This Will Hurt II

THIS WILL HURT II THIS WILL HURT BOOK 2 CARA DEE This Will Hurt II Copyright © 2023 by Cara Dee All rights reserved This book along with its cover are licensed for your personal enjoyment and may not be reproduced in any way without documented permission from the author, not including brief quotes with links and/or credit to the source. This work along with its cover may not be regenerated or processed using artificial intelligence (AI) in any capacity. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This is a work of fiction and all references to historical events, persons living or dead, and locations are used in a fictional manner. Any other names, characters, incidents, and places are derived from the author’s imagination. The author acknowledges the trademark status and owners of any wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction. Characters portrayed in sexual situations are 18 or older. Edited by Silently Correcting Your Grammar, LLC. Formatted by Eliza Rae Services. CONTENTS Jake and Roe’s Journey Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Epilogue More from Cara About Cara JAKE AND ROE’S JOURNEY Told in two parts This Will Hurt I This Will Hurt II PROLOGUE 2014 Roe Finlay I’d made it this far without making a sound, and Cas was still asleep. I left him in his car seat on the coffee table in the living room, then carefully slipped out through the patio doors. I should’ve known I’d find Jake and Colin out here. It was a cute sight. Jake squatting down, Colin in front of him, as they—or Jake—planted something new in three big pots between the pool and the seating area. Colin was using the gardening tools I’d given him for Christmas. “I push it down?” he asked to make sure. “That’s right—push the bulb down in the soil like this.” Daddy Jake demonstrated. “Now you try. Then we’ll send a picture to Nanny.” I grinned faintly and headed toward them. Jake glanced over, spotting me first. He looked a little surprised to see me, possibly because I’d been here just a couple hours ago. “Did you forget somethin’ earlier?” he asked me. Colin looked over too and waved. “We’re makin’ garlic! Right, Daddy?” “We’re planting garlic, yes,” Jake confirmed. “That’s so cool.” I squatted down next to them and ruffled Colin’s hair. He was looking more like Jake for every day that passed, it seemed. “I did forget something earlier, actually.” I scratched my nose. “I forgot that it’s Thursday, and I think we should head over to the food trucks.” It’d been too long. About four months—and I couldn’t take it any longer. I needed that tradition to stay alive when everything else in my life had changed. “Ohhh, I wanna go!” Colin exclaimed. “And you can sleep over! Like when you lived here also!” Aw, damn. That sweet boy—he was struggling a bit with my moving out, at the same time as he was ecstatic the new changes had brought us an extra little one. “Another time, kiddo,” I promised. Jake was hesitant about the food trucks, which was all the more reason for us to go. He’d pulled back lately, and I hated it. I knew I couldn’t have it both ways, but goddammit. Did I really have to go home for dinner every fucking night? No. I didn’t. Jake, Colin, and I had our food-truck thing, and today, I wanted to include my own boy. We were the condor family, right? “I thought those days were over.” Jake got dismissive about it, and I didn’t buy it for a second. He missed our old routines as much as I did. “You thought wrong,” I replied. “I’ve let Cas have his infant phase. He’s three months old—perfect time to get him used to the food-truck smells.” Jake’s mouth twitched with mirth. “Is Baby Cas here?” Colin asked curiously. I smiled and nodded. “He’s asleep inside. We’re bringing him with us.” “Yeah!” The boy got excited and shook his little butt. Even Jake couldn’t resist that. He sighed and smiled. “All right, I guess we can order pizza another night.” That’s the…spirit. “Please rein in your exuberance,” I deadpanned. He chuckled under his breath and gathered their tools in a basket. “I’m just doin’ what you talked about in Slovenia—managing my expectations.” There was so much I wanted to say. Jake had been told all his life that he was bad at communicating and expressing how he felt, but I could read between the lines. I knew he missed us. That was why getting married had been more difficult than it should’ve been, because Jake’s attachment to me fucked with my head. I’d wanted things that weren’t there. I’d wished for his love to run deeper. But, anyway… It still warmed my heart to know he missed me, and we were gonna do something about that now. “We’re still a family, Jake.” He flicked me a glance, then nodded once, maybe not believing me fully. We’d get there. We had to. I needed a sliver of what we used to have—probably more than he did. Twenty minutes later, we piled into Jake’s truck, and by some miracle, my son was still asleep. Colin was fucking adorable. He whispered around Casper and treated him as if he were made of glass. “We gots to be careful,” he said, nodding to himself. I faced forward again, more content than I had been in weeks. Jake slowed down for a red light and absently drummed his fingers along the wheel. “By the way,” he said quietly, “Nikki’s pregnant.” My eyebrows flew up. Holy shit, she moved faster than I did. I thought the guy she was into, Russell or whatever his name was, had gotten stuck in divorce limbo where the lawyers did all the fighting. Last I heard, he and Nikki hadn’t even gone out on a first date. “Hot damn, I guess they went all in