We spent our breakfast talking about Caley’s classes, what boys she had crushes on, and what we should do for our next day trip.
“Whatever we do,” she said in between bites of pancakes, “I hope it means going for ice cream, so I can make my favorite gummy worm dirt sundae!”
“You got it, kid.” Jake booped her nose, and I relaxed even more.
After what I went through with Cam, though, I would always be just a little insecure with Jake until I figured out his endgame.
18
Jake
Waking up next to Julianna made me happier than I’d been in a long time. It was nothing compared to the mornings where I’d roll over and see a one-night stand in my bed, snoring away with her makeup all over my expensive sheets. Even if Julianna had woken up with mascara all over her face, she’d still be beautiful.
I wanted to wake her up so she could get up with me, but I could tell that she needed the rest. Being a single mother was definitely hard, and I could tell that it was starting to wear her down.
“Caley got this recipe off of the internet,” I said to Julianna.
I noticed that she was a bit quieter than usual, and I couldn’t help but wonder if something was bothering her. I chalked it up to exhaustion.
“It’s delicious,” Julianna said talking around a mouthful of pancakes. “You are such a good cook.”
“Yeah,” Caley said matter of factly. “Maybe I’ll become a chef, Mommy!”
“Maybe you’ll have your own show on the Food Network,” I said.
“I’ll have a show where I make pancakes and my ice cream sundaes and pizza!” Caley had inherited her mother’s personality, which was both funny and adorable.
“Your mother and I used to cook together back in high school.”
“When?” Julianna gave me a puzzled look.
“You don’t remember? I came over to your place a bunch of times on Friday nights, and we’d make pizza and even homemade potato chips.”
“You can make potato chips?” Caley’s mouth fell open.
“Yes, Sweetie. They don’t just come in a bag.” Julianna explained, smiling at her daughter. “Well, maybe that’s where you get your passion for cooking, Caley.” Then she turned to me and giggled, “Oh, now I remember, Jake! But I was always stuck cleaning up while you ate.”
It was a beautiful day in River Valley and even more beautiful, waking up to the girls. I listened to Caley and her mom talk, and I pictured myself pushing her on the swings in the backyard.
Then I quickly snapped back to reality, though. After all, last night was the first night I’d slept over.
My gut let out a loud gurgle, causing Caley to laugh, and Julianna to open her mouth in shock. I simply shrugged my shoulders and laughed a little bit.
“What do you expect? I ate a lot of pancakes. Speaking of which, I’m gonna need to do extra crunches at the gym today.” I patted my stomach, and then Caley leaned back and patted hers too.
My phone went off, and I saw that I had a text message from work. As much as I enjoyed my job, I often felt as though I were chained to it. I hated that a perfectly good morning was just interrupted.
The message said that I was needed on a conference call sometime that day, so I messaged back, letting them know that I’d be on in a few hours.
“Is everything okay? Julianna could see the look of frustration on my face, which I wasn’t good at hiding.
“Yeah, I just have a conference call later." I was starting to worry about being in River Valley for so long, especially since I hadn’t planned on such an extended stay.
Even though I had been working remotely Monday through Friday out of Richard’s place, it had been a few months since I had actually visited my office in San Diego. I was pretty sure that didn’t look good on my part, even though it was my company. Hopefully, nobody knew that I was also dating Julianna. Not because I was ashamed, but because they might think that I was staying too long here in River Valley and lose respect for me for putting pleasure over business.
I stood up, gathered the plates, and started cleaning up. I kept telling myself that everything was fine, even though deep down, I was terrified. It wasn’t like me to be on a business trip for so long, so people at the office were probably talking about it.
Julianna took Caley upstairs to get ready for her day, and then I told her that I had to head back to Richard’s place.
