Down Too Deep (Dirty Deeds, #4)(55)

Great, indeed.

My morning with the kids played out typically. We stayed outside and ate chicken fingers and fries for lunch. Everyone was happy. Yet by nap time, I still felt off. When my phone beeped with an incoming text, I wondered if it was Nathan. Maybe our interaction from this morning was bothering him as much as it was bothering me and he wanted to reach out.

I palmed my phone and saw it was Travis texting me, and my initial reaction was surprise. Then I remembered our last conversation. I’d completely forgotten about our impending date.

Should we still go out? With everything that had happened with Nathan, I hesitated responding.

I needed to talk this out with someone.

After laying Marley in her crib, I rushed downstairs, phone in my hand and number waiting to be dialed. I swiped the baby monitor off the counter and peeked into the family room.

“Stay in here, okay?” I said to the kids. “I’m just going out on the deck.”

They were stretched out on the couch and deep into their iPad time. Their eyes remained focused on their screens as they nodded in answer.

I stepped outside and called Sydney. Time for our weekly check-in.

“Hey, Jenna,” she answered as I crossed the deck. “How are you? What’s going on?”

“I fooled around with Nathan.” The words tumbled out of my mouth. I held onto the rail, registering her breathless gasp. “So, uh, how was your Fourth?”

“U-um…it was good!” She cleared her throat. “Hold on one second.”

I heard shuffling through the line, then my brother’s deep, questioning voice. They must’ve both been off for the day. A heavy door closed. I pictured Sydney on her front porch and smiled when the glider made noise beneath her weight. It was old and had been left there by the previous owner.

“How was my Fourth?” Sydney hissed. “How was yours is the better question. What happened? Tell me everything.”

I breezed through my recount of the holiday, leaving off heavy details but offering enough that she made little noises of approval in my ear. Until I got to the part when Nathan dug around in his nightstand for cash.

“Oh…wow. Wow. That’s incredibly awkward.” She groaned in discomfort for me. “Jeez, did he have any idea how bad that looked?”

“He caught on right away,” I said. “He felt terrible for it. Apologized…a lot. I had to stop us though. I mean, I kind of work for him. There’s no other way I can look at this.”

“Well, yeah, you pretty much are an employee at this point. I can see that.”

“And the thing is, I don’t even need to be paid. I love spending time with Marley. This isn’t a job to me.” I frowned at the rail. “But he’s adamant about paying me. I can’t do things with Nathan and then accept money. Even if we worked it out to where he was somehow wiring me the cash, it’s still there. And, like, God forbid, what if the transaction messed up and tripled? Do I pay him back? Do I just hold all the money? I’d be thinking about this while we were having sex. I know I would.”

Sydney’s laugh cut with a groan. “Ugh, Jenna…I’m sorry. That sucks.”

“It really does.”

“So, you two just called it off?”

“I suggested we wait until the summer is over and I’m no longer watching Marley for him. Nathan agreed. Honestly, I’m not sure he’s even ready for something right now.” My eyes fell to the baby monitor beside me on the rail. I watched the lights flicker in response to Marley’s adorable sleeping noises.

Holy crap, I loved that little girl.

“Things just happened really fast,” I said.

“Well, slowing down isn’t the worst idea, then. I’m sure it’s complicated for him. Not only because of Marley, but with Sadie…”

“Yeah.”

“Two months isn’t that long,” Syd considered.

“It isn’t, and it is…but we have to wait.”

“If it’s what you both agreed on, that’s probably what needs to happen.”

“Nathan said it was for the best. Of course, he also said it wouldn’t be weird. But this morning when I got here—”

“Weird?”

“Pretty much.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry, Jenna. Maybe it’s just too soon, you know? It’ll get better.”

“I hope so. I love how it used to be.”

We could still be us. I thought we could. Just the us we were before the party. I didn’t think I could handle Nathan full-on flirting while we waited this out in the friend zone.

Talk about torture. Nathan flirted really well.

“There’s another thing I wanted to talk to you about.” I lifted my head and looked out at the beach, at the little sandcastle we made this morning. Marley loved building those. “Travis reached out to me today about our date. Remember I told you we spoke after seeing each other at Wax?”

“I completely forgot about that.”

“So did I…”

“What did he say?”

“He wants to know if I have any free nights coming up, and I’m wondering if there is any reason why I shouldn’t go out with him. Before the Fourth, I didn’t really have one…”

“Well, you said Nathan might not be ready for anything right now, and you both agreed to put on the brakes. Honestly? I’m not sure you have a reason not to go out with Travis.”