Tattooed Hearts (27 page)

“So what happened?”

She wrinkled her nose and
made a face, to which Adam chuckled.

“Besides the obvious,” he
added. “Did he pull a switcheroo on you this morning? I can kick his ass.”

“He asked me to stay with
him until I leave for L.A.”

Adam gave her o
ne slow, surprised blink. “That’s huge for the big goof.”

“I thought so too, but
then he basically ran out of the house.”

“Good to see he can
actually lose his cool.” He refilled her glass. “He loves you, Claire. He’s had
it bad for so long.”

“So why
the f
reaking out?
I’m thinking we are
finally on the same page.”

“He just had one of his
nuts ripped off, be gentle.”

“I know, and I’m trying.”

“Daddy issue is a bitch.
His is a bit different than mine, but it doesn’t make it any less painful. I
get it.”

“So do
I
.” With the exception of
the one picture her mother showed her a long time ago, she had no clue
who
her father was. It took
years for her to accept the abandonment, and probably would take just as long
for Forrest to accept the lies, the secrets, and eve
ntually
the truth.

Elbows on the bar, Adam
leaned forward and looked at her with serious eyes. “Also you’re within reach.
He can’t avoid you anymore.” He signaled the waitress to the bar,
then
focused back on Claire.
“In case you haven’t noticed, he’s big
at avoiding
shit.”

“Like dealing with his
mom, Charles…”

“Bingo. And you.”

“I’m here.”

Adam gave her a sad smile.
“You’re also leaving.”

Leaving the island
wouldn’t
mean
leaving Forrest
.
T
hey’d find a way to make
things work. Eventually they’d make a
decision, but
that was down the road. Right now was about the here and now. They’d make it
work.

Wouldn’t they?

Hope stretched wide.

Forrest’s words months ago
echoed in her head.
You are temporary
.

A pang hit her right in
the center of her chest at the
thought of walking
away…again.

The front door opened,
Jason and Minka walked in, arm-in-arm. While Minka appeared visibly shaken,
Jason looked completely at ease. Claire’s heart clutched and hoped it wasn’t
bad news. In either case, Forrest’s absence dug a
little deeper. She wanted him here, with her, with them.

“Hey,” Jason greeted and
pulled Claire into a hug. “You’re filling our bar in two days.”

“Sorry about that,” Claire
replied then gave Minka a hug.

Jason waved her off. “It’s
for a good cause. We are
only giving access to
Vineyard Gazette inside though. I hope that’s okay.”

“Works
for me.”
She turned to Minka. “How did the appointment go?”

Minka and Jason exchanged
a look, Jason’s face revealed nothing. Why were men so hard to read? The front
door ope
ned
.
Lily, Keely, and Blake
entered the bar and joined
them
. After hugs were exchanged and fist bumps by the guys,
they huddled together. She was surrounded by love. A lonely, hollow gnawing
gripped at her. Not out of jealousy, these people were under the
family label in her life, and she was happy for all of
them. She just wanted her own with Forrest.

Slow down, one step at a time.
That should be her next
tattoo.

“All right, here we are,”
Blake said
,
one arm casually slung
over Keely’s shoulder.

“So,” Mink
a started and pulled at her curls. “We had an ultrasound to
confirm our suspicions. We heard the heartbeats.”

“Beats?” Keely said with a
frown.

Minka handed the sonogram
picture to Blake who took one look at it, frowned and passed it around. With
the excep
tion of Lily who squealed with glee and
pulled Minka in a tight embrace, everyone looked and nodded with a blank look
on their faces as if they were looking at an abstract piece of art.

Jason shook his head. “Can
you guys read an ultrasound?”

“Nope,” Keely
responded. “I just see fuzz and two black holes with two
dots inside.” She grabbed the picture again and her mouth fell open.
“Oh, my goodness!”

“Twins!”
Lily shrieked, pure delight in her voice.

Adam took the photo and
examined it carefully then looked
at Lily. “You see
two babies there?”

“Of course,” Lily
responded, then added, “There’s two black holes here as Keely mentioned, and…”
She pointed at the pea size dots in the middle. “These are the little
munchkins.”

“That’s their placenta,”
Minka informed.
“Keely and Lily are right, we’re
having twins. They are fraternal twins.” She glanced at Keely. “I’m not sure if
I should cry or laugh.”

Keely was the first to
move in and hug her sister. “Hey, we were great as children. Mom and Dad said
we were ideal twi
ns.”

Minka sighed. “I’m a
little nervous.”

“Right now we celebrate.
This is fantastic news,” Adam suggested, already filling glasses with each
man’s drink of choice, wine for Keely and Claire and water for the two pregnant
women.

“Says the man who never wa
nted to have children,” Blake reminded his friend. In
response, Adam flipped him the bird.

Jason squeezed his wife’s
shoulder and placed a kiss on her lips. Claire sensed her friend’s concern ran
a little deeper. Until recently, Minka and Keely’s relations
hip had been tension- filled, more so on Minka’s part. The
sisters had made great progress but Claire would still put them in the WIP
category—Work-in-Progress.

“You have us, Minx,” Blake
said to his longtime friend. Without Minka, Blake and Keely would ha
ve never existed. “As Adam said, this is a time for
celebration.” He looked around then met Jason’s eyes. “Isn’t that Forrest’s
Jeep parked by the pier?”

“I drove it here,” Claire
answered.

Blake’s handsome face fell
with disappointment
. “Tell him next tim
e we spar,
it’s a guaranteed ass whooping.”

Jason waved it off. “Let
him be a dick.”

But Claire knew Jason well
enough to know he was ticked off by Forrest’s attitude.

By the time she stepped
inside Forrest’s home, her head was heavy with muddled thoughts.
She had to return to her life in Los Angeles. There was a
crack in their circle. Dropping her bag in the hallway, she headed to the only
room with a television and found Forrest typing away in his MacBook, an opened
beer bottle on the coffee table. The te
levision was
on but muted. The only audible sound was the crackling of lively flames in the
ample fireplace.

He tipped his head in her
direction and patted the spot next to him, one hand still typing as he did so.
She plopped on the sofa as close as possib
le so their
hips touched.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” she
answered,
voice low.

His fingers continued to
tap on the keyboard. She glanced at the medical jargon on the screen.
In addition to causing arthritis, Lyme disease can also cause
heart, brain, and nerve problems.
A silence, neither comfortable nor
heavy hung in the air. Then he clicked
save
, powered off the
computer, and kissed her,
a long, sweet, simmering kiss that left her wanting more.

“Minka and Jason are
having twins,” she said when they finally broke f
or
air.

“Wow. How is Minka?”

“She’s a little shaken.”

Forrest nodded in
comprehension. The drama between the sisters was well documented within the
circle.

“What about Jason? You
didn’t ask about how he’s doing,” she asked and held her breath. The room
grew still like a cemetery. With a sea of anxiety rocking
her belly, she rose from the couch, dusted imaginary lint off her pants and
walked across the room. A clear head was essential for this conversation, and
sitting next to Forrest, hips touching, no w
ay in
hell could she not be sidetracked. “Jason is…”

“Let’s not go there,” he
cut her off.
 

Thoughtfully, she examined
his face. His dark hollow eyes showed what he’d been working on—to extract the
human from inside of him. “We have to,” she whispered.

“W
hy?”

Their gazes locked. Her
frazzled nerves jumped all together, and in different directions.
“Because he’s your brother.
The two of you were
brothers even before you knew about Charles.”

His gray eyes roved over
her, then back to her face, and waited her
out with a
pointed look.

She drew in as deep a
breath as she could and said, “You can’t take your anger out on him.”

“I’m not angry at Jason. I
just don’t want to have anything to do with the Montgomery men.”

Funny, he was a
Montgomery, right down to the
stubbornness. “Jason
has never done anything to you. He’s guilty by association and that’s wrong.”

Silent
as stone.
Absolutely
nothing.

“You should talk to your
mother and Charles.”

He shoved a hand into his
hair, holding it off his forehead. “Now you’re p
ushing
it.”

“Don’t you want to know
the whole story?” There had to be more. She’d seen Luc, Marjorie, Charles, and
Victoria together. Something had to happen to bring Marjorie and Charles
together.

“I know all I need to
know. My mother cheated and Charles
is a fucking
scumbag.”

“You should at least allow
yourself a chance to find out the truth.” She waited, but he said nothing. Wise
thing to do here was probably remain quiet and force him to fill the silence,
but her heart was hurting and once in a while ev
eryone
needed a good kick in the ass. “Does that mean you’re not coming to my show on
Friday?”

Forrest slowly stood up
from the couch, walked over to where she stood and crowded her both physically
and mentally. He put a finger under her chin and brought h
er face to his.

“Do you want me there?” he
asked.

“You know I do.”

He leaned in so that his
upper body hovered over hers. “Then I’ll be there.”

For her, Claire noted, he
was willing to put everything aside. The
nest of butterflies were
back in her stomach,
trying to make their way out. “Jason will be there.”

“I’m bigger than him.” A
smile lit up his face. “I can handle him.”

“You just made me happy.”

“I can make you happier.”

She arched a brow, daring
him to do whatever he wanted. Wrapp
ing an arm around
her waist, he dipped and lifted her off her feet.

Claire laughed. “You keep
carrying me off to your bed.”