When he got to Sawyer’s, Law’s truck was parked out front. Good. He went around back to the garage.
There was no canoe. There were just his friends, sitting in Sawyer’s backyard.
“Lured me here under false pretenses, I see.” He lowered himself into a lawn chair. “Is it time for another intervention?”
“It sure as hell is,” Sawyer said. “Let’s see. You and Nora. You like her. That’s what you told us. You have shared values. I see you guys cracking up over inside jokes. You seem to have joint custody of her dog. And you’re sleeping together.”
“But it’s not serious,” Law said mockingly. “You’re not dating.”
“Right.” Sawyer nodded sagely. “But oh, wait, you’re helping her with her vaccine crusade, too. And making decks and shit for her. But I guess all that still doesn’t add up to ‘serious.’”
“You know what is serious, though?” Law asked. The two of them seemed to be performing a conversation, which was probably fair given that Jake usually didn’t have much to say in these types of situations. They were saying his lines for him—or at least what they thought his lines would be. In another circumstance, it might have been funny.
“The fact that she’s pregnant with your baby,” Sawyer said, outright sneering at Jake. “That is pretty fucking serious. And what did you tell her when she told you?”
“He told her it was the last thing he wanted,” Law said before Jake could answer.
He had to wince at that. He had said that. He was such an idiot.
“That,” Sawyer said, “is incorrect. It was the first thing you wanted. And you had it. But you lost it.”
Okay, enough. “What does that mean?”
“It means you had some shitty luck, mate, that’s all. But this thing with Nora, and a baby, is what you want. It’s exactly what you want. Maybe you’re too chickenshit to reach out and take it, and that’s one thing, but don’t pretend it isn’t a second chance at exactly what you want.”
“You’re right. It is what I want.”
“And you know what—” Sawyer was still on autopilot when Jake’s answer caught up to him. “Wait. What?”
“It is what I want. The baby. Nora. Nora, mostly.”
Both men gaped at him. He couldn’t help but smile. It felt strange on his lips, after the storms of the past twenty-four hours. Strange, but good. “I want Nora and the baby. I want us to be a family. But I need help.”
It was so easy to say in the end. So astonishingly easy. So he said it again. “I need help. I need help fast. I need to get a couple things done before I talk to her, and I don’t want to leave her hanging any longer than necessary.”
“Anything,” Law said. “Name it.”
“Well, first, I need to find a grief counselor. Or someone in that vein. I saw Kerrie today, and she recommended someone, but she’s in Guelph. I’ll go there if I have to, but there must be someone closer. I googled and most sources said to ask your family doctor for a referral. But…” He shrugged. Allowed himself to crack another smile and was gratified when his friends did the same. “I’m not sure that’s the best course of action in my particular case. I’m going to tell her about it, of course, but I need to take responsibility for this, to get this underway on my own.”
“Amber will know,” Sawyer said. “I’ll ask Amber. What else?”
“I need someone to drive to Guelph to pick up something from Kerrie’s house.” Assuming she said yes. He would text her as soon as they were done here. He was pretty sure she would agree.
“I’ll do it,” Law said, and Jake was glad they hadn’t asked any questions. He pulled out his phone. “I’ll find someone to cover the bar and go tonight.”
Jake thought back to when Nora had first come to the cove. She’d told him he was lucky to live in such a place, and he’d agreed. He’d felt lucky at that moment, that he had the cove and that she was there with him. It had been a strange sensation, something he hadn’t felt for a long time.
He felt it again. He was lucky to have these guys in his life.
“Okay,” Sawyer said. “That’s covered. What else?”
“I need some help with the cottage.”
“I have something to tell you.”
The sisters spoke in unison, then both shouted, “Jinx!”
Nora laughed. “You go first.” She would take any reprieve, even a momentary one, from having to deliver her dreaded news. Just because she’d decided to stay in Moonflower Bay didn’t mean she wasn’t full of mixed feelings. She’d decided to take a path that would close off another path. It was a sad thing. It was going to upset Erin.
“Dad found Grandma’s will.”
“Oh, good.” There had been some confusion over the will. While Grandma was in the hospital and starting to fade, she had started insisting that she’d recently updated her will and that they needed to be sure they were using the new one. But then no one had been able to find it.
“It was in her breadbox with that pastry knife thing your friend there gave her.”
“Pearl?” Nora chuckled. “And what does it say? Any surprises?”
“She left me her condo. Just me.”
“Oh. Okay.” Nora didn’t know what Grandma had been planning to do with her condo to begin with. If she’d thought about it, she would have guessed it would have gone to her dad.
“There was a note about you and Alex not needing it.” Their older brother Alex was a successful—and wealthy—anesthesiologist with a lawyer wife and no kids. “Which is strange, because she knew about our plan to buy a place together. So anyway, it’s weird, but we’ll just sell it and put the money into our shared pot. I talked to Alex, and he doesn’t care.” She snorted. “Alex, okay, but I can’t imagine what Grandma was thinking saying you didn’t need any money.”
Nora laughed. She could. She could also imagine her grandma fitting right in with the meddling matchmakers of Moonflower Bay. Hell, for all she knew, she’d consulted Pearl. Maybe that was why the will had been in the breadbox.
“I had an agent out for an appraisal, and she thinks we can get six hundred grand for it. So that’s it. Our fairy godmother has delivered. I know part of your whole ‘Nora moves to small-town Canada’ plan was emotional, or a time-out or whatever, but just be done with that part, okay? We’ve got our down payment, so just come home.”
Oh boy. Nora sucked in a breath.
“What?” Erin said.
“I, ah, have a couple things to tell you.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Nora was feeling better—but she also wasn’t feeling better. The first-trimester morning sickness was gone, and she felt good physically. But getting through the rest of the week after she’d told Jake had been hard.
But she had done it. She’d seen all her patients. Jacques was really getting the hang of things. They’d had calls from some schools in the region asking about flu clinics for next season.
She had also met with a real estate agent and was about to make an offer on a cute little place near Art and Jamila’s house. Eve had assured her she could stay at the Mermaid indefinitely, but Nora wanted to get her own place established before the baby was born in October.