For Fox Sake

Chapter 15

Jake

“You didn’t have to come all the way out here.” I sit on the couch.

Finley hands me a mug of tea and plops down beside me.

It’s only been twenty minutes since I found her on my porch and she’s already smacked me upside the head, burst into tears, hugged me for five minutes straight, inspected the contents of my kitchen, and made us two mugs of chamomile tea.

“Well, you weren’t returning my calls so of course I did. You just freaking took off. I’ve had so much work to do at the camp, I would have been here sooner but I had to make sure everything was covered before I just bailed because not all of us have that luxury.” She smacks me in the shoulder.

“Would you stop hitting me?”

She hits me again. “When you stop deserving it. That one was from Oliver. He said to tell you he wasted three whole days trying to find you and Carson wasted one day, not because he’s smarter than Oliver, but because he’s just as ridiculous as you, which is to be taken as the insult it is.”

I rest my head back against the couch. “I deserve much worse.”

She lifts her mug to her lips, blowing on it before taking a sip. “Now tell me everything. Start with the reason you didn’t leave me a note.”

“I left a note.”

She gives me the side eye. “The Post-it that fell on the floor and got kicked under the fridge does not count as a note. We just found it a few days ago.”

I set my cup of tea on the coffee table. “I didn’t know that would happen. I didn’t want you to try and convince me to stay or talk me out of it or come with me. I had to do this myself.”

“You can make your own decisions, Jake, but for god’s sake tell someone where you are. You can be a man who stands on his own and still inform the people who care about you. To their face.”

I wince.

“Now.” She takes a breath in and out. “Who was the woman you were making out with?”

“You saw that?”

She nods. “I watched your truck pull up and park across the street. I approached, thinking you would see me, but then realized what was happening and quickly retreated.”

“That’s Ryan.”

She stares at me blankly. “Ryan?”

“The person who was writing Dad those letters.”

She blinks rapidly. “Wait. What?”

“Oliver didn’t tell you?”

She groans. “I’m going to kill that man. But you first. Go.”

I tell her everything, going back to over a year ago when I hired the PI and figured out where the letters were coming from. I explain how the PI found the obituary for Mia, and how Ryan was listed as her surviving sibling. How I spent months checking and waiting for a job to open up locally and striking pay dirt when it finally happened at the hospital where Mia worked, and the rental was also available for an extended time.

I detail all my theories, and how I was able to negate some of the more obvious ones, like the DNA test. I describe little Ari, Mia’s daughter. Then I explain what I discovered about the heart transplant and how I just tonight dropped the bomb on Ryan about why I was really there and what brought me to Dull.

“Did Dad ever mention anything about the heart donation?”

She shakes her head slowly back and forth, confusion marring her brow. “I had no idea. Why didn’t he tell us?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing.”

She stares blankly at the coffee table, and I wait, letting her process everything.

After a minute, she speaks. “I can’t believe Aria’s heart was donated to someone, and we didn’t know. Dad received letters from her, and he never said anything. Why wouldn’t he say something?”

“It’s my fault. I would never let him talk about... anything.”

She rubs my arm. “It’s not your fault. He could have told me or Mindy, and we could have told you when you were ready.”

“He was also dying of cancer and had other things to think about.”

“True.” Her eyes soften and she leans into me. “It’s still not fair to you, Jacob. You were with him all the time, taking care of him. He should have told you, even if it was hard.”

Heat fills my eyes.

I don’t know what it is about Finley. It’s like things don’t hit me until she’s a part of it.

Like when I was six and I fell off the jungle gym at school and got the wind knocked out of me. It was terrifying, but I was so proud of getting up on my own and not crying. Then Finley came over from the high school on her lunch break. As soon as I saw her walking across the grass, I started sobbing like an infant.

I swallow. “Finley, I’m so sorry.”

She whacks me on the arm again. “Good. Maybe you’ll think twice about taking off like that again.”

I scrub a hand through my hair. “It’s not just for that. I am sorry I left like I did. I’m also sorry about all the years of drinking and behaving like a jackass and taking advantage of your kindness. I’m sorry for all of it.” I’m sorry about what happened twelve years ago, for the part I played in the loss of our sister, but I’m not going there. “For everything I’ve done, or not done, all of it, really.”

She throws her arms around my neck. “Oh, Jake. I know. I know if you could change the past, you would. But we can’t. We’re here now though, and even though I’m still very pissed at you, I’m also really proud of you. You don’t need to apologize, because there is nothing to forgive. We’ve all been affected by the past. We’ve all made mistakes. We can’t change those things, but we can move forward together and try to be better. That’s all it’s really about, right?”

Right.

I have to try and be better for Ryan. I have to find a way to make it up to her. Not because I want forgiveness, although I do, but it isn’t about me.

She pulls back, patting my shoulder. “The mystery is solved. Now you can come home.”

“Yeah. I can.”

There’s no reason for me to stay.

Her eyes narrow at me. “You want to stay, don’t you?”

Having siblings who can read your mind is both a blessing and a curse.

She speaks into my silence, answering an unspoken question. “It’s because of Ryan.”

I nod. “And Ari.”

She shifts on the couch, angling her legs toward me. “You know, whatever you decide, we’ll support you. And if you leave, I’ll call daily and visit at least twice a month.”

I chuckle.

“Maybe once a month.”

The thought of never seeing Ryan or Ari again is like a knife to the chest. What if she doesn’t forgive me? I wouldn’t blame her if she never wanted anything to do with me ever again.

“Ryan hates me.”

“Like you’ve ever let a little thing like pure, undiluted hate stop you before. Remember when Piper got her first cell phone and you kept leaving notes on people’s cars that said sorry for hitting your car along with her number, except no one had actually hit the car and there was zero damage, so she was getting a million calls a day? And you were only ten.”

I laugh. “She was so pissed.”

“Yeah, but she forgave you.”

“After I groveled, agreed to admit all culpability on her voicemail for anyone who called, and did her chores for a month.”

“You are stubborn and loving and a good person. Good people can make bad decisions. You’ll win her over.”

“I hope you’re right.”

We talk for a couple of hours. Finley catches me up on what’s been happening at home with the camp, Archer, wedding plans, Taylor’s trip to Greece with Atticus, Mindy’s tour schedule, all of it.

I convince Finley to sleep in the bed for the night, and I take the couch.

It’s late. It’s been an emotional day. I should be exhausted, but I can’t sleep.

My mind spins over everything. Finley is leaving early tomorrow. She needs to get back to camp. I’m going to be following up behind her, after putting in notice at the hospital. My lease here is up next week anyway. I never intended to stay.

Then why does the thought of leaving tear me up inside? I need to find a way to make it up to Ryan and Ari.

Somehow.

* * *

“This is disappointing news. I’m really sorry that you’re leaving us so quickly.”

“I am too. I apologize for any inconvenience.”

Elaine waves a hand. “It happens. I understand family obligations.”

I rub the back of my neck. Here I am, lying again. But I cannot tell Elaine the real reason I’m leaving, especially since it affects Ryan. Another lie to add to the list. Or half lie. I do have to go home because of family, but I invented an emergency. I never intended to stay, so I knew this was coming, but the guilt is still there—just more to add to the pile.

I scoot forward in the guest chair, resting my forearms on her desk. “There’s one thing I wanted to ask you about.”

Her head tilts to one side. “Of course.”

“Mrs. Green, in room 410? I was wondering if I could pay some money toward her balance owed.”

Elaine’s brows lift so high they disappear under her bangs. “You want to pay for her cost of care?”

I rub the back of my neck. “Or a portion of it. I don’t know what’s owed, but I have some money set aside that I would like to put on her account balance. The only thing is, I don’t want Ryan to know it was me. If you could tell her there was an accounting glitch or something, that would be great.”

She clucks and eyes me, then she nods. “You heard what happened then? Word gets around fast. I just called Ryan about an hour ago.”

My skin prickles. What? “What happened?”

Her brows dip. “You didn’t hear?”

I shake my head. “Hear what?”

“Mrs. Green passed this morning.”

I rock back in the chair. Damn. After the bomb I laid on her last night, her mom died.

Fuck.