Strings of the Heart (Runaway Train #3)(72)



I scowled at her for even thinking something so shitty of me. “Of course not. Just trust me. I think I know what will get them to quiet down.”

“Okay,” she replied, reluctantly.

After I hustled back to my suite, I grabbed my phone off the nightstand. When I returned to Allison, she was walking around the bedroom with both twins in her arms as they continued crying. After scrolling through a few playlists, I picked one. Then I placed my phone on the docking station beside the bed. As I reached out for Jax, the sounds of Abby and Jake singing, I’ll Take You with Me echoed through the room. At the sounds of their parents’ blending voices, Jax and Jules’s cries started to quiet. The longer the song played, the more content they grew.

As Allison shifted Jules in her arms, Jules gave a contented coo as she lay her head on Allison’s chest. Glancing down at Jax, I asked, “How’s that, Jaxy boy? You like hearing your old man and your mama making music?” I asked. He stopped gumming his fist to smile up at me. “I thought you would. They sound good together, don’t they? They make a good team.”

When I glanced up, Allison appeared almost teary as she watched me with Jax. Once again, the familiar ache burned in my chest. It always happened whenever I tried to ignore the feelings I had for Allison. Under her intense stare, it was almost hard to breathe. Part of me wanted to stop the pain by just admitting to her about how much I cared. But the stubborn ass in me overrode those thoughts and clung to the notion that we simply couldn’t be together.

Deciding to change the subject, I jerked my chin at Jules. “She’s asleep.”

Allison’s eyes lit up. “Really?” she whispered. When I nodded, she eyed Jax. “He’s almost there.”

“Think we could lay them down?”

“We could try.” She then stepped over to the Pack ‘N Play next to Jake and Abby’s massive king-sized bed. She eased Jules down onto the mattress as if she was a ticking time bomb that could go off at any minute. Once she pulled her hands away, she waited a moment to see if Jules would start crying. When she didn’t, Allison eased a pacifier into Jules’s mouth, and then stepped back.

With a wave of her hand, I stepped forward to bring Jax over. His eyelids were fluttering like he was desperately fighting sleep. After I lay him down, his eyes popped open, and he stared up at me as if daring me to try to walk away. “Easy buddy,” I whispered, as I patted his tummy. Allison squeezed in beside me to slide a pacifier between Jax’s lips. Once he was sucking voraciously, his eyes started to droop, and then he was finally asleep.

When I stepped back from the bed, Allison and I both exhaled a ragged sigh in unison. “That was intense,” I murmured in a low voice.

“Yeah, it was.”

Standing side by side with her across from an extreme cuteness overload of two sleeping babies was just a little too much for me. In a weird way, it was like we had been parenting together, and that was far too much of a commitment than I could ever allow myself with Allison. We were not meant to be, regardless of whatever I continued to feel. “Well, I guess now that everything is under control, I’ll head back to my room.”

After grabbing the baby monitor off the nightstand, she gave me a sincere smile. “I owe you a big thank you. I don’t think I could have survived without your help.”

“No need to thank me. I was glad to help,” I replied. After I grabbed my phone, I started out of the bedroom. Allison followed me out and then closed the door of Jake and Abby’s bedroom.

We stood there, staring at each other, both silently daring the other one to mention the white elephant in the room. After what felt like an eternity, neither one of us spoke up to acknowledge it. “Yeah, well, I’ll see you later,” I muttered before starting for the door.

When I reached for the doorknob, Allison’s voice caused me to freeze. “Rhys, wait.”

I whirled around. “What is it?”

Nibbling her lip, she appeared to be trying to find the right way to tell me something. Finally, she just blurted, “Eli has asked me out on a date. Alone.”

That motherf*cker. It wasn’t enough he had dry-humped and kissed her last night on the dance floor, but now he was upping the ante by wanting to take her out to wine and dine her. Alone. Jake was going to love the hell out of that. At her expectant look, I knew I needed to get out of there before I betrayed any of my emotions. “Good for him. I hope you have a great time,” I replied, unable to contain my sarcasm.

“That’s all you have to say?” she asked, her expression one of betrayal.

I shrugged. “Were you looking for my permission or something? You told me last night I’m not Jake, so what does it matter to me what you do?”

Tears pooled in her eyes, causing me to feel like the biggest ass**le on the face of the earth. But of course, it didn’t make me man up and tell her how I felt about her. No, I was still letting myself be deluded into the notion that I was doing what was best for the both of us. While Jake wasn’t keen on the idea of Eli dating Allison, he would feel a hell of a lot different if it were me—his bandmate and brother.

“I just thought…” She shook her head. “Never mind.”

“You thought what?” I urged.

Her dark eyes took on a pleading expression as they bore into mine. “Regardless of how badly it ended last night, I don’t believe you could be so callous as to use me the way you did,” she replied, in a hushed whisper.

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