by Mia Carson
“The bitch is using you!” Nick yelled through a mouthful of blood.
“Don’t you talk about her!”
“Jack—Jesus, what the hell is wrong with you?” Coach Hayes snapped when he saw them both bloodied.
“Nothing,” he spat. “Nick ran his mouth.”
Nick shoved the helping hands off of him. “You know, I think I will hit her up sooner rather than later. That damn red hair of hers is more attractive up close, not to mention her ass.”
Jack cursed and lunged for him again, pulling free of the others. He punched Nick one more time, slamming him back into the lockers before one of the linemen tackled him to the floor. He struggled to get him, still cursing Nick as Hayes stood over him.
“Jack, you’re benched for rest of the game.”
“What? You can’t do that!”
“Both of you are benched! Get your shit together!”
The lineman let Jack up as someone else took Nick out of the locker room. Jack adjusted his jersey and glared at the back of Nick’s head. That bastard. He wanted to argue more with Hayes, but he clamped his lips shut before he said something to make it worse. Fists bloodied and mouth bleeding, he went to the sinks to clean up before half-time ended.
Danny did not come back into his life for his fame, he knew that. Hell, it was he who had bumped into her on the street! Yet Nick’s words caused him to seriously consider the other issue his mind kept going back to. The chance that Jenna was his. And Danny ran away with her all those years ago. Away from him.
He was not going to question fate bringing them back together, but he swore, if she ran again, he would follow her. Danny was not going to leave him behind again.
***
Danny and Jenna watched the rest of the game, the latter booing when the visiting team came back to tie the game, and even worse, when they scored the winning field goal, knocking Jack’s team out of the playoffs. They had seen him come back out of the tunnel, but his smile had vanished and he sat on the bench for the entire second half.
The final whistle blew, and Danny followed his grim face until it disappeared into the shadow of the tunnel with the rest of the team.
“Mom, did he get hurt?” Jenna asked, worried.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure what happened,” Danny murmured, taking Jenna’s hand. “Come on, he said the car would be back out front for us. We’ll meet him back at the penthouse.”
The ride back was filled with Jenna recapping the three touchdowns Jack did make before he was pulled from the game. The penthouse was empty when they arrived, and Danny told Jenna to wash up for dinner while she paced anxiously around the living room, waiting for Jack. The door opened an hour later, and he walked in, his head hanging, looking torn between anger, disappointment, and—for some odd reason—happy.
“Jack? I’m sorry you lost the game,” she said as she hugged him.
His duffel fell to the floor, and he hugged her tightly, picking her up and spinning her around as she laughed. Her body slid down his, and he kissed her fiercely, his hands gripping her shirt in his fists.
“Me, too,” he said finally, tucking her hair behind her ears. “But shit happens. We did all right.”
“But the second half—what happened?”
He opened his mouth, but Jenna ran down the hall. He stepped to the side so she could tackle him in a hug. Danny’s heart overflowed with love, watching him pick her up and listen, wide-eyed, as she told him everything he already knew about the game.
You should tell him, the voice whispered in her mind. Just tell him now and be done with it. He loves that kid.
She wanted to, but the anger was still in his eyes. Jack set Jenna down, and she plopped onto the couch, flipped on the TV, and proceeded to watch highlights from the game. Danny followed him into the kitchen area as he pulled out a bottle of wine and two glasses.
“What happened?” she asked again, quieter. “Jack, talk to me.”
“I got in a fight with another player,” he muttered, and his hands tightened for a moment.
“What—why?” she asked startled.
Jack’s lips thinned as he pulled out the cork and sloshed the wine into the glasses. “One of the other players badmouthed you, and I decked him for it. Benched for the rest of the game and for the first three of next season.” He shrugged when she gasped. “It’s all right.”
Danny stared blankly into her wineglass. He got in a fight because of her. It could’ve cost him a hell of a lot more than just a few games, and the guilt hit her hard. This was a bad idea. Barely back in his life for two weeks, and she’d caused him to miss part of next season and they lost the playoff game.
“Jack, maybe it’s time we go home. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for that to happen.” She thought of turning to go pack that second. It would break Jenna’s heart to leave, but they were causing exactly the kind of problems Danny had feared.
His hand took her glass before she made up her mind to move, and she was tucked against his chest before she blinked. “No, don’t start that. You’re not the one who said it. Nick is a bastard, nothing more.”
“But the games! You’re going to miss opening season,” she protested.
“Yeah, and? You think that means I want you to disappear from my life again? Danny, nothing has seemed right in my life until this week with you, and I know you feel the same way.” He peered down at her, and the heat and challenge in his eyes pressed her body even harder against his. “Besides, now we have more time together. No games.”
“Does that mean we can see Grandpa now?”
Danny and Jack shifted to see Jenna sitting at the kitchen counter, her chin on her folded hands.
“I don’t know, hon,” Danny said, but Jack nodded. “Jack, she means my dad. Like home to Montana.”
“I know. I haven’t been home in a while. I can get us there.”
“You’re sure?” She’d wanted to go home for a while, but plane tickets were expensive this time of year and her car was not reliable enough to make the long drive across the country. “Jack, I can’t ask you to do that.”
“Then don’t. I’m flying home, and you both are coming with me,” he said brightly. “See? Problem solved.”
Jenna jumped up and yelled, “I’m calling Grandpa Rick!” She ran from the room.
“When do you want to leave?” he asked Danny, his body shaking with quiet laughter as he heard Jenna down the hall on the phone already.
“As soon as we can, I guess,” she murmured as worry after worry filled her mind.
He kissed her forehead and picked up his glass of wine. “I’ll check flight times. Get packing. You too, Jenna!”
Danny waited until he had disappeared down the hall before the smile slipped from her face. Going home. With Jack and Jenna, the daughter he still didn’t know was his. It sounded like a bad idea, a really bad, terrible, awful idea. But she was going to do it anyway.
She gulped the wine in her glass and poured another one.
CHAPTER 11
Jack rented a black pickup when they landed in Billings, Montana, and they piled into it for the one-hour drive to his and Danny’s hometown—the one his family still owned and the one where he fell in love with Danny. The town they both ran away from.
“I’ll stop by my place first so we can get settled in,” he told Danny when they got closer.
“You have a house here, too?” Her eyes narrowed, and he grinned.
His fingers tapped the steering wheel. “I always thought of eventually moving back home, if things worked out that way. A lot happened here, and I didn’t want to forget any of it.” There was more to it than that, but he didn’t want to lay that on her. He’d bought the house with this very moment in mind, with the hope that he would find her again, and they’d get back to where they’d been before everything changed.
Going home with Danny beside him… This was what he’d wanted all along.
They reached town a few minutes later, and Jenna bounced excitedly in the
backseat while Danny stared out her window. The truck passed the diner, and Jack’s hand reached out for hers. All the time they’d spent there together eating those damn pancakes. The park came into view where they’d had their first date, and when he pulled down another street, houses dotting it here and there, Danny shot him a wide-eyed look.
“You bought it? That old run-down mansion?”
“I did,” he said and kissed the back of her hand. “Always told you I would.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t like it,” she said, confused.
“No, but you did,” he replied tightly, struggling to keep his haywire emotions in check. He wanted to ask her again if Jenna was his daughter. If, after all this time, Danny still thought he would hate her for getting pregnant. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it. There was always that slim chance had she told the truth and Jenna was another man’s. Hearing that truth now would ruin the moment.
“This is your house? Holy crap!” Jenna exclaimed.
“Jenna! Language.” Danny scowled. “You and Aunt Hazel spend way too much time together.”
Jack pulled up the drive and parked the truck. The old mansion had been decrepit and falling apart, barely habitable when he finally had enough money to buy it. Three years later, he was handed a set of keys and presented with a gorgeous, all-stone mansion complete with hardwood floors of mahogany, a hearth in nearly every room, a state-of-the-art kitchen, and wooden accent beams in the ceiling and walls. It was the home Danny had always dreamed of having, and for some reason, it was the only vision he called to mind when he worked with the contractor on the house.
Standing on the front porch with Danny bouncing on her toes beside him, he was glad he hadn’t forgotten. He turned the key and let the front door swing inwards.
“Welcome home,” he whispered to her and stepped aside.
Danny and Jenna walked past him. Both of their jaws dropped in a mirror image before Jenna took off running through the house. “This is… Jack, I… damn.”
“You like it?”
Her head bobbed slowly. “You remembered… everything I ever said. Why did you do this?” she asked in disbelief.
“I can’t really tell you, but I’m glad I did,” he said, her hand slipping easily into his. “Maybe, when we’re alone, we can talk about a few things, Danny. Changes we might want to make.”
Jenna called down from the second floor how crazy the house was, and they both laughed.
“Jenna usually spends a night or two with my dad,” she said. “I’ll make sure we find the time to talk.”
His heart lifted. Talking wasn’t all he wanted to do, but it was a start. Convincing her to visit him in Texas had been a long shot. Could he get her to move back to Montana with him? Stay with him and consider marrying him? His body wanted to kneel in front of her in the entryway and ask her, but just like the questions bubbling to the surface in the truck, he squashed it down. He needed to take it one step at a time. Part of him was still pissed at her for running off, and though she claimed she’d told him the truth about Jenna’s parentage, she was hiding something still. While they were here, he’d figure it out.
“I’ll get the bags. You two settle in. Need to call your dad?”
“Yeah, I’ll let him know we’re here. Do you need to see your parents tonight or would you want to come with us for dinner?” she asked, and he heard the nervousness in her voice.
“It would be nice to see your dad again, if he doesn’t mind,” he said slowly and let out a breath of relief when she smiled.
“I’m sure he wouldn’t,” she said and pulled out her cell.
Jack went outside to retrieve their bags, the cold bite of the air reminding him he was definitely home. There wasn’t any snow on the ground, but the weather report said it might happen over the next day or two. The house always did look better in the snow. Jack looked around and breathed in deep, his lungs filling with the sweet scent of the Montana cold he grew up with.
Time. All he needed was time, and maybe this time, Danny would stay with him.
***
Danny told her dad on the phone they made it to town and the three of them were coming over for dinner. When Rick said he was excited to see them all, she assumed he was fine with the situation. An hour into dinner, she realized she’d been dead wrong.
“Danny, can I talk to you in the kitchen for a minute?” Rick asked. “Need your help with dessert, anyway.”
Jack and Jenna continued talking about the playoff game, leaving out the part about the fight, and Danny followed her dad into the kitchen. The door swung shut behind her and she leaned on the counter, watching him putter around the kitchen.
“What are you doing, Danny?”
“Helping you with dessert.”
“That’s not what I’m asking, and you know it,” he muttered, pulling a pie from the fridge. It was store bought. He never had learned to make a pie after Karen left him. “He doesn’t know who is sitting next to him right now. How can you do this to him?”
“Do what? I didn’t run into him on purpose! It just happened.”
“And? What are you planning on doing now?” Rick scooted the pie aside and rested his hands, palms down, on the counter. “Danielle, that man in there still loves you. He brought you to Texas, and now he’s brought you home.”
Danny hung her head. “I know, Dad.”
“Do you? He called me once a year to see how you were doing. He didn’t ask if he could see you, but I heard it in his voice every time he called,” Rick muttered. “He never stopped loving you, kid, just like you never stopped loving him.”
Danny’s hands gripped the edge of the counter. “I’m scared to tell him the truth,” she whispered. “He’ll hate me for leaving, I know he will, and I can’t… I have him back now, Dad, and I want to keep him.”
In that moment, she was eighteen again, crying as she told her dad she was pregnant and didn’t know what to do. Scared of what would happen, no matter what decision she made. For eight years, she told herself she’d made the right one, saving Jack from raising a child and giving him his chance to make it big. To be the football star he dreamed of being. This was their shot at being together, but the lie of who Jenna was sprang up between them and that future. She’d told him she was the product of a one-night stand, the only lie she could come up with that might not tear him apart thinking she loved another besides him.
“Dad, what do I do?” she asked, hot tears streaming down her cheeks.
Rick hurried around the island and pulled her into a tight hug. “He won’t hate you. He never could, but Danny, no matter what it might do to either of you, a man deserves to know when a child is his.”
“I know… God, I want him to know.”
“Then tell him, Danny. Tell him the truth before it’s too late to make the right choice.”
“You think I shouldn’t have run away?”
He wiped away her tears. “I think you did what you had to in that moment and there’s no changing it. All you can do now is concentrate on the future. What do you want, Danny?”
She stepped back, mopping up her face with her sleeve. “I want him, Dad. I always did.”
“I know you did. Now, let’s get this pie in there, and try not to look like you’ve been crying. Might make him suspicious.”
“I’ll be out in a second,” she said.
Rick took the pie and announced dessert was ready as he left the kitchen. Danny stayed near the island, fighting back more tears threatening to fall. Her feet strayed to the back door, and she stared out at the night sky. Clouds moved in from the north, and the snow that was predicted looked like it actually might fall soon.
“Hey,” Jack said, and Danny quickly made sure there were no tears in her eyes before she turned. “I talked to your dad. Jenna is going to stay here for the night.”
“Good,” she said. “She’ll have fun.”
“Yeah, and I thought we could go for a walk around town, or a drive?”
An image of
Jack’s eighteen-year-old self standing in this kitchen flashed through her mind before it cleared and the man standing before her stole her gaze. His eyes flared with a sudden predatory heat, and Danny’s knees went weak. She sucked in a breath and steadied herself.
“Yeah, that’d be fun. I’ll let them know we’re leaving.”
They took his truck after she told her dad and Jenna goodbye, and they drove to the park. Though it was in the twenties outside, there were still people out and about on a Sunday evening, walking to the diner or the movie theatre. The town had grown over the years, but it was still just as small and quaint as Danny remembered it. She only made the trip home maybe once or twice a year, and rarely did they get to stay long enough to really explore. The park was filled with the remnants of the local winter festival, ice sculptures and snowmen filling every available space. The paths were more crowded than she liked, and as if reading her mind, Jack grunted and turned off down another road leading to the outskirts of town.
He didn’t have to tell her where they were going. Danny knew this road better than any other in the country. The truck took a turn off the gravel into an open field, a field that had become hers and Jack’s place when they’d dated. When the headlights of the truck hit the tree, taller and sturdier than the last time she’d seen it, Jack parked the truck and turned it off.
“Still here,” she whispered. “After all this time.”
“Come on,” he said and hopped out of the truck.
Danny did the same, slamming the door behind her and walking towards the tree. The clouds overhead were dark, threatening snow, but she only had eyes for the familiar tree. The place, the truck, and Jack, so familiar. Their first night in each other’s arms had been here with only the stars as their witnesses. Her body remembered every touch from that moment, how hesitant they had been at first before their love for each other guided them, overflowing into the other. Danny circled the tree, her breath puffing out in front of her in little white clouds. Her feet reached the front again, and her whole body flushed as her eyes met Jack’s. The predatory glint was back with a hunger that mirrored her own.