Page 28 of I Found You
We walked to the end of the pier rather than where the water met the beach. I was barefoot, having only been in sandals, which I took off when we sat down to eat, but Wyatt was in work boots.
We sat on the decking, my toes in the water. Wyatt held Jane out in front of him and looked back to me. “Ready?”
“Ready when you are,” I laughed. “Actually, hold on.” I dug for my phone so I could take a picture. I snapped one of Wyattholding Jane above the water and then another dozen or so when he finally dipped her feet in the ocean.
“She loves it. I knew she would.” Wyatt looked so proud of her. He picked her up and dipped her into the water over and over again. Jane really did love it, but I was pretty sure Jane loved everything Wyatt did with her.
He passed Jane to me so that I could play with her in the water too. I was making funny faces at her and reveling in her little baby laugh. Something in the corner of my eye caught my attention, and I turned to look. Wyatt had his phone out, capturing it all on video.
We stayed for a few minutes, but Jane’s attention span was pretty short, and she started getting fussy. “Let’s head back to the blanket. I think Jane needs her bottle. She’s starting to get hungry.”
I held Jane to me on the walk back, tickling her neck. It was a good method to keep her fussiness at bay, for a little while at least. Wyatt wasn’t beside me, so I turned back to see if he had stopped or something, but I found him a couple of steps behind us, watching us, his expression soft. “Keep going. I’m right behind you.”
Wyatt insisted on feeding her, so I handed Jane back to him along with her bottle.
“If you’re not busy on Thursday, my dad’s having a dinner at his house. You should come. Although, fair warning, my brothers and their ladies will be there too.” My heart stuttered, uncertainly whirling within me. Wyatt must have been able to tell because he hurried to add, “It’s not like I’m looking for a date to my dad’s. I remembered you saying that you didn’t really have the whole family dinner thing, so I thought you might want to see what it’s all about. You don’t haveto come if you don’t want to.”
“Do I just show up, like, on my own?” My hands knotted together, then unknotted. The wind was blowing my hair around my face, distracting me, so I tucked it behind my ear.
Wyatt just chuckled and watched me fidget like a nervous schoolgirl. In fairness, that was exactly what I felt like. “No. I can pick you up after I get out of work.”
“We’d have to take my car for the car seat.” He knew that Jane and I were a package, right? “And I would have Jane with me. Is that alright?”
“Yes, doll. Jane is invited too.”
A Wilder family dinner. That was definitely not a date. Of course it wasn’t. He probably just wanted everyone to meet Jane, and I was a necessary add-on.
12
Wyatt
The next couple of days went by pretty much the same. Jackson hung around the garage a lot, working on his truck during the day. He was a quiet kid around me, but I could see trouble brewing for him if he continued to hang around with the crowd he was with currently. Friends of his would drop by and screw around for a while. I didn’t mind Jackson using my tools or equipment, but I kept my eyes on these so-called friends. I got the impression that he didn’t really want them around, but until they stepped out of line or Jackson himself told me he wanted them gone, I would leave it alone.
It was just Jackson and me at the garage right now though. I was walking him through the steps to disconnect the engine block so we could remove it and do a full rebuild.
“Alright, next thing we need to do is remove the entire intake manifold. It’s a pain in the ass, but if we leave the radiator in place, we run the risk of damaging it when we reinstall the engine.”
“Will I need the impact gun for that?”
He was catching on quickly, asking the right questions. Iliked helping him out and teaching him the ropes.
“You will, but not yet. We have a shit load of disconnecting to do first. Grab the socket set and the ratchet.”
A car pulled up outside, and for a second, I thought it might be Maeve, but as soon as I heard their voices, I knew it wasn’t her.
Jackson picked his head up, and I could tell when he registered the voices too. His shoulders slumped, and he rolled his eyes.
“Want me to tell them to leave?” I asked.
“No. Unless you don’t want them here. It’s your shop.”
“Doesn’t matter to me. Just let me know if you want me to kick them out.”
“It’s fine,” he said quietly just as the door opened.
“J-man, what’s up?” one of them said as he walked in. Sam was back as well, immediately fucking around with my equipment and tools, along with a third kid. “Where you been lately? We needed you yesterday.” He walked up to Jackson, standing toe to toe. Jackson tried to stare him down, but he broke eye contact first, looking back at his truck.
Shit. He should have stood his ground. A silent stare down until the kid backed off.
