Jameson (In the Company of Snipers #22) - Irish Winters Page 0,103

While you were showering after the second time we made love. Before I made breakfast.”

She snorted. “How’d that go?”

“He’s everything you said he was and less.”

“What’d you expect?”

“Honestly?” Jameson turned in the direction where he guessed Maddie was looking. At what he now knew was a two-bit bar in a rundown neighborhood that boasted more murders per capita than most other Washington, DC, neighborhoods. Computers for the visually impaired were a godsend. A guy could find anything if he knew where to look and what to look for. “I wanted his permission to marry you, Maddie. That’s why I called your dad. I wanted his blessing. It’s what a real man does when he loves a woman. He does the right thing. He respects her enough to man up and ask to meet her dad, so they can talk face-to-face about the woman he intends to take away from that father.”

Maddie was staring at Jameson by then. He could feel her eyes on him. “What’d he say?”

Unfastening his seatbelt, Jameson tugged Maddie closer, wishing new cars didn’t all come with sturdy consoles between the driver and passenger seats. “He said he didn’t know what I was talking about, that he didn’t have a daughter. To get lost.”

“Th-that’s all?”

Jameson nodded as he leaned her under his arm. She was crying, he could tell. Rick Bannister had also told him to fuck off, that he’d beat the shit out of Jameson if he ever showed his face in his bar or at his front door. But Maddie didn’t need to know that.

“Have you talked with my m-mom, too?”

“No, babe. But I know where she lives, and I have her phone number if you want it. She’s actually not far from here. She lives in Bailey’s Crossroads. But that’s up to you. I just thought if your dad could so easily deny the beautiful, intelligent, courageous woman that his daughter is, well… Maybe he’d treated his wife the same way, and she’s feeling as bad as you. As lost.”

“I don’t feel bad. Least I didn’t until—”

“Until I brought all this crap up, huh?”

She was breathing hard. Swallowing hard, too. Trembling. “My life with Dad was crap,” she admitted. “So… I’ve been close to where she lives all this time, huh? Does she, umm, live in a house or on the street, or is she—”

“A house. She lives in the nice residential area. There’s an elementary school within walking distance. She teaches fifth grade there.”

“Wow, you’ve been busy…” If Maddie’s heart beat any harder, she’d go into cardiac arrest. But for the first time, hope had also whispered through her tone.

“Breathe,” Jameson murmured into the side of her head. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. Just thought you’d feel better knowing you have a mom, and that she still lives nearby. Close enough to visit someday, when you choose. It’s all up to you.”

Maddie sniffed. He’d made her cry. “Aw, babe, I’m sorry. Damn, I’m an ass. I ruined your new car day. I’ve spoiled everything.”

“No,” she whimpered, her face pressed into his neck under his ear, her breath warm and moist on his skin. “When I was a little girl, I used to dream my mom was a queen from another country. That she only left me behind because she was so much more important than me, you know? That her country needed her more than I did. That she’d come back someday to get me.”

He held Maddie tight. She was coming apart, and his heart was breaking for having hurt her. “Let’s go back to my place. We’ll go mansion hunting another day.” And I’ll keep my big mouth shut from now on.

“No. I… I think I’d like to call her.” She turned in his arms and smoothed her fingertips into his hair over that same ear. “You went to all this trouble just for me. Maybe I could call her, you know, j-j-just to talk. See if she remembers me. Where’s her number?”

Jameson produced his phone and handed it over, tipping his lips to her forehead. “I’ll never lie to you, and I only want what’s truly best for you. I’m okay if you’d rather not call. But if you do, her name’s in my contacts list under B for Bannister.”

“She kept her married name? She’s not—?”

“Remarried? You won’t know until you talk to her.”

The tension between them changed from desolate to excited, and in that moment, Jameson wasn’t sure what the hell he’d done. This could