Score (30 page)

-*-

Dad opened the door as we walked up the driveway. The second I saw him, I ran up and threw my arms around him. Dad and I had gotten so much closer since I’d moved to England, mainly because he’d changed so much since he split up with Carrie.

“Did you have a good flight?” Dad asked.

“It was wonderful,” I replied. “It feels so good to be back.” I hadn’t been home in nearly a year, but the place was so familiar, I felt like I’d never left. Some of the furniture had been moved around, but nothing overly drastic.  

“It’s great to have you back dear. You’ll have to excuse the mess,” he said, “we’re keeping all the stuff inside in case it rains before the ceremony.”  

“I still can’t believe you’re getting married again,” I said. “Have I mentioned how happy I am?”  

“You might have mentioned it once or twice in passing, dear,” Dad said with a smile. “Remember, it’s not really a full wedding. More of a ceremony. We’re keeping it small.”  

“I don’t care if it’s just the four of us,” I said. “Speaking of which, where is the blushing bride?”

“It’s been a long time since I was described as a blushing bride, sweetie,” Mom said, as she walked into the living room. I gave her a hug and introduced her to Jaxon.

Mom and Jaxon had spoken plenty of times over video chats, but had never met in person. After some initial nerves from Jaxon, the two of them had connected quickly and loved joking around about me. This trip would likely consist of hundreds of old baby photos doing the rounds once the two of them got talking.

Mom and Dad had reconnected soon after Dad’s divorce with Carrie had been finalized—perhaps before, but I didn’t like to pry—and after just a year they decided to get remarried.  

My parents had the glow of two young people in love which made me cringe a little bit, because I knew only too well what young people in love did all the time. They were happy though; that much was obvious.

“How is your work going, Jaxon?” Dad asked. “I follow the Premier League a little bit now and I saw your club in the top four. That’s good right?”

Jaxon laughed. “Yes, that’s good. I don’t have a lot to do with that though. I’m just the community liaison manager. That means I make sure the players fulfill their obligations to the community when they’re not playing. I don’t have a lot to do with what happens on the pitch.”

I wasn’t so sure that was true, but Jaxon was too modest to admit it. I’d spoken to a few of the players and they always spoke about how impactful it was to meet those less fortunate than themselves. It made the players appreciate what they had and a happy player often did what was required on the field.  

The last time I went to a game, the team had won three to zero and each of the three different goal scorers had specifically run over to the section of the ground with wheelchair support for the disabled supporters and celebrated with them. That never used to happen and I knew Jaxon had something to do with it.

“What about you, Jennifer?” Mom asked. “How is work? Do you have any more dangerous trips to make that I need to worry about?”

I’d made the mistake of mentioning to Mom that work sometimes required me to travel to the Middle East and parts of Africa that were not exactly tourist friendly. Fortunately, I wasn’t a tourist, but there was real danger involved and I had to take precautions where possible.

“I’m doing my best to keep her at home,” Jaxon said. “I’m not a fan of her little trips either.”  

“I’m going to cut back,” I said. “In fact, I spoke to my boss at work last week and asked not to travel so much.”

I needed to cut down on traveling now anyway and, other than my language skills, I wasn’t a lot of use on those trips.

“Well, I hope you’re both hungry,” Mom said.

“Starving,” Jaxon and I replied at the same time.  

“Good, because dinner’s ready. It’ll be my last meal as a single lady.”  

“Forever this time,” Dad added. “I’m not letting you out of my sight again.”

I quickly went to wash up for dinner to avoid my parents kissing. I’d seen Dad get married to Carrie, but I’d hated every minute of it. This time his marriage would be one of the happiest days of my life.

-*-

Mom and Dad kept the invite list small, so it was just family and a few close friends. The ceremony was over in twenty minutes, and then everyone started drinking and mingling in the back garden. I laid off the alcohol, but more than made up for it by consuming my own body weight in food.

“I lived here for a year, but never realized there was so much land behind your parents’ house,” Jaxon said, as we went for a walk after dinner. “Where are we going?”

The back garden was of a modest size, but it was close to a lot of public land that few people used. I half-expected it to get developed at some point, but it never did. I’d taken Jaxon down a path that wound through a small wooded area with trees just the right size for overly-adventurous kids to try to climb. Fortunately for my parents, I had never been an overly-adventurous child.

“I used to walk along here a lot as a kid,” I said. “These paths go on for about a mile and then you end up at a small lake. Of course, when I was a kid it felt like a
huge
lake. My parents would get the canoe out, and we would paddle around all day.”

After another ten minutes, we walked through a clearing in the trees and arrived at the lake. There was a pier stretching out about one hundred feet over the water, so we walked to the edge of that and sat down, dangling our feet out over the edge.  

“Did you ever go swimming in there?” Jaxon asked.  

“No. And don’t you dare do something silly like throwing me in the water,” I added quickly, before gripping hold of the edge of the pier.

“You don’t think very highly of me, do you?”

“I just know you too well.”  

“Your parents had a beautiful ceremony,” he said. “I’m so happy for them.”

“Me too. It’s just a shame they had to spend so many years apart.”  

“We did the same and I think we ended up stronger for it.”  

“True,” I agreed. “I thought the ceremony would be a little more extravagant though.”

“I think it was just right, considering the circumstances. I don’t think your Mom wanted to do the whole ‘white dress’ thing again.”

“No, I know, but I heard you and Mom talking about preparations for the wedding once over Skype. It sounded like she had grand plans.”

“Ah,” Jaxon replied. “Yes, I suppose she did.”

“She must have changed her mind.”

“Not really. She had grand plans for a big wedding, but not her own.”  

I looked down at my lap and saw Jaxon’s hand holding an open box containing a large diamond ring.  

“I know I’m supposed to be on one knee,” Jaxon said, “but I might fall off the end of the pier if you say yes. Jenny… Jennifer, will you marry me?”  

My eyes went blurry and I couldn’t focus on the ring any more. I turned to look at Jaxon and nodded my head. It was all I could manage. The tears rolling down my face said more than words ever could anyway.  

Jaxon took the ring out of the box and carefully placed it on my ring finger, even though my hands were shaking.  

“I did ask your father’s permission,” he said. “And your mother’s, so I’m not completely breaking with tradition. You’re going to get a big white wedding after all.”

“Can we have it soon?” I asked.  

“How soon?”

“Next two months?”  

“Sure,” Jaxon said slowly. “It’ll be a rush, but we can manage. Why so soon? I’m not going anywhere.”

“I know,” I said, admiring the diamond ring on my finger. “But it’s going to get much harder to fit me into a wedding dress in six months’ time.”  

“Why?” Jaxon asked. “Do you put on weight over winter or something?”  

I slapped Jaxon on the arm and then laughed at him. “You can be a little slow sometimes, you know that?”  

“I don’t… oh. You’re kidding?”

“Good news?” I asked uncertainly. We hadn’t exactly planned for any additions to our family, but with all the traveling I’d been doing, I’d made a mess of taking the pill regularly, and had forgotten that fact when Jaxon swept me off my feet the second I walked in the door after a week in Turkey.

“Good news,” he agreed. “Definitely good news. Boy or girl, this kid is going to be the best soccer player ever.”

THE END

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The debut stepbrother romance novel from Jessica Ashe

Last week I made the biggest mistake of my life--Caiden Ramsden. He's a cocky, arrogant prick who is sleeping his way around London. I normally stay well clear of bad-boys, but he's ripped, sexy, and impossible to resist.

I'm supposed to be clever. I'm a straight A student going to the University of Cambridge. So why was I attracted to such an arsehole? I should know better.

Sleeping with him was a big mistake, but I had no idea just how big until he showed up at my house with his mom. Caiden is about to be my new stepbrother. I have to forget what happened between us, but I don't know how to get him out of my head. And I'm not sure I want to.