Chapter 27
If anyone ever asked Teddy how many James brothers were required to build a treehouse, he’d say ‘four’. But considering Raff’s mood, it was more like three and a half. He hadn’t stopped checking his phone since he’d arrived at Jessica’s.
“We’re going to have to remove that branch.” Nate pointed at the one that was obstructing where the treehouse’s base needed to be.
“Agree,” said Owen, looking up from where he’d been organising all the wood Teddy had collected from his place at the crack of dawn.
Nate’s tools were arranged neatly near the back of the house.
Luckily, Sam was at Rob’s, so they didn’t need to worry about him getting into any mischief. And Blue was locked inside the house.
Jessica made her way across the lawn. God, she was pretty. She was in her work uniform, her hair up, and a black headband woven through her curls.
“Do you need anything before I leave?” she asked.
“We’re all good,” Teddy replied, stepping closer to her.
“I’ll swing back on my break with some lunch for you guys.” Her gaze darted around the brothers. Was it weird for her to have them all here?
“You don’t need to do that,” Teddy said, stepping closer again. Jessica nodded, biting her lip.
“We’re happy to help,” Owen said.
There was an oof from behind Teddy, and Raff grunted before adding, “We are.”
Owen probably elbowed him.
“Thanks again,” Jessica said shyly. “I’d better get going.”
God. His brothers were worse than the Old Girls. They were lined up, watching Teddy and Jessica expectantly.
“So … um, bye?” she said.
“Bye, Jessica,” they chorused.
“Here”—Teddy took Jessica’s hand, noticing how tiny it was compared to his—“I’ll walk you out.”
Teddy led her across the lawn, carefully moving around the bucket of Tonka trucks and dinosaurs next to the bottom step of the verandah.
“Sorry about my brothers,” he murmured.
“They’re fine.”
“They’re annoying.”
Jessica stepped onto the verandah. With Teddy still on the grass, they were eye to eye. “I never considered what doing this would mean for you. I didn’t realise they’d tease you so much,” she said.
He shrugged. “It’s harmless. And I’ve teased them plenty over the years, too. As long as it doesn’t make you feel self-conscious?”
Jessica blushed. And it would be helpful if she could stop biting her lip when Teddy was near. He was finding it harder and harder to convince himself that that wasn’t something he should be doing for her.
“I’m okay,” Jessica promised.
“Say if it gets to be too much. I’m not above dobbing on them.”
Jessica laughed lightly. “And saying what?”
“That they’re making you uncomfortable.”
“They aren’t.”
Ah, so that’s what the tightening in his chest was being caused by: protectiveness.
“Still, they shouldn’t be teasing you.”
A tiny smile blossomed on Jessica’s perfect lips. “They aren’t teasing me, Teddy.”
“They could be less, you know …”
He didn’t know. Not really. But Jessica had this way of making Teddy feel all discombobulated and calm. It made absolutely no sense.
“… annoying,” he finished, suppressing a cringe. Even teenage Teddy had been smoother than this.
“They’re here on their weekend building my son a treehouse.”
“It’s mostly for you, Starshine. Sam’s part of the cover story.” The confession tumbled past Teddy’s lips before he could stop himself.
“Speaking of cover stories,” Jessica said, leaning around Teddy’s shoulder to look back out into the yard.
“They’re watching, aren’t they?”
“Rafferty’s on the phone, but yeah, Nate and Owen are.”
Jessica’s gaze dropped to Teddy’s lips.
“Will they think it’s weird if we don’t kiss?” Jessica asked, her voice low, husky.
There went the lip biting again.
“Um.” That’s not an answer, dude.
His brothers had probably never considered this. Lulu would find it weird. Eloise and Alice would notice, but they wouldn’t say anything. But Teddy wasn’t going to use Owen and Nate as an excuse to kiss Jessica. Not when he didn’t know if she really wanted him too.
He leant forward and brushed his lips across her cheek, his thumb tracing her jaw as he breathed in her sweet berry scent.
“Have a good day at work,” he whispered.
She blinked, looking a little dazed. It was exactly how Teddy felt on the inside too.
“I’ll see you later,” Jessica said.
And because his head was still spinning, desire seeping throughout his body like he was an actual teenager again, Teddy couldn’t stop himself from saying, “I’ll miss you.”
Jessica’s grin made his admission worth it.
“Wait. What happened to the viewing platform?” Raff looked up from where he’d been studying the plans Nate had redrawn after seeing Teddy’s original design.
Teddy had no problem acknowledging that Nate was the most qualified builder amongst the brothers and was happy to let him take the lead on the project.
“We changed it to make it safer,” Teddy explained.
“Smart move,” Raff said, looking around the yard like it was the first time he was seeing what was happening.
“Thanks.” Teddy shifted around a few of the wooden offcuts he was planning to use as rungs for the ladder to the platform.
“This is all pretty serious,” Raff said.
“Well, yeah. I want it to be good.” Teddy reached for the drill to start securing the rungs in place.
“I’m not talking about the treehouse, Little Ted.” Raff smiled. “It’s good. I like it.”
Nate’s head popped over the side of the platform. “It is nice.”
“There you all are!” Lulu called as she stepped through the back door of Jessica’s cottage.
Owen followed her, his hands up in surrender. “All I did was open the door.”
“Wouldn’t have mattered if you didn’t,” Lulu chimed in. “I have keys.”
“From when this was Joan’s house?” Teddy asked.
“Make sure you change the locks if things get more serious,” Raff mumbled. “Or one day you’ll wake up and find Mum making you breakfast.”
Teddy blanched. “She wouldn’t.”
Raff’s smile vanished. “She’s done it before. Scared the crap out of Cass when she heard someone in the house.”
“I saw Jessica at the pub, and she said you were all here,” Lulu announced.
That explained the unexpected visit at least. Teddy had purposely not told his mother about his treehouse plans.
Because to him, the currently half-built structure was a symbol of something nice.
To Lulu? It would be a symbol of forever.
And Teddy was still getting his head around his feelings.
He didn’t need extra pressure from Lulu and the Old Girls.
“Jessica was going to bring you all some lunch, but Wyatt’s gone home sick—day care viruses strike again—so I volunteered.”
“Wyatt seems to always be sick at the moment,” Teddy said.
“There’s no way to avoid this stage, unfortunately. If you don’t build immunity from childcare, it’ll wallop you when the kids start school. You should ask Jessica about it, Ted. I bet she’s got stories for you,” Lulu said.
“Sam’s been going to childcare and kinder for a few years. Hopefully, they’re past this now?”
Lulu chuckled, and so did Owen and Nate. Only Raff shared Teddy’s confusion.
“What?” Teddy asked.
“Kids are always catching bugs and passing them along to their families, darling. Your immune system’s going to get a workout, especially once you move in here.”
Teddy’s eyes bulged. “Who said anything about me moving in here?”
Lulu pointed at some of the loose tools on Nate’s workbench, and Owen started clearing space for her to unpack her picnic basket.
“It’d make the most sense. Jessica and Sam are hardly going to give up their home to move into your apartment.”
“Okay.” Teddy took a deep breath. “We all need to calm down.”
“Oh, hush.” Lulu waved at Teddy as though she was physically sending his warning as far away as she could. “Everyone can see where this is going, Ted.”
“What?” he spluttered, his mind racing.
“I knew you’d surprise us all one day.”
Here we go again. “Mum.”
Some backup from his brothers would’ve been nice, but Teddy could also admit that he’d thoroughly enjoyed stitching them up when they’d fallen in love.
Wait. Wait. Wait. He wasn’t in love. Was he?
He liked Jessica.
Okay. Maybe he more than liked Jessica, but when did it become love? What was the official measurement? How was he supposed to know?
We haven’t even kissed.
“Theodore.” Lulu was serious if she was using his full first name. “Let’s not do this.”
“I’m not doing anything,” he said.
Except for secretly marrying Jessica, becoming overly invested in her happiness and realising how integral she’d become to his own.
“Hmmm.” Lulu pursed her lips, her bright red lips forming a flat line. “It’s her birthday soon. Did you know that?”
Yes. He did. Because he’d seen her birth certificate when they filled out the paperwork for their wedding licence. It was the day after they were getting married, not that he planned to share any of that information.
“I know.”
“And?” Lulu raised her eyebrows.
Feigning innocence would only extend Lulu’s line of inquiry, but whatever. “What?”
His mother huffed. “What have you got planned?”
Teddy gestured towards the half-built treehouse because no way in hell was he going to tell anyone what he’d been planning for Jessica’s birthday.
Lulu frowned. “That’s a housewarming present. A birthday gift should be something just for the person who is celebrating their birth. You should never have to share a birthday present.”
“Hard agree,” said Rafferty as he unwrapped a ham and salad sandwich.
“I’ve got a lovely selection of jewellery in at the store. Maybe a nice necklace?” Lulu’s teeth appeared as her smile widened. “Or a ring?”
“Yeah, Ted, what about a ring?” Nate teased.
“Don’t encourage her,” Teddy warned Nate, because if he was going down, he wasn’t above using one of his brothers as a human shield.
“Eloise would probably like a ring,” Lulu countered, rounding on her second youngest son.
“Maybe I have plans in place already.” Nate’s nonchalance was impressive, and thankfully, the perfect distraction.
“Do you?” Lulu perked up.
“It’s a secret.”
Owen snorted.
“And what about Alice? It’s been years, Owen. When are you two going to make it official?” Lulu asked.
Owen shrugged. “We live in the home we’ve made together. How much more official do you want it to be?”
Lulu’s expression made her answer clear, and Owen sighed.
“I’m not sure it’s on the cards for us, Mum. All I want is to love Alice every day. It’s pretty simple.”
It did sound simple when Owen described it that way. It was kind of like how Teddy wanted Jessica to find something to smile about each day. On a much bigger, more permanent scale, of course.
“Alice doesn’t exactly have fond memories of her first marriage.”
That was an understatement and a story for another time.
“Hmmm.” Lulu crossed her arms. “What about children?”
The air around the group cooled, and Teddy snuck a look at Nate, but his brother was leaning against the tree trunk, eating a chicken and lettuce wrap, looking unfazed.
Nate’s infertility wasn’t a secret anymore—at least not amongst the James family—but Teddy was still surprised Lulu would bring children up.
Add in the fact that Raff’s love life had been in shambles ever since Cassie left, and really, his mother could’ve been more tactful.
Although, Lulu had never been backwards in coming forwards. She always said it was a byproduct of being the only woman in a family of six.
A swift pang of guilt lodged itself under Teddy’s ribs. Here he was about to make one of his mother’s biggest dreams come true, and she’d never know about it.
Correction: she couldn’t know about it.
Lulu would be devastated to miss Teddy’s wedding.
He told himself it wasn’t a real wedding, even if he was hoping that one day he and Jessica could be something real.
Their wedding would never be anything other than a secret.
The pain in his chest expanded when Lulu left with a whispered, “Come and see me at the shop. We’ll find something nice for Jessica.”
The pain was still there when he and his brothers finished building the main treehouse, repurposing a roof from an old shed on Owen’s property.
And it was there when his brothers packed up Nate and Owen’s tools and waved goodbye with a promise to come back tomorrow to attach the slide and finish building the railings around the sides.
The ache only disappeared when Jessica reappeared. Her work shirt untucked and crinkled, hair still piled on top of her head, her feet bare. She held Blue in one hand and two beers in the other. “Want to stay for dinner?”
He’d stay forever if she wanted him to. “Can I give you a tour first?”