The Commitment (17 page)

“Are you ready?” she asks, not bothering to hide her excitement.

“Yep!” I say, not bothering to hide mine either.

I’m not the kind of guy who normally gives two shits about furniture or frilly crap. However, as I take Sophie’s hand and we make our way to the entrance, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t downright giddy.

We each grab a cart and within the next few hours, we’ve filled those and two more to the brim. I’m convinced my girl and I have bought just about everything in the store by the time we make it to the checkout.

“Do you think we should put a few things back?” I start. “My mom’s tripping over this baby shower thing. She’s gonna be pissed if we tell her we don’t need anything.”

“We
don’t
need anything,” Sophie says. “I keep telling her throwing me a baby shower isn’t necessary.”

“Well, you know she’s going to anyway,” I laugh.

“Yeah,” she smiles. “But she told me to make a list of people to invite and other than Ana, Heather and your family, I have four people. I don’t feel like that warrants her stressing out over planning a shower on top of helping with the wedding.”

“Okay,” I sigh, looking down at her in amusement. “Just know that she’s going to do it anyway.”

“Fine,” she smirks. “But I’m not putting any of this stuff back. I already love it all.”

“We got some pretty dope shit,” I chuckle. “Don’t get too attached to all of it, though. When you find out Peanut’s a girl, you’re going to want more pink stuff.”

“My baby boy is going to look adorable in blue,” she smirks. “I’ll even take that money you’ll be paying me when you find out I’m right and buy him some more of it.”

“Yeah, we’ll see,” I grin, leaning down to kiss her on the temple as the cashier gives us our ridiculously high total.

Once we stuff everything into the back of my truck, we head back home and thank Heather for spending the day with JT. When she leaves, I unload everything as quickly as I can while Sophie finishes packing for our weekend in Corpus. She’s with JT in his bedroom when I bring the last of the bags in to set them in the nursery. As I make my way to them, I watch them silently from the doorway.

“Can we go swimming?”

“If it’s warm enough and it doesn’t rain, then yes,” she starts. “Do you want to take a couple toys with you?”

“Yeah,” he says, moving around the room to find his favorites. “Can I take my Lego’s?”

“No, Sweet Pea, not this time,” she says softly. “You still have a few over there from last time and we forgot them, remember?”

“Oh yeah,” he says, making her smile. “Well can I take Buzz?”

“Yes,” she says, packing his Buzz Lightyear toy into his duffle bag. “Do you want to take some of your cars, too?”

“Yes,” he nods. “Can I take all of my super people?”

“You have an awful lot of them,” she laughs. “Why don’t you pick out two?”

“Aunt Sophie,” he groans seriously. “I have to have a bad guy!”

“Of course,” she agrees with a stifled laugh. “I don’t know what I was thinking. Pick out a bad guy and throw him in there, too.”

“Okay,” he says with a smile, carefully selecting a toy and then turning to face her.

“Did you have fun with Heather?”

“Yeah,” he nods.

“What did you do?”

“Played some games,” he says. “And we ate your ice cream.”

“You had ice cream without Aunt Sophie?”

“Yeah,” he says, shyly laughing.

“Did you save me any?”

“No,” he says, giggling harder. “We ate it all gone.”

“Not cool, dude!” she teases. “Can I have an ice cream kiss?”

“Yeah,” he nods, reaching up to kiss her cheek.

“Are you kissing my girlfriend?” I ask, breaking my silence and making him jump.

“Yeah,” he beams.

“You better not kiss her again,” I tease.

“I’m gonna do it,” he grins, running over to her and pursing his lips, watching me feign offense as he gets closer. “I’m gonna kiss my Aunt Sophie!”

“Not if I kiss you first,” she says, quickly turning to press her lips to his dimpled cheek.

“Ah!” he squeals loudly. “Aunt Sophie, you cheated!”

“I regret nothing,” she laughs. “I love this face.”

“You love my
face
?” he asks, his bewildered expression making us chuckle.

“Yep, especially these cheeks,” she smiles, showering his face with kisses and making him giggle wildly. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah,” he says, still panting from his laughter and bounding out of the room in excitement.

“Love your face, too,” she says as she makes her way to the doorway where I’m still watching them.

“I love yours more,” I smile, gently gripping her hair and kissing her chastely. “Come on, Gorgeous. Let’s go plan our wedding.”

Sophie

As we walk into the restaurant, I’d be lying if I said I’m not a nervous wreck. There are a ton of things I’ve prepared myself for today, but meeting Jack’s date isn’t one of them. I’ve known about this for a few days, but it’s still got me crazy. To make matters worse, he hasn’t said anything to Ana about the mystery woman he’s bringing. I thought of asking him about it when we spoke earlier, but at the last minute I chickened out.

“Hey,” Ana says with a smile as she sees us approach the table they’ve already gotten for us.

“Hi,” I smile back. “Sorry we’re a little late. Traffic was horrendous.”

“It’s okay,” she says, standing to hug me and tousle JT’s hair. “Jack just called and told us he was running late as well, so you’re actually early.”

“Is he going to be long?” I ask as I get JT settled in and take my seat.

“I’m not sure,” she admits. “Probably another twenty minutes or so if I had to guess, but you never know with Friday night traffic.”

“Yeah,” I nod. “Okay well I’m going to go to the bathroom. Babe, will you order JT something if the server comes over?”

“Sure,” he smiles.

There’s a long line at the tiny bathroom so it takes me much longer to rejoin them than I’d thought. As I approach the table, I can see that Jack has arrived and the bundle of nerves that I’ve been fighting all day comes back full force. I’m trying to calm myself, reminding myself that this really isn’t that big a deal as I make my way through the packed restaurant. It’s not until I meet Ana’s nervous eyes that it all comes crashing back. I attempt to make sense of her alarmed look, but before I can, Jack notices and turns to face me with an odd look.

“Hey Beautiful,” he smiles, walking over to pull me into a hug. “How are you?”

“I’m okay,” I say, giving him the best smile I can manage as I look him over. “You look very handsome.”

“Thank you,” he smiles. “And you’re beautiful as always.”

“Thank you, Jack,” I say, squeezing his hand. “So where’s the lucky lady?”

“Oh she had to use the bathroom,” he says.

“There’s another bathroom?” I ask, rolling my eyes and ignoring his laughter as I resume my seat next to Chase.

“I’m going to go get her,” Jack says. “I just wanted to let y’all know we were here.”

“Okay,” I nod. As I settle in, I feel three sets of eyes on me and immediately look up. “What’s up?”

I watch as they exchange nervous looks and Chase nods slightly over to Drake who faces JT.

“Hey man,” he says. “Do you want to go and see the fish up front?”

“Yeah!” JT says with a grin. “Can I Aunt Sophie?”

“Sure,” I say cautiously before facing the others and shaking my head. “Guys, I’m fine. I already promised you I wasn’t going to freak out again. You don’t need to act weird, it’s fine.”

“Baby,” Chase starts, rubbing my shoulders as Drake walks away from the table with JT. “It’s not…”

“I know I don’t have a great track record, but give me
some
credit. Jeez!”

Ana is about to respond to me when Jack’s gentle laughter interrupts her as he approaches the table.

“This place is packed,” he says to whoever is following him. “I thought I lost you back there for a minute.”

“No such luck,” I hear her respond and immediately, my heart stops.

Oh no. No, no, no, no, no.

My eyes dart up, for the first time completely understanding their odd reactions.

No. Fucking. Way.

“Everyone,” Jack starts, cutting off the scream that’s building in my lungs. “I’d like you to meet my date,” he says and then I see her.
Please God let me wake up. I need to wake up. I need to wake up right now.
“This is Lauren Crawford.”

Chase

If there were moments in my life I could magically make an escape hatch appear, this would be one of them.

Accompanied with the feeling of pure dread I feel in my chest, I can feel the pure fury emanating off of my girl as she sits, silently fuming beside me.

Of all the women in Rockport, Jack had to bring Sophie’s arch nemesis to dinner.

“Hi everyone,” Lauren says as I rest my palms over my face in preparation for the explosion.
We’re about to get kicked out of this restaurant.
“Hey Sophie,” she says with a saccharin sweet smile, hooking her arm into Jack’s and sealing her already troubled fate.

“Oh, you two know each other?” Jack asks awkwardly, no doubt hearing Ana’s groan as she takes in Sophie’s expression.

“We’ve met,” Lauren smiles as she reaches up to brush something off of his shirt with a blush. “Aw, you have a little something on you, Babe. I think it’s a strand of my hair.”

“I’m sorry, dude,” I say genuinely, shaking my head but not having time to explain as Sophie finally breaks her silence.

“Wha-?”

“Get your hands off of him,” she grounds out, her emerald eyes holding a fury I’ve rarely seen.

“Oh fuck me,” I groan under my breath.

“Now!” she says, louder this time.

“Soph,” Jack starts, taken aback slightly by her sharp tone. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Yeah, Soph,” Lauren smirks. “What’s the matter?”

“You don’t talk to me!” she says, staring at Lauren before facing Jack, her eyes softening. “Jack, I need to talk to you.”

“So talk,” he says, shrugging. “What the hell is going on with you?”

“Yes, please tell us what you’re problem is, Sophie? We’ve come to enjoy a nice dinner with you and you’ve not even invited me to sit down.”

“You’re not sitting here,” Sophie spits. “If you think I’m going to spend the next two hours with you, let alone be civil, you’ve lost your fucking mind.”

“I don’t understand…” Lauren starts.

“Oh my God,” I sigh, cutting her off. “Lauren, just shut up.”

“Chase, I’m not your girlfriend anymore,” she says quietly.

“Thank God for that,” I counter.

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

“You know what? Don’t talk to him, either,” Sophie snaps, interrupting us, her voice getting louder. “Don’t look at Ana and get off of Jack
now
, Lauren. I am not fucking with you.”

“Wait, you dated him?” Jack asks, looking at her oddly.

“Yes, Jack, she did,” Sophie says, her eyes softening as she looks at him but her voice still full of anger. “And she was horrible to him and has been nothing but trouble since I met her.”

“Holy fuck,” Jack groans.

“Yeah,” Sophie says, crossing her arms and leaning back. “And if you think you’re going to do the same thing to him, Lauren, you’re wrong. I will fuck you up over him.”

“I find it rather odd that you’re so worried about what your ex is doing,” she starts. “Chase doesn’t seem to care.”

“Maybe that’s because my ex is good and kind and sweet and funny and his ex is the spawn of fucking
Satan
!”

“Sophie,” Jack starts, ignoring my stifled laughter. “Honey, you have to breathe. I get that this is weird for you, but you need to chill!”

“No, you don’t, Jack,” she says, her eyes watering as she holds his. “It’s not what you think, I swear.”

“Maybe we should just leave,” I try, but immediately, she faces me, shaking her head in refusal.

“I’m not leaving him here with
her
,” she says before turning to face Lauren. “I’m not leaving. This is happening over my dead body.”

“Hey, come on,” he says, walking away from Lauren’s side and placing his hands on her shoulders. “Come with me for a second, please.”

“Jack-” Lauren starts, but one death glare from Sophie and she silences.

“Don’t touch them,” she warns her as she makes her way past us.

Sophie

As I make my way to the open spot beside the emergency exit, Jack stays silent. When he turns to face me, he looks a little pissed.

“Alright, Sophie, what the hell is going on? You said you weren’t going to do this again.”

“Jack, I’m sorry,” I start. “I know you think it’s just because you’re with someone, but I swear it’s not.”

“Then what is it?” he asks. “I mean, I get that y’all have a bad past, but is it really so bad that you’ve got to act like this?”

“Yes!” I gasp.

“Tell me what happened then, Babe, because right now, you are seriously acting like a crazy ex,” he tells me bluntly.

“Listen,” I start. “I know what I look like, but you have to believe me, Jack. This woman is horrible!”

“Why? What’s so bad about her?”

“She used to date Chase,” I start and he rolls his eyes. “No, Jack, that’s not it. She dated Chase and she cheated on him with like half the town. Then, after we started dating, she got so jealous that she constantly caused trouble between us for months. She started a bunch of crap with me at a party and insulted me and Ana both.”

“What did she say?”

“She called us whores, said that Chase was going to leave me like the last loser did,” I tell him, my eyes watering in a combination of anger and sadness at the last part.

“She said that to you?” he asks, lightly brushing the tears away from my cheeks.

“Yeah,” I nod. “And then she had me thrown in fucking jail when I beat her ass for it.”

“Are you serious?” he asks, stifling a shocked laugh. “You kicked her ass?”

“Hell yes, I did!” I tell him. “And you think that’s bad, that’s only the part of it, Jack. She’s manipulative, she’s dishonest, she’s responsible for Chase nearly getting killed in an accident… she’s just not a good person. She’s not good enough for you.”

“Okay,” he says quietly, his eyes softening at my words as he rubs my shoulders. “And you swear this has nothing to do with jealousy?”

“I swear, Jack,” I tell him honestly. “And I’m sorry because I promised I’d act right and I would have. You just somehow managed to zero in on the only two people in town who I’d freak out over.”

“Are you sure there are only two?” he chuckles.

“I’d rather you dated Ana,” I tell him, grinning when he gives me a look of disgust. “Yeah, I know!”

“I know you’re into some freaky shit, but that was uncalled for,” he jokes, sending my cheeks blazing. “Good to know I can still make you blush.”

“Gee thanks,” I laugh.

“Any time,” he smirks before letting out a deep sigh. “Alright, well I guess I better go if I’m going to beat the traffic back to Rockport.”

“Really?” I say, the happiness in my voice undisguised. “You’re taking her home?”

“Well, I’m not buying anyone dinner who threw you in jail or called my sister a whore,” he says drily. “But I’m not going to leave her stranded here, either.”

“Thank you,” I say, hugging him tightly and letting out a deep sigh of relief. “Be careful, though, Jack. The last time Chase tried to be nice and give her a ride home, she almost got him killed.”

“Jesus, maybe I should just call her a cab,” he sighs, before turning back to face me again. “You swear this is the last time?”

“Cross my heart,” I nod. “Unless you introduce us to a crazy person, I’m done cock blocking you,” I promise, loving when my favorite lopsided smile forms over his face. “But if you meet someone and she’s nuts, I’m going to say something.”

“I wouldn’t know what to do with you if you didn’t,” he chuckles, kissing my hair. “Let’s go do this, then.”

As we approach the table, hand in hand, Lauren takes us in and the look of horror in her eyes is almost comical.

“You have got to be kidding me!” she wails in disbelief as she faces Jack. “You’re seriously taking her side on this?”

“Yes,” he says.

“This is bullshit,” she spits out, turning to face me. “What the hell is it with you, Sophie? I don’t get it! You’re supposed to be so sweet and wonderful, but you just attack me without even talking to me and that’s enough? How do you know I haven’t changed?”

“Lauren,” Chase chuckles but I shake my head.

“No, Baby, she’s right. I have to admit, I never even considered that she may have a soul,” I offer. “Fine, you want your chance to speak up? Here it is. You look Jack in the eyes and tell him that no part of you going out with him was to bother me. If you’re honest, I won’t say another word. You know what? I’ll do you one better,” I say. “I’ll even buy your dinner, Lauren. All you have to do is tell him without lying that you are only interested in him, that none of this was to get under my skin.”

Noticeably deflating, she turns to face him and attempts a small smile. When she bats her eyelashes, I know it’s over. Jack hates that shit.

“Okay,” he says, not even giving it a second thought. “Come on. I’ll give you a ride home.”

“Ugh! I hate you, Sophie Ryan!” she hisses at me before facing Ana. “And what are you grinning about? You should ask your fiancé who he spent your breakup with before you get all high and mighty, you…”

“Oh my God,” Ana gasps, her eyes instantly filling with tears.

“Don’t talk to them like that,” Jack cuts her off.

“Oh shut up!” she snaps at him before facing Chase. “I can’t believe you’re okay with her defending another man like this. That’s probably not even your baby!”

“Go,” Chase says, his voice furious as he gently grips my elbow. “Now!”

“Bitch, you better run!” I ground out, not caring about the employees rushing toward the table.

“Whatever,” she snips. “Two outta three ain’t bad. Night girls.”

“Come on,” Jack says, leading her away from the table. “We’re done.”

Drake

Once I see Jack putting Lauren into a cab, I take JT’s hand and head back over toward the table. While I thought I’d come back to a shit storm, I’m surprised to find everyone sitting quietly. Sophie has taken my seat and is talking to Analise in hushed tones. When I look at my fiancé, my heart crumbles when I see her forlorn expression.

“What happened?” I ask.

When I’m answered only with a glare from Sophie, I look over at Chase for help.

“Dude,” he says, simply shaking his head, guiding JT over to him.

“Do you want to go?” Sophie quietly asks Analise, instantly throwing up red flags.

“Baby,” I start, bending to meet her eyes. “What’s the matter?”

When I place my hand high on her thigh, she stiffens and gently moves my hand from her leg, facing Sophie.

“We’re leaving,” she says quietly, wiping her cheeks clean. “Sophie, I’ll call you.”

“Okay.”

“What do you mean, we’re leaving?” I ask, her tone taking me by surprise.

Without answering me, she hugs Sophie and blows a kiss to JT before standing.

“Hey,” I say quietly, gently gripping her elbow and finally meeting her watery, grey eyes. “Baby, talk to me. What the hell is going on?”

“Drake, I want to go,” she says in a soft but firm tone. “We need to talk and if you don’t want me to cause another scene, we need to not do this here.”

I have no idea what she’s talking about, but the fact that she won’t meet my eyes tells me she’s seconds away from falling apart. That alone makes me nod and follow her to the exit.

When we make it to the valet, I give the attendant my ticket and turn to face her.

“Okay, Baby, we’re getting the car. Now will you please tell me…?”

“Not here,” she says, pulling away from my touch a second time.

Swallowing my frustration, I stand in silence, thanking the man when he hands me my keys. As I open the door for her, she glides past me without so much as a second look, settling in quickly and keeping her eyes straight ahead. The entire ride home, she sits silently, furious over something she still won’t tell me.

It’s not until I’m pushing our front door shut that she spins around and meets my eyes.

“Okay, I’m going to ask you this one time, Drake,” she starts, dropping her purse onto the entry table and keeping her voice low. “I’m not talking to you as your sub, I’m talking to you as your fiancé. And because you’ve never lied to me and I love you with a fire unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, I will believe whatever you tell me. However, if I find out you’re lying to me, I will walk out that door and you will never see me again, Drake. Is that clear?”

“Crystal,” I whisper, suddenly realizing what all of this has been about.

I release a sigh knowing that the only secret I’ve ever kept from her has finally come knocking. She’s shaking, afraid of the answer we both know is coming, but the woman I love is brave so she doesn’t back down.

When she speaks, her eyes hold mine and there’s a very slight break in her voice that destroys me.