Straight Up Love (Boys of Jackson Harbor 2)

I reach for my water and take a sip. “Thanks.”

“Have you called Molly?” Ellie asks. “Maybe you’d feel better if you heard about the kid from her.”

I shake my head. “I’m pretty mad at her, too.”

“For sleeping with Jake, or for keeping her son a secret from you?”

“Both,” I whisper. I thought I was done crying, but hot tears prick the backs of my eyes again. “But mostly, I’m angry because it hurts to know she already has what I might never have. And that might mean she gets Jake, too.”

Jake

When I texted Brayden to see if we could talk, he said he was at Ethan’s having coffee with Mom. I find them at the kitchen table and kiss Mom on the forehead before pulling out a chair to join them.

“Where’s Ava this morning?” Mom asks. She looks good today. There’s color in her cheeks, and a light in her eyes that, a short month ago, I was afraid was being snuffed out.

“She’s at home.” It’s only a half-lie. Ava is likely at home, but I don’t know that for a fact, since she still isn’t talking to me. I don’t want to worry Mom with our breakup. Not when I’m still clinging to the hope that I can fix this mess somehow.

Mom nods. “Well, I sure enjoyed having her with us at the cabin again. It was like old times.” She pushes out of her chair and grabs her crutches. Brayden and I both stand at once to help, but she waves us away. “I’m going to go read for a bit and let you boys talk business. You’re making your father’s dreams come true.”

We watch her leave, neither of us bothering to sit again once she’s disappeared into the apartment behind Ethan’s garage.

“I need you guys to cover the bar for me for a couple of days,” I say when we’re alone. “I need to take a trip.”

“No problem. Is everything okay?”

I shake my head. My world is in shambles and he asks me if everything’s okay. “It will be.” I sound more confident than I feel.

Brayden walks over to the coffee pot and refills his cup. “Did you talk to Molly?”

I draw in a breath. “Yeah. I called her this morning.” When he looks at me expectantly, I shake my head. “Was Levi serious? Did something happen between you and Molly when you went up there?”

Brayden takes a sip from his mug and seems to ponder this. “I’m usually more professional than that, but we’d had a long day and a few drinks with dinner. One thing led to another. She’s stunning, you know. Not just beautiful but . . .” He shakes his head. “I can’t believe she didn’t tell me about the kid. Is it true?”

Guilt sits heavily on my chest. I hate this. It doesn’t bother me that Brayden slept with a woman I had a drunken night with, but I don’t think he’ll feel the same. “I called her this morning, and Noah is her son. I don’t know who the father is, though, and she wouldn’t tell me. I’m going to go up there and see if I can get more out of her in person.”

He makes a face. “Why do you care who the kid’s father is?”

“I need to know.”

“But why—” I see the moment it clicks for him, and he blinks at me. “Fucking hell, Jake. You slept with her?”

“It was one night.” I wait a beat, then force myself to say the rest. “One night in August five years ago.” I can practically see him doing the math in his head, and he closes his eyes. His mug clangs as he slams it on the counter.

“I’m sorry. The kid came as a shock to me too, and—”

“Stop talking.”

“I don’t even know if he’s my—”

His fist connects with my jaw. The right side of my face explodes with pain, and I grab it.

“Go be a fucking man and take care of your kid.” He storms out of the house, and I let him. There’s nothing else to say.

When he’s gone, I grab a bag of peas from Ethan’s freezer, press it against my jaw, and pull out my phone to book my flight.

The sun is setting when I knock on the door to Molly’s Brooklyn apartment. I close my eyes. Every step that got me here has felt like autopilot, and my brain hasn’t stopped spinning. When Molly asked me not to tell Ava about our night together, I thought it was because she didn’t want to hurt her relationship with her stepsister. Now, I see her request for secrecy in an entirely different light. Why didn’t she tell me she was pregnant? Even if she was sleeping with someone else at the time, there’s a chance the kid could be mine. Why didn’t she tell me she might have had my fucking baby?

Her reasons don’t matter. Ava’s right. At the end of the day, if I have a kid out there, I’m going to be part of his life. So here I am. Because I might have a child. Because this is the right thing to do.