Page 74 of His Best Friend's Baby

“He wanted information on you.” Rachel smiled sheepishly. “I didn’t give it to him. I thought he might want to write an article.”

Jesse swallowed, clenching his fist on the doorknob. “I’ll call him.”

But that was a lie. He had no intention of revisiting that crash with Gomez.

“Good night,” Jesse mumbled. He patted his sister awkwardly and took off into the night, toward the woman and sleeping baby who waited for him.

“That went well,” Julia murmured. She leaned forward from the backseat.

He pressed a kiss to her head the way Mac had done to Rachel all night long. Jesse understood that kiss. It wasn’t sexual or friendly—it was a silent, reverent thanks. “It was the most painful dinner ever.”

Julia laughed. “I thought we did okay. There were a few awkward silences.”

He rolled his eyes and pulled onto the road. The wind, scented with lime and lemon, flooded the Jeep and toyed with Julia’s blond hair.

“Thank you,” he said. He didn’t look at her, concentrated instead on shifting gears, getting them off the mountain. He didn’t know if he conveyed everything he wanted to with those words. They seemed too weak and feeble to carry everything he meant. But they were all he had.

“You’re welcome,” she said, softly.

He squeezed her hand where it rested on Ben’s knee as a weight blew off him in the breeze up into the night sky.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

THE NEXT MORNING, Jesse got up before Julia, put coffee in a mug for her and waited for Amanda, who arrived early looking like a zombie.

“Let me give you a ride,” he offered Julia.

“It’s okay, I need the walk to calm down a little.” She kissed his cheek and skipped out the door like a girl on her first day of school. She had a brown bag lunch and a smile a mile wide.

He felt a little drunk, and a little like none of his bones were doing their job, at the sight of her obvious enthusiasm.

She turned halfway down the block and blew him a kiss. He waved, feeling charmed and smitten from such a simple gesture—that she knew he’d be watching her warmed him. Wain, sitting by his side, barked.

If he’d been told three months ago, hell, three weeks ago, that he’d be grinning idiotically at the knowledge she would be coming home to him, he’d never have believed it.

“The sun’s not even up,” Amanda groaned, falling sideways on the old couch.

He told Amanda to take a nap until Ben woke up, then he spent a few hours in the garage, cleaning up the last of his work from the cradle and contemplating tackling another project. Did he dare? Would he be here long enough to see it to completion?

The cell phone in his pocket buzzed and he checked the number.

Chris Barnhardt.

His good humor immediately fled. Chris was a sharp reminder that this easy domesticity wasn’t his life. His life waited for him in San Diego. Yet he didn’t want to think about Chris, the job or the move right now. He considered not answering the call. He pressed the Talk button instead.

“I need more time, Chris,” he said right away.

“You’re killing me,” Chris howled. “I can’t keep holding out for you. I’ve got too much work to get done.”

“I know but things have gotten…complicated.”

Chris pressed for a reason and Jesse, thinking of Julia and her long legs and her sweet mouth and her soft sigh of pleasure against his chest in the night when he loved her, instead told Chris about the fight.

“It’s my eye, I can’t see out of it, yet,” he lied.

“You got in a fight? And lost?” Chris was clearly incredulous. “That’s not the Jesse I went to basic training with.”

“You should see the other guys,” Jesse smiled. “But I’m going to need more time.”

More time with Julia.

Chris sighed, his frustration clearly transmitting over the line. “All right. Just get here as soon as you can and I’ll try to patch something together.”

“Thanks, man.” He may have stalled Chris, but Jesse knew he couldn’t delay much longer. He had to finish up here. He had to end things with Julia and get on with his life, even if his plan no longer held the appeal it once did.

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