39. Jeb
Chapter thirty-nine
Jeb
“Well, that was fun,” I say, holding a large glass of water under the faucet and filling it with water before handing the glass to Fallon.
She laughs, grabbing a handful of her hair and tossing it over her head wildly.
She gulps the whole glass of water while koala’d against my arm before handing the empty glass back. I fill it again; this time, I guzzle it.
“Ready for bed, Jebby?” Her eyebrows bob up and down at the name Rhett’s cousins called me most of the night. His cousins had left the fundraiser early and went to Boone’s, but when they found out we were still at the brewery, they came back three sheets to the wind and ready to party. Zeke, the owner of Blake Creek, kept the music going and the beer flowing long past the fundraiser’s posted hours.
“Am I staying here tonight? I can tuck you in, then walk home, Fally.” I lift and lower my eyebrows like she did.
“Jeb Baker! It’s two-twelve a.m., and you think I’m going to let you walk home by yourself. In the dark? On the streets?”
“Well, technically, on the sidewalks, and once I get past your street, they’re all lighted.”
“If I wanted you to go home, I’d have told Cara to take you there.” She slips her shoes off, still leaning on me. “My feet are going to shrivel up if I don’t let them breathe.”
Once the cousins came back to the brewery, the music turned club-like. A few of Cara’s friends, Corbin’s friend Oak, and some of Rhett’s old coworkers showed up. Everyone danced and laughed like it was a night out at the club, not a fundraiser for a dead friend. I’m not complaining. Just stating a fact.
It was great for Fallon. She let loose, and I love that. She even linked her pinky with mine and dragged me through the gate behind the brewery so she could pee in the bushes instead of using the bathroom.
I can’t tell you the number of times someone came up to me and told me not to fuck things up with Fallon or that they were never mad at me for the accident.
Cara drove us home even though Fallon insisted we could walk using the flashlights on our phones. A pleasant walk in the dark would’ve been refreshing, but I could see her wanting to stop and pee somewhere public, or convincing me to go for a swim in Jubilee’s pond.
“We should go back to Blake Creek,” she says, taking her pants off in the kitchen.
“I think so, too.” I watch as she closes her eyes and undresses herself completely while leaning against the counter.
Fallon yawns. “Let’s get to bed. You can fuck me in the morning.”
I like that idea. A lot. I check to make sure the kitchen door is locked and weave our fingers, pulling her down the hall.
“Jeb?” she whispers in the dark once we’re lying side by side in bed.
“Yeah?” I turn to my side to face her.
“I like you spending the night.”
“I like it when I spend the night.” I tug my arm around her, pulling her close to me.
“Yeah, but we like it for different reasons,” she whispers drunkenly.
“If you think I only want to be here for sex, then you're wrong,” I tell her.
“I was going to say I like you spending the night because you make me feel safe.”
Something about her buzzed confession has my stomach launching to my throat and dipping to my core. Safe isn’t a word I’d use to describe myself since the accident. I was the opposite of safe for Rhett.
It’s something I think about and live with every day of my life.
Fallon’s breath against my chest evens out before I have a chance to tell her I’m not sure how safe I am. I’d like to be, but I can’t even trust myself.
I whisper to a sleeping Fallon, “I’m here because I like you. A lot. I want to keep you safe and protect you, but I don’t know if I can.”
Minutes later, I’m almost asleep when she whispers back, “You can. And I like you a lot, too.”
“Jeb, you’ll never believe what Dreya brought by today.” Her hands are behind her back and whatever excitement Dreya brought with her has Fallon in a giggly mood.
She texted me ten times while I was at work, and I wasn’t able to answer a single one of them. Today was my first day back on the medic permanently. Haley, a paramedic from Station 20, is twenty-two weeks pregnant, and she needs the desk job more than I do. It would be silly to keep us both there.
Fallon and I spent most of the week together. I treated her to a gas station ice cream and made my signature breakfast the following morning. We got Enzaboli’s last night and split them just how she likes. By now, everyone in the town knows we’re kind of together, so when Bill at the hardware store asked me about her during his diabetic emergency, none of the guys from my shift batted an eye. And ole Bill Koggs proved hypoglycemia hadn’t messed with his mind.
“Will I be able to guess it, or do you just want to tell me.”
“I’ll show you, but let me tell you the backstory first.” I kick off my shoes while she speaks. “And then I want to hear all about how your first full day back went! Ok, so Dreya was cleaning out her basement, and she found a bunch of pictures. Does this look familiar to you?”
Fallon stretches her arm toward me, holding a picture of my little league team. We wore red jerseys, and we called ourselves The Red Rhinos.
“My little league team?” I ask, examining the picture. There I am, front row, second from the left, with my hair tucked under my hat and my eyes squinting from the sun, wearing that pair of black-and-white Adidas cleats I never wanted to take off.
Fallon points to the boy standing behind me. “That’s Rhett.”
“No shit.” I take the picture from her hands and bring it closer to study it. “Well, I’ll be damned, Fal.”
“The two of you. On the same team. Isn’t that funny?”
“I remember that year. My age group didn’t have enough players, so we merged with kids a little younger than us. God, that’s wild. How did Dreya know that was me?”
Fallon flips the picture over, and all of the kids’ names are written in cursive with a blue pen.
“I’m framing this and putting it up in the hallway. I just love that you and Rhett are in this picture together.” She lifts up on her toes to press a kiss on my lips, then takes a picture of the picture.
“Sending that to your mom?” I ask. “Send it to me too, so I can send it to my mom. That’s so wild.” I study the picture again.
“My mom and Shay, yeah.”
“I haven’t heard you talk much about Shay since the trip. How’s she been?” I carefully ask since I’m not Shay’s biggest fan after how she treated Fallon on vacation.
“Shay’s a bitch, but the good kind, I guess. She said she was doing all that bullshit with trying to find me a date and trying to get me on dating websites so I would admit I was into you. Guess it worked.”
“A little unconventional, but it did.” I take her in my arms and plop her on the counter. Her legs spread, and I stand in the middle of them.
“So tell me about work. I swear I was worried about you all day. I knew you might be too busy to text back, but I couldn’t help but think the worst,” she says.
“Work was great. No accidents, so I still don’t know how I’ll do with them, but we went to the hospital three times, and each time, it was a little bit easier than the last.”
“I’m so proud of you, Jeb.”
I bend to take her lips with mine.