Page 205 of My Five Daddies

I can’t come at this half-baked. I need to figure out a plan. I can’t let this girl outflank me and wreck what I’m trying to build withTara.

For today, I’ll play nice and get through filming. But I’m not rolling over and givingup.

22

Tara

Long daysof filming leave me exhausted, and I need to try and get somesleep.

Except that’s pretty impossible these days. All I want to do is look up rumors and news stories about Jackson and Holly, which is totally an insane thing to do. I can just ask him about it, but I don’t fully trust him yet, although I don’t know why I’d trust the freakingpaparazzi.

It’s not just the news stories. It’s everything. I keep thinking about what I used to have with him, back in the day. I keep seeing the guy he used to be, and sometimes I see that guy still inside of him. I can tell he’s been through a lot since I last saw him. I mean, he was a freaking Navy SEAL that saw actual combat. I feel like people don’t think about that nearly enough. He’s a real badass, not like those fake pretty boys that pretend to betough.

The Jackson I knew was always hard, but he has a soft side, and he always showed it to me. I miss that side of him. I miss the way he used to sneak to my house in the middle of the night and throw rocks at my window. It was really cliché, but he didn’t own a cellphone. He’d climb up onto my roof and help me out the window, and we’d sit there together and kiss each other for hours. He’d sneak back home before the sun came up, and we never gotcaught.

At least I assume he never got caught. I know his home life was far from ideal. I’m pretty sure he snuck out to come to my place when his father was blacked out drunk and acting aggressively. I think his whole family would vacate the house when his father got like that. I don’t know how he handled it. I’m not close with my family, but at least they weren’talcoholics.

I try and shut my eyes, try and let sleep come, but my brain just keeps buzzing. I can’t stop seeing the way Jackson used to hold my hand, used to whisper in my ear, used to tell me that we’d get out of town together and never come back. We both got out, but it wasn’ttogether.

Maybe that’s how it goes. Maybe I’m holding him to impossibly high standards. He was a kid back then, just like me, and he was dealing with some serious shit. Maybe I don’t know why he left me because I couldn’t possibly understand the sort of pressures he was under. He didn’t talk about his father much, but I know that the man was always on his mind, always a part of him. As far as I know, his dad’s still out there somewhere, probably drunk andangry.

I roll over onto my side and notice my phone’s screen is lit up. I reach out and there’s a text from Jackson, which is almostspooky.

“Need to talk. Youawake?”

I smile to myself. “I was just thinking aboutyou.”

“I bet you were. Hand down your panties, sweat rolling down yourskin?”

“Not exactly.” I bite my lip as I type. “I was remembering how you used to throw rocks at my window to wake meup.”

“We were stupid kids back then. But those were goodnights.”

“Very true. Anyway, I’mawake.”

“Can I come by yourapartment?”

My heart skips a beat. I never thought I’d actually have Jackson at my place. But if he says he needs to talk, I can’t turn himdown.

“Okay,” I say, and send him theaddress.

“Be there intwenty.”

Instantly I jump out of bed and get myself together. I don’t want to look like I’m getting too dressed up for him, so I keep it casual, but I fix myself up a little bit. I don’t know why he’s coming over, and part of me thinks this might be a bootycall.

When I’m done, I head out into the living room to find Laney sitting on the couch, wrapped in a blanket and staring at the television. She’s watching old Power Rangersepisodes.

“Love this stuff,” she says to me without looking away. “All of my scripts are inspired by the original PowerRangers.”

“They’re great,” I say. “Listen, Jackson Hendricks is comingover.”

That gets her attention. “Your oldflame?”

“I mean,sure.”

She grins at me. “Are you tapping that again, youho?”

“No,” I say quickly, and feel guilty for lying. “I mean, I don’t know. Just be cool,okay?”

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