Читать книгу The SEAL's Miracle Baby - Laura Marie Altom - Страница 9
Оглавление“Jess...” It might sound sappy, but Grady had lost count of how many times he’d dreamed of this moment. Only, it was all wrong. For starters, Billy Sue wasn’t supposed to be there. And in his rich fantasy life, Jessie would smile as opposed to staring him down as if he’d sprouted horns.
“Grady.” Her cheeks were tearstained, white T-shirt dirt smudged and ponytail tangled, but even eight years since the last time he’d seen her, she was still the most beautiful woman in the world. And judging by her expression, she was also still not interested in anything he had to say.
“You two have fun catching up.” Billy Sue made an odd clucking noise, then bustled around the side of the house with Jessie’s clothes basket toward what Grady remembered was the laundry room door.
Now that they were alone, Grady should’ve had something intelligent to say. He didn’t.
“You look good.” She appraised him. “Healthy.”
Wow. Talk about a less-than-stellar evaluation. “You, too.”
“H-How long are you in town for?” She’d tugged a strand of hair from her ponytail and twirled it through her fingers. It was a nervous habit. One he’d watched a hundred times during University of Oklahoma football games.
“Two weeks.”
“That’s not long.” She twirled faster.
“Nope.” What could’ve only been thirty seconds stretched into a year.
“It’s good seeing you, Grady.” She hitched her thumb in the direction her mom had gone, then started to follow. “I need to help wash clothes.”
When she was gone, the sun shone dimmer.
No one in his whole life had hurt him the way she had. How many times had he told himself he hated her? He’d planned all the snide or clever things he would say when their inevitable reunion finally rolled around. Yet there it went, already come and gone, and he felt like a sixth grader ogling a high school cheerleader. What was it about her that had him trapped for all this time in her spell? How could he once and for all vanquish her from not only his mind, but his heart?
* * *
“GRADY LOOKS GOOD, doesn’t he?” Billy Sue sprayed a pretreatment solution on Jessie’s favorite jeans.
“He’s all right.” Jessie filled the utility sink with warm water, dumping in a few capfuls of detergent for her hand washables. She was so bone-deep tired that she was sure the gravity of what the next two weeks truly meant hadn’t fully sunk in.
Other than her parents, the only person she’d ever loved was Grady. What did she do with that fact?
“Still have feelings for him?” Her mother shook matted leaves from a pair of sweats and into a trash bin.
“No.”
“That why you broke things off?” Why did her mom keep pushing? It wasn’t like her to be all up in Jessie’s private business.
“If you don’t mind—” she gave a pair of socks an extrahard shake “—I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Honey...” Billy Sue blasted her with a look of parental concern. “Maybe I can help. All those years ago, I thought he left you for the Navy.”
“He did.”
“But you told him to go?”
Jessie shrugged. “I guess. Sort of. But, Mom, you know about...my situation.”
“Wait—that’s why you broke things off with him? Honey, why? Did you tell him and he was upset?”
Fighting the knot at the back of her throat, Jessie shook her head.
“He wasn’t upset?”
“I didn’t tell him.”
* * *
“BILLY SUE, I CAN’T thank you enough for this meal and—” Grady’s throat tightened when his mother’s voice cracked “—your hospitality. I’m not sure what we’d do without you and Roger.”
“Aw, it’s our pleasure.” Billy Sue and his mom shared a hug.
The early spring air held a chill, but the outdoor fireplace kept the area around the table warm. Jessie’s parents’ home had been built on the town’s only hill, which meant the pool deck’s view was expansive. On a clear night, you could just make out the Oklahoma City skyline. On this night, the National Guard’s generator-powered emergency lights securing downtown Rock Bluff punched through the dust just far enough to make it look like swirling ground fog.
Roger asked, “Grady, could you please pass the rolls?”
“Ah, sure...” He could, but that would entail looking at Jessie. Didn’t her father know how hard Grady had worked to keep his gaze focused on anything but her?
During the exchange, their fingers brushed.
Jessie released the basket so fast that it dropped. Cloverleaf rolls scattered.
Cotton darted from beneath the table to sink his teeth into one, dragging it under an azalea bush.
“Sorry,” Jessie said.
“No problem.” Grady snatched the empty basket, setting it back on the table.
“It’s a problem for me,” Roger said with a chuckle. “I really wanted another roll.”
For his mom’s sake, Grady suffered through another thirty minutes of small talk, but then he helped clear the table and made a beeline for his room, where he’d stashed the six-pack he’d picked up from the lone surviving liquor store. It’d been a madhouse, and Grady couldn’t say he blamed folks for wanting to drown their sorrows in a bottle.
He’d managed a whole five minutes of nursing a beer while studying the manual on the new dive computer he’d soon be using when someone knocked on his door.
“Come in,” he hollered.
Only after Jessie entered, closing the door behind her, did he get the bright idea that he should’ve faked sleeping. A fact that shamed him back to grade school. The guys on his SEAL team would laugh their asses off to see how pathetic just a few hours spent around her had made him. Hell, on base, the guys called him Sheikh, on account of him having a virtual harem of women trying to get his ring on their fingers. What his friends didn’t know was that Grady hadn’t wanted any of them.
Jessie was his only girl.
He downed the rest of his beer and opened another.
“We need to talk.”
“I’m sleeping.”
“Don’t be stupid.” She hefted herself up to sit on the low, sturdy oak dresser. Not a good thing, considering she wore a denim miniskirt and tank top. When she crossed her legs, he caught a peek of yellow panties.
He took another drink, then covered his fly with his binder.
“All right.” She tucked her long, distractingly gorgeous blond hair behind her ears. “So this whole setup pretty much sucks for both of us, but let’s cut the tension and get through it like adults.”
“How?” Especially when that tank’s hugging your curves like paint and I remember you riding me with that hair of yours hanging all loose and wild?
“Come on, Grady. The statute of limitations has long expired on breakup hard feelings.”
“Says who?” He shoved an extra pillow behind his head. “From where I’m sitting, I’m still mad as hell.” He downed his second longneck and went in for a third.
She had the gall to cross her arms and roll her eyes.
“You think I shouldn’t still be pissed? I asked you to marry me. You accepted.”
“Almost a decade ago!” She smacked the dresser top. “Get over it. That’s ancient history.”
“The hell it is.” He sprang from the bed, planting his hands on either side of her, pinning her in, but not touching her—not giving her the satisfaction of him touching her. “Give me an honest reason, and I’ll let it go. More than anything, I want to let this—you—go, but you’re stuck in my head.”
“Sorry.”
“I need a reason, Jess.”
She raised her chin. “You know the reason.”
“Oh, right—you don’t love me.”
“Of course not. It’s been forever since I’ve even seen you. You’re a stranger. I’m happy without you.”
“Which is why your eyes are dilated and you can’t stop licking your lips?”
“I need ChapStick.”
“What was up with the leg crossing? You must’ve flashed me those pretty yellow panties a half-dozen times.”
“Oh, my God, since when did you become such a perv?”
“What’s perverted about me being a trained observer?” His gaze zeroed in on the erratic pulse in her throat. He tipped his beer to her. “Consider it a sign that your tax dollars are hard at work.”
“You know what I mean...” Her eyes pooled with tears as she pulled in a deep breath.
“Damn straight, I do. But tell me, Jess, if you’re so happy, why aren’t you married with four kids, so no one has to ride alone on roller coasters? Isn’t that what you always wanted? What we wanted?”
Her expression hardened. “Don’t go there.”
“Why not?”
“You’re an ass.”
He shrugged.
Yes, he was. But she’d hurt him so damned bad. Up until joining the Navy, all he’d ever wanted was to buy his own ranch, marry Jessie and start their family. He’d never sought wealth or glory—she was all he’d ever wanted. And that fact killed him. Hell, he’d been back in town less than twenty-four hours and already he felt crazy. It was downright embarrassing.
“What do you want from me?” she asked.
Everything. But mostly, the truth. “All I want is for you to finally be straight with me. Why did you break things off? I get it if you thought we were too young, or you fell for someone else, or I just didn’t do it for you in the sack, but this is a small town. Folks talk. My own mother has told me you’ve never been serious with another guy.”
“Just like you’ve never been serious with another girl?”
“Exactly. I’m the logical sort. Every day I deal with black-and-white facts. Look at us—we have jobs, all our teeth. Why haven’t we moved on? Haven’t you ever asked yourself that question?”
She looked away. “No.”
Sighing, he took a step back, holding up his hands in surrender. “Fine. If that’s how you want to play it.”
“Grady...”
“What?”
“You know how much I care for you. You were my best friend. Why can’t we just go back to that?”
“No, thanks.” The friend card had long been off the table. Didn’t she remember all those lazy summer days down by the creek? He’d kissed every inch of her, and it wasn’t just his ego telling him she’d liked it. “For the sake of our parents, I’ll be polite, but you can’t go back in time and erase what we shared. I’ve been with other women since, and it wasn’t the same.”
She paled. “Gee, thanks. Good to know you’ve slept around.”
“Can you honestly tell me you haven’t?”
Again, she avoided his gaze. “You don’t have to make it sound so dirty, but yes. I—I’ve had a few other committed relationships that turned physical—if that’s what you mean.”
“And...” He urged her to get to the heart of the matter. Had she shared a fraction of the chemistry with those other guys as she had with him? Obviously not, or she’d be with one of them now. “True love?”
“I’m not even dignifying that with an answer.”
“In other words, business as usual?”
“What’s wrong with you?” Eyes narrowed, she drew in her lower lip. “You never used to be this cruel.”
“I’m not cruel, Jess, but direct. There’s a difference.”
“Semantics...”
“So, in summary, you want me to buck up and play nice?”
“Would that be so hard?”
More like impossible.
He rubbed his jaw, searching for the right thing to say when all he wanted was for her to tell him the truth. That day in the Dairy Barn that no longer existed, there’d been so much more to their story. There still was. Only, for whatever reason, she’d refused to end it. Oh—she’d verbally ended it. But in his heart—where it mattered—he couldn’t help but feel as though they still had a long way to go before he, at least, found closure.
