“Then start talking.”
I’d be pissed at my mom for the shit storm she was causing if not for the fact I knew she only wanted the best for me. All she really wanted was for me to be happy and in her mind, Megan couldn’t do that. Not after what happened with her the last time. Time to show Mom she was wrong.
“Yes, Mom, you saw me with Megan. Yes, we’re dating again. And no, she didn’t just up and leave me for shits and giggles all those years ago.”
“Language, Jackson. And there’s no need to be a smart mouth. What do you mean she didn’t up and leave you? I remember the phone call very clearly when you got back to school and she was gone.”
“Yeah, she was gone, but I didn’t know the whole story. She’d gotten arrested at a party.”
“Arrested?” If we didn’t tread carefully, her voice would hit glass braking levels soon.
“Mom! You really need to let me finish.”
“I’m sorry, but my son whose whole life is on every gossip blog for people to digest just told me he’s dating a woman who was arrested in college. I’m not sure what you expect me to say. What was she arrested for?”
I sighed, not sure how she’d take this bit of news. “Drugs, but they weren’t hers. And the charges were dropped.” I rushed to reassure her before she jumped to any more conclusions.
Mom was silent for a few minutes before asking another question. “Why did she leave then? If the charges were dropped, her disappearing doesn’t make any sense.”
“The charges might have been dropped, but she’d still been at a party underage with alcohol. Greenview revoked her scholarship. She couldn’t afford to stay, so she joined the army to finish her degree through them.”
Mom was so quiet for a moment, I had to squint down at the phone and make sure she was still there.
Still connected.
A few more minutes passed when she whispered, “The army?”
“Yes, Mom. The army.”
“Oh my God.”
I could imagine her with her hand on her chest, eyes wide.
This was my mom who loved Megan from the first Thanksgiving I’d brought her home with me. The Christmas presents she’d bought Megan the year she left sat in the basement for some time while Mom came to grips with the fact Megan was gone. The love she had for her had slowly turned to disgust that someone would do that to her baby boy, the same as it had for me. If only we had known the truth then.
“I know. I had the same reaction when I found out.”
“My poor Megan.”
My shoulders shook as I held back a laugh. “Thanks, Mom. I guess no more poor Jackson.”
She scoffed. “You’re doing just fine from what I can see, but you won’t be if you don’t bring that girl here so I can see her.”
A muffled sound from behind the bathroom door caught my attention. And arguing with my mom wouldn’t get me anywhere. Which was why I did what I did next. “Okay. I’ll figure out a time we can come up, but right now I’ve got to go. Megan’s not too happy with me.”
“Jackson, you better fix whatever it is you did wrong.”
“I know. I know. I hadn’t gotten a chance to call you and tell you everything, and Megan probably thinks I was hiding it from you.”
“Pssh, you can’t hide anything for me. Even if you won’t tell me, I can open Google to find out what you’re up to.”
“Thanks for the reminder. I’ll call you later with dates.”
I didn’t give Mom a chance to scold me anymore and said goodbye, quickly disconnecting the call.
I set the phone down on the bed and threw my legs over the side. The feeling that I was about to step on a landmine raced through me. One foot in front of the other, I carefully made my way to the bathroom door and knocked.
“Megan?”
When she didn’t answer, I tried the handle only to find it locked.
“Megan, please,” I said again. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t hiding anything from her. I just hadn’t had a chance to call.”
Silence. I dropped my head against the door, listening to the sounds echoing throughout the room.
“I was more concerned with making up for my stupidity that I didn’t think about how you would feel that I hadn’t told my parents yet.”
More silence.
“Megan, I never want to do anything to hurt you. You’re my world. You always have been, even if I lost sight of that for a while. Please, open the door.”
A few moments passed when I heard the jiggle of the lock. I took a step back. Self-loathing poured through me when the door opened and I caught sight of her tear-streaked face. Without a thought, I took her hand, yanking her into my embrace. I held her tightly, rocking back and forth, kissing the top of her head and whispering apologies in her hair.
After what seemed like an eternity, she banded her arms around my waist and held on.
“I’ve made so many mistakes.” Her voice was muffled and so low, I barely heard what she said.
Leaning back, I placed my finger under her chin and tilted her face up to mine. “You have made mistakes. You made the best choices you could at the time.”
“No.” She shook her head emphatically. “Mistakes. If I hadn’t gone to that party, I wouldn’t have been sitting behind that bathroom door wondering just how much your mom hated me after what I did.”
“Hate you?” I smiled, thinking about Mom’s demand a few moments ago. “Mom doesn’t hate you.”
Megan rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I’m sure she was really happy with the woman who left her son an angry mess.”
I tipped my head from side to side. “You have a point there, but that was before I told her the truth. But now…”
I didn’t exactly know how to say this without freaking Megan the hell out. Each step with people from our past had made her nervous as hell. The hand wringing the first time she saw Monty again made me want to shield her away from all of it. Once again I questioned how it had taken me so long to figure it out.
“Now what?” She watched me expectantly.
Time to throw it out there. “Now, she expects me to bring you home ASAP so she can make sure for herself that you’re okay.”
Megan’s eyes widened. “She wants me to go there?”
“She does.”
She started to back out of my embrace, shaking her head. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”
“Why not?”
Megan began pacing the room and I went to sit down on the bed, while she worked out in her head exactly what she wanted to say. When she froze mid-step and spun to face me, the desire to take her hand and pull her down on the bed next to me was overwhelming. A frown line had formed on her brow. I wanted to reach up and smooth it away along with any of her other fears.
“If we go to your parents, the media is going to track our every move.”
I shrugged. “They already do that, unless Monty’s doing something stupid to get his name in the paper again.”
“But then they’ll think we’re serious about each other.”
Direct hit. “And we’re not?”
She raced over to the bed, taking the seat next to me, linking our hands together. “We are. This isn’t coming out right.”
“Want to try again, then?”
She blew out a breath, the loose hairs around her face fluttering in the breeze. “I don’t want them dragging your name through the mud.” She glanced up at me through her lashes. “I’ve seen what they’ve done to get a story on one of you before.”
“Stalking me, were you?”
She slapped my arm. “I may have paid a little attention.”
I loved the way the admission caused the heat to race to her cheeks. She’d told me from the beginning that she’d kept tabs on me over the years.
“And how would they drag my name through the mud?” I urged her to continue.
“Jackson, anyone who wants to dig into my past deep enough is going to find the record of that arrest, even if the charges were eventually d
ropped. They’ll talk about you dating a drug dealer.”
I squeezed her hand. “No. The press is a pain in the ass, but they aren’t stupid. Not a single one of them is going to present a story about a decorated army nurse being a drug dealer. The backlash and drop in ratings would be enough for them to file it away.”
“But they had no problem printing all that stuff about Cole and Monty.”
A chuckle burst free. “Monty made his own bed. Usually what they print about him is true. As for Cole, they were going after what they saw as a washed-up football player who ended up coaching a high school team. To them, that was juicy gossip and people feed into that. Members of the military are usually off-limits.”
“Usually?”
“Sometimes there’s that one asshole who wants to make a name for themselves and it always backfires.”
“Are you sure? It would kill me to see them start printing things about you because of me.”
I bent down, nuzzling behind her ear. “The only thing they will be printing about me is how I managed to snag a woman like you. And I’ll prove it.”
I backed her toward the bed, fully prepared to kiss every inch of her delectable body.
28
Megan
My hands shook as we exited the plane. Would the cameras find us here, once we made it to the terminal? Jackson kept glancing back at me, his thumb rubbing back and forth on my hand. Whispers followed us as we moved through the Jetway to the terminal.
“Is it going to be like this the whole way?” I whispered, hopefully only loud enough for Jackson to hear.
“Probably. At some point you learn to tune it out.”
“I don’t know how you do it.”
“Practice.”
We reached the main terminal and moved straight to the exit. I hiked my bag higher on my shoulder. I’d become a master at packing light and Jackson didn’t want to deal with any more crowds than necessary, which meant no checked bags.
We only had plans to stay for the weekend, so a carry-on would be enough. I followed him through the airport, wondering how we were going to get to his parents when we passed by all the car rental places and went right for the exit door.
Jackson pushed the door open and the cameras started flashing. Somehow they’d figured out where we were headed. Jackson waved at someone beyond the cameras. He pushed his way through and I almost tripped over my own two feet seeing who waited for us on the other side.
Jackson’s mom opened her arms. “Megan, my baby, come here and let me get a good look at you.”
The fear and nerves that had slammed into me over and over again on the flight here fled from my system as I walked to her arms and was held in a tight embrace.
“Oh, baby girl,” she said, rocking me back and forth. “I was so worried when you disappeared, and now knowing where you were, I started to worry all over again.”
“I’m okay,” I tried to reassure her, but my throat burned as I tried to hold back the tears. Besides losing Jackson, knowing his family would hate me for what I’d done had been almost too much to bear.
After a moment, she let go and took a step back, keeping her hands on my arms. Kathy’s gaze wandered all over me, as if she would find the injuries or scars I’d gotten during my time overseas. I lifted one of my hands and covered hers. “I promise I’m okay. I spent almost all my time in the medical tent. At least when I was working.”
“I’m glad you’re okay and that you and Jackson found your way back to each other.” She looked up, glancing around behind me. “Speaking of Jackson, where did he go?”
I searched and noticed he was no longer there. That was when I saw him on the other side of the car. When Kathy finally realized where he was, she spun on her heel and stormed over to the car.
“You are in a lot of trouble.” A few flashes went off around us and her eyes widened slightly, like she seemed to realize we weren’t exactly alone for this conversation. “But we can talk about it in the car on the way back to the house.”
The woman left no room for argument. For whatever reason she wanted to lay into Jackson, he would be on his own. She pointed to the car and without argument, Jackson opened the door and climbed in the back seat on the passenger side. I followed suit and took the seat on the driver’s side while Jackson’s dad loaded our bags into the trunk. Once both his parents had gotten into the car, his dad started through the airport pick-up area to get to the main road.
Not that my focus was on anything his father did. It all centered on his mom. With her arms crossed over her chest and a frown on her face, I knew she was just waiting to get out of the sea of reporters before she turned on Jackson.
And like a light switch, as soon as his dad hit the freeway, Kathy was sitting sideways in her seat, facing the back seat of the car.
“Jackson Michael Hadden, I want to know why I need to hear from your brother who you’re dating, especially when he read it on a sleazy online gossip blog.”
“Mom, it wasn’t like that.”
She shook her head and narrowed her eyes. “Don’t start with me, Jackson. I know what I saw and I know which phone call I didn’t get.”
“I planned on telling you,” he argued.
“Oh yeah, when? In a few years after you get married and turned up on my doorstep with a kid?”
At the mention of marriage heat rushed to my face. Had she known what we’d planned when we were in college? Or did she think we had a shot at repairing everything I’d broken in our relationship?
“Mom,” Jackson groaned. “Do you really think I would wait to tell you about us?”
“I don’t know what to think. You started dating Megan again and I had no clue you even knew where she was, when apparently she’s been living in the same city as you.”
Jackson lifted both hands, trying to placate his mom. Or to try and calm her down at least. “I only learned she was in the same city a few months ago. Until then, the last time I saw her was in college.”
“It’s partially my fault. I knew where Jackson lived and when I had the opportunity to be transferred to the area, I couldn’t pass it up, but I didn’t know how to approach him.”
Kathy’s eyes moved to me. “Still such a sweetheart, trying to defend him.” She glanced back over at Jackson, her eyes narrowing. “When he knows he should’ve called to tell me.”
I had to smother a laugh when she adjusted her position in her seat to face forward. Jackson rolled his eyes. My shoulders shook as I tried to hide my laughter.
“Mom, are you going to hang onto the grudge all weekend? Or can I apologize and we can move on?”
“We’ll see.” His mom didn’t even bother turning around, but from where I sat, I could see the smile on her face in the rearview mirror.
Jackson started laughing. My guess would be our conversation right before the street fair when I said almost the same exact thing to him. “Thanks for defending me, Dad.”
His dad shrugged as he made a turn down another street. “I do what I can. Happy wife, happy life.”
“Too bad there’s no saying about happy sons,” Jackson mumbled.
“When Mom’s happy, everyone is happy.” His dad slowed to a stop at a red light.
Ignoring their banter for a moment, I glanced out the window, surprised that the town hadn’t changed at all since I’d last been there. A quiet little suburb, one town over from the beach, it was the perfect blend of small-town life mixed with a bit of city feel. There were neighborhoods with cul-de-sacs where little kids played street hockey and rode their bikes. In the center, there was a shopping district full of stores and restaurants.
We made our way through the streets, but it wasn’t until we turned down Jackson’s childhood street that I realized something was different. Too many cars were parked along the side of the road. Not normal for their neighborhood. It was something you saw when you got closer to the beach. When we reached Jackson’s parents’ house, I finally understood. A large banner hung on the front porch. “Welcom
e back, Megan.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered, poking Jackson in the arm and pointing to the house. Jackson turned to look out the window, just as his mom faced us. Her face wore a huge smile.
“I hope you don’t mind, but we’re having a party tonight.”
Jackson’s eyes didn’t move from the window. “Mom, when did you have time to do all of this?”
She waved a dismissive hand at him. “I’m a master at getting things done when I want to.”
“I can’t believe this,” I whispered.
The car came to a stop in the driveway. From there I could see the backyard full of people and tables of food. Jackson’s mom and dad got out of the car, walking toward the backyard to greet their guests, while I sat frozen in my seat. I heard Jackson’s door open and close, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the whole display before me.
I couldn’t believe Jackson’s mom had set all of it up for me. Any bit of worry I’d held onto about coming back here instantly evaporated. The evidence of all she’d done for me made it clear I’d be welcome here at any time. Anything that had happened in the past between me and Jackson had been forgiven, never to be thought of again. We truly had our second chance.
The door next to me opened and Jackson reached his hand inside. “Don’t be freaked out.”
I turned my face up to his. “I’m not.”
“Then are you ready for your impromptu party?”
I laid my hand in his. “I am. Let’s go have some fun.”
Jackson helped me out of the car and led me around the back of the house. People greeted us from every direction. Drinks lifted, hands waving. I couldn’t have imagined anything better.
Jackson’s mom walked over and handed both of us a beer. She leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek. “Enjoy your party, my dear. We’ll catch up more tomorrow.” She stepped away and moved back into the crowd with a wink.
Play Me (Jaded Ivory Book 5) Page 19