Chapter 39
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
MIA
“ I need to go with him.”
“Just come inside, babe. He’ll call you when he lands.” Kate wraps an arm around my shoulders as we stand at the end of her driveway and watch the boys tear away in Jensen’s white Tesla.
I wrap my arms around my waist. “It’s not that simple.”
“What do you mean?”
I think hard about my next words. “He had a really tough childhood.”
Kate nods and plucks a piece of stray hair from my T-shirt. “I guessed as much. He once mentioned that he had a brother. I know Jensen named Will after him, but honestly, that’s as much as I know. I think Jensen knows a little more, but not a lot. If he’s let you into his life, then based on what I know about Jessie, I’d say that’s a huge step for him.”
I inhale a steadying breath.
Kate’s hand squeezes my shoulder. “Until I got pregnant, I was the most skeptical person when it came to love. I didn’t think it was possible to find the one. But let me tell you this: the way Jessie looks at you, that isn’t just love; that’s a connection on a level so deep that no one will ever be able to find the words to describe it. I know I can’t. But to witness it? Now, that’s something really special. If I’d known you both the first time you were together? I’d have flown you to Seattle myself. He might’ve had a really tough start, but to find that kind of love? Trust me when I say he knows how rich he is right now. He’ll do anything to protect you.”
I turn and look at Jessie’s BMW parked in the driveway. “Which is why I have to go to him. Everything you just said, I feel it too. Would you go to Jensen?”
She looks off to the side and down the road where they disappeared a few minutes earlier. “Wait here.”
A couple of minutes later, she reappears with my jacket, purse, and a small overnight bag. “I literally just dumped some spare clothes of mine and a cosmetic bag in here; there’s also a spare toothbrush in the front. That way, you don’t have to go home.”
I reach up and wrap my arms around her neck. “Thank you.”
“I just have one condition.”
“Fire away,” I say, pulling the keys out of my purse and unlocking the car.
Kate’s face turns lawyer serious. “Call me as soon as you find out how his mom is. I want to know you all are okay.”
I nod. “Promise.”
Any hopes I had of making the same flight as Jessie crashed and burned the second I hit a gridlock on the freeway and got to the airport, only to be told I’d just missed check-in for the last afternoon flight to Dallas.
Luckily, there was another flight with an alternate airline departing only an hour later, so I jumped on that.
And that’s where I am now, about to touch down in Texas with a packet of half-eaten Lays chips in my lap and a Minute Maid between my knees, typing out my hundredth text to Jessie and immediately deleting it.
If I write him and say I’m on my way, he’ll tell me to get right back on a return flight, and that isn’t happening.
There’s not a chance in hell I’m leaving him to care for his mom alone. Even if he’s done it his entire life.
I only have one issue.
I have zero idea where his parents live since he never took me back to his home, and there are kind of a lot of houses on South Boulevard.
When the plane wheels touch down and I step out into the Dallas spring air, there’s only one person I can think of who might know where he lived.
Even if I’m still not fully over what he did.
The second he picks up, I hear the road noise and know he’s driving.
“Mia, hi. Are you okay?”
“Hey, Dad,” I say, raising an arm to flag down a taxi.
When silence falls between us, the only thing that breaks it up is the sound of his blinker and the plane passing over my head.
“I’m okay. But actually, I called to ask for a favor.”
I hand the taxi driver my overnight bag, and he puts it in the trunk. I say a quiet prayer that my dad won’t go off on me for what I’m about to ask.
“Go on,” he replies cautiously. “I’m driving, but on Bluetooth. It sounds like you’re at an airport.”
“I’m in Dallas.”
Dad huffs out a long breath. “Please tell me you aren’t going to say it went wrong between you two.”
“Where to, ma’am?” the taxi driver asks.
I lift a finger, asking him to give me a second.
“Nothing has happened. Well, it kind of has, but it has nothing to do with me and Jessie.” I pull the car door open and climb into the back, and the driver takes his seat. “When Jessie was playing for you, did you have his home address?”
“Like the apartment we rented out for him? Probably, yes … but why, Mia?”
“No, not when he was playing for the Destroyers. His home address on South Boulevard. From when he was a boy.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
I squeeze my eyes shut and blow out a frustrated breath. “With all due respect, Dad, your decisions lately haven’t exactly been good. His mom had an accident, and I need to support my boyfriend. I don’t have a lot of time.” I glance up at the driver, who’s eyeing me in his rearview mirror. “Do you have the address, or should I think of another option?”
Nothing.
“Dad, please.”
“I’m sorry, Mia. But I can’t give that to you. This isn’t me being difficult. If you’re calling me for it, then there’s a reason you aren’t getting it from Jessie, and it must be a good one. Turn around and get back on the plane, Mia.”
As I stare out of the passenger window, my heart sinks.
He’s never going to treat me like the woman I know I am.
I miss you, Mom.
“Okay, fine. I’ll find another way,” I bite out.
Pulling my phone away, I hit End just as I hear my dad call my name.
“Ma’am—”
I hold up a hand and stare down into my lap. “Just give me a second, and I’ll get out. I’m sorry for wasting your time.”
“Ma’am—”
“Just a second,” I repeat, picking my phone back up and scrolling through my contacts, aimlessly searching for someone who might be able to help.
“Is it Jessie Callaghan’s address you need? The one on South Boulevard–Park Row?”
Picking my head up, I stare at the dark-haired taxi driver. “H-how do you know that?”
He shakes his head. “Nah, I’ll probably get fired if this gets out,” he mumbles to himself.
“Please, tell me,” I blurt out. “He’s my boyfriend and his mom’s hurt. I just need to get to him, but he thinks it’s a bad idea.” Opening the gallery on my phone, I flick to the picture we took in the locker room; it feels like a million years ago, even though it’s only been a matter of hours. “Look, that’s me with him. I’m still wearing the same outfit because it was taken today. I just need to get to him.”
The driver drops his head between his shoulders. “If you’re some kind of stalker or a woman scorned and looking for revenge, then just know that I have a family and I’ll lose my job.”
“I’m just a girl trying to support her boyfriend.”
A couple of beats pass before he speaks. “I gave him a ride a while back. It was to South Boulevard–Park Row. I gotta tell you, miss, it’s … bad. The house is bad. Are you sure you want to go there? Because your dad sounded kinda reluctant.”
I wipe the tear from under my eye. My voice is way stronger than I feel. “You said you have a family. So, you have someone you love or did once upon a time, right?”
He nods, keeping eye contact with me in the mirror. “My wife.”
“What lengths would you go to for her?”
Without a word, he cranks the engine.