Part 13 (1/2)

”I did. Those days were crazy but wonderful. It was like having two little coconuts sucking on your b.o.o.bs all day. They're teenagers now. Can you believe it?”

Cedric pointed to a gray strip of hair at the front of his head that actually looked pretty cool on him. ”I have the gray hair to prove it.”

Allison looked over at him affectionately. ”I think your stripe is s.e.xy.”

”I'm glad you do, sweetheart.”

My sister lit a few of the candles on the coffee table. My gaze traveled over to the window. The snow outside was now falling more steadily. It was dark out, and that was making me really antsy about Nina coming home.

I quietly texted her as everyone was talking.

Please come home, baby.

A few seconds later, she messaged me back.

I'll call you soon.

Her brief responses today were a bit unsettling, but at least, they confirmed that she was okay. Whether we were okay was another matter.

Skylar propped the baby on her shoulder to burp him. ”So, before you guys got here, Jake was in the middle of telling us the story of how he met Nina and the days before she found out about Ivy.”

I was still looking down at my phone hoping for more from Nina as I mumbled, ”Allison's heard the stories before.”

”He just told us about the night he practically kicked her out of his room.”

My sister nodded and flashed a knowing smile. ”Fat Bottomed Girls...you mean, that night? Oh, you're getting close to the good parts now.”

Mitch laughed. ”How could you have possibly recovered from that disaster?”

I took a deep breath and stared into the candlelight. ”A strange thing happened after that night. You would have thought I scared her off, right? Well, it was awkward for maybe the first couple of days, but soon after, it was like we started over and really became even better friends in the process. I think she knew deep down that something big was holding me back and that I needed time to be able to work it out. She never pressured me for answers, and well, we stopped putting ourselves in precarious situations with alcohol. She was just there for me and let me have her in the only way I could at that time, which was to give me her heart even if I couldn't have her body. To be honest, those were the weeks when we really fell in love.”

CHAPTER 12.

Past ”c.o.c.ksucker!”

Well, that was new.

It seemed Mrs. b.a.l.l.sworthy was trying out a new salutation as she welcomed me back from Boston that particular Sunday night.

I waved and shouted up into her window. ”I've moved on from f.u.c.king myself to sucking c.o.c.k now? Good one, b.a.l.l.s.”

She squinted her eyes at me then slammed the window down.

I swear to G.o.d, my life was like a comedy show sometimes.

Since I usually arrived back to Brooklyn pretty late, Nina was normally asleep by the time I got home because she had an early cla.s.s on Mondays. When I opened the front door on this particular night, it surprised me to find her wide awake, sipping some tea in the living room and flipping through channels. She was curled up in a brown fleece blanket.

I took off my coat. ”Hey, you. Whatcha doing up?”

”I was having trouble sleeping.”

”Everything okay?”

Nina lowered the volume on the television and sat up. ”No. Not really.”

I kicked off my shoes and sat down next to her. ”Talk to me. What's wrong?”

”Today was a hard day for me. It always is. It's the anniversary of my brother's death. Jimmy would have been going on twenty-five now.”

”I'm sorry, Nina.”

”It never gets any easier.”

”No, and it likely won't.”

I wanted desperately to make her feel better but knew that nothing would really help in this situation. I grabbed the mug from her hand and took it to the kitchen to refill it with the kettle water that was still hot on the stove. I poured some into another mug for me, adding fresh teabags and honey to both.

I returned to where she was sitting and handed her the tea. ”Here. We're gonna stay up for a little while until you get tired enough to fall asleep.”

”You don't have to stay up with me, Jake.”

I ignored her and rested my feet on the coffee table as she snuggled into the blanket again for comfort. I couldn't help but wish she'd used me instead.

She took a sip of tea and smiled. ”Thank you, though.”

”You're welcome.”

We were quiet for a few minutes until she said, ”Christmas is coming soon. I don't look forward to it anymore because our house is so different now without him. It feels like half our family is gone, you know? It's a lot easier dealing with everything being away from home. I wish I could just stay here.”

It would be the first time since she moved in that we would be apart for longer than a couple of days. An uneasy feeling came over me.

”You'll get through it, and if you can't, you can always call me anytime, day or night.”

”Thanks. I appreciate that.” She stared down into her mug. ”I know that he wouldn't want me to be so sad.”

”Remember what I was telling you when you first told me about Jimmy? That you need to focus on the happy memories?”

”Yeah.”

”Well, just so you know, that's way easier said than done. There are gonna be times when you just find it impossible to do that. And that's okay.”

”I know you can relate.”

”You were putting yourself through a guilt trip again today, weren't you? Thinking about how you stopped going to see him in the end?”

”Yeah, I was.”