Page 81 of Until Now

“I don’t remember him ever mentioning it… Almost like it never happened. But, I do remember the screaming match between you and Brina.” I share a smile with her, that was a fun night. Daddy had been away on business when Teagan told Mother about John, she and I spent most of the night going back and forth.

“That was a little different,” Eileen said.

“Was it?”

“I mean, you didn’t hire him.”

“Actually,” Elizabeth sips her wine. “I think John might have been worse, we were still in high school.”

“Wait! Were you underage?” Eileen's eyes grow wide at the thought. I thought Kai told her about that?

“Depends what you consider underage,” I shrug behind my own glass.

“Davina Bay!”

“He was only four years older than me, I didn’t think it was a big deal. Pop was ten years older than my Nonna. Hell, Josh is four years older than Elizabeth.”

“They aren’t in high school.”

“Have you seen him?” Elizabeth asks.

“Jay?” I shake my head. I haven’t seen John Jansen in almost seven years. Not long after a steamy night in his patrol car, I came home to news that Mother had found out about my not-so-secret boyfriend. Someone had seen us. Someone had followed us and taken photos as evidence. I called Daddy and came clean about what I had been doing. I asked him to do whatever he could to stop Mother from turning John into the police. Since I was eighteen and there was no evidence anything happened prior, Daddy pulled some strings and John was transferred to a unit in Raleigh, North Carolina. But, he had made me promise to not contact John again.

John “JJ” Jansen grew up in another suburb just west of Winchester. His family well known in the community for their service to the Sheriff’s Department. He had no other plans than to follow in the footsteps of the men before him. Join the police, start a family, and live the rest of his days sipping sweet tea while his wife cooked dinner and his kids played out in the yard.

By chance, he met a girl at a party when he was in the academy. Some of his old high school friends invited him to attend their frat party. He thought she looked young, but he didn’t question it, girls didn’t always look their age. They spent the night together and he knew she was the one. What he didn’t know, she was the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in the country, and sixteen.

“You know who that was, don’t you?” his friend asked the next morning.

“Said her name was Nina.”

“Yeah, Nina as in Davina Villa.”

The next time John saw me, I did my best to avoid him. He did the same until I came into the kitchen looking for a drink. “You didn’t mention you were underage,” he said casually before I could leave.

“You didn’t ask.”

“I’m in the academy. If they found out—”

“What they don’t know won’t hurt ‘em.” Pulling my lower lip between my teeth, John could only see me under him like I had been the first night. I snaked my arms around his neck and instinctively he pulled me close when my lips found the sensitive skin of his neck.

“Your dad would kill me.”

“What Daddy doesn’t know, won’t hurt him.”

How we had never been caught was beyond my comprehension, we had never been very conspicuous in the two years we were together. I would go to his house in broad daylight, we would ride around town together, we even had sex in his patrol car on more than one occasion.

By my eighteenth birthday, he wanted to tell my family. He wanted them to know how in love he was, but I refused. I didn’t want them to know, because that would mean coming clean about everything. He knew they were pushing me to go to Boston for school, the program was better than anything Rosecliffe could offer, but he was being selfish. He didn’t want me to leave him. He hoped if they knew about our relationship, they’d let me stay. I could go to Rosecliffe and earn my “little degree” before I settled into our life together.

Somewhere, deep down, I think he knew it was never going to work. Davina Villa is not one to be tamed. I’m not a housewife and I had no intentions of becoming one, but I give him credit for trying. When he threatened to tell Daddy, I broke up with him. He got spooked — worried it would ruin his family reputation. I could have easily had him arrested, claiming he had been sexually assaulting me. Coerced me into it. So, he was left dealing with the heartbreak he’d brought upon himself while he heard the stories of my wild nights as a free woman.

Four months after I broke up with him, he got a call about a beach party — a bunch of seniors trying to enjoy what little childhood they had left before college. Neighbors across the lake had made the call. John saw me before I saw him, in fact he made eye contact with Elizabeth first. She glared at him, daring him to come near us. She had been the only one who knew about our relationship and she had always disliked him.

“I got these girls,” John said to his counterpart. “Send the rest of ‘em home.”

“Just let them go?”

“They’re just kids trying to have a good time. Give ‘em a warning and let ‘em go.” John turned his attention to the three girls in front of him. Elizabeth glared at him and Teagan batted her eyelashes innocently, but I refused to look at him.

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