Evenings always feel a little rushed around here. After we finish eating, I clean the kitchen while Scarlet does school work with Jackson. Then it’s bath, bedtime, and trying to clean the house—again. I don’t know how it gets so messy in those few hours. Once Jackson is asleep, I go back into the living room to watch TV. Scarlet and I just finished a new season of a horror show and need to find something new to binge.
I’m flipping through shows, waiting for her to come down after changing into pajamas. Then her voice rings out, sounding alarmed as she calls me up stairs.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, finding her in the bathroom.
She’s standing in front of the sink, holding up a pregnancy test. I look at the test. There’s no mistaking the two pink lines on that thing. I wrap my arms around her.
“You’re pregnant!”
“Are you sure?” she asks, and I feel her trembling.
“Only being pregnant can make a pregnancy test positive.”
“Tumors can too.”
“Scarlet,” I say a little sternly. “You didn’t randomly grow a tumor since the last time you were at the doctor. They would have seen it.”
“Maybe I should take another test.”
“Do you have another?”
She pulls away and nods, bending down to pull another from under the sink. She tears open the packaging and stops. “I don’t have to pee.”
I laugh and pull her into my arms. “It’s okay. Because look at this.” I hold up the test. “You’re pregnant.”
Her eyes fill with tears and she buries her face in my chest. “I can’t believe it. We wanted this so bad.”
“I knew it would happen,” I remind her, unable to stop smiling. “We going to have another baby.”
She blinks away her tears and smiles up at me. “We are.”
3
Scarlet
I swallow hard and part my legs, letting out a breath.
“Try to relax,” the ultra sound tech tells me. Wes, who’s standing next to me, takes my hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze. I close my eyes and let my thighs fall a little farther apart. I’m so nervous we’re going to see nothing there, that all the positive tests I’d gotten over the last week and a half were all a lie. Or I really do have a tumor.
I keep my eyes closed until the tech tells me to look.
“There’s your baby,” she says.
I blink, staring up at the TV screen on the wall above us. I’m not really sure what I’m looking at. It looks like a jelly bean or a funny shaped gummy bear at best. But something inside flickers, and she doesn’t have to tell me for me to know it’s the heart beating away.
Tears fill my eyes and Wes kisses my forehead. The tech finishes the exam and prints off pictures for us. We’re seeing the doctor right after this, and I can’t take my eyes off the black and white photos of that little jelly bean.
“It’s real,” I whisper to Wes, blinking back tears again. He wraps his arm around me.
“It is. We’re having another baby.”
“Jackson is going to be so excited.” I smile up at my husband. “How should we tell him? I thought about it for so long but now that we can actually tell him, I have no idea how to say it.”
Wes chuckles. “I might have bought him a shirt that says big brother already. I thought we could give it to him and tell him he’s going to have a sibling, and then have him wear it over to my parents’ and see how long it takes before anyone notices.”
I smile. “I like that plan.” I wanted to wait until we had one ultra sound done before we told anyone. After the struggle to get pregnant and needing fertility drugs the last few months, I was in such disbelief we were finally having our baby I wanted to see it before we shared the news.
And now it’s real.
I saw the heartbeat. Heard it too, and it was the best sound in the world. We’re called into the exam room, and the doctor says everything looks perfect. We go home right after that, anxiously waiting for Jackson’s playdate to end. He’s at the neighbor’s house right across the street, and he needs to come home, now.
I’m so excited to tell him.
Wes goes to get him about an hour later, and by that time I’ve already started an Amazon baby registry. I’m getting ahead of myself, I know, but I’m so freaking excited.
The shirt Wes got for him is laying on the coffee table, and we make a big deal about sitting down in the living room when he gets home.
“We got you a new shirt, buddy,” Weston tells him, holding it up. “Can you read it?”
Jackson looks at it, needing a few seconds to sound out brother. “Big brother,” he says proudly. Then it hits him. “Am I a big brother?”
“You are,” Wes and I say at the same time. Jackson jumps up and down with excitement and then hugs me.
“My baby brother is in your belly!”
“We don’t know if it’s a boy or girl yet,” I tell him. “But either way, you’re going to be the best big brother in the world.”
Wes slips one arm around me and the other around Jackson, pulling us both into a hug. Tears bite at the corners of my eyes, and as much as I’d love to blame it on hormones, I know it’s not.
Because right here in this moment, I’ve never believed in second chances more than I do right now. If I can get a happy ending, anyone can.
You’ve just got to believe.
Quinn & Archer: Flashback
1
Archer
Freshman year in college…
“Dude, you okay?”
Blinking, I set the phone down and look up at Dean, my roommate. “I…I don’t know.” My father’s words echo in my head. I know what they mean but they haven’t sunk in just yet.
They found your brother…unconscious…not sure if he’s going to make it.
And if he does, he’s going to be in a lot of trouble. I knew Bobby’s partying was getting out of control but I didn’t know it had gone this far.
Excessive drug use…it’s been going on for a while. We didn’t want to tell you.
“What happened?” Dean looks at the phone and back at me. “Did someone die?”
“Not yet. It’s…it’s my brother.” Letting out another breath, I perch on the edge of the desk in our cramped dorm room and tell Dean everything my father just told me. “They’re getting the first flight out now. If he pulls through they’ll check him into rehab and then stay with him to make sure he stays and gets some help.” I slowly shake my head. “How did it get so bad without me noticing?”
“People…people hide shit.”
“He’s my brother.” We haven’t gotten along well in years, but I thought I knew him well enough to know he was suffering from an addiction. And now he’s on the brink of death…fuck. I’m scared for his life and feeling guilty that I didn’t see it. That he didn’t think he could come to me.
But there’s darkness in addiction and Bobby might not have even realized he had a problem.
“Are you going?”
“There aren’t any flights around here to Vegas. Maybe…maybe if I drive to Chicago or another airport even I can find something.” I run my hand over my face. “Until then…I guess I’ll just go home. Or maybe stay here. I’m more likely to find a flight out of Indy than up in Michigan.”
“It’s Christmas break. You’re not spending it alone.”
I shrug. “I don’t really have a choice.”
“Yeah, you do.” He picks up the phone and calls home. Only a minute later, it’s settled. When Dean drives home in a few hours, I’m coming with and spending winter break with the Dawsons.
I’ve been to Dean’s house a few times over the school year so far. We became really good friends right off the bat, and I’ve never had a best friend like this before. Dean’s family lives within driving distance from the university and I’ve gone to Eastwood with him on weekends for a home cooked meal.
The Dawson family is large, with Dean having three brothers and one sister…one sister who will forever
be the bane of my existence. I still feel all pervy when I think about the first time I saw her, but I swear she looked much older than she actually was. I’d already mentally fucked her ten times before I learned that she was four years younger than me.
Four years.
Definitely not legal.
Or moral.
But one day she’ll be eighteen and—nope. I’ve got to stop myself right there.
Quinn is Dean’s baby sister. Dean is my best friend. That’s a line I will never, ever cross.
2
Quinn
“My mom is being so flipping annoying.” I slam my door closed and brace for Owen to yell at me. Sometimes when I slam my door, it rattles our shared wall and knocks this stupid framed photo of him and his girlfriend, Charlie, to the ground. He doesn’t say anything, and then I remember Charlie is over and he’s in his room with the door closed. Gross. I’ll need to turn the radio on before I risk hearing anything.
“What’s she doing?” Jamie asks, flipping a page in the latest issue of Cosmo.
“Making me clean everything. Like everything.”
“Oh, for Christmas?”
“Yeah. We’re hosting the family party this year and I’m seriously going to die if I have to clean one more thing.” Flopping back on the bed, I throw my hands out behind me and whack my fingers against the wall. “Ow.” I sit back up and shake out my hand. A car pulls into the driveway. Hoping it’s my dad with pizza, Jamie and I go downstairs.
Weston sits at the counter, and Jamie goes all nonverbal when she sees him. I roll my eyes, feeling like I’m going to puke if I have to hear her talk about how cute he is now that he’s in the Army. It’s his first Christmas home with us in two years though, so I don’t mind it that much. And at least it’s distracting her from gushing over Logan or Owen this time.
Having four older brothers sucks.
“Hey,” Weston says, looking up from the papers in front of him.
“Hi, Wes,” Jamie coos, batting her eyelashes. “Are you working on Army stuff?”
“No. Just a crossword in the paper. Kind of got into the habit of doing then while I was—”
“Off fighting in the war?”
“Something like that.” Wes looks past Jamie at me and winks. His long-time girlfriend, Daisy, has been over all day and only left for work this evening. I’ll gently remind Jamie later that Wes isn’t single…or looking to date a fifteen year old. The garage door opens, sending the dogs running. Instead of Dad with pizza, Dean walks in. He hasn’t seen Wes in months, and goes right over to greet our brother. Mom, who’s been stringing more garland and trying to make the house look perfect, rushes into the kitchen.
Everything is chaos for a moment, and I’m disappointed there’s no pizza yet. But then I see him, standing awkwardly in the hall leading from the mudroom into the kitchen.
Archer Jones.
“Oh, Archer, honey.” Mom takes her arms from around Dean and goes to Archer. She says something to him that I can’t hear, but her face is sympathetic. Is something going on?
“What’s he doing here?” I blurt, not meaning to sound as rude as I did.
Mom shoots daggers at me with a glare, and I know enough to shut up. Dad comes in with pizza after that. Logan comes down the stairs, and it takes Dad going up and banging on Owen’s door to get him and Charlie to come down.
We all squeeze around the dining room table, and get on with dinner like it’s any other night. My eyes go to Archer every now and again. I’ve never even admitted to Jamie just how big of a crush I have on Archer, how I dream about him kissing me and looking at me as more than Dean’s little sister.
But that’s all it will ever be…just a dream. Archer is older than me, and has everything going for him. He could have any girl he wants. Even if I was his age, there’s no way he’d ever choose me.
3
Archer
The whole house is quiet. Even the dogs have worn themselves out. I’ve been here two days so far, and Christmas is quickly approaching. Bobby woke up but is still in bad shape. I’ve only finished half a year as a pre-med student, but it doesn’t take schooling to know that kidney issues and the possibility of a drug addict needing dialysis aren’t a good thing.
I sit at the large island counter in the kitchen, feeling angrier and angrier as time goes on. I’m mad at Bobby, though I know this isn’t the sort of issue a good verbal lashing could have shaken him from. I’m mad at my parents for keeping this hidden. They didn’t know the extent of Bobby’s drug usage until August. I’d just left for college and they didn’t want to upset me.
Being shielded from unpleasant things only makes it that much worse when shit finally hits the fan and starts to rain down on you. By that time, it’s festered and rotted and smells all that much worse.
As my own life started to fall in big piles of shit around me, things continued on here at the Dawsons, so fucking perfect it would be creepy if I didn’t like everyone here so much. Dean’s the best friend I could ask for, and his brothers and parents accept me right into the family with no questions asked.
We decorated Christmas cookies today, which is something I haven’t done since I was a kid. Mrs. Dawson and Quinn seemed to be the only ones who actually enjoyed it, and I think Dean’s twin brothers ate more cookies than they decorated. Still, it felt like something from one of those lame made-for-TV Christmas movies.
And I loved it.
I’ll probably never admit it to anyone, and if I brought it up to my own mother it would only hurt her feelings. She’s a good mom, but has had her hands full the last few years with Bobby. He’s partied and drank and skipped school for years. I guess I should have seen the writing on the wall. Though I still didn’t think he could get this bad.
That’s denial for you.
The stairs creak as someone comes down them and into the kitchen.
“Can’t sleep either?” Weston goes right for the fridge.
“Too much on my mind. You?”
“Same, and I’m not used to the time change yet.”
“Oh, right. You were overseas.”
He pulls out two beers and hands me one. I’m not twenty-one, and Weston knows it. “I’m sorry about your brother.” He twists off the cap of his beer bottle and I do the same, not sure if this is a test or not. I don’t know Weston at all, but from what Dean’s said about him, he’s the last person to hand someone underage a beer. Though something tells me this is his way of helping me deal with the fact that my brother almost died and I’m spending Christmas with another family.
“Thanks. I’m so fucking pissed at him. That’s unfair, isn’t it?”
“To feel angry? No, not at all. You have every right to feel angry and I’d be just as pissed if it was one of my brothers. But it’s not fair to direct that anger at your brother or put all the blame on him.”
I nod and take a drink of the beer. It’s cold and goes down smooth. “Yeah.”
“He’s in rehab?”
“He will go. It’s court-ordered.”
“That could be good.”
“I hope,” I say and take another drink of beer. This wasn’t how I planned on spending Christmas, waiting around to get the call from my parents that my brother died. And along with being mad at Bobby, I feel so fucking helpless.
He’s my big brother, yet has never been there for me. I’ve only met Weston today and he’s already stepped into a better role as older brother than my own ever did.
“Go easy on that,” Wes tells me, looking at the beer in my hand. He grabs a few cookies from a covered tray and goes back upstairs. I finish the rest of the beer, put the bottle in the recycling, and go back up as well. I’m crashing on an air mattress on Dean’s floor. It’s really not that bad and is more comfortable than my bed in our dorm.
The old farmhouse is big, with the master bedroom downstairs and four room upstairs. With Wes home on leave and me here, it’s a full house. But it oddly adds to the charm of this place.
Qu
inn walks out of the bathroom, jumping when she sees me come up the last stairs.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” I tell her.
Her hand flies to her chest, and I’m glad it’s dark. Because she’s wearing a white t-shirt and no bra. She’s very well endowed for someone her age, which is what threw me when I saw her for the first time. I knew she was Dean’s little sister, but I assumed she was seventeen. Sixteen even…that wouldn’t have been so bad.
But when I found out she was only fourteen years old, I wanted to wash my mind with bleach. Along with being really pretty, having a body every single girl on campus would kill for, Quinn is funny and really smart. Though none of that matters. No one is more off-limits than Quinn.
She’s too young. It’s wrong. I can’t and I won’t.
“It’s okay. Wes just came up and I didn’t know anyone else was down there with him.”
“What are you still doing up?” I ask her.
She brushes her hair back and yawns. “I was looking at cats.”
“Cats?”
“On the animal shelter’s website. I was one for Christmas, but my mom says the dogs would go after it. It’s not fair.”
I chuckle. “I didn’t know you were a cat person.”
“How can you not be? They’re so cute and easy to take care of in comparison to the dogs.”
“That is true. Dogs are rather involved pets.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I love all animals. I just really like cats.”
We start to walk down the hall together. “I hope you get one then.”
“Thanks.”
I pause at the door leading into Dean’s room. There’s a nightlight plugged into an outlet along the wall down at this part of the hallway, and it illuminates Quinn’s pretty face. Quinn is too young for me, and even if she was of age, all four of her brothers would line up to skin me alive if I ever made a move. Yet I still care about her, and right then and there, I swear to continue to care for her—like she was my own little sister.
Dawson Family Boxset (Books 1-3) Page 81