Page 69 of Rebound

“Layla looks good,” Stella says to me once Layla is out of sight.

“She’d better,” June Bug says. His words come out like a threat.

“She looks like she’s getting laid a lot,” Donna throws in. “Thank goodness. I was worried for a while. She never brought anyone around.”

“June Bug scared them away,” Stella says.

Chapter 42

Layla

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Jeannie says to me. It’s the end of the workday, and I’m sitting in her office catching up on the past few days. She leans back in her chair and rests her hand on her belly. She looks down and smiles. “They’re kicking,” she says. “I have two little soccer players in here.” Then she looks up and giggles. “Don’t tell their daddy. He’s probably hoping they’re little basketball players.”

I quickly get up and put my hand on her stomach. I’m soon rewarded with a flutter of little kicks. Jeannie then lifts her shirt and I see movement in her stomach. I put my hands to my face in awe at the sight.

“Oh my god,” I say, touching her stomach again.

“Yeah. Aiden spends all night looking at or touching my stomach,” she says.

“I’m sure he spends his time doing more than that. That’s how he put two babies in your stomach to begin with.” She gives me the side-eye as she puts her shirt back down, and I throw my head back and laugh.

“Tell me more about this woman calling you a whore,” she says going back to what we had been talking about. And I do. I tell her the conversation that I had with Seth and what a lunatic Jasmine’s grandmother sounds like.

I leave out the part about Seth being worried last night that Jasmine has crazy motherfuckers on both sides of her family. Those are the actual words he used, and because he was worried, I did not admonish him for using the word crazy.

“Me, of all people, a whore,” I say with a giggle. “But whatever. Maybe it’s grief talking, but Seth told her to go fuck herself and not to call him again.”

Jeannie nods and stands. She lets out a loud groan as she does it.

“Two giant babies, he puts in me,” she complains. “Good thing I love him. Anyway,” she says, waving her hand around. “How was LA? And how did you like that Walsh private plane?”

“I don’t know how I can ever fly commercial again,” I joke. Not only did they let us use the plane to go to upstate New York, but the company Seth was working with chartered a plane for us too. “No wonder you’re so spoiled,” I tell my friend.

She shrugs, but she must know it’s true. She comes from a similar economic background as me, except her parents are still married. She was divorced and managing the hotel we worked at when she met Aiden. At the time, she had no idea he was a Walsh behind the Walsh Group, the parent company we work for.

“LA was amazing.” I spend the next twenty minutes telling her about everything we did and saw while we were there. I mention that Seth promised to take us back next year for a few days.

“Tell me about you and Seth.” She finally sits back down and waits for me to speak. I feel myself blush.

“I might have been wrong about him,” I begin. “He’s a great dad even though he’s so young and Jasmine was unplanned. He’s a fantastic cook, and maybe I judged him too harshly.”

“How does he treat you?”

“Actually well. He pulls my chair out for me. He holds my hand when we’re out. And the weirdest thing is that he’s so happy and appreciative of the little things that I do for him. I’m talking about basic stuff. I’ll make him a fruit bowl and he’ll act like I gave him a kidney. The other day, the housekeeper called in sick so I did the laundry and straightened up while he was at a meeting, and he acted like I built him a house or something.” I shrug as if I’m confused, but I get it. If I hadn’t met his father, it would be a mystery, but Seth has never had anyone to take care of him before.

He got stuck as the parent in the house with his father, then he became a father at a young age. While I believe Pete loves him, I don’t think Seth’s ever felt unconditional love from an adult before. A big part of me hurts for that little boy.

“Yeah, he hasn’t always had it easy,” is all Jeannie says. “I don’t know the details, but he’s a good kid. Aiden is like his mentor slash big brother. As long as he’s good to you, I won’t have to put my hands on him.”

“So far, so good,” I tell her. It’s better than good, but I keep that to myself. He’s everything I’ve been looking for in a boyfriend. He doesn’t look like how I pictured my first boyfriend to look, but he’s handsome. Other than that, he checks all my other boxes. “And you know I’d do the same for you, even though I don’t have to worry about Aiden. But I still have my eyes on that douchebag, so don’t worry about him.”

At that, she throws her head back and laughs.

“Oh my god. I had forgotten all about him.”

“How can you forget about your ex-husband and all the shit he’s done to you?” I bite my tongue and don’t remind her how he cheated on her with one of her best friends. She’s moved on from that and is happy. “But he’s basically an ambulance chasernow. I wish he had stayed in Philly,” I say. “Why did he have to come back and open his law practice here?”

The only good side to that is my ability to create fake profiles and leave one-star reviews about his business. Every once in a while, they’ll get taken down, and I’ll make another profile. I don’t tell Jeannie about any of that. That’s for my own little petty enjoyment because no one hurts my friend.

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