Accepting Owen (Emilia's Perspective)

Chapter Twenty-Five

I typed 'Hey', but it felt lame so I deleted it. We were married, after all. I considered 'I miss you already' or 'hows it going?' but none of them seemed any better than saying 'hey.' I grumbled as my fingers moved just above my screen, unsure what to send.

Finally, I decided on honesty, like he'd asked for. I sent, "You might be busy, but talking to EJ I realized I never asked you how you feel. I'm sorry that I didn't really consider how this is all affecting you. I think I'm doing what I told my brother not to do, by putting you up so high on the perfect pedastal and not allowing you the space to be human. Are you doing okay?"

As soon as I'd sent it, he read it, and then my phone rang. I giggled as I looked to Elijah, with a big grin on my face. "He's video calling."

Elijah pulled me into a private room behind where we'd been sitting, and shut the door as I answered. Orange light showed Elijah and I on the couch in the room as the chat opened.

"Hi," I offered with a hopeful smile.

Owen returned the look. "Hi. I'll never be too busy for you, and I'm doing fine. I know your expectations and hopes for me are high, because you've been dreaming about this relationship your entire life. Of course you're going to have high hopes. I'm not upset by that."

Elijah watched Owen's face closely. "Have you talked to her?" he asked, sounding decidedly Italian with a tough edge to his voice.

I squinted at him, thinking Why is he using all his scare tactics right now?

"Who?" Owen seemed genuinely confused.

"Jess," Elijah said curtly.

"I let her I know I made it home. I'll talk to her tomorrow."

"You know I'll kill you-"

"EJ!" I shouted. "I don't need you to protect me from my husband. You guys are supposed to be in the same team. Knock it off."

"He's fine," Owen said, but I thought his voice may have wavered just a little. "I know what he's saying. We are on the same team. We both want you to be safe and happy. He's just saying what I would say. If you get hurt, because of me, he'd kill me. The feeling is mutual."

I shivered at the cold tone as he spoke. "This conversation... was supposed to go very differently." I sighed. "I love you both. Neither of you will be getting killed, especially by each other. Everyone needs to chill the fuck out. All I wanted to do was apologize for being self-absorbed and only caring about my only feelings, and see if you felt something you'd like to discuss.

"As far as things with Jess go, I hope that your conversation goes well tomorrow. I hope you figure something out. I hope there are no hard feelings between the two of you because it's going to be a long lifetime if you hate each other. I thought you both liked each other. I don't understand the way you're acting."

Their voices ran over each other, like water in a creek, saying things like "I love that guy! Are you crazy?" and "We're best buddies! Come on!"

I rolled my eyes. "You two are going to have so much fun together."

"When are you moving here?" Elijah asked Owen, instead of me.

"I have to figure out things here first," Owen answered quietly, and my face flushed hot. He had to sort out how things would work with his child's mother, before he and I could decide things about our future.

"Right," EJ said. "Well, you're always welcome in my city. If you want to come along I can set you up with a place to stay so you don't have to share my apartment with me. My couch isn't big enough for the both of you. I'll be looking forward to having you join me in business, brother."

While they continued to talk, my mind drifted away. I wondered if bringing Jess with us to Chicago was going to be the easiest way to handle this. Being apart from her and a new baby was going to stress Owen. He would miss out on a lot of the firsts with his first child if we were two hours away.

I tried to imagine what kind of schedule they would share the baby on, but the confusion swarmed in my head like an angry nest of bees and I curled my knees to my chest. Trying to think of solutions to a problem I knew very little about was overwhelming.

I startled slightly when Elijah wrapped his arms around me, and propped my phone on the arm of the couch so Owen was looking at us. I blinked to bring myself back to the real world.

"You okay?" Owen asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, yeah. I'm good. I was just thinking. I miss you."

A grin spread across his face, which I matched. "I miss you, too. You have fun tonight. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Don't worry about whatever happens tomorrow," I said, shocking myself a little. "We'll make it work, no matter what the future holds. We're a team- all of us are a team. When Little Ava joins us, we'll be unstoppable."

After our goodbyes, I turned to Elijah and decided how to word what I wanted to say, but he must've read my mind and told me before I could finish the thought.

"I wish I could talk to Ava," he said. "Maybe you should."

"That's what I was just thinking about. Do you think it would freak her out?"

"Not if you don't say anything about.. us."

"I don't know, Bub. Should we tell Dad?"

Elijah scoffed. "Dad's looking at ways for me to marry her right now. I don't think he's going to mind if you send her a Facebook message. She won't even remember it in four years."

I shook my head. "No, not like this. She'll catch me. You'll just have to wait. She's too young for me to feel comfortable doing that. And you don't do it either, you hear me? You'll be with her soon enough, maybe even sooner than you expected. Be patient."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah yeah yeah. step two, get my head out of my ass. Let me guess, I'll bet step three is even worse."

"I'll know step three when I see it."

"Right now, I see our fathers head on top of your shoulders when his words come out of your mouth!"