AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Maybe he will,” Jake defended Danny. “I know Danny’s a player, but people do change.”
It was true. Jake himself was a great example of the change he was talking about. If he could make the kind of transformation he had made to be with me, anybody could do it.
Maybe my brotherwouldfind love at my wedding. Suddenly, nothing seemed impossible to me anymore.
Lucas began to fuss in Danny’s arms, and I reached out for him.
“I don’t mind holding him,” Danny said. “I don’t have to pass him off every time he cries.”
“I was just teasing you about that,” Jake said. “I know you don’t mind holding him when he’s crying, but it makes Olivia anxious.”
Danny looked at me. “It does?”
“It’s just… hard not to be holding him when he’s crying.” I didn’t know if I could explain my maternal instincts to my brother. They had surprised even me, and I had been expecting them.
It amazed me how powerful the love I felt for my baby was, how it bordered on a physical need. I couldn’t just sit here and listen to him cry.
And Lucas must have had a similar instinct because he relaxed the moment he was back in my arms. Danny laughed. “I guess he realized I wasn’t Mom.”
“He’ll get used to you,” I murmured, not taking my eyes off Lucas’s sweet face. He looked exactly like Jake to me, although Jake swore he had my eyes and chin.
I heard the sound of my cell phone from the kitchen, where I’d left it on the charger. I’d been so distracted with the baby that I kept forgetting to keep it charged, and it kept ending up dead.
I started to get to my feet, but Jake waved me back. “I’ll get that,” he said. “If it’s someone important, I’ll let them know you’ll call back.”
“Thanks,” I called after him.
We watched him go. “Does he do that a lot?” Danny asked.
“Do what?”
“Answer your phone for you.”
“When I need him to.” I shrugged. Little things like that had started to feel routine. Jake was an extension of myself these days, and it was both amazing and normal. It no longer shocked me when he did things like this, but I still noticed it every single time.
I heard his voice coming from the other room and knew that he must have decided the call was important enough to answer. I strained my ears, trying to listen, even though I knew he’d come back soon enough and tell me what it was all about. Danny noticed what I was doing and kept quiet, but even so, I wasn’t able to pick up much.
Jake came back into the room. He had a strange look on his face. After a year together, I could read him pretty well, but I wasn’t sure what to make of this.
“Is everything okay?” I asked. “It wasn’t the pediatrician, was it?”
“No, it wasn’t,” Jake said. “It was Michael Sanders.”
It had been months since I’d even thought about Michael Sanders. Hearing his name was a little jarring. “What does he want?”
“He wants you to call him back,” Jake said. “I told him you couldn’t come to get the phone.”
I nodded. That had been the right choice—I wouldn’t have wanted to disturb Lucas. “Did he say why?”
“Apparently, the movie is winning all kinds of screenwriting awards,” Jake said.
“Wait,” Danny said, looking back and forth from Jake to me. “The movie you worked on the rewrites, Olivia?”
“Yeah, that’s the one,” Jake said.
“You didn’t know it was winning awards?”
“It’s been ages since I thought about that movie,” I admitted. “I haven’t been following the release.” I felt a little thrill at the thought of it being so successful. “That’s amazing, though.”
