Lucy chuckles softly at that. “Terra doesn’t know what’s best for her. She gets hurt and shuts down. I don’t fault her that. I was the Queen of cutting people off for their mistakes. Ask Charlie. I wasted years holding a grudge against him.”
Declan hangs up on the call he was on and walks over. “Did Jake tell you? Tom paid all her medical bills.”
“I already knew. He called me last week to ask if he could,” Lucy explains. “I’m the one who told him when to be here so he could meet up with her when she was discharged.”
They’re all conspiring against me but I can’t even hold it against them because they don’t know it. And I also can’t explain it to them. I’m suddenly really agitated. My life feels like a web of secrets and I’m not the spider who built it but the fly stuck in the middle of it, unable to break free.
“I don’t like him,” I declare. “Not for Terra or in general.”
They both stare at me, stunned. But before they can say anything more the hospital doors open and Tom is wheeling Terra out of the building. When he stops, she stands and, to my horror, she hugs him. Well, he hugs her and she lets him. I guess she’s not able to slug him without pulling her stitches. At least I hope that’s her reason.
If she walks toward his car, I am going to stop her. In front of everyone. Even if it means I get banished to Declan’s room in the attic or get sent to my own place to recuperate alone, I don’t care. I’ll deal with that better than watching her drive away with him. But thankfully, they part there on the sidewalk and Terra walks over to us.
“I’m tired and don’t want to go home with Tom,” Terra says calmly as she approaches. “I told him we’ll talk later.”
Lucy looks so disappointed it wounds me. Declan just shakes his head. “You know Ter, it’s just as easy to fall in love with a rich college professor from New Hampshire as it is a poor dude from Ocean Pines.”
“I’m going to fall in love with someone who doesn’t make me feel like I’m a worthless burden,” Terra snaps as Declan pulls out of the parking lot. “And that’s exactly what Tom did. He volunteered to get tested to donate a kidney, then chickened out and tried to make me feel like I’d pinned him down. I didn’t.”
No one says anything at that information. Lucy gasps though, which I take as a good sign. Terra throws her hoodie on the back seat between us, over my hand resting there, and slips her hand under it to hold mine. I glance over at her and smile but it feels forced. She turns back to her family in the front seat. “And I do not want to talk about Tom ever again, okay? I need to get better and talking about him doesn’t help me.”
They honor her wishes, and I do too, and Tom’s name never comes up again for the rest of the day or night. Later, I still have a gnawing uneasiness I can’t shake. Even after everyone has gone to bed and the bathroom door creeks open and she crawls under the covers with me.
“So… Tom,” I say after she lays a long, hot kiss on me.
“Are you serious?” she whispers back. “We’re talking about this now?”
“He paid for your medical expenses because he’s trying to win you back,” I say. “I’m pretty sure no matter when we talk about it, it’s going to be awkward.”
“He could pay my medical bills, my college loans, and my parents’ mortgage and he’s still not getting me back,” Terra replies flatly. She falls back beside me, and gingerly rolls onto her side, her head in the crook of my arm. Her hair feels silky on my bicep. “Do I look like someone who can be won by a wallet?”
I shake my head but then I find myself saying. “You know I have some savings. I can lend it to you if you want to pay him back.”
She sits up abruptly and then winces. I sit up too and flick on the bedside lamp, worried she hurt her incision somehow. I reach out to touch the hem of the t-shirt she’s wearing but she pushes my hands away. “So I do look like someone who can be won by a wallet.”
“No. Of course not,” I sigh and lean back against the headboard which is hard wood shaped like a ship’s wheel. Logan and Finn have had the same bedroom furniture in here since they were twelve. “Fuck, Terra, I don’t like that he’s still around and that your family thinks he’s such a good fucking match.”
“Well I don’t think it,” Terra leans forward and kisses me again, her tiny hand cupping my jaw. “And they won’t either when they find out about us.”
Is she right? I don’t know. I mean he didn’t realize it when he said it, but I’m that poor guy in Declan’s analogy earlier, not the rich college professor. She tilts her head to the side, her golden hair glinting in the dim moonlight filtering in from the window. As she leans even closer. “I mean I will wake them up right now and tell my parents about us. About how much you mean to me and have always meant to me if it will make you feel better. Or I can do this…”
I feel her other hand slip under the covers and curl around the half hard-on I’ve had since she snuck into my room. She presses down on my length and gives it a firm rub. My eyelids flutter. “Maybe we should wait to tell them.”
She lets out a breathy giggle. But then I place my hand on hers and stop her. Our eyes meet in the dark room. “Did he take the hint?”
“No. He says he’s not ready to give up on us,” Terra admits after a second. Then she lifts my hand off of hers so she can rub me again. “But trust me, my mind and heart are made up.”
She kisses me and I tangle my hands in her hair and kiss her back, my heart clenching as my brain tries fruitlessly to convince me that Terra won’t reconsider her choice if that paternity test I took the day I left the hospital comes back positive.
19
Jake
Charlie’s snoring.Loudly. That’s our cue! I peel back the covers, get out of Logan’s childhood bed, and make my way across the room. I had left the curtains open so the moonlight could guide me. Last night I hit the desk chair with my foot and almost broke my baby toe. It was worth it, though.
It’s been three days since Terra came home. She had a check-up today and her blood and urine work is great. She’s definitely on the mend. The first night, after she snuck through the bathroom that joins our rooms and had the Tom talk, we just held each other and made out like horny teenagers. Last night started the same but she rubbed my hard-on through my pajama pants and I slipped a hand into hers. She came around my fingers and I had to bury my face in my pillow as I came into my pajama bottoms.
I’m about to open the door to the bathroom to see what amazing sexual adventure tonight brings us when Terra opens it from the other side. She’s wearing a loose, soft pink T-shirt and matching pajama bottoms. It’s turned cold this week, finally, with the temperatures dipping drastically at night. Lucy and Charlie keep the house warm enough, but her nipples are still hard. I can see them in the pale light. She smiles up at me. “I thought I would save your toes and come to you tonight.”
