movie with Emma and me late Friday afternoon.”
“Joshua’s bachelor party is Friday night.”
“The wedding’s so soon?” The prospect of seeing people from her old life sent anxiety coursing through her veins.
“The actual ceremony is a week from Saturday. You never answered me. Will you be my date?”
She saw a challenge in his eyes, a dare. She weighed the prospect of attending a romantic wedding with Jake against her very real concerns. “I will,” she said. “But I’ll be nervous about seeing Falling Brook folks.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong. We’ll face them together.”
“Okay.” It might be the only carefree time she had with Jake. An evening that would have to sustain her for the long, lonely years to come. “Good night,” she muttered. Jake was too tempting. Too everything.
He cupped her neck in his big, warm hands and pulled her head to his. “I’ll dream about you, Nik.”
This kiss was lazy and slow. As if he had all the time in the world.
She put her hands on his shoulders to steady herself when her knees went weak. He tasted like coffee and dreams. Her dreams. All the ones that shattered when Black Crescent imploded, and Jake left her.
For long seconds, she let herself kiss him back. It was exhilarating. Toe curling. She felt like a princess at the end of a fairy tale. A very hot, flustered, needy princess. Only this particular prince was never going to stick around for the happily-ever-after.
When she realized she was running her fingers through his hair, she made herself step back. Take a breath. Reach for reason. “I should go in,” she said. “I have a few mommy jobs to accomplish before I head to bed.”
“I’ll pay child support,” he said gruffly. “Even if we decide not to tell her.”
Nikki’s temper flared, but she held her tongue. He was trying to do the right thing. “I don’t need your money, Jake. Emma and I are fine. A child is a huge responsibility, but money is the least of it.”
“You’re saying you want emotional support?”
Is that what she was saying? She honestly didn’t know. Having Jake around as a part-time dad would be awkward and painful. Maybe it would be better if he simply went away. She was convinced he still saw her as a version of her teenage self. He didn’t understand or want to admit how much she had changed. “I only meant that it’s eighteen years of hard work.”
“Longer for some families whose kids never move out.”
“I suppose so. Either way, I need you to know that you’re off the hook. Your life doesn’t accommodate fatherhood. Let’s think about it. Maybe we can come up with a solution that suits us both.”
“And Emma.”
“Of course.”
He moved toward the sidewalk. When a streetlight illuminated his features, she saw that Jake looked tired, sad. Maybe even uncertain. She had never seen him so vulnerable. Her heart squeezed. “You’re good with her,” Nikki said. “Truly, you are. She’s lucky to have your brains and your fearlessness.”
“You’re wrong about one thing, Nik.”
“Oh?”
He shoved his hands in his pockets and kicked at one of the small rocks Emma loved to collect. “I’m not fearless at all right now. Falling Brook. My father. My brothers. You. I feel like I’m stumbling around in a fog. I’m not even sure if I should have come back.”
This time, her heart hurt when it pinched. “I’m glad you came, Jake. Really glad.”
Jake always slept with the drapes open in a hotel room. In big cities, he liked seeing the array of colored lights on decked-out skyscrapers. Here in Falling Brook, the lights were fewer and less impressive, but they still lit the night with a comforting glow.
He was lying on his back with his hands behind his head. It was three in the morning. He’d barely slept. A few days ago, when he was flying across the ocean, he’d worried about reuniting with his twin. But the thing with Joshua had gone well.
The two brothers had fallen into their old relationship without drama.
Jake still had to face his mother and Oliver. Those reunions weren’t something to dread, not really. The harder encounter had been finding out that he and Nikki had created a child, a daughter.
Suddenly, unable to be still a moment longer, he rolled out of bed, threw on some clothes and went down to the twenty-four-hour fitness center. On the treadmill, he set a punishing pace. If he ran hard enough and long enough, maybe he could outrun the demons at