“We’re halfway there, Champ,” Sadie said encouragingly, “then we’re going to take everything but the skirt off.”
Jay walked a little faster as she grumbled. “This is the worst cooldown ever.”
“Patience, baby. Patience.”
Jay didn’t say that she’d been patient enough already. She didn’t want to do anything to remind them of their last weekend in Mallorca, even in joking. The low thrum of panic she’d felt that night had finally subsided as Sadie had spent the week since then being just as loving and attentive and aroused as ever.
Logic had also had time to assert itself over her more emotional reactions. Sure, having their celebratory date night interrupted was disappointing, but things like that happened all the time, especially for parents. And while it might have felt similar to previous experiences, the more reasonable aspects of her brain repeatedly argued that Sadie’s choice hadn’t been a rejection. She and Des were not in competition. They both cared about Sadie, and Sadie cared about both of them. That’s the way it should be. That was healthy and normal. It was only Jay’s residual fears and bad relationship habits that made her feel otherwise.
The better parts of herself knew all those things, and still she couldn’t quite shake the sting of doubt that came from knowing that, if there was a choice to make, she would always come in second.
“One more block,” Sadie said, “then we’ve got an hour and a half for just the three of us.”
“Three?” Jay blinked out of her haze at the word that didn’t add up.
“Me, you, and your skirt.”
Jay laughed, perhaps a bit harder than the joke warranted, but it felt so good to feel so great.
Turning into the stone front of the Crown and Rose, Jay swung the door to the inn open wide for Sadie to lead the way. Instead she stopped short so quickly, Jay nearly bumped into her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, but she didn’t have to wait for an answer, because as soon as she followed the line of Sadie’s eyes, she saw an American soldier in a green dress uniform decked out with so many bars and pins and stripes, she couldn’t even begin to process them all. Instead, she let her gaze trail up past the man’s perfect chin, strong jaw, and insanely blue eyes.
“Tad,” Sadie finally said, in a rush of air.
He smiled to the point that his clean-shaven cheeks pushed his ears a little closer to his close-cut, blond hair. Then he spread his arms wide, as if he expected her to fall into them, and honestly, why wouldn’t he? A man who looked like that in a uniform probably had women waiting in line for the privilege.
Sadie did hug him, but with more tentativeness than he seemed to expect, and as she stepped quickly back, he caught her by the shoulders, his fingers pressing their indent into the green cotton Jay had longed to run her hands over moments earlier. Her jaw clenched at the easy contact so obviously born of familiarity and public privilege.
“Our girl’s in Wimbledon,” he exclaimed, giving her a squeeze. “You did that, Sade! That tiny little pink bundle that we could hold in the palms of our hands, can you believe it?”
Jay noticed the corners of Sadie’s mouth curl even in profile, and she couldn’t blame her. This man certainly knew how to get to a mother’s heart, or anyone who had a heart, really. His joy and pride in his daughter were infectious, and yet he laid all the credit where it belonged, at Sadie’s feet.
Sadie brushed off the compliment. “She did all the work.”
“No, come on. You did all the work and gave her all the opportunities. You moved mountains.” He stopped and laughed. “Who am I kidding? You’ve never been able to take a compliment, not even when you were seventeen.”
Jay’s stomach tightened again at the intimacy of the comment, but before she could process her emotions, Tad noticed her presence. Releasing Sadie quickly, he stuck out one strong hand to grasp her own, and shaking vigorously said, “You must be Jay Pierce. It’s such a pleasure to meet you.”
Heads around the lobby turned at the exuberant greeting, but Tad didn’t seem bothered as he continued to shake her hand about four pumps longer than a standard greeting required. “I’m Destiny’s dad.”
“Yes,” Sadie said, more quietly. “Jay, this is Captain Tad Thompson.”
“Oh please, no ranks needed here,” he said, finally releasing her. “Call me Tad.”
“Good to meet you, Tad.” Jay rubbed her own hand where he’d gripped it, reminding herself that while his joviality might seem a bit overpowering, she certainly didn’t want to make Captain Muscles angry.
“Can I buy you ladies a drink? I want to hear about everything that’s going on with you and Des and the tour.”
“Actually,” Jay said, shooting a quick look to Sadie, who seemed frozen in place. “I had plans for the next hour, maybe hour and a half. Could we catch up later?”
“Oh, of course. I’m sure you’ve got a lot on your plate this week. I don’t want to throw you off your game, especially since you’re playing with my daughter. Why don’t you go on ahead.” Then he nodded at Sadie. “Don’t mind if I steal this one from you, though, do you?”
The question felt like a kick to the stomach with his perfectly polished shoes. “Um, well. I’m sure I really . . .”
“Why don’t you get settled into your room,” Sadie suggested. “We can all meet up for dinner tonight? Say six?”
His smile dimmed, but his eyes still sparkled. “Okay, Sadie. You go do your thing. I’ll meet you right here when you’re ready.”
Once again, the multiple meanings of the statement left a bitter taste in Jay’s mouth, or maybe it was the completely unnerving ease with which Tad seemed to accept everything.
“You can regale us with tales of your brave adventures,” Sadie said, her smile softening.
He shook his head. “I can’t imagine anyone will want to hear a thing about me, with three powerful, engaging women at the table.”
Jay pursed her lips as they headed for the stairs. There was no way the man standing behind her could possibly be a real human. Destiny hadn’t been overstating how totally dreamy he was physically, but why couldn’t she at least have been wrong about his personality? Someone who looked that good should have at least evened the playing field by being a bit of a jerk so Jay could find a reason to dislike him.
“So,” Sadie said quietly, as Jay opened the door to her room, “we’re going to dinner with Tad.”
“Yeah. I got that,” Jay said dryly. “You know, two minutes ago, when you volunteered me.”
Sadie covered her face with her hands. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think. I mean I did think, but I thought, I don’t want to go to dinner with Tad by myself, so I—”
“Threw me under the bus?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of, I asked my girlfriend to help me out.”
“Oh,” Jay said, as her heart pounded in her ears so hard she wasn’t sure she’d heard correctly. “Well, when you put it that way . . . girlfriend, huh?”
Sadie’s hands fell, and her full lips formed the most perfect “o” as she started to stammer. “I, well, I thought, I mean, I didn’t really think a lot about it. It’s not like I’ve sat around trying to label us.”
“Right, but if we did have a label . . .” Jay’s smile stretched her cheeks now. “I would like for you to be my girlfriend.”
Sadie sighed heavily. “Really?”
“Yes,” Jay said emphatically. “And I suppose girlfriends do things like go to awkward dinners with their girlfriend’s exes-slash-good-looking fathers of their children-slash-doubles partners.”
Sadie laughed. “Do they? Even if no one else at the table will know they are girlfriends?”
“Totally,” Jay said, her discomfort all but disappearing. With a woman as beautiful as Sadie on her arm, nothing else really mattered.
★ ★ ★
Jay wore white, just a plain, white, classic Tommy Hilfiger polo that accentuated the tan she’d gotten over the last few weeks of outdoor matches,
paired with khaki capris. She left her sun-streaked hair down so it curled atop her shoulders. There was nothing outstanding or special about the outfit, but to Sadie, she outshone every medal pinned to Tad’s chest as she sat between the two of them at dinner. It took everything Sadie had in her not to lean closer to Jay, to soak up the warmth of her body, to take her hand under the table. She wanted to run her tongue along the curve of her ear and . . .
“Bangers and mash?”
“Excuse me?” Sadie looked up at the young waiter towering over her with a tray full of food.
“You ordered the bangers and mash?”
“Right. Yes, I did.”
He set a plate in front of her and then turned to Jay, saying, “And the fish and chips for Ms. Pierce.”
Hank grimaced as he stared at a plate of greasy fried goodness. “For the love of Pete, Jay, which one of us are you trying to give a heart attack?”
“I’m at a pub in England.” Jay stabbed a piece of fish with her fork. “Fish and chips is kind of a thing in these situations.”
“You’re also playing in Wimbledon in three days.”
“Right. Three whole days to eat what I want without you grumbling.”
“Does that mean on Monday you’ll start eating healthier?”
“No,” Jay said, as she picked up a steak fry and pointed it at Hank, “but on Monday you are allowed to start grumbling.”
Tad laughed heartily and cut into his filet mignon. “I like you, Jay. After seventeen years of mess halls and MREs, I, too, am a fan of the eat-what-you-like-whenever-you-get-the-chance mentality.”
“Daddy did three tours of duty in active war zones,” Des said, in a way that made her seem younger than she had in months. “He earned his steak.”
“Well, I don’t know that I’d go that far. The last time I was in Afghanistan, I didn’t do a full year there. I went back and forth between Kuwait and Qatar a lot,” Tad said, as if that somehow made him less qualified to eat a slab of beef.
Sadie would have rolled her eyes if she hadn’t understood his humility to be one hundred percent authentic.
“Wait, seventeen years?” Jay glanced from him to Des as if doing the math. “When did you enlist?”
Tad cast a quick glance at Sadie, and her heart tightened the way it had that day, the way it had every time she thought of him carrying a gun across a desert, the way it did every time she let herself remember he’d done it for their daughter, the one she didn’t want to share with him. She stared down at her mashed potatoes.
“I enlisted the day after Des was born,” he said evenly, and she could hear the smile in his voice as he continued. “Sadie clearly had all the day-to-day parenting duties down beyond my abilities, so I figured the best thing I could do to help my girls was to get out of her way and make a little money.”
“And you made the world safer for us, too,” Des said. “Don’t forget that.”
“I tried,” he said seriously. “There’s still a lot of stuff out there that scares me with you traveling as much as you do, but you’re a strong, smart woman. Your mom saw to that, so I know you’ll be okay.”
Sadie forced a smile as she met his eyes. “Thank you.” What else could she say?
“Well, I’m glad you get to be part of the travel this time,” Des said. “It’ll be so much fun having you right here over the next two weeks.”
“Well.” Tad drew out the word, then stuffed a bite of steak in his mouth and chewed slowly while everyone looked up, waiting to see what came next. “Maybe not right here the whole time, but close. Much closer than usual, so it’s a win.”
“What do you mean?” Hank asked. “Do you have to work?”
“No. I got the time off, but since my leave came through late, the hotels around here had all sold out. Apparently, there’s a big tennis thing happening next week.” He grinned. “But I got a place at the Union Jack. It’s a hotel for military members staying in London.”
“Where in London?” Destiny asked suspiciously.
“South Bank,” he replied evenly, “a block from the Waterloo station, so I can just hop on the train every morning out to the Wimbledon area. Then it’s only about a mile walk to the tennis courts.”
“Dad!” Destiny exclaimed, in a register that made the hair on the back of Sadie’s neck stand on end. “That’ll take an hour.”
He laughed. “I hoofed it today in under fifty minutes.”
Des turned to Sadie with the unmistakable look of “do something” in her eyes. Sadie’s stomach tightened with the mix of guilt and resentment she felt when these things fell to her. She wasn’t Tad’s keeper, but she was Destiny’s, and Des loved her dad. God knows, Sadie’d kept her away from him enough over the years, probably too much, and he’d never complained, never threatened, never played Des against her. Still, she hated feeling like she owed him something, even if she did technically owe him for half of the person she loved most in life.
The silence stretched across the table as she tried to process not only what she should do, but the limits of what she actually could do at this point. She’d sent him the hotel listings close to the All England Club. He’d never said he couldn’t get a room. Maybe if he’d mentioned the trouble earlier, she could’ve pulled strings. Maybe she wouldn’t have, but none of that mattered this late in the game.
Thankfully Hank stepped in to cut the awkwardness. “I wish I’d gotten a double room. I wouldn’t mind you bunking in, but I only have a single, and when I say single, I don’t mean one bed. I mean like the bed barely feels big enough to hold me, and the room doesn’t seem big enough for anything else.”
“Mine too. The rooms over here aren’t nearly as big as they are in the States.” Des frowned, then turned hopefully back to Sadie. “Did you get a double?”
Sadie let out a shot of laughter, then recovered quickly, trying not to look overly thrilled as she said, “No, I did not. I got the same room you and Hank did, and since you wanted your own space, I didn’t feel the need to get an extra bed in my room.”
She sat back and popped another bite of sausage and gravy in her mouth to hide her smile at there being zero chance of Tad rooming with her. Then she realized everyone at the table had turned their attention to Jay, who in turn was looking at her.
“What?” Sadie swallowed her food.
“I . . . well, actually, you guys took the last of the single rooms.” She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “I have a double.”
“There you go,” Des said, brightening.
“Yeah.” All the color had drained from Jay’s face, but she managed to force out, “You’re welcome to stay with me, man, but, um, be forewarned I sort of keep odd hours, and I, uh, I snore.”
Sadie hid her smile behind a cloth napkin she picked quickly off her lap. Jay most certainly did not snore, but she couldn’t blame her for lying to get out of rooming with Tad.
“Don’t be silly,” Tad said, ever the gentleman. “You’re getting ready to play a major tennis tournament with my daughter. You cannot possibly room with a strange man during all that. I appreciate the offer, but I won’t accept.”
“You’re right. That would be too weird,” Des said, much to Sadie’s surprise, but then she quickly added, “I’ll room with Jay.”
Sadie’s mind immediately ran through a series of problematic scenarios that could arise from her girlfriend and daughter sharing a room while the two of them also shared the court in an international competition.
She opened her mouth to begin listing the more mundane complications when Jay said, “Yeah, sure. You’re welcome to bunk in with me.”
Sadie shot her a look of disbelief, but Jay wasn’t watching her now. She had her attention focused solely on Des and the mega-watt smile she was sending across the table.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jay,” Destiny gushed. “I promise I won’t be in the way. I hope you know how much this means to me.”
The little half-smile Jay gave as she tried to shrug off the comment sug
gested Jay did know what it meant to Des. She’d been thrown into the same situation Sadie had faced time and time again, and she’d responded in the same way. Jay had put Destiny’s desires above her own wants and needs. Sadie both recognized the impulse and understood the cost. Her heart pressed against her chest as it swelled with pride, and something else. Something strong and powerful.
Love.
The realization struck with the force of one of Destiny’s serves.
She was in love with Jay. Of course, she’d understood the attraction between them made her a little crazy. And the sex had been nothing short of life-changing. She also enjoyed traveling with Jay, talking to her for hours, or stealing hidden moments of unspoken connection, but until this second, it hadn’t occurred to her that, amid all that, she’d fallen in love. Or maybe this was the exact moment she’d fallen in love, seeing the total package come together in the second in which Jay did something so caring and generous, something selfless, for Des. The act closed a circle or tied together the two outstanding threads in her life.
“Well, only if it’s okay with your mother,” Tad said hesitantly, but the word “mother” jolted Sadie back into the conversation, though she couldn’t bring herself to look at anyone but Jay.
“Yeah,” Jay added quickly, her eyes narrowing slightly as if she were having a hard time trying to read Sadie’s expression. “Your mom’s the boss. What she says, goes.”
The comment made Sadie’s lips curl up. She liked the sound of that. The idea of getting her way with Jay made her pulse pick up speed enough that she almost forgot she was supposed to be handing down judgment on Jay rooming with Destiny. “I don’t think that’s a great idea.”
“What?” Des asked quickly. “Why not?”
“Well . . .” she drew out the word, trying to buy time. She could tell the truth and say that if the two of them roomed together it would be much harder for her to spontaneously rip Jay’s clothes off or do all the things she wanted to do to that amazing body over the next two weeks, but she doubted that would win her points from anyone at the table. Instead, she fought to stay in mom-mode. “You’re a light sleeper. You always have been.”
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