by Becca Barnes
I watched her walk away.
Eight
Tori
“Nerves?” Jen was waiting outside the stall for me as I finished worshiping the porcelain god.
“Yeah.” I rinsed out my mouth and popped a breath mint. “You know how I am with cameras.”
“Nate’s the same way,” she said. The press conference was about to begin.
It would be fine. Nate would be his charming self. I’d rattle off some stats and say my spiel. The reporters would awww over the self-made billionaire and his orphaned sister like they always did.
“You’re sure you’re not coming down with something?” asked Jen. She held her palm to my forehead like Nana would have done.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Just tired. I’m actually going to go hang out at the cabin for awhile after this is over. Get away for a little downtime.”
“I’ll call and have the housekeeper make it up and stock the kitchen,” she said.
“That’s okay. I’ll stop by the grocery store and grab some stuff that sounds good on my way there.” Oranges, of all things, sounded good. They were about the only thing I could currently keep down. That, and peanut butter. I should probably stock up on saltines, too.
Thinking about the salty wafers made my mouth water, which made my stomach churn, which...
I blew out a shaky breath. I could do this. I would do this.
Jen opened the door, and we walked out into the hall. Jake and Nate were standing next to each other. Waiting on us. I expected Jen to tell Nate about my puking, but she didn’t say anything.
“Good morning.” Jake nodded at me but immediately turned back to discuss permits and whatnot with Nate.
“Good morning.” I smoothed out my skirt and brushed my hair back behind my ears.
The sooner we got this over with, the sooner I could escape.
* * *
When I pulled up to the cabin, it was long past dark. The presser had gone fine. Nate and Jake had to run to meet with some people about permits before I’d finished putting away my notes. It felt good to get out of the city. I could feel my shoulders unclench as I drove, even though I had to stop and throw up four times on the drive. But getting away from all the lights and sounds, I could finally concentrate.
Even though I’d told Jen not to call the housekeeper, the lights in the cabin were on. Then I noticed Nana’s old boat-sized Buick parked in the driveway.
Nate had tried to buy our grandmother more cars than I could count, which she refused to drive, before he finally gave up. Instead, he’d replaced the Buick part-by-part three times over at this point. He’d hired a local mechanic to come by once a week and check it out to make sure it was running smoothly.
“Nana?” I called when I opened the front door.
“Hey, sweetie,” she called from the kitchen.
“You didn’t need to come all the way up here,” I said. The mountain cabin was a good half-hour drive from her house in town.
“Thought you could use a home cooked meal after that drive,” she said, standing in front of a cast iron griddle.
“Thanks.” I could smell smoked ham frying on the stove along with a batch of cheesy grits. I took a big whiff.
Hoo boy.
I made a run for the bathroom.
She followed after me.
“Car sick?” she asked through the door as I retched into the toilet.
“Yeah, I guess.” I clutched the sides of my head in my hands then opened my purse and pulled out some saltines to nibble.
Better.
“How long are you staying?” she asked.
How long was I staying?
Good question.
My current plan hadn’t involved much more preparation other than simply running away at the first opportunity.
But there was only so long I could hide my current situation, literally and figuratively.
I’d never felt more alone. More terrified.
And yet, somehow...not.
Even as I’d peed on the stick that day, braced for the ensuing havoc, a tiny sense of calm had blossomed within the storm of uncertainty.
I didn’t feel it right now, but it was in there somewhere.
“I’m not sure,” I said.
I wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
“I’ll make you some ginger tea,” she said and stomped off.
Nana and her teas. She was born and raised in these mountains. And she was convinced that there wasn’t any ailment that one of her homebrewed teas couldn’t cure.
After I’d made myself presentable, I headed back to the kitchen. I was wearing a slouchy sweater with yoga pants. Nana glanced up from the tea kettle and looked me up and down. Her eyebrows crept up her wrinkled forehead.
“Well, then,” she said. “How far along are you?”
Nine
Three months later
Jake
There was something especially twisted about my current situation.
Not on the face of it. Friends set up their friends on blind dates all the time.
But letting Nate fix me up with some woman I’d never met when I still hadn’t managed to go a single hour without thinking about his little sister? Yeah, that was pretty messed up.
Especially pathetic as said sister had gone M.I.A. It had been a few months now since I’d even seen her. She was still alive. I knew that much. She responded to work emails quickly but kept everything business-like. The renewable energy project had pretty much gone on auto-pilot at this point, though, until we were ready to break ground on the physical assets like turbines and solar panels. So even work communication had grown further and further apart.
“Nice to see you out of the monastery,” said Nate.
Nate had this running joke about my lack of social life, about how I was one step away from becoming a monk. I’d reluctantly agreed to this date to keep up the charade.
Although, with Tori pretending I didn’t exist, it wasn’t much of a charade.
So my plans for the evening included a double date with Nate and Jen--dinner and dancing at some swanky new club he’d recently invested in. Could be worse.
Then I turned my head and swore under my breath.
Because I was wrong. It couldn’t be worse.
Tori trailed behind Nate and Jen.
My blind date.
Her skin glowed like starlight under the muted lights. As Nate led the way to the bar where I stood waiting for them, her lips parted in surprise. At least this hadn’t been some torturous joke she’d instigated.
“Hey, stranger,” I said to her as they approached.
Her chest flushed a brilliant red. God, how I missed that.
“Long time, no see,” she said.
“Yeah. Are you guys hungry?” I asked.
“I’m starving,” said Nate. “Hope Zach and Penny get here soon.”
“Who?”
“Your dates.” Nate looked around the room. “Ahh, there’s Penny. She’s great. You guys will hit it off.”
“She volunteers each year at the Christmas Eve event,” said Jen. “You’ll love her.”
“Oh. Awesome.” I looked over at Tori. “So Zach is…?”
“A guy who Nate knows through real estate.” Jen shrugged. “I’ve never met him. But Nate thought Tori needed to get out after being cooped up in the cabin like a hermit for so long.”
“Ahh.”
Wrong again.
It could get so much worse.
* * *
Penny was nice. Pretty. Funny as heck.
And not Tori.
Zach, on the other hand, was a dickwad. He had his head so far up Nate’s ass, I was surprised he was a realtor and not a proctologist.
“I can see why you bought this place,” said Zach. “The ambience is ah-maze-balls.”
I looked away from Nate and rolled my eyes. In my peripheral vision, I could see Jen doing the same.
“The food is dee-lish,” said Zach. “You’ll have to let me go back and
pay my compliments to the chef. You must be pulling in good numbers on this place.”
“Uh, yeah. The owners had a good reputation,” said Nate nonchalantly. “It seemed like a solid investment.”
“How’s work, Penny?” asked Jen, clearly wanting to change the subject. Nate hated mixing business and pleasure, not that this night had been all that pleasurable.
“Busy,” said Penny. “June’s our crazy season.”
Penny was a wedding planner. Also a single mom. I was sure there was a story there. And I honestly wished that I wanted to hear it.
Did I mention she was, like, super nice?
And not Tori.
Speaking of Tori, she was abnormally quiet tonight. She hadn’t lit into Nate once. That in itself was unusual.
She wore a baggy sweater over cropped leggings. Also unusual for her to not be the most stylish person in the room. Knowing Tori, though, she’d start a new fashion trend with the shapeless top. I supposed I was biased. I really liked her shape.
I realized Penny and Jen were both staring at me, waiting for my response to something they’d said. Crap. I’d spaced out.
“I was telling Penny that you’re Nate’s land manager, and she asked how you liked it.”
“I love it. Dealing with permits and bylaws and land commissioners. What’s not to love about that?” I laughed. “But no, seriously. I really do enjoy it. Get to spend a lot of time outside, rain or shine. Do a little bit of this. A little bit of that.”
“Jake’s being humble,” said Nate. “He’s my right hand. I don’t know what I’d do without him.”
The sincerity in his voice caught me off guard, but I recovered.
“Same here,” I said quietly.
“Well, I, for one, am ready to dance.” Zach clapped his hands on both knees and stood up so quickly that he jostled the table.
I glanced over at the number of glasses surrounding his plate. Not that I’d been keeping close count, but he must have downed more whiskey sours than Nate and me put together. And he was a good five inches shorter and thirty pounds lighter than I was.
“Actually, I think I saw one of my former students over there,” said Jen. “She’s a sophomore at Tech now.”
Nate craned his neck. “Hey! You’re right. It’s Angela. Let’s go say, ‘hi.’”
The jazz band struck up a new song, and Zach reached down for Tori’s hand.
“All right. How about I take you for a spin?”
“I’m not really in a dancing mood,” she said.
“Oh, come on.” He listed slightly to the left.
Instinctively, I inched forward to move between them. But Tori pushed back from the table and stood up.
“Sure,” she said, a resigned look on her face.
I relaxed back into my seat then turned to Penny.
“Would you like to dance?”
“Not really,” she said. “Sorry. I’d usually love to, but I’ve had a kind of long day.”
“No problem.” I took a sip of water and watched as Zach led Tori to the middle of the dance floor.
He slipped his hand around her waist and pulled her tight against his chest. If someone didn’t know Tori well, they probably wouldn’t notice the signs of her unease. The crease between her eyebrows or the way she kept flicking her hair away from her face.
Zach moved his hand lower down until it grazed her ass. She stiffened and tried to squirm away, but he pulled her in even closer.
My fists clenched under the table. Something fierce and primal erupted within me. Everything else in the room faded away as I focused on Tori and that shithead touching her. It was like some monster clawing out of my chest roaring, Mine.
I was halfway to my feet before I even realized what I was doing.
“Yeah. You should go rescue her.”
“Huh?” I snapped out of my trance, looking down at my...crap...my date. I’d totally forgotten about Penny.
“Tori.” Penny pointed at her. “You’ve been watching her all night long. You’re clearly hung up on her. You should go save her from that asshat.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s fine,” she said. “I need to go relieve my sitter anyway. Can you tell Nate and Jen that I said, ‘thanks for a fun evening’?”
“I really am sorry,” I said. “You seem like such a great—”
“I am.” She patted my cheek as she stood up. “And I deserve for someone to look at me the way you’ve been looking at her. Now scoot.”
“Thanks.”
By the time I reached the center of the dance floor, Zach had groped lower. It took all my self-control to merely tap him on the shoulder.
“I’m cutting in,” I said.
“Wait your turn.” He slurred his words.
I grabbed him by the wrist and twisted it away from Tori’s body as he let out a yelp of pain.
“If this turns into a scene, I can promise you’ll regret it.” I kept my voice low and menacing.
Zach’s unfocused gaze shifted from me to the spot where Nate would soon be reappearing. Even in his drunken state, he must have calculated that this couldn’t end well.
“Fine.” He put his hands up and backed away. “She’s not worth it anyway.”
Every muscle in my arm tightened, ready to smash his smug face in.
Tori caught me by the shoulder.
“Ignore him. Please. He’s drunk.”
I glanced down at her, and it was like the past few months of frustration hadn’t even happened. Everything in me wanted to hold her, to shield her from not just Zach but all the assholes in the world.
And that word roared in my chest again.
Mine.
Ten
Tori
I should have told Jake I didn’t want to dance. It was true. I hadn’t been lying to that cusswad Zach. I really was exhausted.
It turns out that gestating can really take it out of you.
Over the last few months, I’d become a champion napper up at the cabin. And a champion eater. The morning sickness hadn’t lasted long and had been replaced by an appetite that would put a wild boar to shame.
Time up at the cabin had been good for me. Time to rest. Time to think.
Nana had been just what I needed. She didn’t ask questions, and she didn’t offer answers. She listened, but she wasn’t afraid of silence either.
However, I’d avoided Atlanta--my brother, my job, my life--for an entire trimester. I had to face reality sometime.
Not that I’d worked up the courage to tell anyone but Nana that I was pregnant.
Thankfully, I wasn’t really showing. Yet.
I could sense the changes in my body. The voluptuous boobs carefully hidden under baggy clothes. The hint of a firm curve over my abdomen. The raging hormones and rushing blood flow that had left me starved for more than Nana’s grits and fried ham.
But nobody else could tell. That was the important thing.
When I got back to town and Nate told me that he was fixing me up with a guy he knew, I balked. But then he mentioned that he’d noticed how odd I’ve been acting, so I pulled it together.
I would tell my brother the truth--or, at least, part of it--but not yet.
So here I was, one asswipe of a blind date later, in the arms of the man who had started this whole mess.
No. That wasn’t fair. I was the one who had thrown caution to the wind. Or, well, condoms to the wind.
What’s done was done. There was no changing it now.
But that didn’t make it any easier swaying in the man’s arm.
Or smelling his scent.
Or...oh, God. Did I mention the increased blood flow?
Jake kept his hands carefully clear of any body parts that had let to my current state.
Of course he did. Big brother could be watching. And I knew that Jake would never do anything to upset precious Nate.
Well, other than knock up his little sister.
I chuckled.
“What is it?” said Nate.
“Nothing.”
“You okay?” he asked. “Did that guy hurt you?”
“No. It was more like dancing with an octopus with unlimited tentacles.”
“Yeah, well. I’d be happy to rip some of those suckers off for you.”
“I’m fine.” Better than fine at the moment. My whole body had relaxed when Jake had stepped in to dance. It was easy with him. Natural. I didn’t have to focus on the beat of the music or what my feet were doing. Our bodies simply...fit together.
“You sure?” Jake tipped my chin up so I had no choice but to look him in the eyes.
“I’m sure,” I whispered, glancing away and leaning into him until I was pressed against his chest.
We swayed two more beats, then he stopped moving. He jerked away from me like I’d given him an electric shock. His eyes widened, and he parted his lips like he was going to say something.
Before he had a chance, though, Nate and Jen sashayed next to us. I hadn’t even seen them join us on the dance floor.
“Did both your dates have to leave?” asked Nate.
“Yeah,” said Jake quietly, not taking his eyes off of me. “And you should cut ties with Zach.”
“Did anything happen?” Nate’s brow creased, and he put his hand on my shoulder.
“No. It’s fine,” I said. “He just had too much to drink. He got a little handsy.”
“Bastard. Are you sure you’re okay, Tor?” said Nate. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know him well. He’s a friend of a friend. I should have vetted him better. I thought you needed a night out after holing up in the mountains for so long.”
“It’s really fine,” I said. “Jake...handled things.”
“Thanks, man,” said Nate. “I owe you one.”
“I’m a little tuckered out,” I said. “I think I’m going to head home.”
“I’ll drive you,” Jake said quickly.
“No. that’s okay.” Memories of the last time I’d been in his truck washed over me, and I could feel my cheeks grow hot.
“I’m happy to,” he said.
“Actually,” said Nate, “we need to get home and let the dogs out soon. We’ll drop you off, Tor. It’s right on our way.”