“Okay.” She pulled him down by his shirt and kissed him. I knew what she was doing. She wanted every woman in this bar to know that he belonged to her.
That’s my girl!
“I see what your plan is, Baby,” Easton said, giving her a knowing smile. “Bethy, can you make Brooke whatever she wants to drink?”
“Sure thing. Sweetie, what will it be?”
Avery and Easton left. I watched them walk down the hallway, turn, and then walk upstairs.
“Vodka cranberry,” Brooke said.
“What about you, Nicole?” Bethy asked. She knows my name? “I see your boyfriend didn’t get you a drink.”
“Oh, I’ll need to punish him later for that.” I laughed. “I’ll just take cranberry juice. No vodka.”
“You’re not drinking?” Brooke asked. “You always drink.”
“I haven’t been feeling well. My tummy feels—blah.”
“What the hell is a blah tummy?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been getting nauseous a lot and I just don’t want to drink.” I shrugged. Bethy returned, handing us our drinks. “Enough about me. So…that kiss.” I smiled.
“He loves me.”
“Oh my God!” I shouted. “He told you he loves you?”
“Yeah,” she said with dreamy eyes. “In the pouring rain, and then he kissed me like Mary Jane and Spiderman, except he wasn’t upside down.” She sighed as if she were remembering the kiss.
I grinned. So Avery and I had classified ourselves like famous boxers and Brooke and Easton were superheroes. Interesting. “I’m so happy for you,” I said, giving her a hug, but made it short because she was making me wet.
“Thank you. You know Avery loves you right?”
“He hasn’t said it.”
“Maybe he feels that it’s too soon and he doesn’t want to scare you off?”
“Yeah, maybe,” I said, taking a sip of my juice.
“He loves you. I can see it. Maybe you should be the one to tell him first?”
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Didn’t Brooke know that the men are supposed to profess their love first? I mean, we read about it all the time in our romance novels and see it on romance movies. My relationship with Avery wasn’t like a romance novel—well, maybe an erotica novel. We did fuck like rabbits on the cruise right after we’d met. But maybe Brooke was right. Maybe it was time to write a different formula and profess my love to him first.
It was like Nicole was meeting my parents for the first time, but they weren’t my biological parents. They were Easton’s. I wished they were my biological parents, though. They’d stuck by Easton when he chose to get married instead of go off to college. They hadn’t tried to blackmail him into playing pro-ball, they hadn’t told him he needed to get a college education to be successful. They’d just loved him and supported his crazy idea to get married at twenty-one.
When I had my own child, I was going to be like Easton’s parents. They were what parents should be.
“I wonder how last night went,” Nicole said, slipping on her shoes.
“With Cheyenne?”
“Yeah. It’s a big deal for Brooke to meet her.”
“It’s a big deal for Cheyenne to meet Brooke,” I countered.
“I know. It’s all a big deal. I hope Cheyenne likes her.”
I laughed. If Cheyenne were anything like her mother, she would give her attitude, testing her to make sure she was cool.
“I guess we’ll see.” I smiled.
We arrived at the softball field ten minutes before Cheyenne’s game was going to start. There was another game in progress and as I led Nicole to the bleachers, her hand in mine, my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest.
I’d never introduced Jimmy and Jane to one of my girlfriends before. I hadn’t had a girlfriend since college, and even then I hadn’t brought her home with me on break. But Nicole—Nicole was my girl. My love. The one I wanted to be with forever.
I needed to tell Nicole that I loved her. I couldn’t bite my tongue any longer. If she didn’t feel the same way, then I would deal with it. She was the one; my one and I wanted her to know that. I didn’t want the four and half hour drive between us anymore. I wanted her with me in my townhouse. I wanted to see her every single day and not from a tiny phone screen when we Facetimed.
My palms were clammy as we got closer to where Jimmy, Jane, and Brooke sat on the bleachers. We took the steps, weaving in and out of the people already sitting on them until we reached the top where the three sat.
“Ma. Dad. This is my girlfriend Nicole. And Brooke’s best friend,” I said, looking over at Brooke and smiled.
“Av, it’s about time you bring a girl around,” Jane said, squeezing Nicole into a big hug.
“None of them meant what Nicole means to me.” I looked over at Nicole.
She smiled and shook Jimmy’s hand. “Meeting both of our boy’s girls in the same day. I knew they were best friends, but this is weird.”
“It’s not weird,” Jane said, slapping Jimmy playfully. “They all met at the same time. It’s fate.”
“It’s nice to meet you both,” Nicole said.
Fate? Yeah, it was fate.
Nicole sat next to Brooke, and I sat next to Nicole, one step down from Jimmy and Jane. Watching Cheyenne play made me miss the game. I grew up loving it, but my parents had tainted that love. Seeing the joy on Cheyenne’s face out on the field felt right—felt like home.
I was surrounded by all my favorite people and had a girl that I loved.
I just needed to tell her.
After the game, we went for pizza with Cheyenne’s friend and parents. Her team won, so we needed to celebrate.
“I can’t eat this,” Nicole said, pushing her slice of pizza away from her.
Brooke and Easton stopped eating and eyed her curiously.
“The cheese?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Are you lactose intolerant now?” Brooke asked.
“Maybe.” Nicole shrugged. “I’m having a weird thing with cheese.”
“I don’t know what else they have, but let’s go get you something else,” I said, reaching for her hand.
Nicole finally ordered a salad with ranch—no cheese. She was able to eat that with no problem.
The four of us hung out at Easton’s after pizza while Cheyenne played across the street with her friend. Even though Easton and I hadn’t had steady girlfriends in years and we never met the other person we each went on a date with, the four of us spending time together felt natural. It was like we were on the cruise again.
The next day, Nicole and I lay cuddled on my couch watching TV. Each moment I wanted to blurt the words that I loved her. But I wanted the moment to be perfect and not while we sat on my couch watching The Food Network.
“Want to do something before you and Brooke go home?” I asked.
“Like what?” Nicole asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe we can have lunch in the park?”
“That sounds nice. Let me text Brooke.”
I kissed her before she got up to get her cell phone to text Brooke. This was when I was going to tell her that I loved her. It would be perfect. The sun was shining, flowers were in bloom, and the weather was warm and perfect to sit out on a summer day.
I grabbed a blanket, made us some sandwiches, and we were off to the park—my heart on my sleeve and all.
We arrived at the park, laid out the blanket under a tree with pink flowers and both laid back, staring at the bright blue sky, my hand in hers.
“What if I told you that I wanted you to stay another night?” I asked, still looking up at the sky.
I saw Nicole turn her head out of the corner of my eye. “What about Brooke?”
“Right…I just don’t want you to leave,” I said, looking over at her.
“I don’t either. It’s hard getting through the week now.”
“I know,” I sighed, asking her to move in with me on the tip of my tongue.
“But Brooke needs you since Easton’s here.”
“I know. She’s having a second opinion on Wednesday and then I think she’s going to schedule her surgery.”
“You know I’ll be there, right?” I asked, turning onto my side to face her. “When she’s having surgery.”
“I do. And I love you more because of it.” She paused for a beat, leaving me staring at her mouth. “I mean…”
I moved, rolling on top of her, and silencing her by kissing her. “You love me?” I asked against her lips.
She nodded, not saying anything.
“I love you too. I’ve wanted to tell you since our last night on the cruise, but I didn’t want you to get scared and not give me a chance.”
“I knew I loved you since that night too.” She smiled.
I smiled back, leaning down and kissing her again. I kissed her for a few seconds then sat up, grabbing our sandwiches and handing her one with no cheese. “Now the week is only going to be harder,” I said, taking a bite of my ham sandwich.
“I know,” she sighed with a sad smile.
I paused mid-bite. Nicole loved me. I loved her. How were we going to live apart? I couldn’t live each night alone in my bed knowing that she was hours away alone in hers. “I have an idea,” I said, setting my sandwich down.
“What’s that?” she asked around a bite of her sandwich.
“Move in with me.”
Her eyes got big and she started to choke slightly on her sandwich. This wasn’t a good sign. “Here in New York?” she finally asked when she could speak again.
“Yeah.” I shrugged. If she was going to say no, then I needed to put my guard up and not show her that it would kill me with that two letter word. I wanted the three letter one.
“Okay,” she said, shrugging back.
“Okay?” I asked, taken aback.
“Yep.” She smirked.
“You will move in with me? Here?”
“Yes.” I loved that three letter word. “But not until Brooke has her surgery. I need to be there for her.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way. Well, I would, but I understand. Next weekend, when I come visit we’re packing up all your shit.”
“Good. Because the sooner I can sell it, the sooner I can move.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.” She smiled.
“I love you so much,” I said, leaning towards her and bringing her lips to mine.
“I love you more.”
“Not a chance.” I chuckled against her lips.
After we ate, I draped her legs over mine and kissed her until it was time for her to leave to head back to Boston. One day soon, I wouldn’t have to watch her leave for Boston with my heart as she drove away for the week.
Walking hand in hand to my truck, she stopped, halting me. Looking over her shoulder she said, “I’m going to remember that tree as our tree.”
“Our tree. I like the sound of that.” I looked around then tugged her back to our tree.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“You’ll see.” I dropped her hand, reached in my jeans and took out my pocket knife that I always carried with me. She watched as I carved our initials in the bark with a heart around it. I didn’t care that I was over thirty and this was something teenagers did. Nicole was right; this was our tree. The tree where we finally professed our love.
I wanted to tell Brooke that I was moving, but I couldn’t. Part of me felt like I was leaving her behind, but I needed this. I loved Avery. I think I’d loved him since the first time we’d kissed on the side deck of the cruise ship. Everything was right about him. He made me feel things that I hadn’t felt in a really long time. He made me feel cherished.
“You were right,” I said to Brooke as I drove us back to Boston.
“About what?”
“He loves me,” I grinned.
“Shut up! Seriously?”
“Yep.”
“Did you tell him first?” she asked, smiling back at me.
“Yes, but not on purpose. It slipped out.”
“Regardless, we’re both in love with best friends. How’d that happen?”
“Fate as Jane said.”
“Yeah. She did say that, huh?” she said in a dreamy voice.
“Yep.” I smiled. I don’t think my smile had faltered since the park under the tree with pink flowers.
That would always be our tree.
Mondays.
I was starting to really hate them.
On top of it being Monday morning and not waking up in Avery’s arms once again, I had the worst heartburn. I didn’t have time to deal with heartburn. Brooke was having surgery on Friday and I needed to be well for her. By lunch time, it still hadn’t gone away. I worked for a doctor’s office and we were bound to have something stronger than the chalky Tums that weren’t helping.
“Ah,” I groaned, rubbing my chest where my heart was, as if it would help the burn go away.
“What’s the matter?” Kym asked.
“I have heartburn.”
“Still?” Jenna asked. “Didn’t you have that when you got here this morning? I saw you take some Tums.”
“Yeah, it hasn’t gone away.”
They both looked at each other, then back down to their food.
“What?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
“You want me to tell her?” Kym asked Jenna.
“Tell me what?” I asked.
“Yeah, go ahead,” Jenna said.
“You’re pregnant,” Kym said, smiling.
I laughed. “You two are full of shit.”
“No, seriously,” Jenna said. “You’ve told me that you’ve been really tired, have a weird smelling issue with cheese, and now you have heartburn.”
Kym nodded yes as I shook no in disbelief. “I can’t be pregnant. I’m on the pill.”
They both laughed. I was going to kill them.
“What’s so funny in here?” Dr. Sam asked, walking in.
Kym and Jenna stopped laughing. So did I. Shit, how do I tell my boss that I may be pregnant…and moving?
“I…uh…these two think I’m pregnant,” I blurted. Dr. Sam was more than my boss; she was like my family and she’d eventually find out if I were going to have a baby.
“Are you?” she asked, grabbing a glass and filling it with water from the water cooler.
“I’m on the pill and we use condoms if you all must know,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Then you’re good. If you just told me that you’re on the pill, then I would remind you that it’s only ninety-two percent effective. So if you’re combining the pill and a condom each time, then you have nothing to worry about.”
“Oh my God,” I gasped, covering my mouth.
“What?” all three asked in unison.
“Uh…the condom broke the first time,” I whispered behind my hands that were in front of my face, trying to hide from embarrassment.
Tired all the time—check.
Boobs hurt like a bitch—check
Smelling horrible smells around food—check.
Heartburn—check.
I left my Chinese chicken salad on the table and went down the hall to grab a pregnancy test from our storage cabinet.
I couldn’t be pregnant…could I?
I’d thought we were safe each time, and we were…besides that first night when the condom broke, but I thought we were good since I was on the pill. It never crossed my mind that I could become pregnant. I assumed everything was related to my period…my period which was late.
Shit!
With everything going on with Brooke, I didn’t think about calculating dates. I was in a new relationship with a great guy—in love with him, in fact, and my best friend had a fucking tumor. Being pregnant never once crossed my mind.
I grabbed three home pregnancy tests, figuring that if one was positive and one was negative, then the third would be correct. That was logical…right? I had ten minutes before our next
patient and I locked myself in the bathroom and took a deep breath, and stared at my reflection.
Was I going to be a mother?
Maybe I should have waited until I got home to take the tests, but I wasn’t a patient person. If I was pregnant, I needed to know now.
After I’d peed on all three test strips, I laid them on the counter with a paper towel under them and waited the longest five minutes of my life.
I wanted to call Avery and tell him. I wanted him to tell me that no matter what the test said, we’d be okay, that he’d want this baby. He told me before that he wanted children, but did he want them with me? Sure, he asked me to move in with him and he told me that he loved me, but kids were a big deal. Were we ready for an eighteen year commitment?
Biting the finger nail of my pointer finger, I stared at the countdown timer on my phone as I waited. Then doubt set it in. What if I told Avery I was pregnant and he didn’t want me anymore. What if he blamed me? What if he said that I got pregnant on purpose? All of it was ridiculous and absurd, but what if?
There I go again, living a “what if” life.
I took a calming breath. Whatever the test showed, I’d be okay with it. If I wasn’t pregnant, I wouldn’t tell Avery about this little scare. And if I was pregnant…shit was going to get real and I was still moving in with Avery no matter what he said. We would have created this baby together and I wouldn’t let him change our course because of this.
What was I saying? Avery wouldn’t do any of that. He loved me. He showed me every day, even if it was just on the phone. He also showed me in person before he said he loved me. And since he told me yesterday that he’d loved me, he’s told me several times. We would be okay.
My brain was going a hundred miles a minute while I argued with myself about what would happen. I had two seconds left before it was time to check.
I stopped the timer, took another deep breath, and picked up the first stick.
Pregnant—check.
All three strips were positive.
Shit just got real.
The best thing Easton and I ever did for the bar was promoting Bethy to manager. I couldn’t believe that we hadn’t done it before. Having the three of us switch off during the week to close gave me time to talk to Nicole before she went to bed. She still went to bed around nine at night and that didn’t work well with my schedule when I had to close the bar.
The One (The Halo Series Book 2) Page 12
