Straight Up Love (The Boys of Jackson Harbor #2)(87)

She practically glows under his appraisal, but she waves him off and turns to me. “You hear from Jake yet?”

I nod. “He’s called a couple of times. Texted a couple more.” I grab my phone off the counter and hand it to her, so she can read the messages for herself. Not that there’s much to read. I could probably recite our profound exchanges if I needed to.



Jake: You home?



Me: No.



Jake: When can we talk?



Me: Give me space.



“He’s sure about this?” Ellie asks, eyebrow raised. “Like, totally positive?”

I frown at her. “Sure about what?”

She turns the phone so I can see it, and I see that I’ve missed the latest text.



Jake: Noah isn’t mine. I went to NYC to find out for myself. Please call me.



“Who’s Noah?” Colton asks.

“Don’t read people’s private messages over their shoulders,” Ellie says.

My chest is a tangled mixture of relief and heartache.

The child isn’t his.

He went to New York.

What did he do while he was in New York? Did he and Molly hang out? Did they reconnect? Did she explain to him why she’s kept this secret? Does she even care that she’s widened this fissure between us? Did he feel anything for her while he was there?

The child isn’t his.

“Who’s Noah?” Colton snaps.

Ellie flashes me an apologetic wince. “Noah is Molly’s son. No one knew about him.”

He stares at Ellie like she just sprouted a couple more heads. “Molly?”

“Molly McKinley? Your stepsister?”

Colton scowls. “Molly doesn’t have a son.”

Ellie rolls her eyes. “Did you miss the part where I said no one knew about him? The kid’s four years old, and Jake thought he might be the father.”

“The fuck?” Colton’s jaw goes tight, and his eyes blaze with anger. “I’m pretty sure Jackson wants me to bloody his face.”

“Don’t,” I say. “It was years ago.”

“And the kid isn’t his,” Ellie says, pointing to the screen. She shifts her worried eyes to meet mine. “Does that make this all better?”

I shake my head. “I don’t think so.” It’s not that simple. “Even if Noah isn’t his—and forgive me if I’m skeptical—Jake still hurt me.”

Colton shakes his head. “Leave it to Molly to keep a kid secret from the whole damn world.”

Ellie turns to me. “Okay. Now we know that she’s sticking to her story. What’s next?”

I shrug. “Next, I need to find a job in case moving to Florida doesn’t pan out.”

She nods and heads to where my laptop is sitting on the table. “Let’s get to it.”





Jake


I have a key to Ava’s, so although I’m not breaking any laws when I let myself in on Friday night, I’m definitely in ethically shady territory. She won’t return my calls, and her responses to my text messages are monosyllabic more often than not. Then tonight, Lilly came home from play practice, chattering on as she always is, and said Miss Ava is spending her weekend in Florida. “Isn’t she lucky?”

Florida. Seaside Community Schools and the job I’d pushed from my mind as the least of my worries. Suddenly, it’s jumped to the top of that list.

She’s on her couch with her computer on her lap and her headphones over her ears. She jumps when I come into the living room. Her eyes widen, and she yanks the headphones off. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m making you talk to me.”

She shrugs and puts her computer on the end table. “Okay. Talk.”

Hope is a bubble in my throat, and now that she’s in front of me, it all feels so fragile. Now that I’m here, I’m afraid my words will be met with the anger still so clear in her eyes.

I’m not sure where to start. “Noah isn’t mine.”

“That’s what you said in your text.”

“Molly said we never slept together that night.”

A flicker of something—hope? understanding?—brightens her expression, but I see the moment she snuffs it out. “She said you didn’t, or you didn’t?”

I wince. “I don’t remember, but I believe her.” I sink to my knees in front of her, taking her hands in mine. “I was so screwed up, Ava. I’d finally worked up the courage to tell you how I felt, and you shot me down. You told me I didn’t know my own feelings, and then you told me to leave.”

She looks down at our joined hands as if she’s trying to figure out what she’s seeing. “I can’t blame you for what you did with Molly.”

“Why not? I do. It was reckless and stupid.”

She nods and pulls her hands from mine. “Rationally, I know you weren’t betraying me when you took her home.” She presses her hand against her chest. “But this feeling in here isn’t about rational. In fact, it’s the opposite of rational thought, and when it comes to how I feel about you—about us—it matters just as much.”

I take the hand from her chest and press it to mine. “What about this feeling in here? What about this heart that beats for you?” Averting her eyes, she gently pulls away, and I let her. “We’ll get through this.”