Page 19 of Nothing to This (Nothing to… #8)
The ferocity in JD’s gaze erased her discomfort.
“I told him who you were,” she admitted in a whisper.
“And? He didn’t take it well.”
She shook her head. “And he put things in my mind I don’t like.”
“What things?” he asked, brushing his curled fingers across her cheek.
“Did the kids ever meet Gabriella?”
Surprise and confusion joined his frown. “Gabby? No,” he said. “How did you—”
“He Googled you,” she said, trying to sound as non-accusatory as possible. Biting her lip, she slipped her fingers under the sleeve of his tee-shirt, fidgeting to distract herself. “I didn’t know you were engaged. I’m sorry it didn’t work out.”
Moving away, he sat up between her knees.
“It was a complicated situation,” he said, touching her shin, reminding her she was still wearing her dress and it was riding kind of high, not that anyone noticed.
“Her father thought the alliance made good business sense, and it did, but I was never sure about the engagement. Gabby said we should try it on for size, we did, I didn’t get any more comfortable. So I broke it off.”
She pushed up onto her elbows. “You broke it off?”
He bobbed his head. “Yep, about three months ago.”
“Three?”
“The media only got wind of it a few weeks ago,” he said and frowned at her. “I figured you’d have known all this.”
“I don’t follow the business news,” she said and then laughed. “I barely follow any news, I have two kids, you know.”
He smiled. “Gabby was never…”
“Never what?”
“Stepmother material,” he said. “She didn’t want kids. In fact, that was one of the issues between us.”
“She didn’t like our children?” she asked. “God, what a bitch. You should’ve dumped her the minute you found that out. What’s her address? I’ll take her down a notch or two.”
He laughed and shifted to lie down at an angle, resting his torso on her thigh as his legs twined around her other one.
“I know she’d have fallen in love with the twins if she met them,” he said, propping his temple on his fist with his elbow on the mattress beneath it. “But she wasn’t interested in having more, I wanted the option.”
Her lips moved when his free hand slid onto her stomach. That distant glaze over his expression suggested he was acting without thinking. He seemed a million miles away, watching his hand stroke the fabric of her dress, low down on her abdomen.
“I hope you don’t expect to get them from there,” she said.
She wasn’t offended and didn’t make any move to stop his caress. It seemed to comfort him, though she didn’t know why.
“It’s amazing, Ry,” he said, relaxing his hand on her just above her pubis. “This body created the two most important things in my life… and I never appreciated it.”
“My body?”
“What you did for me,” he said. “What you went through… I wasn’t there for any of the pregnancy. I missed it all. I regret that… And I don’t regret a lot in my life.”
“Even telling me your suite had a bar?”
He snapped back to reality to fix on her. “Especially that,” he said. “Damn, Rylee, the kids are the best thing I ever did in my life… the best thing I’ve ever been a part of… though I admit I didn’t do much.”
“I didn’t get morning sickness,” she said. “I craved tortilla chips and would eat them by the ton… I was utterly exhausted for the first three months and the last three.”
“If I’d been around, if I’d known that, I would’ve been able to help.”
“How?” she asked, pushing the pillow deeper under her head to make seeing him easier. “You couldn’t have gone to work for me.”
“I could’ve taken care of you. You never have to work another day,” he said then rolled slightly to aim his voice toward the door. “Sprouts, back to bed, come on!” He rolled back to find her smiling. “What?”
“You’re a good dad, JD.”
The kids came running back in. Cookies aloft in Kye’s hand.
“Uh, no cookie crumbs in bed,” JD said as the kids climbed onto his bed again.
“For Mommy,” Kye said, crawling up the bed to thrust the packet at her.
“Oh, my prince,” she said, taking the cookie pack while snagging her boy to tuck him under her arm.
Kye settled against her. Sky was still hyper and jumped on the bed a couple of times. When JD put an arm out to make sure she didn’t fall, Sky grabbed it for balance and climbed up to sit on her father.
“Daddy, can I have more cookies?” Sky asked, bouncing on him.
“No,” he said. “I think you two should go brush your teeth again. It’s time to settle down.”
Though they whimpered and moaned, they went with their father when he picked them up to carry them into the bathroom. She sat up and retrieved the remote control from the nightstand to return the movie to the point it had been at before the hilarity.
She was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bed when JD carried the kids back in.
“Momma, sleep with us,” Kye said, reaching for her.
“Momma needs to get up,” JD said, passing Kye to her.
He kept hold of Sky as she got off the bed. She rocked her boy while JD pulled the blankets back and laid Sky down. Kye would be asleep soon, he was exhausted, and she didn’t object when JD took their son to put him in the bed with his sister.
“Daddy!” Sky called.
He bent over the bed to stroke Sky’s hair and kissed her forehead, then Kye’s. “Daddy will come through in a while. You two finish watching the movie.” Stepping back, he put an arm around her. “Mommy and Daddy are going to talk grown-up things for a while.”
Sky was already watching the film. Though Kye seemed a little more discerning in the way he examined his parents, he was too tired to care and finished on a yawn.
JD guided her out of the bedroom, dimming the light and pulling over the door before leading her down the hallway.
“Grown-up things?” she asked.
“You need a glass of wine, and I want to hear more about your pregnancy.”
“Okay, but we have to clean up in the kitchen first.”
“The kids and I planned to stay home in the morning and do the chores. We’ll do that and you can lie in. We’ll take care of it.”
“Please don’t call Anya again,” she said. “I can’t handle beauty that intense before coffee and a shower in the morning.”
“No Anya,” he said, leaving her at the head of the kitchen island, her back to the dining table, to pour a glass of wine.
She appreciated that he elected to drink lemonade and stay sober, being the designated parent.
“Just a quick drink,” she said, when he put the glass in her hand.
His smirk came with a wink. With her crowded in front of him, he went around the table and up the four stairs into the living room that took up the large corner area of the apartment. The curved couch in the middle faced the entertainment unit. Two windowed walls showcased the evening city.
Sitting down, she drank, then put her glass on the coffee table to curl her legs up onto the couch.
Wrapping an arm around them, she set her focus on JD. “Do you miss Gabby?”
Startled by the question, he paused mid-movement before settling on the couch.
“Not really… We were together years ago, when we were young. It didn’t work out.
I missed her when we broke up back then.
That’s when I grieved the relationship. We came across each other again by accident about a year ago.
I think it was nostalgia that hooked us up…
I guess what they say about never going back is true, because this time around was never quite as…
intense as I remember it. She was different, I was different. It just wasn’t the same.”
“Everything’s different when we’re young,” she said. “And every experience we have changes us.”
“Then I guess you better start at the beginning.”
The way he settled deeper into the couch put a smile on her lips. “What are you talking about?”
“Your experiences. I want to know.”
“About the pregnancy?”
“About everything,” he said. “I’m listening, Ry. I want to know everything.”
Though dubious at first, they quickly slipped into easy conversation. The night they’d met, they’d talked. Conversation had flowed; humor and innuendo blended into the discussion all the way through.
She needed a night like that again. One where she could just be a woman and have an adult conversation. JD was there to deliver and for that, she was grateful. Not only was he a great father to her children, but he was becoming her friend. She needed one of those now more than ever.