Just My Type(77)

“Ember—”

“Don’t,” she cuts Brandon off. “Don’t you dare say one more word to me. You are finished saying words to me. All the words. Forever.”

My smile grows bigger as I continue staring at the back of the woman I love.

It’s going to be fine. Christ, I love her. Everything is going to be fine. It’s not even confirmed that she’s moving back to Montana just because of the bullshit Brandon just spewed, and I’m already packing her bags and nursing my broken heart. She’s still standing here, right in front of me, stronger than ever. Maybe she’ll put her foot down with Brandon and refuse to move. There are a whole lot of discussions that she needs to have before any decision is made. It’s not a done deal. And I am very, very good at persuasion.

Fuck thinking I can’t make her happier here than she’d be at home. I made her date me for weeks without her even knowing it, didn’t I? I’m a goddamn genius.

“Dad?”

Ember jumps when she hears Lincoln’s voice, quickly turning around to give him a smile.

“Hey, Lincoln!” Brandon shouts from the bottom of the porch. “I was just telling your mom the good news!”

“Brandon!” Ember tries to cut him off, but this jackass just doesn’t learn.

“We’re moving back to Montana!” Brandon yells excitedly.

There is not even a moment’s hesitation. The sound of Lincoln’s happy shrieks as he runs around the house, waving his hands in the air, fill my stomach with a pit of dread.

She wants to raise her son there.

I finally look back at Ember’s face, and there are tears in her eyes as she watches Lincoln continue to zip past and scream through his celebration. Happy tears, because she knows. She knows.

Maybe I could make her really happy here, but she wants to raise to raise her son there.

Who the fuck am I to stand in her way?





CHAPTER 26





BAKER

Chaos


It’s been a week since Ember’s dick of an ex dropped by her house, and then dropped the bomb that completely obliterated my life. After he left, it took Ember a half-hour to quiet Lincoln down from his celebrating. Then she found out he’d forgotten to put Ron Jeremy back in his cage after he came back in the house and got distracted with celebrating, by finding a trail of R.J. shit from the kitchen, all the way down the hall, and in a circle in Ember’s room. He might not hiss at her anymore, but he will shit all over her carpet to remind her who the boss really is.

After helping her clean up the shit, then cleaning up Ron Jeremy who decided to roll in the shit at some point to really bring his point home, Ember heated up leftovers for Lincoln since ordering tacos had long been forgotten, and I bribed him with a PG-13, guns-a-blazing, car-chasing movie he’d been begging to see, as long as he took a shower and actually washed his hair. Then three of us watched the movie together on a pile of blankets and pillows on the living room floor, after I cleaned up a big glass of purple grape juice Lincoln dropped as he walked out of the kitchen, where I may or may not have shot him in the neck with a Nerf bullet.

I loved every minute of it. And I was losing it.

I didn’t spend the night that night. Ember didn’t ask, and I was too much of a pussy to bring it up. When the movie ended, I kissed her on the cheek and quietly slipped out while she was arguing with Lincoln about going to bed. We didn’t talk about the fucking Montana elephant in the room, because there was too much going on. And I was a fucking pussy.

We’ve both been pretty busy since that night, and I’m not gonna lie; I didn’t rearrange my schedule like I’ve been doing since I met her, to make sure I had time for her. I went to work like normal, I stayed late like normal, I did paperwork into the early hours of the morning, and then I passed out upstairs in my loft. My loft that was cold, and empty, and too fucking quiet all of a sudden. Ember and I still talked via text every day. Mostly just bullshit apologies about how busy we’ve both been, and her telling me she’s trying to wrap up a bunch of transcription work.

Wrap it up before she moves and her life is filled with better things than listening to other people’s boring and pointless conversations to pay the bills.

Now, I’m walking up to her front door, because she sent me a text that said we need to talk. Nothing else, no heart emoji, no funny, dirty gif because she means sex, and not actual talking. This is it. This is where she officially tells me she’s leaving. Maybe she’ll make promises about planes, and car trips, and FaceTime, but we both know it will be bullshit. Sure, I was attracted to her over email and transcription notes, but I fell in love with her in person. Hearing her laugh, watching her with her son, and seeing the playfulness on her face when she tells me to suck her dick. Touching her, kissing her, holding her hand, being inside her… how am I supposed to go without that every day, now that I know what it’s like? Now that I’ve experienced what it’s like to really have a family?

Ember is flinging open the front door before I can even reach for the doorbell. I want to sag against the doorframe when I see her again for the first time in a week, because she’s so goddamn beautiful. And because I realize I only have a week left of walking up to her house and watching her open the door for me.

Her hair is up in her favorite messy bun, with little pieces falling down all around. She’s wearing a sweatshirt with a wide neck that falls off one shoulder, and a pair of tiny, ratty jean shorts, and she takes my fucking breath away.