The Fall We Fell: A Small Town Friends-to-Lovers Romance (Ocean Pines Series Book 1)

by Victoria Denault

  I shake my head. “Nope. Just been busy.”

  “Cassie honey, there was a full moon the other night. You know I told you the police scanner was buzzing all night.” Of course Mrs. Green owns a police scanner. I fight the urge to roll my eyes at that as she and Cassidy walk around the side of the rocks to stand on the paved parking lot. Her eyes are filled with concern under the brim of her very wide sunhat. “How is Robbie Ellis? Heard he burned himself pretty darn good. Poor Myrtle. She’s such a good woman. Comes to church every Sunday. Don’t know where they went wrong with that boy, but I thank the good lord I got blessed with the well-behaved, god-fearing babies I did.”

  Cassidy smiles brightly but then when her mom goes back to adjusting her hat, which is fighting to stay on her head in the wind, Cassidy’s god-fearing eyes sweep over Finn’s mostly naked body with a look that is not exactly pure. “How are your sons, Mrs. Green? Eddie still in the pot business?”

  Ouch. Finn just went straight for the jugular.

  “He still works at a cannabis dispensary, yes. You know it’s perfectly legal for medicinal purposes, and he helps so many people with their health issues,” Mrs. Green says, her smile turning acidic instead of saccharine. Sure, Eddie works for a legal company now, but he still deals on the side just like in high school.. “Jake, perhaps Eddie can help you find something to help with pain management after your operation. What is it for?”

  Her green eyes are like little daggers pointed straight at me, and my stomach rolls with anxiety. Shit. She overheard Finn talking. “It’s a personal matter. Private.”

  “Privates?” Cassidy says as the wind whips her dark brown hair around her face and she struggles to pull it back. “Did you say privates?”

  Oh great. The town gossip is now going to think I’m getting penis enlargement or something. “No. I said it is private!”

  “Jake, you know that this town has always been here for you,” Mrs. Green steps a little closer and gives me a sincere smile. “Whenever your mama had … her episodes and couldn’t take care of you, people watched out for you. You can count on us again if you need something. And they’ve let you become a firefighter even with your criminal record.”

  “Two petty theft arrests under the age of eighteen is not a criminal record,” I remind her through gritted teeth. Before I can add that the first arrest was at nine, because my mom made me steal cigarettes, and the second was at fourteen when I stole from the grocery store because I was starving, Finn interrupts. “He’s donating a kidney to my sister, who is in kidney failure from her lupus.”

  My head snaps around to glare at Finn. He shrugs. “What? Everyone was going to find out eventually.”

  “Oh my lord,” Mrs. Green puts both hands to her chest. “How did I not know Terra was sick?”

  “Because she didn’t want people to know,” I say to her as the wind picks up again and Mrs. Green’s hat goes airborne. Cassidy and I chase after it. Finn tries too but almost loses his towel, so he stops, much to Cassidy’s dismay.

  I fetch the hat as it lands on a rock and carry it back to her. She smiles up at me gratefully and actually reaches up and pats my shoulder. “You are a special child Jake Maverick. You defied all the odds, had nothing stacked in your favor, but yet you made something of yourself. You should be very proud.”

  Oh God, I’m going to end up on her damn blog again.

  “It’s such a shame your mom doesn’t know what a good boy you’ve become,” Mrs. Green goes on. “Have you even seen her since you got back? She’s living in that trailer park off of Cascade Road. The one the golf course put up a huge line of hedges to block from sight because it was such an eye sore.”

  “You never told us why you are hiding out in the rocks, Mrs. G.” I say to get the topic off my mother.

  “Hiding out?” She lets loose one of those jarring giggles again. “We were exploring tide pools, just beyond the rocks. It’s where you can find sea glass at low tide. I collect it and make jewelry out of it. I have a booth booked at the Christmas Market. Be sure to come by and check it out in December. You can pick up a little something for Aspen, since you two are still… hanging out.”

  Oh hell no. She heard us.

  “You boys have a blessed day,” She and Cassidy walk over to the other car in the lot, get in and drive off.

  Finn finishes pulling off his wetsuit. I stand there numb from panic and fighting the urge to puke. “She heard you say I slept with Aspen.”

  “Maybe not,” Finn replies, tugging on some sweats under his towel. Nausea rolls through my belly like the waves on the ocean a few feet away. “Maybe she just heard me saying you were hanging out with her on your last day for sex.”

  “I’m gonna puke,” I announce and bolt to the garbage can by the restroom entrance, making it just in time.

  “Shit, you still do that?” Finn remarks, surprised. I don’t have much in my stomach so it doesn’t take long to empty it. When I stand up, Finn is fully clothed now in a hoodie and sweats and he reaches into his car and tosses me a pack of gum. “I didn’t know you still had that nervous stomach thing.”

  “It comes and goes,” I mutter and unwrap a stick of gum.

  I toss the pack back to him and walk back to the car and finish changing too. I pull on some black sweats with the OPFD logo on them and a charcoal Henley and shove my feet into some sneakers.

  “Listen, even if she heard the Aspy part, she’s got a bigger scoop now. Hawkins kid gets kidney transplant from award-winning firefighter. That’s the real scoop.”

  “Terra is going to kill you for telling her,” I remind him.

  Finn doesn’t look the least bit worried. “Let’s be honest, in this town, it’s a miracle no one found out she was sick before now. And when both of you are wandering around town all stitched up and stuff, people are gonna talk. Now we’re controlling the message. It’s a PR move.”

  “I’m sorry, but who are you? You look like Finn and Logan but you sound like Declan,” I ask cocking my head to the side and squinting like I truly don’t recognize him.

  He gives me a shove and laughs. “Don’t tell Deck but sometimes I listen when he talks.”

  “I gotta go meet Aspen,” I tell him. “You better tell Terra Mrs. Green knows before it ends up on the blog.” He nods and waves as he jumps into his SUV and I slide into the Jeep. Ten minutes later, I’m back on the beach but at the other end in front of the Five Seasons hotel. It’s the newest building in Ocean Pines, and the tallest at ten stories. It was built to blend with the historic town so on the outside it’s wood shingles and wrap-around verandas like a mansion more than a hotel, but inside it’s all modern rooms with gleaming marble and posh furnishings. Aspen is beside me and Major is bouncing like a lunatic in front of us as I hold up a tennis ball.

  “Just a couple throws, Jake. Major is an old boy now and he will start limping if we throw it too much,” Aspen explains. Her curly hair is plopped up haphazardly on top of her head. She’s not wearing makeup and there are shadows under her eyes.

  I toss the ball and Major takes off like a rocket. “How long until you can get into your old place again?”

  “Still fighting with the insurance companies, mine and the building’s,” Aspen sighs. “I’m looking at other options now. Get a whole new place.”

  “And working a lot I see?” I say and nod toward the circles under her eyes.

  She gives me a wry smile. “Always know how to make a girl feel special, Jake.”

  “Sorry,” I mutter. “You need to take extra care of yourself now.”

  “I know. I am, I promise. But you’ve got me worried about you now,” she counters and pulls her phone from her pocket and shows me the screen. “You text me last night to confirm the meeting today and added something crazy about needing me to be your emergency contact. Isn’t that what the twins are for?”

  “They can’t be my person for this,” I reply vaguely and take a deep breath. “But before we get into that I wanted to talk to you about a patern
ity test again.”

  “Fuck, Jake. You’re a broken record,” Aspen complains as Major drops his tennis ball a few feet ahead of us and charges at the crashing surf. He loves trying to bite the waves as they roll in. “I’ve been busy trying to salvage what’s left of my apartment and find a new place and battle corrupt insurance companies while also working for them, catching the people that defraud them and make them leery of genuine claimants like myself. Oh and barfing and feeling like I’ve been run over by a parade of Mack trucks. I’ve been busy doing that too.”

  “I’m sorry but I need to know sooner rather than later,” I say, trying to sound firm but not like an asshole. “I have a lot of big things happening in my life right now and how and what I decide to do hinges on knowing if this is part of my future.”

  Aspen stops too and bends to pick up the tennis ball that is now at our feet. Major leaves the waves alone and dances expectantly on his paws waiting for her to throw it. She does and he bolts after it. “I’ll get the blood test with you.”

  “Really?”

  She nods curtly.

  “Thanks. I really appreciate it.”

  “Now explain this whole emergency contact stuff and why it isn’t the twins, or Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins.”

  “Finn is my emergency contact for work. Has been for years,” I explain as Major runs up the beach to the drier sand and starts to dig. There’s a couple of women up there on one of the benches by the dunes. Aspen squints to get a better look and make sure Major isn’t giving them a sand bath. Luckily, he’s not.

  “But this is for the hospital because I need an operation and Terra is having an operation at the same time. Every member of the Hawkins family will be concerned with her, so I can’t … won’t ask them to be there for me, too.”

  Aspen puts two fingers in her mouth and whistles and Major stops digging and runs right back. We continue walking and he’s glued to her side, tennis ball in his mouth, tail wagging. “What the hell do you need an operation for? And what does Terra need one for? And how the hell is it at the same time?”

  “I’m donating a kidney. To Terra”

  Aspen stops walking. “Holy shit, Jake. Terra needs a kidney?”

  “Not for long. In forty-eight hours she’ll have mine,” I reply and brace for impact because Aspen is going to blow.

  “Are you insane? That’s a major surgery! And what if you damage the one they leave in you at your highly dangerous job?” Aspen rants at me, her arms flailing to accentuate her words. “If you only have one, you can’t take risks. And all you ever do, Jake, is take risks. You have always put everyone else’s needs before your own. It’s like you don’t believe you’re as valuable as everyone else, especially the Hawkins.”

  “Take a breath, Aspen,” I say and try not to be offended by her words.. “Tell me you wouldn’t give her one if you could. Tell me you’d let her suffer, even now, with your seemingly endless grudge match. Tell me to my face you wouldn’t give Terra a kidney if you could.”

  Aspen’s lips form a flat line and she looks up at the pale blue sky above us. “Of course I would. I still love her like a sister even if I hate her.”

  She starts walking again, the frown on her face turning into a bit of a smile. A wry one. “So I get a baby and she gets a kidney. Aren’t you a generous boy, Jake?”

  “Not funny.”

  “A little funny,” she argues and then pauses, tiling her head to the side. “So I have contacts at the hospital. Chatty nurses who love to gossip if I buy them some Dunkin’. I use them for cases, but I sometimes get info I don’t need. One of them told me Robbie Ellis burned his eyebrows off and when he was being treated, he mentioned seeing you making out with some girl in the woods by his house.”

  “He was drunk.”

  “He said the girl was, and I quote, ‘some tiny, little thing.’” Aspen cocks an eyebrow. “He said he thought you two were gonna go at it like bears in mating season.”

  I rub the back of my neck with my hand and focus on Major. “You and I are not together, Aspen. I’m allowed to kiss anyone I want.”

  “You kissed Terra.”

  “Yes.” I reply, my voice calm, but hard.

  She frowns. “Her brothers didn’t want you going anywhere near her, remember?”

  “We were kids when they threatened to disown me. I’m sure that’s changed, and if it hasn’t, I don’t care.” I stare back at her, confident. I won’t be bullied or talked out of my feelings for Terra now like I was as a kid.

  “Speaking of those brothers, can’t they donate? Or can’t another one of her loving, supportive family members do it instead of you?” Aspen asks and there’s definitely pain in her voice. She won’t look at me now, her eyes focused ahead on Major who is attacking the waves again.

  “None are a viable option, but I am.”

  “I’ve always been jealous of that, you know?” Aspen says quietly, eyes on the sand in front of us. “The way she has so many people who love her unconditionally. That, by the way, is part of what ruined our friendship.”

  This is more than I’ve ever gotten out of Aspen. “I know your senior year food fight that turned your friendship to rubble wasn’t about a prom dress.”

  “Nope. It was about a prom date,” Aspen admits freely now like she hasn’t been hiding it from me for a decade. “Terra had parents who loved her unconditionally, brothers who supported and protected her, a town that seemed to know who she was everywhere she went and adored her. The only person to ever not love Terra Hawkins was you. When you turned her down in that closet. Jealous, infantile me wanted the one thing she couldn’t have. So I asked you to prom and I sunk my claws in.”

  “So you were using me to hurt her?”

  “No. You were hot and sweet and I was totally, honestly into you,” Aspen clarifies. “But I knew she was still into you despite the fact that she pretended she hated you, and I went for you anyway. Broke the girl code. Obliterated a twelve-year friendship. And in the end, I didn’t even get the guy.”

  She stops walking and turns back to me. I think she might cry, and I start to feel guilty but I shouldn’t. She’s hurt herself and she knows it. I was just kind of an unwitting pawn. Man, I was stupid. “Aspen, it’s never too late to try and mend fences.”

  “So back to this emergency contact stuff,” she changes the subject without blinking. “I’m supposed to find out if you’re the dad of my baby and then pull the plug on you?”

  “There won’t be any plug-pulling. It’s honestly just a precaution,” I reply but suddenly asking her feels selfish. “I swear. The doctor called it a formality.”

  “Nope. Can’t do it.” She starts to march back up the beach to the boardwalk, Major following dutifully.

  I panic and blurt out the cold hard truth. “Aspen, if it isn’t you then it has to be my mom. I don’t have anyone else.”

  She stops dead in her tracks, swears, and turns to face me. She wants to tell me off. I can feel it as strong as the wind blowing around us, but she doesn’t. God bless her, she doesn’t. “I’ll do it but only if you let me wait until after the op for the blood test. I can’t … I won’t be able to do it if I know one hundred percent this kid is ours. It will be impossible, and you would be a heartless asshole to put me in that spot. So pick it. Paternity test now or emergency contact-slash-potential-plug-puller?”

  I want to push her to do both but I know Aspen can’t be pushed. When she sets boundaries, they’re as solid as cement walls. “Plug puller.”

  “Email me whatever the hell I have to sign, then. Goddamnit.”

  She turns and I stand and watch her until she disappears down off the beach. Major looks back at me with sympathy, I swear, but stays with Aspen.

  I exhale loudly and stare at the surf.

  14

  Jake

  I’ve been standing in my kitchen staring at the contents of my fridge without really seeing anything for a good ten minutes. We check into the hospital tomorrow at four in the afternoon. The operation
is scheduled for the following morning. I’ve been poked, prodded, evaluated, and have peed in more cups than I can count for over a month, but we’re finally here.

  I grab a beer from the fridge, twist off the top and then stare at it. Am I allowed to drink right now? Is it too close to surgery? I walk into the dining room and start to check the pre-op papers the transplant coordinator gave me. I think I would have remembered a no alcohol rule, but I riffle through them anyway. I can drink, moderately, tonight … but the sex thing is right there in black and white, mocking me. No sex for four weeks post-op or longer if the doctor advises it.

  My doorbell rings.

  I’m not expecting anyone. But I figure maybe it’s Logan or Aspen, so I swing open the door without hesitation and Terra barges right into my apartment. I watch her tiny, little butt wiggle as she marches past me into the living room. She looks around. “You’re alone?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay. Well, Mrs. Green just told the world on her stupid blog that you’re giving me a kidney,” Terra declares.

  “Yeah … I knew that was coming.”

  Her eyes flare. “And you didn’t tell me?”

  “I’ve been sorting through some shit. I had a few things to settle before the operation. And besides, I thought you were ignoring me because of the whole thing Finn told you the other night,” I tell her. “And just for the record, Mrs. Green finding out was also Finn’s big mouth, not mine.”

  “Oh I know. He owned up to it and she named her sources on the blog, like the good fake journalist she thinks she is,” Terra replies and starts to fold her arms across her chest but winces and drops them to her sides, hands in fists. “I hate that everyone knows.”

  “So … are we talking again? Are you going to let me explain?” I ask and watch as she starts pacing back and forth beside my couch. I still have a couple of boxes I haven’t bothered to unpack, so she has to dodge them.

  “Explain that you got together with Aspen somehow even though you lived over seven hours away?” She stops pacing and starts bouncing on her Ugg covered feet just a little bit.