Spring Unleashed (The Summer Unplugged Series) (7 page)

Chapter 14

Becca tries to be a supportive friend by sticking to my side at the pool party when Jace is pulled away to talk motocross politics with his boss and
other coworkers. But when Hana’s fiancé introduces us to a group of twenty year old muscular motocross racers, I put on a carefree smile and tell her she should follow them into the hot tub.

“No way, I’m not leaving you,” she says, but the way her eyes follow the guy’s backsides as they walk away tells me she’s already mentally gone anyhow.

“Please do,” I say, giving her a little shove in that direction. “I’m fine, really.”

“I don’t know…” she hesitates.

I make my smile more convincing. Hell, my fake smile has reached such convincing proportions maybe I’ll start to believe it. “Go. I’m grateful for your help but you drove all the way out here and I’m not going to make you suffer just for my sake.”

“Okay but I’m here if you need me.”

“I know.”

Hana and Ash take turns pushing each other off a donut-shaped pool toy in the middle of the water. My boyfriend is still stuck talking with his boss and although I could go stand with him, I’m afraid someone will ask me something and I’ll be too emotionally distraught to answer. So I head to the shallow end of the pool and sit on the edge, letting my bare feet dangle in the water.
I lean back on my palms, tilting my face toward the sky as I pretend to soak up the last remaining rays of sunshine.

The fear of possibly being pregnant weighs heavily on my mind. Out of both terrible things that happened to me today, it’s completely obvious that my late period is
the one I should be worried about. Those stupid emails happened months ago and my late period is happening right now. But I can’t let the emails go.

I can’t stop thinking about the very real fact that my boyfriend has naked photos of another girl on his computer. Why would he bother giving me a key to his apartment if he still has stuff like that from his past? Why would he plan a future with me and convince me to go to college and arrange a job at the track if he still has girls on the side?

Oh god. My stomach, which may or may not be implanted with Jace’s child, tightens into a painful knot. If I’m pregnant then I can kiss my future goodbye. My future job, my education…none of it is attainable if I have to raise a baby.

I glance up from the pool and lock eyes with Jace. He’s all the way across the backyard but I think he smiles at me. I can’t be sure. All I know is that I can’t be here anymore. All of these happy people with their carefree lives and their stupid laughter that
keeps getting louder. People don’t cry at pool parties and that’s exactly what I’ll do if I stay here any longer.

I push myself up from the edge of the pool and slide my sandals on, not even bothering to dry off my feet. I don’t glance at Jace and I don’t look for Becca.

I just run.

Hana’s house is next door to the motocross track. I’m all the way through the thin line of trees that separate the two and crossing over the wooden bridge that enters into the park by the time I start to run out of breath. Dirt sticks to my wet feet and rubs painfully inside my sandals but I keep running anyhow. I don’t look back. No one calls my name or runs after me. I doubt anyone
noticed that I left.

The sun begins to fade, dipping behind the trees at the edge of the motocross track.
My legs slow to a walk and then my body stops completely. This place is creepy at dusk. All the massive dirt jumps are shadowed and transformed into eerie lurking monsters. The massive metal bleachers look uninviting and scary without any people around.

I sit on a sawed off tree stump in the middle of the grassy area where people park their cars during a race. My heart still thumps away under my chest, trying to calm down from the rush of hurt and fear and exercise I just put it through. My face sinks into my hands and I stare at the dirt on my feet, watching as it morphs into blurry shapes under the tears that fall from my eyes.

Why am I even out here? What the hell am I doing?

“
Bayleigh!”

The unexpected sound startles me but I don’t look up because I’d know that voice anywhere. Footsteps get closer and faster as Jace jogs toward me. He doesn’t say anything else and I feel his body brush against mine a second later. He sits next to me on the tree stump. We’re silent for a moment.

“Becca said I needed to talk to you.”

I look up. My eyes meet his and I can’t tell what sort of emotion he hides behind his blank expression. “What else did she tell you?”

He blinks. “She said it wasn’t her secret to tell.”

I decide to stare at my hands instead of at my boyfriend. I’m not even sure he will still want to be my boyfriend after he finds out what I have to say.
“Secrets.”

“What?”

“Secrets,” I repeat. “Plural. There are two of them.”

“Wow.” He runs a hand through his hair. “And here I thought everything was fine.”

I snort in spite of myself. How lucky he must be to live his life thinking things are just fine and freaking dandy. Jace turns toward me and takes my hand. “You need to talk. Now.”

What are the rules for telling your boyfriend two very awful things? Do you tell him the least awful one first or the most awful one first? How do you even decide which is the worst?
The possible pregnancy, obviously.

I mean, I guess?

If I’m not pregnant then the emails are the worst thing. I’m not sure I can stay with a guy who keeps emails like that despite having a girlfriend. I’m also not sure Jace would stay with me if I got pregnant. Either way, the odds of my relationship staying together after tonight seem slim to none.

“You’re doing it again,” he says.

“Doing what?”

He brushes the hair out of my eyes.
“Thinking. You’ve got some kind of crazy monologue going on in your head and you’re too busy telling it to yourself to tell it to me. Talk to me, Bay. You didn’t run out here by yourself for nothing. What’s going on?”

I draw in a deep breath. It’s now or never I guess.

Although
never
sounds like a pretty great choice.

Without trying to be mean, I slide my hand out of his grasp. I’m not sure he’ll want to be touching me when I tell him my secrets. This weird desire to kiss him falls over me and I restrain myself. Now is so not the time.

In one breath I tell him everything—the faster and quicker I get it out, the better. “My period is several days late and Becca said I might be pregnant and I also snooped in your emails and saw Julie’s freaking naked body and messages about how you’re not her boyfriend and she wants you to be and I can’t live with the guilt of knowing what I know.” When the words are out, I don’t feel relief. I don’t feel much of anything.

Jace stiffens. “What all did you see in my email?”

“I searched her name and I didn’t read them all…I just read enough to know that she likes. And she sent you naked pictures, Jace. And you didn’t delete them.” My voice is one shattered, shaking mess.

Jace leans forward, concern stitched across his face. “You didn’t read any other emails?
Nothing recent?”

My brows knit together. “What? No.” More heartache and confusion grip me, making breathing difficult. What doesn’t he want me to know? What could possibly be worse than Julie’s photo? “What else is on your email?” I ask as tears fill my eyes. “What else didn’t I see?”

“No, nothing” he breaths, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and pulling me in close to him. He squeezes so hard I can’t breathe. “Thank god.”

I push him off of me and stand up. “What the hell, Jace? This isn’t a good thing. What else is in your email?”

He smiles. What an asshole. I’m crying my eyes out and he
smiles
? “It’s nothing bad. I’m just glad you didn’t see it.”

My hands ball into fists at my sides. “Screw you, Jace. How dare you smile about
this!”

His hand reaches out to me but I step backward. “I’m sorry baby. I didn’t mean to smile. Honey, it’s…I’m sorry you saw her emails but I swear I forgot they were there. I didn’t look at her skanky picture, I promise you.”

“How the hell am I supposed to believe that?” I ask.

“Because I wouldn’t lie to you.
Look, just sit down and I’ll explain.” He pats the tree stump next to him and I shake my head. “I’d rather stand, thanks.”

My anger levels soften as I listen to Jace explain
himself about Julie. He says that she used to date one of his friends and they all hung out a lot. After his friend broke up with her (because she was a little crazy), Julie started flirting with Jace but he never flirted back because he didn’t like her. He said he was nice to her because she was psycho and then her emails became more and more obsessive and his only option was to ignore her.

“So she just sent you that photo out of nowhere?” I
ask, my hands on my hips. “You didn’t ask her to send it?”

“God no.”
His face crumples up in revulsion. “I actually remember that day. I was driving to your house and I opened the email at a red light. The second I saw the photo, I called her and bitched her out and said not to send that shit again. If you read the emails right after that one, she apologized and said she was sorry. Did you see that part?”

I shake my head. Relief floods over me but I’m still disappointed. “Why didn’
t you delete the email? You should have had more respect for me.”

“I know, baby and
I’m sorry. Honestly I just forgot about it. I get like a hundred work emails a day and they pile up and I never saw it again.” This time when he reaches for my hand, I take it. “Please believe me, Bay. I will delete every email from her tonight, I promise.”

I let him pull me into his lap and the rush of emotions I feel when I lay my head against his chest comfort me in ways I haven’t felt lately. This is Jace.
My Jace. He feels like home to me and I hate when things aren’t right with us. “Um…babe?” I ask, as I snuggle my face into his neck. “Did you not…um…pay attention to the first part I said?”

He shrugs.
“That you might be pregnant?” He says it so casually you’d think I just ask him if he heard me ask what time it is. “Uh, yeah,” I say sarcastically. “I mean, I hope it’s not the case, but I don’t know and..I—”

Jace’s finger covers my lips.
“I think we’d make awesome parents, so whatever happens, happens. Don’t you agree?”

I pull back and look at him, my eyes wide with curiosity. “Are you serious?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“You wouldn’t get mad and leave me?”

“I’d die before I’d leave you.”

With that, my heart bursts into a thousand pieces. I slide my arms around his neck and pull him into me, inhaling the intoxicating scent of his cologne and embracing the way his shaggy hair feels against my cheek.

Jace lets out a sigh. He taps my thigh. “I need to stand up for a minute.”

Confused, I get off his lap and sit
alone on the stump. Jace’s expression gets a little weird as he stands up and pulls his phone out of his pocket. “Bayleigh…” he says, as if whatever he has to tell me is causing him a great deal of effort to spit out. His face lights up from the glow of his cell phone. “The reason I was worried that you saw my recent emails is…well, shit maybe this isn’t the right time to tell you.”

“Uh, you bet your ass it’s the right time to tell me. You can’t just say something like that and then not finish it.”

He smiles as his finger slides around on the phone screen. He clicks on an email and then holds it out to me, but the words are too small for me to read so I just look at him expectantly, waiting an explanation. “My newest emails are from the owner of KC Jewels. The last thing I want is for you to see the emails and ruin the surprise, but… hell I guess I’m ruining it already. Bay, I wasn’t at the track earlier today when I left you at home.”

I gnaw on my lower lip as he continues. “I was at the jewelry shop, seeing the progress they’ve made on the custom engagement ring I designed for you. It won’t be ready for a couple more days but he sent me a picture of what it will look like,” he explains as he turns the phone back around to face me. My mouth falls open at the amazing hand sketched image of a gorgeous di
amond ring with filigree accent diamonds along the band.

It takes a moment for what he’s saying to sink in. I mean, I know what the words ‘custom engagement ring’ mean but it takes a while for my brain to register the reason why Jace is suddenly dropping down on one knee.

Under the twilight of an empty motocross park and with the glowing of his cell phone reflecting off our faces, Jace holds out the phone to me as if it were a ring box and takes my hand. “Bayleigh. The last three hundred and sixty five days have been the most amazing part of my entire life. Will you…” he blinks and one tear rolls down his cheek. “Will you…pretend this is a real ring and not a cell phone and do me the honor of being my wife?”

“Yes, baby I will.” I drop to my knees in front of him and throw my arms around his neck. He lets the phone fall to the ground as we collide and land in the soft grass. I kiss him as tears roll down my cheeks. Jace brushes the hair out of my face and kisses me back. He tastes like Vanilla Dr. Pepper.
It’s never felt so good to be in his arms. None of the things I worried about feel like worries anymore. The feeling of his hands holding me tightly to him lets me know that whatever happens, we’re in this together.