Straight Up Love (The Boys of Jackson Harbor #2)(76)

When I draw her up to me, she’s grinning. “What are you so happy about?”

“You. This.” Her eyes meet mine under the spray of the shower. “Us.”





Ava


“You have a nice shower?” Shay asks when I step into the kitchen.

My cheeks flare hot. The kitchen is crowded with Jacksons—Brayden, Levi, and Carter are at the table with Lilly, and Ethan and Nic are just outside the kitchen in the living room.

Lilly looks up from the table and smiles. “I had my bath last night.”

Jake wraps his arm around my waist and tugs me into his side before he drops a kiss to the top of my head. “Shay’s just jealous because she’s not had a good shower in a long time.”

“Way too freaking long,” Shay mutters.

Jake reaches around me and grabs two mugs from the cabinet. “Brayden, it’s a Saturday morning. Just put the work away.”

Brayden sighs and shakes his head as he looks at his laptop screen. “I’m working on getting Molly enrolled in our health insurance. We need to hire an HR person if we’re going to keep growing our staff.”

“Wow,” Carter says flatly. “Amazing idea. Too bad no one suggested it before.”

Jake smirks. “Good plan, Brayden. Glad you thought of it.”

Brayden rolls his eyes. “If you want me to say you were right, don’t hold your breath. It would have been too soon to do it before. Now that we’re hiring regional sales reps, it might be worth it. Maybe.”

“I forgot Molly was working for you,” I say. I take the mug of coffee Jake offers me and wrap my hands around it. “How’s that working out?”

Levi chuckles at the table. “Brayden met with her in New York last week, and I think he’d agree it’s going really well.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Brayden says, punching his brother in the arm.

“Language!” Lilly says, putting on her best stern face, and everyone laughs.

I smile as I add cream to my coffee. I like the idea of Brayden and Molly. I wonder if there’s anything to what Levi’s saying.

Brayden squeezes the back of his neck, worry creasing his forehead. “It was nothing.” He shakes his head. “Anyway, I’m kind of baffled she didn’t even tell me about her kid. Why does she keep him a secret, Ava?”

My mug thunks when I drop it on the counter. “Who?”

He taps his finger to his screen. “Noah? Her little boy? She didn’t mention him the whole time I was up there training her. It was like he didn’t even exist.”

“Molly has a little boy?” I ask. Jake looks to Brayden then back to me, and I shake my head. “I think you’re misunderstanding something. Her friend has a kid. Could she be trying to get him onto her health insurance?”

Brayden frowns. “It’s right here in the paperwork she filled out for her health insurance. Noah McKinley, son, four years old.”

Jake puts his mug down next to mine and walks around the counter to look over Brayden’s shoulder.

Carter gets up from the table, but he walks over to me. “Maybe it’s a mistake,” he says. “Maybe she misunderstood something in the paperwork.”

Noah McKinley, son.

It doesn’t sound like something that could be confused.

“If you feel strange asking her about it, I can call her,” Jake says, squeezing Brayden’s shoulder. “I’ll make sure the paperwork is filled out correctly.”

I slide my cell from my pocket, my thumb hovering over the screen, then slide it back in. I feel like Molly and I really connected when she was in town. The idea that she’d keep something as important as a child from me hurts. Do Dad and Jill know? Have they kept this from me too? And why? To protect Molly from my imperfect influence? That doesn’t even make sense. None of this does.

I didn’t even realize Jake has come back to stand in front of me until he holds my face in his hands. “You okay?” he asks.

I nod, then shake my head. “I don’t know.”

He pulls me into his chest and wraps his arms around me. “Try not to overthink it until we know something for sure.”

With Jake’s warmth against my cheek and his arms around my waist, Molly’s secrecy from me seems less significant.





Jake


“This is Molly. Leave a message.”

I pace across the bedroom, looking up to make sure the door’s still closed. “Hey, Molly, this is Jake. Call me back, okay?” Since she’s ignored my calls the three other times I’ve tried her this morning, I add, “It’s about work stuff.”

Do not jump to conclusions. But it’s not much of a jump, and it would be really fucking easy to do just that. If the information on her healthcare enrollment is true, Molly has a son who was born around nine months after we got drunk and slept together. I don’t want to overreact, but given the timing, it seems like something we should at least have a conversation about.

“Jake?” Ava sticks her head in the bedroom door. Her smile falls away when she sees the phone in my hand. “Did you get a hold of Molly?”

I shake my head. This gnawing ache in my gut can simmer the fuck down any minute now. “I’m sorry. She’s not answering.”