“Thank you.” My voice sounds puny. Why can’t I have a Rocky voice like Jake?
Tyler stands up and dusts himself off before walking toward the doors of the venue again. Jake makes a sharp eh sound like I use when training my dogs, and Tyler freezes.
“Wrong way,” Jake says, and I swear that Tyler wants to hit him back but knows he would never be a match for Jake.
So, to my great delight, Tyler turns around and walks away from the fundraiser, back toward his fancy BMW, with his tail between his legs and then speeds off. When he pulls away, I sigh with relief. Not because I ever felt like I was in real danger, but because I’m so sick of seeing Tyler’s face, and now I’m pretty sure I won’t have to anymore.
Jake turns his head and pierces me with his gaze. “Are you okay?” His voice is so tender it nearly melts me right here on the sidewalk.
I shake my head no, and in an instant, he’s walking up close to me and putting his hands on my arms, rubbing them up and down. “Did he hurt you?”
I shake my head no again and let my tears roll down my cheeks. “No. But you did.”
Jake’s hands still, and he meets my eyes. He looks like I physically stabbed him. “What can I say to make this better, Evie? I’m so sorry for making you think I don’t trust you. Because I do. I trust you more than anyone. I let your family get in my head, and I reacted poorly. But I won’t make that mistake again—”
I cut Jake off and shove away from him. “This isn’t about what happened at my parents’ house, Jake.”
His head kicks back, and his brows dip together. “Then, what’s it about?”
My mouth falls open, and I let out a sad mock laugh. “Did she not tell you I came by?”
Jake blinks a few times. “Evie, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Came by where?”
“Your house, Jake!” I shove his chest because, apparently, I’m that kind of girl when I’m angry. He lets himself rock back on his feet to make me feel stronger. “I saw her. The perky little brunette with the big boobs, standing in your doorway in her underwear! I saw her, Jake! How could you turn around and sleep with someone right after dropping me off at my house? I thought we had something special, but—”
Jake shakes himself from the trance he’s been in since I started my monologue and rushes up to me, grabbing my shoulders again. “No, Evie. You have it all wrong. I didn’t sleep with her. In fact, I slept at my parents’ house last night.”
…What?
What in the freaking what did he just say?
“You…didn’t sleep with that woman?”
Jake’s face cracks into a tentative smile, and he shakes his head slowly. He opens his mouth to explain but is cut off by the sound of his phone ringing in his pocket.
“I’ve got to answer this; it’s my mom. But I’ll explain everything in a minute. Don’t go anywhere, okay?”
I nod and wrap my arms around myself because the past 24 hours have felt like a roller coaster, and I’m not sure I’m off the ride yet.
“Mom? Everything okay?” He pauses, and I watch as a heavy expression settles over his face. He stays perfectly frozen.
Something in me knows. “Is it Sam? Is she okay?”
He nods, and I didn’t realize that I had walked up to him and wrapped my arms around his middle, but apparently, I did, because his hand is wrapping around my shoulder, and he mumbles a few replies to his mom before he says he’s on his way and hangs up.
“Sam had a seizure,” he says, gripping my shoulder like he needs me to help hold him up. “But she’s okay. Apparently, she went upstairs to get her PJs on, and then Daisy rushed back downstairs and started alerting my mom. Sam did fall, but it was on the carpet, and Daisy rolled her on her side just like she and Sam practiced. She stayed with Sam and hasn’t left her side since the seizure ended.” I see Jake’s eyes welling with tears, and I squeeze him tighter. “Daisy made sure she was safe.”
I smile. “Good. That’s so good, Jake.”
He nods and squeezes my shoulder again. “I need to get home to Sam, though.”
“Right, of course.” I let go of him and look back toward the venue. “Let me just go get Charlie, and we can go.”
“We? You’re going to come with me?”
I freeze, hoping that wasn’t presumptuous of me to invite myself along. “Oh, I’m sorry, you probably just want it to be a family—”
“No,” he quickly cuts me off and grabs my hand. He raises it to his mouth and lays a soft slow kiss just under my palm. “I want you to come with me. But I know you have the fundraiser going on here and probably don’t need to leave.”
I smile. “You and Sam are most important to me. Joanna can handle the fundraiser just fine without me.” I fully intend to find out who that woman was at Jake’s house later, but for now, I’m not going to let anything else get in the way of my happiness with this man. I trust him again. And he trusts me. We’ll figure out the rest later.
A slow smile spreads across Jake’s mouth, and then, before I have time to breathe, he tugs me up closer to him and captures my mouth with his. His hands are on my jaw, and then they slide down my bare back to press me up closer to him. His lips shift gears back and forth from tender to firm to demanding, and I’m just trying to keep up. The kiss doesn’t last long enough, but it certainly did enough damage that I touch my fingers to my swollen lips when we part. I blink, feeling drugged, and then start walking. Jake turns me around so I’m actually headed in the right direction.
“Right. This way. Okay, so I’ll just be right back.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
JAKE
Evie and I got home about twenty minutes ago. We both raced up the stairs together to get to Sam’s room. She was still on the floor when I got there with her head resting on Daisy. My mom is still a little nervous about Sam’s seizures, and this was the first one she had ever been present for, so she wasn't sure whether it was safe to move Sam to her bed or not.
Sam is in her postictal period of her seizure, and I know that, like Evie’s seizure the other day, she won’t feel or respond like herself for a while yet. Her episode progressed normally and didn’t last too long (Mom was able to time it, thanks to Daisy coming to get her at the start of it), so I felt good about letting her just rest here at home and not taking her into the hospital. I drop down to my knees, though, and brush her hair away from her face to plant a kiss on her forehead. She smiles and mumbles a “Hi, Daddy” that feels like an instant balm to my heart.
“Hi, kiddo. We’re here now, and you’re safe.”
She hears me say we, and Sam’s eyes peek open and instantly find Evie. Her little hand reaches up, and Evie takes it, coming to kneel down on Sam’s other side. In short, Sam is surrounded, head to toe, by people who love her.
Evie adjusts so that her legs are curled up beside her, her fancy evening gown draped around her, and she leans in closer to Sam to continually brush her fingers in such a motherly way across my daughter’s hairline. It’s a sight that will likely stick with me until the day I die.