Playing for Keeps (Texas Scoundrels) (31 page)

“I don’t know, Dad,” she said. “Maybe.”

The reporter quieted as Jed walked up to the podium amid flashing bulbs and bright lights from the cameras. He looked handsome in a suit she was fairly certain was Armani. His expression somber, he approached the podium, a sheaf of papers clutched in his hands.

“Thank you for coming,” Jed said, but his tone lacked sincerity. He set the papers on the podium in front of the bank of microphones. The cameras continued to flash. “I have a prepared statement, then I’ll take questions.”

Griffen simply stared as Jed looked directly at the cameras and told his side of the story. He told them about the affair he’d had with her sister, and how he’d never known until a few weeks ago of his son’s existence, nor had his son’s adopted parents known he was the biological father. He didn’t lie, but he didn’t sugar coat the truth, either. He simply explained why he’d never had any contact with his son.

He finished his statement and reporters shouted questions. The demands for attention came fast and furious, and Griffen couldn’t decipher all of the questions. Jed held up his hands to stop them, then called on the reporter she’d seen earlier from the sports network.

“Jed, will you be taking custody of your son?”

Griffen held her breath. Austin bit his bottom lip, his attention solely on his father. Jed had promised her that he had no intention of taking Austin away from her, but he did want to be a part of his son’s life.
 

“No,” he answered, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
 

“Will you share joint custody with the boy’s adopted mother?”

“Mrs. Somerfield and I only have an informal arrangement at this time.”

They did? If that was the case, he’d failed to let her in on the details. They shared a son. And a bed, which was pretty informal when she thought about it. Maybe that was the cause of her unsettled feelings. She and Jed had never really come to an agreement, informal or otherwise, about Austin. The only time they’d discussed their relationship was when she’d told him they didn’t have one. Everything had happened so quickly, even she couldn’t be certain of where they were headed. She’d worked hard to get her life back under control, and the unresolved issue with Jed only kept her feeling scattered.

“Is there any truth to the rumor that Mrs. Somerfield contacted you prior to filing a paternity action against you for thirteen years of child support?”

“No.” Jed’s eyebrows pulled into a deep frown. “None at all.”

“Will Mrs. Somerfield and your son be relocating to Buffalo with you?” the sports network reporter asked. “Or do you plan to have a long distance relationship with your son?”

Buffalo? As in New York?
 

Austin looked at her and frowned. “What are they talking about, Mom? What long distance relationship?”
 

“I don’t know, Slick.”

“We haven’t yet discussed the details,” Jed said, then turned to answer another question.

Griffen’s heart sank. Abject pain filled a place deep inside, the place Jed had touched, the place filled with her love for him. As much as he’d reiterated the uncertainty of his future, she had a sinking suspicion he’d just made a decision. If the people in Buffalo were making him an offer that would keep him actively involved with the sport he loved, he just might take it. He'd said football was all he knew. How could he not take it? He would walk out of their lives as quickly as he had walked in—leaving her and Austin behind in Texas.

“Mom? Did you know Dad was going to New York?”

Dad
. She’d never heard Austin refer to Jed as
dad
before, only
my dad
, or
my
real
dad
. Dad was personal. Dad indicated a relationship.
 

“No, I didn’t,” she said around the disappointment lodged in her throat.
 

 
She had to be strong to face what she’d suspected all along...Jed simply wasn’t the stick around type.
 

Somehow she’d have to make Austin understand that Jed’s moving to New York had nothing to do with him, but everything to do with Jed’s career. Fathers had careers all the time that took them away from their families for periods of time.
 

Only they weren’t a family. They were Austin, his adopted mother, and a professional quarterback for a father.
 

She watched through a haze as the reporters continued to bombard him with questions about his career, his injury and his recovery. His answers were short and concise, and never once did he mention he’d entertained the idea of retirement. Football was his game, he told them. A game that was his life.
 

And it looked like the game could be taking Jed away.

Seventeen
 

BY THE TIME Griffen and Austin returned home, the reporters and their news vans were thankfully gone. They had their story—for now.

Griffen had heard nothing from Jed, so she had no idea if he would come to say good-bye or catch the next flight to Buffalo. Regardless of the fantasy they’d all been living the past couple of weeks, deep down she’d known he would eventually leave. Shame on her for believing otherwise. She should have prepared Austin more than she had, too. If she'd followed her instincts and never contacted Jed to begin with, Austin wouldn't be in his room brooding over the fact that he was losing his father before he really got a chance to know him, and she wouldn't be nursing her already broken heart.

She wished he would call, send her a text. Anything. At least then she’d know what the hell he had planned. The phone had rung a few times, but since it wasn’t Jed calling, she'd let them all roll into voice mail, fearing more calls from reporters wanting a statement. She ignored them, not wanting to talk to anyone.

Anyone except Jed.

The doorbell rang, and for half a second she considered ignoring it, but it could be Jed. She went to the front hall and peered out the side curtain. The sight of a sheriff’s deputy standing on her doorstep had her stomach roiling. Nothing good ever came from having a cop at the door.

With trembling fingers, she flipped on the porch light and unlocked the door. “Can I help you?” she asked, surprised her voice worked.

“Mrs. Somerfield?”

His no nonsense demeanor did nothing to dispel her fears. “Yes. I’m Griffen Somerfield.”

He thrust a clipboard at her. “Sign here, please.”

She scanned the form which only indicated she’d be acknowledging receipt of legal documents. “What is this for?” she asked as she signed the form, then handed the clipboard back to the deputy.

 
“You’ve been served, ma’am.” He handed her a large manila envelope. “I’m really sorry.”

Unable to find her voice, she nodded, then closed the door. Served? But she’d talked to Keith Shelton only hours ago. He’d been so pleased when she’d advised him she’d have all of her debts with the bank not only brought current, but paid off, just as soon as she received the check from the auctioneer. Surely she wasn’t being sued at this stage.

Heart pounding, she carefully lifted the flap and withdrew a thick sheaf of papers from the envelope. She scanned the face sheet and her knees went weak.
 

No
.
 

He wouldn’t. He’d promised.

He lied
.

She reached for the wall for support because her legs were in danger of giving out on her. A strangled sound tore from her throat as an intense pain squeezed her chest. Jed wasn’t only suing her for custody of Austin, he’d filed an emergency petition, asking the court to vacate the adoption—in only four days.
 

In four days, Friday afternoon at two o’clock, she could lose her son.
 

She flipped through the documents. Just as she’d feared, he was alleging her adoption of Austin was illegal because he wasn’t given proper notice that his parental rights were going to be terminated. She read the petition carefully, each line striking her heart, tearing it apart. He didn’t lie. There no exaggerations of the truth. Only the cold hard facts. She had illegally adopted Austin because Dani had lied under oath at the involuntary termination hearing when she’d claimed she didn’t know the identity of Austin’s biological father.

The tears she had no hope of holding back blurred her vision and burned her throat. She slid down the wall to the ceramic tiled floor, clutching the court papers to her chest and sobbed.

*

Griffen tossed back the shot of bourbon, then poured herself another. In the two hours since she’d been served, despite her valiant attempt to numb the anguish at the expense of her liver, the pain hadn’t ebbed. She had serious doubts it ever would, either.

Then there was the anger. She seethed with it, and the bourbon was more fuel to her fire than a numbing agent to her pain. After all she’d done to pull her life out of the hell Ross had left her in, she’d mistakenly believed she and Austin would have a new beginning. She’d downsized, found a nine-to-five job close to home. But after talking to her future brother-in-law, she realized she’d been wasting her time. Trenton hadn’t been all that encouraging. Legally, Jed held all the cards. The bastard even had the winning hand. Because according to Trenton, no judge was going to deny restoring Jed’s parental rights.
 

She sipped the whiskey and set the glider to rocking again. A light breeze stirred the leaves on the trees, and she heard the croaking of the frogs down by the water. While she wouldn’t miss this house because of what it represented to her, she would miss the quiet nights on the back porch as the water from the lake rhythmically lapped at the shoreline. She'd miss the gentle breezes on summer evenings and the occasional wildlife that ventured across her back lawn. And the quiet. She wouldn’t have that in town, but considering she could very well be completely alone, maybe being so isolated wasn’t a good idea.
 

She didn’t know what to think. Try as she might, she simply could not figure out what was going through Jed’s mind. One on hand, he was generous to a fault, setting up a trust fund for Austin with more money than he’d ever need in his lifetime. She supposed since he was already paying for one child that wasn't even his, no way was he going to deny his biological progeny a secure future. Too bad the only future Austin wanted was one with his father...a father who up until she’d been served with court papers, would’ve only seen his son during the off season when he wasn’t in Buffalo, New York.

Then there was the other hand. The one where Jed was a backstabbing, low-life cowardly bastard. Dammit, they’d discussed this. He’d promised he’d never take Austin away from her. But one fancy job offer from Buffalo and all that changed—without so much as a phone call to warn her he was going to be ripping her heart out of her chest and stomping all over it with his cleats.

The rat bastard
.

The hinges on the back door squeaked and she looked up, expecting to find Austin. Instead, it was the rat bastard himself. He still wore the suit he’d worn for the press conference. His hair was mussed, as if he’d been running his hands through it all evening. He looked miserable, and she didn’t care. Not any longer.

Right now, she despised him.

“Griffen—”

“I saw the press conference,” she said. “There’s nothing left to explain.”

He crossed the porch and moved to sit beside her on the glider. “Sweetheart—”

“Don’t call me that.” She came off the glider as if she’d been shot from a cannon. “Don’t touch me. Don’t you
dare
touch me.” She stood at the railing and faced the lake because she couldn’t stand to look at him, couldn’t bear for him to see the pain he’d caused her, how he’d broken her heart.
 

“It’s over.” The tightening of her chest squeezed and made it difficult to breathe. “I know it was just sex for you, but I can’t play that game. I don’t know why I thought I could.”
 

He moved beside her and turned, propping his backside against the railing. The moonlight cast his face in haunted shadows, making the chiseled lines more prominent, more...determined. “We need to talk.”

She threw him an incredulous look. “Seriously? I thought the papers I was served with tonight pretty much said it all.”

“What are you talking about?”

She turned and snagged the court documents off the table next to the bottle of Kentucky bourbon. “These,” she said as she planted them against his chest with a smack. He clamped his hand over hers, but she yanked it away. “Go fuck yourself, Maitland. You’re not taking my son away from me.”

His frown deepened as he scanned the documents. “There must be some mistake,” he said. “I have no intention of taking Austin away from you.”

She wanted to flip him off. She wanted to throw the half empty bottle of Jack Daniels at his head. Instead, she poured herself another shot and tossed it back. “You’re goddamned right you won’t.”
 

He looked at her curiously. “Are you drunk?”

“I’m trying to be.”

“And how’s that working for you?”

She let out a sigh as she dropped onto the glider. “Not so good.” Leaning forward, she rested her head in her hands. “How could you do this? After everything, how could you go behind my back like that and petition the court to take Austin away from me?” She looked up at him. “I told you I’d never deny you your son. Does my word mean nothing to you?”