Ripe: A Stepbrother Pregnancy Romance (25 page)

If Karen wasn’t so forward in her advances, Jesse might have responded to them by now, but her aggressiveness turned him off. He had no intention on letting Elise know that though. If her being a little jealous was what it took for him to get her back, then so be it.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Elise was immediately blown away by the sheer amount of financial aid she qualified for on top of her scholarship. As she listened to the Dean speak, she realized just how close she really was to making all her dreams come true. She sat on the edge of her seat, taking in every word that left the older man’s mouth and jotting down all the necessary steps she would need to take in order to guarantee herself a smooth entry at the beginning of the next semester.

“Your transcript looks great Elise,” the Dean said with a smile. “But if you want to get into our medical program in the spring, you’ll need to complete another application and have it completed by the next deadline.”

“I will,” Elise assured him, hanging onto his every word.

Elise was still floating on cloud nine when she arrived home later that afternoon. She was practically glowing when she walked through the front door, but she wasn’t quite ready to reveal the reason for her excitement.

“Mommy!” Isaiah yelled, running up to Elise and wrapping his arms around her waist.

“Did you miss me?” Elise questioned, smiling down at her son. It was true what everyone said. Sometimes a little time away did a world of good.

“Uh-huh. Daddy took me for ice cream!”

Elise glanced over at Jesse at the mention of sugar, but she quickly softened when she saw how fondly he was looking at Isaiah.

“Where were you?” Jesse questioned. He found it peculiar that each time he asked Elise where she went, she found a new way to dodge his question, and now wasn’t any different
.
The look on her face made it clear that she had no intention on stating her whereabouts.

“Well, there’s a message on the home phone for you,” Jesse continued when he didn’t get a response. “I think it’s from Deanna.”

“Oh, great.” Elise rushed into the kitchen to get the contact information off the machine. She’d been waiting weeks for Deanna to call her from Florence. After getting the number, she dialed it and was connected after three short rings.

“Deanna! I’m so glad to hear your voice! How’s Italy? Are you and Isabella all settled in?”

“It’s been magical
,
” Deanna said, referring to Isabella just as much as she was her new city. Her happiness radiated through the phone. She sounded the most happy Elise had heard her in years. “How are you? How’s Isaiah?”

“We’re good. How are you adjusting to the time change?”

“Oh god, It’s definitely been an adjustment. I could go on and on about that, but first I have to know about you. How are your living arrangements working out?”

“Oh, um.” Elise hesitated, glancing briefly over at Jesse and Isaiah in the other room. “Not bad.”

“Not bad?”

“Yeah, not bad.”

Deanna snickered. “And what about Isaiah? How is he adjusting to everything?”

“Pretty amazingly, actually. He couldn’t be happier to be living with his daddy.”

“Oh my god!” Deana exclaimed, gasping into the line. “You finally told him? Elise, I’m so proud of you. Okay, so give me a play by play. What happened? What did Isaiah say? What did
Jesse
say?”

Deanna listened intently as Elise filled her in on all the details.

“Feel free to scold me if I’m wrong, but you sound pretty happy yourself,” Deanna remarked when Elise was finally finished speaking.

“I might be,” Elise admitted, feeling the corners of her mouth pull into an involuntarily smile. “I mean...
maybe.
”

“Any particular reason?”

“Yes, actually,” Elise said, ecstatic to finally be sharing her secret with another person. “You’re the first person I’m telling about this, but I met with the Dean at Salisbury today, and…I’m going back to school, Deanna! I might even apply for a spot in their nursing problem. My only wish is that I didn’t have to wait until the spring for that. I kept asking if there was a way to expedite things, but no such luck.”

At the sound of shrieking, Jesse tiptoed down the hall to see what was going on. As soon as he overheard the conversation, however, he wished that he hadn’t.

“Well you never know,” Deanna teased. “Maybe you’ll meet the man of your dreams there. That happens for a lot of people in college you know. I mean, just look at me and Isabella.”

Elise smiled. She’d always known that Deanna and Isabella were more than friends. Their chemistry stretched far beyond the bounds of friendship.

“Actually,” Elise joked. “I think I met him today. He gave me so many compliments and I felt like he was genuinely impressed by me.”

Jesse balanced himself against the wall just outside the kitchen, frowning as he contemplated Elise’s words. In all the years he’d known her, he couldn’t remember very many instances in which she’d been this excited about something. It just wasn’t in her nature unless she was talking about school or Isaiah, and neither one of those seemed to be the topic at hand.

In his absence, Jesse often hoped that Elise spoke of him with the same lighthearted giddiness that she was now, but he knew that wasn’t the case. Whoever the lucky man was that had her so excited, it definitely wasn’t him.

Jesse slumped away from the kitchen and retreated back into the living room to check up on Isaiah. When he entered the room and sat down on the couch, his eyes fell on the pile of junk mail on the coffee table, landing directly on Karen’s number. He needed a distraction, and right now, she seemed like the perfect one.

Chapter Forty

Jesse met up with Karen the following morning at a small coffee shop on the other side of town, not wanting to run into Elise on the off chance that she decided to run errands with Isaiah.

“I’m so glad you called,” Karen said, keeping her eyes steadied on Jesse’s as she sipped her latte.

“Thanks for dropping that information off,” Jesse remarked, wanting to sound courteous even though he couldn't have cared any less.

“I almost talked myself out of it,” Karen said, rolling her eyes and smiling. “And god, I felt so awkward when your roommate opened the door. I hope I didn’t make too bad of an impression.” When Jesse didn’t respond the way she’d anticipated, she decided to be more direct. “How’d you meet her, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Jesse paused to take a sip of his coffee, which he’d gotten black with the hope that it would wake him up faster. “That’s my son’s mother,” he said, deciding to be honest. “Her names Elise.”

“Oh…” Karen trailed off, visibly flustered. “Are you two…I mean...she just lives with you? You’re not dating?”

“Nope.” Jesse shrugged as if it was the most run-of-the-mill arrangement in the world. “We’re just co-parenting, and living together makes it easier. In fact, I just found out that she’s seeing someone.”

“Oh.” Karen looked immediately relieved to hear that little tidbit of information. “So how long have you guys been split up, exactly?”

“Seven years.”

As soon as the words left Jesse’s mouth, Karen relaxed completely. “So why doesn’t she live with the guy she’s seeing, then?”

Jesse hesitated. A million questions were eating away at him since he’d overheard Elise’s conversation, but he hadn’t even considered the idea that she would eventually want to move in with this guy. A bitter taste surfaced in his mouth, and it wasn’t just the coffee.

“I bet you’re counting on that, huh?” Karen continued. “It must be weird…living with an ex.”

Jesse cleared his throat, emptying a packet of creamer and sugar into what was left of his coffee. In all actuality, that couldn’t have been any further from the truth. “It can be,” he lied. “But I like having my son living with me.”

“So why not get custody?” Karen questioned. “I mean…you make great money, don’t you?”

“It’s not that cut and dry.”

“Well what does…sorry, what’s her name?”

“Elise.”

“Right, Elise. What does she do for a living?”

“She raises our son.”

“So you’re fully supporting her then?”

“Well…yeah, but I’m fine with it. She had a job for a long time, but things got complicated. Anyway, long story short, it’s my fault she’s unemployed.”

“Gosh,” Karen said, leaning back in her chair. “You just might be the most selfless man I’ve ever met.”

Karen’s tone grated on Jesse’s nerves. He had to force himself to maintain his composure. “Ha…I appreciate that, but Elise isn’t some strain on my lifestyle or something. Truthfully, she’s kind of the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I mean, she gave me my son, and she raised him all by herself until I finally got my shit together. She’s more selfless than I’ll ever be. I owe her a lot.”

Karen tensed when she realized that she didn’t know Jesse’s situation just as well as she thought she did, but something about Elise’s presence in his life made her feel threatened. Regardless, it was clear that he wasn’t going to speak ill about her.

“So tell me about him,” Karen said, changing the subject. “Your son, I mean.”

Jesse’s face lit up as he seized the opportunity to talk about Isaiah instead of Elise, and the conversation paved itself out from there.

When Elise came home from running errands later that afternoon, she found a note from Jesse that stated that he’d gone out to breakfast with a friend. She wouldn’t have thought anything of it had she not overheard him making plans with Karen the previous evening.

Elise didn’t understand what Jesse saw in her. From the small amount of time that she’d spent with Karen, she found her to be nosey and ditzy. The Jesse she knew in her youth used to make fun of girls like that. He always used to say that he needed his women to be smarter than he was, and this Karen was anything but.

With a heavy heart, Elise set the note down and called for Isaiah to accompany her out to the beach. She stopped at the mailbox on her way out.  She had seen the carrier arrive a few minutes before, and she wanted to make sure any possible evidence of her enrollment in school didn’t make its way to Jesse before her. She still wasn’t ready to let him in on this new chapter in her life, at least not until she was sure she would be successful at it.

In addition to a receipt confirming Elise’s payment for the four classes she’d enrolled in, there was also a flyer in the mail advertising Ocean City’s annual carnival. Elise never had enough money to take Isaiah in the past, but this year was different, and she thought it would be a nice way to kick off his new school year.

When Jesse pulled into the driveway later that afternoon, he saw Elise and Isaiah frolicking in the sand and sat in his car to watch them for a moment. It was a sight he very much wanted to be a part of, but at the same time, he didn’t want to interrupt.

Upon exiting his car, Jesse caught a glimpse of himself in the reflection of the windshield. There were smudges of lipstick on his bottom lip, and all over his neck too. He felt a wave of guilt wash over him at the reminder of his unexpected hook-up with Karen. He didn’t know what made him feel worse—using her in a weak attempt at fucking away his feelings for Elise, or entering anyone other than her. Finally, he decided that they were equally pitiful.

“Daddy!” Isaiah squealed, running up to him.

“Hi buddy,” Jesse said as he stepped into the sand, engulfing him in a hug as he desperately tried to avoid making eye contact with Elise.

Elise took notice of Jesse’s standoffish demeanor and reacted to it by being aloof in return. Their childish behavior set the tone for the rest of the evening, and they each made a point of only speaking to Isaiah.

Later that evening, Jesse pressed play on a message on his cell phone from Karen. She was inviting him out to dinner the following night, and the guilt he felt earlier amplified, as did his avoidance of Elise.

As Elise prepared Isaiah’s bath that evening, she caught a glance of herself in the mirror and paused to study her face. The woman who stared back at her wasn’t at all the person she felt like on the inside. Raising Isaiah for so long on her own had began to take its toll on her, and it showed in her appearance.

As Elise stared at herself, her mind wandered once again to Karen and Jesse’s obvious interest in her. As annoying as she was, Elise couldn’t deny how attractive and well put together she was as well. In more ways than one, she felt like Karen represented everything she wasn’t.

When Jesse heard Isaiah and Elise exit the bathroom, he made a point of keeping his eyes focused on the television. A few minutes later, Isaiah bounded down the stairs and crawled into his lap to give him a goodnight kiss, and he made sure not to acknowledge Elise then either—although it was a lot easier said than done considering she was standing directly in his line of vision.

“Jesse,” Elise spoke up once Isaiah was in his room, acknowledging him for the first time all day. “Would you mind watching Isaiah for a few hours tomorrow morning?”

Jesse had no problem spending extra time with Isaiah, but based on how evasive Elise was being, he knew it had something to do with the new man in her life. He definitely wasn’t in any rush to make seeing him any easier for her.

“That depends,” Jesse said, keeping his eyes focused on the TV. “Where are you going?”

“I have an appointment.”

“Where?”

Elise crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes at Jesse as she stared him down in silence. She was too embarrassed to admit that she was going to the salon. She didn’t want him to think she was changing her appearance for his sake or something…