Chapter 24
[Neve]
The weekend brings LoggerFest, a celebration of lumberjacks and things related to the forest. Our local festival takes place up the mountain near a lake that Fisk Masters lives on.
The day includes axe-throwing, log-rolling, wood-carving, and hundreds of Paul Bunyan wannabes in flannel shirts missing their sleeves.
Muscles or not, men of all ages are showing off their arms.
This year’s theme is AXE-tion, and any other time I might be willing to play off that word.
But this year, I only have eyes for one man, whom I easily spot in the crowd.
Tate is with Landon and Fisk, plus Fisk’s older brother Rowan and Landon’s older brother, Jamison.
As a team, and I use that term loosely, they’re wearing red and black buffalo check shirts, minus sleeves, of course.
With Isolde and Lumi at my side, we stand amid the crowd gathered around the wood carving event first.
Landon is up against other locals with a small chainsaw in hand. He glances up at Isolde and winks before lowering his protective eyewear over his face.
“He’s so juvenile,” Isolde groans.
“What’s the deal with you two?” I ask, curious if my sister has ever had an interest in Landon Abbott.
“At last year’s ice sculpture contest, he carved an otter for you. I can’t wait to see what he carves this time.” Lumi bumps her shoulder against Isolde.
“It was a chipmunk,” Isolde grumbles.
I raise my brows at Lumi, surprised by how quickly Isolde corrected her.
“What’s with the woodland creatures between you and him?” I ask.
“It’s nothing. He’s juvenile, like I said.”
Landon Abbott might be juvenile, but he’s also hot as hell, and with his shirt tucked in but unbuttoned a few more buttons than necessary, plus his thick arms on display, he’s a force with a chainsaw.
Landon was not coached as much as cheered on by his cousins, but he made a valiant effort within the time required to carve out a rough, but adorable bear cub, holding a heart in his little paw.
“That’s sweet,” I say when he’s finished and glance at Isolde when time is called.
She squints at the object. “He carved a bear taking a . . .”
I glance back to see that Landon added an extra touch to his bear. A heart in one paw and a tiny penis held in the other, like he’s peeing in the woods.
Yep, juvenile.
“I’m gonna go get something to drink.” Isolde isn’t a big drinker, and it’s early in the morning, but there are tents serving java-jack, a coffee special.
After Landon’s round at the wood carving, Tate makes his way toward me.
He’s almost to me when he’s intercepted by a couple.
His gaze leaps almost immediately to me as he stops and wraps his arms around the man, clapping his back with a stunned expression on his face.
As for the woman, Tate hesitates a second before leaning in and kissing her cheek.
The move is innocent enough but the fine hairs on the back of my neck rise in suspicion. Something is off about the situation, and I stay planted where I am.
“What?” Lumi asks, glancing from Tate to me.
“I don’t know,” I whisper, feeling like I’m witnessing something that I shouldn’t.
Within seconds, Tate is leading the man by the elbow toward me.
The woman follows behind. The man beside Tate is tall and built like him, with hair the same color, only cut shorter.
His face is clean of any scruff. The woman is willowy and thin, blonde and put together, and something about looking at her makes me pull my flannel shirt tighter over my middle.
Then I realize what I’ve done, and I brush the two sides of my shirt open again.
“Neve.” Tate’s voice is tight, almost clipped when he addresses me. “This is my brother, Jake.”
“Neve?” Jake’s head immediately turns toward his brother before he slowly glances back at me, taking his time to gaze down at my belly.
“Did you leave something out?” Jake arches his brow at his younger brother.
I instantly wrap my arms around my belly to protect what can’t be seen.
“I told you she was pregnant,” Tate says out of the side of his mouth, keeping his eyes on me.
“She looks due any day,” Jake says.
“She’s standing right here, listening to both of you,” I state loudly. “And I have another two weeks.”
Lumi links her arm with mine in solidarity. I don’t need their judgment.
Jake shakes his head, like he’s dusting off wood shavings, and reaches for my upper arms, leaning in to kiss my cheek, like Tate did to the woman with them.
Startled by the quickness of the move, I remain motionless, Lumi’s arm still linked in mine.
“So nice to finally meet you. Tate has told me so much about you.” Jake’s voice is friendlier as he pulls away from me.
“Apparently, not enough, though.” I glare at Tate, who is standing to the side of Jake. “And Tate didn’t mention to me that you’d be coming here today.”
“Surprise,” the woman on the other side of Jake says. “We thought we’d stop by for the festival.”
“Just popping in from New York?” Tate questions.
Do they have a private plane?
The woman giggles. “We were looking at wedding venues in the area.”
Tate turns toward her. “You hate Maine.”
“I don’t hate it.” She smiles tightly and looks away from him, eyes sheepish.
She hates it.
“You two are getting married,” I surmise, still not having been introduced to the woman. “Congratulations.”
Jake chuckles, slipping his arm around the woman.
“This is my bride-to-be, Lisa.” With her hand on his chest, she leans into him, smiling up at him.
They look in love. Not that I recognize the expression on their faces for myself personally, but I’ve seen Lumi gaze at Saint the way Lisa is looking at Jake.
“And congratulations to you,” Lisa says, turning back toward me. “Looks like Tate finally got what he wanted.”
Tate closes his eyes. Jake tugs Lisa closer to him, in a move that might suggest he wants her to behave.
“Me, of course.” I joke, though it feels brittle on my tongue.
Lisa smiles, not wickedly, but not exactly sincere either. “A baby. I didn’t want children.”
The information hangs in the air between all of us, and I’m slow to put two and two together before I calculate that Lisa is the woman Tate was almost engaged to, and the someone she fell in love with was his brother, Jake.
While my heart breaks for Tate, my own is suddenly in my belly, being kicked around by my future soccer player.
The baby Tate wanted with another woman.
“If you’ll—” I point toward my left with my thumb like there’s something pressing over there that I need to see. “I’ve got—” I wave around my belly next, then whisper like it’s a dirty word, “Bathroom.”
On that note, my sister takes the hint, expressing a quick nice meeting you when she hadn’t been introduced to anyone, and spins me away from the group.
“Holy shit. Did I interpret that correctly?”
“If you interpreted that Tate was practically engaged to that woman before she was engaged to his brother, then yes.”
We only make it a few feet before Lumi stops me, turning me to face her. “Are you okay?”
I don’t know. My heart is racing, and my stomach clenches, and I can’t tell if it’s the baby or just a reaction to that willowy, thin, slip of perfection being his former lover. His former fiancée.
“Neve.”
I spin to find Tate catching up to us, his hand swiping through his hair.
“I—” I don’t even know what to say to him. Instead, I storm away, like I have a destination when I don’t.
I only make it three feet before Tate has my elbow, gently turning me to face him.
“That was the woman you used to love,” I blurt.
“I never said I loved her.”
“You were engaged to her. I think it’s implied.” I stare at him, blinking rapidly.
He sighs. “I was almost engaged to her because I thought I loved her, but she loved him.”
“And she didn’t want kids.” I didn’t want a kid either, but here I am. And here he is. And what does this say about me? Or us?
“Tate,” someone calls out. “Axe-throwing. Up next.”
“Go.” I wave in the direction of whoever called him.
“We need to talk.”
I don’t want to talk. “Then I’ll go. I could throw something right now.”
Because he is way too calm. Calm, for introducing me to his former lover. Calm, for her being engaged now to his brother. Calm, for her not wanting a child.
I brush past Tate, but he catches me again, wrapping one arm around my upper chest and the other beneath my belly. He dips his face into my neck.
“Neve,” he groans.
“How are you so calm about what they did to you?”
“I’m over it. I’m really, truly over it. They’re better together anyway,” he mumbles into my skin. “I’m only sorry I didn’t tell you.”
Tell me? I’m the least of his concerns when it comes to them.
And he’s still too calm. So, I’ll be angry on his behalf. How dare she not love Tate? How dare they do what they did to him? Get engaged to each other.
I cling to his arm wrapped around my chest, realizing I’m holding onto him as tightly as he’s holding onto me, not chasing after them, and that burrows deep beneath my chest.
“She didn’t want children,” I say, lowering my voice, like it’s a secret. Another betrayal toward Tate.
“It doesn’t matter,” he murmurs into my neck again, then rubs his hand up and over my belly. Like he’s reassuring me that our baby is the one he wants.
“They didn’t know I was pregnant,” I say softly. I’d question if he was ashamed for some reason if I didn’t know Tate better.
“Jake knew,” he tries to reassure me, keeping his lips against the side of my throat. “My entire family knows, actually.”
I twist my neck and pull back to look at him. “Your parents?”
Oh, God, what must his parents think of this situation? What would they think of me?
He smiles timidly. “My mom has been dying to meet you.”
I swallow thickly at the thought. I’ve never met the parents before.
“I’ve been holding her off because I thought you and I needed more time.”
“Time?” I parrot, like I don’t understand the concept.
“To get reacquainted. To get to know each other better. To get comfortable with all this.” He tugs me tighter into his chest, like it explains everything.
“I’ve had almost nine full months to get used to this,” I grumble.
Tate smiles and presses a kiss to my ear. “I meant us.”
Is there us? What are we doing? We’re spending a lot of time together. And he’s giving me orgasms so I can go into labor. He’ll only be here until I have the baby because he wants to be present for her birth. He won’t stick around after that. He isn’t going to stay.
And the thought of him leaving sets my heart revving up again.
I twist out of his arms, and he lets me turn to face him. “I still want to throw something.”
He chuckles and wraps his arms around me again, drawing me back into his chest. He smells like wood shavings and clove and sunshine.
“Come watch me throw axes,” he mutters into the top of my head. “I want my girls there.”
His girls. Little Wrench and me. For now.
I nod against him, slowly pulling back out of his arms, before I grow too comfortable in them.
This is how I like it, right? He’ll leave soon enough. Then I’ll be back to just me. Well, me plus one.
Yet, a sour sensation returns to my belly as we spin toward the axe-throwing competition.