What This Could Be- Joe Jonas Fanfic

Chapter 33: Sweet Potato Caroline

*Joe's POV*

I ran out on a mission, going through the whole house hoping to find her waiting for the flight information from Nick.

Dad, Pri and Franklin were now in the kitchen, prepping to cook all the go-to Thanksgiving dishes. They had just started, yet it already looked like a tornado had gone through, destroying everything in its track.

"Have you guys seen Taylor?" I abruptly asked in a hurry as Nick and Mom joined in. As much as I wanted to help out, my body wanted to reject the smell and taste of any food right now. That wouldn't be ideal for anyone to deal with.

"No, but can you go check on the kids in the room? They should be starting to wake up," Pri responded, cutting up some food on a chopping board.

I went back to the bedroom and picked up the water bottle and a Nuun tablet from the bedside table and my phone from the floor. Unlocking it, I noticed I had two percent of battery left. This better had been enough to make a call before dying.

I dropped the Nuun tablet in the water bottle and waited for it to dissolve while I hit Taylor's contact, letting it ring in my ear while I walked down the hall to the kids' room.

Wait. Why was I hearing a second phone ring?

Rushing to open the kids' door, I hung my phone up, relieved to see Taylor cuddled up in between Willa and Delphine.

"I thought you left," I breathed out, staying quiet as the girls were still comfortably asleep.

"I came in to say goodbye," she tearfully whispered, glancing at both my daughters, "but I couldn't leave."

I gulped down the lump in my throat that had just formed, "Can we talk? Please?"

She slowly and carefully managed to get out of the bed without disturbing them, "Outside?"

I nodded, following her to the back. We both sat down by the edge of the pool, our feet hanging in the water. This felt oddly familiar, except this time she was the one heartbroken over my words.

"Did I say I was in love with her, or that I love her?" I asked, needing a little more clarification before I was able to explain.

"You said you always love her, exact words," she replied, watching the water ripple as she swished her feet.

"I meant that," I answered honestly, "A few months ago, Willa cried to me about her mom and I no longer being together, and I—"

I paused, feeling myself already getting choked up.

Taylor looked at me with sad eyes, waiting for the inevitable.

"I feel like I've already failed as a father," I continued, allowing myself to cry if I needed to, "I called Nick and broke down to him, fearing that because I still felt hurt, I hadn't moved on. He told me I'm always going to love Sophie, and that's true. I always will, because she's the mother of my babies."

"So you haven't moved on is what I'm hearing," she calmly interrupted.

"No, that's not what I'm saying," I stated back with sincerity, "Before that, he said that you can still grieve about something you've healed from. And that's something I'm learning. There are no rules or a timeline on grief. Yesterday, I remember hearing Nick's annoying voice repeat that in my head, but I stupidly didn't want to deal with it and simply let it pass on its own. So me saying I love her doesn't mean I love love her. I have moved on. I still have some shit I need to work on, clearly, but I know I'm on the right track on healing."

She stayed still, her eyes fixated on the water as she listened.

My fingers brushed her hair away from her face before landing on her cheek, gently moving her face to meet my eyes, "Look at me."

She complied, her hazel eyes turning more on the spectrum of green in the sunlight. God, everything about her was beautiful, "I love you."

"Please don't say that if you don't mean it," she whispered, placing her hand on top of my forearm.

"I don't say that unless I mean it," I replied in the same tone as hers.

Our lips crashed together, the passion between us still alive and burning in all the right ways.

Suddenly, we both jumped at the sound of cheering and clapping behind us.

"We love love!" Pri shouted from the entryway.

"I swear I thought we closed the door," I turned and smiled at Taylor.

"Joe," she chuckled, "Even if we did, the door is still made out of glass. They can still see us."

I let out a sigh, "I know I can't use the concussion card this time, so instead can it be because I'm extremely hungover right now?"

"Hey, that's your own doing," she grinned, "but Joe?"

"Hm?"

"You haven't failed as a father," she voiced, "And I wouldn't say that if I didn't mean it."

Right on cue, I felt tiny arms wrap around my neck, slightly accidentally choking me, "Good morning, Daddy!"

"Willa!" I scooped her up in my arms, sitting her in my lap so her feet could feel the coolness of the water, "Good morning, my little angel. Did you and Glammy have fun last night?"

She nodded, "Yeah, but I wanted to play with you!"

This is the part where I disagreed with Taylor. I definitely felt like a failure as a father in this moment.

Taylor could sense the guilt I was having, "Daddy needed to get some sleep yesterday, but he can play with you today!"

"I'll see if we can turn the pool heater on a little later and play in the pool. Would you like that?"

"And play mermaids and dolphin?" she kicked her feet, splashing water all over us in a fit of giggles.

"I don't know what dolphin is, but yes," I laughed, "You can teach me later."

She ran off back inside, screaming her excitement to the rest of the family.

"I have one more question," Taylor piped up, "Why exactly did you decide getting drunk was the right thing to do?"

"It's honestly really stupid looking back at it," I admitted with a hint of embarrassment, debating on telling her, "Um, Sophie made an Instagram post flaunting him in a bunch of pictures. Told you it was stupid."

She put her arms behind her, leaning back, "Why don't you ever post us?"

"Because the difference is that I don't need to prove my love," I replied.

Content with my answer, she stood up with her hand out, "C'mon. Let's go help inside. I think your mom wanted to show me how to make something called the Sweet Potato Caroline?"

My eyes widened at the sound of Sweet Potato Caroline. If anything would fix my hangover, it would be my mom's specialty, which was a sweet potato casserole with a pecan streusel topping to complete it to perfection.

"Suddenly the worst day of my life turned into the best," I grabbed her hand, wanting to express my excitement the same way as Willa did, but I held back, mainly because I'm not four years old.

"Wait!" she paused, "Do you have your phone on you by any chance?"

I shook my head, "No, why?"

I regretted asking that. The next second, I instinctually held my breath as my feet were pushed off the pavement and succumbed to my fate underwater. My body felt like it was being electrocuted by the freezing temperature.

Coming up to the surface, I whipped my hair out of my face, "Okay. I deserved that!"

"You have no idea how much I've been wanting to do that since last night," she smirked, satisfied on the outcome of our conversation. I guess that was another way to help fix my hangover.