The Heart's Game (The Kelly Brothers, Book 4)

by Crista McHugh

  “Atlanta.”

  Just as he answered, Frank intercepted the ball and ran it back for a touchdown. His family jumped up from their seats, shouting and exchanging high-fives. Jenny, however, stayed where she was, her brow furrowed in confusion.

  “Frank’s my brother,” Dan explained, pointing to the TV screen.

  Her eyes widened, and panic washed over her face once again. “Do you have any more famous brothers I should know about?”

  “Well, there’s Ethan.” He turned to his mom. “How is Ethan doing, anyway?”

  She shook her head. “He’s staying clean, but otherwise, he really doesn’t want to talk much. Says he’s too busy working on a solo album.”

  “Ethan was the lead singer for Ravinia’s Rejects,” he explained, and Jenny turned another shade paler. That name she apparently recognized.

  “And your other brothers? Are they astronauts or politicians or something like that?”

  “Nah. Adam runs the family business, and my twin, Caleb, is a pilot in the Air Force. Pretty normal stuff.” Another commercial came on with twenty-nine seconds left on the clock, but the game was over as far as he was concerned. “What does your brother do?”

  “He’s a lawyer.”

  “What kind of lawyer?” his mom asked, leaning forward to snag any details she could about Jenny.

  “Environmental law.”

  “And do you have any other siblings?”

  Jenny shook her head. “My mom always said the two of us were enough to drive her insane.”

  “If she’s insane, then I’m probably ready to be committed,” his mom joked. She snatched the remote from Ben and turned down the volume. “And what do you do?”

  “I’m a robotics engineer,” she said slowly, casting a sideways glance to Dan for help.

  “Don’t look so nervous, Jenny,” his mom said. “It’s just that Dan’s told us so little about you, and naturally, we want to get to know you better.”

  Especially since my mom’s already assuming we’ll be married by this time next year. “Jenny’s brilliant. She’s working on this robot that can be remotely controlled by just hand movements. No equipment. No joysticks. Just a camera.”

  “It’s nothing that extraordinary,” she said, her cheeks flooding with heat.

  “Of course it is. What you’ve developed is so precise, I could perform surgery across the globe with it.” His chest filled with pride as he described her project to his family. Jenny chimed in and explained her goals for it, including the ability to perform surgeries from the other side of the world. As she talked about her work, her shyness melted away, and his family could finally see the real Jenny he’d fallen for.

  As she was winding down the conversation, Caleb and Alex called using FaceTime to show off the 1968 Chevelle they were restoring. Before long, Jenny and Alex were swimming in engineering jargon, leaving the rest of them in the dust.

  Caleb finally had to wrestle the iPad away from his wife. “This is what happens whenever Alex gets around another engineer,” he said with a dramatic roll of his eyes.

  “Tell Jenny thanks for helping me solve the problem with the transmission,” Alex shouted in the background before sliding under the hood of the Chevelle.

  They passed his mom’s iPad around so everyone could chat with Caleb. Once the call was over, the women got up to reheat some of the leftovers, leaving Dan with his brothers.

  “I like her,” Ben said, nodding toward the kitchen.

  “Me, too.” Gideon changed the channel to an NHL game. “She seems like she gets you. Have you shown her your lucky die yet?”

  “Yeah, and she’s cool with it. She’s a total geek like me. I even met her at Comic-Con.”

  “Ah, so the real story is coming out.” Gideon sat down on the ottoman in front of Dan. “So, let me guess. You hooked up with her, knocked her up, and then she tracked you down afterward?”

  He wiped his damp palms on his jeans. “Um, not exactly.”

  Ben handed him a fresh beer from the cooler by the sofa. “Enlighten us.”

  “Well, the first part is correct. I did hook up with her at Comic-Con. But the kicker was that she’s a friend of Paul’s and plays in the same D&D game. Talk about an unlikely coincidence. I mean, out of the thousands of women at Comic-Con, what’s the likelihood I’d meet one of Paul’s gaming buddies there?”

  “Sounds like it was meant to be,” Gideon said in a high-pitched, quavering voice, before going back to his normal tone. “Seriously, they should make a movie about this.”

  “Shut up.” Dan gave his younger brother a playful shove. “But there may be some truth to that. I mean, what are the odds that I would run into her again? And at a D&D game of all places? All I know is that I was crazy about her before I found out about the baby, and now that I know…”

  His voice trailed off when he thought about the implications. The thought of settling down with one woman used to terrify him, but when he imagined doing it with Jenny, it felt as natural as breathing.

  Ben gave him a sympathetic nod, and Gideon braced his arm on Dan’s shoulder. “If you need a recommendation on a ring designer, let me know. I’ll hook you up like I did Ben.”

  “Thanks.” He shrugged off Gideon’s arm. “So, what happened between you and Sarah?”

  The mirth left his little brother’s face, and he played with the label on his beer bottle. “What makes you think something happened?”

  “Because you’re here, and she’s not.”

  “I’ve been meaning to ask the same thing,” Ben added.

  “You know how we are. I’ll say something stupid. She’ll get upset, but then in a few weeks, we’re back to being friends again. It’s been that way for years, guys.”

  But based on the way Gideon was avoiding the question, there was more to it than just a friendly disagreement. “What did you say to her this time?”

  Gideon peeled away the last of the label and gave a huge sigh. “Not a word of this to anyone.”

  “Geek’s honor,” Dan replied, holding up his hand in the Vulcan sign.

  “We were at a Halloween party, and I got a little wasted, and all I remember was asking her if she’d ever consider being more than friends. And she bristled like a cat whose tail had been stepped on and left the party.”

  “Did she ever tell you why?” Dan asked.

  He shook his head, his eyes still downcast. “She basically avoided me for the next few days and then said she was going to manage things from LA while I was up here. I apologized and told her she was welcome to join us for Thanksgiving, but I think I may have finally crossed the line and really fucked things up between us.”

  “Did you mean what you said? Or were you just trying to get laid?”

  “No, I meant it.” Gideon finally looked up from his empty beer bottle. “Hollywood’s just so crazy, so fake. Red’s the only real person I know down there, and she gets me, you know? But the more I think about it, the more I can see things from her perspective. She’s spent the last six years trying to avoid the spotlight, especially after all the shit she went through, and if we started dating, then she’d be right back in the middle of it. The tabloids would have a field day, and I know it’s selfish of me to even ask her, but it’s something I’ve always wondered about.”

  And she’d given her answer loud and clear. After experiencing something similar when Jenny tried to push him away, Dan’s heart went out his brother.

  Ben retrieved the last beer from the cooler and gave it to Gideon. “Just give her some time, Gid. She’ll come around. She always does.”

  “Yeah, but maybe I should give her a call and check in on her, make sure she’s okay.” He pulled out his phone and went outside.

  They sat in silence for a few minutes before Ben spoke to Dan. “Do you love her?”

  “I think so.”

  “Then don’t wait too long to tell her.” He glanced out the window where Gideon paced back and forth on the phone. “I’m going to head into the kitchen
and grab some more food. You coming?”

  “Sure,” he replied, still mulling over Ben’s advice. His older brother didn’t say much, but when he did, it was usually something important. He stood beside Jenny while she ate and joined the conversation with his family, wondering what she’d say if he suggested they get married. Would she say yes? Or would he end up like Gideon, scrambling to hold onto what he already had?

  Chapter Twelve

  Dan’s car was merging onto I-405 toward Seattle’s Eastside when Jenny opened her eyes. She’d spent most of the morning on a whirlwind tour of Vancouver with his family, growing more and more aware of the guilt weighing down on her shoulders. They all thought the baby was his and were treating her as though she was already part of the family. Exhaustion claimed her as soon as they got on the road home, and she fell asleep. Now, they were almost back to her place, and she still hadn’t found a chance to tell him the baby wouldn’t be staying with them.

  “Have a good nap?” he asked.

  She stretched and yawned. “Too good. I’m sorry I was poor company for the ride back.”

  “Don’t apologize. It gave me time to think.”

  “About what?”

  “Random stuff.” He moved into the HOV lane to bypass the traffic. “Mostly that it was time to start looking for a house.”

  She reached for her water bottle and took a long gulp to ease the nervous dryness in her throat. “Tired of my little condo already?”

  “It’s nice for now, but it’s only one bedroom.” His gaze flickered to her stomach.

  Unease prickled the skin along her back, and she squirmed in her seat. The implications of his suggestion were coming in loud and clear, and if he wasn’t speeding down the freeway, she would’ve told him right then that they didn’t need to make room for the baby because it wasn’t theirs.

  “I’m open to suggestions,” he continued. “What are some of the better neighborhoods around here?”

  “They’re all pretty good over here.”

  He squeezed the steering wheel and curled his lips in. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’d appreciate your input, Jenny. Whatever I end up buying, I want you to be comfortable there.”

  “There’s really no need to run out and buy a house now, Dan. We’re fine with what we have.”

  “Maybe, but the baby will be here in a few months, and I want to make sure we have room for it.”

  An ache formed in her chest, so intense it made it hard to breathe. This was her chance to tell him, her moment to set things straight and possibly jeopardize her entire relationship with him. She wiped her hands on her jeans, gathered her strength, opened her mouth to say the words she’d been dreading since she met him.

  And then his cell phone rang.

  Dan answered it and discussed a case through the Bluetooth with one of his partners. By the time they hung up, they were back at her complex. Jenny climbed up the stairs to her place while Dan grabbed their bags, every beat of her heart demanding she tell him. She unlocked her door only to find Mike sitting on her couch, flipping through the sports channels on her TV.

  Time to change the key code on her door. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “I just wanted to show you what I got on sale today.” He stood up and gave her a bear hug. “And how is my little baby mama?”

  “Tired and really wishing you weren’t here right now.”

  “Long weekend with the boy’s family—I get that.” He rested his massive hand on her bump and leaned over to speak to it. “And how’s my little bundle of joy? Daddy can’t wait to see you and hold you in my arms and spoil you rotten.”

  Jenny’s skin flushed from all the attention Mike was paying to her stomach, but the thump of a suitcase behind her chilled her blood.

  “ ‘Daddy’?” Dan asked in a cold, hollow voice.

  Her pulse kicked into overtime, and she slowly turned around.

  Dan stood in the doorway, a lethal light in his eyes as he glared at Mike’s hand on her bump.

  “Well, it is my baby,” Mike replied nonchalantly, never looking up from her stomach. “What else would I be called?”

  Dan’s nostrils flared, and his hands balled into fists. His attention shifted her, and fear shook her knees. Out of all the ways for him to find out about the surrogacy, this had to be the worst-case scenario. “Is it his?” he asked.

  Mike’s head jerked up, and he rose to his full height, challenge written all over his face. He rested one hand on her shoulder in a gesture that was both possessive as well as protective.

  Jenny closed her eyes and gave Dan a single nod.

  Her front door slammed shut, and heavy footsteps banged down the stairs outside.

  She snapped her eyes open and ran after him. “Dan, please, come back!”

  But by the time she got outside, he was tearing out of the parking lot in a squeal of tires.

  A sob choked her throat as she watched him drive away. It was over. She’d known this day would come from the moment she met him, but there’d always been some part of her that held out the hope that they could make things work. But she’d waited too long, and this was the result.

  “Come inside before you catch your death of cold,” Mike said softly.

  Hot tears fell down her cheeks, but she refused to move from the landing. Maybe he’d turn around and come back. Maybe he just needed to cool off and let the news sink in.

  But she yielded when Mike wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led her back inside. He sat her down on the couch and handed her a box of tissues. “Tell me what just happened here.”

  “He didn’t know.”

  “Didn’t know what?”

  “That I was acting as your surrogate.”

  Mike drew in a deep breath through his nostrils and exhaled. “But he knew you were pregnant?”

  She nodded and blew her nose.

  “Did you lie and tell him the baby was his?”

  She shook her head. “No. He said he didn’t care, but it was just after sex, so he may not have heard me correctly. But I never told him about the surrogacy.”

  “So you purposely omitted important information in order to deceive your boyfriend? Is that correct?”

  She felt pity for anyone on the witness stand when Mike was cross examining them. The man was like a heat-seeking missile when it came to establishing guilt. “I didn’t set out to deceive him.”

  “But by not correcting him, you still lied to him. And I would’ve reacted the exact same way if I were in his shoes.” Mike pressed the heel of his hand to his temple. “Just one more question. Is there any chance the baby could be his?”

  Jenny shredded the wet tissue in her hands. “We did have unprotected sex at Comic-Con.”

  “So there’s a chance, right?”

  For once, she was glad she’d cracked open that pregnancy handbook her OB had given her and read the first few chapters about conception. “A small one, but I doubt the pregnancy test would’ve turned positive so quickly if it was his. I mean, it was only a week after we hooked up.”

  “Jesus,” Mike muttered before he sat down next to her. “This isn’t like you at all, Jenny.”

  “I know.” She grabbed a fresh tissue and dabbed her eyes, but the tears kept falling. “But it all started out because I wanted to know what I was missing. And when I finally had a taste of it…” She stared at her lap. “You’re not going to tell Jason, are you?”

  “Are you asking me to lie to my husband?”

  “No, just omit certain bits and pieces.”

  Mike raised one dubious brow. “And we saw how well that worked out for you.”

  The image of Dan’s face when he saw them triggered a new wave of sobbing that bordered on hysterics, yet she couldn’t stop it. She hated knowing she’d hurt Dan. She hated seeing the betrayal on his face. And she hated that she’d probably ruined the best thing she’d ever had.

  Mike pulled her against his chest and hugged her while she cried into his designer
shirt. “Okay, that’s enough. Crying won’t solve anything.”

  “I know, but I don’t know what else to do. Damn pregnancy hormones.”

  He chuckled and rubbed her back. “You could probably get a temporary insanity plea with those.”

  And just like that, her sobs turned to laughter. She lifted her head and wiped the last of her tears away. “Think we can get away with it, counselor?”

  “Maybe.” He smiled and caught the final tear with his thumb as it streaked down her cheek. “So, time to form a defense strategy. Do you want him back?”

  “Yes, I do, but why would he want me?”

  Mike wagged his finger. “I won’t stand for that kind of negative thinking, Ms. Nguyen. The first step to getting what you want is to believe you deserve it.”

  “That’s the tricky part. It’s hard to believe someone like me deserves someone like him. Dan’s everything I could’ve wanted, and you saw how desperate I was to keep him.”

  “Then let me see what I can do to smooth things over for you.” He kissed the top of her head and stood. “But for now, have some tea, watch a movie, and relax. All this worrying is not good for the baby.”

  “I’ll try.” But even after Mike left, she replayed the whole confrontation and wondered what she could’ve done differently. After half an hour, she finally pulled out her phone and dialed Dan’s number.

  It went straight to voicemail.

  She waited for the beep and said, “Dan, I’m sorry. Please, just give me a chance to explain everything.” Her breath caught, and she added the one thing she hoped would convince him to call her back. “I love you.”

  ***

  Dan dropped his bags at the door of his apartment and went straight for the liquor cabinet. If anything called for a good stiff drink, it was this. He unscrewed the lid from the bottle of Jameson and took a long swing.

  How could I have been so stupid?

  How could I have fallen for her lies?

  God, it was Cait all over again.

  He took another gulp and carried the bottle to the sofa. Part of him wanted nothing more than to get completely shitfaced, but a small voice in the back of his mind warned him that he was on call tomorrow, and operating with a hangover was just opening the door for a malpractice suit. So instead of consulting the Jameson, he turned to the next best thing.