SWNOVELS HUGE STEPS: Chapter 24
My hand still stings after slapping the hell out of Cody’s face the moment he tried to force me to kiss him back under the gazebo. He was mad. I guess I never said no to him before about anything. It felt so damn good. When he realized that I wasn’t going to accept his proposal and there was nothing he could say to make me change my mind, he got nasty.
“You know I was seeing someone else while we were together,” he snarls. “That’s why I didn’t turn up to the engagement. I was with her.”
He thinks that telling me this now is going to hurt me but if anything it does the opposite. It cements what I already thought I knew; that Cody is worthless and nasty and I am so completely better off without him.
He’s lucky I didn’t sic Dad on him.
I’m tempted to now.
I was going to relax after working on my feet all day, but after dealing with Cody’s skeevy moves, all I really want to do is to crawl into bed and pass out. Preferably with my boys. Just the thought of snuggling up between their broad chests calms me down, and it’s all I can do to keep from running over there.
I check my hair in the mirror, tugging my fingers through it to try and remove at least some of the knots, and shove my keys into my pocket. I make it all the way across the street to where the truck’s parked, and see Jared and Jamie slowly walking out of the house wearing completely unreadable expressions on their matching faces. They look really pissed at something.
‘Hey.’ I give them a little wave and plaster on a smile. Ugh, I can still smell Cody’s copious amounts of heavy aftershave as if he’s still right next to me, breathing in my ear. Hopefully, they won’t catch a whiff.
My smile disappears, though when they turn their grim expressions on me. I don’t know what it is yet, but my skin prickles. ‘What’s wrong?’
Jamie’s eyes narrow carefully at me as he’s very obviously working on what he wants to say, so as usual,
Jared’s the first to speak up. ‘If you wanted to get back together with Cody, you should have told us.’
I stare at him. ‘What? What are you talking about?’
Jamie’s thick biceps flex as he folds his arms across his chest. ‘We saw you two, Abigail,’ he says, my full name sounding utterly wrong coming from him. ‘We know he went by to see you this morning because we ran into him. The smug bastard went on about how things were going to work out between you. We thought he was full of shit and that you’d set him straight but then you plan some sort of meet up with him in the park.’
I know that there’s a stronger point here to make, but I keep imagining Jamie and Jared secretly following me around without my knowledge. They…they wouldn’t! Would they?
‘How do you know about that?’ I can barely bring my voice above a whisper.
“We saw you, Abi.”
“You were in the park?” I ask.
For a second Jared looks sheepish, and I know. They followed me and at least Jared has the decency to look embarrassed about it.
“So you’re getting back with him?” Jamie says, his voice low and angry.
I take a step back. “I can’t believe you two,” my voice shakes. “Had you done the responsible and respectable thing and just waited until I came to you, you’d know that I had no idea it was Cody I was meeting up with in the park, I thought it was you. But you think it’s okay to spy on me without even letting me know you’re there!” My stomach roils but I swallow it back. “You two must think I’m some naïve idiot if you think I’d ever take Cody back. Even if things hadn’t happened with the three of us, I’d never in a million years want to be with Cody again.” I level my gaze with them, not backing down as they both look away, embarrassed. Irritation prickles across my skin.
Jamie reaches out to me, clasping his hand around my elbow, his eyes wide. “I’m sorry, Abi.” His eyes dart between me and his brother. “We…jumped to some conclusions.”
Jared takes a few steps closer to us. “We’re the idiots. And you’re right, we shouldn’t have done something so immature. We just couldn’t stand the thought of him trying to manipulate you again.”
“I can handle myself, Jared.” I take in a deep breath, suddenly unsure about everything. Relief is written across their faces, but I’m not ready to just make nice. I start pacing back and forth alongside the truck. It’s like I want to jump out of my own skin. “Cody never trusted me. He was always worried that I would cheat on him, or leave him for someone else. Maybe it’s because he knew he was a terrible boyfriend and he was doing those things himself, I don’t know. Funny how he turned out to be the one cheating…,” I say. “And then when I told him I was pregnant, he tried to get back down on his knees, literally begging me for me to take him back. I told him there was no way in hell I’d let him raise my child that wasn’t even his, to begin with, and he had the nerve to call me a slut. He’ll probably be wearing that nice handprint on his face for the next few days if I had to guess.”
“That motherfucker. We knew he probably ran around on you, the way he carried on…” Jamie hisses.
I hold up my hand so he shuts up. “That doesn’t excuse any of what you did, though, and I don’t think it’s smart to head into another relationship like that with someone—let alone two someones! I refuse to be thought of and treated that way again.”
Jamie’s shaking his head, panic clear as crystal on his face, while Jared gets closer to me again, meeting my eyes. “Abi, please, it’s not like that at all. We trust you. It’s Cody we didn’t trust. We saw him and he said you were getting back together. We were worried that he was putting pressure on you and that you might feel like you owed him a second chance. You’re having our baby.” He says the last bit and looks around as though he’s worried who might be catching bits of our conversation. “Can you just…can you please come inside?” He gestures to the house behind him. “Let’s talk in private.”
“I don’t know,” I say. “I don’t really have anything else to say.”
“But we do,” Jamie says. “We’ve got plenty to tell you and show you.”
The truth is that as much as I want to keep being mad about all this, I feel so damned tired all of the sudden. Too much is happening in my life right now and it’s overwhelming. “All right,” I sigh. I desperately want us to work things out but I wasn’t lying when I said I refuse to be treated like that.
But the idea of talking more dies when I step inside their house that looks less like a bachelor pad and more like a baby-registry come to life.
There are huge piles of bags all around their living room, filled to the brim with baby things, blankets, stuffed animals, clothes, even pacifiers from what I can see overflowing. Not to mention the two large boxes of the two smallest sized diapers. In the middle of the assortment of bags are huge boxes with pictures of a fancy stroller, a 3-in-1 changing table, and a gorgeous cherrywood-colored crib. All the kinds of things that a proud first-time dad would get, and then some.
I blink once, twice, and again. My eyes well up almost instantly, and something flutters in my chest as I walk up to the nearest bag and pull out the softest fleece blanket with little yellow stars on it. It’s not hard to imagine a sweet little baby wrapped up in it, cuddling close against me and while the cautious part of me knows it might be a little soon to get everything prepared like this, I don’t even care.
“You…you did all of this? Today?” Mm, the blanket even smells sweet and clean.
Both of them nod solemnly, still waiting.
As I peek into the rest of the bag, catching glimpses of more soft, fluffy blankets, it’s like my heart is knocking on my brain’s door, telling it to hurry the hell up and get with the program. That the boys mean it—they really do want this.
And I’ve never felt such happiness and panic swell up inside me like this before.
Spinning around on my feet, I face them, my heart racing at the words tumble out. “I don’t know what to say…I’m sorry. I understand why you might have gotten the wrong idea, and it makes sense that you were worried.” I hate how I keep tripping over every syllable, my throat dry while my eyes are wet. “And now I just…I never imagined that this could happen…and oh god, it feels like I’m way too close to losing all of it at any second. Like you’ll leave me too, and all of it will be gone, like so much else has gone in my life…”
Suddenly, I miss my mom so much. I have a child growing inside me. The grandchild she will never hold and there is so much I wish I could ask her.
Jamie and Jared are close in a flash, arms surrounding me, hands stroking my hair, wiping my tears away. They have me between them, and it’s just what I need. Jared softly cups my cheek and I lean into it, my eyes fluttering shut under his touch. Jamie’s behind me, his chin on top of my head, listening too.
‘You’re never, ever going to have to worry about losing us, okay? Jared’s eyes are fierce and I want so much to believe him. “We’re gonna be with you for every single doctor’s appointment, every single weird craving, every backrub you’ll need.”
Jamie chuckles. ‘I’m definitely here for any special kind of cravings.’
Trust him to try and lower the tone. I’m just about to swat at him, sniffing but smiling and his silly humor when the sound of an engine roars along the road. It stops right outside the twins house and two doors slam shut almost immediately. All of us turn to the window just in time to see Natalie storming up to the house with my dad right behind her.