Chapter 6
Chapter Six
The doorbell rang.
I paused the Housewives of Salt Lake Cities and got up off my couch.
What the hell? Nobody ever rang my doorbell. Hell, nobody even knocked, they just walked in.
Probably a salesman.
I looked down at my sweats and flannel shirt. Then I touched my unwashed hair.
I was only two days out of the hospital, I was supposed to look like crap.
But probably not this crappy. When I looked at myself in the mirror this morning, I realized canned dog food that had been left out in the sun for a week looked better. Well, at least it would scare the salesman away… fast.
When I got to my front door, it was, as I suspected, unlocked. My big brother Drake would be so pissed. There had been a few itsy-bitsy little problems in the last couple of years. Stalkers and the like. Still, it was Jasper Creek, and I did own a gun.
I grimaced. The gun wasn’t really handy. It was currently locked up under my bed, with thumbprint access. After all, Lawson, Zephyr, and Bella did come over and play.
The doorbell rang again.
I opened the door.
I gasped. It was Adam and James.
“How did you find me?”
“Jasper Creek still has a phone book, and your address is listed.” Adam looked smug.
“We do?”
“Yep,” James said. “Dad showed it to me. It had a picture of a creek on it. And it had a lot of phone numbers in it. I’ve never seen one of those kinds of books before.”
I turned to Adam. “Great, now I feel really grungy and really old.”
“You look beautiful.”
I snorted. “Do you want to come in, or just stand on the porch spouting lies?”
“Do you have something to eat? I’m hungry.”
I looked down at James. “I think I can scrounge something up.”
“Cheeseburgers?”
“James,” Adam admonished, at the same time I started laughing.
“That shouldn’t be a problem. My family stocked up my fridge. I’m willing to bet I have everything I need to grill you a cheeseburger.”
James looked up at his dad in triumph. “See, it’s no problem. She said so.”
“It won’t be a problem as long as I’m the one doing the grilling,” I told him.
Adam peered down at me. Damn, the man was tall. “And what do you mean, grilling? It’s twenty below out here.”
“Wuss. It’s at least thirty-five degrees. Anyway, who can have a cheeseburger if it isn’t grilled?”
“Let’s stop talking on the stoop and letting all the heat out of your house. Come on, Buddy. Inside.” Adam looked at me. “Shoes off, right?”
“Nah, there’s no carpet in here, just wood floors that clean up easy.”
I watched the two Becketts enter my house with a sense of satisfaction that I did everything I could to tamp down. “Adam, why don’t you hit the fridge and help yourself to anything. I’m just going to slip into something less comfortable.”
He looked me up and down. “You don’t have to do that. You just gave birth three days ago. From my point of view, I was serious when I said you looked beautiful.”
My heart fluttered.
Actually, fucking fluttered. What was up with that?
“Yeah, well. Everybody’s entitled to their opinion.” I pointed to the kitchen. “Like I said, help yourselves. James, there’s juice boxes.”
“Cool! Apple or grape?”
“Both,” I called over my shoulder.
When I got in front of the bathroom mirror, I realized a shower was definitely in order because dry shampoo wouldn’t get the job done. Luckily, I was sure Adam was more than capable of entertaining himself and his son without me present.
I hopped in the shower. Okay, hopped was the wrong word, but I got in there quickly, and lathered up.
Now that I was in there, I had to admit, it felt pretty damn good.
I used the good stuff that Maddie had given me, the stuff that smelled like peaches.
By the time I was done, and had my hair dry, I felt like a new woman.
I considered putting on makeup, but that was strictly for going out to a club or to impress someone, and I wasn't doing either of those things. I settled for ChapStick, a clean pair of leggings, and my favorite oversized long-sleeved-tee that I owned, the Dark Creek band one that said We’ll Break Your Heart and Fix It in The Same Song.
I shook my head, loving the feel of my clean hair brushing against my neck. I should have done this yesterday.
Oh yeah, I could barely move yesterday.
I padded down the hallway in my fuzzy socks, wondering what I’d find. James would definitely be drinking juice by now, and I was pretty sure that Adam would have sliced up an apple for him.
What I found was definitely not that.
"No no no no NO—James, I had it, I had it —"
Angelica Drakos was sitting cross-legged on my living room floor in front of the TV, with a juice box balanced on her knee and a Nintendo Switch controller in both hands.
James was cross-legged beside her, his own juice box in front of him, working his controller with the focused intensity of a small person who took gaming extremely seriously.
On the screen, two cartoon characters were racing go-karts through what appeared to be a rainbow-colored nightmare of floating bananas and turtle shells.
"You turned too early. I told you not to do that." James didn’t bother to look at her. "You always turn too early."
"I hate this track."
"You said that about the last track."
"Because that track was also terrible." Angelica let out a noise of pure anguish as a blue shell materialized out of nowhere and hit what I assumed was her player in an explosive fashion. "That is NOT FAIR. What even IS that?"
"It's a blue shell," James explained patiently. "I told you and told you." He threw down his controller and grabbed for Angelica’s. “I’ll show you again.” His thumbs took control and soon her player started zooming down the track.
Angelica turned to me and winked. I grinned.
Where else would an Oscar-nominated actress—pardon me, actor—be, then sitting on my floor being schooled by a four-year-old?
I walked fully into the living room. Despite everything, James must have heard me.
“Miss Zoe! You’re back. Are you better at this than Miss Angel? Because she keeps losing.”
“I don’t know. I always lose to Lawson.”
“Oh,” James said as he turned around. The lure of Mario Kart had sucked him back in.
Angelica grabbed her juice box off her knee and got up off the floor in one graceful move, not needing to brace herself on the floor or anything. If I didn’t love her so much, I’d hate her.
“So, where’s Adam?”
“The hottie? He’s out on the deck with your brother."
“Not Drake,” I pleaded.
“One and the same. Drake said something about schooling him on the proper way to grill meat. Drake's words, not mine. Apparently, your brother has opinions."
"When doesn’t he have opinions?"
"It obviously runs in the family." She shot me a grin as she pulled me into a hug. “Girl, you look beautiful for someone who just gave birth. You should have milked the hospital stay longer. In this one soap opera I was in, Lola was in the hospital for ten days after giving birth.”
“Lola didn’t have a store to run.”
“No, she was trying to stay away from her billionaire husband who was having an affair with her sister. She was planning on outing them at the Christmas gala.”
I shook my head and looked down at James. “Are you still hungry?”
“I’m starving. Dad and the man are going to get me the biggest cheeseburger ever. The man says it’ll be as big as my whole face. He promised. But they’re being loud and taking a long time.”
“Loud, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“What kind of loud? A good loud, or a bad loud?”
“Huh?” The kid was lost in the game again.
Angelica smirked. “Guess you’re going to have to go find out for yourself. Now get going. And remember, I’m going to be staying really late tonight, because I want to hear all about Adam the rescuer.”
I had purposely not described Adam to Angelica when I’d talked to her over the phone yesterday.
I hadn’t described him to any of my sisters, either.
I knew the level of shit I would get, and now it was starting.
Hell, Angelica was probably going to be calling Maddie as soon as I stepped out on the deck, then she’d tell my other four sisters.
Damn.
I crossed toward the sliding glass door.
Through the glass, I could see the two of them out on the deck; Adam and Drake, each with a beer in hand, standing over my grill like a couple of generals studying a map.
Drake was gesturing at the grates with his bottle, making some kind of point, and Adam was nodding in the slow, thoughtful way he had, actually listening rather than just waiting to talk.
Wasn’t that an attractive trait?
Down girl.
Whatever they were discussing, it wasn't sports.
The body language was too deliberate for that, too back-and-forth.
Drake leaned against the deck railing and said something.
Adam tilted his head, considered, and answered.
Drake laughed, a real one, short and surprised, the kind that got out before he could help it.
I put my hand on the door handle and slid it open.
“Zoe! Look at you. You look great today. I was worried, yesterday you looked like crap. You have to be feeling better.” Drake pulled me into a gentle hug. Despite the fact he was twice my size, his hug was light as a feather. I hugged him back tight, even though he’d just told me the truth.
I pulled back so I could look at him. “I thought you were on kid duty today. Where are they?”
“One of Karen’s brothers came down from Alaska for a visit. He’s sucking up all of the oxygen in the house, so I bailed.”
“Which brother?”
“How should I know, they all look alike.”
“Is it the lumberjack, the fisherman, or the sheriff?”
“Aw, hell, Zoe. Don’t hit me with twenty questions, that’s just not fair. And what’s more, None of them are fishermen or lumberjacks anymore.”
I loved seeing Drake pout, but I couldn’t help but sneak a peek at Adam who was clearly enjoying our banter.
“They’re your brothers-in-law, you should know their names.”
“Tom, Dick, and Harry.”
I pushed at his chest. Hard. He stepped back, only to humor me. I went over to Adam and smiled. “Making yourself at home, huh, Beckett?”
“That was your offer.” He smiled and I took note of the laugh lines around his eyes.
“I’m amazed that Angelica and Drake didn’t manage to scare you off.”
“Are you kidding me? Angelica told me she was planted here for the next two months between projects. I already got her telephone number.”
Something sour twisted in my stomach. Of course he got my beautiful friend’s phone number. Adam must have caught some kind of hurt in my expression, even though I could swear I was hiding it.
“She offered to babysit James for me.”
“Oh.” With one little sentence, my world righted.
“After all, when we finally get to go out somewhere, wouldn’t it be nice if it were just the two of us?”
Just the two… Holy hell.
He’d met the movie star. Meanwhile, he’d seen me at my absolute worst. And he wanted to go out with me!
“The burgers are going to burn,” Drake interrupted.
“The burgers are fine,” Adam contradicted. “Find out if Angelica wants cheese on hers.”
Drake chuckled. “Will do.” He went inside.
“So, what about it? Are you up for going out on a date? We never really had much of a chance to talk.”
“We talked a lot.”
“In between contractions. The conversation never flowed smoothly.” He hardly turned his head but managed to move the patties to the side of the grill, away from the flame.
“So, you want to show off your smooth lines?”
Adam chuckled. “I want you to see me in the best light possible.”
I slowly shook my head. “Adam, even if I get to know you for the next fifty years, I don’t think I will ever see you in a better light than I did three nights ago. You were amazing.”
He set down the spatula and put one hand on my hip, and one hand on my cheek. “Zoe, you’ve got it all wrong. You were the amazing one.”
I huffed out a breath through my nose. “Yeah, sure. I was there, Adam. I know what I was like. I was needy, terrified, and out of control.”
He frowned down at me. “You must have been in a different truck. Now, I will buy into the terrified part, because I was too. But needy? Hell, Zoe, I was expecting you to shove me away at any moment and say you could handle things without me. Out of control? You were keeping my kid reassured while you were suffering excruciating pain, and cracking jokes with me the entire time. I saw nothing but a woman to like and admire.”
I slowly shook my head. “That’s your perspective. Really?”
“Really.”
I relaxed into his hold. Realizing that Adam liked and respected me, made it easier to trust him just a little bit, and trust was not something that came easily to me.
“Hey, you two, break it up. We’re hungry in here,” Drake called out. “It’s cheese for all three of us. Chop-chop.”