Page 30 of Secret Triplets, Second Chances

JAKE

T he world spins around me.

“Jake?” Lara asks, clearing her throat and rubbing her palms down her jeans. We’re sitting in her living room, and she looks nervous enough that she could come apart at the seams. “Can you say something?”

Before leaving Los Angeles and coming home, I didn’t have kids and had no intention of changing that. Now, I’m the father of three and expecting another. Lara and I haven’t even had time to sort out our relationship fully, and I’m still desperately trying to make up for lost time with the triplets.

“I’m sorry,” I finally manage, lips feeling numb. Before I know what’s happening, I’m on my feet, moving for the door. “I need a second.”

Lara says something, but I barely hear it and can’t sort it out in my head. My feet carry me with an automation that shows how well I know the town, taking me down back streets and alleyways until I arrive at my dad’s old house.

My house.

Stepping inside, it smells like paint and fresh wood, and as I look around, I realize the renovation is basically done. The living room needs drapes, and I’m still waiting on a new stove for the kitchen, but other than that, a family could move in right now.

I’m just standing in the middle of the room, staring at all the work I’ve done, and the colors and tiling Lara picked out, when my phone starts to buzz in my pocket.

I pull it out, thinking it might be her, and already feeling bad about leaving like I did.

But it’s not Lara.

“Hello?” I say into the phone.

“Great news!” a female voice says, the happiness in her voice jarring my reality.

When I say nothing in response, she goes on, sounding like she’s just won the lottery.

“Jake, it’s Abbie. Your manager. Did you forget all about me while you were out living in the middle of nowhere?”

For the first time in my life, I have the urge to defend Wildfern Ridge. But there’s enough other shit going on in my head that I don’t even have the capacity for it.

“I didn’t forget about you.”

“So, I’m assuming you’ve seen the news about Labowski?”

“What? No.”

She laughs. “Oh boy, well, Merry Christmas to you, Bradson. Someone caught Labowski on camera admitting that he was going for your ankles when he ‘ fell’ to the ice. It’s switched the whole thing around and made you look like the superhero defender here.”

“It… has?”

“Yes. And you’ll need to check your email pronto. I just sent you a link to the official re-sign offer from the Kings!”

I blink against the sun coming in through the living room blinds, and when a beat passes, Abbie laughs, clears her throat, and starts again.

“Are you drunk or something? I’m sensing no enthusiasm over this line, Jake.”

Three kids. Another on the way. With the endorsements I did in college, and the money I made my rookie year, I have a pretty sizable savings account, but will that be enough? Can I support four children in the way they deserve with that kind of money?

If I stayed in Wildfern Ridge, what would I do? Coach high school hockey ? That’s not going to give those kids the life they deserve.

Even if it means I’m not in the picture, it will be better that I have something to send home. Obviously, Lara has been able to do a great job without me.

“I’ll sign it,” I hear myself say. Abbie gives me some congratulations, says she’ll get someone to book me a flight home, and asks if there’s anything I need from her. Then we’re hanging up, and I’m walking numbly up the stairs.

Once again, my feet are carrying me without my input, and I end up in my old bedroom, staring at the closet door. I know it would be best for me to leave without ever looking at those stupid journals, but if it’s time to sell the house and move back to Los Angeles, I can’t just leave them here.

I heft them up and out of the closet, fully intending to take them to the dumpster outside, but I accidentally knock the box against the doorjamb, and several of the journals fall out.

Sighing, I bend down to pick them up.

Then I pause, running my thumb over the cover, closing my eyes, and taking a seat in the hallway. I cracking the notebook open without thinking about chronology or where I’m at in my father’s story.

Heather came by the shop today while I was working. Impossible to look away from her in that little blue dress, and she knew it.

Told Law about us today. He said it looked like love to him. I socked him for it.

But he might be right.

Time passes imperceptibly as I sit in the hallway, and I realize my mother was my dad’s Lara. That losing her was the worst thing that ever happened to him. I miss her and grieve her in almost an abstract way, the shape of a mother missing from my life, but he really knew her.

He lived in this town with her, graduated high school with her. Shared a summer with her, just like I did with Lara.

And then he lost her to cancer.

Now, with the parallel I can draw from him to me, and from my mother to Lara, I understand his grief, and catch a glimpse of what pushed him to that place of hurt, drowning himself in liquor.

“Jake!”

I jump and look up, finding Shelby at the top of the stairs, her hair loose around her face. Her eyes are slightly wild, and for some reason, my first thought is that something happened to Lara.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, sitting up and closing the journal in my lap, realizing I’ve read almost all the way through their love story, and I’m getting to the part where my dad is about to lose her.

“I was driving by,” she says, her hand on her heart, her gaze skipping between me and the journals scattered around me. “The front door was hanging open, and when I came in, you weren’t responding…”

She trails off, eyes falling to the journal in my lap. “What are you doing?”

“Did you know?”

I don’t need to clarify. Shelby’s gaze finds mine, and she swallows, nodding. “I had my suspicions. That little boy looks just like your baby pictures, Jake.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I assumed you knew.”

That hits me like a slap, and I draw my face back. “ What ?”

“I mean, I knew that you and Lara were sneaking around, and Dad said that you left suddenly?—”

“Yeah, I’m sure he did.” I shake my head, a bitter laugh rising up and out of my throat. Even knowing what I do, I’m still pissed at him. “He basically kicked me out. You think I would have left her like that?”

“I thought it was a mutual decision.” My sister takes the final few steps, sits down next to the journals and reaches out to touch one. “And none of my business. Plus, you hardly ever answered my calls. I figured there was no way you’d talk to me about something like that.”

And she’s right. I wouldn’t have.

“She’s pregnant again,” I say, not realizing I’m going to until the words come out. Shelby’s eyes widen, and I find myself going through the story, telling her about everything. At the end of it, she reaches out and punches my shoulder.

“Ow.” I reach up and rub it, surprised at her strength. “What was that for?”

“She told you she was pregnant, and you left ?” Shelby gets to her feet, shaking her head and reaching a hand out to me. “You’re an idiot. Come on.”

“Come on? Right now? Don’t you think I should give her some?—”

“You need to get her back. I don’t want to miss another minute with my nieces and nephew.”