They could talk about anything. They’d always been able to talk about anything.
And the sex.
Fuck.
The sex was out of this world.
He knew Em wasn’t as experienced as he was, and if it wouldn’t remind her that he’d slept around, he’d yell at her about how sex like the sex between them came around once in a blue moon.
The urge to say those words was strong, but thankfully, the hostess returned to lead them to their table before Jack said anything stupid. As they walked through the small restaurant, Jack noted the glass wall beyond the bar counter. It revealed exactly what was going on the kitchen. Only a chef who had nothing to hide would install a feature like that.
And the kitchen was state of the art. It gleamed like a brand-new penny. Jack’s eyes danced over the people in chef whites, noting one of them, a big, tall guy, was watching them go by. Jack’s gaze moved forward to watch Em walk ahead of him, her gorgeous ass swaying. She was wearing another clingy dress that made him think about doing very naughty things to her.
Aunt Amelia was right. You could not tell Em was pregnant from the back. But then she turned to take her seat and he took in the sight of her small bump pushing against the fabric of the stretchy black dress.
She was seriously killing him with these tight dresses.
Pregnant Emery did it for him like no woman had ever done it for him.
Emery caught the look in his eyes as they took their seats, and her cheeks turned a little pink. She read him like a book. “Stop it,” she murmured under her breath before looking down at her menu.
“Emery?” a deep, masculine voice said before Jack could reply.
They looked up to find the chef who’d been watching them behind the glass now standing by their table, gazing down at Em with a smile on his face. The chef was tall, though not as tall as Jack, and broad-shouldered. Jack would go out on a limb and say he was also a handsome guy.
And he was smiling the whitest smile Jack had ever seen at Emery.
Like he knew her.
Like he liked what he knew.
What the hell?
“Sebastian.” Emery grinned back at him in familiarity. “How are you? I’m so sorry it’s taken me this long to come to your restaurant.”
Sebastian.
Sebastian Mercier.
The guy who owned The Boardwalk.
How did he know Em?
Jack watched as the chef put his hand on the back of Emery’s chair and leaned into her a little. He watched, and he didn’t like what he was seeing.
“Well, you seem to have an excellent excuse.” His dark eyes dipped to her belly. “Congratulations.”
She blushed prettily.
Like how she blushed for Jack.
Jealousy roared through Jack before he could stop it. “I’m the father,” he bit out.
They both looked at him in surprise, as if finally remembering he was there.
Sebastian caught the ominous look in Jack’s eyes and pushed away from Emery. He held out a hand to Jack. “Sebastian Mercier. Head chef and owner of The Boardwalk.”
Reluctantly, Jack shook his hand. “Jack Devlin.”
The chef raised an eyebrow. “No relation to Ian Devlin?”
“Yeah, what of it?” he snapped.
“Jack,” Emery reprimanded.
“Oh, I meant no offense,” Sebastian said casually, as if unaffected by Jack’s sharp tone. “Can I help you with the menu? Recommendations?”
Before Jack could politely tell him to fuck off back to his kitchen, a voice cut through the restaurant.
“Emery, Jack!”
Seeing Em’s eyes widen to a spot over his shoulder, Jack turned to watch Cat Lawson hurrying through the restaurant, her cheeks flushed, her hair wild with the wind, her eyes filled with worry.
“Are you all right?” Sebastian stepped into her path as she approached. Jack was already rising from his seat.
Cat threw Sebastian a startled look, her eyes growing round as she took him in. She seemed struck mute for a second before she said, “And who are you, handsome?”
Sebastian grinned and opened his mouth to respond, but Jack cut him off. “Cat.” He took hold of her arm. “What’s wrong?”
Cat jerked her blue gaze from the chef to Jack. “I was hurrying to my car and I saw you guys in here. Quick, we gotta go. Jess’s water broke!”
Jesus Christ.
Jack immediately moved the three of them into action. They created a bit of hubbub getting out of the restaurant, Jack wanting to hurry but not wanting to hurry Em. As they strode quickly down the boards to Main Street, Em asked Cat where Joey was.
“Piano lessons. I was at Antonio’s when Coop called. I’ll pick up Joey first and meet you at the hospital.” She hurried to the opposite side of the street where Jack’s truck was parked. Stopping at her Ford, she yelled across, “Hey, Em!”
“Yeah?” Em called back as Jack yanked open the passenger side door for her.
“Who was the tall drink of sexy back there?”
Emery grinned. “Sebastian Mercier!”
“The chef?”
“Ladies,” Jack growled impatiently.
“Yeah!” Em ignored him. “You like?”
“I’d have to be dead not to!” Cat called before she hopped into her car.
Jack rolled his eyes, even though he enjoyed hearing Em’s laughter. Once he’d helped her up into the truck, he rounded it and slammed into the vehicle.
“You’re jealous,” Em observed as he pulled out onto the street.
“How do you know him?” Did they have a past Jack didn’t know about?
“Iris invited him over for dinner a few months ago. She was trying to set him up with either Ivy or me. Clearly that didn’t go well.”
His hands tightened around the wheel. “Didn’t it? He was flirting with you.”
“No. He smiled at me.”
“You blushed.”
“I always blush when a good-looking man smiles at me. You know that.”
“Guess I thought that was just for me,” he muttered, feeling weirdly hurt.
She didn’t reply.
That was beginning to sting like a motherfucker when she whispered, “Your smile does more than make me blush, Jack.”
He liked that. A lot. He would’ve liked it a lot more if Emery hadn’t sounded heartbroken when she said it.
Cooper called him on the way to the hospital and seemed relieved to hear Jack was already on route. It soothed his agitation, knowing he and Coop were in such a good place again that he wanted Jack by his side for this big moment.
When they arrived, they discovered Bailey, Vaughn, and Dahlia already there.
“Cat’s picking up Joey first,” Emery explained to Bailey. “Where are Michael and Ivy?”
“Michael’s working,” Dahlia replied.
“And Ivy is having dinner with her parents and Jeff tonight.” Bailey ran a nervous hand through her hair. “It’s a big deal and I didn’t want to interrupt that, but more than that, if I tell Ivy, she’ll tell Iris and Iris will turn up and …” Bailey shrugged, looking uncertain. “Jess doesn’t seem like she wants a lot of people crowding in.”
“Good call,” Jack assured her.
“Jack.”
He glanced over his shoulder as Coop strode down the corridor, looking more than a little concerned. Jack hurried to meet him, and to his shock, Cooper embraced him, thumping his hand on his back.
“You okay?” Jack’s voice was gruff.
Cooper’s face strained with anxiety, his eyes alarmingly bright.
Fuck.
“They took her away.”
“Away? What the hell for?” Jack could feel their friends surrounding them.
Cooper took a step to the side to address them all. He looked ready to throw up. “Baby went into distress. Something about late decelerations in his heart rate. Late returns to the baseline heart rate after a contraction. Long story short, Baby isn’t getting eno
ugh oxygen. They took Jess into surgery.”
“Emergency C-section?” Em stepped forward to grasp Coop’s hand.
He squeezed it tight and nodded.
“She’ll be okay, Jack,” Emery assured him, sounding pretty certain. “It’s the best thing for Jess and your boy.”
Something about her reassurance seemed to break Coop, and he turned away from them, one hand covering his face while his other held on to Em’s.
Emotion choked Jack, seeing his friend so worried and vulnerable. He placed a hand on Coop’s shoulder and squeezed.
“Can I get you anything, bud?”
Coop shook his head. His voice hoarse, he replied, “Just don’t go anywhere.”
Jack’s was equally so. “Never, Coop.”
“Mr. Lawson.”
Every single one of them jerked around to stare at the doctor smiling at Cooper.
Cooper shot out of the uncomfortable waiting room chair. “Are they okay?”
The doctor grinned. “Both mother and baby are in very good health. Would you like to meet your son?”
Relief and joy flooded Jack as he watched Cooper hang his head with probably the same feelings times five million. A sob burst out of Cat, who’d been sitting next to Coop for the last hour. It seemed to surprise the heck out of Dahlia and Em, but Jack had known Cat her entire life and knew she was a big softie under that cool-as-cucumber facade.
Joey moved from Em (his second-favorite person in the world) to go to his mom.
“I’ll be back,” Coop threw over his shoulder as he followed the doctor.
A hand slipped into Jack’s and he turned to look at Em, who’d moved to the seat beside him. She smiled, her eyes bright with happiness.
And Jack was done.
He was done with all the bullshit games, trying to stealth seduce the woman he loved into agreeing to make what was between them real and permanent. When Emery gave birth to their baby, Jack wanted to kiss her breathless in gratitude for giving him the best gift in the world.
He wanted to do that knowing they were going home together with their child.
Raising their child together in the same house, day in, day out.
Till death do they part.
39
Jack
Light burst into the room, waking Jack at the crack of dawn. He’d forgotten to shut the curtains when he brought Em back to her beach house the night before. To his relief, Em didn’t ask him to leave. She let him take her upstairs, help her undress, and she even let him hold her while she fell asleep, exhausted by the day’s events.
They’d been allowed to go in twos to see Jess and the baby.
Cooper had a son.
It was surreal.
But fucking great seeing how happy it made his friend.
Jess and Cooper had named their boy Tyler Joseph Lawson.
Apparently, the umbilical cord had wrapped around Tyler’s neck, causing oxygen deprivation. When Cooper told them that, Jack had pulled Em so tight into his side, he was probably gripping her too hard. But that shit was terrifying. The thought of it happening to their little one scared the hell out of Jack.
As for Tyler’s size, he was long and big at eight pounds and eight ounces. No wonder Jess had been uncomfortable for most of the pregnancy.
Seeing how tired Jess was, they’d excused themselves and promised they’d be back in the morning to visit since Jess would have to stay until the doc said she was okay to be discharged.
An exhausted Emery hadn’t said much in the truck on the way home, and Jack had known that it wasn’t the right time to bring up the status of their relationship.
Turning his head on the pillow, every part of him ached as he took in the sight of Emery lying beside him. God, he wanted this for the rest of his life. Waking up to her.
The thought of losing it … it was worse than any grief Jack had ever experienced in his life.
Em had kicked the duvet off during the night. She’d been getting especially hot in her sleep lately. That’s why he’d helped her into a cami-and-short set for bed, despite the cool fall temperatures.
The cami had risen up Em’s stomach, revealing the cute little baby bump. Unable to resist, Jack reached out and smoothed his hands over it. Sometimes when he touched the bump, he felt like a kid who’d just been told Santa was real. It was awesome, magical, that there was a baby, a little person, growing inside Emery. A little person made up of him and her.
Jack hoped their kid had Em’s eyes. It would be a dying shame if Em didn’t pass on such beauty to her kids.
Kids.
Jack wanted more than one.
And he wanted them with Em.
Because if he didn’t have them with her, he wasn’t having them at all.
Suddenly her hand, bare of the silver rings he’d helped her remove last night, covered his. His gaze moved from her belly to her face. She was awake, a soft, sweet look on her face.
“Morning.”
“Morning, sunrise,” he whispered.
At his words, Emery got this unbelievably beautiful, tender look in her eyes. A look she couldn’t stop, couldn’t hide.
A look that said she loved him.
And it caused Jack to blurt out, “I’m so goddamn in love with you, Emery Saunders.”
Her eyes widened, any sleepiness disappearing.
Then she sat up, fast, panicked.
Jack sat up too, his heart beating a mile a minute. “I’m in love with you,” he repeated, now that it was out there. “I’ve been in love with you for years.”
Emery shook her head, her cheeks pale. “No.”
That one word was like taking a fucking bullet. “No?” Jack pushed off the duvet and dove out of bed. He stood over her. “What the hell does that mean?”
She stared up at him, aghast.
No.
She was scared.
Emery was looking at him as if petrified.
“Why?” Jack shook his head, not understanding. “You know we’re great together. Are you holding back to punish me?”
“No.” Em slipped out of bed so the sizable piece of furniture acted as an obstacle between them. “But we had an agreement. You promised that sex would change nothing.”
“An agreement we both knew was bullshit.”
“Jack, you can’t love me,” she snapped.
“Well, tough shit, because I do.” He rounded the bed and scowled as she backed away from him. Jack stopped moving. He held up his hands like he was dealing with a frightened animal. And he got it. He got from everything she’d told him that Emery was terrified to love anyone ever again. But she was already doing it. With her girls. With Iris. With Joey. With the baby in her belly. And whether she wanted to admit it, with Jack.
“I know you’re scared. I know people who were supposed to love you didn’t treat you the way you deserved. And I know I’ve made my mistakes. But you know me, Em. You know me. We’ve known each other from the moment our eyes met across Cooper’s Bar nine years ago.”
He held her gaze, begging her silently to tell him that she loved him too.
Instead, those gorgeous eyes of hers filled with tears and she whispered, “I’m sorry, Jack.”
Agony tightened its awful grip around his chest, like a hot, burning demon with vicious claws that wouldn’t let go. Unable to bear looking at her, Jack dressed quickly and got the hell away from her before he said something he’d later regret.
40
Emery
It was a good thing Ivy had agreed to drive.
We would never have gotten to Balance in Millton otherwise. In fact, it was a surprise to me that the kids were able to take my mind off the horribleness of the last week.
“Does it hurt?” Angeline, a seven-year-old girl whose mother was receiving cancer treatment, asked as she stared at my belly. I’d been answering her questions about my pregnancy for the last five minutes.
I shook my head, wearing a slight smile. “No.”
“Do you feel it moving?”
“Sometimes I feel like there are bubbles in my belly, but I won’t feel Baby really move for maybe another few weeks.”
“How did it get in there?”
Oh crap.
“Emery!” Ivy called my name far louder than necessary since she was right next to me. “Bring Angeline over. Casey here needs a card-playing partner.”
I knew she was trying to save me from the awkward questions. “Cards? You’re teaching Casey to play cards?”
Casey was a rambunctious eight-year-old who’d had childhood leukemia. He was in remission, but his parents felt he should be around kids who had either gone through the same or had family members who had. His near-death experience had made him a little more mature than other kids his age, and they were afraid he was struggling to make friends he could connect with.
“Poker, to be exact,” Casey replied.
I made a face at Ivy who smiled sheepishly.
When I told her about my volunteer days at Balance, she’d expressed an interest in volunteering with me. I wasn’t sure, however, the parents would be happy about us turning their kids into card sharks.
Still, I could forgive her.
Because on the way here, she’d helped me come to a realization that a supposedly smart woman like me should’ve reached long ago.
“So, you were quiet at Jess’s yesterday,” Ivy had said as soon as I got in her car that morning.
Jess was out of the hospital, home and recovering from her C-section. Tyler, so far, was turning out to be an angel baby who slept most of the time, and when he was awake, he was quiet and adorable. Yesterday had been the first day Cooper left the house for the bar, knowing all us girls were there to watch Jess. Jess complained that he was hovering.
We told her what we’d witnessed at the hospital—Cooper’s obvious emotion and fear when she was rushed in for the C-section. Jess’s eyes brightened and she murmured something about letting him hover after all.
The Truest Thing: Hart's Boardwalk #4 Page 31