the door, flying down the stairs one second later, leaving the door wide open and my baby in his bassinet. None of that occurs to me though.

  I run straight through the grass toward the parking lot, nearly colliding with the tow truck. Jace’s truck is hardly recognizable. The license plate on the front is caved in to where I couldn’t read it if I tried. The whole front of the vehicle is smashed and mangled, ripped and broken. My mind immediately pictures my husband’s body and what would have happened to him in a wreck like that…

  The driver of the tow truck sits in the cab, his face glowing from his cell phone. He watches the screen instead of climbing out and even though I can’t feel my body, I end up on my toes, banging like a psychopath on the driver’s side door.

  He rolls down the window. “What the shit is wrong with you, girl?”

  “Where’s Jace? Where is he? Is he okay?”

  Tears stream out of my face. The man gives me an annoyed look followed quickly by one of pity. “Who’s Jace? Who are you?”

  “Are you serious? The man who owns this truck, that’s who Jace is! WHERE IS HE?”

  He draws in a deep breath and slowly lets it out, shaking his head as he taps on the steering wheel. “Girl, I don’t know anything about that. I was paid to bring this truck here. That’s it.”

  “Who paid you? Where’s the driver?” I slam my hand against the shiny blue paint of his door. “I am his wife. Where did he go?”

  I refuse to believe any other alternative. Jace is somewhere else. He is not gone forever. He’s just temporarily lost.

  The man shuffles through some papers and then turns to me, leaning out of the truck door on his elbow. “Look, ma’am. I’m sorry you’re upset. There was a collision and I arrived after the scene had been cleared out. I was told to bring this truck to its registered residence and that’s here. I don’t know anything else.”

  “Where did the wreck happen?”

  “Off I-45, near Mixon.”

  Every word he says sounds like it’s in some kind of vortex. The words make sense but at the same time I’m so hyper focused on one question, is Jace okay, that nothing else seems to matter at all.

  Until I hear a baby cry.

  I turn back to the man, a sense of urgency like I’ve never felt before coursing through me. “You have no idea where he is?” I ask in one last ditch effort to find my husband.

  He shakes his head. “With a wreck like that, I’d imagine they took him straight to the hospital, girl.”

  “Right.”

  I swallow and step backward from his truck. “Well thanks for nothing you fu
cking asshole.”

  As I jog back to the apartment, toward the sounds of Jett crying, I realize that what I just said was kind of uncalled for. I don’t even know why those words came out of my mouth. All I know is that Jace isn’t here and his car is now a paperweight for giants and I am freaking out and oh my God, this isn’t happening. There’s no way this is happening.

  My heart feels like it’s being ripped out from the inside. Everything is hazy when I step into the apartment, stumbling toward Jett’s bassinet. His little face is read and he’s crying with his eyes all squished up. I’m crying too. For a second I have no idea what to do. I don’t trust myself to pick him up, not when I feel like I will bust into a thousand tiny pieces any moment now.

  I take a deep breath and sink into the couch, rolling the bassinet in front of me. I place a hand on his head in the most comforting way I possibly can, but I know that I have no comfort to give.

  Where is Jace? Is he okay? Tell me he’s okay.

  I check my phone—nothing.

  Then I’m dialing Becca. She’ll know what to do.

  Only she doesn’t answer.

  I dial Mom even though I know she’s on a date with David. No answer.

  I pick up Jett and my arms are stronger than I thought they were because he doesn’t fall to the floor. I hold him strong and sit on the couch with him. He’s hungry.

  I feel stupid for not realizing it earlier. Of course he’s hungry. While I feed him I try to think of a plan. I can call the hospital, I can ask if Jace is there. I could also try the police department. They would have had to show up to make a report on the wreck. They’d know what happened to Jace.

  Surely they can’t bury him in the ground without letting his wife know.

  I take a shaky breath and burst into tears. I can’t think about that. Not now. Jace is not dead. I can’t believe it. I refuse to believe it.

  Jett’s tiny head gets tear drops on it and I wipe them away, but more fall faster than I can keep up with. I can’t stop crying. I shouldn’t be alone. Jace should be home.