by J. M. Madden
There was nothing on the cameras. One minute she was walking down the hallway toward the kitchen, and the next minute she was gone. Paul had a feeling, though, that she was nearby. There had been an activation alert on the front door, but he hadn’t had a chance to check if it had been Jess or Hope.
When he pulled into the driveway, Jess was standing there to meet him. She had tears in her eyes, and she was wringing her hands. It was the most emotional he’d ever seen her, and he had to wonder if Hope was onto something. Maybe he should run away himself.
“Have you checked the car?”
Jess blinked at him. “No,” she breathed, running over to where her Jeep was parked. She pulled open the driver’s side door and peered in, then into the back. “Not here,” she said.
Paul felt like this was a ploy by his daughter, and while concerned, he wasn’t panicked. When he’d checked the front door alarm, it was to see Hope walking through it. He knew she was out here somewhere. “Hope, you need to come out,” he called, lifting his voice. “You’re scaring Jess. Is that really how you want her to leave? Scared that she thought you were kidnapped or hurt?”
It took a few long seconds before Hope appeared from around the side of the house. “No, Daddy. I’m sorry, Ms. Jess.”
Without a word, Jess opened her arms to the little girl, and she ran into them. “You scared me,” Jess told her sternly.
“I’m sorry.” Hope’s voice was muffled against her.
“Don’t do that again,” she warned.
Hope nodded, then turned to her father. “I’m sorry, Daddy. It didn’t seem like you were listening to me.”
Paul crouched down on the grass in front of his daughter. “I am listening to you, sprite, but I can’t change what’s happening right now. I know you love Jess, I do too, but love isn’t always enough to keep a person in your life. I loved you from the moment I saw you, and I mean with my whole heart, but it wasn’t enough to keep you with me. Sometimes adults have to do things that aren’t going to make you happy, and you have to learn to deal with them head-on. You can’t run away in a fit and expect things to work out in your favor.”
Hope pouted, but she nodded. “I understand.”
Paul glanced at Jess, but she avoided his eyes. Oh, yeah, he’d just kind of thrown it out that there he loved her. Well, she would have to deal with that, too.
“I set up an appointment with Dr. Waters. Are you willing to go talk to her?”
Hope made a face, but she nodded.
“Good. I have to get back to work. We’ll talk tonight, okay?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
Paul stood and crossed to Jess. She still looked a little shell-shocked. “Same with you. We’re going to talk when I get home. Do you hear me?”
She nodded, her sea-glass eyes guarded. Without giving her a chance to back away, he cupped her head in his hand and kissed her, hard, for all the world to see. He was done hiding. Paul walked to his truck, got in and pulled away.
The girls were still standing in the yard staring after him when he lost sight of them.
Jess tried to gather her emotion, but it was hard. Paul had knocked her for a loop. As if the morning hadn’t been emotional enough, freaking out about Hope.
Blinking, she glanced around. They were on the front lawn of Paul’s house, just kind of standing there as they watched him drive away. “We’re going to be late for your appointment,” she said, scrambling for normalcy. “Let me go get my keys and purse and we’ll go.”
“Okay,” Hope said, digging the toe of her tennis shoe against the edge of the sidewalk.
Jess walked inside to gather up her stuff. She’d been ready when Hope had gone silent and disappeared. As she gathered her keys from the island, she stopped to lean her hands against the cool surface of the marble. Paul’s words echoed through her mind. Had he seriously just said he’d loved her? Yes, he had.
He didn’t mean love love, though. He meant the you-make-my-life-convenient kind of love.
Right?
Honestly, she’d had men tell her they love her before, and she’d been proposed to before, but she knew they didn’t mean it. The men who offered her money to stay were more honest.
She didn’t think she needed Paul and Hope, but the closer the time came for her to leave, the more anxiety built in her heart. What the heck was she supposed to do?
“Come on, Sophie. You might as well come hang out with me while we wait for Hope to get done.”
The little dog danced around her legs and gave an excited yip. Then she dropped to the floor and looked toward the front door. With a growl, she took off.
That was when Jess heard Hope scream. Oh, no, not again.
Bolting through the house, she pressed the red alarm button on the keypad beside the door as she passed through. Whatever the emergency was, someone needed to be here, because Hope’s scream had been real and terrified.
Jess leaped through the door and down to the yard. Immediately she saw Hope struggling in the hold of a tall man. This time, though, there was a blonde woman with him, and she seemed to be pleading with him to let Hope go.
Sophie barked and growled, lunging in at the man. He kicked at her, but he seemed to be off balance, or inebriated, or something. He was also sporting one of the clearest shiners she’d ever seen on a man. His nose was also off-kilter.
“You need to tell me what she did with that money, you little bitch,” he snarled. “There’s no way she spent it all.”
Hope cried out as the man lifted her off the ground by her arm. “Stop,” she screamed. “That hurts!”
Jess didn’t even slow. She barreled into the man, leading with her elbows and tucking her head, knocking him to the ground. The big man let go of Hope, and she scrambled to her feet.
“Go in the house, Hope. Call your dad!”
Jess lurched away from his clutching hands. “Get the fuck away from here, asshole. And leave that little girl alone!”
“I just want to know where my money is,” the man said, climbing awkwardly to his feet. “Tara stole from me and I want it back. I know she sold the pills. I tracked her that far.”
Jess shook her head. “That little girl has no money. There was no cash in the car when she crashed.”
“It’s in the Arizona place. At the bus store,” Hope called from the porch. That was as far as she’d retreated. Jess backed away from the couple, watching, waiting for him to lunge again.
The woman, looking pretty bedraggled herself, or maybe strung-out, clutched at his elbow. “You can’t just grab a kid, Vik. We need to go.”
Viktor stumbled and fell again, then rolled over onto his hands and knees. He swayed there for a minute, the woman tugging and pulling at him to get up. Eventually, he made it to his feet, and they started down the yard to the sidewalk. Pulling her camera out, Jess began to video their progress.
Sirens wailed in the distance, and she prayed the cops got here before they had a chance to get away.
They did, barely. Jess didn’t know if Viktor was having a bad reaction to drugs or was just incredibly inebriated, but they took long enough to get moving that the cops caught them just down the road, trying to get into a car. The woman tried to run, but she was caught as well.
That was when Paul’s truck screeched around the opposite corner and into the drive. He hopped out of the truck, eyes hard with determination. “What’s going on?”
Hope ran down the yard and flung herself into her father’s arms. “They came back, but the cops have them now.”
She pointed, and Paul turned to look down the street. Viktor and the woman were both cuffed, and they were being patted down.
“You should have seen Ms. Jess,” Hope chattered. “Viktor had me, and Jess came at him like a football player. We landed on the ground and I got away.”
Paul looked at Jess. “Are you okay?” She nodded, though she could feel some bruises developing. Before she could say anything, he wrapped her in his arms. Jess sagged into him, the release of th
e adrenalin making her knees tremble.
“I wasn’t going to let him take her,” she said.
Paul pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I know, Jess. I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner. I had already gotten on the interstate and I couldn’t turn around. For a minute, I thought this was a delayed alarm or something after Hope left the house. Then I looked at the camera and saw you fighting him.”
Paul squeezed her tighter, and Jess was okay with the pressure. It grounded her as the shock of the past few minutes receded.
The cops arrived and took their statements. Then Detective Elkhorn arrived.
“I heard the call come over the scanner. Everyone okay?”
They nodded, and told the story again of what happened.
“I contacted an official at Greyhound,” Elkhorn told them. “They’re tracing the locker number. We’ll get these two booked in and that should ease your mind. He’s going to be hit with a list of charges.”
Paul reached his hand out to shake and the detective did, looking at it oddly. Then he smiled at Jess. “Officially I’m supposed to tell you to leave the police work to the police, but you did good taking him down and delaying them until the cops got here.”
“Thank you,” Jess murmured.
Finally, they could go inside and relax. Paul called Jane to tell her he was staying home, and Jess called Dr. Water’s office to reschedule, since they’d missed Hope’s appointment. She also called Dawn’s parents, since they were supposed to meet later today. Jess felt terrible canceling, but too much had gone on today. She kind of just wanted to curl up and be quiet somewhere.
The four of them settled on the back patio. Hope was cuddling Sophie.
“She didn’t get hurt again, did she?” Jess asked her.
Hope shook her head. “Nope. She was quick and got away from his big, ugly feet.”
Jess snorted. “I’m pretty sure he had boots on.”
Hope just shook her head.
Paul joined them with bottles of water. He looked closely at his daughter. “Are you doing okay?”
She nodded, looking down at her fingers in Sophie’s fur. “I was really scared at first. But I knew Jess was there and she would save me.”
Jess shook her head. “I knew I was going to do my best. That was scary for me, too.”
Hope slid off the chair and went to Jess, wrapping her arms around her neck. “Thank you for knocking him down and getting me away. I love you.”
Tears filled Jess’s eyes. “I love you too, dear.”
The hug was exactly what Jess needed. Paul reached over and rested his hand on her shoulder, just staring at her with appreciation in his blue, blue eyes.
The day was spent playing and eating, getting over the shock of the attack. The detective called them and confirmed that Viktor and the woman were both going to be in jail for a very long time. They each had warrants in addition to the list of things Elkhorn was laying on them. And Greyhound had gotten back to him. He would be heading to Oklahoma, not Arizona, to test the key in the locker they’d identified the next day.
That night, Jess and Paul put Hope to bed together. And when they headed down the hallway toward the bedrooms, it just seemed natural to follow along as he tugged her into his. After they used the bathroom and brushed their teeth, Paul removed his prosthetic and put it in the closet. When he settled onto the mattress, he pulled her against his side with his arm.
Jess felt incredibly melancholy. She had a feeling she could burst into tears at the drop of a hat, and Paul being so kind to her wasn’t helping. Leaving them was going to be one of the hardest things she’d ever done.
They made love softly and quietly that night, and as she settled into his hold again, Paul whispered ‘I love you’, and her tears fell.
18
Paul could tell that Hope liked Mrs. Brown. Maybe not as much as she loved Jess, but he hoped that would grow with time. His daughter led the woman through the yard to show her the play fort.
Jess didn’t seem as sure about her. “Did you see the way she looked at me?”
They stood on the patio together, and Jess’s arms were crossed beneath her breasts. She wore a tank top and shorts, the same as she usually wore, but it was obvious she didn’t have a bra on. There were a couple of purple bruises on her forearms.
Paul laughed, because he’d looked at her the same way two weeks ago. Overly critical. “Hope likes her. That’s what’s important. Besides…” He stopped there, not wanting to hurt her feelings.
“I know, I won’t be here,” she said, narrowing her eyes against the sun. Or maybe against tears.
Taking her hand in his, Paul led her into the kitchen. “It’s up to us whether or not we allow Mrs. Brown into our home. You’ve been very firm that you are moving on, so you have no say in who we choose.”
Jess blinked at the words and he was sorry he had to be harsh, but he had his back to the wall. They were out of time. Jess was leaving, and he needed a replacement. “She’s been background checked, and I called her last employer. They could not sing her praises enough. She helped raise three of their children.”
Jess worried at a fingernail, before looking up at him again. Her eyes had cooled. “I’m sorry I’m being difficult. You’re right. She’s exactly what Hope needs. I’m going to go start some laundry.”
Paul hated for there to be tension between them, but he wasn’t sure exactly what to do. Did Jess want him to beg her to stay? Or manipulate her into staying? Or was she looking for faults with Mrs. Brown because she wanted to stay and didn’t know how to say it?
Mrs. Brown stayed for more than two hours. Paul thought Jess was going to avoid the woman the entire time, but after a while she came out and was the personable woman he’d grown to love. Even Mrs. Brown liked her before she left.
Then it was just the three of them again. Four, if you counted Sophie. Hope started to be a little fractious, and he knew it was because the time was ticking down when Jess would leave. That evening, they were coloring at the kitchen table when Hope broke into sobs. It tore Paul’s heart to pieces to see his little girl like this, and he knew he would have a massive amount of work to do when Jess left. This separation seemed more traumatic than losing her mother. “I don’t want Jess to go, Daddy.”
Paul pulled her into his arms. “I know you don’t, sprite. But it has to happen. She has a prior engagement. It was planned before she ever met you, and she has to travel a long ways away.”
“Jordan,” Jess said softly, stroking a hand down her hair. “The man that I’m meeting is a brilliant cellist. And he’s premiering with the Italian Symphony in Venice. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for him, and he wants his family there.”
Hope lifted her head. “He’s your family?”
“In a way. He’s my brother-in-law’s brother. I’ve known him many years.”
“Will you come back after that,” she asked, hiccuping.
“I can’t promise you that,” she said, and Paul could hear the emotion in her words.
Hope turned and buried her face in his chest. Paul looked at Jess over the girl’s head. It eased his heart a little that she wasn’t meeting some random man, but it still hurt that she was leaving.
He took a breath. “Jessamy Swan, I, we, want you to know that you are loved, and that you will always have a place here if you choose to return.”
Hope turned in his arms and nodded. “Yes. You can always come home.”
Tears rolled down Jess’s cheeks as she hugged Hope. “I thank you for that, Pigpen.”
For a moment Hope’s face lifted in laughter, then it fell again.
She fell asleep in Jess’s arms. Paul took Sophie out to go potty before joining Jess in tucking Hope in. “I’m going to miss this,” she admitted, voice barely above a whisper.
Taking her hand, he tugged her out of the room and to his own bedroom. There, he closed the door and turned to her. “I don’t understand why you’re being so hard-headed about this. We’re not a
sking you to change completely, but we are hoping that you’ll bend a little. I understand you don’t want kids of your own, but is Hope such a bad kid? Or am I the bad bet?”
Jess grimaced, shaking her head. “It’s neither of those. You’re both amazing.”
Paul held out his hands. “Then, what’s the issue? If you need to hear the words, I’ll tell you. I love the fuck out of you, Jessamy Swan. For so many reasons, not the least of which the love you show my daughter. I think I fell for you as soon as you walked in the door and pointed out the dog shit.”
She choked out a laugh. “I’m sorry about that.”
“I’m not. You’ve taught me so much about dealing with my daughter. I appreciate that more than I can say.”
“She’s a good kid. It’s not that hard.”
“Thank you,” Paul said, taking one of her hands. “I know you value your independence and the ability to wander the world, but you need to have a home base, too. I’m not going to demand that you stay home. If you do come back, we’ll keep Mrs. Brown on so that you have time to do what you want.”
“You make me sound spoiled,” Jess said with a frown. “I’ve raised more than my fair share of kids. And it’s not fair to bring them into the world or love them if you’re not going to be there for them. I love my dad, but he had kids for Mom, not because he wanted them.”
“I agree,” Paul said quickly. “But you do realize you’ve created the exact situation you’re describing here?”
Jess opened her mouth, then snapped it shut. He could see the wheels in her brain turning as she realized she was putting Hope in the same position she railed against. Her big, beautiful, sea glass green eyes filled with fresh tears. “You’re confusing me.”
Paul wrapped his arms around her, pressing kisses down her temple. “I don’t mean to. I just want you to see clearly. And I want you to see that we love you for who you are, and any time you come back, we’ll be here.”
Jess nodded, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head on his chest.
