Page 16 of Long Road Home

Six

Destiny

In the worstof the worst-case scenarios rushing my mind over the last week, that one was topping the list. And he’d flung that threat in my face without hesitating. I had no recourse. If Jordan meant it, if he followed through, I could lose Toby.

My entire body shivered, and my hands trembled while I splashed water on my face in the small half bathroom.

It reeked like gardenias. The scent of Tillie’s perfume overpowered the small room and stung my eyes almost as equally as that threat.

He could do it too. That’s what made it all so worse.

Jordan Marx, former Major League pitcher and who in the hell knew what he did now, but his family was a legend in this damn town. He could pull my ass in front of a judge tomorrow and win without a shred of evidence. All he needed was his name to declare it so and no judge in this county would deny him anything.

“Shit!” I slammed my hand to the counter, the sting of my palm on Formica ran up my arm.

This was why it’d been so much easier and safer to stay away. Why I desperately begged Tillie to move to Texas so we could all be together. It was wrong, and a declaration made of terror, but damn it, everything I’d said to Jordan was true, too.

I’d kept our son from having the same crappy life I’d had.

That, I wouldn’t apologize for.

A soft knock hit the door, and I swung toward it, almost expecting more ranting and threats. The ranting I deserved.

It was exactly what I expected when I first started telling him the truth. He had a hot temper and a quick trigger to unleash it.

Damn it! Why did Tillie have to die before I was ready for all of this?

“I didn’t mean that Destiny. I don’t want that.” Jordan’s deep voice was thick and rough. “I shouldn’t have said it, but I swear to you that’s the absolute last thing I’d ever do to you or Tobias.”

A sob ripped from my throat.Tobias.

It was the first time Jordan had said his son’s name and it was beautiful, even laced with anger and sorrow.

“Come on out. I want to talk. Just talk.”

We’d done enough talking and there was more to say, but my emotions were way too frazzled to handle anymore. Not with the funeral and spending most of the night packing up Tillie’s house. I couldn’t exactly stay hiding in the bathroom forever.

I opened the door, intent on stepping out when Jordan’s large frame blocked my way.

He’d been six foot six in high school, but he had to have grown in ten years. Broad shoulders and his height and muscled build consumed the doorway where he had one hand on the frame. His head was dropped, and I tilted my head back to meet his eyes.

Mistake.

Jordan had the most beautiful eyes of any man I’d ever seen in my life. Thick, long black lashes rimmed crystal clear blue eyes so light they were almost like glass. I sucked in a breath at the feel of him so close to me I could see his pulse beating at the base of his throat.

“Jordan—” I said, and shut my mouth.

His eyes held torment, either at what he said to me or the realization of what I hid from him. No way was I brave enough to ask.

“I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t take him from you. No matter how pissed I am, I swear it.”

God. He meant every damn word forced out through his gritted jaw, still so pissed off.

He’d been my protector since the day he first sat down next to me when I was bawling my eyes out after a pack of popular girls verbally attacked me in school. I’d gone outside, needing space to clear my head after punching one of them in the face, surprised as hell at myself for doing that in the first place, when he took my hand in his and muttered, “Do you need ice for that? Wicked right hook you have.”

After that, he made it clear no one was allowed to mess with me.

Two weeks later, we went on a first date where I subsequently received my first kiss.

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