“She shook my hand. I was seven years old, Pepper. She got on her knees so we were at eye level, and she shook my fucking hand and told me to mind my dad. That’s it. Then she walked out the door, and I never saw or heard from her again.”
The tears spilled over. No stopping them, either. From the way Jack kept gulping repeatedly, she knew he was fighting back tears of his own, but he was too damn macho to give in to them, and so she cried instead. She cried for him. For the young boy he’d been when his own mother abandoned him and his dad mentally and emotionally checked out of his life. For the man he was now, strong and smart and living his life as if he hadn’t a care in the world.
She suddenly realized exactly how difficult it was for him to witness her and Parker’s shouting matches. She and Parker loved each other, and they would never abandon each other. Ever. But how often had their frequently negative interactions struck a chord with Jack? How many times had he seen them argue and been reminded of his parents’ volatile relationship?
“I’m so sorry,” she said again. She leaned up and pressed a kiss to the center of his throat, feeling the rapid hammering of his pulse against her lips. “I didn’t realize how hard it would be for you to see me and Parker fight. I didn’t realize…that your mom…and your dad…”
Jack swallowed again. “It wasn’t the worst childhood. I mean, other people have it a lot worse than I did.”
“Doesn’t matter,” she said firmly. “It still affected you, and you’re allowed to be upset about it. There’s no list that says you have to endure XYZ for your situation to qualify as shitty.”
“I know. It’s just…” His brown eyes shifted to the picture on the wall, one taken during a Wilson barbecue once upon a time. Glasses and hands were raised in the air as smiling faces turned to the camera, immortalized forever. “You don’t get how lonely it was, how frustrating it was. I’d come over to your house and your family was so damn perfect, you know? And then I’d go home and my dad would look right through me. The only time, in all the years after Mom left, that he ever paid any attention to me was when we were fixing up that stupid car.”
Guilt rippled through her as she remembered the dented bumper, even though she hadn’t been the one to cause the destruction. “He left you the car when he died?”
Jack nodded, then shook his head abruptly. “And the couch in my office. That’s it. Did I get love? Forget it. Or support, or advice, or freaking conversation? He couldn’t be bothered.” Bitterness streaked across his face. “A couch and a car. That’s all my father deemed important enough to leave as a legacy.”
“I’m sorry.” She seemed to be saying that a lot, but she couldn’t stop herself. “Not just about your dad, but about everything. I’m sorry I got mad that you didn’t back me up out there. I get why you don’t want to take sides.” Pepper took a breath. “I promise I will never put you in that position again. And I will pay for the car repairs. You trusted me with your car, and I screwed up, even if I wasn’t the one who busted it. I should have parked it somewhere safer, maybe, or—”
“Enough with the damn car already!” But Jack was smiling, and she could see in his eyes that he wasn’t angry with her. He opened his arms, and she crawled right in, clinging to him tightly. Somehow she needed to show him exactly how much more he deserved, not just today, but all those years ago.
She pressed a palm to his chest, right over his pounding heart. “Let me take care of you?”
Between one moment and the next, the atmosphere in the room changed. The woman in his arms was soft and strong, all at the same time, and she didn’t bother waiting for his answer. Jack concentrated on breathing out all of his frustrations and anger, and all of the hurtful memories that had flooded into him over the past hour, while Pepper pressed her lips to his chest as if she could kiss everything better.
A reluctant smile hit his lips. “You like my T-shirt?” he teased.
“I love your T-shirt,” she confessed breathlessly, kissing him again and again as she worked her way across his chest. “It’s the most gorgeous T-shirt I’ve ever seen in my life, and I demand you give it to me this instant.”
She helped tug the fabric free from his jeans, but Jack was the one who grabbed the bottom of the shirt, peeling it over his head and abandoning it on the couch. Pepper returned in an instant, her warm lips back to tease him. Little flicks of her tongue accompanied the heated kisses, her hands stroking the sides of his abdomen.
He rarely gave her control when they fooled around, mostly because he was too impatient to let her play. Or because he was a bossy bastard and could never hold back for long enough.
But today was different. Today it didn’t seem to be about sex. It was connection, and caring. When she dragged her nails along the ridges of his six-pack, his body reacted in a very predictable way, his cock rising eagerly. But the touch—