Chapter 17
FINLEY
Christina looks so proud of herself as we exit the Uber that picked us up right outside Elijah’s building and is dropping us off right outside a grand hotel entrance. The revolving door is dressed in a floral arch with a doorman on either side.
“Why are we at a hotel?”
Looking around us, I try to tamp down the anxiety of being out of the apartment while Elijah is at training. Even if he arranged the Uber and made sure our doorman watched me get in the car after he checked the number plate.
“Relax, Amish, we’re meeting the girls for brunch.”
“The girls?”
“Yeah, Summer and Alice. Honor was going to come too, but she’s in Med School so she cancels a lot.
” Christina catches her breath, taking my hand in hers.
“Anyway, they’re my friends. Summer’s husband basically owns this hotel.
The LA Imperial is the place to stay if you have megabucks, and every Friday they host live sessions. Like exclusive mini concerts…”
Sounds like something Jayden would enjoy.
He loves music and dancing. Every time he comes over, he puts the stereo on or if we go to his place, he has his record player on.
The scratchy sound reminds me of my grandma.
She used to listen to the one Elvis record she had on repeat.
A greatest hits album my grandad gifted her for her seventieth birthday.
When she was dying, I used to play it for her and relive the time Elijah danced with me to it. My grandma adored Elijah, and in my heart I’m sure she would love Jayden too. His goofy, bubbly personality and the joy for life he possesses... usually.
Because the last couple of days, he’s been off—too quiet, too mindful of himself.
I don’t like it.
“Earth to Finley!” Christina clicks her fingers in my face. My gaze focuses on her again. “Where did you go?”
“Nowhere. Was thinking is all,” I tell her as we enter the elevator.
“About?”
“My grandma.”
“Oh. I’m sorry,” she murmurs above the soft music in the background. Her hand clutches mine tighter with a comforting squeeze. “She would be so proud and so happy for you.”
“I think so. She loved Elijah.” Christina beams at my remark. “I think she’d love Jayden too. Like… you know… the way he is and that he’s into music…”
“Jayden,” she chuffs quietly, biting the inside of her cheek. Her narrowed stare studies me. Her silence is as disconcerting as Jayden’s aloofness lately.
“She would’ve loved him, right?”
Christina nods. She never met my grandma in person, but I used to call Tina a lot when I was looking after her, and before she got too sick to talk, they would speak. Christina would tell her all about LA, give her the lowdown on Elijah and what he was up to.
“Do you?” She asks.
“Do I…?”
“Love seventy-four?”
“No.” I swallow past the sudden swelling in my throat as my reply sets off an unusual churn in my belly. “Of course not. He’s my friend… Elijah’s best friend... no.”
Oh God.
My heart pinballs in my chest, hammering my lungs into my ribs.
No.
“Okay,” she coos with a cocked brow.
Even though I nod, there’s a tight ache pulling from my shoulders to the pit of my stomach. It’s a familiar pang. A yearning that has my mind thinking about the way his skin felt under my touch, the rise and fall of his shaky breaths beneath my fingertips when I took care of him…
“Come on, Amish, time to meet your new girl friends. Warning, Alice can be a bit much at first.” Christina links her arms with mine, leading me out of the elevator to a restaurant with panoramic views.
A grand piano sits in the middle of the room with a string trio. The music is as warm and luxurious as the gilded walnut walls framing the floor-to-ceiling view that brightens the air.
Christina weaves through the maze of diners to a semi-hidden booth where an auburn woman is sitting with her laptop open and steaming teacup next to it.
“Summer Hawthorne, are you working?” Christina chuffs by way of greeting her.
“Do you know how behind I am? The morning sickness is destroying my schedule and—” she pauses.
A beaming grin cuts her face as she stands and holds her hand out to me.
When I take it, she tugs me closer at the same time as she leans in to kiss one cheek and then the other.
“You must be Finley. Christina’s told us so much about you already.
It’s nice to put the face to the name… I’m Summer by the way. ”
“Where’s Alice?” Christina drops onto the bench seat, shuffling in so I can sit next to her.
“I’ll give you one guess,” Summer smirks.
“Harrison,” Christina mutters.
Summer applauds her reply. “Ding, ding, ding!”
“I thought they were fuck buddies.”
“Are they, though?”
“Not if she puts dicks before chicks.”
Summer waves a server over. “What would you like to drink? The mimosas are amazing, or you can have straight up bubbly… whatever you want. If it’s not on the menu, one of the mixologists can make it. Same goes for food. The kitchen will make anything you want.”
“A coffee is great,” I tell her.
“Americano, cappuccino…”
“Can I get a flat white?” That’s what Jayden brings me in the mornings when he and Elijah leave for training. He has a fancy machine that does all the work at the press of a button and then cleans itself.
Elijah didn’t even have a coffee press until he took me to live with him. He drinks nothing but tea. Every morning, he whisks up the green powder with his almond milk before he sits with the financial section of his newspaper and checks on the crypto market while eating his oatmeal.
Summer requests our drinks along with a fresh pot of clementine and ginger tea for her and saltine crackers.
“I can’t wait to be out of the first trimester and for this sickness to stop,” she huffs. “Why call it morning sickness when it’s all day and all night?”
“Because no one in their right mind would put themselves through that if they knew.” Christina chuckles, tapping away on her phone before she stuffs it into her purse. “Eli’s picking us up when we’re done.”
It doesn’t matter how much time I spend with him, nothing will ever beat the thrill of whenever I know he’s on his way back to me.
“Dude, we don’t work during brunch,” Christina tells Summer as our drinks arrive, and she continues frantically typing on her laptop.
“I’m so behind. I have clients asking me for quotes and samples, and I can’t keep on top of it all with the fatigue. This brain fog is killing me.”
“I thought you were getting an assistant?”
“Don’t. Parker keeps nagging me to do it, but it’s more admin time that I need to spend keeping on top of all the projects. I need help getting help.”
“Weeeell…” Christina sits straight, swiveling so she’s got both Summer and I in her line of sight. “Let me help you.”
“Christina…”
“Summer, meet Finley. Finley, meet Summer. You need help keeping on top of your interior design shit.” She gestures to Summer with an open hand and then at me. “You want a job. You’re both creative and cutesy…it’s a match made in heaven.”
Summer glances at me, gnawing on her lip.
“No big admin shit required. She’s right here, available right now.”
“Are you actually looking for a job?” Summer asks.
“Umm… well…” I’ve been thinking about it a lot. It would be nice to have my own money, and I do need something to fill the time where I’m on my own. But… “I don’t have any experience.”
“Sum, she was a straight-A student and graduated top of our class at Portland.”
“If I hire someone, Parker might cry. He’s becoming a helicopter husband, and the fussing is getting in the way of everything. I asked him to contact a few of Harrison’s artists to do the mural for the nursery and instead, he’s been annoying the obstetrician about the morning sickness…”
A big grin cuts Christina’s face as she turns to me and asks, “Did you bring your sketchbook?”
“My journal?”
“Yeah,” she responds, placing my satchel on the table when I nod. “Show Summer your drawings.”
What is she up to now? I do as she asks, flicking through the painted pages and settling on a spread that doesn’t feel too personal. The December calendar page with the birds.
The birds that are free.
The birds that can do anything they want.
“These are gorgeous. You painted them?”
“Yes.”
“Would you be able to do it on a bigger scale?”
I’ve never done it before, but… “I guess so.”
“I’m thinking magical woodland,” Summer says with a sigh.
“Parker and I don’t know if we’re having another boy or a girl.
The start of the pregnancy has been a bit rocky, so we thought we’d wait until we were further along to find out.
Anyway, woodland works for two boys or a boy and girl nursery. The greens would be so tranquil…”
I watch her rub her belly. She’s so tiny that her bump is almost impossible to make out until she leans back into her seat. While she tucks her loose dress around the minuscule mound, she goes on explaining her vision for her kids’ nursery, and with every word, I fall in love with it a little more.
Elijah’s waiting for us when the elevator door opens. He’s pacing from pillar to pillar at the end of the hallway opening up to the bright lobby.
“Oh boy,” Summer laughs when I pause, watching him scroll on his phone with an intent frown pulling on his brows. “He’s almost as bad as Parker. My phone has been going crazy since we left the restaurant. I really don’t know how he gets any work done with all the stalking and worrying he does.”
“Dude, give the girl context. She’s going to think your husband is a weirdo,” Christina scoffs as she turns to me and says, “The man has PTSD from his wacko ex. Woman tried to kill their child and his girl. Obviously, he’s going to have separation anxiety.”
“And I’m obsessed with my wife,” a deep voice adds from behind us before a light blond man engulfs Summer in his arms.
He’s not as tall as Elijah, but he’s broad and even though he melts around her, there’s a protective glint in his eyes that makes it clear he’d do anything for her.