Anything for You (Blue Heron #5)(62)

If she’d said yes, they’d be planning their own wedding. Or maybe, they’d already be married.

“Hey, dude,” came a voice. Paulie, who was about five-foot-three and solid muscle. “Jess. How’s it hanging?”

“I...I never know how to answer that question. But I’m good. Congratulations about your dad getting married.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool!” Paulie said. “And Con, that means you and Coll and I are kinda related.”

He grinned and punched Paulie lightly on the shoulder. It was hard not to feel jealous. “I should get back to Blue Heron,” Jess said. “My break is almost over.”

“I’ll email you with those beer descriptions,” Connor said. “Thanks again. This was great.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a check.

“Oh. Um...thanks,” Jess said.

Transaction completed.

Maybe he was over her, she thought as he went over to the table where Jeanette was sitting with her fiancé and Colleen.

This will be the last time you break up with me.

He really did seem...fine.

Jess’s throat was tight.

It would’ve been nice if she felt the same way. An unexpected wave of longing for the way things had been made her knees wobble. Those secret dates at his place, the way it felt when he opened the door and smiled at her, the way he hugged her so tight. The way he kissed her.

All told, she’d slept with twelve men, eleven of them when she was in high school. Only one since. The only one who’d ever made her feel...cherished.

“Jessica?”

She jumped.

It was her father. “What do you want?” she said, all her soft thoughts blown away.

“Do you have a minute?”

“For what?”

“Just a minute to talk, Jessie.”

She glanced around. The bar was mostly empty; the O’Rourke-Petrosinsky group the only people sitting at a table in the back. Victor Iskin was sitting at the bar with his latest taxidermied pet there on display, and Jordan was eying Connor and wiping the same spot on the counter over and over.

“I have to be back at work in fifteen minutes,” she said.

“I won’t take that long.”

With a deep breath, Jessica sat back down in the booth she’d just shared with Connor. Heard him laugh from across the room. Connor didn’t know Keith was here; he’d be at her side in a heartbeat if he did.

“What is it?” she asked.

Keith sat down. “I was wondering if you’d given any thought to my request.”

He smelled like soap. This was new. In her memory, her father always had that rank smell of cheap beer and stale cigarette smoke. His eyes were clear and blue, the long, straight lashes just like Davey’s. He’d lost the gross little beer gut he’d sported and was now skinny as a shoelace.

She didn’t say anything.

“I miss him, is all,” her father said, his voice husky.

“I’m sure you do,” she said. “Eight years is a long time to go without seeing someone.”

Another chorus of laughter came from the O’Rourke table.

“I owe you an apology for what I said last week,” Keith said. “You didn’t exaggerate anything. Your mother and I let you be the adult while I did nothing. I acknowledge that, and I’m sorry, Jess. You deserve the Medal of Honor as far as I’m concerned.”

“I love my brother more than anything or anyone. When I tell you I would kill anyone who’d hurt him, don’t think I’m exaggerating.”

“Oh, I believe you,” her father said with a sad smile. “You always were so fierce. Listen, I just want to see him. You can breathalyze me. Call my sponsor at AA if you want. I’ve waited over a thousand days for this, to make sure it would stick this time, that I could do it. Please, Jess. It can be however you want it. Just give me a chance to see him.”

She could feel the pulse in her stomach.

Davey had been so quiet this past week. A little somber, which was so unlike him, except for when Mom had died.

And he’d been so happy to see their father the other night.

Jessica glanced at her watch. Then she looked at her father. “We have drum circle tonight at seven over at the Art League. Next to the pizza place. You can come to that. Nothing afterward. You tell Davey you have to go when he asks if you can come over.”

“Oh, Jessie, thank you,” he breathed. “Thank you.”

“It goes without saying that if I ever smell even the faintest hint of alcohol on you, I’ll get a restraining order. I used to sleep with the police chief, don’t forget.” She stood up, suddenly desperate to get back to work, to her clean office, to her tidy computer files.

“Understood.” Her father grabbed her hand. “I won’t let you down.”

She pulled her hand away. “That would be a first.”

* * *

“COME ON,” DAVEY SAID. “I don’t want to be late for drum circle! I love drum circle! Jess! We’re gonna miss drum circle!”

“We’re not late. See? It’s ten of. Just calm down.” But Davey was out of the car and running for the entrance the second she pulled into the parking lot.

Jess got out and sighed. This wasn’t what she yearned to do in her free time, but boy, did Davey love it.