My Way Back to You

He nodded as the door slid open on her floor.

“Okay, then.” She flashed him a smile. “See you later.” She stepped out.

“Mags.”

Jeff followed her out of the elevator, allowing the door to close. “I thought...uh...why don’t we have dinner together?”

Her stomach squeezed at the thought. “Oh, wow, Jeff. I don’t know...”

He rubbed the back of his neck before shoving his hands in his pockets. “It’s been a long time. We have a lot to catch up on.” His mouth rose at one corner. “Hell. It might actually be pleasant.”

“I...um.” Maggie searched for a reason other than the obvious—that they were exes and, as a rule, exes didn’t have pleasant dinners together.

“I have a reservation at eight at a fabulous restaurant just across the street. I should be able to add one easily.” He nodded toward her feet and grinned. “You won’t have to walk far.”

Her stomach chose that moment to let out a rumble, and Jeff tilted his head. “Was that a yes?”

She shook her head in resignation. “Oh, what the hell. Okay.”

The elevator door opened with a ding, and Jeff stepped back inside. “Meet you in the lobby at five till?”

She nodded and waited until the door closed before letting out a verbal groan.

Oddly, her stomach didn’t answer back. No, it had drawn much too tight to make a sound.

She didn’t have much of an appetite anymore, either.

* * *

“FINALLY!” ROSEMARY RUSSELL stopped walking long enough to retrieve her phone from the purse swinging on her arm.

“I told you she’d call.” Her husband, Eli, sounded completely cool and unbothered. But all through supper at the diner, she could tell he’d been just as worried as she was about their daughter and grandson’s trip today. She couldn’t imagine driving all the way up to Chicago with that horrible traffic. They’d expected the call hours ago.

She’d just about worried herself sick.

When she pulled the phone out, the caller ID confirmed it was, indeed, Maggie, thank heavens!

“Hello, sweetheart.”

“Hey, Mom.” Maggie sounded out of breath. “Just wanted to let y’all know we got here in one piece.”

“How was the traffic?”

“Worse than you could ever imagine.”

That wasn’t what Rosemary wanted to hear. “Oh, dear. And you have to drive in it for two more days.”

“I did fine.” A door closed and Maggie gave a long sigh. “Jeff offered to take the wheel—I’m sure my driving wasn’t suiting him—but I was determined to prove to myself I could do it. I’ll be making this trip a lot over the next four years. I might as well get used to it.”

“How is Jeff?” Rosemary shot a glance Eli’s way and watched his jaw muscle tighten at the mention of their former son-in-law.

“He’s fine,” Maggie said, then added what sounded like an afterthought. “I guess. I mean, he looks great, but we haven’t had much time to talk. I was too nervous to be much of a conversationalist with the traffic and all. Oh, but, Mom, you should hear him and Russ together. It’s hard to tell their voices apart.”

“Did Russ do okay? With the other boys?” Rosemary had fretted about that, too—that her grandson from tiny Taylor’s Grove, Kentucky, would be thought of as a hick by his big-city teammates.

“You should’ve seen him. Had them eating out of his hand before the meeting was over.”

Just like his dad at that age, Rosemary thought wryly. She supposed she should be grateful to Jeff for providing their grandson with a set of extrovert genes.

“I met the coach,” Maggie went on. “Seems like a good guy, and—” There was a sharp knock. “The bellman’s here with my bag, Mom, so I better go. I’m meeting Jeff for dinner.”

Rosemary’s heart gave a loud thump. “Oh, dear, Maggie. Is that wise?”

Maggie’s snort sounded forced. “I’m a big girl. I can handle Jeff Wells just fine.”

Rosemary wasn’t so sure. She bit back all the warnings suddenly pressing on her tongue. “Just be careful, Maggie. Watch out for...the traffic.”

“I will. Gotta go. Love you.”

Before she could get out a goodbye, the phone went dead. She slipped it back into her purse. “She’s having dinner with Jeff.”

“The son of a bitch.”

Eli responded to the news exactly the way he always responded to Jeff’s name when Russ wasn’t around. She hoped his blood pressure didn’t shoot up. “If Maggie and Jeff can get along around Russ, that’s a good thing, right?”

Eli’s face flushed bright red. “The son of a bitch left my daughter and his son and moved as far away across the country as he could. There’s no forgetting that.”

She agreed but didn’t say so. Images of the ninety-five pounds Maggie withered to after the divorce still haunted Rosemary. There was no forgetting that, either.

They were in front of their house, but Rosemary pointed toward the end of the block. “It’s such a pretty night. Let’s keep walking. It’ll help us work off that chess pie we just ate.”

Eli grumbled an agreement and kept walking, charging up Baxter Hill like he had to put out a fire.

Maggie and Jeff were only going to be together for two days, Rosemary fretted silently. During that time, they had to move Russ into his dorm, go on tours, follow the team on a round of golf, have dinner with the other parents.

There wouldn’t be time for sparks to fly.

But they were having dinner tonight.

Rosemary tried to relax. Her daughter was now a savvy adult, finally over the man who had shattered her life. A successful businesswoman. A widow. But, despite the eighty-six-degree evening temperature, a shiver ran up Rosemary’s spine.

She fought off what she hoped wasn’t a premonition, quickening her step to keep up with Eli’s long stride.

* * *

JEFF HADN’T ANTICIPATED conversation would come so easily. But catching up on their parents’ health and Maggie’s genuine concern about his sister Chloe’s aggressive form of multiple sclerosis had taken them swiftly through cocktails. A lighter mood consisting of stories about Russ kept them laughing through appetizers and salad. So, by the time the entrées arrived, the food and alcohol had loosened their tongues and smoothed the edge of their tension, though it still lurked around their table, in the dark corner.

The food at Spiaggia was even better than he’d expected. He’d done his research online and made the reservations a couple of weeks ago, hoping he and Maggie might have some time alone to discuss a few things he wanted to get off his chest.

But this afternoon, her frazzled manner hadn’t been very encouraging. First, she’d turned him down at the café, and if he’d told her the truth—that he’d already made reservations for two tonight—he wasn’t sure she’d have agreed. But he’d played it smart and acted as if this was all spur-of-the-moment. An approach that apparently worked because here they were.

“You really do look amazing. Pictures I’ve seen haven’t done you justice.” He tilted the conversation toward the more personal side. “I know I said that earlier, but I mean it. And that dress is stunning.”

The sleeveless black sheath with the round neck was classy without being overdone. It played nicely against the dark roots of her hair and the blond highlights and showed just enough cleavage to be enticing. Her hair was tucked behind her ears and hefty diamond studs winked at him in the light of the candles on the table.

He wondered if they had been a present from Zeke, which sent a pang of guilt through him. He needed to address that issue. The sooner the better.

“Thanks.” She shrugged, her fork paused in midair. “I threw it in at the last minute. I’m always afraid of not packing something a little dressy. This one’s great because the knit doesn’t wrinkle.”

Not to mention how it fit those curves.

She took another bite of her gnocchi with wild boar ragù, and his eyes were drawn once again to the full, luscious lips that closed around the fork.

A jolt of stiffness in his groin had him shifting in his seat. He took a drink of wine to ease the discomfort. It didn’t help much, but, combined with the Crown Royal he’d had before dinner, he found the liquid courage he needed to make the apology he’d been wanting to deliver personally for a long time.

“Mags.” He set the glass down and something about his manner must have clued her in. She rested her fork on her plate. “I wanted to apologize for not being there—”

She adjusted her napkin in her lap. “It couldn’t be helped, Jeff. Russ understood. We all understood. A ruptured appendix? You could’ve died.”

“Well, yeah, missing his graduation totally sucked,” he agreed. The subject would always be a sore one for him. “But that’s not what I’m apologizing for. I want to tell you how sorry I am I didn’t come to Zeke’s funeral.”

“Oh...that.” Her voice went small, and she bypassed her wineglass to grab a sip of water.

“I talked myself out of it...thinking about the awkwardness of being there with all your family. But I should’ve been there for Russ.” He reached across the table and laid his hand on top of hers. “I was a coward, and I’m sorry.”

He felt her hand tremble before she eased it from under his and rested it in her lap. “It’s okay. Really. Having Russ come out and spend that next week with you was smart. It got him away from...from my grief for a little while. It was the best thing for him.”

“Zeke must’ve been a great guy,” he continued. “Russ was sure crazy about him.”

Her chin quivered, and he could see the glimmer of unshed tears in her eyes. “Yes, he was...crazy about him.” She drew a long breath, her breasts swelling, pushing tight against the neckline of her dress. “Russ seemed fond of Jennifer, too.” She pointedly dropped the subject of her deceased husband. “He thought she might be the one for you.”

Jennifer.

Just the thought of the woman caused Jeff’s teeth to clench.

“Hardly,” he answered.

Maggie raised an eyebrow in unspoken question, giving him the opportunity to go on or not. “Jennifer was the jealous type,” he answered, and took a sip of his wine to get rid of the bad taste talking about the woman left in his mouth.

Maggie gave him a cool look, her mouth drawing into a smirk. “I’ve found it’s usually the man who gives the woman a reason to be jealous.”

A flare of irritation burned in Jeff’s stomach. “Maybe.” He nodded and shot her a defiant glare. “Yeah, you’re absolutely right. It was my fault, but I don’t give a rat’s ass. She was jealous of Russ.”

Her face sobered. “Oh. Sorry.”

“She didn’t want our summers ‘taken up by him.’” He emphasized Jennifer’s phrasing by making quotation marks in the air with his fingers. “Or our Christmases. She decided a two-week visit every other year would be more than sufficient. Can you imagine?”

“No, I can’t.” Maggie finally took another bite of her food, though with decidedly less enthusiasm than before.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get us off on a bad subject. We were having a good time before we started talking about all this. And it sounds like you do a much better job than I do at picking significant others.”

He’d meant to lighten the conversation with his self-criticism, but, to his horror, Maggie’s chin quivered again. And then a tear slid down her cheek...followed by another...and another.

“Damn, Mags. I’m sorry. I should’ve realized it would still be difficult for you to talk about Zeke. It’s only been...what? Three years? Let’s just drop it. How’s your gnocchi? Good?”

He was aware he was just talking to hear his head rattle at this point and not helping a damn thing. Maggie’s tears were coming harder and faster, though thankfully, silently. The tip of her nose brightened to hot pink.

“Can I pour you some more wine?” he offered, lamely, and then convinced himself to shut his damn mouth before he made things any worse.

Like things could be any worse.

Maggie’s body shook with the effort to bring her tears under control, and he sat and watched, helplessly shamed into silence.

When, at last, she could speak, she looked at him and shook her head. “Zeke wasn’t a great guy, Jeff. He wasn’t like everybody thought he was.” Pain flashed from the gorgeous green irises now rimmed in red. “Marrying him was the biggest mistake of my life.”

CHAPTER THREE

MIXING LIQUOR AND the emotional roller coaster she was on today had been a major mistake. Maggie regretted her words as soon as they left her mouth.

“Did the bastard abuse you?” Jeff’s grip on his wineglass visibly tightened.

“No.” She rubbed the area over her right eyebrow where a rhythmic throb pulsated. Why had she brought this up now? “Never mind. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“But you did.” His mouth and eyes narrowed with insistence. “Now you have to finish.”

“I’ve never told anyone. Not even Mom.”

“I don’t know what this deep, dark secret is.” Jeff reached across the table, and this time he didn’t just lay his hand on top of hers. He grasped it and held on firmly. “My son was in that environment. I have a right to know what went on.”

“It wasn’t anything that ever happened around Russ.” She tried for an assuring tone, but his touch caused the breath she’d almost gotten under control to quiver erratically again. “You surely can’t believe I would ever allow anyone to lay a hand on him.”

“For God’s sake, Mags, tell me what we’re discussing here.” His grip became a near-squeeze.

If she’d used her napkin as a gag, which she now wished she had, her mouth couldn’t have gone any drier. A sip of water helped lubricate the passage of the words she’d swallowed so many times. “The last week Zeke was alive...two days before he went into the coma...he told me he’d been having an affair for quite some time. Five of the six years we’d been married.”

Sympathy softened Jeff’s stern look, but his shoulders sagged in obvious relief that this didn’t involve Russ. “Wow, that must have been staggering for you.”

She nodded. “He told me he was deeply in love with her and had planned to ask me for a divorce. But then the brain tumor was diagnosed, and it seemed foolish to put everyone through that additional heartbreak.”

“So why tell you at all?”

Maggie sipped some more water, giving herself time to decide if she could get through this. “He wanted to see her.”

Jeff released his hold and leaned back as if he needed to view her from a wider angle. “You didn’t...”

“Yeah, I did.” The lead brick that had pressed on her heart for three years began to crumble as she finally shared the horrific details she’d kept bottled up. “I called and told her he was asking for her. She took more than a little convincing...seemed bent on the idea that I was luring her down there to make a spectacle of confronting her in front of people. But she finally came, and I gave them several hours alone to say their goodbyes. I put a no-visitors sign on the door so they wouldn’t be interrupted.”

Jeff closed his eyes, and when he opened them he pinned her with a look that was a mixture of incredulity and disbelief. “Why?”

“Why not?”

“He was unfaithful and you rewarded him?”

“He was dying. I would hardly call that a reward.”

“But for you to be civil to her... Kind, even.”

She shrugged. It was difficult to explain why she had handled things the way she did. “Something was never right between Zeke and me. We got along. Had a good time together. He was good to Russ. But I think I married him more out of loneliness than love.” She stopped short of admitting there had never been the rush of adrenaline for Zeke the way there had been for him—even her reaction at seeing him today. The surge of primal pleasure that time and emotional pain could not erase. She paused for breath and shook some propriety back into her logic center. “I shouldn’t be discussing this with you. It’s too personal. You and I are practically strangers now.”

“We’ll never be strangers, Mags.”

“Well, maybe not strangers,” she acquiesced. “But thirteen years without face-to-face contact is a long time.”

His mouth rose slightly on one end. “Too long.” His tone brought a flutter to her stomach that she attempted to stymie with a gulp of wine. “So why didn’t you tell anyone? I mean, the sorrow and grief must’ve been unbearable. It might’ve helped to talk to somebody.”

“I considered talking to Mom, but that felt like a knee-jerk reaction, and it would only upset her. I thought about counseling, but, with him gone, the affair seemed like more of a testimony against me than him. It was hard to admit to myself, much less somebody else, that I’d made such a huge mistake. Again.” Her voice broke on the last word.

Jeff glanced away, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed hard. She knew that mannerism. It was what he did when he was upset or displeased, and she felt the weight of that displeasure in her stomach.

Yeah, I failed at my second marriage, too. She didn’t have to say the words. She knew what he was thinking.

No longer hungry, she pushed her plate back and dabbed her mouth with her napkin.

“Do you want dessert?” Sure enough, Jeff’s normally rich tone was flat.

“No. I’m tired. I really just want to go back to the room and relax.” She tried not to show how disappointed she was with the turn things had taken. The pleasant night of catching up and easy banter had morphed into a queasy stomach and a brain that now felt like a tympani being pounded by dueling mallets.

The only relief came when Jeff paid the bill and she was able to escape into the open air. “Thanks for dinner. The food was delicious,” she said as they crossed the intersection by Oak Street Beach. The balmy breeze coming off Lake Michigan soothed her frayed nerves. Normally she would have wanted to linger but not tonight. Tonight she’d exposed too much, left herself vulnerable.

“You’re welcome,” he answered. “But what’s your hurry?”

She hadn’t realized how fast she’d been walking, not allowing her platform stilettos to hinder her determined gait. She slowed her pace, letting him keep up, not wanting to give the impression she was running from him. But when he drew close enough that their arms brushed, she sped up again—her body’s involuntary reaction to a dangerous stimulus.

The hotel doorman saw them coming and welcomed them again into the vast lobby.

“Do you want to have a nightcap?” Jeff indicated the lounge where a few dancers swayed to the beat of the slow, sultry tune crooned by a smoky-voiced singer.

Emphatically no, Maggie thought. Not with escape so close. But she managed a smile and a “no, thanks.”

Jeff shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged. “Well, I think I hear a drink begging to be savored.”

The ding of the elevator provided the perfect opening for a quick good-night. “Have a nice night, then. I’ll meet you here in the morning at eight-fifteen.” Maggie backed away toward the waiting car. “Thanks again for dinner.”

Jeff nodded but stayed where he was, his dark eyes trained on her until the doors closed.

It wasn’t until he was completely cut off from her sight that the breath she’d been holding since she’d first glimpsed him ten hours earlier finally made a slow exit from her lungs.

* * *

“MACALLAN 25. STRAIGHT.” The bartender placed the cut-glass crystal on the bar. The low lighting caught in the ornate design, twinkling like captured stars.

Jeff lifted the heavy glass and swirled the dark amber liquid, hesitating long enough to enjoy the smoky essence before the burn hit his lips, then his tongue and his throat. He usually went for the less expensive Scotch, but he needed something to help get the night back to the perfection it had started with. It had disintegrated quickly with the first mention of Zeke.

The bastard. Putting Mags through that kind of hell in addition to everything else she was going through at the time.

She’d shown remarkable fortitude. Admirable. And to never have told anyone—not even her mother—showed how much she’d changed since they’d split up...how little he knew about her now. It seemed odd now he thought about it, but he and his son rarely discussed the boy’s mother.

There was a time when Mags went straight to her mother with everything, which was convenient as her parents lived right next door. The arrangement had continually made him feel ganged up on. Whenever he and Mags argued, she always sought out her parents to support her side. And they never failed to take it.

“You get the prize for having the best taste.”

Jeff turned to the voice beside him. A guy, vaguely familiar and big enough to have been a linebacker for the Chargers, settled on the bar stool beside him.

“Nothing quite like The Macallan,” Jeff agreed, and held the glass up to admire the color again.

“Crown Royal on the rocks,” his companion said to the bartender and then turned back to Jeff with a sly grin. “I’m sure the Scotch is good, but I was referring to your wife. She wasn’t just the best-looking mom at the meeting today, she was also the youngest. Must’ve had your son when she was fifteen.”

“Nineteen,” Jeff corrected him. “And she’s not my wife. We’ve been divorced a long time.”

“Even better.”

The next sip burned Jeff’s mouth for an exceptionally long time.

“Spike Grainger.” The newcomer held out his hand. “My son Matt’s a freshman on the team, too.”

Jeff shook his hand. “Jeff Wells, Russ’s dad.”

The bartender set Spike’s drink in front of him, and he reached for it with his left hand. No wedding band.

A trickle squeezed through Jeff’s constricted throat muscles.

“Yeah, Russ’s mom—what’s her name?”

“Maggie.”

“Cute. The way she kept blushing when her stomach was growling.” Spike gave a hearty chuckle. “I saw you guys coming in together a few minutes ago. I assumed you’d been to dinner.”

The reminder of dinner sent Jeff’s mood further south. “We had.” He was being curt, but he already didn’t like Spike, whose presence was flavoring his Scotch in an unpleasant way.

“Been divorced a long time, yet you’re here together, making it work for Russ.” Spike took a gulp and smacked his lips in appreciation. “Good for you.”

“You divorced?” Jeff changed tactics and tried to shift the attention away from him and Mags.

“Three weeks. Married for twenty-four years. She’s on her honeymoon.”

Spike became as transparent then as the crystal in Jeff’s hand. The man was trolling—and Mags was in his sights. Hell, he’d been there himself. That giddy feeling of freedom came edged with loneliness and even a sense of desperation. For the first couple of years, he’d swung from woman to woman like a monkey making its way through the jungle.

Had Mags done that, too?

He shouldn’t care, but the idea pricked at his heart just the same. She was, after all, the mother of his son. He didn’t know much about her and those first two or three years. They’d talked every day, but her reports were always simply that—reports on Russ. They never just chatted about what was going on in their lives. He’d found out a little more, but not much, about Mags through Russ once their son had gotten old enough to make the daily calls himself. He was a talker, that one.

A sudden image of the drive from the airport flashed in his mind—Russ keeping up the constant chatter and Mags with her white-knuckle hold on the steering wheel. And her tearful confession at dinner.

She may be a grown woman, but, in a myriad of ways, she was still that small-town girl he’d known...and loved.

A long-dormant protective instinct kicked in as he swallowed the rest of his Macallan in one gulp and set the glass down on the bar. “Nice meeting you,” he lied as he pulled enough bills from his wallet to take care of his bill and a hefty tip.

“See you tomorrow.” Spike saluted him with his drink.

The irony of the situation struck Jeff full force as he walked to the elevator. He was here in Chicago to move his eighteen-year-old son into the thick of the metropolis. Russ had spent the past thirteen summers of his life in San Diego, along with various other times such as spring and Christmas breaks. The kid took to city life like a native, never the least bit fazed by the crowds or the traffic. Jeff had no qualms whatsoever about Russ’s being here.