Chapter 6
Six
Jessie’s eyes burned as she stared at the laptop screen. She’d been switching between her class work and Lachlan’s expense report for last quarter, not retaining anything. She needed a distraction. Something other than the churning in her belly…
Her phone chimed and Hawk’s name lit up the screen.
How are you feeling this morning?
Terrible. Awful. Like she wanted to curl up in a ball under her covers at home and cry…
I’m okay.
Did you go into work? Do you need anything?
I’m good. I promise.
When can I see you? We need to talk about what comes next.
I made a doctor’s appointment for Thursday. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Shouldn’t I be there for it?
It’s just blood work and they’ll take my IUD out. We’ll figure out what we’re doing when it’s time for baby appointments.
Are you taking some time off from the diner?
No.
Then I can come see you this morning?
I’m at the garage. I help Lachlan out on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. I’ll be at the diner later. Closing shift again.
Okay. I’ll be there again tonight.
You don’t need to do that. I can handle it.
I know you can. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to be there. It’s been nice having that time with you these past few days.
“Hey, Jess—wow, you look like shit,” Lach’s voice drifted over Jessie’s shoulder as she set her phone down and flipped through last month’s ledger. “Saw you through the glass and thought you were about to throw up in here.”
She groaned, her hand itching to press into her stomach, but she wouldn’t let it. “I was.”
“Is the profit that bad this month?”
Jessie rolled her eyes. “You need to stop giving oil changes away for free.”
“I only do that for the little old ladies in town, and I’m not charging them no matter what. You know it’s good for business to have them on my side.”
“Lach, I love you, but you literally have no competition in town. You don’t need to have them on your side. But you do need to be able to pay the bank for your loan. I don’t… It's going to be tight this month. Again.”
“We’ll be okay. I always am.”
“You always are because I look out for you.”
“Hate to break it to you, but you were almost still in diapers when I opened this place up.”
“I was literally fifteen.”
“Like I said… diapers. I’ve managed it just fine on my own.”
“Right, I’m just here helping three days a week for no pay because I needed something else on my plate.”
He sighed, a rag that used to be white dangling down from his grasp like a flag of surrender. “Hey, if it’s a strain to be here…”
Jessie put her hand up, waving the thought away. “It’s not. I promise. I want to help. I like helping. Life is just… a lot lately.”
“Then what’s going on?” Lachlan pulled out the empty stool from under the counter. “You can talk to me.”
“I can’t. I’m not ready to talk about it.”
“Is it about last year? Did the nightmares come back?”
Jessie closed her eyes. They’d been so bad after she was taken, but slowly faded away since then.
“No. I promise. It’s not that.”
“Good. That head doc Sloane referred you to seemed to really help.”
“Yeah. She did.”
“Oh shit,” Lach groaned. “Does this mean it’s guy trouble? If there’s someone I need to kick the shit out of, Jess, just say the word.”
She laughed. “No. It’s not like that. Besides, I’d never tell you my boy problems. That’s what I have Birdie and Dawn and Adrienne for.”
“Damn, Lainey didn’t make the cut?” he chuckled.
“Sorry, that stuck up drama queen will never make the list, if I’m being honest.”
“Still holding onto high school grudges. That’s cold, Jess. She’s just Birdie’s baby sister, and since Birdie is practically family….”
“Yeah, I see what you’re trying to say.” Jess swallowed down a wave of nausea.
“Dakota counts as family because he’s your best friend.
Birdie counts as family because she’s Beau’s best friend.
And, if we’re being honest here, I love her too much now to ever let her go.
But Lainey? She’s the bitch who had everyone in school call me ‘goat girl’ for two years. I can’t forget that. And I won’t.”
Lachlan laughed. “You do really love Lucky though. Is that her fault?”
Jessie curled her fingers into a fist and crashed them into Lach’s arm. “Get out of the office and let me get back to work. I’m leaving early today.”
“You are?” His face fell. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Oh, I wasn’t planning on leaving early before this conversation. It’s just payback for you being an ass to me.”
“Fair play,” Lach groaned as he stood up from the stool. “I’m going to swing by the diner and get Duke to fry up some catfish for lunch. Want me to grab you an order when I do? We can eat together before you leave.”
The mention of fried fish did her in. Suddenly, that was all she could see.
All she could smell. And never mind how the memory of the taste laid heavy on her tongue.
Jessie jumped out of the chair, wrapping her fingers around the base of the trash bin, holding on for dear life as the three crackers and sip of water she was able to get down came violently back up.
“Holy shit.” Lach was right there, patting her back. “Yeah, you’re going home now, kid.”
“Not a kid,” she groaned, slapping her hand up on the counter searching for the roll of paper towels. Lach must have figured out what she needed, because a second later, a ridiculous amount was shoved into her hand.
“Honestly, I’d rather not have you here. I can’t afford to catch whatever this is and be out.”
“Don’t worry. You can’t catch this. I promise.”
“Why?” Her brother was now crouched down, studying her face. “Did Mom not get you the same vaccinations as us? Is this what having chicken pox looks like as an adult?”
“You’re an idiot. I told you, my brother, that you can’t catch what I, your sister, have. And that’s what you came up with?”
His brows furrowed before his face went slack and he fell on his ass.
“Oh shit. You’re pregnant?”
“Bingo.” She nodded, pointing her finger at his chest. “And I am only telling you this because I’ve been so sick and I don’t want to have to hide it around you.
But I can’t have you telling Mom or Dad or anyone else in our family right now.
Mom is counting on me for the diner and I’m not about to let her down. ”
“Fuck, Jess. I mean… Mom will understand. And you might want to get her on your side, fast, because I definitely don’t see a ring on your finger and I don’t remember going to your wedding… and Dad is really going to kill you.”
“Let me get through the next few weeks,” she groaned. “I’ll have a cute picture to show him of the baby, and he’ll fall in love before he even realizes he’s disappointed in me.”
Lachlan whistled. “It’s almost like you didn’t grow up with the same dad as the rest of us. There is no pulling the wool over Daniel Ford’s eyes.”
Jessie tied off the bag inside the trash can and nodded.
“Are you with him?” he asked.
“Him?”
Lachlan nodded to her belly. “The dad. You haven’t mentioned anyone and you’ve been working so much lately and taking those business classes at night, it’s hard to think you’ve been out there dating too.”
“It was a one night stand.”
“Jess,” Lachlan groaned. “You can stay here. Upstairs, in the apartment, if you need to. There’s that spare room. It’s really small, but we can turn it into a nursery. I’ll have to fix the air conditioning before spring, but we can make it work.”
Tears stung the back of Jessie’s eyes, and Lachlan clearly caught on because his face filled with panic.
“I thought a plan was going to help you feel better. Please don’t cry. I love you, but you just puked and I really don’t want to have to hug you unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
“You’d take my side over Dad’s?” she asked, her voice watery with emotion.
“Yeah, of course I would. Figure I still owe you for that time they caught me coming in from a field party my senior year and you begged them not to punish me because I was out looking for one one of your stuffed animals. Don’t tell the others, but I’ve always had a soft spot for you.”
Her stomach clenched again. Shit. Why had she already tied up the garbage bag? “Oh, they know. And they made sure to make up for that.”
“Are you scared for them to find out? We could loop them in. All present a united sibling front for you.”
That would never happen. “Beau and Hayes are going to side with Dad.”
“And Colt?”
“I think Colt is going to be even more excited than me about the baby. I’m just sad for him.”
Her brother’s body went stiff, and he nodded, a sad smile filling his face. “Shit. I didn’t even think about that.”
Lachlan fell silent, and Jessie closed her eyes. She’d only been a teenager when Colt and Violet got married, and they had been so in love she thought nothing would ever tear them apart. But they hadn’t been strong enough to weather the storm of infertility.
“Jess?” Lachlan held a cold bottle of cola out to her. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I will be. I think.” She took the bottle. “I hope.”
“You will be. Drink that and then get out of here. Take some time off before you have to go in for your shift with Mom.”
“I don’t need—”
“I’m not asking, Jess. I think Dakota crashed there last weekend, but you can lay down upstairs if you don’t want to go out to the ranch just to have to come back into town.”
“I’m fine. I need to finish the invoices, and rewind the security tapes. I’m feeling better now.” Just to prove her point, Jessie rolled her legs underneath her body and pushed up, fighting through the wave of dizziness that made the room spin.
“Yeah, right. You’re perfectly fine.” Her brother’s hand landed on her shoulder, and she heard the chair rolling on the floor behind her. “Sit. Drink your coke and then get out of here. No more work today.”
Jessie was nothing if not stubborn. So even though she felt like her bones were about to crumble into dust while her stomach tried to flip itself inside-out, she had to prove her brother wrong.
Which is how she found herself still sitting behind the desk an hour later, finally rewinding the security tapes from the week before.
God. She really needed Lach to talk to Hawk, or maybe Gunner, or Gage—someone at Montgomery Defense—about going digital with his security system.
They were using technology from before she was even born.
And she was losing her mind, because as she watched clients come in and out of the frame like little dancing dolls, she made up scenarios about what could be going on in their lives.
Oh, Mrs. Palmer? Well, of course she had to get her oil changed! She’s going on a cross-country trip with her son in a few weeks. And Mr. Burgess? Well, he needed his tires rotated and breaks replaced because he was getting ready to teach his daughter, Amy, how to drive.
Dakota came into frame after a long spell of the shop being closed with no activity. What was he doing there on a Sunday? Jessie stopped the tape and let it play forward. Something tugged at the back of her mind as she watched him move on the screen.
“Would you please get out of here?” Lach stomped into the room and huffed. “I’m going to be using some cleaner and you probably shouldn’t be here when I do. You know… the fumes and all now that you’re—”
“Don’t say it out loud! God, what if someone overheard you?!”
“Cat’s gotta come out of the bag sometime, right? But first… skedaddle.”
“Okay. I am going, but only because I need to get ready for my shift.” Jessie stood and grabbed her bag. “Hey, are you letting Dakota come in here after hours?”
Her brother’s eyebrow quirked up and he crossed his arms. “Yeah. I mean, you know he works on his car here all the time. Why?”
“I was erasing the tapes and I just… something seemed off.”
“What do you mean?”
“Look.” Jessie pressed rewind on the VCR until the spot in the video she’d just watched came one to the screen.
“Here. He had his car in the last bay, but he wasn’t working on it.
He was just standing there, typing on his phone.
Then he looks up, walks to the overhead door, opens it, and takes something from a guy standing outside. ”
“Who was it?”
“We can’t see. They were standing in front of the pillar. Dakota literally takes this box, shoves it in his car, and takes off.”
“That’s weird. But I don’t think it’s a crime to just hang out at the garage and then take off. He probably got here, ordered food and then decided to go home and crash instead.”
“It was a box, Lach. Not a to-go bag.” She wasn’t going to let it go. Her gut was screaming at her that something was going on.
“Maybe they ran out of takeout bags at Davney’s. Why are you so on about this?”
“I don’t know.” Jessie rubbed her hand over her stomach. “Something just feels wrong.”
Her brother looked panicked. “With the baby?”
“No, idiot. With Dakota. Those guys from Oklahoma were weird and I got the grossest feeling from them. You need to make sure he doesn’t work with them.”
Lach held up his hand. “We already talked about it. He’s not interested in working with them.”
“That’s good. Probably for the best.”
“Jess.” Lach’s hand landed on her arm. “We haven’t really talked about last year. When you and Mae—”
“That is not what this is about.”
“But hyper-vigilance can be a sign of post traumatic stress. You can talk to me if you need to. If things feel like they’re out of control, especially now with…” His head dropped as he nodded towards her belly.
“I am fine. If you say it's nothing with Dakota, then fine. It’s nothing with Dakota. I’m erasing the tapes right now.”
She pressed down on the record and play buttons, the sound of the machine writing over the video filled the silence between her and her brother.