by Cathryn Fox
A flash of dark hair rounding the corner up ahead gained her attention, and her heart leaped. She blinked and gave herself a hard lecture. Jack was gone. Gone. These brief flashes were nothing but figments of her imagination, wishful thinking on her part. He’d left Saturday and was likely settled in Seattle by now, playing the game that gave meaning to his life.
Her phone dinged. She grabbed it from her purse and swiped her finger across the screen. “Good morning,” she said to Violet, who’d been suspiciously absent all weekend. Probably because of Luke. Of course, she’d called a few times to check in on her, but Danielle wasn’t in the mood for company.
“All ready for the big day?”
She tried to inject enthusiasm into her voice. “All set.”
There was a slight pause. “Come on, Danielle. Other houses will come along. A house is just a structure. Homes are the people in them, the feelings.”
True, and a house she could replace. Jack she couldn’t.
“I know. I’m just a bit nervous about my first class.”
“Nothing to be nervous about. Thanks to Jack, you’ll be a great sex-therapist professor. The incoming freshmen will be lucky to have you.”
“Yeah,” she managed to get out, the sound of Jack’s name sending her thoughts back to the last two weeks. She took a moment to recall his warm touch, the way he took care with her body as he helped her explore her sexuality. She pinched her eyes shut, fighting back the tears.
“Speaking of Jack. Have you heard from him?”
Violet’s voice pulled her back from her reverie. “No, why would I?”
“Oh, because you two are crazy about each other.” She opened her mouth to protest, but Violet continued. “Come on Danielle, I’ve seen you two together, remember? I thought it was all business until I saw the way you two looked at each other. Anyone within a fifty-mile radius could feel the electricity between you two.”
“Violet—”
“Don’t Violet me.”
“He’s gone. It’s over.”
“Fine then, let me set you up with that guy I was talking about.”
Her stomach tightened. She didn’t want another man’s hands on her body. The threesome might have been a sexual experiment, knowledge for the academic in her, but it taught the woman in her one thing: the only man she wanted touching her was Jack. “I don’t think—”
“Exactly my point.” Violet exhaled slowly. “If you like him, then why don’t you go after him? You’re a fighter, Danielle, and this might be the most important fight of your life.”
It was true. She was a fighter. She’d had to be, considering her whole life she’d been tossed away, never good enough for long term, until her last foster placement. But Jack had made her feel special, cherished. Worshipped. Was it possible that he felt more, wanted more? Even if he did, a relationship was impossible, wasn’t it? His life and career were in Seattle, hers were here, and no way in the world would she ask him to stay. Then again, nothing was keeping her here.
But he never asked you to go with him.
She reached the college and walked around back to see Liam on the field. After watching Jack out there for the past week, she automatically scanned the wide expanse of grass, and her heart ached at the loss of his presence. God, she loved him so much.
“I have to go,” she said to Violet.
“You should at least text him.”
“What’s the point?”
“Oh, maybe to tell him that you love him.”
Shaking her head, Danielle pulled open the door and rushed up the stairs to her classroom. She glanced at the clock on the wall. “I’ll talk to you tonight, Violet.” She powered down her phone and hurried to her class, where she found a group of students settling in. With a new confidence, thanks to Jack, she booted up her computer and began her first lecture. The students were extremely interested in what she had to say, but she found it hard to concentrate. All she could think about was Jack.
The morning class was finally over, and a few students came by her desk to talk to her. Once the class cleared, she reached for her phone. She stared at it for a long time. She was definitely a girl who fought for what she wanted. But what if she sent him a text and he never answered because he didn’t want her?
Then again, what if he did?
Here went nothing…or everything. Nervous fingers raced over the keyboard. We need to talk. She hit send before she could talk herself out of it, then stared at the phone waiting for a response. With the time difference, he was likely just getting out of bed. She just about jumped out of her seat when it rang, but the number on her screen wasn’t his.
“Hello.”
“Danielle, this is Johanna from the real estate office.”
What the heck? Why would she be calling her now? The house was already gone. Or was it? Perhaps the deal had fallen through! “What can I do for you?” she asked, trying not to get her hopes up too much.
“Last week when you were viewing the house, you left something behind. The new owners are there, and they’d like you to come by and collect it right away, so they can move in.”
Her heart fell. “What is it?” She frowned, her mind backtracking to the viewing. Jack’s dad had had a toolbox. She supposed it was possible that he’d left it behind.
“They didn’t say. When can you be here?”
“I can come right now.”
She hung up and gathered her laptop and books and rushed out the door. Hurried steps took her outside, and her feet gobbled up the blocks in record time. She slowed when she reached the walkway leading to the house, and took in the newly manicured lawn. The front door was open, but there were no vehicles in the driveway.
“Hello,” she called out as she walked up the three steps and poked her head inside. The warm scent of cinnamon hit her and reminded her of Jack’s mother’s place. Her heart pinched. She’d loved spending time with his family.
“Anyone here?” When her calls were met with silence, she stepped farther inside. Padding quietly, she walked into the living room, and when she saw all brand-new furniture with a dozen or so throw pillows that said Home Sweet Home—pillows just like the one she had on her sofa, a daily reminder that she finally had someplace of her own, one that no one could take from her—scattered throughout the room, her heart felt like it was free falling in to her stomach. Her books fell from her hand and landed on the polished floor with a thud.
Feeling light-headed, she sank down on to the sofa. “Oh my God,” she murmured. On the coffee table before her were a set of blueprints, and she leaned forward to steal a peek at them. The layout was exactly what she and Violet had come up with, along with the brilliant suggestions made by Luke and Joseph over Sunday dinner. Tears pricked her eyes. Was this really happening?
“Jack,” she whispered.
“Yeah.”
She jumped up and spun around. When she found him standing in the doorway, a warm smile on his face, her tears fell harder.
“What is all this?” she asked, waving her hand around.
He rushed to her and gathered her in his arms. She pressed her face against his chest, and he held her tight. “It’s your new home sweet home, baby. All yours. No one can ever take it away from you. I promise you that.”
“Jack, I don’t understand. The Realtor said I left something here.”
He held her shoulders and inched back to see her. “You did. Your heart. And there was no fucking way I going to stand back and let you go another day without it.”
“You did all this. For me?” She shook her head.
He pointed to the blueprints. “Yeah, Dad has connections and had this drafted right away. We also have a crew hired to start the work next week.”
“You know I can’t just take—”
His mouth quirked in a smile. “Oh, you think I don’t want something in return?”
“Jack, it’s too much. I can’t—”
He held his phone up. “You said we needed to talk, so how about I go first.�
�� He ran his thumb over her cheek to brush a tear away, then drew her close, as if afraid she would run away.
“I’ve been brutally honest with you these last two weeks, but the one thing I didn’t tell you was how crazy I am about you.” He stroked her face. “What I want in return is you, Danielle. Every bit of you. I want you to be mine. I want to live here with you. Have babies with you. Grow old together. I know you said you don’t get close, but I’m hoping you’ll take a chance on me. This house is my way of showing you I’m not going anywhere. I’m invested in us, and want long term. You’re the only woman who ever saw me for me, and believe me, I’ll never get enough of you. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted.”
Her heart was pounding so hard in her ears, she could hardly make out what he was saying. He wanted to have babies? Grow old here with her? “What about football?” You said it was your life.”
“I thought it was, but now I realize football was just my job.” He waved his hand toward the window, to the town he’d grown up in. “This is my life, what’s meaningful to me, and I want to be in control of it. I want to work on cars with my dad, take the assistant coach job Liam offered me, and end every night with you in my arms.”
“You’re just going to walk away from the pros?” She shook her head. “I don’t want to be the girl who holds you back.”
“Hold me back? Baby, you’re the girl who has me moving forward. I wasn’t living before I met you. These last two weeks have been the best of my life. You opened my eyes to so many things.”
She sniffed and blinked through the tears. “You opened mine to so many, too.”
“I want to spend every night in your bed as your husband. Just you and me.”
Now she really felt light-headed. “You want to marry me?”
“Of course I do. These last weeks… Jesus, Danielle, I think I’ve always loved you.”
Unable to believe what she was hearing, she looked around, and her heart squeezed as she took in the throw pillows. “I can’t believe you did this.”
“You know I’d do anything for you.” He leaned in and put his mouth next to her ear. “Anything at all.”
Her mind rushed back to their last night together, and what he did to help her, even though he seemed to have reservations about it. “Even participate in a threesome,” she whispered. But when his jaw clenched, she asked, “Jack?”
“I have a confession.”
“You do.”
“It was just me. Only me.”
She’d seen Jamie. Spoken to him. “I don’t understand.”
He gave a hard shake of his head. “I couldn’t, Danielle. I couldn’t let another man touch you. I let you believe Jamie was there, to satisfy an intellectual curiosity, but I sent him away. I wanted you to think you were experiencing a threesome, but I couldn’t, for one second, take seeing another man touch you.”
Her toes curled at his admission. Jack hadn’t wanted to share her. His actions spoke volumes and brought on more tears. “I’m glad you let me believe it.” She touched his face. “It made me realize that I don’t want another man’s hands on my body. It was only you I wanted touching me that night, Jack.”
He let out a relieved breath. “I want you to say yes, Danielle, say yes to all of this.” She opened her mouth, and he put his finger over her lips to silence her. “But before you do, you have to know I come with a very big, very obnoxious and intrusive family, who want to be involved in everything.” He put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. A ruckus sounded at the back door, and his entire family rushed in, along with June and Frank—her family. “See what I mean?” he said, the tenderness in his eyes piercing her heart.
Love filled the room as their families filed in, all there to welcome her with open arms. Behind them walked Violet, a smug look on her face. Danielle shook her head. “You knew.”
Violet spread her arms. “We all knew.”
“The phone call this morning. What was that all about?”
Violet rolled her eyes and grinned. “I needed you to text him. He spent the entire weekend worried sick you wouldn’t come or give him a chance. I needed you to throw him a bone before one of us strangled him to death.”
“He’s been moping around like a goddamn baby,” Sam said.
Luke grabbed Sam and put him in a headlock. “At least he wasn’t crying like a girl.”
“You have a bunk bed come down on you and see what it’s like,” Sam argued.
Cindy whacked them, and Joseph, June, and Frank all laughed. “Cut it out, you two,” she warned.
Her eyes met Jamie’s. She’d wondered how she’d feel around him after their night together, but then, they’d never really had a night together. They exchanged a thoughtful look, everything between them seeming right.
“I couldn’t have done any of this without their help,” Jack said, pulling her back to him. “Violet helped me pick out all your favorite furnishings. It was a crazy three days.”
Understanding hit. “The pillows were her idea.”
“No, they were mine. I had to go to about twenty stores.” Everyone laughed. While they might all think it was funny, Danielle had never been more touched in her life. This man knew her better than anyone in the entire world, knew what she needed, how important family was to her, and how desperate she was to have a place to call home. But more importantly, he taught her about love, respect, trust, and how to open herself up. Her heart swelled with the things she felt for him.
“Why did you wait until now?” she asked.
“I could have told you, but I wanted to show you. I needed this place to be perfect, so you’d know I was serious. Believe me, it damn near killed me not coming to you sooner.”
Danielle put her hands on her hips and glared at the crew watching her carefully. Everyone stiffened. Her gaze raked over Violet, Luke, Sam, Jamie, Cindy, Joseph, June, and Frank. “You’ve all been secretly working on this behind my back?” she asked, her voice laced with accusation. “I spent the weekend thinking Jack was gone, and you all knew he wasn’t.”
“Now, Danielle,” Jack said.
He reached for her, but she put her hand up to stop him. “Well, I only have one thing to say about that.” She turned to Jack and took in the worry backlighting his eyes. “Yes,” she said. “Yes to all of this.”
Epilogue
Christmas Eve, six months later
A house is just a structure, but a home was the people in it, the feelings. As Danielle looked around her cozy dining room, taking in all of Jack’s family, plus her own, she knew she’d found her forever home. Her heart swelled with all she felt for these people, and the love in the room was enough to overwhelm her. Who would have ever thought she’d have a family of nine, including her and Violet, or that they’d all be sitting around a table sharing a Christmas Eve meal in her very own home—one she shared with the most wonderful man in the world.
“Save the leg for me,” Sam said as Jack stood at the head of the table and carved the turkey. Soft Christmas music played in the background, and as everyone talked and laughed, Danielle couldn’t take her focus off her fiancé.
The last six months had gone by in a blur with all the construction on the house and the entire Rider clan helping her turn the main level of her house into office space. Even her foster father, Frank, had been involved. Jack’s mom, Cindy, along with Danielle’s foster mom, June, had taken part in the interior design, and with their warm motherly touches, they’d transformed the place into a cozy home that Danielle never wanted to leave—and she never had to. Violet had been helping her make wedding plans for her and Jack’s upcoming spring wedding. Her life had never been more perfect.
His leg had healed nicely, but he was so much happier working with his dad and Liam. And while he coached kids on the field, she coached them in the classroom, so to speak. Even though she had her own family counseling practice, she still kept her job, teaching one day a week at the university.
She felt a responsibility to the youth, to help them
understand that there were emotions behind sex, the hang-ups, the fetishes. She wanted to share her knowledge and make sure they understood that the physical part of sex was just the tip of the iceberg.
“The first piece is for my girl,” Jack said, and when she lifted her plate, his brothers and best friend groaned.
“Whipped much?” Sam shouted out.
“Cut it out,” Jack said. “Someday you might get just as lucky.”
Danielle smiled at him, her heart so full, tears threatened. Jack leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers in a warm, loving kiss.
“Get a room already,” Luke grumbled, and Violet glared at him from the other side of the table. The two had hooked up for a while, but had since split. Violet was being pretty tight-lipped about the whole thing, which was a shocker, since she usually had something to say about everything. But from the looks the two kept casting at each other, she guessed their story wasn’t done yet.
“I know it’s only Christmas Eve, but before we eat, can you guys open one present for us?” Cindy asked. She and June exchanged a private look.
“What are you two up to?” Jack asked.
“Oh, nothing. Just a gift we want you both to have before tomorrow morning.”
Danielle set her napkin on the table. “If it’s that important to you, then sure.”
Cindy darted to the other room and grabbed something from beneath the tree. She came back, and all eyes were on Danielle as she delicately removed the tape.
“Rip it already,” Jamie said, and she grinned at him.
“I will not rip it.” She peeled the paper back, and at first she was confused. Why on earth would they be giving her and Jack a collection of yellow baby clothes? They weren’t even… “Oh my God,” she said, laughing as understanding dawned. “Thank you, but…” She glanced at Jack, only he wasn’t laughing.
He arched a brow. “I think they’re trying to tell us something.”
“I think so.”
“Summer babies are so much fun,” Cindy said, clapping her hands together.