Come to Me Softly (Closer to You #2)(8)
Author: A.L. Jackson

I laughed under my breath. “God, Clara, do you have some kind of sixth sense or what?” She always knew when something was up. She had an intuition about her, a keen eye and a soft heart. So maybe I’d only told Christopher and Jared about the baby. But Clara knew.

Six weeks ago she’d caught me off guard, completely unprepared for her unsolicited question. “So how late are you?” she’d asked, keeping her attention trained on pouring dressing over two dinner salads and away from the shocked expression her question shot to my face, like she had been giving me time to process her words. That had been before I’d worked up the courage to take the test, back when I’d tried to convince myself it was just the trauma of Jared being ripped from my life that had thrown my body off schedule. Though in my heart, I’d known. Just as clearly as Clara had when she finally lifted her face and pinned me with a meaningful stare.

I’d stopped by a drug store on the way home and taken the test that evening.

In the middle of the night, Christopher had found me crying.

Just crying.

Because I couldn’t see through sorrow to the other side, couldn’t feel anything but the pain and the need. It’d hurt so badly, knowing what Jared had left me with and knowing he wouldn’t be a part of it.

I had wanted it and hated it all at the same time.

Christopher had crawled into my bed and taken me in his arms, and the admission had bled free. He’d rocked me for the longest time, promising it would be okay. Then he’d slipped from my room and into his. Seconds later, I’d jerked to sitting, startled by the sound of the first crash, Christopher’s curses and chair and feet slammed against his wall, my brother taking all his anger out on his room.

I almost wanted to laugh now.

Jared and Christopher were so much alike, but neither of them could see it.

Violent.

Passionate.

Protective.

Each in their own way.

Now Clara grinned as she gathered her tickets into a pile and tapped the edges to straighten them. “Nah, babe, I’m just really good at reading people. You’ve been dragging your feet around here every day for the last three months and suddenly you have enough energy radiating from you that you have me contemplating the gym for the first time in five years.”

She lifted her chin, probing yet knowing.

I dropped my gaze to the dingy ground. “He came back last night,” I admitted quietly. Peeking up at her, I searched for her reaction. I’d come to value her opinion. I saw her as wise, as someone who’d learned the hard way.

She stilled before she tucked her stack of tickets into her front apron pocket and leaned back against the counter. “Came back to Phoenix or came back to you?”

Her question made a smile flutter around my mouth.

“To me . . . he came back to me. I just . . .” I shrugged in bewilderment. “It shouldn’t be possible to feel what I felt last night. The relief I felt.” It’d been staggering, both terrifying and perfect. “I was so worried about him. Not knowing where he went and if I would ever see him again. And he was just sitting there, waiting for me after I got out of class last night.”

“Did you tell him?” she asked.

I bit at my lip and nodded once. “Yeah.”

“And he stayed?” The question was weighted, like the answer to it would deliver the ultimate verdict.

“He freaked out at first and took off. But I knew he’d be back. He just needed some time to process it.”

I mean, I’d been shocked, too, the burden of it something I didn’t know how to carry. I’d known what it would do to Jared, the havoc it would wreak. But when he had finally returned, I knew our worlds had changed because they had aligned.

Jared finally understood what he had always meant to me.

He remembered.

He remembered me.

Joy and sympathy washed her expression into something tender. “I’m happy for you. You know that, don’t you?” Her tone shifted, hardened in emphasis, and I could tell she was about to offer me some wisdom I might not want to hear. “Enjoy it, Aly. Enjoy him. But don’t you dare forget these last months. Don’t ever forget you made it through when you didn’t think you could. Don’t forget you’re strong and you know what you want from your life.” Softly, her head dipped and inclined toward my stomach. “And don’t ever forget what’s relying on you.”

Unease flitted through my consciousness. My hand sought out my belly. “I know what’s important, Clara.”

“I know you do, Aly.” Her voice softened, the same as her eyes. “I imagine things are going to be different between you two now. But that difference is either going to be for the better or the worse. Just make sure he treats you well.”

That’s what she didn’t know about Jared. She saw the outside, the gorgeous, dangerous man. The one covered in a horror of tattoos, those same horrors reflected in the sea of pain that raged in his ice blue eyes. She saw a man plagued by his demons who knew nothing else but to run from them.

I knew that’s what others would see, too.

But I saw so much deeper than that. I knew the good that lay beneath the shell of a hardened man.

No. There was not a single worry inside me about whether Jared would treat me well.

My concern was only with how he treated himself.

Still, I promised her, “I will,” because my friend only cared and I knew a lot of her worry was with her own insecurities. Maybe our histories were hinting at similar circumstances. Her boyfriend left her with a tiny baby boy, never seeing her son’s father again. We both knew there was a possibility my story could turn out the same.

But I had faith Jared and I would have an outcome different from hers.

She grinned to break up all the tension. “So what are you waiting for? Get out of here. Go get your man.”

Crossing to her, I hugged her hard. “Thank you, Clara. I hope you know how much I appreciate everything you’ve done for me the last few months.”

“Us girls have to stick together, right?” She grinned a little, repeating what she always told me, just this simple reassurance that no matter what, she was there for me.

I doubted many people knew how smart she really was, the woman who appeared to be nothing more than a sad cliche, the single mom working at the diner just struggling to get by.

I headed for the door, respecting her more than I ever had.

“I expect details,” she hollered at me from behind, “’cause that is one crazy-hot man.”