Unsaid Things (Players of Marycliff University #4)

by Jerica MacMillan

  Contents

  Title and Copyright

  Dedication

  Join my book club

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgements

  Playlist

  Join my book club!

  About the Author

  Other Titles

  Sneak Peek—Rebound Therapy

  Unsaid Things

  Players of Marycliff University Book 4

  Jerica MacMillan

  Copyright © 2017 by Jerica MacMillan

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  For all of you who were clamoring for more Lance and Abby from the beginning.

  Here you go.

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  Sign up at www.jericamacmillan.com

  Chapter One

  Bras, yes. Underwear, yes. Jeans and T-shirts for six days, yes, plus a couple of nice outfits just in case. Okay. Big toiletries in the suitcase, deodorant, toothbrush, travel toothpaste, and birth control pills in my carry-on.

  “You ready, Abby?” Lance’s voice carried from the living room where he packed up their electronics and chargers.

  “Yeah! Be right there!” Abby zipped her suitcase closed, pulled it off the bed, and locked the handle in place to roll it out to the living room. Lance appeared in the doorway, a smile on his stubble-roughened face despite his tired eyes. Four a.m. was way too early to wake up, and Abby knew she looked just as sleep deprived.

  He stepped into the room, dropping a quick kiss on her lips before snagging her suitcase from her hand. “Let me get that for you.”

  Following him into the living room, she had to clarify one more time. “I can get my own suitcase, Lance. It rolls. It’s not that hard.”

  He didn’t bother to answer except to laugh and pull on his favorite Dallas Cowboys hat, the worn and dingy fabric covering his dark brown hair. When he looked at her, his chocolate brown eyes held warmth and affection. “You say that every time I do something for you. And my answer is still the same. I know you can. I want to anyway.” Pocketing his keys, he tugged the backpack strap off her shoulder, dropping it on the floor, and wrapped his arms around her. “I like doing things for you, Abby. That hasn’t changed in the last six months, and it isn’t going to. You might as well get used to it.”

  She opened her mouth to respond, but he covered it with his own, kissing her deeply, his favorite way to forestall anything he didn’t want to hear her say. When he pulled back she narrowed her eyes at him, and he gave her a big grin, taking the first suitcase out to the car. She let him load the car without protest, instead helping by putting the next suitcase and his backpack by the door, not wanting to start their trip with a stupid argument that she wouldn’t win, and would end with them both pissy the whole way to Texas.

  And she definitely didn’t want to meet his family for the first time right after having a stupid fight with him.

  Lance made the small concession of letting her carry her own backpack. She knew he saw it as a concession from the slight tightening of his mouth when he looked over his shoulder at her following him to the car. But he let it go, taking her backpack to put in the trunk while she climbed into the running car, glad to get out of the cold December air. Lance had already scraped most of the frost off the car windows when he brought out the first suitcase, and the defrost blew full blast, warming up the car and melting the remnants left at the edges.

  A gust of cold air followed Lance into the car, and Abby shivered. They both wore sweatshirts, not wanting to deal with heavy coats since they wouldn’t need them in Dallas. There’d be no white Christmas for them this year. The forecast for Dallas predicted highs in the fifties and sixties the whole time. She had a couple of other sweaters in her suitcase, but she didn’t need her warm coat with those temperatures. But getting to and from the airport in Spokane before dawn this time of year meant shivering until the car warmed up all the way.

  Lance backed out of the parking spot. “Let’s get coffee on the way. I don’t want to wait until we get through security. Hell, the way I’m feeling, I might need more by then.”

  “Sounds perfect.”

  Abby rubbed her arms as they drove. She’d talked to Lance’s mom, Elizabeth, a few times during their weekly phone conversations, and she seemed cool. Excited that they were coming for Christmas. Lance’s sister Gabby said she couldn’t wait for them to get there. Abby envied their relationship. She hadn’t heard from her own brother, Aaron, in over a year. She had no idea where he was or what he’d been doing in that time. As far as she knew, her mom hadn’t heard anything from him earlier. They never talked about him. So to witness how well Lance got along with his mom and sisters, though he didn’t talk to his older sister Marissa as much as Gabby, made Abby’s heart ache with longing.

  She would never have that kind of relationship with her family—her mom more of a dependent than a parent, her brother incommunicado, and her sperm donor long gone. She used to wish that her dad would contact her, send her a letter, call her on the phone, or better yet, come back. But he never had. And over the years she stopped thinking of him as her dad, instead thinking of him just as a biological contributor to her existence. He’d left before she turned three, and she had no memory of him except for some faded photos her mom still kept around for some reason. Abby used to get them out and look at them when she was a little kid, when she still hoped he’d come back. She wanted to be able to recognize him when he did. But that hope had faded somewhere between her eighth or ninth birthday, when Aaron had grown tired of her talking about their dad and told her that he would never come back, so she should just forget about him. Aaron had never lied to her, so she believed him. She stopped talking about their dad, stopped looking at his pictures, and soon stopped thinking about him except for when she had to answer questions about her parents.

  Lance pulled up to their favorite coffee stand, no line this early in the morning. He glanced at her as he rolled down the window, letting in more frigid air. “Your usual?”

  She nodded. “Make it a large.”

  He grinned, turning to the barista who seemed far too upbeat for this godawful time of day, and gave him their order. Lance passed Abby her coffee, setting his own in the cupholder next to him, and pulled back onto the road, heading for the airport. “You’re quiet this morning.”

&nb
sp; “I’m just tired.” She took a sip of her coffee, closing her eyes as the rich mixture of caramel and espresso washed over her tongue. Mmm.

  “Keep making noises like that, Abby, and we might miss our flight.”

  She opened her eyes, grinning at Lance with his heated brown eyes, and a naughty smirk pulling at his lips. “I think your mom would kill you if that happened.”

  He grunted, his eyes going back to the road, and shifted in his seat. “No more moaning about your coffee. It makes me jealous.”

  She laughed, and he smiled.

  “Good. Now tell me what’s going through your head.”

  She smiled to herself and shook her head once. Lance knew her too well, seeing through her flimsy excuse. “Well, I am tired. But I’m nervous too. I’ve never done the whole meet-the-family thing before, and we’re going halfway across the country to do it. What if your parents hate me?”

  His hand fell to her knee, squeezing and stroking, the gesture every bit as comforting as he meant it to be. “They’ll love you, Abby. You have nothing to worry about.”

  She shrugged. “So you say. It doesn’t make me less nervous though.”

  He squeezed her knee again before returning his hand to the steering wheel, needing more control on the icy roads. “It’ll be okay.”

  She knew he wanted to be reassuring, but it didn’t do anything to help the nervous churning in her belly. And that made her not want her coffee, which was a treat she didn’t splurge on often, so she pushed aside thoughts of meeting Lance’s family and decided to focus on something more exciting. “So, can I guess what you got me for Christmas?”

  Lance’s low chuckle warmed her, and did more to dispel her nerves than any reassurance he could offer. “Sweetheart, I’m not going to give it away. Don’t you want to be surprised?”

  “Of course. But I also like to guess. It’s a win for me either way. If I guess right, then I get to be right. If I’m wrong, then I’m surprised.” She pursed her lips and tapped one finger against them. “Hmm. Is it bigger than a book?”

  Lance laughed again, shaking his head. “Books come in a lot of sizes. What kind of book are we talking here? A large textbook? Mass market paperback? Standard hardcover?”

  Abby stuck out her tongue at him, even though he wouldn’t be able to see it driving in the dark. “Fine. I’ll go with standard hardcover. Is it bigger than a standard hardcover book?”

  He shook his head again. “I’m not telling you anything, Abby.”

  The blinker click-click-clicked, and they pulled off the freeway, surprising Abby at how fast their drive to the airport had gone by. She gulped the rest of her coffee, not wanting to deal with it in the shuttle from the long term parking lot. “Well, at least tell me it’s not something crazy expensive.”

  Lance glanced at her, not answering until they’d made it to the parking lot just outside the airport. When he turned off the car, he turned to look at her, his face serious in the glare from the light shining through their window. “Abby, I’m not going to give you any hints about your present. Not the size or the cost.” He reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear, his hand resting on the back of her neck. “And I’ll damn well spend as much money on your Christmas present as I want. I don’t care how independent you like to be. It’s a gift, and you’re not allowed to complain about how much you think it cost. Got it?”

  “But—“

  “No buts. Promise me you won’t complain about how much your present costs when I give it to you.”

  She stared at him for a minute, but his stare remained hard and unflinching. There was no arguing with him when he got like this, she’d learned that much over the last several months. She let out a heavy sigh. “Fine. I won’t say anything.” Narrowing her eyes, she thought for a second. “Of course, that means I’ll probably think it’s too expensive. For someone who isn’t going to give anything away, you just gave me a big clue.”

  A grin flashed on his face for a moment before he pulled her in and kissed her. “You might think so. Either way, we gotta go. Come on.”

  With that he got out of the car, went around the front to open her door, then popped the trunk and pulled out their bags. She gave him a cheeky grin as she grabbed the handle of her suitcase and started for the waiting shuttle before Lance could say anything.

  Their conversation about Christmas presents hadn’t done what she’d hoped. She was still nervous about meeting Lance’s family, more so now that they were on their way. And now she had to worry about how much he’d spent on her present, and if he’d be okay with the digital photo frame loaded with pictures of the two of them that she’d gotten for him to keep it on his desk at work. Would she embarrass herself on Christmas morning with his family when she opened something extravagant from him and all she gave him in return was something simple?

  Chapter Two

  Lance let out a low growl when he reached Abby and took her suitcase from her before she could load it into the shuttle. He pretended to be annoyed, but he was glad that she was acting like her usual self. He knew this trip made her nervous, that she’d been nervous since the first time it came up a couple of months ago. But his mom had been pestering him about bringing her down for a visit since he moved back in August, and he was lucky enough to work for a company that gave him two weeks of vacation time during his first year. He’d been able to make it so he only had to use a few days, using the holidays and weekends to make their trip last a week, and still have a few days at home with Abby before having to go back after New Year’s.

  They got checked in and through airport security with minimal fuss. This early in the morning, the lines weren’t too long. Flying always felt like a series of hurry-up-and-wait. Hurry to get to the airport early, and wait for an hour to board. Hurry up and get to your seat to make sure you got overhead bin space, then wait for everyone else to get on before takeoff. Hurry to get off the plane and to your next gate where you got to wait some more during the layover.

  The flight to Seattle went fast, with barely time for the drink service before they started their descent, and they only had an hour layover before getting on the plane to DFW. Lance had been concerned that they might miss that flight if they were delayed out of Spokane for any reason, but the weather was clear and cold, no storms brewing to slow them down. They had just enough time to grab a couple of breakfast sandwiches and more coffees before their flight started boarding.

  Lance took the middle seat, allowing Abby the window, and braving whoever scored the aisle. She settled in, flipping through the in-flight magazine, her Kindle in the pocket of the seat in front of her. He pulled out his iPad and headphones before stuffing his backpack in the overhead compartment, wanting as much legroom as possible. Shifting to get comfortable, he tried not to let his shoulders hang over into the seat next to him, which meant he crowded Abby. She smiled at him and pushed up the armrest between them before resting her head on his shoulder, her strawberry blonde hair falling over his arm.

  He nuzzled her hair. “Tired?”

  She nodded against his shoulder, covering a wide yawn with her hand. He smiled and settled in further so she could get comfortable. “Take a nap. We’ve got plenty of time.”

  She yawned again. “I should, but with the coffee we just had I don’t know if I’ll be able to.”

  “Is it the coffee, or are you still worried about everything?”

  She sat up, turning to him with wide blue eyes. “Well, now it’s both. You think I should be worried?”

  He couldn’t suppress the laugh that came out as he brushed her hair away from her face. “Of course not. But I know you.” He ran his thumb over the furrow between her brows. “You worry about everything. If it’s not my parents, then it’s your mom. My mentioning it doesn’t make it any more or less real.”

  She sighed and sat back in her seat, arms crossed, brow still furrowed despite his attempt to smooth her frown away. “Can you blame me? I’ve never left my mom alone for this long before. The last time
I went away it was for a department retreat that lasted two nights, and she was a wreck by the time I got home.”

  “You didn’t ever go to camp or anything in junior high or high school?”

  She shook her head. “No. We couldn’t afford anything like that. And she needed Aaron and me there to help her with everything.”

  He reached over and threaded his fingers through hers, running his thumb over the back of her hand. “She’ll be okay, Abby. Megan’s going to check in on her while we’re gone, and she and Chris can help with anything your mom needs.”

  Abby grunted, but didn’t stop frowning.

  “Hey. Look at me.”

  She turned her eyes to his, her worry written all over her face.

  “She knows Megan. Megan knows what your mom is like. She’s gone with you the last few times to get your mom’s groceries. We stocked up the day before yesterday, so she shouldn’t need much while we’re gone. If it snows, Chris will go clear her driveway. Everything’ll be fine.”

  “Yeah.” She said it quietly, little more than a whisper.

  He squeezed her hand, wanting to say more, but someone jostled his other shoulder, and he turned to see a middle-aged man settling into the aisle seat. When he turned back to Abby, the vulnerable look on her face had gone, and she stared past him at the guy sitting in their row. Well, that ended more conversation about their families. Knowing how intensely private Abby was about her mom, he didn’t push it.

  “It’ll be okay, Abby. Lay your head on my shoulder again and try to get some rest.”

  She leaned into him, and he placed a kiss on the top of her head. In response, she raised their still-joined hands and kissed the back of his.

  He watched her while waiting for the rest of the plane to fill and the flight attendants to go through all the pre-flight instructions. Abby sat up for the takeoff, then settled on his shoulder again when they started to level off.