His Ever After (Love, Emerson Book 3)

by Isabel North

  “Weights. Not cars. Not cars up a hill. Get back here and give me some help.”

  “Leave it. I don’t even care anymore.”

  “Might get hit.”

  She threw her hands out. “I don’t care.”

  “Person hitting it might care.”

  “Good point.” Jenny followed him to the rear of the vehicle, spread her feet wide, and braced her hands on the back.

  Derek stared at her. “You expecting me to frisk you or something?”

  “No. I’m going to push.”

  “Try it this way.” He bent his knees, set a broad shoulder against the bumper, and nodded at her.

  Right. Don’t ogle his biceps. Jenny copied his stance. I can’t help looking. They’re bulging. “On three,” she said.

  “Push it now.”

  Jenny scrambled to keep up, threw her weight behind it, and what do you know? They managed to shift the car.

  “Catch it!” she yelled as the wheels scrunched over loose gravel and they stopped pushing.

  Shaking his head at her, Derek strolled to the open driver’s door. He angled into the seat and put the parking brake on. He reached an arm behind him, hooked something from the back, and unfolded to standing. “You need this?”

  Kate’s backpack. Good grief, it was lurid yellow with black stripes and a cartoon bee’s smiling face on it, you would not think it was easy to overlook. “Thanks.”

  Derek locked the car and pocketed her keys.

  “I need those,” Jenny said.

  He strode past, caught her arm and hustled her to the SUV. “Later.”

  They loaded up. Derek checked his mirrors and pulled out. “All right back there?” he said to Kate.

  “Yep.”

  “Here you go, honey.” Jenny passed her the backpack.

  “I forgot it again,” Kate said.

  She sounded so mournful that Jenny couldn’t hide her smile. She glanced at Derek and met his eyes. They were soft and amused.

  Until Kate added, “Don’t tell Uncle Gabe I keep forgetting it, Mom. It’ll hurt his feelings.”

  All Derek’s warmth vanished.

  Oblivious to the sudden drop in temperature, Kate continued, explaining for Derek’s benefit, “Uncle Gabe came from San Francisco last week especially to bring it for me because he said I needed to have a cool backpack for my first day of school. Wasn’t that nice of him?”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Derek faced front. “Yeah,” he said to Kate. Someone should give him an award right fucking now, because none of the jealous anger that rocked him at her casual mention of Gabe Sterling showed.

  Uncle Gabe.

  Derek’s fingers clenched on the wheel. “He’s a prince.”

  “I thought that, too, but actually, he’s not,” Kate said. “I asked him. He’s just a billionaire.”

  Just a billionaire.

  Kate unzipped the backpack—which Derek had found kind of cute until he knew it was from Sterling, and now he noticed that the stupid bee had a sinister, mocking twist to its smile—and busied herself rooting through it.

  Derek cut a look at Jenny. She’d winced when Kate mentioned Sterling, and was studiously avoiding his eyes.

  “It was extra nice of Gabe,” Kate continued, “since he doesn’t come over all that often anymore. He didn’t suddenly stop coming over like you did, Derek. Gabe loves us. But he still doesn’t come to Emerson as much as he used to.”

  “No?” Derek managed to force out, feeling the burn of her artless comment.

  He didn’t want to hear any more, but he wasn’t about to sit there and ignore the kid because he didn’t like what she was saying.

  Jenny shifted in her seat.

  “Nope,” Kate said. “Hardly at all since he found out about the baby.”

  Derek lost his breath. “The baby,” he repeated.

  “Yes. Gabe doesn’t like coming here because of the baby. He can’t bear it, he said.”

  Derek snapped his head to Jenny, but she was looking out the window.

  “Okay.” Derek flipped on his signal, and pulled over. He put the SUV in park, braced an arm on the back of Jenny’s seat, and turned to Kate. “Hang on a minute, sweetheart.”

  “But—”

  “I need to talk to your mom real quick.”

  Jenny was clutching the strap of the seatbelt across her chest.

  “No, Derek!” Kate said. “I’ll be late. I don’t want to be late, Mom says you never forget your first day at school and I’m having a good one! It’s why Gabe got me the backpack! I’m wearing my lucky sneakers!”

  “One minute. I promise I’ll get you to school on time. Trust me?”

  Kate made him wait for it before she grudgingly said, “Okay.”

  “Jenny?” Derek kept his voice tightly controlled. “Out of the car.”

  “We don’t have time for this. Kate’s right. You don’t forget your first day. God knows I’ve never forgotten mine. Can we please go?”

  Derek didn’t reply.

  “Fine.” Jenny unbuckled and jumped out.

  Derek rounded the car and, eyes on hers, carefully shut her door so Kate wouldn’t hear them. Then he backed Jenny against it. He wanted to lean his body against her from head to toe. Settling for second best, he stood as close as he could without flattening her.

  “Baby?” He brushed a piece of red-gold hair from where the wind had blown it across her mouth. “Sterling’s baby?”

  Jenny’s eyebrows flexed.

  “When’s it due?” Even to him, his question sounded rough.

  “Uh…” Jenny calculated. “Four or five months? I’m not sure.”

  “Shouldn’t you be sure?”

  “What? Why?”

  Derek gazed at her stomach. He reached out a hand but closed his fingers tight before he touched her. He didn’t have the right. If he didn’t have it when she was having a secret affair with Sterling, he sure as hell didn’t have it if she was carrying his baby. “Ah, Jen.”

  “What?” She sucked in a breath. “No!” With a startled laugh, she grabbed his hand and placed it on her stomach. “No, not me. I’m not having his baby.”

  His hand glided over her soft stomach and he shifted closer. He pressed his fingertips in, lightly, his blood heating at the gentle yield of her flesh under his touch. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, Derek, I think I’d know if I was pregnant. You actually have to be having se—” She broke off. “Wait.” She slapped his hand off her stomach. “This is fat. Not a baby.”

  “Then who’s having his baby?”

  “Nora is having his baby, you jerk. Nora is pregnant, not me. He can’t bear leaving her in San Francisco and she won’t take time off work to run around the country with him whenever he wants. Seriously, Tate?” She fumed up at him, her cheeks flushed. “I look five months pregnant to you?”

  You look perfect to me. “I don’t know how big you’re supposed to be at five months. I’m a guy.”

  “You’re a jerk.”

  “Are you okay with it?”

  “With you being a jerk? No!”

  He couldn’t help himself. He tucked her hair again, even though the wind hadn’t given him an excuse to do it. He smiled, the relief that she wasn’t having another man’s child lifting him high. “Are you okay with the asshole knocking up another woman?”

  “Oh.” Jenny bit her lip. “Yes. I am one hundred percent okay with it.”

  “You two aren’t…?”

  She glared at him.

  “Jenny—”

  A light but insistent tapping on the window interrupted them. Kate was looking out, her expression anxious.

  “This isn’t finished,” Derek said in Jenny’s ear, and relished her responsive shiver before moving away.

  Ten minutes later they were at the elementary school. Kate’s bubbly enthusiasm had turned flat as day-old beer.

  “We made it!” Jenny cheered as Derek parked. She popped the seatbelt and turned. “Yay!”

  Kate
, who was clearly supposed to join in with the yay, did not. She’d threaded her arms through her bee backpack and held it snuggled against her chest like a teddy bear. Her eyes were huge in her small face, and her jaw was set.

  “Let’s go.” Jenny hopped out.

  Kate watched her go, then leaned forward and hissed at Derek, “Drive!”

  He laughed. “You’ll miss all the fun if I do that, sweetheart.”

  “Come on.” Jenny had opened the door. She reached in and unbuckled Kate.

  Kate promptly buckled herself back in. “We’re late,” she said. “Never mind. Better try again tomorrow.”

  “We’re not late. Derek got us here right on time. Like he said he would.” Jenny flashed him a grateful smile. “Now, come on. Everyone’s almost in.”

  The parking lot behind them, which had been busy with parents and kids when they’d arrived, was already quieter.

  Jenny unbuckled Kate again and coaxed her out, closing the door.

  With them gone, the interior of the car was suddenly, shockingly empty. Derek heard the murmur of their voices outside, but they didn’t move off. He buzzed down the window.

  “It’ll be fun,” Jenny was saying. “And it’s only for a few hours, then we’ll go and tell Auntie Elle and Gargoyle about your day.”

  Kate’s reply was quiet.

  Derek got out and sauntered around to join them. “Want to know something cool?” He leaned against the car beside Kate, who had her back plastered to it like she was trying to become one with the paint job.

  She shook her head.

  “I met your mom here.”

  Kate looked up at him. “You did?”

  “Yep. When we were your age. And your Auntie Elle went here. Lila, too.”

  Kate glanced over at the old building. There were only a handful of people left in the lot now, and Jenny was casting anxious glances at the time on her phone.

  “It’s cool you get to join the club today,” Derek said.

  Kate pushed off the car.

  “Unless you don’t want to,” he added. “You can always give up and go home. Eat some cereal. Watch cartoons. Like any other boring day.” He ignored the side-eye from Jenny. “Although, I’m betting you don’t want to do any of that. You’re a Finley. Well.” He shrugged. “You know.”

  Kate eyed him. “What do I know?”

  “You Finley girls. Not the type to hide. Always up for trouble and adventure.”

  “My surname’s Hansen.”

  Derek mentally winced. Right. He’d never been able to think of Jenny as Jenny Hansen even when she was married. He’d never thought of her daughter as a Hansen ever.

  “But I am a Finley.” Kate tossed her head. “And I like adventure.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah!”

  Derek gestured at the school with an open hand, as if inviting her to a smorgasbord of magical delights. “Go get it, kid.”

  Kate bolted.

  “Wait!” Jenny yelped, and darted after her. “Photos! I promised Elle photos!” She caught up.

  “Mom, I gotta go.”

  “We’ll be quick.” She smoothed Kate’s flyaway auburn hair, put her backpack on the right way, and took a long step back. “Smile!” she said, aiming her phone.

  Kate threw her arms up in the air and grinned wide.

  Jenny took a photo. “Turn to the left.” Kate did. “Turn to the right.” Kate did. “Funny face!” Kate did. “Yow,” Jenny said. “That was a good one. Selfie shot.” She crouched down and they leaned their heads together, making faces. “And that’s the one for Elle’s wall. All right. What do you say, kiddo? Are we going in there to kick some butt or what?”

  “Yay!” Kate said. She pulled away from Jenny and startled Derek when she ran over to him and hugged him tight around the waist. “Thank you for coming to get us, Derek.”

  Before he could close his arms around her or reply, she’d darted off and was halfway across the schoolyard.

  Yeah. Just like her mom.

  * * * *

  When Jenny came back out of the building, Derek was leaning against the side of his SUV, ankles crossed and face angled to the sun. She walked to him with her distinctive, determined stride, and Derek admired the view from behind his sunglasses.

  “You waited,” she said and leaned beside him.

  “Yeah. I was going to leave you stranded, but you were in and out so fast I missed my chance for a clean getaway.”

  “Thank you, Derek. Man, that was close. I thought she was going to freak out and point-blank refuse to go in. I don’t know what I’d have done.”

  “Dragged her in kicking and screaming?”

  She snorted. “That’s what my mom did. So, no.”

  He nudged her shoulder with his. “Eventful morning.”

  “You’re telling me. My baby’s at school.” Jenny stared off into the distance. “I can’t believe my baby’s at school. It all happened so fast.”

  “This morning?”

  “Birth to this.” She flapped a hand at the school building. “Next thing you know, she’ll be graduating high school, and then she’ll be bringing her own daughter here.”

  They digested that in companionable silence, which lasted until Derek said, “You’ll be a grandmother.”

  Jenny sucked in a breath and turned to him. “What is wrong with you?”

  “Getting into the pensive existential mood.”

  “Don’t stand there and tell me I’m going to be a grandmother! I am a young and vibrant woman!”

  “Yeah, you are.” He grinned at her outrage. “Now get in the car. Gonna drive you home.”

  Her outrage deflated. “You don’t have to worry about that.”

  “And yet I will.” Derek walked around to the driver’s side and slid in. “Call me old-fashioned, but abandoning you with no transport just doesn’t sit right.”

  Jenny stayed outside.

  He leaned over and opened the passenger door. “Scared?”

  She lifted her chin. “Of?”

  “I don’t know.” He ran his gaze over her thoughtfully. “Me?”

  Jenny scoffed.

  “No? Then how about that awkward conversation we’re going to have about you, Sterling, and his baby mama?”

  “I’m not scared of you or a conversation, Derek. I happen to have business in town and I don’t need a ride home right now.”

  He grinned. “Liar.”

  She stood there, glowing in the bright light, framed in the doorway of his car, and brazened it out. “Thanks again. From the bottom of my heart. Now, please give me my keys.” She stuck out a hand and wiggled her fingers.

  He shook his head. “Nope.”

  “Yes. I need my keys.”

  “Your car is dead. You don’t need your keys.”

  “I need them so I can give them to the tow guy,” she said with exaggerated patience.

  Derek waited.

  “The tow guy who is not you,” she said when she caught up.

  “You’re right, the tow guy is not me. It’s Burke. And you don’t need to give Burke the keys because I will be giving them to him in about twenty minutes when I get to the garage and send him to fetch your car.” He started the engine. “When he brings it back, what do you want me to do? Bury it, or cremate it?”

  “Neither, I want you to fix it!”

  “I accept the job.”

  “No. I meant I have to get it fixed, not that you have to fix it.”

  “Might take a while, depending on what’s wrong with it.”

  “Derek—”

  “Might be you overheated the radiator, might be something else. I won’t know until I get under her and get my hands dirty.”

  Whatever Jenny had been going to say cut off with a strangled laugh, then she looked annoyed with herself. “Derek, I don’t want you groping my car.”

  “Any particular reason why? Because it’s what I do. I’m a great mechanic. I’ll charge you for parts, labor’s free. And I’ll take care of shif
ting it from the side of the road before someone boosts it, or it gets towed for being abandoned. Any particular reason why that sounds like a bad deal to you?”

  Jenny stuck her hands in her pockets.

  “Jen?” Derek prompted.

  “I’m thinking.”

  “Me, too. The only answer I can come up with is, it’s the same reason you’re pretending that you have business in town rather than letting me take you home.”

  She chewed her lip.

  Uh-huh. “Mind shutting the door for me?” he asked. She slammed it and he powered the window down to say, “You’re a coward.”

  Jenny’s eyes flashed. “I am not a coward.”

  “No? Prove it.”

  She pointed at him. “Fix my damn car, Tate.”

  “Oh, I will.”

  “You better.”

  “Baby, I’m gonna fix the hell out of it.”

  She laughed at him through the window. “You are such a pain in the ass.”

  He winked. “I’ll take care of your car, Jen. And then, when you want it? You come get it.”

  She registered the hot promise he knew was showing on his face, and she said in a firm voice, “My car. I will come get my car.”

  “That, too.”

  “Do not for one minute think I haven’t noticed you’re using the exact same technique on me that you used to get my daughter into school.”

  “Worked on Kate. Is it working on you?”

  “If we weren’t in a school parking lot, I’d be flipping you off right now. In fact, I’m doing it. Mentally. Both fingers.”

  Shaking his head, Derek released the parking brake. Jenny stepped back with a quick wave and he drove away, even though he wanted to toss her in the SUV beside him, drive them back to his apartment, and when they ended up in bed, which would be approximately three seconds after they burst through the front door, this time she’d have her eyes wide open and she’d know exactly who she was with.

  He drove away because he was a patient man, and when it came to Jenny Finley he had all the patience in the world.

  And the determination to match.

  He’d warned her six months ago that if he ever found out she was free, he wasn’t going to mess around.

  Didn’t mean he wasn’t going to play.

  And this time, he was playing for keeps.

  This time, he wasn’t going to lose.