Page 67 of An Unexpected Turn
Mom’s eyes thinned to slits, my nervous laugh most likely not helping my case.
Her eyes burned into my back as I unpacked the box and headed over to my freezer, shoving the pints in one by one.
“There’s a ton of snacks on the table. Let me go call her to thank her.”
I shifted toward the hallway when Mom caught my arm.
“Don’t forget this.” Mom held the card out to me, her thumb in the middle of the now-open piece of paper. My hope that she hadn’t peeked died when I spied her lifted eyebrow.
Great.
“Thanks,” I managed to croak out on the way to my bedroom.
After I shut it behind me, I leaned against the door and opened the card.
Happy birthday, sweetheart.
I hate that I’m not with you today, but I thought this could make you feel like I was, and maybe you’d finally forgive me for cheating you out of chocolate ice cream that day. We’ll put it to good use when I’m there.
Love, J
I laughed, despite the nerves churning in my stomach.
Did he purposely leave off his name or run out of letters on the card? Mom might not have equated Uncle Keith’s Jake to my Jake if he’d written his whole name.
Only the people who were paying attention while they were in the same room with us would do that.
So much for a nice family dinner without a million questions. And now Uncle Keith was tipped off that I was seeing someone. When would I learn that lies never lasted and sneaking around never worked?
Apparently, when I turned thirty-three.
I grabbed my phone and dialed Jake. The anticipation of seeing his face once again trumped my dread over the repercussions that would meet me in my kitchen.
“Happy birthday!”
A wide grin split my mouth at Jake’s crooked smile.
“I’m sorry I didn’t call you earlier. Wrangling these kids all morning was a two-person job.”
“No need for apologies. Thank you so much for my present,J.It just came a few minutes ago.”
His smile faded as his eyes grew wide.
“That was supposed to come early this morning so no one would be around when you opened it.”
“Oh, they wereallaround. My cousins and aunt helped me open it while my mother glared at me. She also saw the card, so I’m sure she’s going to ask me who J is a few hundred times.”
“Unca Jake, who are you talking to?”
Jake disappeared, a ceiling fan in his place as he whispered to someone off-screen.
“Sorry about that.” He returned with a beautiful little girl on his lap. She stared back at me with the same blue eyes as Jake while twirling the ends of her long brown hair.
“Peyton, this is my youngest niece, Emma. Emma, this is Peyton.”
“Hi, Peyton!” she yelled into the phone.
“Hi, Emma. Nice to meet you.”
