Chapter Fifteen
Jace
I knocked on the front door of my moms’ condo once and waited thirty seconds before opening the door and letting myself in.
It was generally best to warn them before I walked in, because even in their fifties, they were still very into each other in a way that I’d walked in on too many times over the years.
“Jace!” Ima exclaimed, walking toward me for a hug as soon as the front door closed.
I wrapped my arms tight around the beautiful dark-haired woman who’d rescued me in so many ways since I met her.
She was the mother every kid deserved and deciding to call her Ima shortly after I’d been adopted had been the easiest decision I’d ever made as a teenager.
No one deserved a parenting title more than her.
She pulled back and gripped my shoulders, looking me over.
She was the more outwardly nurturing of my moms. It was a trait I’d seen in her soft brown eyes the moment we’d met.
Even now when she looked me over, clearly checking to see if I was doing okay, I got flashbacks to that first day in her office.
I’d been hungry and I’d seen people going in and out of Baruch Haba for weeks.
People went in looking despondent, and they walked out looking hopeful.
I wasn’t an immigrant, which I’d realized was the population her business catered to, but I was desperate and I needed just a fraction of the hope everyone else come out with.
I’d walked in to find a young woman at the desk who took my name and asked why I was stopping in.
I’d shared that I was looking for a homeless shelter and a place where they served warm meals since winter was starting to set in.
Ima had been at the counter behind the desk pouring a cup of coffee and she turned around to face us when she heard my request. She looked me over then in the same way she was just now before saying, “I’ll take this, Carmela. Come with me.”
She’d waved me into her office, but not before picking up two donuts from the counter and putting them on a plate.
She’d closed the door, gestured for me to sit down and then gently pushed the donuts in front of me.
“Eat something while we talk,” she’d said.
I’d nearly cried with gratitude. It was a Saturday, and I hadn’t eaten since I’d swiped something from the school cafeteria the day before.
She watched me with a soft smile on her face while I ate, and I’d been astounded that this woman who I’d just met seemed to know what I needed in the way a mother would know what her child needed just from a glance.
Neither of my birth parents had ever met my needs the way she had.
“What’s wrong?” Ima asked, snapping me back from my memories. “You look stressed.”
“I’m okay, Ima,” I said. “It’s a long story and I’d rather not get into it before we go to Adrian’s. I want to celebrate with Leo and Sophia.”
She rubbed my biceps again before dropping her hands. “You’ll come back here and talk to us after?”
“I promise, I will.”
She smiled, satisfied enough to let it go when Mom came out of their bedroom, her long, blonde hair pulled into a ponytail and her dress the signature bright pink that matched most of her wardrobe.
“Are we supposed to be acting surprised that he knocked her up? Because color me not surprised,” she said to Ima before noticing me. “Hey, Jace,” she said, smiling broadly at the sight of me.
I came over to see them every couple of weeks at least, and it was always nice to see how happy they were when I did.
I’d been young when my birth mom died, and my father had barely even noticed my comings and goings since he was usually too high to be aware of his surroundings.
Negligent parenting would be a generous term for what he did.
“Hi, Mom.” I stepped forward to hug her.
While Ima’s hugs were gentle, hugging Mom felt more like being momentarily trapped in her love. She’d never been overly affectionate with words, but I knew how much she loved me from the way she gripped me whenever she hugged.
Ima was the one who’d brought me home on Christmas Eve a few weeks after meeting me, right after I told her that both of my parents had died of overdoses.
She hadn’t wanted me to be alone for the holidays and insisted that her wife would be okay with me joining them for a few days.
I had no idea if she was right or not, but I’d trusted her.
I’d waited in the hallway of this condo building while Ima talked to Mom, and a few minutes later, she welcomed me inside.
Mom’s willingness to do anything for Ima, even take in a strange teenager off the streets, made me feel like I understood her to her core.
She loved hard and selflessly, and her playful, joking way of approaching life had made me relax around her and breathe easy in a way I’d never done before.
“What’s wrong with him?” she asked Ima, noticing my stress as well.
I chuckled and let go of her. “You can both relax, I’m fine. Let’s go before Leo comes over here to round us up. He sent me five texts in the last hour, and he was not pleased when I told him I was stopping here first.”
Adrian and Sutton lived across the hall, and I wouldn’t have put it past Leo to barge in any minute and demand we follow him for the festivities.
Mom shook her head. “I liked it better when he was a fuckboy. Leo in love is little extra for my taste.”
Ima took Mom’s hand as we all walked toward the door. “I think it’s sweet how obsessed he is with her.”
“I like seeing him like this too. It’s entertaining,” I said as we walked across the hall to Adrian and Sutton’s.
I opened the door and saw Sophia sitting in the living room on the couch with her feet up on the coffee table, glaring at Leo as he walked to the kitchen with Adrian.
Leo was talking a mile a minute about what food was good for the baby.
Adrian and Sutton’s Shepard mix, Thor, came trotting over for pets, and I bent down to scratch him.
“See? Extra,” Mom said, gesturing at Leo as he told Adrian about a years-old listeria outbreak in hummus.
We said hello to everyone, and I walked over to Sophia and bent down to hug her. “Jace,” she whispered. “If you don’t get him to put something with chocolate on my plate, I will murder him. Right here in front of you all.”
I laughed and released her before sitting down beside her. “I take it the hockey star is taking your wellbeing a bit too seriously?”
“He’s read three pregnancy books. I haven’t even finished one. I have no idea when he is finding the time for it, but someone needs to help me manage him because I’m too tired and I want a fucking brownie.”
“I’ve got you, Soph,” I said, patting her shoulder. I yelled into the kitchen, “Hey, Leo. Give your wife some chocolate.”
“Sugar isn’t good for the baby,” he yelled back. “There’s caffeine in chocolate and she already insists on drinking a latte every day.”
My moms were standing with Sutton in the dining room. They all looked between each other like they knew one of them had to give him some advice on how far to push his wife but none of them were volunteering to step up to the plate.
“You know what’s bad for the baby? A pissed-off, pregnant wife, little dude. Give the woman a brownie,” I said.
Leo sighed. “Fine,” he grumbled as he filled her plate. “I’m just trying to keep the two people I love most in the world healthy, but I suppose if they want sugar, I’ll pile the plate full of sugar, consequences be damned.”
“And a latte!” Sophia yelled.
He froze and gave her a no way in hell look. “Now you’re pushing it, Hawaii,” he said through clenched teeth.
“I will make you a decaf vanilla latte, Sophia,” Adrian said, starting the fancy espresso machine before Leo could protest.
Leo grumbled about everyone always being on her side. “I knew you liked her better.”
He walked back into the room with a brownie sitting atop a plate full of vegetables and dip—hummus noticeably missing. Sophia’s face lit up when she saw the brownie and I stood up to give them some space. “Congratulations, Sophia. You’re going to be an amazing mom,” I said.
Leo took my spot on the couch and handed her the plate, smiling at her adoringly as he rubbed her non-existent belly and kissed her on the cheek. Her bright blue eyes sparkled at him, clearly enamored by his obsessive love for her and they leaned their dark-haired heads together.
In truth, they were the cutest couple I’d ever seen and watching them together made me think about Liv when she was pregnant.
I wondered about all the moments like this that she’d spent alone.
She’d shared some big moments with her mother, others with me—she’d let me feel Kaylee kicking her occasionally—but none of that was the same as how Sophia and Leo were experiencing it all together.
Meanwhile, Kayden had missed it all, every opportunity to love them the way Leo loved Sophia and their baby.
If Liv had told him she was pregnant, would they be together right now?
Would I even be in their lives at all? Would she and I be friends?
Would he and I have started whatever we’re doing now?
The thought that I might have met them, only to be an outsider to their love twisted like a knife in the gut.
If she tells him now, is that my future anyway?
By the time we left Adrian and Sutton’s, I was tired of pretending I wasn’t preoccupied with stress.
I sat down on my moms’ couch with a beer and sighed.
I’d only been carrying this secret for a little over a day and it was slowly killing me.
I’d gone to Liv’s as planned last night, but I’d busied myself by offering to put Kaylee to bed and making Liv dinner, trying to minimize the talking as much as possible.
All I wanted to do was beg her to tell Kayden the truth but I knew it was too soon to bring it up again.
She deserved time to process the situation for what it was, and my stress wouldn’t help her do that.