Playing for Keeps (Texas Scoundrels), page 6
“He’s not your responsibility.” Anger sparked from her own mounting irritation, making her voice rise.
He moved then, stepped back and dragged his hand down his face. “Then why did you come out to see me if you’re not looking for someone to take responsibility for him?”
He didn’t know, she realized. He had no idea why she’d done the single most difficult thing in her life. “You didn’t read it, did you?” She dropped the dust rag on the display case. “You didn’t even bother to read Dani’s journal, did you?”
Jed vaguely recalled throwing a package into the fire after Griffen had left his place. He’d had no idea what it contained. At the time, he hadn’t cared.
She wrapped her arms around her slim waist. The aversion in her eyes disappeared, replaced by a serenity he didn’t understand. Or maybe it was acceptance?
“Dani left the journal for Austin,” she said, her husky voice calm. “She told him about her relationship with his unnamed father. But he knows you’re his father now. The same father who rejected him, so I would appreciate it if you would please leave before he learns you’re here. I won’t have my son hurt by you again.”
So much for acceptance. Maybe she was right. Maybe he should just head out of town. “I don’t want to hurt him. I just don’t know what you expect me to do. Why did you even tell me about him?”
For an instant, fear clouded her expressive jade eyes, until she blinked and it was gone. “I came to you because my son asked me to at least tell you about him.”
Her arms dropped to her sides and she moved toward him, her steps slow and measured. Okay, so maybe that wasn’t fear in her eyes after all.
“You’re his idol.” Her voice held an odd tightness in spite of the calm, even tone. “Ever since he knew what a football was, he’s been a fan of Maitland the Maniac.” She continued forward until she was standing a foot away from him. The scent of lilac and woman swirled around him making him uncomfortably aware of her femininity.
He looked down at her, not the least surprised by the pure anger now firing in her gaze. Concentrate on the anger, Jed ol’ boy. This one is too much. Even for you.
“Do you have a clue what that means to a kid like Austin?” She placed her hands on her hips, drawing his attention to the material of her blouse outlining very full breasts.
His hands itched to test their weight.
Aw, hell.
She narrowed her gaze and advanced another step. “To him, you’re a dream come true, only it’s too bad you turned out to be such a nightmare. If I hadn’t come to you, Austin would have found a way, so don’t tell me I shouldn’t have told him the truth.”
He raised his hands, as if she held a loaded gun to his head. “Hey. Calm down, Sister.”
She took another step toward him and poked a finger at his chest. “What would you have done if a thirteen-year-old boy had come to you out of the blue and said he was your son? You would have crushed his dreams and gone on to the next game without a backward glance. That is what you would have done.”
He grabbed her hand before she drilled a hole in his chest. Bad move. Her velvety soft skin had him thinking some very inappropriate thoughts about Griffen Somerfield.
“Didn’t you realize the complications?” he asked, concentrating on the issue instead of the reckless surge of awareness making his dick twitch. “You should have left well enough alone.”
She yanked her hand from his and looked up at him, her eyes filled with fury. Damn, but this woman was exciting. And far different from his usual type.
Back off, old boy.
She had white picket fence, kids and a pair of Golden Retrievers written all over her. With little effort, he could see the dog hair and Crayon-coloring on the walls now. She was the type who believed in forever, but none of that stopped his blood pressure from hiking a few degrees.
Her breath hitched in her throat and a sheen of moisture brightened her eyes. Damn, he hoped she wasn’t going to start bawling. He’d hate that.
“I did what I had to do to protect Austin. I figured you’d throw me out and that would be the end of it. Austin would be hurt for a while, but he’d get over it. I never expected you to come waltzing into Hart.”
How dare she lay the blame wholly on him. He wasn’t the one who had popped up out of nowhere with a wild story about a kid from a lost love.
“Well, I’m here,” he said in a well-modulated voice that warned most people they were treading on very thin ice. “What great plan do you have now, Sister?”
“Mom? Mom, are you all right?”
“Ah, hell,” he muttered. Any plans for an unnoticed escape were out of the question now. They’d been busted cold.
The look in Griffen’s eyes was nothing short of pure anguish. She glanced at the boy, then back at him, her arms wrapping around her middle again as if she feared she’d fall apart if she didn’t hold herself together.
She slowly brought a hand to her son’s shoulder, and Jed couldn’t help noticing how her fingers trembled or how the color had drained from her cheeks. If the woman hadn’t just bitten off his head and spit down his throat, he would have thought she’d looked ready to faint.
“I...I didn’t hear you come in,” she said.
“Are you all right?” the boy asked again, shooting Jed a hostile look.
Jed stared at the boy. Dani’s son. His son. There would be no denying the truth. The kid had Maitland all over him, from the tall lanky frame to the thick dark hair and the same deep colored eyes inherited from his own grandmother Maitland. Looking at Austin was like looking at his old junior high school yearbook photo.
“I’m fine,” she whispered.
She didn’t look fine. She looked as if a stiff wind would break her in half. Hell, he wasn’t feeling real stable at the moment himself.
Griffen cleared her throat and fought desperately to regain her composure. Comparing Austin’s looks to the posters of Maitland in his room hadn’t come close to seeing the two of them standing together. The resemblance was more than uncanny, it was downright spooky.
“Austin,” she managed past the lump in her throat. “This is—”
His eyes narrowed in Jed’s direction. “I know who he is,” he said, his tone insolent.
Jed extended his hand to Austin, but her son stood beside her, protective, and refused to accept the invitation. She watched him closely, could see the hesitation in his eyes, the war between wanting to have his father accept him and fearing another rejection.
“I was explaining to your mom how she, uh...caught me at a bad time last weekend,” Jed said.
Austin remained silent, but he glanced in her direction. God, she hated this. A nod, any indication whatsoever, and she knew Austin would accept whatever Maitland was offering. This wasn’t fair, and she wanted to scream with frustration. Maitland could shake Austin’s hand and walk out, rejecting, then crushing his own son. And it would be her fault.
Jed extended his hand again. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Austin.”
Austin’s eyes clouded with hesitation and something else—hope.
Her heart twisted so hard she couldn’t breathe. Why? she cried in a silent plea for understanding. With a slight nod of her head, she closed her eyes, unable to bear the sight of Austin accepting what little attention his father was willing to toss his way.
She moved quietly aside, stopping at the display case where she rested her hand on the glass. With her free hand, she rubbed at the knot of tension gathering in the back of her neck. She could hear the drone of their voices, the stilted conversation between them, but she couldn’t concentrate on what they were saying. All she could think about was what Austin had wanted so desperately—the chance to meet his father. She prayed her son could withstand the disappointment once Maitland’s curiosity was satisfied and he left Hart as quickly as he’d breezed into town in the first place. And she hoped that was exactly what he planned to do.
“Why are you here?” Austin asked, the hope in his voice adding to her anxiety.
Good question. Why was he here? He’d said he wanted to meet “the kid,” but surely he had to have another motive.
“I guess I wanted to see you for myself,” Jed answered.
Anger, mingled with an overwhelming sense of helplessness, shook her. The high emotion and strain she’d been under before Austin walked in on them returned, bringing with it a sudden, reckless urge to physically remove Maitland from her presence. Not just now, but forever. She wanted him eradicated before he became too entwined in their lives. The urge was so strong, it totally unnerved her.
“You’ve seen him, you can leave now.”
“Mom, it’s okay,” Austin said.
Sure, he thought it was fine that Maitland had come dancing through his life. His dream come true, his idol, the man he’d worshiped for years, was standing in front of him, telling him what a pleasure it was to meet him. What kid wouldn’t lap up that kind of star-spangled attention like a starved puppy? Well, her son was no pitiful puppy to be patted on the head.
“Are you staying?” Austin asked.
She’d heard enough. More than enough. She crossed the showroom to Austin’s side. “No, he’s not.” She ignored the mortification on her son’s face. Better he suffer the disappointment now. She could just imagine the hurt Austin would face if Maitland thought he’d hang around for a while to play daddy only to run out when the dull, day-to-day routine bored him.
“I don’t have any immediate plans,” Jed said with a smile.
“I have a basketball game tomorrow night. Will you come?”
“No, he won’t,” she said. Austin and Jed ignored her, infuriating her until she was certain her blood pressure would shoot through the roof.
“I’d like that.” Jed clamped his big hand on her son’s shoulder. The boy practically beamed.
“Great. See you there.” Austin spun and planted a kiss on her cheek. “I promised Granddad I’d help him build that bookcase for Phoebe’s room. You’ll pick me up?”
Before she could find her voice, Austin raced out of the store. The bells jangling when the door slammed closed in his wake.
Her anger in full bloom, she turned on Jed. The smile on his handsome face was relaxed and warm, adding fuel to her already burning fire. “How dare you?”
He cocked a dark, arrogant brow at her and she bristled even more. “God help you if you hurt my son, Maitland.” Taking a step toward him, she poked him in the chest again, gaining an ounce of satisfaction when he winced. “Because I’ll personally make sure there won’t be anything left for the doctors to put back together if you do.”
*
By the time Griffen had picked up Austin from her father’s house, she’d calmed considerably. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d lost her temper. In fact, she didn’t think she’d ever been so angry. Not even her ex had managed to stir up that much emotion in her.
Was that why her marriage had failed?
When Ross walked out and took her bank accounts with him, she’d been upset, hurt, that he could do something so low, but she’d coped. When the unpaid bills he’d kept from her started showing up in droves, she’d dealt with them one at a time. Even when she’d received the original notice of default on the business, she’d been disappointed, more in her own failures than with what Ross had done. But today, she didn’t doubt for a second she could have single-handedly strangled Jed Maitland. And passionately enjoyed every second of it.
She took a deep breath, refusing to give the anger and frustration more fuel. The night held a chill, so she set a couple of logs in the fireplace and managed to get a decent fire blazing in the hearth. After turning on her iPod in the docking station and setting it to a pop playlist, she headed to the fridge for an opened bottle of blackberry merlot. Austin had been in bed for a couple of hours already. She should be drained after her emotional outburst this afternoon, but she was too restless to sleep. With luck, the wine would do the trick.
She’d talked to Austin when they’d gotten home from her father’s, but her fears about him becoming too attached to the idea of Jed being his father were far from put to rest. Although he’d promised to play it cool, she wasn’t all that convinced. There wasn’t playing anything with a guy like Jed.
A quiet knock on the kitchen door startled her. A sense of dread filled her when she peeked out the curtain. Looked like she wasn’t the only one who couldn’t sleep. She tugged open the door. “What?”
“Can I come in?” Jed asked, unfazed by her uncharitable welcome.
His hair was mussed, as if he’d been running his hands through it half the night. She didn’t question how he’d found her. Hart was a small town and all he had to do was ask where she lived. Anyone would give him directions.
“Will you go away if I close the door?” she asked, hopeful.
His soft chuckle made her skin tingle. “No.”
She stepped back and opened the door wide. “Then I guess you can come in,” she said, already regretting her decision. “Can I get you something to drink? I was about to have a glass of wine.”
He rolled his shoulders and winced. “Coffee, if it’s not too much trouble.”
That surprised her. He leaned against the soapstone counter with his arms crossed and said nothing, just watched her as she made the coffee. He didn’t smile, he didn’t move. He just stood there looking at her, making her nervous as hell.
When she finished with the coffee maker, she pulled an oversized mug from the cabinet since he didn’t exactly look like the delicate china type. “Do you take anything in it?”
“Black.” He shifted and rubbed at his shadowed jaw. “I really am sorry about the way I treated you last weekend.”
She shrugged and moved to the refrigerator where she pulled out the leftover cheesecake Austin had brought home from her dad’s. “Think nothing of it. I don’t.”
He pulled out a chair, spun it around and straddled it. A sexy smile flirted around the corners of his mouth. “You’re not a very good liar, Sister.”
She turned her back on a grin that was already becoming familiar to her and opened the silverware drawer. “Yeah, I’m rusty. Not much practice.”
What was she doing? Joking with him? He was the enemy and now she was feeding him her sister’s heaven-on-a-plate cheesecake and making coffee for him. If she wasn’t careful, she’d be smiling at the bastard before much longer.
She set a fork and knife on the table beside a desert plate. The coffee maker gurgled in the background as Adele’s husky tones drifted into the room with them. As much as she hated the thought, he was Austin’s father. Because of her own misguided sense of righteousness, they were going to become a part of each other's lives. How large a role he planned to play, she didn’t know. But for Austin’s sake, she needed to make the best of a bad situation.
Despite herself, she returned that killer grin of his with a shaky-at-best one of her own. For Austin’s sake. “The name is Griffen.”
“Call me Jed?”
She pushed her hair behind her ear. Please don’t let this be a mistake. “Okay. Jed.”
He rested his arms over the back of the chair and smiled up at her. “We shouldn’t be fighting all the time. I don’t want to take your son away from you.”
She poured herself a glass of merlot before answering him. The man had a point. Instead of pushing away the source of her irritation, she could end up alienating her son. That she couldn’t allow to happen. When Jed left, it would be because he’d grown tired of playing daddy, not because she’d driven him away.
She sat at the table, then sliced him a piece of cheesecake. “Then why are you here?” she asked, setting the dessert in front of him.
He spun the chair around. “I needed to get away for a while.”
So he was hiding from something. Things get tough and Maitland cuts and runs. Her confidence in her decision grew and she wondered how long it would take for him to run out on Austin. “And you decided to come to Hart?”
“An unconscious decision.”
She didn’t say anything, just sipped her wine as he cleaned his plate in record time. She sliced him another piece and he graced her with that killer grin before devouring the second helping with equal enthusiasm. When he wasn’t drunk or rude, she supposed he really could be considered attractive. On the outside, there was no doubt he was one hot piece of man-flesh. From what she’d heard about him, he was a hot mess. Still, she found it difficult to believe Dani’s words of praise.
He took another drink of his coffee, then looked over his mug at her, his dark brows creasing into a frown. “What?”
“Just trying to see what Dani saw in you,” she said as she set her glass on the table.
He chuckled, a low rumbling that sounded warm and friendly. And nice. “Gee, thanks.”
There she went again, smiling back at the bastard. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. It’s just that you’re so different from the man Dani described in her journal. She really loved you.”
A hard look altered his features. Obviously her sister was not a welcome topic. “It was a long time ago.” He carried his dishes to the sink and stood looking out her kitchen window.
“So it was.” She drained her glass and wondered again what someone like him had seen in her sweet, loving sister, and why he clammed up anytime Dani’s name was mentioned?
“I should get out of here,” he said, turning. “Thanks for the coffee and dessert.”
She stood and faced him. “You’re welcome. But you didn’t come here for a late night snack.”
He shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans and leaned against the counter. “No.”
“Then why?” She tugged her ancient sweater tighter around her. The coldness in Jed’s eyes chilled her. If given the chance to get to know him a little better, would she discover Dani’s interpretation of him was the true man? The thought spooked her for reasons she didn’t fully understand.
She really didn’t see her and Maitland ever becoming friends. He was Austin’s natural father and she his adopted mother. They were natural enemies. She was afraid to let him too close, and he’d resent her interference, just as she resented his very presence. They were stuck in a no-win situation regardless of any supposed truce.
