Chapter 18
18
EVE CASSIDY
Foster’s brow is furrowed in confusion, his gaze fixed on me as I sit on the floor in front of the toilet. He just woke up from his morning nap.
‘You’re doing what again?’ he asks, staring at me from my bed.
‘I’m installing a bidet because I’d really rather not wipe your butt for you.’
He lets out what seems to be a sigh of relief, slapping his forehead with his good hand. ‘My God you’re smart.’
‘The smartest,’ I tease, working like a home repair man, pretending I know what I’m doing; but truth is, I’m relying heavily on these overly simplified, yet confusing, instructions.
A sharp, sudden knock on my front door startles me out of my concentration. I halt mid-thought, straining my ears to confirm if it was a real sound or just my mind playing tricks on me. I haven’t slept much lately and when I do, it’s constant memories of the ‘us’ I no longer want to be a part of.
The noise of urgent, persistent pounding reverberates through the door, growing louder and more frantic with each strike. It’s as though the person on the other side is in a hurry, desperate for someone to respond.
‘I think the fuzz is here,’ Foster says.
‘Then they’re here for you because I am a law-abiding citizen,’ I state confidently. ‘I’ve never even been pulled over,’ I add as I rise from the floor.
‘Never? Not even a warning?’
‘Not even a warning,’ I say proudly, now making my way toward the front door.
‘Wow, super-citizen!’
I laugh. ‘What color should my cape be?’ I ask, pulling open the door. Jess is pushing in. ‘I knew you were home,’ she says, like me being here is some kind of secret.
‘Of course I’m here, I live here.’
‘You should be at work.’
‘Can a workaholic woman never take a day off?’ I ask, confused why she’s broken her doctor’s orders for this.
‘I know you, Eve. You don’t take days off.’
I huff, offended she thinks she knows me better than I know myself. Did I intentionally lie to her and Kait and tell them that I helped Foster board a plane home days ago? Yes. Mostly because I wanted to avoid Jess ‘nesting’ and over-parenting me in anticipation of motherhood.
‘I have too, taken a day off. Once. For a gynecology appointment. And at one time I’d scheduled an entire two weeks off for a post-engagement vacay. I lost money on that.’
‘Aruba,’ Jess says with a sigh. ‘I was so jealous. It would have been the most romantic engagement holiday.’
‘Yes,’ I say flatly. ‘Please remind me of more… You’re supposed to be home on bed rest! You can’t go into labor in my apartment because it will make a total mess, and I am not prepared for another medical emergency.’ I step in front of her, blocking my bedroom door.
She stops, crossing her arms over her enormous belly and shooting me daggers. ‘I want to see it with my own two eyes,’ she says, glancing at the couch and then frowning. She takes a few steps and peers into my room, turning immediately to look at me with disappointment.
‘He’s in your bed?’
‘Look at him,’ I motion, watching him give her his best pouty face. ‘How could I make a guy this injured sleep on a fifty-year-old couch?’
‘By remembering how it felt when he love bombed you, married you, moved you across the country to be his housewife, then went right back to his career and left you behind?’
‘I didn’t love bomb her,’ Foster says, defending himself. ‘I loved her, it just?—’
‘—wasn’t enough,’ I finish his sentence but the way he scrunches his face says he might not agree.
Jess narrows her eyes at him. ‘You are a heartbreaking asshole.’
I shoot her a warning look before turning to Foster. ‘Ignore her. She’s hormonal and protective because she’s due any day now. It also seems that she’s forgotten I’m a full-grown adult who does not need the supervision or approval of my big sister.’
Jess frowns, moving her hands to her hips. ‘You don’t want my approval?’
‘I’d like it, but if it’s not possible, it’s not going to sway me from making my own decisions.’
‘What kind of decisions?’
‘The hypothetical kind…’
She looks between us. ‘There’s been no romance here? No stolen kisses? No “I miss yous” or “what ifs”?’
Foster’s and my gaze meet and I immediately know what he’s thinking. Keep it to yourself. If there’s anything I know, it’s that getting family ‘overly involved’ can be bad too. We can only protect our own hearts.
‘I’d say the romance weather meter is reading in the negatives nowadays,’ Foster says.
Not a word of that was a lie. No mention of the ‘miss you’ conversation. You can’t explain what you don’t understand yourself.
Jess cocks her head, her dark hair pulled into a messy bun.
‘I suppose I can respect that. You’ve grown a lot over the last few years, Eve. I just worry, ya know?’ Her tone softens and of course I forgive her – she’s my sister.
‘Totally understand. But fret not, dear sister, Mr Foster here is only a temporary presence until he’s healed enough to get back to his first love, his motorcycle.’
‘That’s probably best because with me getting ready to deliver a baby, I’m not going to have time to drag you out of a heart-shattering, earth-moving personal crisis like last time.’
Without even thinking about it, Foster and I glance at each other. He looks confused, clearing his throat awkwardly. ‘Heart-shattering? Earth-moving?’ he repeats.
Why would she go and say that?! Never once have I muttered the words ‘you broke my heart’ to this man. He didn’t deserve to know what he did to me, at least not in my head at the time. Now she’s let them loose and even with medication clouding his head, he’s heard them, and nearly choked on them.
Finally my insides settle like confetti, allowing me to speak. ‘Listen, Foster and I aren’t reliving the past. Are there things we probably need to talk about? Absolutely. Am I interested in doing it right now? Not even a little bit. We’re going to keep that mess on the back burner and focus on becoming friends again while he allows me to nurse him back to health from a horrific injury. He’s my patient, not my lover.’
‘And that is not a Prince song,’ he says, making me laugh.
Jess cracks a smile, shaking her head and motioning two fingers between her eyes and Foster. ‘I’m watching you, pretty boy. You won’t break her twice.’
‘Not even a thought in my mind. Currently I’m trying to figure out how to repay her for what she’s doing. How many zeros do you think it’ll take?’
There is no way I’m allowing him to pay me for this, and if he knows me at all, he knows that. But he’s making himself the bad guy for my sake so Jess can calm her hormonal ass down.
‘At least five,’ she says, nodding my way.
‘Five zeros it is,’ he says.
‘I’m done,’ I say, tossing the bidet directions onto the bathroom floor. ‘Bidet installed,’ I announce, standing and giving it a test – pushing the different buttons and seeing what this thing can do. ‘Want to try it out?’ I ask, knowing Jess will definitely have to pee, considering the baby is probably smashing her bladder.
She confirms the bidet works just as intended but it takes a snack and a small rest on my couch, watching the latest episode of Love is Blind, before she decides to go home and follow the doctor’s orders.
‘How about another walk?’ I ask, approaching Foster who’s now sitting on the side of my bed.
‘Only if you promise to touch my firmness again,’ he jokes.
I smirk. ‘How could I say no?’