by Frank, Ella
“No, actually. Harry died and I found out I have a son.”
Their stunned faces might’ve been comical had the topic not been so damn serious.
“A…a son?” Mom looked to Justin and Brianna as though they could help clear this up, and when they had nothing, she turned to Ryan, who was watching me.
Then, finally, she turned back to me. “What do you mean you have a son?”
“A baby. A boy. A son, Mom. A child I knew nothing about, courtesy of Harry.” My words echoed around the shed as thunder did across a stormy sky, and the damage that was about to follow was something none of us could avoid. “You all know him quite well, actually. Better than I do.”
Ryan cursed, spun on his heel, and walked away, kicking at the tire of one of the tractors.
“We all know— Jake…” Mom brought her hands to her mouth and looked as though she was going to be sick, and boy could I relate to that feeling.
On the plus side, she seemed just as shocked as I’d been. So maybe she really was just oblivious to everything that asshole had done. It made me wonder, though, what other secrets were rattling around in Harry’s closet?
Justin pushed off the table and straightened. “Jake? Laurel’s Jake? He’s your…” He took a good look at my face. “Fucking hell.”
Yeah, that about covered it.
Brianna frowned. “How is that even—”
“Possible?” I said, turning to my sister. “If we have to tell you that, I don’t think that fancy school of yours is doing a good job.”
“I know how, but this is Jake. Him and Laurel are here every day. How could we not know that?”
How indeed? But when we all looked to Mom, she shook her head.
“This can’t be real.”
“Oh, it’s real,” I said. “I’ve just spent the morning talking to Laurel. Talking to Jake. Think about it, Mom, think. The morning after graduation, Harry sent me away. He didn’t want me anywhere near Laurel. How do you think he would’ve responded when she showed up months later telling him she was pregnant?”
“No. He would’ve told me.”
“About a grandson he didn’t want in his life and knew you’d never turn away? Sorry, but Harry’s pulled too much shit too many times. There’s no way what Laurel told me is anything but the truth. And you know what makes it worse?”
The sallow coloring of my mom’s face told me that she didn’t think it could get much worse.
“He bought her silence with blackmail against her dying mother. What a guy, right?”
My stomach twisted around on itself as everyone stood there in stunned disbelief. What I’d just told them was shocking. It was horrifying. And now, it was finally out in the open.
They would have to work out how they wanted to deal with all of that, though, because right now I wanted to be as far away from here as possible—and I wanted to get back to Jake and see if there was any chance that he was interested in getting to know me.
“I’m taking the rest of the day off. Maybe the rest of the week, I don’t know. Laurel won’t be here either, so don’t expect to see her until she’s ready to come back—if she ever is.”
I walked toward the door, but just before I left, I said, “I hope to God that one day I’ll understand why Harry was such a miserable son of a bitch. But until then, I’m going to take immense pleasure in believing that he’s rotting away somewhere in hell watching his grand plan fail.”
36
Noah
I STARED AT the back door of Wilhelmina’s and took a minute to just close my eyes and fucking breathe. This morning had been…a lot.
A lot of information.
A lot of emotions.
And a lot of feelings to process.
I had a son. A son. And that was…
It was amazing.
Scary as hell, but amazing all the same, and I needed to fall into that feeling, not the anger that kept trying to creep back in. I could deal with that later. Right now, I wanted to marvel in the fact that the most wonderful woman in the world had given me the most precious gift I would ever receive—and she’d done it all on her own.
Laurel… Wow. What she must have gone through and dealt with day in and day out at such a young age, I couldn’t even imagine. Add to that the pain of losing her mother and the burden of Harry’s fucked-up deal, and I had no idea how she’d survived.
But she had. In fact, she’d thrived. She’d carved out a highly successful career for herself, made a beautiful home for her family to grow up in, and raised a young man that everyone sang the praises of.
I’d been wrong earlier in thinking the girl I’d known was gone, because she was the foundation of the exquisite woman who now stood in her place.
I hit Laurel’s number and waited for it to connect, and the second her voice came through the phone, my chest tightened and a smile crossed my lips.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Laurel.”
“Noah.”
My name in her voice was like music to my ears, and I almost asked her to say it again just so I could feel the warm rush it sent through me.
“Hey.”
She chuckled softly. “I believe we already covered that.”
“So we did.”
She paused, and I imagined her standing at one of those large windows of that house, staring out at the trees in her yard.
“How did it go? Are you okay?”
It was a testament to the kind of woman Laurel was that she was concerned for my feelings after all that my family had put her through. But here she was, worrying, caring, offering more compassion than she should to the son of a man who had made her life a living hell.
“It went…as expected. You were right. Mom had no idea. She’s pretty upset about it. Ryan? I think he knew all along and is dealing with that. Justin and Bree I have no clue, and honestly, I’m too busy trying to process my own feelings to worry about theirs. They’re going to have to deal with this on their own, as far as I’m concerned. I can’t hold their hands through it. I’m too damn angry.”
“I can understand that.”
I was sure she could. She must hate my family for what they’d done. How she worked with them day in and day out was beyond me.
“But Noah?”
“Hmm?”
“Keep an open mind with them. They didn’t know. Just like you. And I’m sure they’re feeling very angry and betrayed. Upset at me—”
“Why the hell would they be upset with you?”
“I lied to them for years.”
“No,” I said. “You were blackmailed for years. That’s a big difference, Laurel. You have nothing to be sorry for. And if they try to say otherwise, you come and see me.”
She went quiet, and I knew her well enough to know that she was probably wondering if she’d done the right thing back then. If maybe she could’ve done something different.
But there was no changing the past, just learning to deal with it, and right now I wanted to do something I’d never done before.
“Hey, Laurel?”
“Yes?”
“Jake—he’s on the baseball team in high school, isn’t he?”
I could all but hear her smile as she said, “Yes, he’s the pitcher. Just like you were.”
Her words brought me up short, and I lost my train of thought as the full impact of them hit me. Jake was a pitcher, just like me.
“Noah?”
“Huh? Oh, sorry. I was gonna see if he’d like to meet me over at the field. We could hit a few balls.”
“I think he’d love that.”
“As in hitting balls out of the field and not at my head, right?”
Laurel started laughing, and I couldn’t help but join in. “Either way, I think he’d enjoy it. What time should I tell him to meet you?”
“Um…” I looked at the clock on the dash of my car. “About an hour? I’ll get dressed and head on over.”
“Sounds good. I’ll tell him to meet you there. And Noah?”
/>
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
Thank you?
“For not blaming him. For wanting to know him, when others might’ve—”
“Laurel?”
“Yes.”
“He’s yours—”
“And yours.”
“I know. But either way, I’d want to know him just for that. Tell him I’ll see him in an hour. And hopefully I’ll see you not long after, with all my teeth in place.”
“I look forward to it.”
“So do I. See you then.”
AN HOUR LATER, I stood center field and tossed the ball in and out of my mitt. The sun was shining now, and it looked like it was going to be a nice day. I could only hope that was a glimpse of things to come.
The sound of an engine rumbling made me look over to see Laurel’s car pulling up to the curb. It came to a stop, and Jake pushed open the door and climbed out.
It was strange looking at him now, knowing who he was, because I could very plainly see he was younger than I’d first thought. Yes, he was tall, my height exactly, but he still had that young-man look about him. He hadn’t quite grown into himself yet, but that would come in a couple more years or so.
With a bat in one hand and a mitt in the other, he walked across the field with a confident stride, and I thought it proof of a loving mother and good parenting that even though he must be a little nervous—or hell, maybe a lot—he still held himself tall.
“Hey,” I called out as he got closer, and I smirked when I noted the baseball cap sitting backward on his head. It was crazy how much of yourself you could see in someone when you knew to look.
“Hey,” Jake said as he came to a stop opposite me, and I went back to tossing the ball in and out of my glove. “Mom said you wanted to hit the ball around.”
“Yeah, well, I was thinking maybe a redo of Sunday, since you were kind of aiming for my head.”
Jake scoffed but toed the ground as though he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t. “I wasn’t aiming for your head.”
“No?”
“No.” Jake looked up at me with a smirk. “If I’d been aiming for your head, I would’ve hit it.”
That made me laugh. “You know, I actually believe you. You’re good.”
“The best at my school.”
“Uh huh, so was I.”
“Yeah, Mom said.”
Did she now? Well, that made me feel pretty damn good. “I thought maybe I could help you out a bit. On your fastball.”
“Really?”
“Yep. What speed are you trying to beat?”
Jake pinned me with a competitive stare if ever I’d seen one. “Yours.”
So it was like that, huh? I let out a whistle and nodded. “A hundred and one miles per hour is damn fast.”
“So is one hundred, but you did it.”
“You looked it up?”
“I did. The night of the baseball game.”
Oh yeah, this kid was just like me. Competitive through and through. “Well, let’s see what we can do.”
I reached for the bat he held, and before he let it go, he said, “You really didn’t know about me?”
My heart felt as though it got lodged somewhere in my throat. I looked into eyes the same as mine and shook my head. “I really didn’t. If I had, I would’ve been back here quicker than you can imagine.”
Jake stared me down as if trying to get read on me. “Harry was an asshole.”
The words were so honest and so spot-on that I couldn’t help but laugh. “I would’ve said bastard, but that works just as good. And you’re right, he was the worst. I’ve spent my whole life trying to be the exact opposite of him, and I’d like to try to do that with you as well.”
Jake let go of the bat, and I handed over the ball.
“I know I haven’t been here. That I’ve missed absolutely everything. But I’m here now, and I’m not going anywhere. I’d like to try to get to know you. I want you to get to know me.”
Jake swallowed and nodded, but, keeping true to his age, he kept his answer short and sweet. “That’d be good.”
“Good.”
He stepped around me and headed toward the pitcher’s mound, but halfway there he stopped and looked back at me.
“You gonna start dating my mom?”
Yes. Yes I was. “That okay with you?”
Jake shrugged but nodded. “It’s cool. But if you hurt her, I’ll kick your ass.”
As he turned to keep on walking, I couldn’t help but smile. I would’ve said the exact same thing.
He had nothing to worry about, though, because I’d come to realize over the past couple of weeks that I loved Laurel. I always had, and once this all settled down, I was going to make sure she knew it.
37
Laurel
THE SOUND OF Jake’s car tires on the gravel a couple hours later made me shut my book and look to the front door.
I’d been a nervous wreck all morning wondering how his and Noah’s first real get-together would go, and now that they were back, I couldn’t wait to grill Jake about it. I listened intently for footsteps up the stairs and then waited for the door to open. When I heard a knock instead, I frowned and put my book aside.
A quick look out the window showed Jake reversing back out of the drive. When I finally opened the door, Noah grinned.
“Hey there.”
“Hey…” My gaze shifted over his shoulder as I watched Jake drive away. “Where does he think he’s going?”
“Um, he told me anywhere but here.”
“Oh, did he now?”
Noah nodded. “He did. Said he’d find something to occupy himself until… Is it Caleb?”
“Yes.”
“Until Caleb got home from school. He said he’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.”
“Uh huh.” Seemed that my—our—kid had decided to give us some alone time. He was perceptive, that one, and too smart for his own good. “In that case, would you like to come in?”
“I would, but first…” Noah reached out, cradled my cheeks, and moved in to press a soft, sweet kiss to my lips. I felt all of the stress and worry from the past couple days lift.
“Now do you want to come in?”
Noah raised his head and nodded. I stepped aside, and when he walked by, I took a second to inhale his delicious cologne. God, he smelled amazing. So damn good that I would’ve been happy to curl up in his lap and sit there for the rest of the day.
But more than that, I just wanted to be with him. In the same room talking, listening, learning about him. With everything now out in the open, I felt a freedom I’d never had before, and I wanted to bask in it and enjoy it.
“Did you two have a good time?”
Noah walked into my living room and looked around the space, and seeing him there did funny things to my insides. Too many times I’d imagined him here, standing by one of the windows or sitting on the couch beside me, and to see him there now was almost surreal.
“Laurel?”
“Huh?” I blinked and refocused on Noah where he stood by my coffee table with my book in hand.
“I said I think it went well. I still have all my teeth. I’m sure you’ll get a more honest answer when you talk to him.”
“Well, he drove you home, so I’d say that’s a step in the right direction.”
“Home?”
My cheeks flamed when I realized what I’d just said. “I mean my home, Jake’s home.”
Noah smirked and held up my book. “A romance, huh?”
My blush intensified. “Hey, don’t make fun of me. Everyone loves a good romance.”
“That might be true,” he said, and tossed the book on the couch before crossing back to me. “But me, I want a great romance.”
My heart thumped as Noah ran his fingers down my cheek.
“You’re my great romance, Laurel.” He lowered his mouth to brush his lips over mine. “You always have been.”
Oh God. I closed my e
yes as Noah took my lips, and I couldn’t stop my hands from trembling as I reached for him. He was here. Really here. After everything he’d learned, everything that had happened, Noah was standing in the house that I’d always pictured us in…kissing me.
I clutched at his shoulders and moved to my toes. When he raised his head and rubbed his nose against mine, I let out a soft laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. I’m just happy, that’s all. With you, me, and Jake. It’s more than I ever hoped for, and I just want to enjoy that for a few minutes.”
Noah nodded and rubbed a thumb over my lips. “So… He’s really ours?”
“He is.”
“I’m not gonna lie, that’s going to take me a minute to wrap my head around. But one thing I know for sure?”
“Yeah?”
“He’s pretty damn amazing.”
Oh, Jake would just love hearing that. “He is, but maybe don’t tell him.”
“You are too, you know.”
I shook my head and lowered my gaze, shying away from the emotions I still wasn’t sure I deserved. “No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are. You raised a really great kid, Laurel. And from what everyone says, you did it all on your own.” He tipped my face back up so we were eye to eye. “Thank you for that.”
“Thank you?”
“Yes. Thank you for him. For loving him, raising him, having him when you must’ve been terrified.” Noah rested his forehead on mine. “I only wish I could’ve been here to help.”
38
Noah
“DON’T YOU DO that.” Laurel pulled back to look me in the eye. “I know you would’ve been here if you’d known. You didn’t have a choice. That was not your fault in any way.”
God, she was sweet. So damn sweet that even now she was taking the blame for something she’d had no control over herself.
“It wasn’t yours either.”
She let out a shaky breath and curled her hands around the material of my shirt as though she were afraid to let me go. But nothing in the world could’ve stopped me from tasting those sweet lips.
