“They’re not empty threats,” she spat. “I will tell him.
“I don’t believe you. If you think meeting Emery isn’t in his best interest, then I have no idea how you could think Marc would be either.”
Then I strode away from her. After kissing Colton good-bye and promising to come back later, I left the hotel and went to go see Emery. We had some catching up to do.
Thirty-Two
Emery
Kimber’s contractions went on forever with no end in sight. By the next morning, I was worn out and had barely slept. I couldn’t even imagine what Kimber was feeling.
Luckily, she had finally managed to get some sleep, which was my chance to find the Starbucks downstairs and drink the entire store dry. I let Noah go first though. He’d been there longer than me, and I knew he needed to eat something even if he claimed he wasn’t hungry. As a doctor, he was used to the weird hours, but he needed to be Kimber’s rock. I’d take care of him for her.
While Noah was gone, my phone pinged. Heidi and I had been texting on and off all night. I swiped my phone and checked the screen, expecting another text from Heidi about the guy she had hit on all last night. But, instead, it was a message from Jensen.
Coffee and doughnuts?
It was as if he had read my mind. I wanted those things so bad. My stomach grumbled. But did I want the added struggle of Jensen right now when I was sleep-deprived?
He texted me again.
It’s just coffee and doughnuts. We don’t have to talk if you don’t want, but I thought you could use some sustenance.
Noah walked back in the door at that time with his own cup of coffee. “Hey, I saw Jensen downstairs. I think he’s waiting for you. So, you can go ahead. I’ll take watch.”
I ground my teeth. Of course he had presumed to show up without checking with me first.
You’re already here?
Guilty.
Fine. I’ll be down. But I’m not a person right now.
I left Noah to watch over Kimber and then headed back down to the first floor. My stomach noisily growled again. I couldn’t remember what I’d last had to eat. A candy bar or something in the middle of the night. I’d been so shaken, and I hadn’t even realized it until I’d gone to find something to help me power through the wee hours of the night.
Jensen was waiting in the lobby, holding two coffees and a bag of doughnuts. He looked…beat. He probably hadn’t slept all night either. And this was the first time I’d ever seen him with stubble. Jensen and clean-shaven went hand in hand. But, fuck, it was definitely sexy on him. Like I wouldn’t mind finding out exactly how he could use that in the bedroom. I was sure it would leave a trail of wonderful marks up my inner thighs.
Damn sleep-deprived brain was yelling at me, Sex, sex, sex.
I shook my head and tried to put everything back in perspective. I was standing on quicksand. If I kept struggling, I’d be swallowed up even faster. But, if I stayed still, maybe, just maybe Jensen could pull me back out.
“Rough night?” I asked when I approached him.
He grimaced slightly at the comment. “You could say that.”
“Yeah. Me, too.”
Jensen passed me the coffee, and we moved to a table inside Starbucks, which was blissfully quiet at such an early hour.
“Noah said that you’re going to be here for a while longer.”
“Looks like it.”
I reached into the bag and smiled when I saw an apple fritter and a cinnamon twist inside. My two favorite doughnuts.
“Thanks for these.”
“I thought that you might be hungry.”
I nodded. For the first time ever, there was awkwardness between us. We had one foot in the water and one foot on solid ground. Not knowing where we stood or what would come next seemed to be killing both of us.
“I know I said that we didn’t have to talk,” Jensen said, breaking the silence.
“Too much to ask for, I guess,” I mumbled.
“And we don’t have to if it’s too much, but I stayed up all night, thinking about what you said.”
“Which part?”
“Me not trusting you…or anyone,” he clarified. His eyes darted up to mine, and I could see the hours of anguish and self-deprecation that radiated from him. “I don’t think that I ever realized until last night that I absolutely do not trust anyone other than myself. Not one person. Not even my family.”
I nodded, having found out firsthand the truth of that statement.
“I wish I could say that I don’t know how that happened to me, but I do.” He sighed and glanced away, as if he didn’t want to continue, as if the next words would rip through him. “Colton isn’t my son.”
I opened my mouth, stuttered incoherently, and then closed it again. I shook my head in confusion, trying to understand how his own son couldn’t be his. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, Colt is Marc’s son,” he said so calmly that I knew it must have been killing him to admit it. “I’ve never told anyone this. Not even my family. The only people who know are me and Vanessa.”
“Not even Marc?”
“Especially not Marc,” he growled low. “I’m a better dad than he could have ever been. I’d spent two years with Colt. He was my son, and I couldn’t lose him. Not to anyone.”
My heart ached for him. How could he possibly live with the fact that his son wasn’t really his? How had he kept that secret locked up for all of these years?
“What happened?” I asked, suddenly desperate for him to tell me the story. To finally have an explanation for why he was so guarded.
“Vanessa and I had been married for almost two years when she found out that she was pregnant. I had been living in Lubbock, taking over the company for my father after his death. I’d barely been in New York. We weren’t even trying. I was still too devastated by his death to think about that. When she called and told me she was pregnant, I was ecstatic. Maybe I should have been more cautious.” He shrugged, as if he had played this over and over again in his head before.