Chapter 24
JENSEN
Lainey’s on her way up right now, and I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it because my heart is racing like I haven’t seen her in days.
The second the elevator opens, and she steps through, my stomach flips, and my heart leaps into my throat. She’s so goddamn beautiful, and I’m the luckiest guy in the entire world.
She smiles when she notices me staring, her eyes lighting up as she walks over to me sitting on the couch. When she plops down into my lap, I wrap my arms around her and breathe her in, feeling peace settle within.
“How are my two babies doing?” I ask, kissing her cheek.
A blush takes over her cheeks. “We’re doing good.”
Squeezing her tighter, I rock side to side, my heart exploding in my chest.
“This is all I need,” I murmur, adjusting her in my lap so her weight is primarily on my right leg.
“Oh, really? Just me in your lap?”
“And our baby in your stomach,” I add.
It doesn’t matter whose DNA that baby has; it’s mine.
Lainey’s eyes gloss over, as if she doesn’t believe my commitment.
“You know I’m not going anywhere, right? I’ll be beside you through anything.”
Her eyes flick up to mine at my words.
Slowly, she nods. “I know.”
“Good.” I kiss her temple. “How was your girls’ date with Morgan?”
“So good.” She smiles big. A switch flips within her, and she wiggles in my lap. “Guess what.”
“What?” I chuckle at the surge of excitement vibrating through her.
“I have a surprise for you. We’re going somewhere at three this afternoon. Please tell me you didn’t make any last-minute plans,” she pleads, her hands together.
“Even if I did, I’d cancel them. There’s no way I’m crushing the cuteness on your face.” I boop her nose. “Do I get to know the secret place?”
She smiles maniacally. “Nope.” She pops the P.
Adjusting my hands, I attack her, tickling her sides right in her weak spots. She explodes into a fit of giggles, writhing in my lap.
“You. Are. Such. A. Brat,” I tease her, finally granting her reprieve. “What do I need to wear?”
“Comfy clothes for sure. Shit, I kind of forgot about your knee when I booked it. Can you do a little walking?” she asks hesitantly, covering her face.
“How much are we talking? A few miles or less than one?” I ask her.
“Less than one, I think. And there’s plenty of places for us to sit and rest if needed.” She drops her hands into her lap.
“Then I’ll be good to go,” I assure her.
She taps her fingertips together, reminding me of a cartoon villain, and I can’t help but wonder what we’re about to get into.
“Can I open my eyes yet?” I ask Lainey as we take another turn and enter some kind of structure that dims our surroundings.
“Yeah, okay. I think now is fine,” she murmurs.
Fluttering my eyes open, I take in everything around me. We’re in a parking garage or a parking ramp. She rounds a corner, heading up to the next level, and I notice a sign on the wall—New York Aquarium.
“We’re at the aquarium?” I gasp.
She giggles excitedly. “Yeahhhh.”
“Hell yeah!” I cheer, slapping the windowsill of my door. “This is awesome. I actually haven’t been here yet.”
She looks at me like I’m crazy. “You’re kidding me. You’ve lived in New York for how long, and you haven’t been here? What? Why?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I didn’t really want to go, and I didn’t have anyone I wanted to go with.”
“You’re such a sap now,” she teases me, finally finding a parking spot.
I wiggle my fingers, threatening to tickle her. “I can’t help it when it comes to you.”
“Gag,” she continues to chirp at me, and I think she may give some of the guys a run for their money.
“Do you want to gag? I can arrange that later, baby.” I adjust my hips. “Or now, before we go in. Just say the word.”
That knocks her off her axis as she puts the car in park, finally flustered. She blushes, but then a darkness crosses her face.
“Lain, there’s no pressure for anything with me. We don’t have to do anything today at all. I was just teasing you,” I say softly, trying to eliminate that scared look in her eye.
I’m going to actually kill Cole for conditioning this reaction in her.
“Yeah, sorry,” she exhales.
Reaching over, I grab her hand and hold it in mine. “Don’t apologize.”
She nods slowly, and I watch my words sink into her mind before she turns and looks over at me with kind eyes and a soft smile. “Ready?”
“Oh, hell yeah, I am!” I shout, and she laughs, rolling her eyes.
We get out of the car, and she locks it with my keys, tucking them in her purse.
“Can you hold my stuff too?” I ask her, holding out my phone and wallet.
She nods and takes them, storing them away in her bag.
We follow the sea creature stickers on the floor that lead toward the entrance. This is such a good date idea for a number of reasons. I’ve wanted to go here for forever, but I knew I couldn’t go alone. It would’ve been hard to see all the marine life and not think of Lainey and Carly.
But now I get to experience the world’s largest aquarium with my girl. I know she’ll be thinking of Carly too. She would’ve loved this place.
Lainey gets the door for us, but I hold it open so she can walk through first.
“You look good in that color.”
She’s wearing a cropped lilac hoodie and jeans, with her hair pulled half up with a clip.
“Thanks.” She smiles shyly.
A staff member greets us when we walk inside. “Hi, friends! Are we arriving with our tickets, or do we need to purchase them?”
Lainey holds up her phone. “I have them already.”
“Perfect! Then you two lovebirds can head right this way down Coral Reef Lane!” he instructs us overly enthusiastically, pointing toward a roped-off path.
I nod, and Lainey thanks him as we head down the blocked-off path. We round a corner and stop behind a few families waiting in line to get their tickets scanned.
Lainey stops directly in front of me, and I take advantage of her closeness, standing to my full height and flattening my hand on her hip, pulling her into me.
“That’s going to be us one day,” I whisper into her ear. “A big family coming to the aquarium.”
She leans back into me, nodding. “I can’t wait.”
There’s a slight catch in her words, and I wonder if she’s saying that because she truly feels that way or if she’s just appeasing me. I never want her to tell me what she thinks I want to hear if it’s different from her truth.
I want to ask if she really wants that, but maybe the line at the aquarium isn’t the appropriate place. God, she pulls out this intensity in me that I’ve never experienced with anyone else. Not romantically at least. There’s always been a seriousness with Lainey, even when we were just friends.
We’re next up in line, and the worker scans the codes on Lainey’s phone before letting us pass through. “Have a great time!”
“Thank you,” I murmur before addressing Lain. “Where should we start?”
She pulls up the aquarium map on her phone. “We could either start with this or end with this.”
“You lead me wherever you’d like, and I’ll follow happily.”
She makes her decision, nodding and stowing her phone away before gesturing with her arm. “Right this way, sir.”
“Thank you,” I reply kindly.
Lainey turns left and leads us down a hallway with an arched ceiling. “Right through here, we’ll find the predatory tunnel.”
A second later, we’re standing beneath thousands of gallons of water with sharks swimming all about. We step off to the side, letting a bumbling bunch of kids rush past us as we marvel at the tank.
“Whoa, look!” she gasps, pointing behind me.
I turn and come face-to-face with a massive hammerhead shark. “Jesus. That thing is huge.”
“We’re going to have to come here again,” she murmurs happily. “You know we could swim with them if we wanted.”
“With the sharks? Umm, no thanks.” I scoff. “Besides, that has to be some kind of breach in my contract.”
She shoos my concern away with her hand. “They wouldn’t need to know.”
I chuckle as a new shark pulls her attention deeper into the tunnel. Alongside the sharks are a plethora of fish swimming about. There’s always been something special about the ocean. It seems so magical and mysterious.
We continue through the tunnel and enter a new room at the end, tanks full of small jellyfish and other vibrant sea life.
As we approach the exit of this dark room, my jaw falls to the floor.
Crutching into a massive open space, I’m in awe at the hundred-foot-tall aquarium, spanning at least forty feet wide, and that’s just including the viewing part of this room.
Fish disappear in the sides, swimming farther than the wall shows.
“No way,” I whisper as a gentle giant passes behind the viewing glass. A fifteen-foot-long whale shark. “Holy shit.”
“Ooh!” Lainey points. “There’s a bench that just opened. Come on!”
She takes off for it, plopping herself down and laying claim. I catch up to her, sitting down next to her on the bench that’s centered in front of the glass.
“This is perfect,” I sigh, resting my crutches against the bench beside me.
I can’t resist staring at Lainey as her eyes widen with awe and admiration.
“It’s so beautiful.”
“So are you,” I whisper, reaching over and taking her hand with mine. “Thank you for bringing us here.”
Her gaze falls to mine. “Of course. I could tell you needed to get out of the house, and I figured this was the perfect thing for us and to honor Carly.”
She glances at her wrist, pulling the lilac sleeve back and exposing the tattoo I gave her so long ago.
“I should really pay to have someone clean that up.” I chuckle deeply.
She scoffs, her eyebrows pinching together. “No! It’s great the way it is.”
“It looks like a kid did it.” I laugh, and she pushes her sleeve down, crossing her arms.
“Technically, we were kids when you did it. Did you get yours redone?” she asks accusingly.
“No,” I answer honestly, lifting my own sleeve to show the spot on my right wrist—where I once intentionally tattooed mine in the same place as hers so we’d match.
“Good,” she huffs before dramatically taking my hand in hers again. “Oh my God.”