Surrounded (Unsettled Series Book 2) (12 page)

“Why?”

“Just tell me” I said, raising my voice then catching myself, “Please.” I knew Alex had nothing to do with this situation but at the moment she was the only person that could give me what I wanted.

“California” she muttered.

“What in the hell is she doing there?”

“If I had to guess, I’d say getting away from you?”

“Why isn’t she at Copple anymore?” I had a strong suspicion that I had something to do with that, too.

“Oh, that asshole Trent found out that she was seeing you.”
Great.
I knew Brooklyn had been paranoid about us seeing one another, but I didn’t think it would come down to her losing her job. This day was getting shittier by the minute.
I pinned Alex with a hard stare. “I just want you to know, I didn’t know anything about this shit with Elizabeth. And yeah, we were together…once last year. Long before I met Brooklyn. This makes the timing of this whole pregnancy thing— which I’ll remind you I knew nothing about—completely suspicious. It would have been nice if my girlfriend had had the decency to give me the benefit of the doubt before she assumed the worst about me. You’re both so busy acting like I’m the creep here. But I’m hardly the only one at fault.”

From the way she squirmed, I could tell my explanation made Alex uneasy—no doubt I’d given her a whole new perspective on the situation. For once, she was at a loss for words.

“I need to go,” I blurted out. I abruptly stormed down the stairs towards my car. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and searched for Elizabeth’s number.

Time to get to the bottom of this shit. Now.

Brooklyn

“Hi, sis!” Danielle squealed, pulling me in for a hug. She was practically jumping up and down, as if she hadn’t seen me in a decade.

“Hey, Dani” I laughed. After she let me up for air I kneeled down to pick up my nephew, Aiden.

“Hi, Goober” I said, pushing at his little tummy. He tried to hide his face in my shoulder, but I kept tickling him until he let out a small laugh. Danielle was right; he was so much bigger now and a spitting image of his father. For a fleeting second my mind took me where I didn’t want to go, and I wondered how Aiden would’ve reacted if he met his cousin. A cousin that wasn’t meant to be born. Before I could dwell on it, I pushed it back into the dark crevice of my brain it had crawled out from.

“Do you know how much Aunt Brook missed her Goober?” I asked him. I leaned in and blew raspberries on his neck. He squirmed in my arms and giggled. “Stop it!”

“Are you going to stop acting shy then, Goober?”

“Me not shy” he said, furrowing his eyebrow seriously. He always made me smile with that look. “Me Aiden, not Boober.” At the mispronunciation of his nick name I burst out laughing.

“That’s right, you’re Aiden.” I pulled him in tighter, giving him another quick squeeze before setting him back down on his feet. God I’d missed him.

“What are you all dressed up for?” I asked, noticing that Danielle was decked out in a tight pair of skinny jeans, a flouncy white top, and red heels. If she wasn’t toting Aiden around, nobody would’ve guessed that she had a kid with a body like hers.

“Aren’t we going to Siri’s?” she asked.

“I didn’t know that was cause to get dressed up.” I pointed at my ensemble— Converse, fitted tee, and jeans. I was much more casual than my sister.

“Don’t blame me,” she shrugged. ”I don’t get out much. Girls night out for drinks is cause for a celebratory outfit.” Danielle turned to my mom, who was standing near the entry way, “Will you watch Aid for a few hours while we go out for drinks?”

“Of course I’ll watch my little baby. Don’t be gone long though. I have a lot to do for this party on Saturday.”

Danielle groaned.

“Stop it,” my m
om scolded, but there was zero force behind it.

Watching my mom plan any type of affair was painful. She always
went way overboard and somehow the day of the event, me and Danielle would end up running around like chickens with our heads cut off, trying to keep the whole thing together. God help me if I ever decided to get married. Danielle had been smart and just hired a wedding planner.

“Does Dad even want a party, Mom?” I asked.

Before she could answer, Danielle interrupted, “No. He was insistent that he didn’t want a party to celebrate, but as usual mom steam rolled right over his wishes.”

“
That is not what happened!” my mom exclaimed, but I knew it was likely true. “It’s just going to be a very small and simple affair.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. Now you two get out of here. Me and Goober have things to do” she said, as she shooed us out the door.

“He already ate, so he shouldn’t need anything” Danielle said, turning and leaning in to give Aiden a swift kiss. “Don’t let Nana work your little fingers to the bone, baby” she joked.

“Bye, Goober!” I called, as we walked down the driveway towards Danielle’s 4Runner.

Of course after ten minutes we hit rush hour traffic. Thankfully, we didn’t have too far to go.

As we came to a complete stop amongst a sea of red lights, Danielle turned to me. “So what’s new, B?” she asked, turning the knob on her radio to find a good station.

“Nothing, really. I need to get on the ball and start looking for a job when I get back.”

“That’s not really what I meant. You weren’t supposed to be out until July. I’m glad to see you, but it’s not like you to pop up unannounced. So I can only assume something else is going on.” She eased off the brake and moved the car along until we came to a stop behind a Honda.

“Yeah, well, when you don’t have a job, it’s amazing how free your schedule becomes.”

“True” she agreed. “What’s the latest on you and Logan? Things good there?”

And there it was. The topic I did
not
want to talk about.

“Umm. Nothing really to tell. We aren’t exactly speaking at the moment. Pretty sure we’re over.” The truth was I didn’t know what we were to each other anymore.

“Huh? I thought you liked him.” She fidgeted with the AC to decrease the temperature.

“It’s more than like,” I admitted.

“If you love him, then why are you breaking up?”

“You want the short or long version?” I found myself playing with the buttons on the door armrest. I didn’t want to have this conversation. The whole purpose of leaving DC was to get away for a few days and not think about Logan—or the fact that I was an unemployed hobo.

“Short please. Not feeling very patient.”

I sighed. “He got another girl pregnant.” There, short and sweet.”

Danielle whipped her head and gaped at me, “Are you fucking with me right now? Because it’s not funny.”

“I wouldn’t lie about something like that.”

“Well damn, I don’t know what to say. That’s hella-lame. What did he say when he told you?”

I looked straight ahead into the sea of cars. “He didn’t tell me. I found out while I was in the bathroom at an event last weekend.”

“What do you mean, ‘you found out while you were in the bathroom?’”

I filled her in on what happened.

“So what now?” she asked, getting over and exiting the freeway.

“I don’t really know where to go with that news. I mean, people with kids have relationships all the time, but then when I saw the pictures of them in Seattle.” I shook my head. “I can’t go through what I did with Damon again. I just can’t.” I never thought I’d be lumping Damon and Logan in the same category, and I wished that he hadn’t given me a reason to want to. Based on the photos online it was obvious there was more to Elizabeth and Logan’s ‘friendship’ than met the eye. The way she was leaning into him like he was hers sickened me. Well technically, I guess he was hers. If nothing else, her baby was his, and that trumped everything else. I knew how Logan felt about his own father—and he’d do what he felt was the right thing. I didn’t doubt for a second that meant standing by Elizabeth in whatever capacity she needed.

“Earth to Brooklyn.”

I turned to look at Danielle, realizing I’d zoned out. We were already pulling into the parking lot of Siri’s.

“Sorry, I got lost in my own head…just thinking.”

“Well, stop doing that. It’s an instant buzz kill.” She pulled her SUV into a parking spot outside the restaurant.  “Ready to get your Saki Bomb on?”

“Yep. Bombs away” I said, attempting to lighten my mood as I hopped down from her truck.

We walked in and were quickly seated in a small booth. When the waitress came up and offered us menus we declined. I always ordered the same thing at Siri’s—baked Salmon rolls.

After placing her order Danielle turned to me, “What are you getting dad for his birthday?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t given it much thought, but maybe we can go in on something, since now I have to find something by Saturday?”

“Tool set?”

“Meh.”

“Greatest Dad Ever mug?”

“Seriously? I’m pretty sure we aren’t celebrating Father’s Day.”

“Okay, well let’s just get him a gift card and call it good. I’m tapped out on gift ideas at the moment.” I knew my dad wanted to go to Tahiti, but I would leave that up to my mom. Between me and Danielle, there was no way we would be able to scrape together the money necessary to gift him his dream vacation. Danielle made excellent money, but now had a young child taking up a good portion of that. And I was in the professional toilet.

As we chatted our waitress came by and delivered our orders.

“This place is always so good” I said, before stuffing a roll into my mouth.

“I know, I’m never disappointed.” We sounded like true foodies. I was in the middle of enjoying my rolls when I felt my purse vibrate against my leg. I took my phone out and read the text message from Alex.

Call me. We need to talk.

I typed back quickly,
At Siri’s with Danielle. Call you later.

Okay. But call me ASAP.

I made a note to call her when I got home, and placed my phone back on the table. I wondered what was so urgent. I hoped she wasn’t calling to tell me she was ready to kill Jay. I hadn’t even been gone twenty-four hours.

“Who was that?” my sister asked, eyeing me. I could tell she thought it might have been Logan.

“Alex,” I mumbled squelching Danielle’s hopes. I reached for a napkin across the table. As I pulled my arm back, my elbow inadvertently hit my glass and water spilled everywhere.

“Shit!” I muttered, scrambling to grab some napkins and lifting my phone out of the puddle. Water cascaded off the edge of the table and into my lap.
Great.

“Here, use this.” Danielle offered me her linen napkin. I wiped up as much as I could from the table, then turned my attention to my phone.

“Ugh” I groaned. Drying the phone out was no use. I could already see water swooshing inside the screen. 
Shit, shit, shit!
I was going to have to figure out how to get a new phone since I had foolishly not signed up for insurance.

“Okay, well I guess that’s our cue to leave,” Danielle said, standing up from the table.

“Yeah” I remarked begrudgingly. “So much for a relaxing night out.”

She tracked down our waitress and had the rest of our food packed to go.

“C’mon potty pants” she said, grinning. “I’m going to have to use one of Aiden’s blankets on your seat so you don’t get the chair wet.”

“You’re so not funny right now.”

Ugh.
Just one more thing to add to the not-going-right list.