33. Annette
Chapter thirty-three
Annette
The First Stop
Jamie refuses to tell me where we’re going. He only smiles every time I ask, one hand resting loosely on the steering wheel while the other reaches across the console to hold mine.
Not just for a minute.
Not only when we stop at a light.
He has been holding my hand since we left his cabin, as if he is afraid that if he lets go, I might somehow disappear again.
I don’t blame him. I understand the feeling.
Two months ago, I was driving across the country trying to convince myself I was doing the brave thing by leaving, the responsible thing, the thing that would protect the man I loved from having to choose between me and the life he had worked so hard to reclaim.
Now I’m sitting beside him in his truck, wearing yesterday’s clothes, my hair pulled into a messy knot, and my entire world has shifted back into place, or maybe into place for the first time.
“You know,” I say, watching the familiar streets of Briar Cove pass outside my window, “most people tell someone where they’re taking them.”
“Most people didn’t have their girlfriend show up unexpectedly at their cabin after driving two thousand miles.”
My heart gives a ridiculous little jump at the word.
Girlfriend.
It should not feel so new. We have said I love you. We have made promises. We have spent the better part of the afternoon talking, kissing, and holding on to each other as if neither of us trusts the universe yet.
Still, girlfriend settles somewhere warm inside me. I turn my head toward him. “Is that what I am?”
Jamie glances at me, his expression instantly serious. “You’re a lot more than that.”
The softness in his voice steals every clever reply I might have made. He lifts my hand to his mouth and brushes a kiss across my knuckles. “I just figured girlfriend was a good place to start.”
I smile. “I suppose I can live with that.”
“Good.” His mouth curves. “Because I already told the guys.”
I straighten in my seat. “You told the guys what?”
“That you’re back.”
“When?”
“While you were freshening up.”
My eyes narrow. He looks suspiciously pleased with himself. “You were gone for twelve minutes and I work fast.”
“Jamie?”
“I sent one text.”
“To whom?”
“Toby.”
That should reassure me. It does not.
“What did the text say?”
Jamie’s smile widens. “I need everyone at your house by six. Don’t ask questions.”
I stare at him. “That is all you told him?”
“Pretty much.”
“And Toby just agreed?”
“He asked if someone was dead.”
I groan.
“I told him no.”
“That was considerate.”
“Then he asked if someone was getting married.”
I whip my head toward him. Jamie’s eyes stay on the road, but the corner of his mouth lifts. “And what did you say?”
Not tonight.
My breath catches. He squeezes my hand.
I tell myself he is teasing me. Mostly. “Jamie Walker.”
“What?”
“You cannot say things like that while driving.”
“Why not?”
“Because I may need to open the door and roll out.”
He laughs, low and warm, the sound filling the truck. How I’ve missed that laugh. I’ve missed everything. The way his shoulders relax when he is happy. The small lines at the corners of his eyes. The steady warmth of his palm around mine.
I spent weeks telling myself I was leaving so he could have his life back. I never stopped to consider that I had become part of it.
The truck turns onto a quiet residential street lined with old maples and wide front porches. Several cars are parked along the curb ahead of us.
Too many cars.
I recognize Liam’s black SUV. Caleb’s silver truck. A familiar blue sedan that belongs to Paige.
“Oh no.”
Jamie glances over. “What?”
“You invited everyone.”
“I invited the team.”
“That appears to be everyone.”
“Only the important ones.”
I give him a look. He laughs again. By the time he pulls into Toby’s driveway, my stomach is full of nervous butterflies.
Jamie cuts the engine but does not immediately move. Instead, he turns toward me.
His hand leaves mine only long enough to brush a loose strand of hair away from my face.
“You okay?”
There it is.
The question beneath every other question.
Are you sure?
Are you staying?
Do you regret coming back?
I lean into his touch. “I’m okay. I’m just worried that they are angry with me. Really angry because of the pain I’ve caused you.”
“You really don’t need to worry about that. They will ALL understand and welcome you back. Every one of them. But I should probably warn you that Liam is going to make this unbearable.”
“He usually does.”
“And Paige will probably cry.”
“I may cry with her.”
“Toby will pretend he knew the entire time.”
“He probably did.”
“Caleb will stand in a corner and look judgmental.”
“He always does.”
Jamie’s thumb brushes my cheek. “And everyone is going to be very happy to see you. I promise.”
That is the part that nearly undoes me. I look toward the house. Light spills through the front windows. Shadows move inside. Someone crosses the living room carrying what appears to be a giant bowl of chips.
I had expected to return to Jamie. Only Jamie. I had not allowed myself to imagine that there might be other people waiting for me too.
“I didn’t leave them very gracefully,” I whisper.
“You said goodbye.”
“Barely.”
“You were hurting.”
“So were they.”
Jamie watches me for a moment, then he leans across the console and kisses me.
It is not a desperate kiss like the ones at the cabin. This one is slow, certain, a promise instead of a plea.
When he pulls back, his forehead rests against mine.
“They love you, Annette.”
My throat tightens. “I haven’t done anything to earn that.”
“You showed up.”
“For you.”
“That’s enough.”
He gets out of the truck before I can argue further. A second later, my door opens, and Jamie holds out his hand. I take it and we walk toward the house together.
Before Jamie can knock, the front door swings open.
Toby stands there holding a paper plate in one hand and a bottle of soda in the other.
“About time,” he says. “Do you have any idea what it takes to assemble twelve adults with less than an hour’s notice?”
His gaze shifts to me. He freezes. The bottle slips in his hand.
Behind him, the house goes strangely quiet. I see Liam look around Toby’s shoulder.
Then Paige.
Then Caleb.
Then Coach.
For one suspended second, no one says a word.
Paige gasps, actually gasps. Her hands fly to her mouth. “Oh my God.”
Liam’s jaw drops.
Caleb blinks once, which for Caleb is the equivalent of falling over.
Becca makes a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob.
Then everyone starts moving at once. “Annette!”
Paige reaches me first. She throws both arms around me so hard I stumble backward into Jamie. “I knew it,” she says against my shoulder. “I knew you weren’t gone forever.”
“You absolutely did not,” Liam calls from behind her.
“I hoped.”
“That is not the same thing.”
Paige releases me only so Becca can pull me into another hug. Then Toby wraps one arm around my shoulders, Liam squeezes me from the other side, and suddenly I am trapped in the middle of what appears to be a full team pileup.
“Careful,” Jamie says. His voice is calm, but his expression is worried.
Liam immediately lifts both hands. “We’re not breaking her, Captain.”
“You’d better not.”
Toby looks past me toward Jamie. “So, this was the emergency?”
Jamie steps closer and slides his arm around my waist. “This was the emergency.”
The room erupts. There are cheers. Actual cheers. Someone whistles. Paige starts crying exactly as Jamie predicted.
Liam points at Jamie. “You could have warned us.”
“And ruin this?” Jamie asks.
“You made me clean.”
Toby looks offended. “This is my house.”
“Exactly. That’s how serious I thought it was.”
I laugh before I can stop myself. Every head turns toward me. For half a second, I feel self-conscious. Then Jamie looks down at me with so much love in his eyes that everything else disappears.
Toby notices, of course he notices. His expression softens.
“So,” he says, “I take it Idaho didn’t work out?”
“It was beautiful,” I say.
“But?”
I look at Jamie. “But it wasn’t home.”
The room goes quiet again. This time, it is not shock. It is something warmer.
Paige presses both hands over her heart. Becca wipes at the corner of one eye.
Liam looks suspiciously emotional, though he quickly shoves a handful of chips into his mouth to hide it.
Jamie’s arm tightens around me.
Toby nods slowly, as if I have confirmed something he already knew. “Okay, then,” he says. “Welcome home.”
Those two words nearly break me.
Welcome home. Not welcome back. Home.
Jamie bends and presses a kiss to my temple. Someone whistles again.
Caleb finally steps out of the corner where he has been silently observing everyone.
He stops in front of me. “I’m glad you came back.”
His tone is so solemn that I smile. “Thank you.”
He looks at Jamie. “You were impossible without her.”
“I was injured.”
“You were impossible before that too.”
Liam raises his drink. “I’ll toast to that.”
Jamie gives them both a look that should silence the room. It does not.
Toby hands me a plate. “We have pizza, wings, chips, three kinds of dip, and something Liam insists is a dessert.”
“It is a dessert.”
“It came in a plastic tub.”
“That does not disqualify it.”
Paige takes my hand and pulls me toward the kitchen. “You have to tell us everything.”
“There’s not much to tell.”
“You drove here from Idaho.”
“That sounds like something to tell,” Becca says.
Jamie follows close behind us. I glance over my shoulder. “You don’t have to guard me.”
“I’m not guarding you.”
“You’re standing six inches away.”
“I like standing six inches away.”
Liam makes an exaggerated gagging sound. Paige swats his arm.
For the next twenty minutes, I am hugged, questioned, fed, and welcomed back into the strange, loud, loving family I had convinced myself I did not belong to.
I tell them about finishing my rotation and being ready to graduate.
About packing my car and driving for three days with Jamie’s voice in my head.
I do not tell them everything. Some things still belong only to us. The moment he opened the cabin door. The way he said my name. The first time he told me that he loved me to my face without fear or hesitation. The promises we made after. Those memories are mine. Ours.
But when Paige asks what finally made me turn toward Briar Cove instead of away from it, I look across the room at Jamie. He is talking to Toby, but his eyes keep finding me every few seconds as if checking, as if reassuring himself.
“I realized I had spent weeks deciding what was best for him,” I say quietly, “without ever asking him what he wanted.”
Paige follows my gaze. “And what does he want?”
Jamie must sense us watching him because he looks over. His expression changes immediately. Softens. He leaves Toby in the middle of a sentence and walks toward me.
“Her,” Paige says.
I smile. “Yes.”
Jamie reaches us and holds out his hand. “We have to go.”
Liam glances at the clock. “You just got here.”
“I told you we couldn’t stay long.”
“Where are you taking her?”
Jamie ignores him.
Liam folds his arms and almost sing-songs: “That means it’s a secret.”
“It means it’s none of your business.”
“So definitely a secret,” Paige says.
Jamie helps me to my feet. I look around at everyone. “You assembled all of this in two hours?”
“Toby assembled it,” Becca says.
“Liam ate most of it,” Caleb adds.
“I brought morale.”
“You brought one bag of chips.”
“A party is nothing without chips.”
I laugh and step forward to hug Paige again.
Then Becca.
Toby.
Even Caleb, who stiffens in surprise before awkwardly patting my back.
Liam opens his arms wide. “I assume mine will be the longest hug.”
“It will not.”
“Cruel.”
I hug him anyway. When I step back, his usual grin fades. “I’m glad you’re here.”
The sincerity in his voice catches me off guard.
“So am I.”
Jamie takes my hand again. Toby walks us toward the door.
As we reach it, he puts one hand on Jamie’s shoulder.
They exchange a look. Something quiet and deeply familiar passes between them.
“You good?” Toby asks.
Jamie looks at me. “So much better than good.”
Then we are outside again. The summer air is cool against my skin, and the sound of everyone talking follows us onto the porch.
I stop at the top of the steps. Jamie turns.
“What?”
I look back at the glowing windows. At the silhouettes moving inside. At the place where twelve people dropped everything because Jamie called and where no one hesitated to welcome me back.
“That was your first stop?”
He nods. “First stop.”
“How many are there?”
“Four tonight.”
My eyes widen. “Four?”
“I have a lot to show you.”
He steps closer.
His hands settle at my waist. “I want you to know all of it, Annette.”
“All of what?”
“My life, me.”
The teasing leaves his expression. “I don’t want there to be pieces of me you haven’t seen.”
My heart gives one hard, painful beat.
“Jamie—”
“The team is part of my world.”
He glances toward the house. “They’re the loud part.”
I laugh softly.
“But there’s more.”
His fingers tighten gently at my waist. “And before tonight is over, I want you to know all of it.”
The words should frighten me. Once, they would have.
Because I know Jamie well enough to understand what he is saying. This is not a tour. It is an invitation.
He is not showing me the places in his life, he is asking me to belong in them.
I rise onto my toes and kiss him. “I’m ready.”
When I pull back, his eyes are bright. “You sure?”
I take his hand. “I drove two thousand miles.”
His smile comes slowly. “That you did.”
Together, we walk back toward the truck. First stop complete. Three more pieces of Jamie’s world await.
And for the first time, I am not afraid of what I might find.
I’m only afraid my heart will not be big enough to hold it all.