Jameson is waiting at the altar, waiting for Sawyer, she’s late, twenty minutes late, she is never late, sure she’s the bride and the bride is always late to these things, aren’t they? But this late? His girl is never late to anything, and she would not be late to meet him at the altar and per their agreement this has to go off without a hitch. Agreement: the word makes him cringe at the unpleasantness it brings up but it is what it is. He exchanges a look with his brothers, his four best men; they too are worried. He waits and waits and waits… he looks at his watch thirty minutes late. The door to the church opens and he exhales, but only just when he sees his future father-in-law standing there without his daughter. Without his bride…
‘Shit!’ Jameson wakes with a start, drenched in cold sweat; this same dream where she leaves him at the altar, has plagued his sleep too many times, so much so, he can recall every detail. He reaches for the phone to call her, the clock on the nightstand says 3am; she’ll just be getting to work considering she is five hours ahead in London.
With every ring of the phone on the other end, his heart thumps. What the hell is going on with him? He’s never been this way with any other woman but Brandy and considering their arrangement he should not be feeling this way about her. What are these feelings anyway?
‘Hey you. You’re up late.’
Her voice sounds so lovely over the phone, so happy to hear it’s him on the other end and it soothes Jameson.
‘Hey. Morning. I couldn’t sleep and I wanted to hear your voice.’ Talk about being whipped. Who is he? The feeling did not make him want to run and hide though.
‘Why couldn’t you sleep?’
‘Had a nightmare but it’s all good now that I hear your voice. How are you?’
‘I’m good.’ Sawyer blushes all over, if that were even possible this early in the morning, with the sun struggling to wake up. She bypasses her tube station and continues on to the next if only to keep him on the phone a while longer. She should have taken the car this morning.
The tension starts to fall away from Jameson the longer he stays on the phone to his fiancée. He has a flight to catch in four hours, to Amsterdam, so he could really do with the sleep, but this feels better, much better. This thing between them is complicated and has a shelf life but something about talking to her, being with her, makes the complications a lot less… well, complicated. His family knows there is something weird about his union, but they love him too much to bother with the details, as long as he is happy and they have been waiting a while for happiness to catch up to Jameson. It’s as if each time the race starts, he outpaces the feeling, as if he were allergic to being happy, and considering everything that happened with Brandy, they are desperate for him to feel something other than the abyss he finds himself in.
Happiness, Jameson can admit to feeling it now, despite the complication; talking to Sawyer makes him happy. He’ll take it. They talk a while longer about the wedding, the cake and more mundane stuff before hanging up because he knows she has to get to work and she is doing that thing where she’ll walk to the office or keep going from tube station to tube station, until he gets off the phone.
‘Have a good day babe.’ Jameson says.
‘And you and a safe flight.’
‘Thanks.’ But he doesn’t hang up the phone.
‘Hang up.’
‘No, you hang up.’
‘No, the etiquette is that the person who calls gets to hang up the phone and the addendum to that is the person who says goodbye first gets to hang up the phone because they initiated said hang up.’
‘That’s bullshit. The caller gets to dictate the terms of the hang up. Everyone knows that.’
‘No, everyone does not know that. These things are set in the pages of a good romance novel my love which, as you know, I am a connoisseur of.’ Sawyer giggles making her way to the next station. She is giggling before nine in the morning. Who is she?
‘You got me.’ Jameson will not draw any attention to the fact that she’d called him her love, neither will he admit out loud how good it felt to hear it. ‘Have good day.’ He waits a beat, then hangs up immediately loathing the empty feeling that assails him afterwards.
Jameson dials a conference from his phone almost immediately, his safety blankets. His brothers. They answer, like he knew they would.
‘You fucking spoilt brat.’ Hudson says upon answering, getting out of bed at the same time so he does not disturb his sleeping and pregnant wife.
‘You all said I should call any time. Day or night.’
‘At least use your common sense.’ Jacob grumbles. Lucky for his brat of a brother, Rowan is away on business.
‘What’s on your mind?’ Jackson goes into big brother mode.
‘Tell me I’m not making a mistake marrying-’
‘Shut up.’ Hugo says, Lianna and the children are away at her parents’ for the week and he is the family insomniac. ‘Shut the fuck up.’ He is not best pleased at the ungodly hour of this call, but they all did promise and if there is one thing the Summers brothers do, it is keep their promise to each other, no matter what. ‘She’s a lovely girl and you don’t deserve her, but she is marrying you anyway.’
‘Don’t be an idiot.’ Jack tsks at Hugo, ‘don’t you remember what you were like when this was happening to you?’
‘Goodness gracious.’ Jacob guffaws, ‘you were such a little bitch.’
‘Wasn’t he just?’ Hudson says.
‘Back to the matter at hand,’ Hudson tries to bring them back to Jamesons’ call. ‘Why do you have us on a call at this time of the day littlest brother.’
‘I had nightmare-’
‘Same one?’
‘Yeah.’ Jameson does not need to see his brother’s faces to know how worried they are by this fact.
‘Did you call Dr Yomi?’ Jacob asks, referring to their family therapist.
‘I don’t think I need to see her.’
‘Jamie.’ All four brothers exclaim in unison.
‘I know, I know. But this is not like before.’
‘It doesn’t matter Jameson, you need to call to her. These nightmares are recurring, and they are so vivid now. Stop trying to defer whatever it is you are dealing with. It’s affecting your sleep-’
‘And ours.’ Hugo adds.
‘I know and I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t be. We are all here for you baby brother. And don’t mind me, she absolutely deserves you, because you are an awesome little brother.’
‘Did you have to remind me of being a little brother?’
‘Littlelest then.’ Jacob says.
‘Fuck off. But thank you. I will call her.’
‘Have you called mum?’ Jackson asks.
‘Not lately.’
‘You know she’s excited about all this right? She loves Sawyer and she’s ecstatic that you did not inherit the Summers curse after all.’
‘There is no Summers curse,’ Hudson says, ‘and just in case you did not notice she’s been with Stelios for a good run now, ten years and counting. That’s no joke for someone who gave Julia Roberts a run for her money.’
The brothers laugh at the long-standing family joke about their mother and her aversion to relationships or marriage; the proof is in the pudding because all five sons were sired by five different men with whom she’d been in relationships with at varying points of course, one after the other it would seem. All five wanted to take her down the aisle but Summer Summers always maintained she was the eternal bachelorette until of course she met shipping magnate, Stelios Spiropoulos, and the rest as they say, is history.
‘Please call Dr. Yomi, Jameson.’ Jackson says to his brother, his tone serious now. ‘We know everything you have been through, everything that happened with Brandy… that is not something you go through on your own-’
‘Or should.’ Hudson interjects.’
‘Or should,’ Jackson affirms.
‘I didn’t though, and I did speak to her, I’ve been speaking with her.’
‘When was the last time you spoke with her?’ Jacob asks.
A beat. ‘A year ago.’
‘Call her.’ Jackson says. ‘Marrying Sawyer is a big step for you after a long time thinking it would never happen or actively not wanting it to, so please call Dr. Remi and talk to her.’
‘Seconded.’
‘Thirded.’
‘What they said.’ Jacob yawns getting ready to go back to bed.
‘I will I promise. Thank you.’
‘Anytime-’
‘Just not at 3:30am.’ Hugo says.
‘Oh shut up.’ The brothers say in unison before hanging up.
Jameson is breathing a lot easier than when he called them and he makes a mental note to call Dr. Yomi sometime in the week. Sometime soon.