“Hey, Jace,” she called up to him, and instinctively he turned at his name. She licked her lips and winked at him with enough seduction to light the room on fire. Jace groaned in annoyance as she slipped out the front door.
“I’ll kill you,” Audrey whispered to me with menace while still trying to bounce an uncomfortable and tired baby.
“I’m so damn sorry, Audrey. Seriously, I didn’t mean for any of that to happen.” I made my way toward her slowly, hoping that the baby in her arms would protect me from harm.
“I can’t do it again tonight, Lane. I just can’t. I’m too tired,” she said as she started to cry. “I need you to put her back to sleep.” She pushed Jocelyn toward me and Jace jumped forward quickly to stop her.
“Don’t! Don’t touch her, not when you still have alcohol on your breath.” He quickly scooped his daughter into his arms and held her close. With the baby quieting down, he turned to Audrey and swiped a thumb under her wet eyes. “Babe, it’s okay, please don’t cry.” I flinched as I watched him comfort and kiss her. I knew Audrey was still highly hormonal, but I never wanted to be the one responsible for making her cry. “I’ll take her, you go back to bed and rest.”
With a kiss, they parted ways. Jace bounced on his toes, trying to get Jocelyn back to sleep, and Audrey trudged down the hall toward their room. I stood there, feeling terrible for interrupting their somewhat peaceful night. Then my feet followed Audrey into the bedroom, hoping she wouldn’t kick me out... or in the balls.
I heard her sniffles as she climbed into their king-size bed and threw the covers on top of herself.
“I’m coming in behind you, doll,” I whispered.
“No, Lane,” she replied harshly.
“Too late.” I lay down on the bed close to the edge so I wasn’t anywhere near Jace’s side. That would have been like breaking some kind of man-code, even though I was already crawling into his bed. I pulled her in close and kissed the back of her head. “I’m sorry, don’t hate me.” She groaned in frustration, but she didn’t swat me away.
For years, Audrey had been the closest thing I had to... anything. To family. To friends. I had parents, but I’d pretty much pushed them away. Audrey had helped me wake up every day and continue living.
When I escaped to California four years ago, I was a man on a mission, bound and determined to find the girl I loved. I’d decided to go back to college, so I wasn’t being a complete slacker. I’d already earned my bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, the one I got immediately after high school, finishing it within three years. But when I moved to California, I switched things up and went for a second bachelor’s in Accounting. I realized that those two degrees were miles apart, but who says you can’t change your mind?
I ran into little Audrey in our college community center, looking for a roommate. She was surprisingly in the same program as I was, and I just so happened to have a spare room. She was beyond damaged and because I wasn’t much better off, we were two peas in a pod.
Every day I told myself that I let her move in because she looked so wounded… that she needed my comfort. I told myself that I was doing a good deed by helping her. In the end, I realized she was actually helping me. I thought I was protecting her, but she was silently doing the same for me. Together, we took life a day at a time and protected one another from drowning.
Last year, I turned twenty-eight and we walked across the stage together with our master’s degrees. I knew I had her to thank for helping me get there as well.
I knew everything about her. I knew that her biggest fear was being alone. I knew that her hair got outrageously frizzy with even a small amount of humidity. I knew that her friends were everything to her because the family she left behind all those years ago meant nothing to her—at least she tried to make me think they meant nothing. I knew that she loved to sneak peanut butter in the middle of the night and that she had to keep two cups of water by her bedside because she always woke up thirsty. And I knew she was in love with Jace Riley the very first time she spoke about him, even if it was to tell me how much she hated him.
I could only hope the next time I fell in love I would know the girl half as well as I knew Audrey. She was my sister, maybe not by blood, but in every way it counted. She was my best friend and I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep until I’d made amends with her, no matter how small the divide was between us.
Audrey knew me better than anyone, but she didn’t know everything. I’ve kept some of my biggest secrets from her and if she were to ever find out, it would kill her. I understood her heart though. If she knew all of my secrets, she wouldn’t rest until everything was resolved. And that was not her job—it wasn’t her burden to take on. It was mine. I had made those promises, and I was doing everything in my power to make things right.
“Doll, you have to know how sorry I am. I realize how tired you’ve been lately with a newborn. I’m sorry a thousand times over. Good news is I’ll be out of your hair soon. My landlord said that the house should be done any day now and I need to head out of town tonight, so you and Jace will be Lane-free in a matter of hours.”
“No!” she cried and then shifted so we were facing one another. “You can stay here, please don’t leave. I hate when you go out-of-town… you never come back happy.” Tears began to well up in her eyes and I had to remind myself Audrey was on hormone overload--every little thing could bring on the waterworks. Tread lightly, buddy.
Audrey was used to my out-of-town trips, as I’ve been taking them since she met me. I never came back happy because I never got the result I was hoping for, which was having her back in my arms. Going on those trips was the only thing that made me feel as if I were actually getting closer to her.
“Trust me, you could do without me for a few days. I think Jace will like having his girls all to himself again,” I teased her. The mention of Jace brought a small smile to her face, but it was fleeting. I had a house in town that I rented, but while my landlord had been fixing a burst pipe, I’d been hopping between three of my buddies’ homes.
“I wish you would just stay here.”
“Doll, half of my job involves travel, so there will always be times that I have to go. Don’t forget your husband is my boss. It’s his orders. Besides, we can’t all afford big estates on our own piece of land.” I may have omitted that this trip was not on her husband’s orders.
She rolled her eyes. “Why would you bring a girl home? You have never, and I mean never, done that. And why her? Is there something special about her?” she asked, grimacing.
“I just learned her name when Jace barged in the room. Trust me, doll, it wasn’t the girl. I messed up. I drank too much and she gave me a ride home. Before I knew it, she was following me up the stairs and... well...”
“Yeah, I don’t need to know the rest,” she replied in a flat tone. Then she sighed deeply, and I could sense her heavy thoughts.
“Spit it out...” I coaxed.
“I just hate...”
“Come on, I won’t leave until you tell me and it might get weird when your husband comes back to bed.”
“I hate that Jace saw her body. It was so perfect. Perfect breasts. Perfect ass. Not a stretch mark on her. While I’m... well, I can’t even talk about it.”
My mouth dropped open and I had no words. I knew she wouldn’t be happy seeing a trampy bar girl parade around her house, but I never thought she would compare herself. Maybe she forgot that she just had a baby. Or maybe she forgot how her husband worshipped the ground she walked on. The idea that Jace would give even a second thought to Gemma made me laugh hard.