by C. A. Harms
Around noon Emelie texted me a picture of her and Ethan sitting in a café. He held a sandwich that looked like it had been mauled by a bear. The bread was hangin’ loose, the meat dangling from the bottom, but he was smiling brightly. I noticed a man’s hand on Ethan’s leg and my heart raced, as my stomach did this weird fucking flip thing.
I dialed the number, leaving Jay hanging as he waited for me to pick up the other end of the couch.
“Hey handsome,” she said brightly.
“Who’s with you?”
“We ran into Corbin and Brent on our way to have lunch.” Relief washed over me. “What, did you think the moment you left town I would run out and met some guy?” I could sense her annoyance, but she was doing a damned good job holding it together.
“Sorry,” I said, “just don’t like the idea of another guy around you or Ethan.”
“Even if he’s your brother?”
“Especially if it’s him.” I heard her laugh and felt the tension in me fade. “The guy is a menace, Em, you should know this by now.”
“I do.” I heard Corbin say something and when Ethan started to laugh loudly, I felt a ping of jealousy. I didn’t like being away from them. “Now get off the phone and hurry up so that you can get back to us.”
“Love you.” I looked up to find Jay staring at me, his arms crossed as he tapped his foot. “I better go, little pouty ass is waiting on me and he looks like he’s about to have a hissy fit.”
“Bye,” she said softly. “Be safe, and I love you too.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Emelie
I was walking toward my car, my head down as I watched Ethan. He held onto my hand tightly, making his little airplane fly through the air at his side. The sounds of what I assumed were intended to be the engine roaring fell from his lips.
We’d left Corbin and Brent when we exited the cafe, them moving in one direction as we walked the opposite. It was so sweet how all the guys at the fraternity had formed this crazy little bond with Ethan. I had a feeling I’d regret it later when he started to pick up on some of their antics, but for now it was heartwarming. At one time he had absolutely no male figures in his life, now he had more than any kid could ask for.
Ethan noticed a squirrel near a tree and pointed it out, screaming “Here kitty!” which made me laugh. Kneeling down next to him, I hooked him around the waist. “That’s a squirrel, buddy, not a kitty.”
He watched, as did I, when the little furry guy picked at a nut on the ground. At least I thought it was a nut.
I’d been so lost in the moment that I hadn’t heard anyone approaching until they were practically at our side.
“Emelie?” I looked up and my heart sank. As in I felt like I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak, hell, or even move. “I thought that was you.”
Mark, Ethan’s father, stood before me, looking between Ethan and me.
“Wow,” he said, and I gripped Ethan tighter. “He’s gotten big.”
“That’s what happens when kids get older, Mark.” I was well aware of just how bitchy my words came out, only I didn’t care.
“He looks like me.”
Something about the way he smiled when he said those words infuriated me. He didn’t have the right to smile.
“I know, but I wish more than anything he didn’t, because I’m forced to see you whenever I look at him. Frankly the only thing I want is to forget you even exist.”
“That’s harsh.” He smiled arrogantly, and I wanted to smack away the smirk from his lips.
Standing, I lifted Ethan in my arms and felt the little plane he was holding hit me in the back of the head, but I refused to react. I hated that he was here before us, seeing Ethan. “What are you doing here anyway?”
“Came to visit some old friends.” He shrugged. “Had some free time.”
“Good, then get back to your visit and forget that Ethan or I exist. You’ve done a fine job of that over the last three years, so you shouldn’t have difficulty now.” I turned around, fully intending to walk away, but he reached out and grabbed my hip. “Let go of me,” I snarled.
“Can’t we talk?”
“No.” I looked over his shoulder and saw Corbin and Brent walking toward us. Corbin had a look on his face that alarmed me, one of anger. “I think you need to walk away.”
Then Mark looked behind him and noticed the guys walking in our direction. “That your guy?” I didn’t answer because he didn’t deserve one.
“He’s my son, Emelie.” Mark’s lip curled.
“You may have contributed to him existing, but you are not his father.” I took a step toward him, suddenly feeling myself become braver than I felt moments ago. “You’re the loser that walked away from him when you should have stepped up. He doesn’t need you, he’s better off without a sorry piece of shit like you in his life anyway.”
“Is there a problem here?” Corbin stepped around Mark, and Brent remained only a few feet back.
“No problem,” Mark said, acting all cocky and confident. “Just saying hey to Em and my son.”
My pulse quickened and Corbin placed his hand against the small of my back. “So, you’re the jackass that deserted his kid and the girl you knocked up.” Corbin was generally so fun and silly; he rarely got worked up, or at least I hadn’t witnessed it. Until now that is. “You call yourself a man, but all I see is some piece of shit fuck. Being a father takes a lot more than one simple deposit, dickhead.”
Mark smiled, and Corbin released his hold on me and stepped toward him.
“You find this shit funny?” Corbin demanded. Mark held his hands out to his side and chuckled. “Pathetic, that’s what you are.”
“Come on, Corbin.” I gripped his hand in mine and started to pull him away. “He’s not worth it. Besides, he signed away his rights long ago.”
Mark then shifted his gaze to me. “You should get going now,” he said to Corbin but never once looked away from me. “Your girl’s calling.”
Neither I nor Corbin corrected Mark.
“I’ll be seeing ya, Em.” He offered a wave. “And I’ll be seeing my boy too.”
Corbin jerked as if he was going to move back toward Mark and I tugged harder. It took everything I had not to fire back at Mark, but I knew if I did let my temper go there would most definitely be a fight. I didn’t want that on my shoulders; I just wanted Mark to leave.
When he did, Corbin seemed to relax, and Brent turned around to watch Mark’s back as he walked toward a group of guys waiting in the distance.
“You okay?” It was Brent who asked me as he offered me a smile, finally joining us. I only nodded, because I wasn’t really confident of the answer.
“Thought he moved away?” Corbin fisted his hand at his side, his chest heaving as he tried to remain calm.
“He did.” I placed Ethan at the ground near my feet and he walked toward Brent as he pretended to fly his plane. “He goes to NYU, he said he was visiting friends.”
“Well, he better be thankful it was me here and not Clay.”
“Maybe we should just keep this to ourselves.” I could only imagine how pissed Clayton would have been.
“I’m not gonna lie to him, Emelie.”
“I’m not asking you to lie.” I took in a deep calming breath of my own. “I’m just saying that maybe it’s best we don’t bring it up.
***
“I think you need to tell him.” Palmer followed me into the bathroom as I lowered Ethan to the floor. I flipped the handle and held my hand beneath the water to measure the temperature.
“Why?” I finally asked her, feeling a nervous knot form in my stomach. “What would be the reason for me to bring it up to him? Piss him off for what? Mark won’t be here long and then I’ll be left to deal with Clayton and his need to perform some manly duty.”
“So lying to him is gonna make things easier?”
“I’m not lying.” I started to grow frustrated all over again. “I just don’t see the point of e
ven bringing it up.”
The doorbell sounded and my hand froze on the handle of the tub.
“I’ll go let him in.” Palmer didn’t even pause to wait for me to respond and all I could hope for was that she didn’t bring it up. With each passing second my stomach only grew more tense. I could hear their voices echoing down the hall.
When Clayton stepped into the open doorway I forced a smile. “Hey.” He smiled brightly as he knelt down on the floor near Ethan. “I missed you guys.” He pressed a kiss to the top of Ethan’s head before leaning in and offering me one too. He looked happy and part of me regretted the choice I’d made to ignore what had taken place today.
“You getting a bath, buddy?”
“Swimming,” Ethan announced, and Clayton chuckled.
“Oh okay, sorry.” Ethan referred to bath time as swimming. Don’t ask me why, but it always seemed to make things go smoother. “Where’s your fish?”
I remained seated on the side of the tub as Ethan stepped around Clayton and opened up the cabinet under the vanity. One by one he started to pick up each of his fish and dropped them to the floor next to him. Sharks, whales, starfish, you name it, he had them. Another gift from Clayton. He even had a fisherman’s boat that had two men on it with poles, and about twenty smaller fish too. The toys were a given—every bath, every time.
Clayton gathered up handfuls of the toys and leaned closer to the tub, dropping them in, while Ethan finally closed the cabinet and started to help. I slid to the side and just watched the two of them work. That lump of emotions I felt deep in my chest evaporated as they laughed and talked away.
“You’re so good with him,” I said the words I was thinking out loud.
“He makes it easy,” Clayton stated without hesitation. “He’s my best friend. Aren’t ya?” He roughed Ethan’s hair and my son nodded his little head in agreement. Tears formed in my eyes and though I wanted to hide them, Clayton saw them form.
“Hey,” he quickly moved toward me and cupped my cheek. “What’s going on?” I shook my head and tried to let it go but he was too persistent to let it slide. “Don’t give me that ‘nothing’ crap, what is it?”
You’re more of a father to him then his real one ever was. Mark is here and he says he’ll be seeing us soon. Those were the things sitting on the tip of my tongue, yet I took the easy way out.
“I just love how you love us.”
“Like I said before, baby, you both make it so easy.” Clayton pressed his lips to mine and Ethan started to clap, which in turn made us both smile.
Why ruin our night? Maybe I’d tell him tomorrow.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Clayton
I left Emelie’s place before she was even up. I’d climbed straight out of Jay’s truck and into my own when we got back to Gainesville last night, unable to wait any longer to see Em and Ethan. I didn’t have a change of clothes and needed to shower before our class. I figured she’d forgive me if I showed up with a coffee and muffin to butter her up.
Corbin had left me a message that he needed to talk to me, but since he was still in bed by the time I was ready to leave, I figured it could wait.
I made a quick stop at Starbucks and picked up Emelie’s mocha, two muffins, and a black coffee before rushing to my ten o’clock class. As I was climbing up the stairs, I heard my name being called out and I looked up to see Xavier walking toward me with a few other guys.
“You late again?” He looked down at my hands and smiled knowingly. “Emelie pissed at you again and you needed some form of bribery?”
“Not late, and no, she ain’t pissed.” I looked around at the guys he was with and knew none of them. “Just left before she was awake this morning and thought I’d offer her something that would make her forget.”
I noticed one particular guy kept watching me, no trace of a smile on his face. He was tall, light shaggy hair, his arms crossed over his chest, his lips pressed in a flat line.
“She should be thanking you for sparing her from seeing your ugly mug first thing in the morning,” Xavier regained my attention. “That right there is a gift in itself.”
“Is that why Morgan wears one of those face masks at night? So she can imagine you’re someone else?”
He reached out and flicked my forehead, knowing my hands were full and I wouldn’t be able to stop him.
“Dick.” I swept my foot out and hooked his leg, making him laugh.
“You better get moving before Emelie’s muffin gets cold.” The guy liked to tease me, and even Eli about being whipped by our girls, but fact was he was just as bad. Morgan had him by the balls and he’d jump through hoops if he had to just to make her smile. The guy was a sunken ship right beside the rest of us.
As he stepped around me and they all started walking away, the one guy lingered back a bit and just gave me that same fucked-up look.
“You need something?” I asked him, feeling myself grow a little irritated by his actions.
“We met yesterday,” he finally said after watching me for a few seconds longer.
“Sorry, bud, wasn’t me.” He didn’t seem to believe me. “You probably met my brother.”
“So you expect me to believe that you have a brother that looks exactly like you.”
This asshole was really starting to piss me off.
“What’s going on?” Xavier asked from behind me, but I didn’t turn away from the guy still giving me the evil eye.
“What’s going on is that your friend here seems to have an issue with Corbin yet wants to insist it’s with me. Which in a way I guess he’s right, because any prick that has an issue with my brother, I have one with by default.”
I remained squared off with the guy as he stared back at me too. At one point he did look over my shoulder, my guess is to weigh out Xavier’s reaction.
“So you have a brother?” he asked and I nodded. “Apparently a twin.” Again I nodded. “And what, the both of you are sharing Emelie?”
“What’d you fucking say?”
Xavier instantly got in between us and held us apart. “Hold up.” He gave me a warning look, knowing I was hanging on the edge. “What the fuck are you talking about, Mark?”
“This guy, or his brother, who the fuck knows, got up in my face yesterday. I was talking to Emelie about my son and—”
“Your son?” Xavier asked before I could, but I didn’t really need his answer to figure out the rest. Suddenly my stomach felt sour.
“Ethan’s my son.”
I think I may have growled, and by Xavier’s reaction, I’d say that was a safe assumption. “You talked to Emelie yesterday?” It was fuckwad’s turn to nod. “And my brother?”
“Yeah,” he stated. “He didn’t seem to like the idea that I wanted to see my son.”
“What I find funny is that you keep calling him your son, yet you signed him away without ever meeting him.” Mark tensed his jaw a few times, like that shit would intimidate me.
“I think that’s a matter that is between me and Emelie.”
“And me,” I said, stepping toward him a little further, only to be once again held back by Xavier. “Since she’s my fucking girl, and that makes Ethan mine too.”
The guy grinned, yeah, fucking grinned at me.
“Playing daddy to my boy make you feel like a man?”
“No,” I said, finally dropping everything I held in my hand to the ground, “but this does.” I swung, and though Xavier kept me from hitting the prick like I wanted to, I still connected, forcing him to stumble back. “Stay the fuck away from them both.”
People around us paused, and I knew staying here was only gonna get me arrested, so I grabbed the only salvageable item I could and walked toward the building behind him. I was seething, my hands shaking, my legs feeling like a thousand pounds each.
When I stepped into the room, I zeroed in on Emelie and watched as her smile faded. Her eyes brows crinkled up and she started to stand. With purpose I walked toward her, placed the
bag of now smashed muffins on the table before her, and leaned in near her ear. “Here’s your breakfast. There was coffee too, but I dropped it when I was forced to punch your friend Mark in his fucking mouth.”
I heard her intake of breath as I leaned back and looked at her now widened eyes. The professor announced class was started and I walked away from her without letting her say a word.
Throughout class I couldn’t sit still, my leg bouncing, my fingers bending my pencil to the point where it would almost break in half. Each time Emelie would look back at me, it only managed to piss me off more.
I didn’t even gain one fucking thing from being there because I couldn’t concentrate. In fact, I couldn’t tell you a thing the professor said. My head was spinning, that fuck’s words rolling around in my mind over and over.
The second class ended, Emelie was up and moving toward me.
“I was gonna tell you.” She’d left behind all her things and stood in front of me to block me from leaving.
“That’s funny, because you had plenty of chances.” I stood from my chair, staring back at her. I couldn’t remember ever being as pissed at her as I was right then. “Before we had sex last night, or after when we took a shower. Even when we were lying on the couch watching a movie. Instead you played it all off like nothing ever took place, so why don’t we just be honest now and admit that you weren’t gonna tell me at all?” She didn’t reply. “That’s what I thought.”
I stepped around her, and when she reached out for me, I shrugged away.
I thought we were past shit like this, like we were solid. Him being here wasn’t her fault, but her choosing to lie to me by omission was.
***
My phone rang a hundred times since I left class, but I chose to ignore it. Avoiding her was best because I was pissed and jealous, which never played well when I needed to hold my tongue.