by Jen Talty
“Which is why I want to make sure we put the past behind us.”
“I’m doing exactly that,” she said, losing the ability to fight. It was too hard to be angry all the time.
“I never meant to hurt you.” He rested a hand on her thigh. “I’m so sorry. If I could go back…”
She brushed his hand away and stood. “There’s no going back. Only moving forward.”
“I made a lot of mistakes. Especially with you.”
Her breath hitched. Looking into his warm green eyes, she saw the man she once knew. “We were both young, and honestly, I don’t want to dwell on it anymore.”
“Neither do I,” he said. “Especially since we’ll be training together again.”
“That won’t be happening.” Sure, she’d help her father now and again by analyzing Jack’s swing, or watching a hole or two, but she wouldn’t become his caddy or his training partner again. No way. She had a job at the pro shop and her own lessons to give. This was her father’s gig, and Jack was in good hands.
“I can’t do this without you.”
“Yes. You can.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “When you’re off the drugs, in a good headspace, and when you’re listening to my father, you’re the best. You can be on the top of the money list in a year, but only if you stay out of your own way and you keep humble.” Courtney left him sitting there to ponder his own thoughts while she made her way to her room to deal with the onslaught of emotions that having Jack so close produced.
This time, she’d keep those feelings to herself.
And she’d refrain from turning to the arms of an animal for comfort.
5
Jack crossed his legs, bent over, and reached for the ground, giving his back a good stretch. Every muscle in his body ached. Even his brain was sore from all the mental power he’d been exerting over the last few days. Rudy had a grueling schedule, worse than Jack remembered, and the hardest part was that Jack had hardly seen Courtney.
Every morning, Jack woke before the sun rose and went for a run. By the time he returned, he had barely enough time to shower before Rudy tossed a protein shake and a golf club at Jack, sending him to the driving range. Jack then spent the day doing whatever it was that Rudy told him to do until dinnertime, when all Jack wanted to do was take a hot bath and climb into bed and sleep for ten hours.
“Jack!” Bri yelled, skipping down the walkway from the house to the driving range. Her blond curls bounced vigorously around her shoulders.
“Hey, runt.” He smiled. She was an incredible kid, so it was hard to believe she belonged to Rivers. “How was your day?”
“I’m five now.” She held up her hands, begging him to pick her up. “Today is my party. Mommy and Grandpa got off work early.”
“I know. They are letting me take some time off from my training.” He lifted her in the air, twirling her around. “Happy birthday. I have something for you.” He gave her a little hug and then set her on the grass.
She was so sweet and innocent, and she made him feel alive, but more importantly, loved. Amazing what kids can do for your health. Every time he looked at her, he knew he would do anything for the little girl. It just sucked that her father had to be such an asshole and a deadbeat.
“What! What!” She jumped up and down.
“Come on.” He took her hand and headed toward the house. “It’s upstairs. I finished it today, but don’t tell Mommy or Grandpa, because they will be mad. I was supposed to be swinging that club all day, and I just didn’t.” When he looked up, he stopped. Courtney stood by the door, arms folded, just staring at them. “So, my father lets you practice at home, and you play hooky.”
“Only for an hour and it was for a good cause, you’ll see,” he said.
Courtney shook her head. “This is how it starts,” she said under her breath.
Jack let the statement go, for now. He wasn’t about to say anything in front of a little girl.
Bri tugged at his hand.
“Let’s go.”
He squeezed her hand. “I’m coming.”
“Gosh, you’re slow.” She giggled, tugging him faster. “I want my surprise!” She yanked him right past Courtney, who smiled at Bri but gave him an evil glare.
“Where is it?” Bri jumped up and down in front of him.
“Hold your horses, missy. Stay right here.” He smiled, waving his finger in her cute little face. “I’ll be right back.” He jumped the stairs two at time, feeling like a little kid himself. It had been odd to learn a craft at his age, but he needed to make a few dollars, and carving things from wood and selling them on the street ended up being a decent way to live from one meal to the next when he wasn’t working on a fishing boat charter.
It also gave him something to do while he detoxed his body.
“Come on up!” he called from the top of the stairs.
Both Bri and Courtney came dashing up the staircase, giggling like schoolgirls. It warmed his heart to see them both so happy with each other.
“Where?” Bri stood in front of him with her hands planted firmly on her hips, just like her mother. Her gaze darted around excitedly. “Where!” she begged.
“Right in there.” Jack pointed to her room, then stepped aside, puffing out his chest. He hadn’t done something that gave him any sense of pride in many years.
Bri ran into her room, then came to a crashing halt, dead center. “Mommy! Look!” Bri turned in a circle, smiling brightly and pointing to the dollhouse. “Mommy! It’s a real house! Just like the one I showed you in the magazine, only better!”
“Oh, my.” Courtney looked at the freshly painted dollhouse, with furniture and dolls. “Did you...how did you...”
“I built the house and bought the stuff that goes in it.” Jack shrugged, stuffing his hands in his pockets, feeling a little stupid. “I saw that you and she were making a wish list for Christmas. I thought it would be a nice surprise.”
“I love it.” Bri dropped to her knees and immediately started playing. In a singsong voice, she had the little people talking to one another, and she moved them about the dollhouse.
“You shouldn’t have.” Courtney turned from him, wiping her cheeks. “But thank you. Bri, what do you say?”
“Huh? Oh, thanks, Jack. You’re the best!” Bri jumped up, tugging at him to give him a kiss. “You gonna come to the party?”
“I wouldn’t miss it.” He smoothed her hair and smiled. “Go play.” He nudged her, then turned to find Courtney had left.
Damn. Why’d he’d have to go and make her cry. Again.
Jack searched the house and finally found her in the kitchen. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I just wanted to do something nice for Bri for her birthday.”
Courtney jumped. Her tea sloshed out onto the counter.
“I didn’t mean to scare you either,” Jack said, pouring himself a cup of coffee.
She smoothed her jeans and looked at him. “You didn’t upset me.” A small smile appeared on her sad face. “You made her really happy. I can’t believe you made that with your own hands. You weren’t that handy five years ago.”
“I wasn’t a lot of things five years ago.” He blew into the hot liquid and took a long sip, letting the bitter coffee give his body and his mind a good jolt.
“It was very sweet. Unfortunately, I’d been sending a list of things for Tom to get her, and a dollhouse was one of them.” Courtney tucked her short blond hair behind her ears. “I’m afraid she’s getting a little too attached to you.”
“I’m kind of attached to the little runt myself.”
“She’s resilient, but it’s been hard to balance this with Tom and all the disappointment she’s faced with him. I could have easily lived on my own with her, but she needed stability in her life, especially when it came to a strong male figure.” She twisted her tea bag around a spoon, then glanced up at him. “That’s why I moved back here, and I don’t want to see her get her heart ripped out when you leave.”
&n
bsp; “I don’t plan on leaving,” he said.
“That’s funny, because you’re here to train. Once you’re ready, you’ll be on tour, which means you’ll leave.”
“But I’ll be back. I’m not going to disappear again.”
“You don’t know that.” She patted the center of his chest. “I’m a grown-up now. I understand things in ways I couldn’t when I was seventeen. She’s a baby. And I can see the infatuation in her eyes. She idolizes you already. I can’t risk her heart. She might be resilient, but she already has a father who jerks her around. We don’t need another golfer coming in and out of her life.”
He pounded the counter with his fist. “Damn it, Court. I didn’t know how you felt until it was too late. I was scared and confused, young and stupid. There were things going on in my life that you didn’t know about. We were all living a crazy life back then. I got caught up in—”
She held up her hand and took a deep breath. “You need to understand this doesn’t have anything to do with you, or about how you hurt my feelings when I told you I cared about you all those years ago. This only has to do with Bri. I need to make sure my daughter has a stable and loving environment. Tom doesn’t make that easy. And you’re not helping, but it’s not you. If my father had someone else in here training, she’d become attached to anyone who gave her that kind of attention.”
“Oh,” he said, letting out a long breath. “She’s a great kid, and I’m just being nice.”
“I know, but can we dial it down a notch? Maybe next time get her a doll and not the whole house?”
“I can do that.” He nodded. “I want to ask you some questions about Tom, like why doesn’t he have joint custody? Or visitation?”
“That was the deal when we got divorced.”
Jack shook his head. “I don’t understand a deal where a father walks away from his only child. I could never do that.”
“This is none of your business, and I’d appreciate it if you stayed out of it.”
“Living here makes it my business.” He shook his head. “We used to be best friends; why won’t you tell me what happened?”
Anger flickered behind her cool-blue eyes. “Because it’s not your business.”
“Perhaps not, but sometimes it helps to talk about things.” Jack knew he shouldn’t push so hard, but something told him what happened after he left got so much worse for Courtney.
“I have Nicole and my father for that.” Courtney looked at her watch. “Bri, come on, it’s time to go,” she yelled toward the stairs. “Chuck E. Cheese is waiting.”
“Yay!” Bri skipped into the kitchen carrying a couple of dolls and a little handbag. “Do you think Daddy is going to change his mind and come to my party? I wan’t to tell him all about the new dollhouse Jack made me.”
“I’m sorry, honey; he hasn’t called me to tell me he’ll be there,” Courtney said.
Bri opened her purse and set her tiny dolls inside. She swiped at her cheeks. “Maybe he’ll call on the way over. He changes his mind a lot.”
Jack felt like his rock bottom just roared up and swallowed him. He would have to leave at some point. Courtney was right about that.
And he’d have to be more careful about the time he spent with darling little Bri.
“Thank you.”
Courtney tossed a napkin over a half-eaten slice of pizza and stared at her father. “For what?”
“For being so patient with Jack.”
“I have to give him credit. He’s trying.” She glanced across the room. Bri ran around with five other little girls while a couple mothers stood off in the background. Poor Jack hung out in the corner eating a ton of pizza and sipping on a soda.
He’d taken to heart what she’d said in the kitchen.
Maybe too much so because he’d barely interacted with the birthday girl since they’d left the house.
“You’re still very reserved around him,” her father said. “You don’t trust him.”
Her heart dropped to the bottom of her gut. She grabbed her father’s hand. “Tom,” she whispered.
“What?”
“Tom. He’s outside.” Her pulse hammered in her throat, constricting her airways. “And he’s got a woman on his arm.” The nerve of that man to bring his latest conquest to his daughter’s birthday party.
“I think we might need to be more concerned about the last time Jack and Tom saw each other,” her father said. “I think Tom’s last words at court were come near me or my family and I’ll make sure you rot in prison.”
“You don’t think he still has the power to do that?” Courtney asked.
“The fact that he’s not in jail for what he did to you, I’d say yeah.” Her father stood and smoothed down the front of his slacks. “I’ll go cut Tom off at the pass. You go distract Jack. I don’t want anything ruining my granddaughter’s birthday.”
“Neither do I, but if Tom wants to see her, he can. You have to let him in. We’ll just have to send Jack away.”
Her father closed his eyes for a long moment before blinking them open. She knew it took a lot for him to remain composed when it came to Tom and letting him see Bri. “Tom is a criminal, and the only reason why I go along with this insanity is because I know he doesn’t fight fair, and I do fear he’d take her from us and find a way to have you arrested.”
“Well, let’s make sure that doesn’t happen.” She leaned in and kissed her father’s cheek. “If necessary, I’ll take Jack for a walk so Tom can see Bri.”
“I hate this,” her father muttered.
Not as much as she did, and while her ex-husband was a horrible person, she’d made her share of mistakes, one of which could cost her custody of her child, something she’d never let happen.
“Hey, you.” She stood next to Jack and watched her daughter play in the bouncy house with her friends. “You’ve been really quiet since we got here.”
“I’ve been thinking about my mom. I barely remember her,” Jack said. “I was five when she died and fifteen when my dad passed, but they both loved me more than anything on this planet.” He turned and faced her. “You and your father, you both love Bri. But Tom?” Jack jerked his head toward the front door. “Does he even know what the word means?”
Courtney rested her hand on Jack’s shoulder. “Don’t get mad at me for saying this, but do you?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Actually, I do.” He raised his paper cup to his mouth and sucked on the straw. “Are you going to let him see her?”
“Excuse me?”
“I saw him outside, and I can’t believe he still sees that woman. Are they an item?” Jack asked.
Courtney glanced over her shoulder. She couldn’t really see Tom or her father. The woman, however, tapped her open-toed shoe right in front of the picture window, giving Courtney a good view. “I’ve never seen her.”
“You’re kidding, right? That’s Tina.”
“Tina? Who’s Tina?”
Jack coughed and spit out some soda. “You really don’t know who that is?”
She shook her head. “Should I?”
Jack ran a hand down his jaw, bringing his thumb and index finger together at the base of his chin.
“Who is she, Jack?”
“I think this is one of those things I should stay out of.” He dared to take a few steps toward the back of the play area.
“Like hell. You’re going to tell me who that is, or I’m going to march myself out there and find out for myself.”
Jack chuckled. “You’re not going to do that because you don’t want to cause a scene on your daughter’s birthday.”
She groaned, resenting that Jack called her on her bullshit.
“I’ll tell you, but I want some information in return.”
“Fine,” she mumbled. Curiosity had gotten the better of her. “What is it that you want to know?”
“Why do you have this deal with Tom that he has to set it up to see Bri ahead of time?”
“You know better than anyon
e that Tom had a taste for certain drugs and he got me hooked on them as well. When I left, he was going to use that to take Bri from me in order to try to force me to stay with him. In the end, because he doesn’t want Bri, he agreed to give me full custody.” She shrugged. “It’s that simple.”
“That doesn’t answer my entire question.”
Courtney let out a puff of air. There was no way she was going to tell Jack the whole truth. She’d barely been able to get through it all when she had to tell her father, and she swore, unless she was forced to, she’d never tell that story again. Finding out who that woman was didn’t matter that much. “There are a lot of things about mine and Tom’s divorce that are private and locked up in gag orders.” She waved to Bri who jumped up and down in a circle before taking her best friend’s hand and running up on the dancing stage. “I don’t need to know who that woman is, but I do need to know that if Tom does end up coming in to say hello to his daughter, you will step away and not engage.”
“I’ll gladly hide in the back room. Anything not to see that man,” Jack said, raising his cup. “I’ll tell you who that woman is if you promise me you won’t go running off half-cocked.”
“So, she’s one of the many he was sleeping with while on tour when we first married.”
Jack nodded. “Remember the night Bri was born?”
“That’s who he was with?”
“Your dad asked me to go find him when you went into labor. Sadly, I knew exactly where he was because I was at the same party and cheating on Wendy. It was a bad scene all around, and I think that night I realized what a mess I’d made of my life, and I knew if I didn’t turn it around, something bad was going to happen, but the very next day I found myself doing the same insane thing.”
“Yeah, and a year later, you whacked Tom in the back with your driver on national television.”
“For the record. I absolutely regret doing that, but I don’t regret telling him to F off.”
The front door swished open. Courtney smiled as her father walked in, alone. “What did he want?” she asked.
“Not to see his daughter,” her father said.