Stonehill series collect.., p.105
Stonehill Series Collection, page 105
“Actually,” she said, cutting him off, “it sounds really nice.”
“Nice?”
“Perfect. But the reality is, this is crazy and rushed, Daniel.”
He sighed. “Well, I can’t support a family right now, but I’m working on it, so this is like a five-year plan.”
“Five years?” She smiled. “Considering our ages, maybe we should shoot for three? I’d like to be around to see the kids grow up.”
“Three it is. This is right. This feels right. I don’t care if we’re rushing. We want the same thing. We’ll figure the rest out as we go.”
Draping her arms over his shoulders, she tilted her head back to look up at him. Fear tugged at her, but she forced it down. Daniel was not Peter. He was not manipulating her. She knew in her heart the connection between them was real. She’d felt connected to him from day one, she’d felt safe with him, and that hadn’t changed. She believed him when he said he wanted those things, and more importantly, she wanted them, too. With him. “Would you think I was crazy if I said I loved you?”
His eyes brightened. He pulled her against him and shook his head. “I must be crazy, too.” Dipping his head down, he captured her lips in a possessive kiss, reminding her that he’d definitely staked his claim on her.
“Whoa! Call the fire department.”
Jenna pulled back. Mallory stood at the kitchen door with Annie and Kara beside her, the two older women looking smug as hell while the youngest stood with her mouth agape.
“Who’s that guy giving Jenna mouth-to-mouth?”
Annie laughed. “That’s your aunt’s handyman, darling.”
Daniel looked down at himself as he followed Jenna to Marcus and Annie’s front door. He didn’t have the nicest of clothes, but he’d worn his best button-down shirt and jeans. They ran a realty company and always seemed dressed to impress. This was the best he could do and he hoped it was enough. Jenna had said it was enough.
In fact, she’d smiled, lifted her brows, and suggested they stay home instead. As much as he’d have liked to be wrapped in her body at the moment, if he intended to build the future he’d promised her—and he did—he had to win over Marcus.
Annie was already on his side. She’d teased him and Jenna mercilessly after catching them sharing that heated kiss in the café kitchen. But Daniel had seen how protective Marcus was of his sister.
“It’s just Marcus and Annie, right?” he asked.
She smiled over her shoulder at him as she reached the door. “Yes. And I made him promise to be on his best behavior.”
“It’s never a good sign when you have to make someone promise something like that.”
She faced him completely, ran her hand over his chest, and then leaned up to kiss him lightly. “Breathe. Hard as he tries—and he will because he thinks it is his job to defend my honor—I won’t let him corner you.” She opened the door and stepped inside. “Hello?”
“In the kitchen,” Marcus yelled in return.
They slipped their shoes off and headed deeper into the house. Daniel looked around the house, noting how out of place he was there. She turned and gave him one more reassuring smile before walking into the kitchen and sliding the cake she’d brought onto the counter. Her brother stood at the counter, seasoning steaks while Annie poured a bagged salad into a bowl.
She looked up and beamed. “I would have chopped this myself, but the last time I used a sharp knife I accidentally stabbed my husband.”
“Accidentally my ass,” he muttered.
She laughed as she set the now-empty bag aside. “Hi, Daniel.”
“Thank you for the dinner invitation, Annie.”
Jenna leaned over the steaks and inhaled. “What are you using?”
“Get the hell away from my steaks, Jen,” Marcus ordered.
She made a face at him before moving around the counter to Annie. “What can I do to help?”
“Open the wine. Unless you prefer beer?” she asked Daniel.
“Actually, water is great for me.”
Jenna pulled two glasses from the cabinet and filled them with ice water from the dispensers on the fridge before opening the wine bottle. She filled two stemmed glasses just a quarter of the way and handed one to Annie. The other went to where Marcus was rubbing spices into the raw meat.
“Leave me alone, Jen,” he warned, and she laughed.
“He doesn’t like when I watch him cook because he thinks I’m judging him.”
“You are.” Marcus dropped the steaks onto the preheated griddle on the stovetop, washed his hands, and faced Daniel. “I hear you came to Jen’s rescue the other day. Thank you for that.”
Daniel nodded. “She had the situation under control.”
“Paul said you leaped across the dining room, ready to defend her,” Annie said in that slow speech Daniel realized she only used for him.
“He’s very protective,” Jenna offered.
“So much so that you had to stop him from confronting the guy,” Marcus stated. His tone had a bit of accusation to it that Daniel found too familiar. He sounded like Charlie.
“The man grabbed me,” Jenna defended. “You would have wanted to confront him, too.”
“Dianna was very impressed.” Annie cut Marcus a look that her husband didn’t notice. He was too busy staring Daniel down.
The tension in the kitchen dialed up a notch. This wasn’t the greatest start to his first dinner with her family.
Instead of the slow, cautious tone she used when speaking to Daniel, Annie narrowed her eyes at Marcus. “Don’t make me ground you.”
Daniel chuckled, and Annie glanced his way. “I spent a good deal of my time in the army overseas,” he explained. “I’ve developed an ear for various inflections. I can understand you just fine.”
She beamed. “Good. It’s really hard to speak so deliberately.”
“No need,” he assured her.
Jenna smiled warmly at him, but Marcus sighed and focused on the steaks.
“So,” he said after flipping the meat, indicating the real questions were about to begin. “Why did you leave the military?”
“Don’t start,” Jenna warned quietly.
Marcus lifted his hands. “You told me to get to know him. How can I get to know him if I don’t ask questions?”
This was inevitable. At some point, Jenna’s brother would learn about Daniel’s issues. According to his shrink, it was better to face uncomfortable situations head-on instead of dancing around them, hoping they’d go away. He manned up and said, “I was doing a security check at a refugee camp one night. Heard some muffled crying, not an unusual sound in those camps, but I suspected something was wrong. I went into the tent and found a member of our allied troop trying to rape a woman. I dragged him from her tent and beat the shit out of him. Instead of getting sent to prison, like the allied general wanted, I was charged with assault of an officer and discharged. I lost my pension and all my benefits.”
The tension in the room tripled. Annie gasped, her eyes wide, but Marcus stared at him, as if gauging whether his story was believable. Jenna offered Daniel that supportive smile of hers.
“He’s very protective,” she said again.
Marcus crossed his arms. “So you got kicked out of the army because you beat someone up. And you said you lost your job with your uncle because you beat someone up. And, according to Paul and Dianna, if Jenna hadn’t stopped you from going after her customer, you probably would have beaten him up, too.”
“There’s no probably about it,” Daniel admitted. “He grabbed Jenna and my first instinct was to defend her. I won’t apologize for that.”
“And you shouldn’t,” Annie offered before focusing on Marcus. “They didn’t find the guy who did this to me”—she gestured toward her head—“until someone saw him one day and tackled him.”
Marcus frowned at her, clearly not appreciating that his wife wasn’t supporting him in the point he was trying to make. “I’m just pointing out that there is a pattern here.”
Daniel lowered his face and exhaled. “Look, I’ve made mistakes in the past. I know that. I’m working hard to overcome them.”
“He’s doing great,” Jenna offered.
Marcus nodded. “Good. I hear you’re staying in the vacant apartment.” He looked at Jenna. “Kara told Annie. She told me.”
Jenna didn’t justify his obvious offense at not learning of this arrangement firsthand.
“So I guess wherever you were staying before must not have been furnished.”
“He was staying with his uncle,” Jenna said before Daniel could respond.
Daniel leaned on the counter. “Listen, Marcus, I care a great deal about Jenna. I don’t blame you for being on the defense. You don’t know me. I get that. It’s admirable for you to want to protect her. But you don’t need to protect her from me.” He looked at Jenna and sighed. “I plan on being around for a long time, so you might as well learn the truth now.”
“Daniel.”
“I was staying with my uncle, but after I left his crew, I moved out of his house, too. I left by choice. He offered to let me stay until I found another place, but I didn’t want to make an already awkward situation worse. So I took what I could put in my backpack and left.”
“And where’d you go?”
Jenna rolled her head back and shook it.
“I’ve been trained to survive in every kind of wild environment you can think of. Surviving suburbia was a breeze.”
“Jesus Christ, Jen,” Marcus breathed as he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “He’s homeless?”
“Oh boy,” Annie said under her breath.
“He’s the one who fixed the pipe. I tried to do it myself, but I screwed up and he heard me screaming and thought I was in trouble. He helped me out a lot before we came to an agreement.”
Marcus dragged his palm over his face before putting his hands on his hips. “He’s homeless, Jenna! You’re dating a homeless man!”
She clenched her jaw and let out a slow breath.
“Marcus,” Daniel started.
Marcus put his hands up as if to soften what he was about to say. “Look, Daniel, I’m sure you are a nice guy and you seem to have the best intentions, but I’m not sure I want you around my little sister.”
“Your little sister is thirty-six years old.” Jenna’s anger came through loud and clear.
“You’re dating a homeless man who can’t hold a job because of violent outbursts!”
“I think I can decide whom to date without your input, Marcus!”
“When are you going to stop being so goddamned naïve, Jenna? He isn’t any better than Peter. Hell, he could be worse!”
The room suddenly felt like a vacuum. All the air was gone. Daniel’s hackles went up. Annie put her hand on Jenna’s shoulder as Jenna narrowed her eyes.
Marcus seemed to realize his mistake, because he leaned back and once again dragged a hand over his face. “I just mean—”
“I don’t give a damn what you mean,” Jenna seethed. “We’re leaving.”
She turned, but Daniel didn’t follow.
He held his breath as she stormed from the room. Putting his hands on the counter, he exhaled. “You don’t have to like me. You don’t have to approve of the choices I’ve made or the steps I’ve taken to rectify my mistakes. But don’t ever throw Peter in her face again. She’s still hurting over his betrayal. More than you could ever realize.” He turned to Annie, who appeared as upset as Jenna, and bowed slightly. “Thanks again for the invitation. I hope next time will go better.”
“That was so uncalled for,” Annie said to her husband as Daniel left them alone.
At the front door, he grabbed Jenna’s arm before she could reach for the knob and turned her to face him. Putting his hand to her cheek, he sighed as her lip trembled. “That wasn’t about you. He doesn’t trust me.”
“He’s never going to let me live that one mistake down. He had to bail me out, and he’s never going to let me forget it.”
“Jen,” Marcus called. “Wait!”
She pulled from Daniel and jerked the door open.
“Let her calm down,” he said as Marcus followed Jenna.
“Stay out of it.”
Daniel sighed and stepped aside, stuffing his feet in his shoes as he did. He didn’t doubt for a moment that Jenna could handle her brother; she might even have benefitted from giving him a bit of her mind before they left.
“I’m sorry,” Annie said as she approached him. “He just worries about her so much.”
“I get that, but what he doesn’t get is how deeply her wounds run. Throwing Peter in her face was the worst thing he could do. It’s going to take her a while to get over that.”
“I know. Daniel,” she said as he reached for the door. “You hurt her and Marcus’s big-brother act will be nothing. I’ll kill you. And I’ll get away with it.” She tapped her head. “I have brain damage.”
He offered her a slight smile. “Yes, ma’am.”
He didn’t hear what Jenna was saying, but the way she shoved against Marcus’s chest before opening her car door and climbing in told him all he needed to know. Daniel didn’t bother looking at the man; he just slipped into the passenger seat and held on while she peeled out of the driveway.
Chapter 19
“Your brother is here,” Sara announced, coming into the café kitchen.
Jenna ground her teeth. “I’m busy. Take care of him for me, please.”
Sara stood beside her as Jenna focused far more than necessary on doing inventory on the morning’s delivery. Finally she gave up counting crates of eggs and looked at her waitress.
“He said you’d tell me that. You guys fighting?”
Exhaling, she returned her attention to the eggs. “Don’t worry about it. If he doesn’t want to eat, he can sit there until he rots for all I care.”
“Taking that as a yes,” she said before disappearing through the swinging doors.
Jenna looked at her watch. Scott was late. Again. “Son of a bitch,” she muttered.
“Yes, I can be.”
Putting her hand on her hip, she turned to where her brother had entered the kitchen and glared. “Employees only. Get out.”
“Jen.” He frowned at her as he closed the distance between them. “You look like hell.”
“You look like an asshole.”
“Two cuss words in less than a minute. Is this the influence your new friend has on you?”
“You really want to start off with that?”
She focused on the order wheel. The damn thing squeaked whenever someone spun it. Annoying as hell, but it gave her a reason to step around her brother. After washing her hands, she yanked the order down, skimmed it, and then went to the fridge to get ingredients to make a turkey club sandwich and a side of fries.
“I’m sorry,” Marcus said. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you last night.”
She laughed bitterly as she dropped several slices of bread into the toaster. “You didn’t embarrass me. You embarrassed yourself by acting like some holier-than-thou jackass.”
He wanted to argue. She knew he did. But he didn’t. He didn’t say anything. She rinsed two large potatoes and pressed them through the cutter. Taking the stack of sliced potatoes to the fryer, she dropped them in a basket and set the entire package in the hot grease before returning to the counter to assemble the sandwich.
God, she hated him. He knew exactly how to press her buttons. He’d stand there all damn day if he had to. When she was thirteen, he came to tell her he was leaving to travel the world. She was furious, told him she’d never speak to him again, so he stood in the corner of her room for three hours before she finally cracked and laid into him for abandoning her. His silent brooding always ended with her losing her temper and yelling at him, and then him apologizing and her forgiving him.
Not this time. Hell no.
She put the sandwich together, pulled the fries from the grease, sprinkled her special seasoning mix over them, and then dumped them on the plate. She put the plate on the counter between the kitchen and the dining room and called out, “Order,” to let Sara know the plate was waiting, and then turned her attention to cleaning up the mess she’d made.
She looked up when the back door opened. Her rage ignited when Scott strolled in—she glanced at the clock—forty-five minutes late. “No,” she said, and he stopped in his tracks. “Just turn around and leave.”
“What?”
“I told you the last time you were late that was the last time you’d come in late.”
He scoffed. “You’re firing me?”
“You fired yourself. Leave.”
“Jenna.”
“Get out, Scott. Go. Now.”
He stared at her, setting his jaw as he narrowed his eyes. “Fuckin’ bitch,” he muttered as he left the way he’d come in.
“Jenna,” Marcus said, clearly as shocked as Scott had been.
She turned on him. “You can leave, too. I don’t need his shit any more than I need yours.”
“Hey—”
“I am so fucking sick of being everybody’s goddamned doormat. You treat me like a child, Marcus. You left when I was thirteen and somehow in your mind, I’m stuck at that age. Like I never grew up and can’t figure anything out on my own. You think I don’t know how badly I screwed up with Peter? You think I don’t know I wouldn’t be in this situation if I hadn’t been so blind? I know! I know it every day that I scrape to get by. I don’t need you reminding me of that, and I don’t need some punk-ass kid making my life any harder than it is already. I don’t care what you think about Daniel. I don’t need you to approve or understand. I don’t need you to trust him or believe that he cares about me. Because I do. You weren’t there when I was with Peter. You have no idea how much he hurt me. All you see, all you understand, is that I blew through my inheritance for him. That I left school to be with him. He did so much more than take my money, Marcus. He broke me. Not just my bank account. Me.”
