Destiny

“Thanks for all your help, Marissa, I really appreciate it.”

“It’s not a problem. Give me a call when you have the timing down, but if there’s anything you need from me on this end, let me know. I’ll get the documents ready and email them later. You can sign everything electronically and once you know your timing of coming back, we’ll figure out when to get the house listed.”

My heart sped like a thoroughbred horse on a race track. We were doing this. Across the kitchen table from me, Toby’s grin shook. “It’ll be a couple weeks, but I’ll let you know once I have our flight back scheduled. Thanks again.”

“My pleasure. Have a great day and if you have questions once you get the email from me, call me and I’ll walk you through them.”

“Will do.” I hit the end call button on my phone.

Toby and I had spent the rest of the day making an endless pro/con list for the move.

Allison had already told me it’d be a few weeks before she could know for sure if I could telecommute, but I’d thoroughly inspected my finances. Once I sold our house in Friendswood, I’d have enough savings in the bank to not have to worry about work for a while. Before then, it might be tight financially, but Tillie’s house had been paid off for twenty years so outside of taxes, moving back would cost us very little. I was still sure Allison could swing something my way, but if she didn’t, I’d be able to get settled, maybe spend more time volunteering at Toby’s school and not have to work as hard. Or I could go freelance. I’d thought about it several times over the years, but the need for stable finances always held me back.

Without a significant house payment and taxes a fraction of the cost, I now had the freedom to give it more serious consideration.

The list Toby and I had might have had fewer pros in the column, but they held the most important ones.

“You sure you’re okay with moving?”

He shrugged, that uncertain look on his face appeared and vanished. He’d been like that all day. Waffling. Perhaps it wasn’t fair to give him the choice, but I couldn’t take it away either. Eventually, he looked at me and his face scrunched up, his chin wobbled as he asked, “Do you think he’d be okay if I called him dad?”

“Honey.” Damn my sweet kid. Was that his uncertainty? That was the last thing he had to worry about. “He told you the first time you met him you call him whatever you want. If you’re there, and you want that from him, I can one hundred percent guarantee Jordan’s okay with that.”

He sniffed. “Okay then. Yeah. I’m good with moving.”

I pushed up from the couch, wrapped my hand around his neck and pulled him to me. I held him while he fought against more tears and I grinned down at him. “Now. How about we get that flight scheduled. I figured we can get everything done in a week, rent a truck, get back up here. We can sell most of the stuff, pack the important things, and I can still make sure you have time to see your friends.”

It’d mean he’d start school a week or two late, but that didn’t matter much. He was a straight-A student and jumping into school two weeks late wouldn’t be a problem for him to get caught up.

“I wish we could go back tomorrow,” Toby said, suddenly and finally looking excited. “I mean, if we’re doing this we might as well do it now, right?”

Flights would be more expensive if we left too soon. But if we timed it right… “We could always go next week and take a couple weeks and be back before Rebecca’s wedding,” I suggested, already feeling the stress of that idea. It’d be rushed. Expensive.

Based on Toby’s answering smile, totally worth it. “Are we going to tell Jordan…my dad?”

My dad. Tears threatened to burst, and it took a minute to fight them back.

“Let’s wait until we get the details nailed down. Then we’ll tell him everything, okay?”

“Like a surprise?”

The last time I surprised Jordan, it hadn’t gone over too well. I also wanted to keep what Brooke said in mind, but it’d take a few days, a week at most to get everything lined up. Then I could go to Jordan with a plan. More than anything, I wanted to ask if we could move in together, but that might be way too fast for all of us.

No, it was best to wait. Move into Tillie’s home. Get to be a family again before a family under one roof bickering over dirty dishes and everything else.

“Yeah. A surprise. But we’ll tell him soon, okay?”

* * *

I grinned at my phone. It was a text from Toby who had spent the entire day at the County’s Aquatic Center, invited by Jordan’s assistant, Alicia. When she’d called to ask if he wanted to join her girls at the pool for the day, he’d given me a look that clearly said what he thought about spending the day with two girls. So I’d asked Alicia if he could invite Nathan to join them. Brooke and Alicia thought that idea was splendid and further invited Toby for a sleepover at Brooke’s house afterward. Now, the boys were at Brooke’s which meant Jordan and I had the night alone.

He’d convinced me to go with him to The Tavern, a sports bar he’d said would be plenty busy for a Saturday night. Rebecca and Cooper were set to meet us up here any minute, but while Jordan went to the bar and grabbed a beer for him and an iced tea for me, I couldn’t resist checking my phone.

Watching movies. Playing games. Love you.

Short and to the point, but also sweet.

“That Toby?” Jordan asked. He slid into the booth next to me and handed my drink to me. “How’s he doing?”

I was momentarily distracted from his question watching Jordan take a drink of his beer. The throat muscles, the tip of his head showing off the slight scruff on his jaw, the way his throat worked as he swallowed. He spent as much time outside on the course as he did in his office during the day and his already olive skin was a deep tan, and I knew from personal discovery he found time to spend other time in the sun so he didn’t have massive tan lines from his work shirts.

He caught me gawking at him, grinned down at me, and leaned in, sliding his lips across my cheek. “Love that look you’re giving me, honey, but I haven’t been inside you in almost a week so beat that back and answer the question.”

He’d had an insanely busy week. A wedding last night, tournaments during the week, some special project he said he’d dove head first into involving a celebrity tournament next spring. I’d spent most of the week finally getting caught up on work, while making hundreds of phone calls, trying to finalize our plans.

I’d planned on talking to Jordan tonight about everything, now that our flights back home were scheduled but with Rebecca and Cooper coming out with us, Toby at a friend’s house and he wanted to be there to give Jordan the news, it could wait until tomorrow sometime.

That didn’t mean I hadn’t been distracted. Both of us had been, and Jordan was right, it’d been since last weekend since we’d been together. A few nights this week I had to sleep alone. Other nights, Jordan came over close to when Toby was headed to bed and crawled into bed next to me once we knew he was sleeping but he didn’t touch me.

I didn’t initiate anything, either.

I was sleeping in the room I grew up in, Tillie’s empty room down the hall and Toby’s was right across.

“What was the question?” I asked, blinking back all the thoughts and preparations I still had to make, all while getting antsy Allison hadn’t yet given me any indication whether I’d be able to keep my job.

“Toby,” he said, laughing now, and shoulders shaking. “I asked how Toby was.”

“He’s good.” My body leaned toward Jordan, the closeness of us, the press of his knee against my thigh. He’d draped his arm over the back of the booth and his arm brushed my shoulder. The proximity to him, the scent of his cologne, mellow but manly, drew me to him and made the need at the center of my thighs pulse.

“If we weren’t in a bar right now, you’d be ripping my clothes off right now, wouldn’t you?”

Yes. Absolutely. So much so my response was more of a breathy, “Yeah,” than a whisper or spoken word.

“Good.” He brought his bottle of beer to his lips, shooting me that smoldering look of his he knew drove me wild. “Then you’ll light up for me tonight like I want you to.”

I gaped at him, my jaw slack, when movement at his shoulder grabbed my attention.

“I don’t even want to know what you two were talking about with that look on your face.” Rebecca grinned, and pointed in my direction, circling her finger.

“Well you see, sis,” Jordan drawled, turning and smirking at her. “When a man is with his woman—”

Cooper held up a hand. “Stop. Right there. Go any further and I’ll hit you with a one-two punch of why your sister and I are late.”

“Please.” Rebecca slid into the booth across from us, settled her purse next to her on the booth. “The goats got out. Someone” —she pointed her thumb in Cooper’s direction— “keeps forgetting to lock the gate.”

“And goat is a euphemism for…” Cooper grinned. Winked at his soon-to-be-wife. … “Not a goat.”

I bit back a laugh.

Jordan groaned and took a large swallow of his drink. “Knock it off, man.”

“You started it.”

Rebecca laughed. “And now that we’ve deteriorated into being twelve-year-old boys, I need a drink and food. I’m famished.”

Cooper flashed a grin at Jordan. “Because being with all those goats makes her work up an appetite.”

“Swear to Christ, man—”

“Ow!” Cooper flinched, right as Rebecca’s hand smacked him at the side of his head. She moved so quick I barely saw it coming before he was rubbing his head and playfully glaring at his wife.

“Food. Now. I’m hangry.”

“Your wish is my command, m’lady.”

He said it with such a sweetly spoken French accent, one I knew he’d had to learn for a movie, both Rebecca and I gawked at him, caught up in the act, the sweet tilt of his voice and those eyes on hers. He was playing a role, but damn he was good at it, and for a brief moment, I remembered that movie, the way he’d taken off his shirt, button by button, revealing the planes of his chest when warm breath hit my ear, and a hand curled around my shoulder.

“Know what you’re thinking. It’s plastered on your face so clearly the entire fucking bar can probably tell, but I’m warning you, Des. Stop fucking gawking at him.”

A heat so fierce and quick rushed to my cheeks, making my lips feel like they were burning. I rolled them together and looked at Jordan, his blue eyes so clear I was almost sucked into them, even though they swirled with jealousy. “Sorry. I wasn’t trying.”

Full, beautiful lips curved into a smile. “I know. I get it. But the only man I want you looking at like that is, me, got it?”

“I’ll do my best, I promise.” I leaned forward, pressed my lips to his and pulled back. And when I did, Rebecca was smiling at me, so sweetly.

She flashed me a wink. A happy one. And that happy little wink she gave me was probably the best thing she’d ever done for me.

It was the strangest thing…that we could be friends? I’d always thought it impossible, but somehow things were changing, I was changing, growing. Understood that others did, too.

And maybe, once our plans were finalized, I hoped with all my might that we could really do this. Jordan and I. Rebecca. Toby.

We could be a family, but better than that, we could all be friends who actually liked each other, too.

I relaxed into Jordan’s arm wrapped around my shoulder, took a sip of my iced tea and ducked my head toward the menu even though I already knew what I was going to order.

It was Friday. Steak night. There was no other option.

“Y’all ready to order?” A girl stopped at the table, pad of paper in her hand, pen ready to scribble. She looked bored out of her mind, tired on her feet, younger than us, but by the look on her face, she’d already asked that question a thousand times and she was bored out of her brain.

Cooper glanced around the table and we all nodded. “Yup. We’re ready, Katie.”

“Great,” she drawled. “What can I getcha?”

We gave our orders, she disappeared. Ten minutes later she came back with steaks and potatoes and salads for all of us, and we tucked into our food, talking about life, the ranch, Toby.

It was the best dinner I’d ever had. And while I’d wanted to tell Jordan what Toby and I were planning when we were alone, and honor Toby’s request to be there, I figured it was the best time to do it now, with his family surrounding us.

“So,” I said, setting down my fork. “I have something to tell y’all.”

A flash of white stopped at the edge of the booth, cutting me off.

“Oh, yes,” Jenni Akers said. She stood at the edge of the table, a smile like a shark plastered on her face, tapping her fingers on the edge of the booth. “Let’s all hear what the trailer trash scum has to say, I’m sure it’s thrilling.”

I lost a hinge in my jaw. That’s what it felt like. Seeing her, platinum blonde hair ending in sharp points at her shoulders. Jenni Akers was still beautiful in that plastic, lithe-looking way that told me she spent hours preparing herself to leave the house even if it was purely to check her mail. Her caramel colored eyes narrowed on me, flicked to Jordan, lingered on Cooper much longer than proper, and then stuck on Rebecca.

“Scurry away, Jenni.” Rebecca waved her hand like she was flinging away a mosquito. “No one wants you here.”

Jenni popped a hip. Bright, hot pink fingernails tapped on the table. “Probably because Joseph’s not here, right?”

“You fucking cunt,” Jordan growled. He was already pushing up from the table, standing to full height.

My gaze was glued to Rebecca whose face had turned to ash, and then fury. Had smoke risen from her ears I wouldn’t have been surprised, but all of it left me so confused.

“Oh please, Jordan,” Jenni said. “It’s not like everyone doesn’t know. It wasn’t exactly a secret.”

“Get the fuck out,” Cooper said. Both of them were standing, caging Jenni in. I was as lost as a mouse in a maze.

What the hell was going on?

“Who in the hell do you think you are?” Cooper asked, his words boiling at a volcanic heat. His voice was low, fists pushed into the tabletop, but his quietness in no way diminished his fury. “You know what? Don’t answer that. You’re nothing. You’re a cunt who has never grown up, always thinking you’re better than everyone else, but in reality, you’re the only piece of trash in this whole place.”

For a brief second, something that looked like fear flickered in Jenni’s brown eyes. She blinked it away quickly enough, but her fingers trembled right before she curled them into fists. “I was good enough to get her husband. And he didn’t complain once.”

“What?” I gasped. My hand that had been settled over Jordan’s curled into the back of his. He flipped his hand over and squeezed mine without looking at me. My gaze bounced around the table, jumping from person to person. All of them knew what was going on but me, but it was becoming easier to figure out.

And I had had it. Tonight had been the first time I’d felt surrounded by family and friends.

This bitch wasn’t ruining anything.

“You’re a miserable human being,” I said, my voice rising and each word clipped. It was enough to pull Jenni’s focus off Rebecca and Cooper.

“Ironic, coming from the girl who was left as if she really was nothing.”

I’d known it was coming. Had prepared for that. Weeks around Jordan and his love and forgiveness and the feeling we could get past all that had somehow knitted itself together in my marrow, my spine, strengthening the backbone I’d worked so hard to find.

“And?” I asked, bored with the accusation. “What’s your point?”

She picked at her fingernail, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. “I find it ironic, you know? Your mother leaves you for trash, dumps off her baby as if you meant nothing to her, which, you probably didn’t.” She flicked a hand out, like Rebecca had done. Except I was no gnat, and with every ridiculous thing she said, my boldness grew. “And yet you can say I’m nothing.”

“Your daddy isn’t mayor anymore, Jenni. And I don’t know why you still hang around this town, probably because you still think you run it, but what I’ve learned since I’ve been back is that you are a very large fish, in a very small pond. What you’re too vapid to realize is that your pond has dried up. No one wants you. No one likes you because you are a bitch to everyone you come in contact with. Tell me, who actually enjoys being around you?”

“Rebecca’s dead husband didn’t seem to mind. In fact, I’d say he enjoyed himself rather immensely.”

“And that’s why you’re a cunt. Because you can say that without thought or feeling and no one at this table has any use for you.”

The Wizard of Oz popped into my head. Glenda waving her hand. Be gone. Before someone drops a house on you, too.

The memory made me smile. I bit my lip. Jenni was nothing more than a witch who’d get what was coming to her. I was over worrying about where she’d strike next. She’d lost her power years ago over me, because I was finally, freaking finally, taking it back.

“You’ll be saying something different very soon, once I end up your neighbor and Gavin and I finally get your ranch.” She rolled her eyes, but I saw the pain it’d caused. That was Jenni. She hurt, she lashed out. She’d probably hurt every day of her life and only knew how to take it out on others.

“Which will be never.” Cooper crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her. “Because Jeffersons know they’d have to get through me and there’s no way in hell I’d let that happen.”

“That’s enough, Jenni.” Gavin Jefferson stepped up to the table, gave a glance to everyone at the table. “Said you were coming over to say hello, not to be a bitch. And that shit you spewed is never going to happen.”

His hand came out, settled on her lower back. It was a gesture to push her away, move her from the scene she was causing.

And how ridiculous. How was it possible a woman could be almost thirty and still act like she was thirteen?

I sighed, exhausted from wasting so much energy on her, thinking of her, being afraid of her. She’d consumed space in my brain for far too damn long.

“Get her the hell out of here, Jefferson,” Jordan said, still standing, arms shaking. “Before I do it for you.”

“Actually,” Gavin said. “There’s no need for me to get her out of here. Not when she’s not anything to me.”

That grabbed a reaction from Jenni. Quickly, she spun to him. Pressed her hand to his shoulder. He picked it off and flung it to the side like she was a speck of dust. “Gavin, honey, you don’t mean that.”

“I do. You’ve gone too far. Your pussy was sweet but your mouth is shit and I’m done with your crap. Plus, you’ve never learned a man doesn’t enjoy teeth on his dick.”

She jerked back. “Oh please. You don’t mean that. We’re good together. You’ve said so.”

He glared at Jenni with sharp, dark eyes so deep it was impressive she didn’t burst into a pile of ash. “You’re a bitch, Jenni. And I’ve warned you to let shit go. Since you can’t do that, you’re gone. The only thing you’re good for is spreading your legs and even that has lost its luster.”

Rebecca poorly stifled a giggle, covering her mouth.

The rest of us looked ready to explode.

All except Gavin. He wasn’t laughing.

He kept his glare focused on Jenni until she huffed and rolled her eyes. “Oh please. You don’t know anything.” She flipped her hair and flounced off, but I saw the roll of her shoulders, the wobble of her chin she tried to hide.

He’d been harsh with her.

I still thought it was hilarious.

“You won’t have any problems with her,” Gavin said, gaze roaming the four of us. I imagined what we looked like, a mixture of awe and laughter being fought by all of us. “And if you do, let me know, I’ll handle it.”

“You think we trust you?” Jordan asked. He spit the words out, clearly not thinking that what Gavin had just done and said was awesome as I did.

“Got no reason to, but you still have my word.”

“Why?” Rebecca asked. Her expression twisted into confusion. I wasn’t as lost as the rest of them. Gavin Jefferson had always been a jerk, but I knew why he was like that. I’d been walking to Jordan’s ranch one day, years ago, sneaking out of Tillie’s house and walked the miles out of town to get there. I’d hit the edge of Jefferson’s land that bordered Jordan’s to see Gavin’s dad. He slammed his fist so hard into Gavin’s gut, that at fifteen years old, he’d fell to his knees. He didn’t see me. I never mentioned it, but ever since then, it was always obvious why Gavin was such a jerk to everyone.

He rapped his knuckles on the table and shrugged. “Maybe it takes some of us longer to grow up than others.”

With that strange proclamation, he walked away. My focus stayed on him until he walked straight out of the bar, everyone giving him a wide berth, not acknowledging him.

“That was weird,” I said.

Rebecca turned to me and smiled. “That was freaking awesome.”