We Just Need Us (Second Generation Book 5)

Chapter 11

ROBBIE

I don’t even remember much of the drive back to the hotel. I was still trying to wrap my head around everything that had gone down at Clementine’s house. Seeing her was an emotional experience that I didn’t expect to have. Even after almost seven years, I haven’t forgotten the way that I felt about her, but to see her all grown up, I could feel something deep within my chest that reminded me of how it felt seeing her when we were dating. I also didn’t expect the level of jealousy I felt when I saw Patrick there with her. 

Patrick was part of our social circle in high school, so it wasn’t surprising that they’d still hang out. The second he put his hand on her though, I want to tear him away and toss him out of the house. I know I have zero rights to Clem’s happiness, but one of my best friends sliding in after I was gone and dating her just left a horrible taste in my mouth. That bitterness only grew when I found out that Clementine didn’t know that Patrick and I were still in touch.

The ache in my jaw then threw me back to the moment when Mitch Alexander walked through that door. It all happened so quickly that I couldn’t react. I’m sure all my training officers would have been disappointed in my slow reaction, but I was still trying to wrap my head around seeing Patrick and Clem together. The one thing I was able to take in was the small child that had accompanied Mitch into the house. I didn’t have much time to process anything because before I knew it I was falling to the ground and everything around me was going dark.

I regained consciousness to Patrick and Clementine fighting in the other room. I swore I heard her say things like “father” and “child,” but she had to be mistaken. I learned very quickly that I was, in fact, the mistaken one when my eyes caught a glance at all of the pictures framed up on the wall and leaning on shelves. It was the same little girl with strawberry blonde hair. I knew that Clementine’s older cousins probably all had a slew of kids by now, but nobody could hang that many pictures of one child unless she was something even more special than a niece.

A personalized photo was staring me right in the face. It was an infant wrapped in a pink blanket and a bow as big as her head with the words Vivienne Carter Alexander and her birthdate written on it. I was never a math magician, but even I could figure out that baby was conceived right before I left for basic training, the only night that Clemintine and I spent romantically.

Everything she told me was just too much. I’m sure the punch to the face didn’t help, but it seemed like every piece of information created a new layer to a life that I didn’t know I should have been a part of. Her anger at Patrick started to make sense. We had been on this group text message together for three years now and never once did the words “Clemmy” and “baby” get mentioned. Looking back at all the times Eli and Adam would pussyfoot around my exile from Lawerence, it all started to make sense. At least Eli must have known the truth too, that’s why he told me to talk to her today.

Speaking of Eli, that was the first stop I was making back at the hotel. I had sent him a text asking where he was and he said the hotel bar so I made my way there. He was sitting at the bar, chatting with the bartender when I approached. He stood to welcome me with one of his famous, “bro hugs” but I took a step back and put my hands up instead.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

He puts his hands down and sank back onto the barstool. “I take it that you talked to Clemmy? Wait, what the fuck happened to your face?”

I touched my jaw again and flinched, it still hurt. Mitch may have aged, but he certainly was just as strong as he was seven years ago. “Mitch Alexander happened.”