Chapter 23 Jackson
sixteen
JACKSON
One Week until Wedding Day
It’s five in the morning, my body automatically wakes me whether I have to get up or not. It’s Sunday so I don’t have to rush out for anything, but I do like my run in the morning. It clears my head.
The sun is beginning to break through the window as I stretch and turn over, my fiancé’s warm body next to mine.
Fiancé.
I smile as I watch her sleep. Her and I were a long time coming.
I have to admit I never thought we’d be here.
Looking back at my time in the NFL I couldn’t imagine anyone would want me, for me.
They wanted my money and what my name could do for them, but as far as someone loving me?
I never thought it’d happen, and I shut myself off from allowing it for a long time, too.
Until Chess.
She let me be me. She saw the ‘dirty talker, rough around the edges, winning is everything guy’ and then made sure the world also saw the ‘content with a small town, put others first, hardworking coach’ and made them fall in love with me again.
She saw the good in me when I couldn’t see it in myself.
Francesca is facing towards me, sound asleep, lips slightly parted. I lean up on my elbow and run my hand along her face, easing her hair from her eyes. I run my finger down her nose and trace the cupids bow of her lips.
She’s beautiful and she’s mine.
My mind automatically conjures up the picture she sent me the other day.
I don’t know where she was or what she was up to, but the eye black under her eyes, and seeing my jersey cover her body almost made me blow my load like I was a teenager again.
Thank God there was no one around when I opened the picture in the text message.
When I replied, replied again, then a third time, and when I still didn’t get an answer back, I knew she was trying to get one over on me.
But I won that round.
And I’m going to win this one, too.
I run my hand over her shoulder, pulling the loose strap of her short silky pink nightgown that she wears to bed.
It doesn’t go far, so I trace the top of her breasts that are spilling from her tank.
She stirs, rolling to her back, so I keep going.
Circling her nipple now that has pebbled through her top, she lets out a soft moan and I see her lips turn up in a soft smile.
I rise to my knees and slide down her body, pulling the sheets with me.
“Jackson” she whispers.
“Shh baby, go back to sleep,” I say as I settle between her legs, kissing and licking my way up her toned thighs. All that running does her body good.
“Mmm,” is the only response I get.
I lift her nighty, exposing her soft, sweet pussy to me.
She’s glistening, already turned on by my touch.
I slide my finger between her folds and her legs shift, as she slowly becomes more awake.
I lean in, parting her and circle my tongue along her clit.
She lets out another whimper, so I dip my tongue inside her, tasting her, teasing her.
“Baby,” she whispers again as she bends her legs and reaches out running her hands through my hair. It only spurs me on more. I latch onto her clit, flicking it fast, then soothing it with slow circles as I penetrate her with two of my fingers.
“Yes. More.”
I love her like this, she’s not afraid to ask for anything from me anymore. She used to be shy and reserved but I’ve pulled that from her now. She’s mine and she knows anything she asks for, she gets.
I suckle and twirl around her bud, still pumping into her with my fingers.
Her hips are answering me back, as my own grind into the bed, seeking relief.
She’s close and, damn it, so am I, but I want to come inside her.
I bite her clit and she breaks, writhing under me, my hands gripping her hips to keep her steady.
Just as she’s coming down from her high, I rise up and enter her in one hard thrust.
“Fuck!” I yell as I slide into her warmth.
I’m uncontrollable as I take her hard and fast, driving her up the bed with each thrust. Her eyes are open, watching me and when they connect with mine and she mouths ‘harder’, I’m gone.
That’s all it takes for me to explode into her, her tight pussy grasping hold of my cock, choking me as I come into her, ramming her home one more time.
I collapse onto her, almost crushing her, but I couldn’t move right now if you paid me. My heart is racing, I’m sweating and I’m still vibrating from that orgasm.
“Holy Christ, woman, what was that!” I gasp out, kissing her neck, her arms running over my back, giving me goosebumps.
She giggles from under me, and I feel her pussy grasp me again.
My hips shift into her again. “I can’t get enough.
I’m never fucking close enough to you,” I breathe out as I kiss down her front, in between her breasts, tickling her ribs slightly.
She squirms, laughing and the sound is better than all the chants of the stadiums.
She smacks my ass and pushes at my shoulders. “Go. Get off me, you’re too heavy now.” I raise my head from kissing her stomach and dart up, licking a nipple then claiming her mouth when she gasps from my touch.
“Just needed one more lick.” I wink at her and push myself up. “I’m going to go for my run, and I’ll bring back coffee. Go back to sleep for now, baby girl, it’s still early.”
~~
I’m making my second lap around the track, my air pods in, playing my favorite old school tracks from Tupac. Nothing like a little gangsta rap to get you moving in the morning. California Love is interrupted by a call. I glance at my arm band holding my phone and see that it’s Adam.
“Hey bro, you’re up early, what’s happening?”
“Where are you right now?”
His tone of voice makes me uneasy. “I’m at the track. Why?”
“Did you see the news yet?”
I slow from a jog to a walk. “No, what’s going on?” I ask slowly, my mind turning out all kinds of scenarios right now.
“Gage, it’s your venue. It went up in flames last night.”
There’s a pause. I’m not sure I heard him correctly.
“My … what?”
“The Holiday Star Inn! It had an electrical fire last night and burned down. It’s gone.”
I’m still not processing this. “Fuck.” I take my hat off and bend down at the knees, steadying myself on the ground. Running my hand through the turf and fake grass lining the track, I get lost watching the sunrise through the goal posts.
“You need to tell my sister before she hears it on the television or sees an article. She’s probably got google alerts set for the place.”
“Shit. You’re right. Ok thanks, I’m heading home now.”
“Listen, whatever you need from me, just say the word, man.” I know Adam wants to swoop right in and fix this.
“I will bro. I’ll call you in a few.”
I can’t believe this. The only hall that was available, and only by some coercion on my part, is gone.
Where on earth are we going to find a venue big enough and ready for us in a weeks’ time?
And how am I going to break this to Francesca?
She has had her heart set on this place.
Pushing our wedding date further out is going to wreck her.
Though it may look like a good thing to some, gaining extra time to prepare, I see it for what it really is, a hindrance.
It would mean more time for her to agonize over every detail.
More time to cause undue stress and anxiety for her.
More time for her to decide to back out.
I make quick work getting to the parking lot, jumping in my truck, and calling Bobby, praying Chess hasn’t heard anything before I can get to her first.
He answers with a groggy ‘morning’.
“Yo, B, I’m sorry to wake you. I need you, it’s an emergency.”
“Anything.” I hear him shift around through the phone, his tone urgent.
“Wake Britt, send her over to my house. There’s been a fire at the Holiday Star. It’s gone, B. Nothing, just nothing is left. I have to get home and tell her, but she’s going to need Britt.”
I hear him already waking Britt, asking her to get dressed and head over quickly.
“Thanks, bro, I’ll call you once I talk to Chess.”
I end the call throwing the phone onto my seat and race home. Thank God there is no one out on the streets right now, Tom would probably have a field day with how many road violations I just broke trying to get home.
I pull into our driveway and see the kitchen lights are on. She must have gotten up after I left. I jump out of the truck, afraid of what will meet me at the door. I walk in, calling out to her so she knows it’s me.
“I forgot coffee,” I say, testing the waters.
“No problem, I’ve already started a pot.
” She turns to me as I meet her in the kitchen.
“Someone woke me very early and I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I got up and decided to wait for you.
” She’s smiling, no doubt a lingering effect from our love making this morning and I hate that I have to break her heart right now.
“Babe, come here.” I hold my hand out to her. Her brows furrow the slightest bit, but she continues walking to me, and I meet her at the side of the island in our kitchen. Taking a deep breath, “I have some bad news.”
“What?” she asks tentatively, her eyes wide.
“The Holiday Star Inn. There was a fire there last night.” I swallow, shaking my head. “It’s gone. There’s nothing left.”
She’s watching me, no doubt trying to put it all together in her mind just like I did when Adam called. “A fire? But our wedding is a week away.”
I shake my head again. “It’s not going to happen there, honey. We can still get marr-“
“The whole place? It’s gone? Was anyone hurt? Stephan?” her voice is getting higher in pitch with each question.
My girl, always worried about someone else. I hold her close. “There was no one inside. They’re saying it was an electrical thing, but it raged quickly and engulfed the whole building.”
Just then Britt comes flying through the door. The girls’ eyes go wide as they telepathically communicate to each other. I let her go so Britt can come to her now.
“I can’t believe it! Bobby told me, then I saw it on the news. What are we going to do?”
I watch as Francesca’s hands start to shake, a tell of her anxiety. She’s been a nervous wreck for the last two weeks planning this and I know this could push her over the edge.
She slumps onto the stool at the island. “I don’t know. I have no idea, B.”
“Listen, we’ll fix it. We’ll just find another place and—”
“There’s nowhere that can host us in this short amount of time! I honestly have no idea how the Inn was doing it; they’re booked out for a year in advance.”
Now is definitely not the time to tell her, but when I found out they were booked, I paid double for our date, ensuring they could get it done and not say a word to my future wife. She would kill me if she knew I did that.
Britt flicks me a glance and I subtly shaky my head. Chess starts to cry, her shoulders slump and she’s shaking quietly, trying to hide her disappointment.
“Oh, Chessy, please don’t. I know you had your heart set on that place but don’t cry. We will figure something out.”
“I know, I know, but it was perfect,” she chokes out between cries.
There’s that word again.
“It was pretty perfect,” I say as both girls cut me a glare. “But do you know what’s better? I still have you. You still have me. And we’re still going to get married in a week.” I take a few steps closer to her.
“How? It’s seven days away!”
“Do you trust me?” A thought forming in my head, I quickly calculate whether I can make it work or not.
“With my life.”
“Then let me fix this, Francesca.” I cup her face with my two hands stroking her tears away with my thumbs.
“I cannot watch you make yourself sick with stress over this one day anymore. You are going to be my wife and that is all that matters to me. Not colors, not flowers, not even a building. You and Me. Forever and a day. Deal?” I lean in and kiss her lips, coaxing the words from her.
“Deal,” she breathes out.
Part of my vows say we started our lives together on the football field, all those years ago. And that’s exactly where we’re going to start our married life, too.