Hard, Fast and Madly, page 23
“Just remember,” he said, “none of this is your fault. Ted was the one who decided to become a fucking drug mule or whatever for some Greek crime family, only to take the money and run.”
“He didn’t run.”
“Well he didn’t walk it directly to them and keep you safe. He died before they got their money and nobody knows where the hell it is.”
I shook my head. That was true. Ted, boring, predictable, old-fashion values Ted had traded in his job as an auditor to become a drug mule for a Greek crime family. Then he’d two-timed me with Stacey, marrying her as well as me, and having two children with her. Only neither Stacey nor I had found this out until after Ted had died in a car accident.
So now, Stacey and I were unlikely friends, she’d moved to Victoria to be closer to protection from the Hart brothers security firm, and Yanni Petralia was hounding us for the fifty thousand dollars that Ted apparently owed him.
You know, normal everyday problems.
We stopped at a red light and Jake shifted in his seat, leaning over and cupping the back of my head. “We will get through this, Freya. I promise.”
I swallowed. He couldn’t make such a promise.
The light turned green and he repositioned himself back facing the road.
“This time next year, baby, we’ll be laughing. We’ll be worry free and living in our own house with maybe a dog and a bun in the oven. Just you wait. All this Petralia shit will be a distant memory very soon.”
My eyes went wide.
A house.
A dog.
A bun in the oven!
“Uh … let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I said with a slight shake to my voice. “Let’s get through the weekend with your family first.”
“That’s probably best.” He nodded. “Because we’re here.” He pulled down a long driveway lined with oak trees, their branches connecting overhead to create a luminescent green tunnel. The trunks stood like centuries old sentinels, guarding the house and leading the way.
I gaped out the window at the mansion before us, opulent didn’t even begin to describe its magnitude or prestige. With a circular driveway, five car garage, pillars outside the main entrance like it was the white house, and a giant fountain in the middle of it all. I looked down at the blue and cream floral dress Jake had bought me and suddenly felt very drab and underdressed, inadequate and wishing that I’d packed a couple of more blouses or a blazer or something. What were these people going to think of me?
I was so plain.
Jake laid on the horn and a couple of seconds later the front door flew open and two little pixies with fairy wings sprinted out. One was darker skinned and taller with a sweet round face and jet-black hair braided into numerous small plaits that trailed behind her like ebony tentacles. The other was the spitting image of Jake. Big beautiful blue eyes, unruly chestnut hair trying desperately to escape her pigtail braids and a smile so full of mischief you’d think she’d been born with tricks up her sleeve.
“Uncle Jake!” they both cried, running around to the driver side and opening up the door before he could even get out.
“Bonjour!” the taller one said. “Comment ça va?”
He caressed her head while hoisting the younger one up on to his hip and giving her a swift peck on the cheek. “Ça va très bien, merci. Et toi?”
“Ça va très bien, merci,” she replied. Her eyes drifted to me as I sat stock still and terrified in the passenger seat. “Qui est-ce?”
“You can get out, you know?” Jake chuckled, turning to look at me. Then he looked back down to answer her. “Elle est ma petite amie. Auntie Freya.”
Both of the little girls’ eyes went wide with surprise and then delight as Jake walked them over to my side of the car and opened my door for me.
“I want Auntie Freya to hold me,” the little one in Jake’s arms whined, struggling to get free.
Jake rolled his eyes and passed her to me where she instantly started fingering my curls and petting my face. “That spit-fire there, is Chloe. And this…this is my little Maggie.” To the little girl’s elation, despite her size and height, he lifted her up like he had her sister. She giggled shyly and then wrapped her arms around his neck while her long legs hung down nearly to his knees.
“Auntie Jessica is here, too,” Chloe said to me, running her curious little fingers over my eyebrows. “And grandma and grandpa.”
Jake stiffened next to me, his whole demeanor morphing in the blink of an eye. “I’m sorry, I thought they weren’t coming until tomorrow.” But as much as my nerves were making me ill, it was the change in Jake that had me worried. Within a matter of seconds his smile faded, his shoulders slumped and it was as though he collapsed in on himself. His larger-than-life, happy-go-lucky personality was gone. And the remorse and reluctance lacing his tone told me that he very well may have been just as sorry for himself as he was for me.
As we made our way up to the front of the house a series of voices and shadows spilled from the doorway. Then there they were—Jake’s entire family. It was easy enough to tell who was who. He looked so much like his siblings and his mother that they all could have been in a Gap commercial. Meanwhile, Kendra was a petite and slender beauty with dark red, wavy hair that fell over her breasts, and eyes the color of hanging moss. She had a little boy on her hip, with hair the same colour as his mother’s, who was vehemently gnawing on an entire apple which he clutched greedily in both hands.
The sore thumb in the crowd must have been Jake’s dad. It was a process of elimination, and sore and thumb-like he was. Where the rest of the family was long and lean, Mr. Leeman was short and stout. His eyes were near black, and they squinted repetitively like a serpent’s. He was bald, or almost bald, with a dusting of hair encircling the base of his scalp, giving his head almost a crop circle look. But it was his colour that caught me off guard the most. His skin held a yellow-ish hue, very sickly so. The shade most people associated with jaundice or cirrhosis of the liver. I thanked the stars above that Jake had inherited his looks from his mother.
I followed Jake up the steps and stopped when he stopped, deciding to take my cues from him and do as I was told. “Hello,” he said solemnly, looking at his mother and father as though they were relatives he’d only met once or twice and wasn’t overly familiar or fond of.
“Hello, Son,” his mother said, sweeping past Kendra and wrapping her shapely arms around him. Her steely gray eyes traveled up and down my body in blatant appraisal. Jake passed Maggie off to her father and gingerly hugged her back.
“Hello, Mum.”
“It’s good to see you, dear.”
He released her and looked down at his feet. “Yes, you too.”
“Hello, m’boy,” Mr. Leeman croaked waddling the few steps over and sucking spit in through his teeth before looping a meaty arm around Jake’s shoulders.
“Hi, Dad.”
My eyes darted back and forth between everyone. It was such a cold and formal greeting that I wasn’t sure what was going on. Was I not supposed to be here? Was this a family only thing?
And then the vision stepped forward and Jake’s eyes reignited with the spark I’d come to love so much. This had to be Jessica, and she was just that—a vision. Poker straight chestnut hair that she’d pulled back into a simple ponytail which showcased her long and elegant neck, the same big gray eyes as her mother and flawless porcelain skin. She was what modeling scouts would deem “the jackpot.” She threw herself at her big brother, forcing him to take a step back and they both shared a moment of murmurs and whispers in one another’s ears that no one else could hear but had her smiling—at me.
Jake and Jessica pulled apart and he stepped back, looping his arm around my waist. “Uh, this is Freya, everyone. Freya, this is…everyone.” He proceeded with the introductions, and I shook everyone’s hands, shifting Chloe to my left hip so that I didn’t have to awkwardly offer the wrong hand to people.
“Hi,” I finally squeaked, feeling Mrs. Leeman eyes scouring me like a hawk, judging me and deciding if I was worthy of her son. By the way her lip curled up into a small sneer, she’d already decided that I wasn’t.
“Well come in, come in,” Justin boomed. “Chloe, you can walk, sweetheart.” He turned to me. “You don’t have to carry her, she’s almost four, she can walk.”
“It’s okay,” I whispered, moving her back to my right side. “It’s a good workout.”
“Can Auntie Freya sleep in my room?” Chloe asked, lightly playing with my dangling earring.
“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” Mrs. Leeman piped up. “Good idea, angel.” I shot Jake a look of fear, meanwhile his sister and brother gave him one of sympathy and Kendra just rolled her eyes. “Well, they’re not married,” Mrs. Leeman went on. I could have sworn I heard her say “thank the Lord.” “So it’s only right if Jake and Freya sleep in separate rooms. Don’t want to give the children the idea that sharing a room or a bed out of wedlock is acceptable,” Jake’s mother went on, pouring herself a glass of cucumber lemon water from a big glass pitcher on the kitchen counter.
“Do you share a room and a bed in Victoria?” Justin asked coming around to stand in front of me. He had the same intense and soul penetrating stare as his younger brother.
I squirmed under his unwavering scrutiny. “I uh….”
“Of course they do,” Kendra interjected, laying a supportive hand on my shoulder.
“Okay then! My house, my rules, you’ll share a room,” Justin decreed, holding his index finger up as if making a grand announcement. “You can have the one at the far end of the hallway upstairs. The one you usually take.”
My gaze shifted to Jake and he just stood next to his sister, the two of them studying their feet, quiet and withdrawn as if they were children who only spoke when spoken to.
“Jake dear, come sit with your father and I. Tell us about your new job,” his mother cooed, wandering around into Justin and Kendra’s warm and inviting beach cottage inspired living room.
Dutifully, Jake and his sister followed their parents and sat down next to their mother, meanwhile it was suddenly as though I didn’t even exist. Jake didn’t even look at me. He just abandoned me in the spacious kitchen, next to a tray of chocolate chip cookies that smelled like heaven and looked like decadence.
“You want a cookie?” Maggie asked, coming up next to me and lacing her fingers through mine.
I could have kissed her perfect, sweet little face. I had a friend. “I’m okay,” I said, for some reason feeling like I needed an adult permission before I was actually allowed to have one.
“Mags, why don’t you take Freya upstairs and show her to her room,” Kendra said. “I’ll be up in a second with some fresh towels.”
“Come on,” Maggie said, pulling me along until we stood at the base of a wide sweeping staircase with a shiny wooden bannister. “Your room is this way.” She hauled me up the stairs and down the hall. “This is your room.”
Opening the door, I wandered inside to find an enormous king-sized bed taking up the center of the room with a desk and wardrobe tucked into opposite corners. Maggie leapt on to the bed, followed by a tiny little ball of brown and black fluff. “Who’s this?” I asked, perching on the corner and scratching behind the pup’s ears.
“Sally Jessie Ruff-ael, but we just call her Sally for short. Are you going to marry my uncle?”
“Maggie,” Kendra scolded, coming into the room with an armload of towels. “We don’t ask those questions. At least not until we’ve let our guest breathe and release the tension from of her shoulders.” She gave me another sympathetic look.
“That’s right,” Justin added, coming up and plunking our two duffle bags on the bed. “Though calling her ‘Auntie Freya’ wouldn’t be a bad thing, right?” He gave me a big grin, the same one his brother always made when he was kidding around.
“Um, n-no, of course not. Auntie Freya is fine by me.”
“Listen,” Kendra said, helping Maggie climb off the bed, “Jake’s parents are a little weird, and Jake and Jess turn into shells of their normal selves when their around their mum and dad. It’s a coping mechanism they’ve developed in order to just deal. We’re still trying to figure out how to bring them out of their shells all the time, but it’s a tough process.”
Justin nodded. “I was the same way until Kendra smacked some sense into me. My mum…” he scratched the back of his neck as if trying to choose his words wisely, “she’s very set in her beliefs and her ways. She’s a tough woman to win over. So don’t beat yourself up if you don’t.”
“I still haven’t.” Kendra snorted.
Justin slapped me on the back and smiled. “But we like you, and that’s all that really matters. Come on, let’s go get some liquor in you, that always makes dealing with my mother easier.”
Kendra nodded. “Amen! And it’s the only way I can even remotely tolerate Jeff!” She ushered Maggie out. Justin and I were tight on their heels.
Grab part 2 of Jake and Freya's love story, Hard, Fast and Madly: Part 2 here—> https://books2read.com/HFM2-DDH
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Xoxo
Whitley Cox
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As always, this is a team effort. There are so many incredible people I want to thank. First and foremost, my friend and editor Chris Kridler, you lady, are a blessing, a gem and an all around amazing human being. Thank you for your honesty and hard work and I’m so grateful to have found you.
My girls, Justine and Krista for your honest and helpful beta-reads. I love that I can hand you the rough, unedited stuff and you’ll read it and give it to me straight. Thank you. And an extra special thank you again to Justine who read it three or four times after I made changes. Thank you. I hope it wasn’t too much torture.
Megan at EmCat Designs, as always I love your covers. Another homerun.
My Romance Writer’s Behaving Badly Blog crew, I love being part of such a tremendous set of inspiring, talented and supportive women. Thank you for letting me learn, lean on and join the team.
My reader group, Whitley Cox’s fabulously Filthy Readers, you are all awesome and I feel so blessed to have found such wonderful fans.
The ladies in Vancouver Island Romance Authors, your support and insight have been incredibly helpful, and I’m so honored to be apart of a group of such talented writers.
And lastly, of course, the husband. Your patience, understanding and support means the world to me. Thank you so much for loving me as much as you do.
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