Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Jules
“Aunt Jules.” A little hand gently pats my cheek. “Wake up.”
“Hm?” I lift my head from the pillow, groggy.
“Who is that, Aunt Jules?”
It’s Cooper, and he’s pointing at ... oh, shit. Noel is sound asleep beside me. We vowed to not fall asleep and then we both did. Now I have to figure out how to handle it.
“Oh. That’s, uh ... that’s my friend Noel.”
“Your friend?”
“Yeah, he’s a work friend. He wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving, so he came over.”
Coop, who accepts us telling him that Santa and the Tooth Fairy are watching his every move, doesn’t buy what I’m saying. “But why is he in your bed?”
“We were both tired and we fell asleep. Go play on your tablet and I’ll be out soon to make cinnamon rolls.”
Noel sits up in bed, looking around my room in the daylight.
“Hey,” he says, his voice deep.
“Do you want to play cars?” Coop asks him.
Noel arches his brows and looks at me, unsure what to say.
“Go play on your tablet,” I tell Coop again. “If you don’t go now, I’ll give Eli the cinnamon roll with the most frosting.”
That gets through to him. He practically runs from the room.
“I’m sorry,” Noel whispers as soon as we’re alone. “I can’t believe I fell asleep.”
“It’s okay. At least we weren’t naked.”
“I’ll get out of here.” He gets out of bed.
Shit. Blair’s going to kill me. But not before she embarrasses me in front of Noel again like she did with that stalker daddy comment.
“No.” I get out of bed and take my robe off. We talked for hours, and at some point, I fell asleep on top of my bed in my bathrobe. “Don’t race out of here like we did something wrong. Just play it cool and stay for a few minutes.”
“You sure?” He picks his shoes up.
“Yeah. Take the bathroom if you need it because I’ll be longer than you.”
He takes less than a minute, and then he leaves my room and I go into the bathroom and rush through my bare-minimum morning routine.
Shit, shit, shit. I dab serum under my eyes with one hand while brushing my teeth with the other. Blair could be out there showing him middle school pictures of me. I was in my chunky headband and colorful eyeshadow era, and I was awkward as fuck.
Once I’m done in the bathroom, I rush to my closet and change into black leggings and a purple T-shirt that says, “Main Character.” I slip back into my Grinch slippers and hurry toward the kitchen.
“Let’s go play in my room.” Coop is leading Noel away by the hand.
“He can’t stay long,” I say.
Noel grins at me. “He was telling me about his racetrack. I want to see it.”
I think I might be pregnant now, just from seeing Coop’s little hand in Noel’s huge one. I just nod, not trusting anything I might say.
Since I smell coffee, I know Blair’s up. When I walk into the kitchen, she’s grinning. She approaches me at the coffeepot, speaking in a low tone. “Thanks for the warning.”
“It wasn’t planned. He was going to leave, but we fell asleep.”
“Your hand is unsteady, let me.” She takes the coffeepot from my hand.
“He’s not staying long,” I repeat.
“Long enough for your homemade cinnamon rolls, I hope. I’m making bacon and eggs, too.”
She passes me the mug and I take a fortifying sip.
“Coop grabbed him as soon as he walked into the living room and he was so nice about it,” she says.
“Where’s Eli?”
“Still sleeping.”
I glance at the clock. It’s 7:43 a.m. I guess if Noel and I were going to screw up and fall asleep together, it’s better that we did it now instead of on a road trip, when we could’ve been caught by players. Or worse, Talia.
“So ... did your turkey get basted last night?” my sister asks.
I cringe, but can’t help smiling at the same time. “No, Blair. We just talked.”
“You said it’s just a sex thing, though.”
I shrug. “I just wanted some time with him.”
“I get it. Yesterday was a lot.” She walks over to the fridge and takes out a package of bacon. “The cinnamon rolls are thawed and the oven is preheated.”
“I thought you’d sleep in today.”
She scoffs. “I wish. I got up to pee and my to-do list was activated in my brain.”
“Do you have to study today?”
“Nope. Family day, remember? The boys are excited about ice skating. But I do need to do some laundry and cleaning before the fun starts.”
I busy myself getting cinnamon rolls arranged in a pan, nervous about Noel being in Coop’s room. How long does it take a kid his age to get attached to someone? And is Noel just playing with him to be nice?
I wipe my hands on a towel. “I should go save him.”
“Don’t,” Blair says from the stove. “He’s a big boy; he can take care of himself.”
I guess she’s right. It still feels weird, having someone from work, my unserious relationship, and my family all mashing up unexpectedly.
Once the cinnamon rolls are in the oven, I help Blair crack eggs into a bowl, then whisk them while she tends to the bacon.
“Doing okay?” she asks me.
“Of course. Put the splatter screen on that.”
“Well, you-know-who didn’t try to break in overnight. That’s a plus.”
My shoulders sink at the thought. It could still happen. “I should’ve bought her a bus ticket to somewhere far away.”
“We could help her get a passport, take her on a trip to Mexico, then take her passport and leave her there.”
I scoff. “I can’t even spend five minutes with her. I’d be opening the airplane door and parachuting out.”
I whisk the eggs together, Blair taking the bowl from me when I’m done. “Go get the boys. Eli, too. I’ll cook the eggs. The bacon and cinnamon rolls are almost done.”
When I reach the top of the stairs, I stop to see if I can hear what’s going on in Coop’s room.
“Oh, your car needs gas,” Coop says. “Park right there ... This is how you do it.”
My heart. He’s making the whooshing noise we always do when we’re playing cars to signify gas going into the car.
“Do you need new tires?” Eli asks.
“Yes, I do,” Noel says. “How can I get new tires?”
“You drive it into here. I can put your car in the air.”
“Nice. And then we can get back to racing?”
I walk over to the door to Coop’s room, looking in. All three of them are on the floor, Cooper lying on his stomach and Noel and Eli sitting.
“Time for breakfast, boys,” I say, my heart racing when Noel’s eyes meet mine.
“Leave your car right there,” Eli tells Noel. “I’ll put new tires on.”
The boys pop up from the floor and leave the room, Noel taking a little longer to get up.
“Want some breakfast?” I ask. “We have coffee.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course. I make the best cinnamon rolls ever.”
I lead the way back downstairs, Noel following.
“I wanted that one!” Eli cries. “Mom!”
“I’ll tear it in half and you can share it.”
“That’s not fair.”
“It’s all the same bacon. None of it is special.”
“Or maybe all of it is,” Noel says, a smile in his voice. “It’s not every day someone makes me a nice breakfast like this. Thanks for cooking breakfast, Blair and Jules.”
That ends the argument.
“Thanks for breakfast,” Eli says.
“Noel, you can sit by me,” Coop says.
Eli wants to sit on his other side, and both boys fight for Noel’s attention while they’re all eating. Noel drinks two cups of coffee in fifteen minutes, likely as tired as I am from our hours of talking.
But it was nice. Really nice. When I said I was done talking about my mother, he dropped it. We talked about everything and nothing.
“That was delicious, thank you.” Noel brings his dishes over to the sink. “I’m sorry I have to go.”
“No.” Coop looks crestfallen.
“When are you coming back?” Eli asks.
“He’ll be back sometime,” I say, keeping things vague. I turn to Noel. “I’ll walk you to the door.”
Once we’re there, he gives my hand a quick squeeze and mouths, “Sorry”.
“It’s okay,” I say softly. “Thanks for playing with them.”
“It was fun.”
A second of awkward silence passes before I say, “I’ll see you Monday.”
He nods and turns, and I close the door. With a deep breath, I go back to the kitchen, doing my best to play it cool despite the very unexpected turn things took.
“I have the best idea.”
Talia’s bursting with excitement when she walks into my office Monday morning, carrying a tray with two hot drinks from a local coffee shop.
“Let’s hear it.”
She takes one of the cups from the tray and passes it to me. “Hot chocolate with one shot of espresso and extra whipped cream.”
“You’re a goddess, thank you so much.”
“So, how was your Thanksgiving?”
The guilt hits hard this morning. Talia has become a good friend. We spend a lot of time together when we’re on the road with the team. She’d die if she knew her dad is also ... my daddy.
I don’t call him daddy, but when he occasionally calls himself that in bed, I combust. There’s no way I can ever go back to sex with men my age who don’t spank me and order me to do every filthy thing they want.
“It was great,” I say brightly. “We ate all the food and had all the fun. How was yours?”
She sits down in the blue velvet chair in front of my desk. “Also great. It was the most time I’ve spent with Audra in a long time. I hoarded all my dad’s leftover stuffing, and I won 3–0 in Scrabble.”
“The Pilgrims would be proud.”
“Okay, I only have like five minutes, so here goes: my dad spent the night with someone on Thanksgiving.”
I practically choke on my hot chocolate, sputtering and coughing. Talia gives me a concerned look and I wave a hand dismissively.
“Sorry. I swallowed it wrong.”
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Audra said he snuck back into the house around eight forty-five Friday morning, wearing the same clothes he left the house in Thursday night. And, like, good for him, even though I can’t even think about my dad that way, but also I don’t trust his taste in women.”
“Hm.” I lower my brows, pretending to ponder it.
“He means well, but he gets roped in by the absolute worst women. Angie would have been cast as a Real Housewife of Cleveland. Total narcissist.”
This might be funny later, when I’m telling Blair about it, but right now, it’s about the most awkward conversation I’ve ever had.
“Maybe he learned his lesson and is seeing someone better.”
“No. If it was someone better, he would introduce her to his kids. This woman is using sex to manipulate him.”
What the ...?
“That’s a bit of a leap, don’t you think?”
“That part doesn’t matter. I want to set him up on a date. I shop at a boutique downtown sometimes, and it’s owned by this super sweet woman, Victoria. She’s forty-two, divorced, and has a seventeen-year-old daughter. Perfect for him, right?”
No. Absolutely the fuck not. “I don’t know. Maybe? It’s up to him who he wants to date, isn’t it?”
“Technically, yes. But I’m going to nudge things along with a dinner party. I want you to come, too. Friday night, since we’re off. Our place. You can help me ease them together.”
“Ease them together.” I pinch my brows together, screaming inside.
“Thank you.” She moves to my office door. “I’m also inviting Isaac because I know he has a thing for you. See you later!”
“Talia!”
She closes the door, cutting off the argument I was about to make.
Great. This dinner party is going to be just fine. No potential for disaster at all.