Ripe: A Stepbrother Pregnancy Romance (29 page)

“
Friends?
” Jesse gawked at her and laughed. “What, you mean the way we were just
friends
when we were growing up? Why don’t you just be honest with yourself for once?  You know as well as I do that there’s no just being friends with us.”

“Jesse, we can’t do this. We have too much to lose if it doesn’t work out again. When you’re a parent, you have to think about your child’s needs before your own. We have to think about Isaiah here.”

Jesse was silent for a long time. He rubbed his face, trying his best to keep his temper at bay. “I’m sick of you telling me what it means to be a parent,” he said, not bothering to keep his voice down. “Stop acting like you’re doing anything other than punishing me here. This isn’t about Isaiah with you. It never was.”

“What?” Elise spat. “So by not fucking you, I’m
punishing you’
? Please tell me you’re not being serious right now. Do you even hear yourself?”

“Oh just drop the act, would you? You’re a smart girl, Elise. Quit playing dumb. You know exactly what I’m talking about! You’re toying with me and you know it. The other day you told me that you spent seven years waiting for me to come back, and then today at the carnival…we had a moment and you know it…look I…” Jesse clenched his jaw as his frustration reached a full boil. “I’m sick of you luring me in just to push me away right when I start to get close. I can’t do this anymore. I’ve had it. If this is the way you want to be…if you can honestly look me in the eye and say that there’s nothing here anymore…then I’ll leave you alone for good. Just say the word.”

Elise stared at Jesse at a loss for words, and her silence seemed to be all the verification that he needed.

“Whatever,” Jesse spat, pacing for the front door and grabbing up his car keys along the way.

Elise deflated against the couch, silently praying that the tears gathering in the corners of her eyes wouldn’t spill over.

With one loud slam, he was gone.

Chapter Forty-Six

Elise could count the number of times Jesse had spoken to her in the past week on one hand. Whenever she tried to engage him in conversation, if it wasn’t about Isaiah or a matter directly concerning him, he’d make a point of ignoring her.

In an effort to give Jesse the space he needed to come to terms with her decision, Elise threw herself into her schoolwork, and on the weekdays when Isaiah was at school, especially on Jesse’s days off, she made a point of going to the University library to study in order to avoid bumping heads with him.

When Elise returned from class one Friday morning, she entered the house to find Jesse waiting for her in the kitchen.

“I have a guest coming by this weekend,” he noted as he flipped through the newspaper in his hands. “They need some place to sleep, and since they wouldn’t feel comfortable in my room, I wanted to let you know that they’ll be taking yours. Just for the weekend.”

The way Jesse wasn’t even looking at her while he spoke was even more infuriating to Elise than the words that were leaving his mouth, but she refused to let him see that he’d gotten to her.

“And where am I supposed to sleep, exactly?”

“You’ll take my room. I’ll take the couch.”

“You can’t just toss this kind of thing at me out of nowhere, Jesse. A little preparation would have been nice. I have personal things in my room.”

“Oh don’t get all riled up,” Jesse said, folding up his newspaper and offering her a fake smile as he made his way to the door. “You have an entire day to move your valuables into my room.”

“Jackass,” Elise muttered when he was out of sight.

“Right back at ya!” Jesse called from the stairs.

Elise sighed and went to pack away the things she didn’t want anyone to find, but she definitely didn’t take them into Jesse’s bedroom. She brought everything into Isaiah’s instead, and just as she was putting it all inside his closet, Jesse stuck his head in to let her know that he was going to pick him up from school.

“No,” Elise stated without looking at him. She wasn’t about to miss out on an opportunity to temporarily escape the tension in the house. “Let me do it. I have some errands to run anyway.”

“Well how long are you planning on being gone this time?”

“However long it takes.”

“Elise, come on. You know I told Isaiah I’d take him to see that movie after his first full week of school.”

“And you still can, you know, so long as we get back in time.”

“Ah that’s right, Elise. Punish our son because of this little grudge you’re holding against me. How mature of you.”

“Oh get real,” Elise spat, swirling around to look Jesse in the eye. “You’re the one holding a grudge here, Jesse, not me.”

“It’s Friday. You don’t have any errands to run and you know it. You knew I had plans with Isaiah, and now here you are trying to ruin them—just like I expected. All I want to do is take him to a damn movie. What’s the big deal?”

Jesse had no delusions about what the ‘big deal’ really was, but he was also well aware that Elise would never own up to it.

“What movie?” Elise questioned, feeling her indignation slip away after a moment of staring Jesse down. Something was definitely up with him. He was doing the shifty-eyed flared nostril thing he never did unless he was lying about something.

“What?” Jesse questioned. He’d prepared for more of a fight and he was caught off guard by the nonchalance of Elise’s tone.

“I
said
what movie are you taking him to see? Maybe I’ll tag along.”

“Why, so you can censor me? Make sure I’m not being the monster you think I am?” Jesse rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “Is this where we are now? Am I back to having to prove myself as a father?”

“Oh come on, Jesse! It’s a simple fucking question. What movie are you taking our son to?”

Jesse shook his head and stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him. “Fuck it,” he called when it swung back, shaking on its hinges. “I knew you’d be like this.”

Elise listened to him leave the house and shook her head. All this did was confirm her suspicions. She didn’t know what he was up to, but it was obviously something.

Chapter Forty-Seven

By the time Elise got Isaiah to bed that night, Jesse still hadn’t returned home from when he’d left earlier that afternoon. After cleaning up the house and doing a load of laundry, she tried her best to focus on her homework, but her mind wandered and she couldn’t deny the fact that she was starting to worry.

Where was he?

Just when it started to get dark, Elise heard Jesse’s car pull into the driveway and turned her attention back to her textbook in an attempt at making it seem like she was really studying. She was concentrating so hard that she almost didn’t hear that he wasn’t by himself. When she heard a woman’s voice, her heart raced and she made a quick dash towards the stairs. Halfway up, she tripped and dropped her textbooks with a loud thud, twisting her ankle in the process. It only took a few seconds of searing pain for her to know the jig was up.

Jesse heard the commotion and paced into the living room, where he found Elise on the steps clenching her calf and trying her hardest not to cry.

“What happened?” he asked, immediately at her side.

“I fell,” Elise whimpered. “I…I think I sprained my ankle.” At that moment, she noticed a familiar figure walking her way. “Deanna?” she gasped.

“Oh, Jesus, Elise,” Deanna said, kneeling down to greet her with outstretched arms.

Something about her friend’s tone told Elise that she wasn’t just empathetic about her ankle. She braced through her pain, glancing back and fourth between Deanna and Jesse as she tried her best to decipher what was going on.

Jesse offered Elise his shoulder, but Deanna was quick to pull him back. “Don’t move her. If it’s broken that’ll only make it worse. Just go get some ice, would you? It’s already swollen.”

Jesse relented. Judging from the amount of pain Elise was in, he knew something was definitely wrong.

“Would you let me carry you into the living room?”

Too immersed in her pain to protest, Elise gave him a strained nod, allowing him to lift her up and carry her onto the couch.

After about an hour of him tending to the swelling, Elise looked over at Jesse and blinked through her pain. “You don’t have to stay down here you know,” she told him. “It’s late. You can head to bed.”

Jesse remained quiet and glanced over at Elise like she was out of her mind before rolling his eyes and turning his attention back to the fracture guide he was reading on his phone. From what he could gauge, she hadn’t broken anything. It was just a really bad strain.

“Seriously, Jesse,” Elise pressed. “You look exhausted. Deanna will be out of the shower any minute. I’m sure she won’t mind tending to me. I promise I’ll be—”

“Elise, just drop it, would you?” Jesse sighed in irritation. “You and I both know there’s no way in hell I’d ever leave you alone while injured. You’re right. Deanna can take over when she’s done getting settled, but I’m staying right here until then. Got it?”

Elise sat back, crossing her arms over her chest in defeat. After another few minutes of silence, Jesse shut off his phone and went to grab a few things to set her sprain. Once he was satisfied, he gave her a painkiller for the pain, along with a glass of water to swallow it down with.

Deanna padded down the stairs in her pajamas and took a seat beside Elise on the couch, gently lifting her legs into her lap.

“I’m sorry,” Elise apologized, pulling her into a hug. “I’m such a klutz. I totally ruined your return, didn’t I?”

“Are you kidding?” Deanna pulled back to cup her friend’s face. “I’m just happy to see you.”

Jesse felt increasingly unwanted as he hovered over the women as they caught up. Once there was a lull in the conversation, he took the opportunity to speak. “Uh, Elise…I was just wondering where you were going to sleep tonight. Because like I said, you can take my—”

“The couch is fine,” Elise interrupted.

“Elise, come on,” Jesse pressed. “There’s no way I’m letting you sleep on the
couch
in your condition. Like I told you earlier, you can take my room.”

“That’s really not necessary,” Elise told him.

Jesse sighed, too exhausted to put up a fight. Deanna looked on as he shrugged and retreated up the stairs. When he was gone, she turned her attention back to Elise.

“Elise, let me take the couch,” she insisted.

“Deanna, please. You’re our guest. I’m not letting you sleep on the
couch.
You must be exhausted after such a long flight. You deserve a good night’s sleep.”

“But your ankle—”

“Oh please.” Elise shrugged and waved her hand in the air. “I’m serious. The couch is fine. I’m just thrilled that you’re here. Wait a second…why
are
you here?”

Elise had made several references to Deanna’s arrival throughout the course of their conversation, and it was only just occurring to her that she still didn’t know why she was here. Maybe it was the painkillers, or maybe she was just inebriated from her injury.

“Elise,” Deanna said, grasping for her friend’s hand. “Jesse flew me out for your twenty-sixth. It’s his birthday present to you.”

“He
what?
”

Deanna nodded. “He called me about a week ago and begged me to come. You really had no idea?”

Elise shook her head. “No…we actually haven’t been getting along all that well lately, so that’s a real surprise.”