by Kris Jayne
He thrust again, and his whole body tensed against hers as he cried out. The weight of him. His thickness so deep inside her. She bucked up to meet his final push, unable to get as close to him as her body begged to be. Reveling in the feel of their bodies entwined, she exploded like a firecracker.
The swirl around them settled into a sensuous calm.
Jeff rolled over but brought her with him, pulling her up until their heated gazes aligned. The moisture on his forehead grazed hers. Another rumble of pleasure rolled through her when she saw the wicked shimmer in the amber pool of his eyes. Jeff stroked his fingers over her cheekbones. Taryn shivered.
“Are you cold?” he asked, holding her tighter.
Taryn stretched out above him. “No, I’m impressed.”
“Really?”
“Always.”
Jeff patted her butt before giving it a smack.
“Hey, I’ve been a good girl. No need for that.” Taryn pinched his nipple in objection.
Jeff spanked her again, and they laughed.
“Is this what it’s going to be like to be married to you? Constant discipline? That’s very old-fashioned and a little sexist.”
“You’re welcome to spank me anytime you want.”
Taryn sat up and swung her leg over his midsection to straddle him. “I have other ways to keep you in line.”
A fine layer of scattered hair tickled her palms as she dragged them down his chest and ran her fingers over his flat stomach. He grinned with half-closed eyes. “You’ll have to give me a break at some point to refuel.”
“You’re hungry again?”
“A little.”
“You can order something. I’m on the ‘make sure I can squeeze into my wedding dress’ diet.”
His broad hands grabbed her by the hips. “Insanity. You’re perfect.”
She leaned over and pressed her face into his neck. “We’re perfect.”
Taryn knew it sounded like hyperbole, but she meant it. Every touch, every word, every look between them confirmed what she knew the minute she met him: this was her man and she was his woman. She couldn’t wait to announce that to the world on their glorious, impeccably planned wedding day.
Chapter Four
After the romance of the trip, Taryn landed with a thud back into her non-wedding life as soon as she got back from California.
She missed the rare time completely alone with Jeff, but real life awaited. With the spring trade show season right around the corner, work once again dominated her days. She spent her evenings talking with Jeff and her soon-to-be mother-in-law about another family party in the works: one for Olivia’s birthday.
At nearly seven, Olivia now had classmates and friends, as well as expectations. Taryn found herself thrown into the competitive world of children’s birthday parties. Jeff’s mother, Nora, refused to succumb to the nonsense of getting wound up over a children’s party.
“Can’t we keep it simple? We’ll go to the party store and get some balloons. I can bake a cake. We can order pizza or something. What’s all this other stuff on the list?” Nora asked. Taryn had provided Nora a list of potential activities with contact numbers and prices. Bounce houses, ponies, jugglers, magicians, clowns—the exhaustive list put everything on the table for consideration.
“We wouldn’t do everything. Jeff and I talked yesterday, and we’re thinking of setting up the bounce house in his back yard and hiring a magician and a face painter. Little girls will love face painting.”
“Is he sure about a bounce house? That sounds like a broken neck waiting to happen,” Nora cautioned.
Taryn laughed. “It’ll be fine. Kids go nuts over bounce houses. It’s the one thing Olivia keeps asking about. ‘Can we have a bounce house? Remember the bounce house at Bella’s party?’”
Taryn paused before bringing up the main sticking point—Olivia’s cake. Nora made lovely cakes, but one of the other mother’s explained that the kids in Olivia’s class coveted the fancy, custom-decorated cupcakes from a high-toned local bakery. Homemade cakes were out.
Jeff had given the okay, but they didn’t want to hurt his mother’s feelings. While Jeff had volunteered to be the one to break it to his mom, Taryn had decided she could be more diplomatic.
“So about the cake, there’s this little bakery down the street from Olivia’s school, and it’s always a big treat for the kids to stop there after school. They have these crazy cupcake flavors that Olivia just loves. I’m not even sure how you go about making a banana pudding cupcake or cupcakes with candy bars. There’s a Snickers cupcake and one with Reese’s peanut butter cups. The kids love them. We were wondering—”
“You want to buy cupcakes instead of having me make a cake,” Nora interjected with bluntness Taryn saw mirrored in Jeff. “Things certainly have gotten fancier since I was raising my kids, but it’s fine. If that’s what you want.”
Taryn knew it wasn’t entirely “fine” but took her victory with grace. “This whole thing is new to me, too. I didn’t realize the politics of a first grader’s birthday until Olivia’s friend’s mother—you know her friend Eva—gave me the scoop. Part of me thinks we shouldn’t indulge all this, but then at the same time, we want to have a nice party. It’s a tough balance.”
“It is. I’m just glad Jeff has you to help him. He’d be totally clueless. And honestly, it takes some of the pressure off me. I mean, I adore Olivia. Adore, adore, adore! But I’m pleased as punch that she’ll have a stepmom around to take care of things. Jeff isn’t much for fitting in. It’s nice to know that you’re there to look out for Olivia.”
Taryn’s pride surged. “Thank you so much, Mrs. McConnell. I try.”
“You know, I don’t talk much about Shannon. I try not to focus on the negative. With the wedding coming up, I’ve been thinking back to the last time Jeff got married. Frank and I weren’t happy at all. We were so upset to find out Shannon was pregnant. That wasn’t how we raised Jeff. And Shannon wasn’t who we pictured for a daughter-in-law. Too unpredictable. No goals. It’s not her fault, but having no family, she had no sense of what that meant. It was real tough. Frank and I couldn’t be more thrilled that you and Jeff are getting married. You’re exactly the kind of girl we wanted for Jeff. You two have such a future ahead of you.” Nora’s voice caught on her words.
“Well, Jeff is exactly the man that I always knew I’d marry. You raised a wonderful, sweet man. I love him to death. I love Olivia to death.” Taryn found herself choking up as well. “No tears, though, Mrs. McConnell. If I get started, I’ll be boohooing the rest of the day.”
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry. I’m getting sentimental in my old age. You get going on those fancy-pants cupcakes. Let me know if you need anything from me, okay?”
Taryn hung up the phone and turned her thoughts to her predecessor. She’d only seen pictures of Shannon McConnell—or whatever name she used these days. The only stories she’d heard weren’t good ones.
On some level, she knew there had to have been something good about the woman or Jeff wouldn’t have been with her. Jeff told Taryn he’d been attracted to Shannon because she was different. Everyone in his life was the same. They all marched to the same beat—classes, football, worrying about who was going to be homecoming king and queen. He hadn’t cared much about any of that, and neither had Shannon.
They’d both been outsiders. Jeff had been too young to see how far outside Shannon was. He knew about the drinking and pot smoking, and while he didn’t partake, he figured they were harmless. They broke up only because Jeff left for Rice University in Houston, and the young romance couldn’t survive distance.
While he finished college and started grad school in computer science at the University of Texas, Shannon knocked around Kauffman County, waiting tables, slinging cocktails, and experimenting with more varied and dangerous drugs.
One summer, a year into his master’s program, Jeff moved back to the Dallas area, and they reconnected through old friends from high school. Sha
nnon’s foster parents had just kicked her out of the rental home they owned. Her desperation triggered Jeff’s protective instincts, and they reconnected while Jeff interned at a Dallas consulting firm writing software.
The revived relationship lasted only a few weeks before Jeff uncovered Shannon’s dark secret. Her need to numb moved past marijuana and tequila to heroin and pain pills. He managed to talk her into a detox program, which she completed.
His skill at persuasion proved lucky for Olivia, because soon, Shannon found out she was pregnant. Not wanting to abandon Shannon—who’d been abandoned plenty of times in her life—or to leave his unborn child, Jeff did what his upbringing told him to do. He asked Shannon to marry him.
The failure of his first marriage hadn’t been a surprise to anyone from what Taryn could tell—from Jeff’s parents, his friend Paul, Paul’s wife, or anyone else who’d known them. But it was no less disappointing to a young man who’d thought he was building a family.
For Taryn, the specter of Jeff’s ex-wife hovered over her happiness. She hoped Jeff’s attorney could help them resolve the issue of Shannon once and for all. They had another meeting next week to get the final report from the private investigator and plan their next steps, which would likely be approaching her to relinquish custody.
Then, Taryn could adopt Olivia and be her proper legal guardian. Moving forward would be best for everyone.
Chapter Five
Jeff couldn’t believe a child could love anything as much as Olivia loved that bounce house. She and her school friends bounced in the air-filled tower for an hour straight. Their cupcake-powered screams filled Jeff’s backyard and pushed parents into the house for occasional respites from the noise.
“Daddy, can we keep it?”
“The bounce house goes back tonight, sweetie.”
“But can’t we keep it? I’ll do it every day. It can be exercise. We’re ‘posed to exercise every day.”
Jeff peered down into the wide and pleading chestnut brown eyes of his now seven-year-old daughter. Her normally freckle-dusted face bore spots, whiskers, and black button nose. Olivia had a fascination with leopards. Her curly blonde hair rambled wildly around her painted face, escaping the two well-intended ponytails he arranged that morning.
For a crazy second, he thought about keeping the inflatable amusement park for another day. Then, he came to his senses. His child’s round, beseeching eyes had that effect on him.
“You have other ways to exercise, Liv. And we have to give it back so some other kids can use it.”
“Oh, but we can get it again another time?”
“Absolutely. Maybe for your birthday next year?”
“A whole year? That’s so long.”
“It’s not so long. And it’s still here now, why don’t you go back and play before your friends have to leave.”
Olivia didn’t even respond. She tore across the yard and up the steps of her new favorite toy. Jeff looked around the expanse of lawn and saw Taryn and his mother gathering up the small bags of party favors for each guest to take home. He could never have done all of this without Taryn.
He caught her attention and waved at her. She smiled back at him just as something else caught his attention. A gaggle of adults gathered on one side of the bounce house, supervising the kids. Jeff froze.
A woman hanging on the edge of the group watched silently. She looked older. Much older than the five years it had been. But there was no mistaking her—at least not for Jeff. Shannon turned up the corners of her mouth into a slight smile. She shifted from foot to foot and looked around. Jeff blinked. Yes, Shannon still stood there.
Creases feathered around her blue eyes. Despite the smile, she stayed on the fringe of the group and didn’t approach. No one looked her way, but then, no one at the party knew her except him and his parents. Taryn had seen her picture; he didn’t know if she’d recognize her.
No one but him had spent so much time looking at that face. Trying to decipher it. Read it. Elicit some feeling from its owner, mostly to no avail. Shannon’s guard was always up and, the last few times he’d seen her, reinforced by dulling drugs that made her unknowable.
Now, here she was.
Jeff walked in her direction and beckoned her to the side behind the large oak in his yard.
“What are you doing here? How do you even know where I live?”
“Hello to you, too.”
“You want pleasantries? Don’t show up out of the blue at my house.”
“Pleasantries?” Shannon smirked. “That’s what your family is all about, isn’t it?”
“You haven’t answered my question.”
“You send people around asking questions about me, and I’m going to start asking questions about you. I went online and looked you up. If you own a house, there’s records, Jeff.”
“That’s why you’re here? Because I was trying to find you?”
“Figured I’d make it easy for you to get whatever is you want out of me.”
What he wanted out of her? Realistically, what could he ever expect to get from Shannon? He stopped wanting anything from her a long time ago.
“This isn’t the time or the place for us to talk. You need to leave. If you have a number or some way for me to reach you, we can set up a time later.” Jeff’s fists clenched as he strove to stay calm.
“You’re just kicking me out of my own daughter’s birthday party? I should’ve figured you’d be doing something for her birthday. Wouldn’t have known it was today, but it makes sense. The weekend closest to her real birthday. I guess I have great timing.”
Shannon had lousy timing. Always had. Whatever was the most inconvenient thing for her to say or do, she’d find a way.
“Look, now isn’t a good time. I did have some questions for you, but they’ll have to wait. Are you staying in town? How can get in touch with you?”
“So I go when you want me to. Come back when you want me to. We’ll talk when you want to. You think you can just order me around because you’re so much better than me, and you’ve gotten rich.”
Rich? He and his family had been better off than any of her foster families, but never wealthy. Shannon must have seen some news about his company in her Internet search. But he wasn’t rich. Not yet anyway. Jeff steadied his breath and his words.
“I’m not trying to order you around. I don’t want to have a scene at Olivia’s party and ruin her birthday.”
“And I do?”
A tightness born of exasperation twisted in Jeff’s chest. “I don’t know. Do you? Can I get a number to reach you and then have you leave without causing trouble?”
Shannon pressed her lips together and narrowed her brow. Lines and creases dispersed across her face, forcing traces of her youthful beauty in full retreat. She was too thin. “You’re the one chasing me. I’m not leaving until you tell me what you want.”
“And I’ve said I’m not having that discussion now. If you don’t want to have a civil conversation, fine. You can just leave. If you don’t, you’ll be trespassing. I’d hate to call the police.”
“Yeah, right. You’d hate to get me arrested. I only came here to find out what your deal is.”
“You drove all the way from Mineola to ask me a question?”
Shannon stomped her foot. “So you have been checking up on me. I’m entitled to find out what’s going on. Some guy’s been asking questions at my job. Asking my neighbors about me. I knew it had to be you. I don’t need any trouble, Jeff.”
He sighed. “Do you have a phone number, Shannon?”
“Yeah, I have a phone number.” She opened her large shoulder bag and began digging around its depths. “You got a pen?”
“Head back out to the front. I’ll go inside and get a pen.”
Shannon smirked again. “You don’t want me spoiling your pleasantries inside?”
Jeff ignored her and pointed to the front yard. As he turned toward the house, he saw his mother—her face beet red with fury. Be
side her, Taryn looked on, his fiancée’s lovely heart-shaped face rigid with determination.
He knew that look. Taryn took on challenges like a charging bull. Jeff steeled himself, knowing that he had to run their gauntlet in order to get into the house.
“What is she doing here?” his mother demanded.
“The PI spooked her a bit, and somehow, she thought showing up here would get me to tell her why I’m looking for her. I haven’t said anything, and I don’t plan on it until I talk to Harold. Let me just get her contact information.”
“It’s awfully strange that she shows up in the middle of Olivia’s party,” Taryn observed.
“Well, she does know that her birthday was yesterday, seeing as she was there when Liv was born. I don’t think she knew about the party or anything. She just has shitty timing as usual.”
“Jeff!” Nora McConnell didn’t cotton to cursing.
“Well, she does, Mom. I want to get her out of here. Let me get her contact info and send her on her way. Please, stay back here until she leaves. I don’t want her to cause a scene.”
Jeff stormed into the house. He saw his phone charging on the kitchen counter before he saw a pen, so he grabbed it and went out the front door.
Shannon stood shivering in the street, smoking a cigarette and leaning against a dented, dirt-brown pickup. Everything about her looked out of place. Seeing him open the door, she moved toward him, and they met on his porch. Jeff turned his nose up, irritated by the strong smell of mentholated tobacco.
Shannon took a long drag and blew a stream of smoke off to the side. “I don’t get why you won’t just tell me why you sent some cop looking for me.”
“He’s not a cop, and I’m not getting into a discussion with you about anything right now. We’re having a party.”
“I noticed. You act like I’ve got nothing to do with it. Like it’s so fucking out of the question that I’d be here.”