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“Tonight, I’m here as your friend.” His voice is low, and I think the towel adds a whole level of…yumminess to this whole thing. “And as your friend, I’m here to tell you thatyouare the one who has raised those kids. You are the one who has reached out to their father to ask if he wants to see them. You have been through hell and still wake up every day, striving to provide the best life possible for Ella and Eli. I can’t tell you what to say back, and my opinion might mean nothing, but he’s known damn well how to see his kids. I don’t know what kind of game he’s playing with you, but I know I don’t like it. From a legal standpoint, there’s nothing saying he can’t take it to court and try to get custody. And he does have visitation rights that won’t ever go away unless he was incarcerated or something. But I know you also have proof he’s denied seeing them for two years, so that won’t help his case if he did get it in his twisted mind to take it to court. Personally, I don’t think you owe him any response at all. He can tell you his attorney will be contacting you if he wants to. But right now, you owe him nothing.Nothing.”
I can’t explain why, but all of a sudden, my tears are gone and I feel a devilish smile on my lips. “Do you want to know what Joanna and Alice told me to say?”
“Based on the look on your face, no.”
“Ouch.”
The tiniest of smiles cracks his serious expression. “What did they say?”
“Joanna said to give him a little birdy and Alice said to saywhen hell freezes overwith a winky emoji.” The words come out of my mouth all on one breath.
One dark brow raises. “Jen, you have some incredible friends.”
I don’t know why, but the statement shocks me so much all I can do is gawk up at him. We’re still standing no more than a foot apart, and I’m still aware he just did my dishes and has a tropical beach towel over his shoulder to prove it. I briefly wonder if I should ask him to sign and date it before I frame it. Do you think that seems creepy?
When I realize he’s waiting for a response, I say, “Yeah. I do.”
“And you know what?” His teasing is gone. He’s back to that straight-faced expression and I kid you not, I can feel the power of his steady gaze all the way to my tippy toes. “The fact that you consider me one of your friends will never cease to amaze me.”
That’s it. I’m done. I’m throwing in the towel—ha-ha, I hope you get that—because I don’t care what Seth thinks.
I step forward, wrap my arms around his muscled torso, and rest my head on his chest. His body freezes and I know it goes into panic mode because he wasn’t prepared for this. Seth doesn’t like surprises because of what happened to him as a child. I get it. I also don’t give a crap. I burrow right into his extremely solid chest like a baby bunny to its mama.
And okay. Maybe I take a deep breath just to inhale that clean, masculine scent of his. But in my defense, I release it just like a sigh of contentment. Because I am—I’m content. I’m probably going to wonder what the heck I was thinking once Seth is gone, but I don’t care about that right now.
Then, much to my bewilderment, Seth’s arms come around me. He anchors my body securely against his much taller and stronger one, proving just how much he meant those words. This is the second time I’ve been in Seth’s arms, and I don’t think I can truthfully say that it doesn’t make me feel something in my heart. It’s like he’s the steady oak and I’m the wandering breeze, ruffling through his branches but never able to shake his strength.
I have no idea how long we stood there in that wordless moment. I don’t know if we’ll ever speak of it again. But I can tell you one thing I know for sure: after Seth left and I finally made my way to my bed, it sure wasn’t the nameAllenrolling through my mind.
Chapter Thirteen
Seth
As it turns out, hauling everything out of Marie’s house was not as bad as I expected. I’m not afraid of physical labor, so it wasn’t that I didn’t want to do it. It’s more that there are several women on our team—plus the ones who came because John asked them to—and, well, they tend to want to go through things. By that I mean they look through them, decide on if they should keep this or that, and then go on to discusswhythey chose to retain or toss.
I don’t understand it and honestly don’t care to, but I lucked out. Either these ladies don’t have sentimental brains—and considering Ember’s among them today, I know that’s not the case—or they don’t want any of the stuff because most of it’s outdated, reeks of smoke, or has no functioning purpose in the twenty-first century. Whatever the reason, I don’t care. What I care about is that the whole house is cleaned out after just a few hours on a Thursday night.
“I’m so gonna feel this tomorrow.” Ember groans as she slumps back against the wall in the empty living room and drapes her arm over her eyes. “Also, I’m hungry.”
She’s in luck. We have pizza on the way right now for those of us still here, which includes Jenna, myself, Ember, Marshall and Jess, and the teens. John and Jackie went back to the inn, Wynn and Noelle back to their house, and Sarah and Chris and their kids also left. I offered to order enough pizza for everyone as a thank-you for all their hard work, but they wanted to head out.
“I don’t know why, but today was actually kinda fun,” Mazzy comments, picking at something on the knee of her jeans. I honestly didn’t expect her to show up today, considering she never responded to my text from yesterday, but she did. She obviously does not want to talk about anything personal, but I’ll take it for now. “And now the house looks a lot different.”
Marshall, who’s sitting next to me with Jess on his other side, nods. “Just wait until the walls you guys want to take down are gone and you’ve painted the others. You might be surprised how much that alone can change a house.”
“I’m looking forward to using the sledgehammer.” Colin grins as he pretends to slug something through an invisible wall. “We could have a strength contest between us.”
Luka snorts, his forearm resting on his bent knee. “Why, ’cause you wanna get beat?”
“Ooh,” Mazzy croons, and I can sense her daredevil side surfacing. It might not have been her fault Dairy Dock was vandalized last year—according to what she said Tuesday—but she was an accomplice all the same. I won’t sweep the truth under the rug. “I think we should go for it. I mean, unless you guys don’t want to be shown up by agirl.”
Colin rolls his eyes. “That’s bull. You’re just talking trash. We all know I’m the strongest one here.”
“Oh, yeah?” Marshall challenges. “You really think that, huh?”
“Yeah, I really do.”
I’m about to interrupt and suggest that Colin back off, but Marshall has other ideas. He stands up and disappears out the front door for a minute before returning with an old side table. I barely resist sighing as he sets it down in the middle of the empty room we’re all sitting in and jerks his head at Colin.
