Chapter Nine
ELLA
S aturdays are lazy days.
I don’t have to go to work, since the other vet tech and I alternate working Saturday mornings, Ollie is home, and even though Brynn usually has the mornings off so she can come hang out with us, this week is extra special because she has the entire day off, which is almost unheard of for her since she works in her parents’ restaurant. It’s been especially rough the last few years since her dad got sick. Congestive heart failure is a bitch. It’s not like her sister helps, either. It’s just Brynn, doing all she can to help her family stay afloat.
“Auntie Brynn! Look at my draw-ring!” Macie calls out from her spot on the floor where she’s coloring. She already has a stack of completed pictures next to her, but the one she’s now holding up is a modge-podge of rainbows and hearts.
“That’s so pretty, Macie-Cakes!” Brynn gushes. “Can you put a purple heart on there too?”
Macie nods solemnly like Brynn just gave the world’s most intense mission and grabs a purple crayon, getting to work.
Brynn and I are sitting on opposite sides of the couch, facing each other with our legs stretched out between us while the TV plays one of Macie’s favorite educational shows. Sweats or leggings are our uniforms for Saturday mornings, along with super fuzzy socks.
It’s nonnegotiable.
Ollie lays next to Macie, his head pressed against her legs. She pets him every once in a while between pictures, and I feel so lucky that I was able to bring such a sweet boy home.
“So you guys are going out tomorrow?” Brynn asks me, quiet enough to not be heard over the puppets explaining how the rain cycle works on the TV. The cast on her wrist is almost ready to come off, and has been decorated with a plethora and scribbles and hearts, courtesy of Macie.
“That’s the plan.” I bite my lip. “I don’t know why I’m so nervous. He was so good with her, both in the ER and the other day when he came over.”
“It’s new territory,” Brynn concedes. “It’s been the two of you for so long.”
“Exactly!” I straighten, pulling my feet so I’m sitting cross-legged. “I tried to find him, and I couldn't, so we adapted. We learned to function as a family of two. And while I know the right thing is to tell him… it’s going to change our whole lives. It’s scary.”
It’s not like I have a specific fear related to telling him about Macie. It’s just the not knowing how he’ll react. I’m anxious about our lives changing and possibly having to consult someone else on every decision I make regarding Macie.
Macie walks over to us, having pulled a toy stethoscope out of her play bin, and presses the chest piece to Brynn’s cast.
“Oh, are you a doctor?” I ask, smiling at my girl.
“Yes! Like doctor Liam!” she says proudly. “Oh no.” She looks at Brynn with a serious look on her face. “Your arm is dead.”
Brynn and I burst out laughing as Macie pulls a toy bottle of medicine from her pocket. “Here. Dis makes you better.”
“Thank you, Doctor Macie.” Brynn says with a straight face, and Macie goes back over to the bin of toys, looking for something else to play with.
My phone on the coffee table starts vibrating, and I frown, grabbing it. I don’t normally get calls on Saturday mornings unless it’s?—
“Khloe!” I answer the phone and put it on speaker. “Hey, girl. What’s up? Brynn’s here too.”
“Hey, Khloe!” Brynn calls out. “You’re just in time to help me talk some sense into our girl.”
“Oh? About what?” Her voice sounds through the speaker of the phone, and I roll my eyes. Of course, Brynn would drag Khloe into the conversation to gang up on me.
Khloe and I met two years ago at a single working moms group when she still lived in Ridgewood Falls. Her sister passed away in a tragic accident four years ago, leaving her to raise her nephew, Spencer. When her mom couldn’t bear any longer to live in the same town where her other daughter passed away, they all moved to Connecticut, but she, Brynn, and I still keep in touch.
“Macie, baby, why don’t you go find a princess dress to put on?” Macie probably most definitely should not be in the room for this conversation.
“Okay, Mommy! Hi, Aunt Khloe!”
“Hi, sweet Macie!” Khloe calls out, and then, as soon as Macie disappears into her room, Brynn gives me a look .
“Okay. Time to spill.”
I sigh and tell Khloe everything that’s happened. From running into Liam at the hospital in Boston, all the way up to him moving here and meeting Macie when he treated her in the ER and came over the day after. She’s an RN and between all of our busy schedules, it’s hard to find a time that the three of us can catch up.
“Wow,” Khloe lets out a deep breath. “That’s insane. It all kind of sounds… Well, it sounds like fate, Ella. ”
Khloe, the one who has the most reason to be a skeptic of anything having to do with fate, is trying to convince me this is meant to be? The same Khloe who found her long-term boyfriend cheating on her four years ago, on the very same night she got a call that her sister had died? She’s talking about fate?
A scoff leaves me. “Fate?”
“Think about it,” Khloe says. “You meet at a bar in Burlington. Sparks fly.” Her voice grows animated, like she’s narrating some epic love story. “You have the best sex of your life, and the next day, he pulls you out of a burning vehicle.”
“The car was not on fire,” I mutter, crossing my arms. And he didn’t even come see me in the hospital. Which, now that I’ve replayed my and Liam’s lunch conversation over and over again in my mind, I’m thinking he was just… trying to respect my wishes. Or what he thought my wishes were. I hadn’t left him my phone number, and he probably thought I didn’t want anything to do with him. It’s not like he had known how much I regretted it after.
“Okay fine. Not a burning vehicle, but a very badly wrecked car where you almost died , Ella.”
“And then!” Brynn jumps in, giving me a pointed look. “We find him in Boston. Boston , Ella! Four hours away from here, after you’ve been looking for him for literal years. And then he just happens to move to our little tiny hometown? Tell me that’s not fate.”
After hearing it all laid out like that, I kind of think they’re right.
“She needs to tell him, right?” Brynn hedges, staring at the phone like Khloe can see her. “He’s not engaged like you thought, and you’re single. There’s literally nothing standing in the way of the two of you getting your shi—” she cuts herself off, looking at Macie, who is marching back into the room decked out in her pink princess dress-up outfit and plastic crown, “your stuff, together.”
Huffing, I pull my legs up to my chest. They’re right. I know they are. There’s not anything keeping me from telling him the truth, and he really does deserve to know. I just hope he’s not upset with me for holding on to the information for this long. “Fine. Yeah. I guess… I guess I’ll tell him tomorrow at dinner.”
Now I just have to figure out how the hell I’m going to do that without chickening out like I’ve done every time prior.
A thought that stays on my mind constantly throughout the rest of the day, up until we get to my parents’ house for dinner, where Nolan intercepts us as soon as we walk in the door while Ollie makes his escape to his bed in the corner of the living room.
“It’s the Macy-nator!”
Macie squeals with glee as Nolan grabs her by the waist and lifts her into the air.
“Uncle Nolan! Put me down!” She giggles from her spot above his head.
He lowers her until she’s eye level with him, his brown eyes shining with mischief and affection. “The cost for getting down is one super squeeze hug!”
I roll my eyes at his antics, but my heart warms anyway, knowing Macie has uncles who love her so much.
I can’t help but wonder how Liam will fit into all of this once I tell him about Macie. I feel like he and Nolan would get along really well, making jokes and lightening everyone’s moods.
Macie squeals again as he wraps her tight in his arms, and she throws her hands around his neck, pressing their cheeks together. His slightly wavy, shoulder-length, dirty blond hair is down today and is a stark contrast against Macie’s dark brown curls.
“Super squeeze!” they both shout, hugging each other as tight as they can without hurting the other.
“Hey, sis. Hey, Brynn.” Jayce comes in next, pulling me into a hug and giving Brynn a nod. His dark brown hair is buzzed short and his scruff of a beard is scratchy against my cheek.
“How’s business going?” I ask, knowing that if there’s one subject my more quiet brother will talk about, it’s their business, Trackster. What started as a college assignment developing a project management software quickly turned into a booming business when the college decided it was worth using, followed by multiple other colleges. Before long, hundreds of companies started subscribing and it kind of blew up. Now, not only does the software help students keep track of tasks for large projects, research papers, and even thesis work, but it also ties into class rankings, accomplishments, and recognitions without ever revealing the actual grades, all while still encouraging healthy competition. It also allows schools to link with each other so that students can track their performance against others studying the same topics in other states. There are teacher, school, and student-level subscriptions, and from what I know, they are looking to start a job recruitment division as well.
“It’s going great.” He grins at me. “We’ve had thousands of new subscribers this week alone.”
Mine and Brynn’s jaws drop.
“Thousands?” she asks, her eyes wide. “That’s amazing!”
“Uncle Jayce!” Macie suddenly shouts, making grabby hands at my other brother.
“Hey there, Princess.” He snatches Macie from Nolan’s grasp, pressing a kiss to her cheek.
“Uncle Jayce, your face is scratchy,” Macie pouts, rubbing the spot where he kissed her.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Princess. Should I shave it off?” Jayce asks, concern in his eyes as he looks at my daughter.
I roll my eyes. “Jayce, you don’t have to shave your beard just because?—”
“Yes!” Macie throws her arms up in a cheer.
“It’ll be gone the next time I see you,” he tells her with finality, pressing a kiss to her hair this time before putting her down and she runs off further into the house.
“Oh my god, how are you guys going to be if you ever have daughters of your own?” Brynn asks, looking between the two of them, and I stifle a laugh at the absolute horror that takes over their faces.
“If I ever have a daughter, I’m bubble wrapping her,” Jayce mutters, storming after Macie.
“She can walk all over me, I don’t even care.” Nolan winks before following after him.
Brynn and I exchange a look of amusement, and then my mom’s voice sounds from the kitchen. “Girls, dinner is ready!”
We walk to the dining room to find everyone gathering around the table and taking their seats. Mom made spaghetti and meatballs, my mouth salivating at the smell.
“Ellie-Bellie.” Dad comes over and presses a kiss to my hair. “Brynn.” He puts a hand on her shoulder. “We’re pasta -tively thrilled you could make it.”
Brynn, Nolan, Jayce, and I let out a collective groan. He just chuckles before taking his seat at the table.
“Nobody can appreciate my comedic genius,” he sighs wistfully as Brynn and I take our seats.
Mom has already made Macie a plate, so I focus on making mine. We’re having a pleasant dinner when my phone rings, interrupting the conversation. I frown when I look at the screen.
Why the hell is Harvey calling me?
He hasn’t tried to reach out since he called while we were at the hospital in Boston a few weeks ago. The man is delusional. We dated for a bit in college, then I broke up with him when I found him fucking his neighbor. We struck a deal that he would leave me alone as long as I didn’t tell my brothers what he did.
It was then that I realized he never really even wanted me, just an in with my brothers and their company. He did know them first, after all.
Then he was MIA for most of my pregnancy, thank goodness, except the very beginning after my car accident when he tried to use my head trauma against me and convince me we were actually engaged.
Fucking lunatic.
He started to call again a few months ago, and his calls seemed to be increasing in frequency, but this is the first time in a few weeks. I don’t even know why the hell he’s calling me at all. I haven’t given him any reason to think I’d want to hear from him. I don’t even pick up the phone!
My face must reflect exactly what I’m feeling, because Brynn asks, “Is it Harvey again?”
Shaking my head, I hit the decline button and put my phone in my lap. “Yep.”
Nolan and Jayce both look confused, while my parents seem mad and Brynn just looks annoyed. Macie is happily humming as she munches on some garlic bread, leaning her head on Mom’s arm.
“Why does he still call you?” Nolan asks incredulously. “We… we broke ties with him about five months ago.”
“What? Why?” I ask, looking between my brothers. “Don’t get me wrong, fire him if you need to, I’m just wondering what the straw was that broke the camel’s back.”
Jayce sighs. “We can’t get into it, but… he did some shady… stuff in our books and we cut him loose.”
“Why wouldn’t you tell me that?”
“We thought you didn’t like the guy.” Jayce shrugs. “We didn’t bring it up because we didn’t think you were still in contact with him.”
I shake my head. “I don’t like him. And I’m not in contact with him. He just keeps calling me, but I don’t answer. I thought he was still working with you.”
Mom speaks up, an uncharacteristically angry expression on her face. “He saw me at the ER the other day when I went to pick up Macie’s jacket and tried to talk to me like nothing was wrong.”
What the hell was he doing at the hospital? And why didn’t Mom tell me?
Dad grabs Mom’s hand.
“You didn’t tell me that,” he says quietly.
Jayce shakes his head. “That’s not acceptable. Everyone at this table, stay away from Harvey Kohan. I don’t care if he walks up to you, you leave without saying a word.” He looks directly at me. “Block his number. He’s not the same as he used to be in college, he’s changed. I don’t want him anywhere near our family.”
“He hasn’t changed at all,” I sigh, feeling like I should finally tell my brothers the truth.
Nolan looks confused. “What do you mean?”
Brynn grips my hands reassuringly, and it gives me the courage to keep talking.
“Back when we broke up… I didn’t tell you the whole story. For some reason, I felt… guilty about the whole thing, even though it wasn’t technically my fault. It felt like letting you guys down in a way when I ended things. I walked in on him…” I trail off, glancing at my daughter who is falling asleep with her head against Mom’s arm, garlic bread still in hand, “ actively cheating on me with his neighbor. I went to break up with him, but all he cared about was what it would do to his working relationship with the two of you. He said he wouldn’t let me ruin things with you guys. So I told him that I promised to not say a word as long as he left me alone. On a certain level, I didn’t want you guys to know why, either. Like… like maybe I had done something to deserve him stepping out on me, and I didn’t want to disappoint you.”
Another heavy sigh leaves me as Jayce and Nolan look at me with an expression that lands somewhere between outraged and regretful.
“Now that you’re not working with him anyway,” I shrug, “I don’t have to worry about messing with your business.”
“What? Ella, no.” Nolan shakes his head fervently. “If we had known… shit. We will never, ever choose our business over you. Do you understand me?”
“We would have made sure he left you alone, Ell,” Jayce rumbles. “I really wish you would have told us. Promise to tell us if he contacts you again.”
“Or me,” Mom chimes in. “I never liked that son of a bitch.”
“Mom! Language!” I chastise, glancing at my daughter, who admittedly is now softly snoring against her arm.
“You can’t really blame her for feeling… saucy about the whole thing.” Dad grins.
The joke lightens the mood considerably as we each let out a groan, even though Mom snorts and puts a hand over her mouth.
“It was kind of an im-pasta-bowl situation,” Nolan quips, dabbing his mouth with a napkin.
“Boo!” Brynn and I shout, and I toss a piece of garlic bread at his head.
“No throwing food at the table!” Mom harrumphs, picking up Macie and carrying her toward the bedroom she has here. Something settles in my chest at the sight of my family all around me, laughing and joking. Again, I think about Liam. How would he add into this mix? Would he even want to? I can see him joking with Nolan, or even talking to my mom about her book club.
I guess I’ll find out soon enough. In twenty-four hours, I’ll be having a conversation that will change my life forever.