Thousand Yard Bride

by Nora Flite

  Ripping at his hold, I growled, “Let go, Benny. I’m serious!”

  “I’m serious, too,” he said, grabbing my waist with his other arm. My annoyance turned to outrage, and I shoved him away from me, clearly with more force than he’d expected. As soon as he stumbled back, I took off and headed back for the ballroom.

  His long legs pumped; he was on me again. “Just one kiss, baby. Come on.” His palm came down on my shoulder, then it kept going, hooking into my neckline and starting to tear it.

  I yelped and managed to wriggle away from him just as I saw Hunter running toward us.

  “Get away from her!” He didn't give Benny room to do so; his fist came forward, hitting the other man straight in his jaw so solidly that Benny tumbled into the far wall. Hunter approached him again, fist pulled back and ready to keep going.

  “Hunter,” I pleaded, staring side to side at the silent, gawking crowd that had been milling by the ballroom. “People are looking. Let it go. You can’t make a scene. Your career is too important.”

  His lips peeled back, teeth bared. "My career? You think I'd pick that over defending you?"

  I fought down a thrill. "I'm fine! He didn't hurt me. Please, relax and walk away."

  There was a black storm cloud growing in his eyes. I was sure Benny could feel the danger here, the static crackling in the air—he was leaning against the wall, arm over his bleeding mouth and saying nothing.

  “I thought you were my friend, Benny.” Hunter's shoulders became rocks. He wasn't calming down at all. “You’re scum. If you ever touch Jo again, I’ll beat you down so hard you’ll never play again. Fuck, you'll never walk.”

  Benny hadn't blinked, his eyes just bulged. Around us, people murmured but didn't approach. I saw Victoria by the doorway, her face pinched and pale.

  Finally, Hunter looked at me. The intensity wasn't fully gone; I felt the tension in his cells as he wrapped his arms around me and led me away. “I’m sorry that happened,” he whispered into my hair.

  "Don't be." Leaning into his chest, I struggled with my surge of attraction. I didn't want to see anyone get hurt, but the way Hunter had stood up for me—I'd never seen anything like it.

  No one had ever cared so much for me in my life.

  16

  Hunter

  Seeing Benny's hand on her stomach, inches from where my baby was, it was all I could do to not tear into him and leave him bleeding on the country club floor. Something more intense than anger was controlling me. I didn't just feel it mentally; it was like a wave of rage was snapping through my muscles. I couldn't escape it. I didn't want to.

  I’d gotten into my fair share of fights over the years. More often than not it was some stupid bar fight where one asshole said something stupid to another asshole, and then shit broke out.

  I’d never had to hit a person I once considered a friend.

  I’d never had the fleeting urge to kill someone before.

  It honestly scared me a little bit. The evidence showed that I was capable of a lot of stupid shit, but that feeling of rage felt as close to insanity as I’d ever experienced.

  It was good for everyone—especially Benny—that Jo stopped me from destroying him. When she put her head on my chest, I knew she could feel me shaking. It was so unlike the time I'd nearly come apart while talking about Poppy cheating on me. I no longer cared if she saw my weakness.

  I just wanted her to feel safe.

  What am I was going to do about Benny? I wondered. I still had to work with him. We were on the same team, we had the same friends. Football is a small world.

  Over Jo’s shoulder I saw him get up. He held his face with his hand. When he took it away, I was both relieved and disappointed to see that I hadn’t done much damage. His lip was split and bleeding, but that was all. The fucker still had his teeth.

  He made sure I saw—throwing me a red-stained grin. Spinning, he walked away while shrugging off the help of a few women who probably thought I was a psycho beast. Fine. Good.

  I only cared what Jo thought of me. And she was in my arms, so I was pretty sure we were doing fine.

  I wasn't sure if I would tell Reese or Jam or any of the others about Benny. What the hell was wrong with him? Trying to get with another person I was seeing was more than a slip up, it was a pattern.

  I knew he didn't know that Jo was pregnant, but that didn’t matter to me. She was mine, this baby was mine. I'd never been so possessive, this was a primordial urge to keep Jo safe.

  I held her for a while. She was a trooper, insisting she was okay. Even if she shook the incident off, the anger was slower to leave my veins.

  “I need to talk to Reese,” I told her. “Will you be alright if I walk you back to the ballroom before finding him?”

  “Yeah,” she said, then she paused thoughtfully. “Hey, does Reese know about the you-know-what?”

  I cringed. “I had to tell someone, Jo. I was panicking. Reese has my back, he wouldn't tell anyone else.”

  “Yeah, he seems like a good guy,” she said. “Unlike some people.”

  We both eyed up Benny in a corner, already swilling another drink and talking to a waitress.

  “Unbelievable." I spit the word out.

  I scanned the room and saw Reese talking to my mother. "Stay here," I said, helping her sit on the sidelines in a big chair.

  Blushing, she crossed her legs. "Hunter, I'm really okay. Go talk to Reese."

  Bending low, I kissed her softly on her brow. I was so used to people watching my every move that I didn't notice or care if they did right then. Jo needed to understand how much I cared for her. And how much the caring was morphing into something better deserving of the word love than when I'd stated that to her after the engagement party.

  I wanted this woman.

  Not just her . . . but our future.

  Didn't that make it love?

  Jo blinked multiple times, staring up at me with her eyes sparkling. "You call me if you need me," I said firmly. "Scream and shout. If anyone messes with you, you say the word, I'll be there."

  "Okay," she breathed out. It was all she had in her, two fingers touching her forehead where I'd kissed her. Nodding, I made my way over to Reese.

  He watched me approach, parting from my mother to meet me a few feet away—privacy. "I saw what happened with Benny," he said. "Nice right hook, but why'd you do it?"

  Smirking, I lifted my head. Jo was still sitting there, chatting with a waiter who'd approached with a tray of snacks. “How well do you really know Benny, Reese?”

  “I don't know, as well as you do, I guess."

  I shook my head and forcibly unclenched my jaw. “It turns out I don't know him at all. I caught him making a pass at Jo. He wouldn't back off, kept stalking her down the hall until I got to them." Remembering his hands on her made me ball mine into knotted fists.

  “Shit, man,” Reese muttered.

  “Yeah. So I’m not sure how training season is going to go. That’s pretty close quarters.”

  “Just remember that I’ve got your back. It's a shame that the Kings Club will be down one member. He fucked up a good thing.”

  “Yeah, I can’t believe I ever trusted him,” I said.

  Wrapping an arm around me, he guided me further from the crowd. I went, but I never took one eye off of Jo. “How is everything else going?"

  “Good so far," I said, smiling at the topic change. "I’m going with her to her doctor’s appointment tomorrow.”

  “I’m happy for you, brother,” Reese said.

  Ruffling my hair, I let myself laugh. “I’m getting excited about it. It’s all so crazy, but there’s just something about her."

  “Then I’d say you’re living the dream. Beautiful woman, good sex, keeping the family line going.”

  Shaking my head, I said, “Hard to think that the LA trip was just a few months ago."

  “In another life, brother. But this one’s better for you."

  “Yeah?”

  “O
f course!" Slapping me a bit too hard on the back, Reese's eyes lit up. "No matter how you met her, Jo is quality. And we can’t stay wild boys forever.”

  I did a double take. “Don’t tell me Reese, the King of Hearts, is thinking of settling down."

  “It’s the truth," he said, shutting his eyes like it was the saddest damn news. "I’m tired of all the partying. I just want to play ball and then go home to a good woman in a nice house.”

  “Good woman in a nice house does sound pretty wonderful,” I admitted.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jo laughing with the waiter. She had on a huge smile, her eyes getting those little fishtail wrinkles at the corners that told the world she was used to being bright and bold. I couldn't hear her laughter because of the music, but I could hear it in my head.

  Reese saw me watching her. “Go, take care of your woman. Leave me to my musings about how I’m going to pull off your stripper-less bachelor party. Such a shame," he lamented.

  Walking away, making a beeline for Jo, I didn't really agree.

  The old Hunter needed strippers.

  The new one just wanted his soon to be wife.

  17

  Jo

  I was so relieved to get out of the party, away from Benny, away from the Daniels' Estate, away from where I felt so out of place. As we drove with the top down, I didn't care that my hair was getting messed up.

  I cared that Hunter put his hand on mine.

  This was a moment that the press would never see. There would be no “Hot Football Stud Squeezes Hand of Pregnant Fiancée in Car” headline. This was a moment for just the two of us.

  “Jo,” he started, “I’m really sorry about dragging you into all of this.”

  My fingers twitched in his. “I wasn't dragged. This is what we have to do.” I weighed my next words; if there was a time to come clean with Hunter, that time was now. “I just feel so lost in your world.”

  “What do you mean, my world?”

  “The mansion. The money. Even this dress,” I confessed. I loved the dress, but wearing haute couture was an entirely new experience. “I’m trying so hard to fit in, to do all the right things, but it seems like I get it wrong."

  "What?" he asked, shooting me a little smile. "You mean like tipping people with oranges?"

  I gasped, covering my eyes with my other arm. "He told you!"

  "Of course he told me. It was hilarious." Pulling my hand upwards, Hunter kissed the back of it softly. My knees came together. "Do you really think I give a damn if you fit in with those people or not? Jo, I barely fit in. If anything, I love you more because you don't."

  There it was again. That L word.

  He slowed the car down, taking a corner and making my weight shift his way. "Why don't you say it back?" he whispered.

  Battery acid invaded my stomach. "Say what?"

  "That you love me."

  It felt especially strange to pull into the parking lot for my apartment complex after having driven up to his estate. My entire apartment building was smaller than their guest house.

  Hunter killed the engine, staring at the wheel. Waiting.

  Swallowing, I said, "Because I don't know if I do."

  "Liar," he chuckled cruelly.

  My mouth fell open. "I'm not—"

  He was on me, all teeth and tongue and seeking fingers that threatened to ruin the Kate dress, to destroy it and create a whole new meaning and memory. Just as I thought I'd die, he created enough of a gap for me to breathe. The back of the window pressed hard on my skull.

  Hunter's voice was a hush. "Try to deny it. Go on. Dare to look deep and tell me you don't love me."

  I couldn't look at his face. "It's the hormones. They make it confusing."

  "Fuck the hormones." He sealed me with another kiss, his hand sliding down to cup my breast—which made me jump—then my belly, which made me whimper. "This baby is mine. You're mine, and I know what we have is more than this damn fake marriage. So tell me."

  "I can't—"

  "Tell me."

  My hair fell in my eyes. I left it there. I thought about how he'd defended me from his father, from Poppy, from Benny tonight. I thought about how easily we'd gone from joking about one thing to making out the next.

  Hunter was so many things. And he was brave enough to tell me how he felt.

  Why was I so lost?

  Licking my lips, I asked, "Are you satisfied with this?"

  "With what? With you?"

  “With the situation. With how our lives will have to be, now." My voice cracked, but I held my tears back. Asking him this was too fucking hard. I was terrified of what he'd say, I'd convinced myself he hadn't really thought this all through.

  Hunter glanced at my mouth, then my eyes, searching for . . . something. “I used to think I was . . . before I met you. You showed me how I was wasting my life, taking everything for granted, thinking I had it all when none of it really meant anything. Now that I have people to take care of—" he rubbed my stomach, "—I want to make something of myself, on my own terms.” His voice trailed off. “Yes. I'm satisfied with what we have, and what we will have. We're going to make a wonderful family, Jo.”

  A family a family a family. His words rang in my skull over and over.

  All along, it wasn't Hunter who had trouble committing. It wasn't him that feared marriage and a family. It had been me.

  And now I knew why.

  “You need to know about my parents," I whispered, my voice finally choking into nothing. Hunter embraced me; I pushed him away, wiping my eyes. "Let me talk. I need to tell you so you can get why I'm so scared and stupid and messing this all up."

  His arms were warm, the corded muscles locking so I couldn't run from the car. "Then stay and talk. I'm listening, Jo."

  Salt stained my lips, I ignored it. "You met Lanie, my sister. But you haven't met my parents. Do you know why?"

  He hesitated. "I thought either you were ashamed of me, or . . ."

  "They're dead," I said, watching him cringe. "My mother, Hannah, was everything to me. I lost her when I was young, but I never forgot her . . . how she'd let me help her dig in the garden, even though I never did it right, or how she'd read me the same book a million times just because I wanted to hear it. I worked so hard to become who I am, but the whole time, I kept away from people. Other than Lanie . . . I never got close to anyone. I was too afraid to."

  Hunter didn't care that I struggled, he hugged me anyway, gently wiping away my fresh tears. "You were scared to get close to anyone in case you lost them?"

  "Bingo," I sniffled, my laugh bitter. "You don't like your family much, but they're there."

  "Jo." He linked our fingers between us. I felt him thumb the diamond on my ring. "You don't have to worry about me going anywhere. I won't leave you."

  Hiccuping, I tried to speak—couldn't get the words out. He held me to his body, his nose in my hair, fingers rubbing my back as he rocked me. "Shh," he whispered soothingly. "What is it? Speak slow."

  Coughing, I said, "Even—Jack—died—in—Titanic."

  He stared at me. I stared back.

  The laugh started as a small earthquake, moving through him and into me. Hunter held me tight, his cheek rubbing my scalp as we both lost it. It was impossible not to let the tension sink from my bones.

  I was such a fool. How much had I missed out on in my life because of this fear of connection? This fear of loss?

  Maybe it doesn't matter, I thought, clinging to him tight. After all, I ended up here. "You win," I whispered against his shoulder. "I love you, Hunter Daniels."

  His kiss was sweet and brief as a drop of rain. "I know," he said. "Because you're a terrible terrible oh and terrible liar—" I shoved him lightly, enjoying his chuckle. "But I still love you, too."

  I finally wasn't afraid of what that meant.

  18

  Jo

  I was almost five months pregnant on my wedding day.

  The news had begun gossiping about it.
While we'd avoided some scandal by being engaged, the paparazzi still couldn't get enough about the rumors over my pregnancy. There was a lot of probing questions, people shouting at Hunter or I when we were out about if this was a shotgun wedding or not.

  If I wasn't kind of excited to be marrying Hunter, I would have cared that our charade hadn't been entirely successful.

  For scheduling reasons, we chose the Saturday before the Hawks’ last preseason game for the ceremony. Once the regular season began, Hunter’s time would be controlled by the Hawks. Everything came together just beautifully for the September wedding. Even my lace dress, baby bump and all, looked fantastic.

  I could have hidden my pregnancy had I really tried, but since everyone knew that we were pregnant, I was happy to show it off a little bit. It actually felt nice to include the baby in the wedding. In order to make sure the nuptials were positively received, I invited friendly reporters to the ceremony, offering them an invite to the event of the year in exchange for an upbeat story. I was covering all my bases.

  I spent two entire days in my office crafting press releases and granting access to only the right reporters. It felt so weird to be doing press for my own wedding, but I knew it was key.

  Lanie said I was overthinking the details. But in P.R., there was no such thing.

  Since I was busy spinning media, Hunter’s mom had planned the wedding almost single-handedly. Originally, I had wanted a ceremony outside, preferably in a park. Mrs. Daniels would have nothing of that, saying, “A park is too rustic, dear.”

  I didn't have the energy to argue, and I had no idea how to plan a ritzy ceremony, so I decided to trust Victoria. She made plans to have the wedding on the green of the Haven Oaks Country Club. It wasn't in a park, but it was outside next to a lake with several fountains, so it was a decent compromise.