Cherishing You (Thirsty Hearts Book 3) (22 page)

“Okay. I promise.”

Shannon didn’t think she had the strength to follow through, but she promised anyway because she couldn’t bear to disappoint her friend.

“The ice cream is melting. We have to eat it. You were so nice to bring it over.”

“Bringing ice cream is the least I could do. So, Jonah left?”

“I guess. I don’t know. He parks in the garage. He could be there. He could not be there.”

At a loss, Shannon fell against Kim’s shoulder and let herself cry until she had nothing left.

T
he apartment
above Jonah’s garage was nicer than most places Shannon had ever lived. If he thought he was punishing her, he was mistaken.

She just had to find a place to stay until the duplex was put back together. To get more definitive about when that would be, she called her landlord during her work break and received some good news.

“I can get you a hotel voucher from the insurance company. They’ll even cover your meals. I didn’t do it because you had a place to stay right away.”

“Great. Where I am now, well…I need to have my own space.”

“I hear you. It’s hard to stay with friends. It’s not your house, and things can get awkward. Let me call the insurance company tomorrow and get back to you. It might not be until Wednesday or Thursday before I get you into a hotel.”

“That’s fine.” Shannon didn’t think Jonah would throw her out over a day or two—no matter how much he hated her.

Pulling up to the garage after work that night, she saw the lights on in the main house and tried not to think about what he was doing.

They hadn’t spoken since their fight on Saturday. Shannon didn’t expect that to change. The brisk knock on the door a few minutes after she got home made her start so badly, she spilled her herbal tea. It could only be Jonah, so rather than getting up, she screamed for him to come in.

“This is a surprise.” She greeted him in an even voice without turning around.

“I’ll be quick. Two things. First, I’ve thought about it, and since your place will be ready in a few weeks, you don’t have to move again. You can stay here.”

“No need. My landlord said he can get me a voucher for a hotel. It even includes meals. So you were right, I did figure it out.”

“Can you at least turn around, so I’m not talking to the back of your head?”

Shannon turned and lifted herself up to a kneeling position. Her widening stomach pressed against the back of the couch.

“What else?”

He pressed his lips into a thin line.

“I made an appointment next Wednesday for the paternity test.”

“I have a place that I’d already looked into.”

“Really? As you know, that’s news to me, so we won’t need whatever you found. I’ve made the arrangements.”

“I’ll have to see when I can get off from work.”

“It’s a Wednesday. I doubt my sister will give you any trouble.”

“It’s still a job. I have work hours.”

“Fine. The appointment I made is for ten. Check your busy schedule and get back to me if we need to change it. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll assume that time works and see you there.”

Shannon bit her lip to keep from bursting into tears.

“I’ll be out by the end of the week. If that’s it, you can get the hell out.”

“How in this scenario are you pissed off at me? I didn’t sleep with someone else.”

“I said you can get the hell out.” Shannon scrambled off the couch to stand, yelling.

“Kicking me out of my own home?”

“For now, this place is mine.” Shannon swept her hand in a swoosh to signify her domain.

“Everything on this property is still mine.”

She took a challenging step toward him, closing the space between them quickly in the small apartment.

“Not everything.”

“Clearly.”

“You know what, Jonah? Go fuck yourself.”

Shannon couldn’t pinpoint when his anger switched to desire, but Jonah had her in his arms in a flash, feasting on her mouth like starving man.

Her heart pounded in her ears, and she reveled in the taste of him. That their last kiss should be angry and hateful depressed her. Once she was out of his reach, she wouldn’t look back.

S
hannon tasted sweeter than candy
. How had he missed her this much in only a couple of days? The feel of her jolted his cock awake—the cloud of her curly hair around his fingers and the curve of her ass in his hand. The familiarity of the sensations sent him right back to every time he’d held her before and lifted off her shirt and peeled off her pants—along with her panties.

Every time her body pressed up against his, just like it had with Aaron.

Jonah broke away from her, pulling back with determination.

“That’s not going to happen again.”

Shannon wiped her mouth with the back of her hand like she’d accidentally eaten something foul. “One thing we can agree on.”

“I don’t get what I’ve done to you.”

Rage bloomed in her face. “Nothing. Go back to the house.”

He fought the desire to grab her again and kiss her until she told him. All day, Jonah thought through the days and weeks immediately after Shannon got back from Lindsay’s.

Most of the month leading up to her birthday, he told himself that her friend’s death accounted for Shannon’s desolate mood and that women don’t respond well to getting older. He figured to the two things together had her reflecting on her life.

Now, he wasn’t sure if she hadn’t been overcome with guilt or maybe shame. The two emotions looked the same and drove the same furtive behavior. Vivienne thought he should talk to Shannon. Maybe there was another story.

Cynicism sprang up and grabbed him by throat.

This is what Shannon did. She looked up at you with those doe eyes the color of the ocean, and you drown in your own sympathy.

“Next Wednesday. Ten o’clock,” he choked out, turned heel, and rushed out the door.

Once he got the test results, he could deal with Shannon. Or not. If the baby wasn’t his, then he could walk away and not look back.

Let Aaron deal with it. A sharp pain twisted in his solar plexus. The baby he didn’t know and might never meet could have that cretin as a father—brawling, gun-toting, one-night-stand Aaron. Shannon played the innocent, but this child was one.

No wonder Shannon had closed her eyes and crossed her fingers. She stood at a crossroads where her life would head in nearly opposite directions. No wonder he was such an attractive target for her. She would have had him raising another man’s baby as his own—to save herself as well as the baby.

He thought of how wounded she looked earlier and slumped in his chair.

For a minute, Jonah let himself think about Shannon’s life if he wasn’t the father. From the looks of Aaron the other day, he would dog Shannon, and unlike with Kid, she wouldn’t be able to leave him behind. He would demand a presence in the child’s life, and Shannon would be tied to him forever.

In raising the child, would they develop feelings for each other? Would Shannon have the family that she wanted—but with someone else?

The pain in his gut churned harder. What a fool he’d be to hold on to love he still had for her. Regardless of the outcome, she was the same woman who lied to him.

Then, the question of Aaron remained. Until he knew if the child was his, he’d be in both Jonah’s and Shannon’s life. Jonah couldn’t have that guy causing problems.

He picked up the phone and dialed their family’s head of security. The more he knew about this other man, the better he could protect himself. As far as who’d protect Shannon and the baby, Jonah would have to let that go.

A
ssuming Jonah talked
to his sister, Shannon texted Vivienne on Monday to ask whether she should bother showing up on Wednesday.

Shannon turned her phone over and over in her hand, fearing the response, and it rang.

“Hello, Vivienne.”

“Hi, Shannon. What are you doing tonight? Are you working?”

“Yes. The dinner shift.”

“What about tomorrow? I want to talk with you, and I’d rather not wait until Wednesday.”

Shannon swallowed. “If you’re going to fire me, just do it now.”

“I’m not firing you. I need to talk to you. Jonah told me some of what happened, but honestly, he was pretty drunk. What he did tell me…it bothers me. What happened to you bothers me.”

“I’m working late shift again tomorrow, but I can come by your office in the morning.”

“Great. Ten?”

“Okay.”

“Perfect. Take care of yourself, Shannon.”

Stunned, she hung up the phone.

The next morning, she sat in Vivienne’s office. Fear tightened her shoulders, cramping her neck.

“I want to hear what happened directly from you. My brother…I think he got so mad that he isn’t thinking straight.”

Hope burgeoned within Shannon. Maybe they could work this out. Maybe she could explain things, and Jonah would hear the truth. Shannon explained about going back to Mineola for the funeral and about her relationship with Lindsay.

“I went to her house afterward. Friends had brought over food, and Lindsay wanted to have a celebration. She said that’s what Laura asked for. I was drinking soda—I swear—and at some point, the girl Amber handed me another soda in a plastic cup, and I drank it. A few minutes later, I started to feel funny. I was talking to people and felt chatty, but dizzy—then just dizzy and out of it. That’s when I ran into Kid and he grabbed me, but this guy Aaron pulled him off of me. Kid and his cousin left. Then, I could hardly stand up. I remember Lindsay yelling at Amber, and Aaron helped me inside.”

“So you didn’t take drugs?”

“No! I found out the next day that Amber put a roofie in my drink because she thought I was being snotty and uptight not boozing with everyone. To her, it was a joke.” Her voice cracked, and Shannon took a deep breath. “Obviously, it wasn’t a joke. Not to me.”

“Not to anyone with any sense. I can’t believe a woman would do that to another woman.”

“When you’re used to doing drugs all the time, these things look different. Being high is no big deal.”

“But they knew you were trying to stay clean and sober.”

“Amber? Maybe. I don’t know. She knew I didn’t want to drink.”

“What about this guy?”

“Aaron? He helped me inside, and I thought he was being a nice guy, you know. He got me away from Kid. We’re in the hallway, and I’m really disoriented,” Shannon explained with her eyes closed, trying to picture exactly what happened. “Aaron is tall and blond and at the time…I know this is strange and stupid, but it all got crossed in my head. When I met Jonah for the first time, outside of being his waitress, he got me away from Kid too. I was just so mixed up. I kissed him. I did, but I definitely remember telling myself, ‘This isn’t Jonah.’”

The terror of what happened hit Shannon all at once. She put herself back in that hallway and began to cry.

Vivienne handed her a bundle of tissues. “We don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to.”

“No, I need to tell you what happened. I pushed him away. I remember that, but then everything else from that night is gone. I woke up the next day, and my arms and knees were bruised, and I felt so sick from the drug. Lindsay told me that I made out with Aaron, but no one could tell me what happened after the hallway. I couldn’t ask Aaron. But to be real, if something happened, I didn’t want to know. I wanted to forget the whole thing, and then—”

“You found out you were pregnant.”

Tears fell faster onto Shannon’s cheeks. “I wanted to keep pretending. I didn’t know what to tell Jonah. It was stupid. You’d think by now I’d know that anytime I make decision because I’m scared, it blows up on me. Jonah is never going to forgive me, and even if the baby is his, it’s never going to be same now.”

“No, it won’t, but Shannon what you’re describing is a rape. A man having sex with you when he knows that you’re so out of it you can’t stand up—that’s rape. There’s not even gray area. He knew you didn’t know what was happening around you.”

“It doesn’t matter, Vivienne. I have no proof. Everyone at the party was telling me that I threw myself at Aaron. No one is going to say that I didn’t ask for it.”

“Everyone will say that you were drugged. That’s really all that matters. It’s the law.”

“The police aren’t going to listen to me weeks later. I’d sound like I was making an excuse for cheating on my boyfriend and getting pregnant.”

“Whether you go to the police or you don’t, Jonah needs to hear the whole story.”

“That doesn’t matter either. I’ve been thinking about this non-stop. He didn’t want to hear me. You didn’t see him. He jumped on the idea that I was trying to trick him, and let’s face it. I was.”

“But that’s not the whole story. You need to tell him.”

Shannon shook her head. “I’m putting this behind me. I’m looking forward. I have to take care of this baby—whether it’s Jonah’s or not. I’m his or her mother. I don’t want to fight.”

“Sometimes you have to fight for yourself.”

“No. If Jonah’s wants to know what happened, he can ask. If he wants to forgive me, he will. I’m not going to beg for him to come back to me—especially now that I know what he really thinks of me.”

The tears stopped flowing, and Shannon wiped her eyes.

“He was angry. Maybe he said some things he shouldn’t have said, but I know how broken up he is and how much he loves you.”

“Vivienne, thanks for hearing me out. It means the world to me, but I don’t want you to talk about this with your brother anymore. I don’t want to talk about this ever again. It’s over.”

“But you love him, too.”

Shannon met her proclamation with a sad shrug. “I do, but the problem is bigger than what happened after that funeral. You and I both know that I’m not the kind of person that Jonah would have ever wanted to be with. I don’t really fit in with his life or his friends. How long before we realized that and broke up anyway? It might better to get it over with now—before the baby gets here.”

“You’re giving up.”

“He called me a scheming bitch.” She clenched her teeth.

“He didn’t mean it.”

“Are you going to keep pushing this? I can’t work here if this is going to be a problem.”

“It won’t be. I’m disappointed for you both. That’s all.”

“Not as much as I am,” Shannon bemoaned. “I have to go. I’m working the lunch shift.”

“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“You’re family isn’t going to be happy.”

“I’ll handle my family.”

Still, Shannon doubted she’d be able to keep working at Vivienne’s for much longer, but soon, she wouldn’t be able to wait tables, and then she’d have no income at all. When you’re desperate, you can’t turn down good money.

W
hen Jonah got back
to his office after lunch and a morning full of meetings, Nanette flagged him down.

“Your sister has left two messages for you with me. Are you not answering your phone?”

“We’re having an issue. I know where she stands, and I don’t want to hear it right now.” The words came out of Jonah’s mouth more sharply than intended.

“Oh.” His normally diplomatic administrative assistant raised her eyebrows and turned back to her computer. “I sent you the files for your two o’clock. Check your email.”

“Sorry to snap, Nanette. I had a rough weekend.”

“No problem. I’ll just say this: She sounded very insistent.” Nanette pointed at him on the last two words, drilling them home.

Jonah went to his desk and pulled out his phone. She’d left another three messages on his mobile and texted him twice. Swearing, he tapped the phone icon next to Vivienne’s name.

“Good. You’re returning my messages.”

“What do you want, Vivienne?”

“I promised Shannon that I would stay out of it, and I will, but you need to talk to her. Correction, you need to listen to her.”

“Stay out of this. It’s none of your business.”

“Unacceptable. You are my business, and Shannon has become my friend. She’s my business. Plus, she’s my employee.”

“How could you keep working with someone like her?”

“I’ll pretend you didn’t say that about my friend.”

“You’d stay friends with someone who lied to me and tried to pull the stunt that she’s pulled? You’re my sister.”

“Yes, I am, but I’m also a woman. I’m allowed to have sympathy for another woman.”

“Feminism over family. Nice.”

“If you would listen to her, maybe you’d understand. Besides, she’s going to have a hard enough time. How long before she can’t be on her feet all day waiting tables?”

“Once I start paying her child support, she’ll be fine.”

“If the baby is yours. If not, she’s screwed.”

A seed of guilt began to germinate in his mind, but he didn’t want to talk to Shannon. He didn’t even want to look at her. Luckily, she’d kept to herself the past couple of days.

“She’s a big girl, Vivienne.”

“Getting bigger by the day.”

“Goodbye, Vivienne.”

Jonah hung up on his sister. He wouldn’t let her make him feel guilty because he broke up with a duplicitous woman. Shannon literally made her bed with some other man. She could lie in it.