17. Jake

17

JAKE

" A re you sick yet?"

Chuckling, I put my sister on speakerphone and finished putting the dishes in the dishwasher. "Nope. I'm good."

It'd been three days since Lydia got sick, and luckily, I had no signs of the flu. Her mother had brought a huge pot of homemade chicken noodle soup over and Violet dropped off a pan of brownies. Even my mother baked a lasagna that could feed an army. I tried to tell them I could cook it all myself, but they didn't believe me. They wanted to make sure Lydia was taken care of. All we did was watch movies during the times Lydia wasn't sleeping. The week went by too fast.

"What are you doing today?" Hailey asked.

I wiped up the last of the egg remnants off the counter. "Right now, I'm cleaning the kitchen while Lydia's in the shower. I made her eggs and bacon."

"Nice. You didn't overcook the bacon, did you?"

"Why do all of you doubt me? Don't get me wrong, it's nice everyone brought Lydia food, but I know how to cook."

Hailey giggled. "I don't doubt you, brother. I'm sure everyone wanted Lydia to know that she's loved and they wanted to help her."

That was what I was trying to do. I wanted her to know I would be there for her, no matter the circumstance. If I contracted the flu while I was here, it didn't matter. All I cared about was making sure she got better.

"Is she improving at all?" Hailey wondered.

My focus caught the medicine bottle on the kitchen counter. I remembered seeing her take cold meds earlier and put the bottle in that exact same spot.

"Uh," I said, grabbing the bottle. "I would say yes, but I think there might be a problem."

She gasped through the phone. "What? What happened?"

I held up the bottle and laughed. "It looks like she took the nighttime formula this morning by accident."

Hailey burst out laughing. "She's going to be a zombie."

Just then, Lydia walked into the living room, her feet dragging across the hardwood floor and making a swishing sound. Her wet hair was wrapped in a towel, and she was wearing red-and-black plaid pants and a red T-shirt that said This is my Christmas movie watching shirt.

I am so sleepy," she said, yawning with her eyes half-open. "I thought I'd be over the fatigue right now.

"That's because you took nighttime medicine this morning," I teased.

She yawned again. "What? There's no way."

I showed her the bottle, and she groaned. Hailey was still on speaker and I could hear her laughing. "Tell Lydia she's an idiot," she said.

Lydia glared at the phone. "Hey, that's not nice. I just made a mistake, that's it. It happens."

"Why don't you take a nap?" I suggested. "The medicine will wear off eventually."

She nodded and slowly headed toward the hallway. "I think I will. Tell your mean sister I said bye."

Hailey giggled. "I love you too, Lydia. Get better."

Lydia waved a hand in the air. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love you too."

She disappeared down the hall and I heard her bedroom door shut with a light click.

"Hey, get me off speaker if you don't mind," Hailey said, her voice low.

I did as she said and held the phone to my ear. "What's up?"

"I'm coming over. We need to talk."

"Not a good idea, sis," I told her. "I'm not sick but that doesn't mean you won't catch what Lydia has."

She snorted. "I'm resilient. Anyway, we can talk outside. I'll be there in a few."

Once everything was put away in the kitchen, I grabbed my coat off the rack and went onto the front porch. Lydia's grandparents used to sit in the rocking chairs out there for hours. I sat down in one and rocked for a few minutes, recalling my memories with them. Lydia hadn't changed much with the cabin other than adding art pieces here and there.

About ten minutes had passed when Hailey finally arrived in Oliver's truck. She hopped out and zipped her black coat up to below her chin. It was a cold day in Blowing Rock. I had a feeling we were going to have a white Christmas this year.

"Whew, it's cold," Hailey breathed, hurrying up onto the porch. She sat in the rocking chair beside me and pulled a pair of earmuffs from her pocket and slid them on.

"We could've just stayed on the phone, you know," I told her.

Hailey waved me off. "No, this stuff needs to be said in person. But what you really need is a kick in the butt."

I shook my head and laughed. "For what?"

Her lips pursed. "For taking your sweet time with Lydia. Have you said anything to her?"

Clenching my teeth, I turned to look at the mountains in the distance. "No."

She huffed. "Do I need to do it for you? I'll tell her everything."

I jerked my attention back to her. "And what exactly would you tell her?"

"Everything." Her smile widened mischievously. "I'll tell her how you and I concocted the whole girls' night together so you could show up and surprise her."

There wasn't a hint of bluffing in her expression. The problem was that wasn't all I had conspired in the past few days.

"What else would you tell her?" I asked curiously.

"Let's see," she began. "I'll tell her the truth about my spare bedroom. It wasn't filled with supplies from the store. You could've easily stayed with me and Oliver."

I held up my hands. "That was all you. I just went along with it."

Her gaze narrowed. "Yeah, but you knew . You wanted Lydia to ask you to stay here."

And I did. I wanted as much time with her as I could get. Was it selfish and underhanded? Yes, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.

"I just wanted to be with her," I said, feeling the ache in my chest which had been there since last Christmas. When I found out about Max, that gnawing pain intensified. I thought I could move in and make her see me as more than a friend, but it didn't look like that was going to happen. Groaning, I leaned back and ran my hands over my face. "There are way too many secrets."

Hailey giggled. "Yes, there is."

"Nothing was this complicated with Daphne." I turned to Hailey before she could speak. "And no, I would never consider going back to her or anyone like her ever again."

She clutched her chest. "Thank God. Oh, and just so you know, there is something I never told you," she said sheepishly.

My curiosity was piqued. "What?"

"Do you remember last Christmas Eve when you brought Daphne to the party and I dragged her away?"

I did remember that; I thought it was odd she'd want to spend time with Daphne.

"Yeah," I replied.

She bit her lip. "I did it intentionally so you and Lydia could be alone together."

That didn't surprise me one bit. "Very sneaky. Although, I'm glad you did. It was that night, when I was alone with Lydia, that her words about Daphne got through to me. I knew I had to end it."

Hailey grinned triumphantly. "See. Some good came out of it."

"Maybe I should come clean to Lydia about everything," I admitted. "We tricked her into letting me stay here. I lied about my car not starting so I'd have to ride to the festival with her and Max. Not to mention, I purposefully walked into the kitchen in just a towel because I knew he was here."

Hailey slapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her laugh. "That is a Jake Reynolds move if there ever was one. I wish I could've seen Lydia's face."

"She wasn't happy," I said. "Nothing I did worked."

"I wouldn't say that. We did interfere with their good-night kiss the other night by shining the headlights on them."

I wasn't proud of sabotaging her relationship with Max, but I couldn't stand the thought of him kissing her.

"And what did that accomplish?" I asked. I shook my head and scoffed. "Nothing. I waited too long."

Hailey's brows furrowed. "Why did you? I knew years ago that you had feelings for Lydia. I could see it in the way you looked at her."

"She's your best friend, Hailey. I didn't want to come between that. If something bad were to happen between us . . ."

"Then, it would be between you and her. It would have nothing to do with me. Lydia will always be my best friend, no matter if she's with you or someone else. She deserves to be happy, and so do you." She reached over and touched my arm. "Don't let me be the one holding you back. You have so many people in your corner. You even have Lydia's grandmother. Didn't she tell you the other day that she always thought you and Lydia would get married?"

I rubbed a hand over my chest as memories from my past played through my mind. Lydia's grandfather and I had just finished a golf lesson, and we were sitting where Hailey and I were now. He loved to give me advice and bits of wisdom every chance he got. It was a brisk, fall day and the leaves had all turned to autumn colors. I had just started my senior year of college at Appalachian State.

"It wasn't just Lydia's grandmother who said it. Even before he died, her grandfather told me to make sure I took care of her. He knew before I realized it."

"So," Hailey said, drawing out the word, "what are you going to do?"

I turned to her. "Nothing. Everything I've done hasn't changed a thing. Lydia doesn't see me as anything other than a friend."

"You sure about that?" She huffed impatiently. "You already admitted you haven't told her how you feel."

"She's with Max now."

She scoffed. "They're not together yet. The relationship isn't exclusive. You have time to let her know before things progress with him and it becomes too late."

A part of me felt as if it already was too late. I'd heard the phone calls between Lydia and Max this week. He checked up on her multiple times a day. I didn't know how to compete with him.

Hailey patted my arm and stood. "How can you be so confident during your tournaments and in TV interviews, but you freeze up with Lydia?"

I knew the answer to that.

I peered up at her and sighed. "I have so much more to lose with her."

A look of sadness passed across Hailey's face. "I get that. But you have to take the risk, big brother. If you don't, you'll wish you had." She started down the porch stairs to Oliver's truck and turned to face me again. "That regret is something you don't want. Please do something about it before it's too late. I promise you'll get the results you want. You're not the only one I've paid attention to over the years." She opened the door and smiled. "I've seen the way Lydia looks at you. The feelings are there."

I watched her leave, then remained sitting in the rocking chair to clear my head. Unfortunately, no amount of soul-searching was going to help me. I didn't know the right thing to do, but I knew I had to do something.