Chapter Forty #2
I look over at Jake beside me. Bullfrogs croak around us. “You aren’t going to ask what has me so bent out of shape this time?”
“I was getting there. I just like hearing you talk about Hailey.”
“Her name does sound great coming out of my mouth.”
He side-eyes me with a headshake and a slow-rising smile. “Stop.”
“What?” I up-nod him.
“Making me think about you fucking her.”
“You don’t want to envision heaven on earth?”
“Says the monster under my bed.”
My brows spike and a smile spreads. “How long have I been in your bedroom wreaking havoc?”
“Oliver—”
“Do I crawl out and slip under your covers?”
“Oliver,” he groans, his eyes dipping to my lips. “Stop.” Now I just want to kiss him, but he said stop, so I won’t.
Our gazes keep flitting over each other, and our heads turn.
“There she blows,” I say as Hailey strolls over to us.
She’s digging in her studded purse. “You need more cash?”
“I had a panic attack,” I admit, then tilt my head to Jake. “He found me.”
“Oh.” Her concern floods her gray eyes. “You’re okay?”
“No, Jake still hasn’t kissed me,” I say. “I’m dying inside.”
Jake sends me a hard look like I’m being dramatic.
“You better kiss him,” Hailey says to Jake, fishing a dollar bill in the machine. “It sounds like his life depends upon it.”
I swing my head back to Jake with a smile.
He’s trying not to grin. “You’re good.” He means I’m good at getting what I want.
“I think that’s the first time you haven’t called me bad.”
He glances at Hailey, then to me before he cups my jaw and presses his lips against mine. The forcefulness of his kiss, the way he urges my mouth open right before I can, makes my brain do a jig. His tongue slides hot against my tongue, and a groan rolls out of my throat.
Fuck.
I pry away first. His breath is more ragged, and I tell Hailey, “We’re monitoring his heart rate, signs of a rash, weird breathing patterns—you and me. I almost killed him with a Payday.”
She grabs Doritos out of the machine, eyes widening. “The motel is supposed to be safe, and you both are finding creative ways to die.”
“I am an artist,” I quip.
Jake laughs.
So does Hailey, and without prompting, she comes and sits on Jake’s lap. His arms curve around her hips. She leans her head into his chest to listen to his heart while eating Doritos.
I hold her legs sprawled across my thighs. “Who’s craving Doritos? You or Baby?” I ask.
“Since it’s not pickle-flavored, probably me.” She crunches, then puts a finger to her lips to be quiet, listening.
Jake stares down at her with the affection she deserves. During this summer, I’ve stopped feeling like I could lose Hailey to him. I’ve started feeling like the loss will be Jake. He’s what we’re both going to lose in the end.
Anything can happen.
Including us throwing our luggage in our cars and riding away from Victoria with new IDs, new names. I’ve thought about trying to convince him to come with us, but that’d entail giving up a crown and a name.
I wouldn’t blame him for holding on to all he knows. In a way, I have been, too. Life as the chameleon, transforming into hundreds of people, is all I’ve ever known. Staying as Oliver Graves this long is the unfamiliarity, the change.
“He has a nice-sounding heartbeat,” Hailey tells me. “Strong.”
I smirk. “Must be all the butterflies flapping.”
His chest rumbles against her as he laughs.
“He’s laughing,” Hailey says, slipping me a smile. “I think he likes us.”
“Who wouldn’t like you, Hailstorm?”
Her lips hike before they turn down, and I wonder if she’s thinking, Trent, hopefully, dislikes me. I try not to think about the job. It’s the first time I’ve ever worked this closely with Hailey. We’re work buddies now, and if I thought it’d be like working with my sister, I was dead wrong.
I worry about Hailey at every juncture. Because I know she hasn’t been taught everything that we have, and she’s hiding a pregnancy on top of it all.
Her pregnancy…Fuck. Heaviness descends again. I lower my sunglasses to my eyes.
“What was the panic attack about?” Hailey asks in the quiet.
I trace a bruise on her leg. “Oh, you know, the usual. Dad baby-traps Mom. Only she manages to get away without him realizing for over two decades. Then Dad retaliates by trying to baby-trap his daughter.” I stare out.
“The same things that happened to my mom are happening to my sister and to my…” I turn to Hails.
Her eyes are downcast while she fiddles with her fingers.
It makes me smile. Her flushing cheeks. As if we haven’t had sex a thousand times in a thousand different places.
Old love does not rust. I feel it in my bones when I’m with Hailey Tinrock.
“My love,” I whisper.
She reaches forward and holds her kneecaps. She’s closing in on me, and I edge closer to her face and brush my nose against hers.
Her smile fights through. “Olly.” Her voice is a furtive whisper. “I have a secret.”
“Tell me.”
“Not all the same things are happening again.” Her lips begin to rise. “The timer went off. Phoebe’s not pregnant.”
Relief slams into me. Hailey lifts the sunglasses up to my hair to see my eyes pooling. I don’t stop the emotion. Yet, the pain isn’t ceasing. I came into this world because of a selfish man. My child is likely coming into it because of him, too.
Unless this is Jake’s baby. For the first time I’m wishing for a Koning to be born. It’d be safer for the child to not be a Graves. Who knows if that’s my dad’s intention? To have a baby with his DNA.