Cherishing You (Thirsty Hearts Book 3)

by Kris Jayne

  His thin, hard angled face scrunched in confusion that quickly moved toward rage. How had she thought this guy looked anything like Jonah?

  Shannon stepped backward, moving her purse and folded coat in front of her.

  “This conversation isn’t any of your business.” Jonah positioned himself in front of Shannon.

  Aaron’s eyes roamed down to her stomach and over to Jonah, taking him in from his neatly trimmed hair to his polished leather shoes.

  “Is this your boyfriend?” he smirked.

  Jonah lifted his shoulders and moved toward the thinner, grittier man. “You need to move so we can get on the elevator.”

  Aaron snickered and put his hands up over his head. “I don’t need any trouble, man. I’ve had enough of that for one day. I’m just surprised to see Shannon. I figured we could talk. I’m Aaron, by the way, Aaron Godfrey.”

  He stuck his hand out to Jonah, who didn’t touch it.

  “Alright. I see how it is. I’m here to talk to the detective ‘fore I can get out of here. Didn’t know they would call you to deal with Kid. May he rest in peace.” Aaron sneered. “Didn’t know you were pregnant either.”

  “Our baby isn’t any of your concern.” Jonah growled.

  “You sure about that?”

  “I assume you’re here to take care of some business since you killed someone last night, right? Go do that.”

  Then, Jonah grabbed Shannon’s hand and pulled her close before pressing the button for the elevator, which had closed again.

  Nausea rolled in her stomach like it hadn’t since she first found out she was pregnant. What would a man like Aaron want with a baby when he could just walk away?

  The baby isn’t his. Shannon reiterated the thought to herself. One stupid night compared to all the times she and Jonah were together. The baby had to be Jonah’s, and they belonged together—as a family.

  “Are you okay? Do you need to sit down?”

  “No. I just…He upset me is all. I wasn’t prepared to see him like this.”

  “What was he talking about?”

  “What?” Shannon closed her eyes, wishing they could transport themselves back home instantaneously. Or maybe just back in time a minute or two so she could keep Aaron and Jonah from running into each other.

  “Asking me if I was sure he didn’t have anything to do with our baby. Why would he say that?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Jonah looked at her with a mix of concern and suspicion.

  “Let’s just get you to the car.”

  * * *

  They drove home in silence with Jonah gripping the wheel. Shannon turned her head toward the window with her eyes pressed closed.

  When he pulled into his garage, he turned to her.

  “Get out of the car, and let’s go inside.”

  She did as he asked, following him into the kitchen.

  “Tell me.”

  “What?” Shannon asked, losing her grip on the last threads of denial. “I…I can’t.”

  Her breath stuck in her chest, and she gripped the edge of the counter, trying to pull it together.

  Jonah backed away from her and pounded his fist on the granite. His fury choked her up, and she began to sob. Jonah stretched across the center console to wipe her tears.

  “The baby…”

  “What?”

  “I made a mistake.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “But…the mistake. It’s…I…”

  “Shannon, tell me.”

  Panic and courage twisted inside her, making her speak.

  “The baby…it might not be yours.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “Aaron—”

  “You slept with that guy. The guy who just fucking killed your ex-husband. You slept with him. When?”

  The story poured out of Shannon in such a rush, she could barely order her thoughts. “After the funeral, but Jonah, I didn’t mean to do it. I was drinking my drink, and I started to feel out of my head. Kid was there, and he threatened me. This guy, I’d never met him before, he got me away from Kid and took me inside. He was tall and blond like you. I was so confused. For a second, I thought it was you. He felt like you, but then I knew it wasn’t. Then, nothing. I woke up—”

  “That’s it? You just skip to the next day?”

  “That’s all I remember.”

  “Because you got drunk.”

  “I wasn’t drunk. I wasn’t drinking. Amber, one of Lindsay’s friends, had these drugs—”

  “So you got high.”

  Jonah stated it like fact. Shannon stumbled through her defense. “I didn’t get high. I was high, but it was on accident. Well, Amber—Lindsay and Laura’s friend—she did it on purpose. I didn’t know it was in my drink. This wasn’t my fault!”

  “Not your fault. Is that what you told the judge when you failed your drug test last year?”

  “How do you know about that?”

  “My father ran a background check on you. For once, he might have been right. Maybe all this talk of putting your past behind you has just been talk.”

  Shannon screamed. “You have no idea. None. You have no idea the things I’ve put behind me, what it took, and what it’s cost me.”

  “Then enlighten me, Shannon. What part of putting your past behind you involves getting loaded and fucking some other guy the minute I’m out of your sight?”

  “You don’t understand,” Shannon whimpered. His eyes narrowed like platinum knives.

  “That’s your protection, isn’t it? I don’t understand what it’s like to be you. To have a hard life. To be poor. Poor, poor Shannon. What I don’t understand is how you could do this to me? Or maybe I do and I just don’t want to face it. You said you loved me, but it’s a game to see what you can get out of me.”

  “That’s not true. I never wanted anything from you.”

  Jonah’s dry, disbelieving laugh echoed off the walls, mocking her. “That was your game. ‘Don’t buy me anything, Jonah.’ ‘All I want is you, Jonah.’ I am the worst kind of fool. I so wanted to believe you that I deceived myself right along with you.”

  “So that’s it? I’m a goldigging whore like you thought all along?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “But that’s what you mean. The minute something happens you’re ready to believe the worst of me.” Defeat settled into her bones. It didn’t matter what really happened. Underneath it all, Jonah still thought she was trash.

  “What am I supposed to think? You’ve been lying to me for weeks. This baby that you’re carrying could belong to someone else, and you kept your mouth shut. What did you tell yourself when you moved into my house? When you slept with me? When you smiled up at me and talked about the family we were going to have? Did you just tell yourself if you kept thinking the baby was mine, then that would make it true?”

  Shannon lowered eyes, knowing he was right, but that it wasn’t what he thought. Jonah shook his head with a nasty chuckle.

  “That’s exactly what you thought.” He stormed out of the kitchen and into the hallway, past the dining room and toward the stairs with Shannon chasing him.

  “I love you. Whether you believe it or not, it’s true. I didn’t even know for sure what happened until seeing Aaron today.”

  “But you knew something might have happened. You knew, and you didn’t say anything.

  “I wasn’t sure, and I couldn’t face it.”

  “Lots of convenient excuses for you to pretend you didn’t betray me and that you didn’t lie to me. You sound just like an addict.”

  Her rebuttal died. It’s like what she told him only confirmed the thoughts he had about her deep in his heart.

  As long as she was the sweet Shannon who did everything perfectly, she fit into his fantasy of saving her and helping her. The minute she misstepped or something went wrong, it was right back to Shannon the drug addict and Shannon the whore.

  Shannon grabbed Jonah�
��s forearm as he started up the stairs.

  “Jonah, do you think you could just listen to me and let me explain?”

  “What’s to explain? Being a scheming bitch is pretty self-explanatory. I’m going upstairs to pack your things. You’re not staying in this house.”

  “Where am I supposed to go?”

  “You can stay in the guest apartment over the garage for a few days. I’ll move your things. Then, call a friend. Call your friend Aaron. Call someone and figure it out.”

  “I can get my own things, then.”

  “No. You’re pregnant, and I’m not going to make you lug stuff up and down the stairs.”

  “I can pack myself.”

  “Fine. Let me know when you’re done.”

  Her vision blurred with tears. She felt him brush past her. Blinking and clinging the banister as she went up the stairs, she found her way to the bedroom she and Jonah had shared to begin piling her belongings in the duffel she dragged from the closet.

  Where would she go in a few days? Penny had a houseful with her own family. Kim only had a couch for her to sleep on. She’d die before she called Jeff. It would be a few weeks before her apartment would be renovated.

  She sobbed as she haphazardly filled her bag. She was alone—again—but she would figure it out. She always did.

  Chapter Forty

  The burn of gin down his throat temporarily distracted Jonah from the sting of Shannon’s betrayal. Ignoring the blazing “9:13 AM” on the clock in his living room, he raised the bottle to his lips.

  Last night, after moving Shannon into his guest house, he realized he’d have to tell his father that he needed a paternity test after all. The specter of that humiliation sent him to the liquor cabinet, sampling its wares until he passed out on the couch.

  Maybe he didn’t have to say anything to his family until the deed was done and he knew for sure. If the baby were his, they’d never have to know there’d been a doubt. He wouldn’t live in limbo for long.

  Before drowning himself in Hendrick’s, Jonah searched online to find out how long he’d have to wait to see if his girlfriend was pregnant with another man’s baby. The earliest test could be done after the eighth week of pregnancy. They passed that a month ago.

  He’d make an appointment for next Wednesday. Jonah knew that Shannon worked at Vivienne’s on Wednesdays and felt certain he could convince his sister to give her the day off—probably forever. Surely, Shannon couldn’t keep working there.

  Vivienne. Jonah shot up and whirled around his living room, looking for his phone. He could go see her, but he needed a ride. He could barely tap his phone to bring up Uber.

  Half an hour later, he stood on the thick welcome mat under a halo of fall leaf decorations at his sister’s house. Jonah leaned against the door frame to steady himself and pressed the bell.

  He swayed, slamming his eyes shut to eliminate the swirling vision around him and, hopefully, calm his now angry stomach. God. What’s taking her so long?

  “What are you doing here?” Vivienne huffed, closing herself into the gap in the door and blocking his view into her foyer.

  “I need to talk to you. You’re the only one I can discuss this with. Please.” Jonah tilted his head up to see over his sister. “What are you doing? Cutting up a body in there? Lemme in.”

  With her robe gathered in her fist, she stepped onto her porch and pulled the door shut.

  She squinted at him. “You didn’t drive here did you?”

  “Uber.”

  “Good.”

  “Let me in.”

  Vivienne lifted her and stared at him. “I have a visitor. You…need to leave. Call your Uber back.”

  She waved her hands toward the sidewalk.

  “Shit, Vivienne, I won’t melt if I see you and with a woman. Neither will you.”

  “My relationships are private.” Vivienne pursed her lips together almost prudishly.

  “I get that this is a big deal for you and all—having me see you and your woman, er, lover or—”

  “Jesus, Jonah. ‘Lover?’”

  “Whatever! I don’t know! What am I s’posed to say. I don’t give a damn. I need to talk. No joke. I—”

  Tears prickled Jonah’s eyes, and he felt like a fool for the hundredth time in the past twenty-four hours. He lifted the paper sack containing his bottle of gin out of his deep coat pocket and took a long swig.

  “What are you drinking?” Vivienne’s nose turned up at supercilious angle.

  “Gin.” Jonah hiccupped, then laughed at how cliché it was to be hiccupping while drinking out of a brown paper bag like a hobo.

  “Oh, good God, Jonah. Hang on.”

  Vivienne disappeared inside her house for what seemed like an hour. Then, the door swung open and the curvy, olive-skinned brunette from the charity gala came out, wearing a long, camel-colored Burberry coat and a sheepish half-smile.

  “I’ll see you later, Vivienne.” The brunette’s eyes shot up to Jonah’s, and then she hustled away.

  He turned back to his sister, who stood in the door. “She’s…fetching.”

  “Shut up, and get in here.”

  He stumbled in and followed his sister down the hall, through her Italian-tiled kitchen to her den.

  “Sit,” she commanded. “Speak.”

  First, Jonah took another tug off of his liquor bottle. Vivienne walked over and snatched it away, taking a drink herself.

  “Shannon’s nothing b-but a liar.”

  “What happened?”

  “Her ex-husband got killed by some asshole, and we go to the police. Then, we run into the asshole, and he makes some snarky remark. I ask her. I said, ‘Tell me,’ and do you know what she says?” Jonah’s anger boiled. Vivienne said nothing, but waited for him to continue with widened eyes. “The baby may not be mine.”

  Vivienne gasped and drank more gin, coughing as she swallowed. “Hold it. Back up. Who got killed?”

  “Her shitty ex-husband. The one who attacked her. He got in a fight with one of his friends, and the guy shot him. The police say it was self-defense so he was out of jail, and we ran into him at the police station. He heard us talking about the baby, and he looked at Shannon funny.”

  Jonah shook his index finger in his sister’s face and continued.

  “I knew something wasn’t right. The guy said something about Shannon’s being pregnant and I said what business is that of yours…Or I said…none of your business. He said, ‘you sure?’ He sounded all questionable. So, I asked Shannon what he meant by that, and she just explodes with this story about sleeping with him, but not remembering she slept with him.”

  “That’s not possible. She loves you. I know she does. That’s…It’s not possible.”

  “Well, it is. She told me. When she went back to where she used to live for her friend’s funeral, she slept with some guy.”

  “How did that happen?”

  “I don’t know. She just did it. She said something about being high and not meaning to do it. She said she didn’t mean to get high, but…I can’t remember. She slept with someone else and let me think this baby was mine. I’m planning and getting attached…to her…the baby. She was lying to me.” He words slurred together into verbal slush.

  “It doesn’t mean the baby’s not yours, Jonah.”

  “That’s not the point. She’s a cheater and a liar!”

  “That’s so awful. That’s unbelievably awful. I can’t believe she would do that to you. She said she was high?”

  “Some girl had some drugs. She said it was an accident.”

  “How do you get high on accident? Is that what she said?”

  Jonah closed his eyes, trying to remember Shannon’s exact words. “She said she didn’t know what was in her drink.”

  “Well, that’s not the same thing, Jonah.”

  “Do you know what else she said? She said that he looked like me—which he absolutely does not, by the way, total trash. But she thought it was me. Then, poof! She doe
sn’t remember. She doesn’t know. Bullshit! That’s gonna make me feel better? That I was in her head while she fucked somebody else?”

  “I think she meant that she was out of her mind. She’s drinking and then takes something, but didn’t know it. It all sounds like the worst possible mistake.”

  “Damn right, it’s a mistake. ‘Cuz I’m done…done with her. Made an appointment at a clinic to get a patern-it-y test done.” Jonah struggled to enunciate. “You can’t tell Dad! Don’t say anything to anybody. Bad enough I have to end things.”

  Vivienne put her arm around her brother.

  “I love her. I do.”

  “I know. You know, this doesn’t have to be the end. People make mistakes, Jonah.”

  “What? I can’t take her back. I’d look like a…cock…What’s that word?”

  “Cuckold.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Except that no one has to know. I won’t say anything, and chances are the baby is yours. You had way more opportunities to get her pregnant than that guy who, by the way, took advantage of a drugged woman. That doesn’t sound consensual to me.”

  “She said she kissed him. She ‘felt’ him, she said. And she thought it was me. How is she all over him and it’s not consensual? Plus, she kept saying she made a mistake. I think she’s just trying to cover for screwing up.”

  “You don’t know that she was all over him. And if she was high, and—”

  “I didn’t come over here to hear her defense attorney.”

  “I’m not defending her.” Vivienne dropped her arm on the back of the sofa. “Or maybe I am. You don’t know the situations women find themselves in.”

  “That’s not what she said. She kept apologizing. She said he felt like me.”

  Jonah fell back, eyes closed, room spinning.

  “I’ll get you some water. You need to hydrate and pull it together, sweetie.”

  The sofa cushion shifted when Vivienne rose, and then, the clink of a glass and swish of running water sounded in what seemed like the distance. His sister’s rustling in the kitchen faded further and further away until he felt alone in his thoughts.

  * * *

  Spending the night in a storm of tears left Shannon exhausted and depressed. She called Kim, but then didn’t know what to say. Her hands shook.