“I’ve been such a klutz since becoming pregnant.” She snatches the items from my grasp before shoving them into her purse. Once she has them locked away, her eyes drop to the ultrasound picture in my hand. “Oh, how adorable.”
We stand on the sidewalk talking all things pregnancy-related for the next twenty minutes. It’s nice talking to someone in the same predicament as me. Emily is great, but she won’t fully understand my griping about weeping nipples and leg cramps until she’s pregnant.
It's only when I’m driving home do I realize we never exchanged names. I guess it will have to wait for the coffee date we have scheduled for next weekend.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Nick
“Fuck!” Noah throws his phone down so hard, it shatters into pieces when it hits the tiled floor.
I watch the scene unfold from the corner of the room, confident Slater and Marcus have everything under control. I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but I’m assuming Noah’s call with Emily didn’t go well. Things have been rough for them the past few months. I’ve overheard Emily’s sniffles a handful of times when she’s talking to Jenni the past two months, but believing it wasn’t my place to intervene, I stayed out of it.
That all changes when Noah starts gulping down whiskey like it's water. He went down a similar path after his brother died, and I just sat by and watched it happen. I’m not doing that again. He has worked too hard to let it all be flushed down the toilet right when it’s getting good.
We’re only in LA because we’re performing on MTV Live. Cormack believes this gig will be the final push we need for our song “Surrender Me” to hit the top ten on the billboard charts. It was a last minute spot that meant we had to cancel events with our loved ones, but we knew the sacrifice would be worth it.
Now I’m not so sure. Noah barely survived losing his brothers. I don’t see him coping if things go downhill with Emily.
“You’re not your fucking dad, Noah.” I snatch the bottle from his hand, screw the lid back on, then place it back on the bar in the green room we’re camped out in.
The grief in Noah’s eyes cuts through me like a knife when he locks them with mine. “Emily fucking left me.”
Fuck. It’s worse than I thought.
Playing it cool, I assure him, “One step at a time. Perform the shit out of this song first, then tomorrow morning, we’ll go sort this shit out—together.”
When Noah couldn’t reach Emily because she was in class, he asked Jacob to drive her back to Ravenshoe—our hometown. She’ll be there waiting for him, just like Jenni will be waiting for me. I’m 100% confident on this. Their relationship is so solid, I often watch them for hints on how I can improve mine with Jenni. I’ve got a lot to learn when it comes to romance, but I’m giving it my best shot.
When Noah arches his brow, surprised by my admission, I smirk. I’ve never considered him a friend, but I realized how wrong I was the past six months. He was the only one who had my back with everything happening with Jenni, and now I’ll have his.
“I could sing to her? Make it just about her?”
Noah’s dark eyes flick between his bandmates who are peering at him, wordlessly gauging their thoughts to his suggestion. Tonight is an important stepping stone for our band, but our journey won’t be anywhere near as sweet without our other halves. Emily has supported us from the get-go, so she is as much a part of our band as I am.
When Marcus, Slater and I all agree to his suggestion with a unanimous vote, I call Jenni.
“Hi, baby,” she greets groggily into the phone.
My eyes drop to my watch. It's only a little after seven PM, so she shouldn’t be tired. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
My heart races. She doesn’t sound good.
“I think I have a tummy bug.”
I chuckle softly. “It’s called a baby; I thought we figured that out already?”
Her giggle settles the erratic beat of my heart by replacing it with a much more viral response. I can’t believe how much our relationship has grown the past six months. She’s something I never knew I wanted but now crave more than anything.
Recalling I’m supposed to be helping Noah, not planning a hookup with my brand new fiancée, I inform Jenni about Noah’s plans to perform an acoustic version of “Surrender Me.” Our call ends with a promise that she’ll do everything in her power to force Emily to watch Noah’s performance.
* * *
Around an hour later, Jenni texts saying Emily went to bed before watching the show. The devastation on Noah’s face when I told him Emily didn’t watch his declaration of love was fucking gut-wrenching.
He hardly speaks a word during our six-hour flight home. He’s deep in thought, entrenched by the darkness that nearly swallowed me whole six months ago. Once we exit the plane, he takes off on foot for the closest taxi. I had planned on offering him a ride, but he shot out of his seat so fast, I didn’t get the chance.
