Jenika snickered and then shouted at me to hold on while a train went by. I took the twenty seconds to toss the phone on my bed and pull a blouse over my head. A quick dash of lipstick and I was ready to head out the door. Oh wait. Shoes. I grabbed the phone, shoved my feet in my favorite black flats and headed out the door in the hopes of grabbing a cup of coffee before walking to work now that my car had died for the last time.
“Okay, I’m back,” Jenika said.
I rolled my eyes and trampled down the stairs. “You really need to move out of that place. A train every hour on the hour? Just move here already. I promise you’ll fit right in with these weirdos.”
“Hey!” Dante, the hot guy my age running the cash register downstairs in the coffee shop, handed me a steaming cup of coffee just the way I liked it. I lifted on tip toes and kissed his cheek. He winked and I knew he wasn’t mad about my weirdo comment. Hell citizens thrived on being weird. They wore it like a badge of honor.
“Actually, I was thinking of moving once my lease is up next month.”
I squealed at that news and then darted behind the corner of the diner when I saw a familiar head of hair getting out of a parked truck. My heart raced and I held my breath.
“Hello?” came Jenika’s voice in my ear.
“Hold on,” I whispered, daring to dart a look around the corner a moment later and letting out a sigh of relief when Linc wasn’t anywhere to be found. “Okay, I’m back.”
I put my head down and rushed down the sidewalk, intent on reaching the clinic without seeing that asshole.
“Were you just doing your ninja thing to avoid him again?” Jenika asked on a sigh. “You know, with all the darting around you do in that small town to avoid him, maybe you should move here.”
“Nah, I love my job and it’s really not that hard to avoid him. It’s been two months and I haven’t bumped into him once,” I stated proudly.
“Yeah, but you can’t even see your brother whenever you want to and you have to slunk around like a thief. Seems to me like maybe you should either smooth things over or think about moving out of town just for some peace.”
Jenika was always the voice of reason in our friendship, which made it even harder to be two hours away from her. I reached the clinic and put my key in the door to open up the place before the first client arrived.
“You might be right about moving, but I was here first,” I whined.
“Okay, then smooth things over with him.”
I dropped my bag on the front desk and hit the power button on my computer. “Yeah no. Boston beat the shit out of him and he just took it.” The skin on my arms broke out in goosebumps just thinking about it. “You should have seen it, Jenika. Linc just let Boston hit him until blood flew and splattered his shirt I was wearing. I’ve never seen something so horrible and all my fault on top of it. There’s no way I can smooth things over, trust me. It’s best I just pretend Linc and I don’t know each other.”
Jenika huffed, but left it alone. She probably remembered the entire week I’d spent crying in my tiny apartment, calling in sick for work and sniffling into the phone when she tried to talk me through it. Even Spunky hadn’t been able to cheer me up. Jenika had assured me it wasn’t my fault, but I’m pretty sure no guy deserved to have the crap beat out of him simply for sleeping with me. I was an adult for crap’s sake, and that’s exactly what I’d told Boston when he’d tried to talk to me later with his knuckles all scraped up from Linc’s gorgeous face. My big brother and I were just now on speaking terms again.
Linc, on the other hand, didn’t even try to talk to me again. To apologize for ending our night together in that manner. Or to beg for me to take him back. Okay, that last part was just what I dreamed about when it was late at night and I couldn’t sleep. But he hadn’t even tried to talk to me. I thought we’d gotten along so well. I thought there’d been a spark there before my brother drove his fist into Linc’s eye and Boston threw me in his truck to drive me home. I guessed Linc didn’t think so because he appeared unfazed by the whole thing. He even had my clothes delivered to my doorstep the next day without a note. Granted, he’d cleaned them, but no note was rude.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lucy drive into the parking lot in her mom van. “I gotta go, Jen. Boss is here.”
“All right. Call me later.”
We hung up and I got busy opening up the calendar book for today to see what rooms I needed to get ready. Lucy swung the front door open with the bicep strength of a mom who’s carted little ones on her hip for several years straight.
“Good morning, Keva!” she trilled with her normal enthusiasm, dumping a box on my desk and carrying another back to her office. “Will you stock the pregnancy tests for me?”
“Sure thing!” I hopped up and gave her a smile. Grabbing the box, I made my way to the bathrooms in the back of the clinic. As I bent down to put the tests in the proper bin in the cabinet, a startling thought ran through my brain.
When was the last time I had my period?
I stared down at the pregnancy test in my hand and every cell in my body froze with terror and knowing.
Oh, shit…
Chapter Four
Linc
She came out the door of the clinic, her bag slung over her shoulder and looking prettier than I remembered, which was saying something. I’d built her up in my head so much I worried the reality wouldn’t compare. I’d missed looking at her. Missed her laugh. Itched to see her in my T-shirt. Every second of the day we’d spent together had been on repeat in my head for two straight months.
It had taken almost all of those sixty days for me to get Rocket to talk to me again. Nothing like the prolonged silent treatment from your roommate to keep the home life tense. When I finally did get him to acknowledge my existence, I’d explained that I had no idea who Keva was when I met her. That didn’t seem to smooth things over based on the way the vein in his forehead pounded out a rhythm that spelled another black eye in my future.
So, I spilled my guts.
I told him all the fucking feelings that pinged around in my chest just looking at Keva. The fun we’d had on the little yellow moped. The mini pig I’d stuffed in my jacket just to get her to smile. The way I’d carried her when her feet hurt in those stupid boots. The way I couldn’t stop thinking about her and how staying away was slowly killing me inside.
He’d leveled a gaze at me that spoke of honor and trust, the things a man comes to rely on from his brothers in life-or-death situations. Things I gave him every day in Afghanistan but had failed the minute I came back to the States.
“Make things right with her,” he’d grunted before slapping me on the back and walking out of the house.
It was a sickly pale yellow as far as green lights went, but I’d take what I could get. Rocket had basically given me permission to go after his sister. I threw on my best T-shirt—which meant it didn’t have holes nor did it say Army across my chest—and headed straight to the fertility clinic, practicing what I’d say to her when she got off work. The minute she stepped out the door, I knew I should have taken a whole day to practice instead.