Chapter Eighteen #2
With a clear expression of relief and a heartfelt thank you, Shauna headed out, followed by Shane.
Delia, her coat buttoned up and her purse over her shoulder, turned to Jenna and wrapped her in a surprising, tight embrace.
“You deserve somebody who adores you,” she whispered, her mouth close to Jenna’s ear.
Unexpected tears sprang into Jenna’s eyes as Delia turned quickly and headed out the door before Jenna could respond. She locked it behind her, turned, and leaned back against it, then let out a long, slow breath.
“What a fucking night,” she said quietly into the empty store, but she couldn’t keep the smile off her face.
There were a few small housekeeping things to be done before she headed home, and she flew through them, her final destination—home to Sawyer—the only thing on her mind. She sent a quick text.
Still up for coming over tonight?
It only took a moment for Sawyer’s response. Been waiting not-so-patiently for you to get home…
Jenna laughed softly. Heading out in five.
Be careful. Snowing again.
She hadn’t even noticed the weather. What had been a clear evening had become a cloudy, snowy night, and she bundled herself up good before heading out to clear off her car.
Fifteen minutes later, car snug and safe in her garage, she slid a key into the lock of her front door and absently thought that it was time to have one made for Sawyer.
As if her thought conjured the gorgeous creature, Sawyer’s door opened and she popped her head out. “Welcome home, beautiful. How’d it go?”
“Come in here and pour me a glass of wine, and I’ll tell you all about it.”
“There you go, making me offers I can’t refuse again.” Sawyer was dressed in black joggers and a gray hoodie. Her hair was tousled but down, and she had slippers on her feet as she shuffled out onto the porch and followed Jenna into her place, where they were greeted by three very happy animals.
Jenna set her stuff down and squatted to greet her boys. Arnold’s tail wagged his entire back end. Wallace pressed himself against her thigh while Gromit watched from a slight distance. He’d approach after the original exuberance was finished.
Sawyer pressed a kiss to the top of Jenna’s head, then passed her and went into the kitchen, calling, “Go put something comfy on.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jenna said, and did what she was told. Ten minutes later, she flopped onto the couch and reached for the glass of red Sawyer handed her.
“How was the signing?” Sawyer asked, sitting next to her, close enough so their thighs pressed against each other. She reached out and tucked a lock of Jenna’s hair behind her ear, and just that simple gesture made everything within Jenna relax.
“It went well. Truly. Shauna is super nice. She was great with her readers, talked to them. We sold a lot of books for her. I’d have her back.”
“Fantastic.” Sawyer was nodding and looking into her own glass of wine like she was searching for words in it.
“What?” Jenna asked. “Is something wrong?”
Sawyer shook her head. “No. Nothing’s wrong. But there is something I want to talk to you about.”
Jenna wet her lips. “Okay. I have something to talk to you about, too.”
“Do you want to go first?”
“No, no. You go.” Jenna went for a sip of wine that ended up being a slug of wine, her nerves suddenly making themselves known.
Sawyer took a deep breath and let it out, clearly gearing up. “So, Amanda stopped by today.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. She was waiting for me. I didn’t even see her car.” Sawyer sighed, her annoyance evident.
“What did she want?”
“Good question. I’m not even really sure.” Sawyer swallowed. “She told me Christine had left her.”
“That’s the wife?”
“No. Cindy is the wife. Christine is…well, she is—was—the new me.”
“Ah.” Jenna nodded. “And they broke up.” She then remembered the last time Amanda had shown up, when Sawyer wasn’t home, how she looked like she’d been crying. Jenna wondered if they’d been having trouble even then.
“Apparently. Amanda doesn’t get left, she does the leaving, so having two women leave her had to rock her world a bit.”
“Interesting. And she came here why?”
“She wanted me to come home.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
Even though Jenna had heard the entire conversation, knew exactly how it had gone, her heart began to hammer in her chest, and waiting to hear what Sawyer said next was more stressful than it should have been.
Maybe she’d changed her mind while Jenna had been working.
Maybe she’d decided she missed that life of extravagance and luxury.
She cleared her throat. “What did you say?”
Sawyer took a sip of her wine and then she smiled.
“Oh. A grin. What does that mean?”
“It means I held my ground. It means I finally—finally—stood up to her. She said she’s changed, and I asked her how.
She said for one thing, she listens better.
That was it. I almost laughed in her face and told her she absolutely does not listen better.
And then it was like a dam opened, and I just let loose.
I told her she was crossing all kinds of lines by showing up at my home when I’ve blocked her everywhere.
I told her I wasn’t going to let her gaslight me, not again. ”
“Wow. Go, you.” Jenna put her hand on Sawyer’s thigh and squeezed.
“Right? I told her she always made it seem like I wanted too much or misunderstood her or was oversensitive, but that I now know that’s not the case because I have somebody who treats me the way I deserve to be treated.” Her swallow was audible.
Jenna grinned at her and gave her leg another squeeze. “And?”
“She asked me if—” Sawyer’s phone ringing on the coffee table sounded so incredibly loud just then that they both jumped, startled.
“Jesus Christ,” Sawyer said with a laugh, pressing one hand to her chest as she reached for the phone with the other.
A glance at the screen sobered her expression a bit. “It’s my mom.”
Jenna waved at her. “Go ahead.” She sipped her wine as Sawyer took the call, and her voice went from calm to serious to stressed in a matter of seconds.
“What? Right now? Oh my God. Which hospital? Okay. Okay. I’m heading out right now. Meet you there.” She hung up and looked at Jenna with wide eyes. “Courtney’s in labor.”
“Oh my God.”
“Right? I’ve gotta get to the hospital.” She practically jumped to her feet, then looked back down at Jenna. “Come with me?”
Jenna blinked at her. “Yeah?”
“Absolutely.” She gestured at a sleeping Arnold and both snoozing cats. “The boys’ll be fine, and if we end up there too long, you can drive my car back and I’ll Uber.” She stopped moving and looked down at Jenna. “I’d love it if you were there with me.”
“As long as you’re sure,” Jenna said, disappointed to have had their conversation interrupted but thrilled to be asked to join Sawyer on such a momentous occasion.
“I’m positive.”
“Okay then.” Jenna stood.
“I’m gonna go get shoes and my coat.” Sawyer turned to her, sudden tears in her eyes as she put a hand on the doorknob. “I’m gonna be an aunt tonight.”
Courtney’s labor was not fast, it turned out. Sawyer looked at her watch, and Jenna said, “Babe, it’s five minutes later than the last time you looked.”
A heavy sigh. “I know. This waiting is killing me. I hope she’s okay.”
Sawyer’s mom was in the delivery room with Courtney and her husband, and every so often, she came out to give them an update. Courtney was dilating very slowly, and Sawyer’s “I’m gonna be an aunt tonight” had changed to “I’m gonna be an aunt tomorrow.” Because it was now tomorrow.
“If you want to go home, you can,” Sawyer said after a few moments of silence.
“And why would I want to do that?” Jenna asked.
They were sitting side by side on a two-seater bench type thingy in the family waiting room.
There was another family across the room—an older couple and a child of maybe eight or ten—watching a rerun of The Simpsons on the TV mounted above them, but otherwise, things were pretty quiet.
“Because it’s late and you have to work tomorrow.” Sawyer was so tired. Jenna could tell by the way she sounded.
She leaned in close and whispered, “Your voice is even sexier when it’s all scratchy like that.”
Sudden pink tinted Sawyer’s cheeks, and she grinned. “You stop that.”
“Then stop telling me to leave. You forget, I’m the boss. I texted Delia while you were in the restroom. She’ll open for me tomorrow—er—today.”
Sawyer had leaned her head back against the bench, and now she rolled it so she faced Jenna. “You’re amazing. Why are you so good to me?”
“Because I love you.” She just said it. Just…said it. No thinking about it. No wrestling with it. She was too tired. It was close to two in the morning, and Jenna was tired of waiting to say the thing she’d wanted to say all night.
Sawyer blinked at her, her surprise clear, but only for a moment. Then her expression settled back into something…relieved. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, thank fuck, because I love you, too.” Eyes never leaving Jenna’s, she reached for her hand and entwined their fingers. “I am so in love with you. I’ve suspected so for a while, but Amanda visiting today solidified it for me.”
Jenna brought their linked hands to her lips and brushed a kiss across Sawyer’s knuckles. “I should probably tell you that I was home when Amanda came.”
Sawyer’s brow furrowed. “What?”
Jenna nodded and blew out a breath. “Yeah. I was about to open the door to scoot over for a minute.” She bumped her with a shoulder.
“Maybe make out a little bit before I had to go back to the shop. I literally had my hand on the doorknob, and I heard you ask what she was doing there. I didn’t intend to eavesdrop, but I totally did. ” She grimaced. “I’m sorry.”
Sawyer shook her head. “Nothing to be sorry about. I’d have done the same thing, probably.”
“For what it’s worth, I was super proud of you.”
Sawyer’s frown turned back into a soft smile. “You were?”
“Totally. You’ve come a long way from the first time she ambushed you.”
“Jesus, what is that with her?” Sawyer’s chuckle had a bitter edge to it. “Who does that?”
“Someone who thinks they’re the most important person.”
“Exactly.”
They sat quietly for a beat or two before Jenna spoke again. “So. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about tonight. But then you brought it up first, and then we got interrupted.” She glanced at their hands, still linked. “I wanted to be honest with you.”
It was Sawyer’s turn to bring their hands up and kiss Jenna’s, and they were gazing at each other when Sawyer’s mom came through the door.
They both sat up, faces all expectant.
“It’s a boy!” Ally said, clapping her hands together once.
Sawyer and Jenna leapt to their feet and squealed, then grimaced and looked at the other family in apology, but they were smiling, too.
“I have a nephew,” Sawyer said. “Oh my God. I have a nephew.”
Jenna looked to Ally. “Is she okay? Everybody’s all right?”
“Everybody’s great. Court’s exhausted but thrilled.
Marshall started crying like a small child, which was adorable.
And the baby is…” She stopped and swallowed, emotion clear on her face.
“He’s beautiful. Oh, Sawyer, he’s beautiful.
” The huge smile reappeared. “I’m a Nana!
” They celebrated a bit more before she said, “Okay, I have to go call your father, and my purse with my phone is in the room, so…”
“When can we see them?” Sawyer asked.
“Just a bit longer. Marshall is doing that skin-to-skin thing.” Ally headed back for the door. “I’ll come get you in a bit.”
She left, and Sawyer and Jenna stood there for a moment, just absorbing the events of the past eight or ten hours.
Sawyer turned to look at her. “Wow.” Tears glimmered in her eyes.
Jenna nodded and ran a hand down Sawyer’s arm, then pulled her into a hug.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” Sawyer whispered. “Thank you.”
Jenna squeezed her tightly. They parted but stayed close, and Jenna laid her hand against Sawyer’s cheek. “You’re gonna be an amazing aunt. Your nephew is very lucky to have you.”
“And I’m lucky to have you,” Sawyer said quietly. “I have you, don’t I?”
“Hundred percent. Yes.” She held Sawyer’s gaze. “I love you.”
Sawyer’s swallow was audible, and it took her a moment to collect herself. “I love you back,” she said, her voice a whisper. She leaned down and kissed Jenna softly, and when they parted, Jenna glanced across the room to see the family of three watching them in surprise.
She shrugged. “Sorry. Living my own romance novel over here.” When she looked back at Sawyer, her smile was radiant. “I really am.”
“Me too.” Sawyer pulled her into a hug. “It’s my new favorite genre, you know.”