Chapter 46
forty-six
Tristyn
How’s he doing?” Ember asks the second I walk in the door.
She’s sitting on the couch with Henry, Avalon, and Tate playing Sorry.
“Surgery went really well.” I shut the door behind me. “He’s resting right now. He sent me home because he felt bad about leaving Henry here all day.”
“Sounds like Jeremy.” Tate stands up and motions for me to take her seat. “We got pizza for lunch; can I get you some?”
“Oh, that’s okay, I’m not really hungry.”
I sit on the couch and lie back.
“I’m going to get you some anyway. Eat it when you feel hungry, okay?” Tate squeezes my shoulder and walks to the kitchen.
“Mama, can I come with you when you go back?” Henry looks up at me as he grabs another card and moves his piece.
“Maybe, baby. Depends on what time I head back, okay?” I run a hand over his hair. “Thank you, guys, for hanging out with him today.”
“You don’t need to thank us.” Ember moves her piece. “That’s what friends are for, right?”
“Where are the guys?” I look around the house, taking in the fact that the guys are nowhere to be seen.
“Grocery run,” Avalon replies as Tate comes in with a few pieces of heated-up pizza. “Brinley sent them a shopping list for dinner, and we thought it’d be nice to boot all of them out of the house for a bit.”
“What she means is we wanted a break from watching them play NHL 17 over and over.” Tate chuckles and sits down next to Avalon.
“So, when do they think Jere will be out of the hospital?” Ember leans back.
“Um, tomorrow. They want to keep him overnight and monitor him, but they’re hopeful he’ll be good to go home tomorrow.”
I run my hands through my hair before grabbing my phone from my pocket. No texts. No calls.
I don’t think anything will change. His family is still there, so he’s not alone, but I guess there’s that deep fear that something is going to go wrong.
I felt the same way when I ended up needing an emergency C-section with Henry.
For weeks after we got home, I’d stay up and watch him sleep, just to make sure he was okay.
Ember’s hand lands on my knee.
“He’s going to be fine,” she whispers. “Hell, he made it through something a lot worse five months ago; this is nothing.”
“I know, I just—”
“I know.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Avalon yells, her hands flying in the air. “How did you win again, Henry?”
“Oh, my boy is great at board games. I don’t think I’ve won one in over a year.”
“You want to play with us, Mama?”
I check my phone one more time and then slip it back into my pocket.
“I’d love to.”
Is that for me?”
Henry hands Jeremy a small bag. I have no idea what’s in it, but he’s been super excited to give it to Jeremy all morning.
“Yeah. I made it.”
“You made it?” Jeremy raises an eyebrow and plucks out the tissue paper before pulling out a card.
His eyes scan the card as he reads it, then he opens it and reads the inside.
As he reads the inside of the card, I can’t help but smile at the outside of the car. It’s a picture that Henry drew of the three of us. I can’t tell where we’re supposed to be, but he made sure the figures were all smiling.
Jeremy then pulls out a little canvas.
“Aw, bud, this is amazing. You did this?”
“Ember helped me. She taught me how to paint it.”
I take a step toward Jeremy and peek over his shoulder. It’s a small picture, and the two people on the ice don’t have a lot of detail, but they don’t need it. They’re both wearing a number 20 jersey. One says Moore, and the other says Stevens.
I could cry.
It’s the two of them on skates playing hockey together.
“I can’t wait to hang this up in my room, buddy. It’s the best gift I’ve ever received.” Jeremy puts his arms out, and Henry jumps into them, giving Jeremy the biggest hug.
“I’m happy you’re coming home.”
“Me too.” He kisses Henry’s head. “I mean, I promised you guys tickets to the first game of the season. I wasn’t going to bail on you.”
“We’re still going?” My eyebrows knit together.
“It’s a few days away, that’s plenty of time to rest.” He looks up at me. “It’s not like I’m playing.”
I roll my eyes as he winks at me.
“Where are your parents?”
“They’re grabbing the car. We’re all going to lunch, and obviously the two of you are invited.”
“Oh, we don’t—”
“Let me rephrase that, you don’t have a choice. My mom loves you already, and you can’t get out of lunch that easily.”
“Jere.”
“Plus, she wants to meet Henry and give him all of his toys.”
“Toys?” Henry’s head flies off Jeremy’s shoulder.
“No matter what it is, what do we do?”
“We say thank you.”
“Exactly.”
My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I pull it out, two messages filling the screen:
Vince: How’s he doing? You guys leave the hospital yet?
Andrew: I want Henry this weekend.
My stomach sinks at the second message. I respond to Vince with a simple Heading out now. I don’t reply to Andrew.
“Are you okay?” Jeremy’s face fills with concern.
“Yeah. I’ll deal with it later. Right now, we’re going to go get some lunch.”
“And I’m gonna get presents!”
Jeremy wheels out of his room with Henry on his lap as I shake my head.
I have this weird sense of déjà vu from the first time we went out, the three of us. On the way to the car, Henry fell asleep, and Jeremy wheeled him the whole way.
I think it was at that moment that I knew I was going to fall in love with him.
“There you are! Are you ready to go?” Marie asks, but then she sees Henry on Jeremy’s lap and her eyes light up. “You must be Henry.” She crouches down to Henry’s level.
Henry gives her a shy smile.
“Hi.”
“Hi,” she replies. “I’m Marie. I’m Jeremy’s mom, but you can call me Mimi.”
Henry’s smile grows as Marie sticks out her hand. He jumps off Jeremy’s lap and grabs her hand. He walks out of the hospital hand in hand with Richard and Marie, as Jeremy and I follow behind.
He’s never had this. Grandparents. And I know they aren’t, but I don’t know, maybe one day we’ll be lucky enough for that to change.
“Hate to break it to you,” Jeremy whispers, “but she loves him.”
“Why would you hate to break that to me?”
Jeremy smiles.
“It means you’re stuck with me.”
He wants Henry on Friday?”
“Yeah,” I sigh, throwing a fry into my mouth. “As if the last week hasn’t been stressful enough, now he wants Henry to stay at his place this weekend.”
“The whole weekend?” Vince’s eyes widen.
“Just Friday night through Saturday morning,” I clarify. “Which is long enough. I had to tell Henry he has to spend the night at his dad’s this weekend, and when I tell you my heart broke seeing his reaction, I’m not even kidding.”
“He’s never wanted Henry overnight. Hell, I can’t remember the last time he even wanted to spend the day with him.”
“It’s because I told him about Jeremy.” I run my hands through my hair. “This is his way of getting back at me.”
“You don’t think he’d try to take you to court for 50/50 custody, do you?”
I hadn’t even thought about that. I don’t know if he would stoop that low, but who fucking knows anymore.
I shouldn’t have told him about Jeremy. I should’ve played his little game and kept things civil.
“I don’t think he’d have a case to do that, but—”
“But he has the money to.” I cut him off. “It’s one night, and then everything will go back to normal. He’ll realize why he isn’t cut out to be a dad and disappear again.”
“I hope so.” Vince eats another French fry. “How’s Jeremy doing?”
“Honestly, better than I thought he would be. Tonight’s the first game of the season, and I thought he’d be down, but he’s been at their practices the last couple of days helping out Coach Anderson.”
“That’s good. So, no more middle-of-the-night, fully clothed showers?”
“No, he’s been talking to me about things a lot more. I never push, but it’s been nice having some honest conversations.”
“I’m happy you found him, T. You deserve this. I know there’s a part of you that feels like you don’t, but you do.”
“Thanks. Speaking of deserving a nice guy, what’s going on with you and Marcus?”
“Who?”
“Oh, don’t be an asshole.”
“It’s not like that. We enjoy each other’s company, on occasion, but it’s nothing more than that.”
“Because you don’t want a boyfriend?”
Vince scratches the back of his neck.
“We’re not looking for anything serious.”
“Both of you? Or him?”
“Tristyn.”
“Vince, if you think he’s going to change his mind and suddenly want a relationship, then—”
“That’s not,” he takes a deep breath, “I don’t expect him to wake up one day and realize he’s in love with me, okay? And I’m not saying I wouldn’t be down with it being something more, but right now that’s not what this is.”
“I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
He reaches across the table and squeezes my hand.
“I know, Tris, and I love you for that, but I promise if I find myself wanting more than what we have, I’ll walk away.”
I tilt my head and narrow my eyes at him.
“Okay, you can tell me to walk away, and I will.”
“Deal.” I squeeze his hand.
“Deal.”