Coming Back

by Lauren Dane

  “What are you up to after you leave here?” Mick asked when she turned her attention back to him.

  “I’m going fabric shopping. Don’t be jealous.” She winked and he sighed happily before sipping his coffee.

  “Did you invite her and Adam tonight?” Asa said as he cruised in and headed straight for the coffee.

  “Oooh, to what?”

  Duke grinned. “I like this one, Michael. She’s got a good attitude.”

  “You and Jessi are the two most Zen people I’ve ever met.” Mick turned back to Jessi. “We’re all going out tonight for sushi. Before that we’re having a few recreational brawls. You and Adam are invited to one or all parts. Whatever you prefer.”

  “Recreational brawl? I feel like we might have different understandings of the word recreational.” Only Mick would think fighting was a fun game.

  But this was his life, and she was part of it now. Which meant all of it, especially parts she may not understand. Plus it would be hot.

  “A fight league. We have rules,” he amended quickly at the look on her face.

  “I can vouch for the general hardness of his head. And the size of his fists is pretty much in his favor too,” Duke defended Mick.

  Jessi shrugged. “He’s a grown man in charge of his life. I’m sure Adam and I will be there. For both parts, as long as we aren’t cramping your style or whatever.”

  Mick looked like he’d eaten something sour. “Since when does having a gorgeous woman and a handsome man count as cramping style? Because as far as I can tell, that’s the fucking coolest thing ever, not embarrassing.”

  “You’re so good at that,” Jessi said as she fought a blush.

  Carmella laughed. “It’s like seeing a whole different part of Mick when he talks about you. I like it. Though I totally agree with you, Jessi, that recreation should mean swimming or baseball. Not face punching. But they all seem to really love it.”

  “At least it’s not eating paste, I guess.”

  “I never ate paste!” Mick protested over everyone’s laughter.

  “You drank bong water once.” She mimicked the dry heaves.

  “It was a dare.” Like that was an actual reason.

  “This might be why you enjoy getting punched in the face, Mick.”

  Duke and Asa laughed harder.

  “I rarely get punched, though.” One of his eyebrows rose, and she was filled with silly, wonderful love. “I do the punching.”

  “All right then. Text directions to me or Adam.” She finished her coffee. “I need to get moving.”

  “I’ll walk you out,” Mick said as he joined her. She told everyone she’d be seeing them later before Mick led her out a back door.

  “Thanks again,” he said as they got to her car.

  “Of course.” She wouldn’t ask him if he was feeling up to brawling that night. He had to be in charge of his own health. Even though he had to be hungover and feeling pretty rough.

  “Adam tells me there’s something we both have to be present to hear. I’m trying to get out by six and go home straight from here. Then you can tell us before we go out.”

  Oh that would be a delightful pre-dinner conversation! She couldn’t wait.

  Ugh.

  Instead she nodded. “Okay. I’m hoping to be finished by then. Hamish is coming by late in the day to be fitted for some new stuff to wear onstage.”

  Mick’s face darkened. “He’s visiting?”

  “Staying with my parents for a few weeks. Says he’s going to be house hunting while he’s here. He loved the pants I made for him two years ago and wants more.”

  “Don’t give that cock a discount.”

  Jessi frowned. “He’s not a cock. He’s family, which means he gets a discount. Now, stop this ridiculous pouting. You and Adam both, so ridiculous. As if I even had time to get up to anything with Hamish! Who is like my brother, so ew.”

  Chastened, Mick stopped his scowl and kissed her instead. “I’m glad Adam and I keep you so busy.”

  “You should be. Go back to work. Drink lots of water and I’ll see you later.”

  He hugged her. “I love you, Jessi.”

  “I love you too.”

  Adam came home to find Jessi bent over Mick’s shoulder as he sat at the kitchen island.

  Artie Shaw played in the background. The fireplace sent golden light through the room, and the whole house smelled really good.

  His elegant, simple showcase of a house had always filled him with pride. But Jessi had filled it in a way nothing ever could have. Bits and pieces of her began to make appearances. She’d left little stones here and there in windowsills in groups of three. An oxblood throw with gold chevrons lay over the back of one of the chairs near the French doors leading outside. A framed picture of the three of them from the night of the grand opening sat on a shelf in their bedroom.

  It meant she was moving in. That she felt safe enough to put roots down and make it her space too.

  Most of all, though, Jessi made this a home. Just being there made him happy. Like walking in was a damned hug. Her touches had warmed the space like her presence had done to his life.

  She laughed, pressing a kiss to Mick’s neck, and stepped away. Or tried to. Mick moved quickly and grabbed her, pulling her back for a more thorough kiss.

  They were beautiful, his angel and his man.

  Jessi sighed and turned her head, but when she noted Adam there her face lit with a smile and she launched herself at him.

  This is what it meant to come home every night when you had the life you needed.

  Laughing, he caught her and kissed the taste of Mick off her lips. “That’s what I call a welcome.”

  “I thought it was pretty good myself.”

  He put her down, giving her ass a final squeeze as he met Mick halfway across the room and kissed him hello too.

  Adam moved to step back, but Mick held him in place long enough to place one more kiss on Adam’s forehead first.

  “I was just telling Jessi that coming home to her was better than any drug. And then I got a double dose,” Mick said.

  Adam was relieved to have that easiness between them unchanged, that chemistry and connection that bound them together still strong. The night before had been incredibly intense in a number of ways. For all of them. Mick had been exposed and vulnerable, and Adam wanted to be sure the trust between them hadn’t been broken.

  But Mick looked him dead on when they spoke. His kiss had been easy, sexy, and the kiss on the forehead had been something Adam’d needed without even knowing it.

  “When do we need to go?” It had been a big deal that Mick had invited them that night. Their going would also be a public declaration of a relationship to Mick’s community. Adam knew he’d have to do the same at some point, though he wished his family were more like Jessi’s.

  “We’ve got about an hour and a half. It’s up north tonight, near Edmonds. We move around from time to time. One of the guys at the shop just bought several acres, so we can get rowdy without getting the cops called.”

  Jessi sighed with so much longing both men looked in her direction. She blushed. “What? I know! Okay?” She threw her hands up and started pacing.

  He had no idea what she was talking about, but he did love to watch her move.

  Mick snorted. “Angel, help us out here.”

  “It’s sexy, okay?” She ended on a near wail and Adam couldn’t help laughing. “It shouldn’t be. I should be worried for Mick. Though, okay, I am. But it shouldn’t make me all ‘mmmmm, hot stuff, let’s go to bone-town’ when he talks about punching people. I’m a terrible person.”

  Mick had to put a hand over his mouth, trying to wipe away his smile as he smoothed over his beard. “You’re a lot of things, Jessi. Terrible isn’t even on the list. I like that you get hot over my love of fighting. It’s a regular part of my life so, I mean, all the better for me if you think it’s sexy. Bonus.”

  “I can assure you, Jessilyn, that your wanti
ng to go to bone-town is never going to be counted as a negative by either of us,” Adam said.

  She flipped them both off but smiled. “Okay then. What should I wear? I’ve never been to an open-air brawl before.”

  “I think we need to sit and have you tell us whatever thing you said you needed to tell us both.” Adam pointed at the couch.

  “Well, how about we wait? Until after? It’s Friday night. We’ll get home and then I can tell you after we’ve enjoyed ourselves. It’s better that way.”

  “Jessi, cut the shit.” Mick threw himself onto the couch and she frowned but shuffled over to sit on the big chair nearest the fireplace.

  “I want to emphasize that what I’m going to tell you happened in the past. I wouldn’t even be telling you now but my mother found out and she made me promise to tell you both or she would. I don’t think you need to know, to be honest. But I’d rather you hear it from me.”

  Adam braced himself. Whatever she was about to say was going to be hard for her to share, so he tried to keep his face relaxed and the anger from his muscles.

  “Jessilyn, you can tell us anything. How many times have you listened to us? Put us back together when we were breaking apart? If your mom gave you that ultimatum it’s got to be bad. So up front I want to emphasize,” Mick echoed her words, “that we love you and we’ll deal with whatever it is.”

  She took a deep breath. “Two months after we’d all broken up, your father showed up at my front door.”

  Adam had already been exiting from her daily life by that point, but he hadn’t heard this story. He knew enough to understand he wasn’t going to like the rest.

  “We had an argument. He said mean things. It’s over.” She recited this with her eyes on her toes.

  Mick shifted to get to his knees in front of her. He took her hand.

  Adam moved to her other side. “I know this is hard. But if you can, will you give us more detail?”

  “And the full story.” Mick kissed her palm and the inside of her wrist. “Don’t hold back to protect me. Or because you’re afraid of me.”

  She blinked quickly and Adam noted the unshed tears. He had to ignore his instinct to demand she tell them immediately, so he could set about making Mick’s father pay for whatever the fuck he’d done to her.

  “He shoved into the apartment right when I opened up. I would have asked in him anyway. So we could talk about you. I wanted him to know how wonderful you are, how much you meant to me. I thought we could connect through our love of you.” She licked her lips. “He’d been drinking.”

  Shock rippled over Mick’s face and then so much pain Adam didn’t know what he wanted to do more, comfort them or hurt that asshole for doing this to start with.

  “He said ugly things. Broke some of my furniture. Threatened me.”

  “Tell me the details. All of them.” Mick’s voice was thick with emotion.

  “Mick, it’s… I don’t want to put that look on your face.” The anguish in Jessi’s voice drove at Adam. At the need to defend and protect her.

  But he hadn’t been there either. Not at the time and not enough that she trusted him to seek him out. Adam blew out a breath as he rubbed circles on her shoulder with his thumb.

  “He said I was the reason. That I’d tempted you to sin from the first. That even at five I was a whore.”

  Adam barely leashed a growl.

  “He said you’d confessed to your wickedness. That you left because I wouldn’t stop tempting you. Said if I got near you or tried my witchcraft, he’d burn my parents’ house to the ground. Please don’t tell my mom about that part. I didn’t want to scare her.” Jessi paused a second and then continued. “There was a tussle as I tried to get him out. My shirt ripped and he started screaming in my face. He grabbed me and shoved me against the wall. Accused me of trying to seduce him. My neighbor heard yelling for help and came out. Your father ran away when he heard her tell him she was going to call the cops.”

  Tears had broken free and she wiped the back of her hand against them.

  Adam had seen her fear at the sight of Mick’s father, but he’d chalked it up to how he’d been when he’d walked in on the three of them and they’d had the initial blowup.

  “Did you call the cops?” Mick asked.

  “No! He was drunk and out of control, but he was your dad and I didn’t want to tell the cops what he’d said. I was embarrassed.”

  “You kept this to yourself. All these years.” Mick had tears of his own. Adam pushed up to pace.

  “I didn’t want to hurt you. Like I just did.” She tried to wring her hands, but Mick hadn’t let go.

  “You shielded that piece of shit to protect us.” Adam didn’t ask it, he knew it.

  “Was I going to run to you? When you kept pushing me away? It would have felt like I was manipulating you to get you back. And by the time Mick and I were communicating again it didn’t matter. It didn’t need to be shared. It happened. It’s over. I’m sorry I had to hurt you with it.”

  Mick exploded to his feet. He didn’t pace, but stood, humming with violence and fury. “No. You don’t get to be sorry for what he did. All his talk about how precious femininity is and how it should be cherished and protected, and he assaulted you.”

  “He didn’t. Well, not really,” Jessi interrupted.

  “Enlighten me then. How did he rip your shirt by accident?”

  When Jessi looked away for a moment, the knowing settled into Adam’s belly. Shredded through him, washing away all his control in wave after wave of rage.

  “He called me a name or two and I tried to move back, to get out of his reach. To get to the door.”

  Mick’s father was an easy six and a half feet with the build of a guy who played linebacker from age nine all the way through college.

  “He grabbed me, to underline his point, make me listen, whatever. He was really angry and I was afraid, so I moved toward the door and he got startled and grabbed out at me. The shirt ripped then.”

  Mick blew out a shaky breath, but not in relief. The tension in the air continued to build.

  “He didn’t rip the shirt on purpose.” Her story stuttered to a halt and Adam knew she was holding back.

  And so did Mick. “And then? Once it did?”

  “I think he was shocked by that. He snapped. Then he started screaming at me that I was trying to seduce him. He shoved me back against the wall in the hall, but I’d been able to get the door open and that’s when the neighbor came out.”

  “Before or after he threatened to burn down your parents’ house?” All that emotion in Mick’s tone had been honed into brilliant, calm rage. “He assaulted you. He shoved you. He’s twice your size. I can’t let this pass, Jess.”

  She covered her face with her hands. “Oh god. No. Please. If you bring this out now it’ll only stir up problems. I never expect them to like me. They don’t have to. I just don’t want them not liking you.”

  “Jessi, he put his hands on you. He terrorized you.” Mick headed for the door but Jessi followed.

  “Please! I never ask you for anything like this. I don’t want to get between you and your family. But I’m begging you right now not to rush off.”

  Unable to stay out of it, Adam stepped between them, placing his hands on Mick’s shoulders. “I’m angry too. But she’s right. If you go now it’ll end badly. I’m not saying we won’t hold him accountable; that’s a must. But if you leave now she’s going to feel responsible and never tell us anything again. And, baby, I just don’t want you rolling up and getting entangled with all that hate.”

  Mick’s features softened. “I want to beat him for hurting her. For having the gall to see her at the grand opening and not throw himself at her mercy to beg her forgiveness.”

  “He never bothered me again after that. I’m sure he was ashamed. I know he’s had some trouble with his sobriety over the years. I just let it go because in the end, it was awful, but it was over. Everyone makes mistakes.” Jessi was torn up an
d it made Adam antsy. She shouldn’t be feeling any guilt over this. But being who she was, of course she did.

  “Now would be a good time for you to share the rest of what happened last night,” Adam said to Mick, coming back to the couch. “After you two come over here because we all need to be touching one another right now.”

  Hopefully they could calm down.

  They settled Jessi between them.

  “I spent most of the night working not to let my father goad me. John kept getting in between us, making him back off. Mom hid in the kitchen for most of the night. He asked about you a few times. I didn’t announce that we were all back together over a toast or anything. It was someone else’s birthday dinner. My dad said the prayer before we ate, and family values figured prominently.”

  “By this point he must think she’s never going to tell you or that you know and don’t care.” Adam figured Mick’s father for a coward, so he’d go with the former.

  Mick groaned. “I’m so sorry, Jessi.”

  She shook her head. “Didn’t you just tell me not to be sorry for him? You don’t get to be either.”

  “I set it in motion and left you to deal with it alone.”

  “Just like I did. Only you were on the other side of the world and I was just a few miles away,” Adam said. “It’s my turn to apologize.”

  Jessi started to cry in earnest. Mick looked as panicked as Adam felt.

  It was untenable that she be this torn up. Adam wanted to punch something, preferably the person at fault here, Mick’s father.

  “This is why I never said anything. You’re both upset over something that can’t be changed. Look at us.”

  Adam did. He thought about the whole evening and then he sighed, nodding.

  “Yeah, look at us. Right here, being there for each other like we should have been. This is good, Jessi. This is us being us. And we can’t make it un-happen, but we can deal with it honestly now. We don’t have to break. We bend and fortify. Because no one is going to break us now. Do you understand me?” Adam tipped her chin up. “Together we can get through anything.”

  “I never expect you to be in the same room with him again.” Mick shook his head. “I will handle this so don’t ask me not to, Jessilyn. But not tonight. Tonight we have a date. If you’re feeling up to it, that is.”