14. JACOB
Chapter fourteen
JACOB
B y the time I get the back of the truck unloaded, both of my arms are full of groceries. The skin on my arms is turning white. Allison is standing at the door, watching me with an amused and judgmental expression.
“You want to come carry them?” I call, raising my brows.
She holds up her hands. “No, by all means, risk your extremities. Very masculine.”
I laugh. She grins.
When I come through the door, I drop the groceries on the ground. I swoop Maddie off the floor, pressing kisses to her face while she giggles uncontrollably. “How’s my princess doing?” I ask, receiving another round of giggles for my troubles. “Was she good?” I asks Allie.
I almost lose my train of thought and myself into those emerald pools, not even realizing she is speaking and so I don’t catch anything but the very end of her sentence. “—perfect. Well, almost. She had a bit of a screaming fit, but that was short.”
I walk to her with Maddie in my arms, and when she’s close enough to hold, I transfer Maddie to one hand so I can wrap the other around Allie. It’s a brief hug, but when I pull away, Allie is blushing. It makes me feel warm all over.
We haven’t talked about that night—or the other nights we’ve had since.
It’s been…
Nice, I guess.
Wonderful is a bit more like it. But that feels cheesy and weird and embarrassing and not exactly—
Well, I don’t know. I know that when I kiss Allie, though, I feel good. Whole. Like I’m not playing house. Like this is just… Life.
But then I feel weird and strange and bad for feeling good, for feeling—
I clear my throat, stepping away.
“What made her start screaming this time?”
She shrugs. “Probably the phone.”
I glance at her. “The phone?”
“Yeah. It keeps—” As if on cue, the phone begins trilling. “Ringing.”
I laugh. Allison smiles a bit.
“Why does Emily even have a landline?” I ask. Then my heart drops a little. Had. Had a landline.
Allison seems to know exactly why I’m upset. She presses her lips together, emerald eyes flickering across my face. Then she shrugs.
“To be retro, I guess,” she jokes weakly, a clear attempt to lighten the mood, before crossing the kitchen to grab the phone. . “Hello?”
I turn to Maddie. She’s focused on something across the room, and I realize with a frown she’s staring at the TV. Some kids’ show is playing, and the kid is in a trance.
I squint, trying to see if I recognize the show. Though, of course, if it’s not from damn near thirty years ago, I wouldn’t.
“Hey, Al,” I say, turning my head. “I thought we agreed no screen time till twenty four months…”
I stop short when I see Allison’s face.
It’s been three months since the day Allison came back into my life. In that time, much of it has been a haze of grief, but not all of it. Some parts have been nice. At times, I’ve almost felt like I’ve gotten to know her—like maybe we’re friends now, too.
And there’s also the other stuff—the sex, the feelings—I’ve felt like that was something important, too.
But throughout all of that, and in the years we’ve known each other before then, I haven’t seen Allison make this face.
She’s gone so pale, her eyes wide and unfocused. Her lips are parted.
It’s—it’s almost worse than when she first came over, when the news of Emily was still fresh.
Fear shoots through me as anger finds its way to her face.
I quickly put Maddie in the playpen, thanking my lucky stars that the TV is on and she’s distracted, my earlier concerns forgotten. I cross the apartment in three quick steps, grabbing Allison by the shoulders. She jerks, but doesn’t shake from my grip.
“Allison?” I whisper.
Her eyes find mine. I have never seen them so furious. She shakes her head, just a little, twisting so her attention is fully on the phone.
“Listen to me, you rat,” she snaps, and my brows leap up to the top of my forehead. “Don’t you dare call her that ever again.”
Every part of me wants to grab the phone from Allison’s hands. It’s not just my desire to be in control or even my curiosity—it’s seeing that look on Allie’s face. I want to protect her. My hands tighten around her shoulders, but I know without even trying that if I say anything right now, she’ll turn that fury on me.
“No, no,” she interrupts whoever is on the line. “Yeah? Then we’ll see you in court. Asshole. ”
Allison slams down the phone. It reverberates.
She turns to me, and all at once, that fury drains from her. She sags against me, and I hold her to my chest as best as I can. I run my hands down her back and hair, soothing her.
“What happened?” I whisper. “Please tell me.”
Allison sniffles. I feel a wave of rage rush through me, knowing that whoever was on the other end of that phone call made Allie cry.
“It was Jeff,” she whispers.
I freeze.
Allie pulls away, just enough to wipe her cheeks. She looks over at Maddie, her expression heartbroken. “I guess he called his parents.”
I feel lost. “Parents?”
Allison scoffs. “Assholes. You know, Jeff and Emily dated in college. They called her a harlot. A harlot!”
My jaw drops. “Why didn’t you tell me this?”
I push away from the wall, pacing the small kitchen.
Allison folds her arms across her chest. “Why should I have told you?”
My temper flares. “I asked about him—”
“Telling you every shitty thing he did to your dead sister didn’t seem particularly relevant!” She snaps, then her eyes widen and she covers her mouth with her hand. Tears well in her eyes.
Immediately, my anger bleeds out. I go to her quickly, reaching for her. “Hey, hey.”
“I’m sorry,” she cries.
I hold her. Allison clings to me.
In the other room, Maddie giggles at whatever show she is watching.
After a few minutes, Allison pulls away again. The color has returned to her face, at least.
“He was calling to see if Emily left him anything,” Allison whispers.
“Like… a kid?” I ask dryly.
Allison shakes her head. “Like money.”
My stomach flips. “He called… Asking if the mother of his child that he hasn’t seen since—”
“Forever ago,” she finishes.
“—left him money.”
“He’s a bastard,” Allison says. “He said if we don’t give him whatever Emily has, he’ll take Maddie. He doesn’t want her, he just—he’s just—”
I nod. “I know, Allie. It’s all going to be okay.”
“He said he’ll be waiting. He said he’d be at the Riverfront Park on Saturday. Waiting. Do we just... ignore him?”
I consider this. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Jacob, what if he tries to take Maddie?”
I wrap my arms around Allison again. “We won’t let him.”
Allison buries her face in my neck. Together, we turn and look at my sweet niece; all that I have left of Emily, who is becoming more and more like a daughter to me every day.
I don’t know what I’ll do, or how I’ll stop Jeff from ruining Emily’s last wish. But I know I will do whatever it takes to keep my family together.