Page 3 of Forever, Finally

“Sure. You say that now but do you ever pay up?”

“I’m waiting for the right moment.”

Not that she could repay him. Not for the past eight months. When Michael had left her at the altar, Jake had been there to pick up the pieces. He’d held her while she’d cried, offered to beat up the guy, gone out at midnight to buy her double chocolate chunk fudge brownie ice cream and had promised it would eventually stop hurting so bad. He’d put his own impressive social life on hold to hang out with her, even after she’d told him she’d gone ahead with artificial insemination and was pregnant.

She glanced down at her stomach. “You were a bit of a surprise,” she told her baby. “Everyone told me it was unlikely to happen the very first time, but they were wrong, huh?”

Not that Lily minded. She’d always wanted a ton of kids and had assumed there would be a husband to go along with her fantasy. Unfortunately she hadn’t found anyone she loved enough to stay with forever, until Michael. Then he’d turned out to be a class-A jerk. Which had left her with a limited amount of time in which to start her family.

She and her girlfriends Rachel and Jenna had always joked about getting artificial insemination for their thirty-fourth birthdays if there were no men in their pictures. Lily had actually gone ahead with it. There might not be a Mr. Right hanging around, but she had everything else she’d ever wanted. It was enough, she told herself. She was content.

She walked out of the dining room and headed upstairs where she found Jake standing in the middle of the master bath. As always, the sight of the gold foil bamboo-and-palm-frond wallpaper made her wince.

“What were they thinking?” she asked.

“Maybe it was some kind of punishment.”

“What scares me is that someone at the wallpaper company presented this design as one that would sell, and the committee or whoever decides what goes in the books agreed it was a good idea. Then someone bought it.” She shuddered. “It has to go.”

Jake leaned against the Formica-covered counter. “Lil, you have to prioritize for both time and money. You have three months until the baby comes. What do you want done before then and what can wait? I agree with the painting, even though I’m going to be the one doing it. You’ll get a lot of bang for your buck. The tile will be pretty easy, too. Just a lot of cutting to make it all fit.”

She smiled. “How convenient that your work schedule gives you a lot of time off.”

“Yeah. Lucky me.”

Jake was a firefighter. His schedule required him to work twenty-four hours at a time, but there was plenty of non-work time in compensation.

“You’re right about the list,” she said. “Let me look around and come up with the most important items. We can do them first.”

He raised his eyebrows. “We? I don’t think so, Lil. I’ve agreed to the painting and tile, but that’s it.”

She pretended to pout. “We’re friends and you adore me, right? So pleasing me is the most important part of your day?”

Jake stared into Lily’s green eyes and knew this was one time he was going to have to keep his mouth shut. Adore her? That didn’t begin to describe his feelings.

“You’re okay,” he said. “Make me a list and we’ll talk. Also, I need you to pick out paint and tile. And no, I’m not coming to the paint store with you. I remember when you wanted to paint your apartment bathroom. It took you four hours to pick out a single gallon of paint.”

She planted her hands on her hips. “That is so not fair. The yellows were all either too bright or had too much green in them. I wanted a pale yellow with a hint of…”

He shook his head as he backed up a step. “This would be my point. You choose it and I’ll cart it over here. Fair enough?”

“Absolutely.” Her humor faded. “Seriously, Jake, you’re being amazing. I owe you big time. Just tell me what you want and it’s yours.”

What he wanted? That was a whole different conversation.

“Don’t sweat it, Lil. You’ve been there for me in the past. Consider this a chance to even the score.”

“I don’t think so. You’ve needed me for advice about women—which you never take—and a couple of shopping trips. You’re watching over me like this baby is yours, and now you’re signing on to help me with the house.”

He noticed they were getting into dangerous territory and decided to sidestep the potential trouble.

“You forget you also get free access to my wit and charm,” he said. “There are a lot of women who would gladly trade places with you.”

“I know. They send me daily e-mails. Come on. You ready to get out of here?”

“Sure.”

He followed her through the old house to the front door, where she looked around one last time before fishing the key out of her purse and pulling the door shut behind her.

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