49. Chapter 49
Seren
Cai was absolutely filthy. I glanced at him through the rear-view mirror while he sat in the back seat, rambling nonsense to himself, dried mud somehow smeared across his cheek from the two minutes he’d spent on the pitch after Jake’s game.
“How does that even happen?” I asked in disbelief. “You were wearing shoes when we got in the car.”
“Gone,” Cai informed me solemnly.
Jake laughed under his breath beside me, one hand loose on the steering wheel while the city lights streaked across the windshield around us.
“Oh my god.” I huffed as Jake turned the car onto a familiar street, the neon sign blinking across the way. “Jake.”
“What?” he asked innocently.
“This is where you brought me on our first friend-date.”
“Yeah, because you looked two seconds away from passing out after training, and you were awful at feeding yourself.”
“You remember that?”
“Baby, you practically vibrated when Jonny handed you cheese fries.”
“That’s fair, actually.”
“And I was so caught up in you that day, and every day since, all I wanted was to figure out ways to spend more time with you.”
I leaned closer, propping my chin on my hand over the console. “Yeah?”
He licked his lips, watching mine with an intensity that set my blood on fire. So I leaned in and stole a kiss.
From the backseat, Cai gasped dramatically. “Cheese fry?”
I smiled against him. “Yeah, baby, let’s go get some.”
Killing the engine, we were grinning to each other as Cai started chanting, “cheese, cheese, cheese” as Jake got him out of the car.
The smell hit us the second we got closer.
Grilled onions, salt, buttery buns, everything warm and familiar enough to feel weirdly comforting after the chaos of the last couple of weeks.
Nothing was routine yet since Nate’s accident.
I’d spent over an hour on the phone with my parents this week, telling them officially that Jake and I were together, but also how we were going to manage things with Nate.
They were looking to move here for an extended stay so they could help him get to appointments and aid his recovery.
It was going to be a long process, and any little “normal” moments between me Jake and Cai are ones I clung to.
They both kept me grounded, kept me feeling and not slipping into panic about what would happen to my brother.
Jonny leaned out the service window, handing over another customer’s order and froze when he spotted us.
“Well, I’ll be damned.” His grin spread instantly as he pointed at Jake. “Didn’t you have a spectacular win tonight, my man?”
He reached over, slapping his hand to his, Cai still on his hip. “You watched?”
“Course, I watched. Half the damn beach watched. You nearly gave me heart failure in the second half, though.”
Cai buried his face into his neck shyly for approximately half a second before curiosity won out again, and he peeked up.
Jonny’s eyes dropped to him. “And who’s this little dude?”
Cai patted his chest. “I Cai.”
“Hi, Cai,” Jonny said. “Are you hungry?”
He nodded and pointed to the photo of the hot dog on the side of the truck. “Cheese fries yummy.”
“Kid’s got great taste. Cheese fries coming right up.” He jotted down and pointed to Seren and me. “You guys want the same as last time?”
“Surprisingly, I’m starving again, so yes, please.”
Within minutes, we were all chowing on a plethora of hot dogs, cheese fries, and onion rings. I was in heaven.
“I love watching you do a little happy wiggle dance when you eat,” Jake mumbled through a mouthful of fries.
I hadn’t realized I was moving at all. I swallowed the last of my food and smiled at him. He reached across the table, brushing his thumb along the corner of my mouth. “Missed a bit,” he said before sucking the pad of his thumb into his mouth.
The intimate moment was domestic and devastating, echoing from the last time he did that. There wasn’t a single part of me that didn’t want him always, and the fact that I ever thought friends would be enough is beyond me.
His eyes seared into me with heat and want, and I couldn’t stop the smile creeping across my lips.
Our time alone together had been interrupted more than not lately, but he never made me feel unwanted or that any commitment in my life was too much to handle.
He was always there at the end of each day to kiss me goodbye, most times staying with me, and I’d promptly fall asleep in seconds, exhaustion pulling me under.
My lungs expanded all the way. The world didn’t feel like it was tilting under my feet, and I knew it was because he was anchoring me.
I’d spent so long surviving. Managing. Carrying things because somebody had to.
Between rugby and motherhood and adjustments with Derek and Nate and hospitals, I’d forgotten what it felt like to simply breathe and enjoy the smaller things.
Those were Jake’s favorite moments, and I thought it was because it was those things he’d missed out on growing up.
All it did was make me love him more than I could say.
And as my son booped his nose with a cheese-covered fry, both of them throwing their heads back in laughter beneath the glow of the neon lights, I found myself struck by the beauty of it all; that the man who had spent so much of his life looking for somewhere to belong had quietly become the place my heart felt safest.
Maybe that was the extraordinary thing about him. He had come into our lives believing he was searching for a home, never realizing he carried one within him all along.