Chapter 10
Grant
His poor babygirl. In all the time they’d been together, he couldn’t remember her ever crying like this, like her heart was breaking and nothing could make it stop.
Bending down, he scooped her into his arms and carried her back toward the front door, sending up a little prayer of thanks that Edie was nowhere to be found. He wasn’t sure what he would have done if she’d gotten in his way. Whoever she was, whatever she’d done, she’d obviously broken his Little girl’s heart and he wasn’t entirely sure he could handle being civil toward her just then.
He had to juggle Jesse a bit to open the front door, but he made it outside and to his rental car without dropping her. By then, her sobs had quieted a bit, though she was still whimpering pitifully through the occasional sniffle.
“Daddy has to put you down for a second, baby.” He kept his voice as gentle as he could with the storm of emotions raging inside him. As pissed as he was, she didn’t need his anger just then, so he did his best to keep it locked inside as he lowered her to her feet beside the car.
Scrubbing her hand across her eyes, she sniffled again, then blinked owlishly when he opened the car door. “Wh-what are you doing?”
“Taking you home.”
But when he tried to move her into the car, she planted her feet and glared at him. “I’m not going home. Not yet.”
The temper he was so desperately trying to keep in check flared at her words. “You really think it’s a good idea to be arguing with me right now, Jesse Lynne?”
Her chin jerked up, defiance flashing in her eyes. “Yes. I didn’t come all this way just to go running when things got hard.”
“We can talk about it at home.”
“No.”
The refusal was delivered so calmly, for a moment he thought he’d misheard. “Excuse me, little girl?”
“No,” she repeated, just as calmly as before, though there was a hint of uncertainty in her eyes now, as if she’d just realized what she’d said and was second-guessing herself. As well she should. “I’m not going home, Grant. Not yet. I need to make things right.”
Pinching the bridge of his nose to alleviate the headache brewing there, he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. “Baby, I’m really going to need some more information. Because from what I just saw in there, you’re not the one who needs to make anything right.”
Silence stretched between them before she finally spoke, her voice softer and more submissive sounding than he’d ever heard before. “If I tell you everything, will you promise to let me stay until I’m ready to leave? Please, Daddy?”
It wasn’t a big ask. Neither of them needed to be in California right now, at least not for a few more weeks. But judging by the tone of her voice, it was important to her.
How could he say no?
Not even bothering to sigh, he lowered his hand and nodded. “All right. Tell me what’s going on, and we can stay. With a caveat,” he added when smiled so brightly he nearly had to squint to avoid being blinded. “I reserve the right to pull you out if it seems like… whatever this is that you’re doing here is causing you emotional or mental harm. Understood?”
“Yes, Daddy! Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
She launched herself at him, and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her close as he pressed his face into her neck, drawing in the scent of her. It was off, just a bit, but it was still her and it was enough to steady him.
Pulling away slightly, he pinned her with a stern look. “All right, little girl. Tell Daddy why you’re here, and then we can talk about what to do next.”
Jesse nodded. “The ‘too long; didn’t read’ version is that Edie and I dated for a summer. It was…” she trailed off, her expression turning a bit dreamy in a way that had his stomach twisting with jealousy. “At the risk of sounding ridiculous, it was perfect. Like something out of a romance novel, you know? If romance novels had spankings and kinky sexual awakenings.”
“I’m fairly certain plenty of them do, at least these days,” he said dryly, earning him a quick, delighted laugh.
“You’re probably right. Edie… she wasn’t my Mommy, but looking back I think it was probably only because we didn’t have the right words for what we were to each other. She took care of me. Nurtured my Little side before I even had a name for it. Everything between us, even that, just came so naturally, it was like we were meant to be together.”
“So, what happened?”
“I left.” Clouds filled her eyes, smothering the love—and it was so clearly, painfully love that he’d seen shining there—and turning the gold of her irises a muddy brown. “We…” She trailed off, and he could see her struggling for the words. “We had a, I wouldn’t call it a fight, not really. But something happened, and I realized she was never going to leave this town and I just couldn’t stay here. Not to be dramatic, but I think it would have killed me eventually if I had. So I packed everything up one night and left without telling her. That was ten years ago, and we haven’t spoken since.”
Suddenly, he felt a bit more compassion for Edie McDowell. He’d loved and lost plenty of women in his lifetime, but Jesse was different. She was the kind of woman you never got over losing. And just waking up to find her gone? He’d gone mad with worry when Jesse had vanished on him, and he’d known she was coming back at some point. To not know if he’d ever see her again…
He could understand why Edie might have been a little less than welcoming.
“Why didn’t you tell me before?” Beneath his anger at her for her disappearing act, hurt and betrayal lurked, waiting for the right moment to strike at their bond. “All the conversations we’ve had about our exes, you never once mentioned her. Or anyone back home,” he added, frowning a bit as he realized she’d never really told him anything about her hometown. How had he never noticed?
A guilty flush crept up her neck as she shrugged. “I was embarrassed. It didn’t take me long to realize what a shitty thing I’d done, but I was too proud to admit I’d fucked up. It was easier to pretend it just hadn’t happened. But after you asked me to marry you, I just… couldn’t get her out of my head. And the more I couldn’t get her out of my head, the more I felt like I needed to come home and at least try to make things right.”
He glanced back up at the house. “And how is that going?”
“Somehow both better and worse than I’d expected,” she said with a sigh. “She didn’t throw me out on my ass when I showed up here the other day, but…”
God, he hated seeing that sad look in her eyes. “But what, baby?”
“I didn’t think she’d tell anybody about us. There was an—an incident with her family the summer we were together, which was part of why I was trying so hard to get her to come out west with me. Where we could be together without worrying what this fucking town thought of us. But she’s obviously told some of her friends, and I guess I was sort of blindsided by how much they hate me. I’ve never really been the villain in anybody’s story before.”
Poor Little girl. “I’m sorry, baby.”
“It’s my own fault. Maybe if I’d kept in touch more, I’d still have friends here.”
Remembering the wild goose chase Edie and the rest of the town had led him on during the day, he couldn’t help but smile. “I think you have more allies than you realize. Including her,” he said, nodding toward the house. “Took me all damn day to track you down because everyone either pretended not to know who you were or swore up and down you hadn’t been in Lost River in more than ten years. And I’d bet Edie was the one giving those marching orders.”
“Really?” Everything in her seemed to light up. “That’s so sweet.”
“Sweet. Right.” Though he couldn’t be too mad about it. Now that he’d actually found her, he could appreciate the fact his babygirl had an entire town looking out for her. Including the maddening little pixie she’d once loved.
That was a twist he hadn’t seen coming. And he still wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about it. Not because Edie was a woman, but because she obviously still held a part of Jesse’s heart in her hands. A heart he’d previously thought belonged entirely to him.
It was an… unsettling realization.
“All right, little outlaw,” he said, drawing her attention back to him. “What do you want to do now? Go back inside and try again with Edie, or call it a night and head back to wherever you’re staying?”
“Well, considering both those options require going back up to the house, I suppose I’ll give it another shot with Edie.”
“You’re staying here?” Jealousy twisted his stomach, and he just barely managed not to snarl.
“Seemed like the fastest way to get her to listen,” Jesse said with a shrug.
“Stubborn little brat,” he murmured, lowering his head to capture her lips with his. Some of the knots in his stomach loosened when she surrendered immediately, opening for him the way she always had. No matter what kind of history Lost River held, Jesse Walker was still his. Nothing had changed.
Nothing.
When they broke apart, he popped the trunk on the rental car and grabbed his duffel, slinging it over his shoulder as he gave the old farmhouse a critical look. “It’s not exactly The Waldorf, but I suppose it’ll do for a few nights.”
And when Jesse smiled at him, tears of gratitude filling her eyes, he knew he would have agreed to stay anywhere she’d asked. There was no doubt he was wrapped around her adorable little finger. “Thank you, Daddy.”
Hand in hand, they made their way back up the front walk toward the house. “Daddy?” Jesse asked, her voice soft and hesitant, as if she were scared to voice whatever question she was about to ask.
“Yes, baby?”
“How did you know Edie was ‘the one who got away’?”
Stopping on the porch, he turned toward her, letting the corner of his lip pull up in a smirk. “You know you can’t hide anything from your Daddy, little outlaw.”
The look she sent him was nothing short of withering. “Yes, but how did you know?”
He paused, weighing the truth vs a convenient lie. But lies were how they’d gotten here in the first place, and he couldn’t very well demand honesty from her if he wasn’t willing to give it in return. “It was in your eyes.”
“My eyes?”
“Yes. When you talk about Edie, you get a very specific kind of look in your eyes.”
Her nose scrunched up as she considered what he’d said. “What kind of look?”
“It’s a look I previously thought was just for me.” He forced himself to smile past the jealousy clawing at his throat. “That’s when I knew you were still in love with her.”