I Wish You Were Mine (Oxford #2)(74)

“See, Molls, while you were busy falling in love, Jackson was busy trying to get his old life back.”

“What do you mean?”

“Jackson accepted a coaching job with the Redhawks.”

Mollie felt the blood leave her face.

“Oh.” Madison made a fake sad face. “Did he not mention it?”

No, he had not mentioned it. He hadn’t even mentioned that he wanted a coaching job, much less that he’d accepted one.

Mollie racked her brain trying to think of a reason. An excuse. An explanation. But she had nothing.

He’d had every opportunity to tell her. To confide in her. Instead he’d confided in Madison.

Mollie stopped breathing for a moment as the rest of the pieces fell into place.

“That’s right,” Madison said, her voice resuming its usual sugary tone. “The new job means he’ll be coming back to Texas. Jackson’s coming home, Mollie. That’s why he told me instead of you. I’m his home.”

Mollie struggled to breathe as Madison stood, pushing her hair over her shoulder. “You know, on second thought, I don’t think I have an appetite.”

She pulled a few bills out of her wallet and dropped them on the table as she walked by, pausing when she stood even with Mollie’s chair.

Her sister’s hand touched her shoulder gently. “I love you, Mollie. I really do. But I’m sure you’ll understand why I won’t be asking you to be my maid of honor again at my and Jackson’s second wedding. And sweetie…there will be another wedding.”





Chapter 28


Jackson was just adding tomato to his massive turkey sandwich when he heard the front door open.

“Hey, babe,” he called, licking mayo from his thumb. “You eat? I can make another sandwich real fast.”

Mollie didn’t respond. When he glanced over his shoulder, he froze. Something was wrong. No, “wrong” didn’t even cover it. He didn’t think he’d ever seen someone as pale and angry as his girl looked right now.

He forgot all about the sandwich and moved toward her. “Mollie, what happened?”

“You’re moving to Texas?”

Jackson’s head snapped back as his heart seemed to stop beating.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuuuucccccckkk!

How had she found out? The only people who knew were Coach, a handful of the guys, and…

God damn it. How the hell had he not seen that coming? He’d been so wrapped up in making sure Mollie didn’t tell Madison about them that he’d never once considered that Madison would tell Mollie about the job.

Jackson closed his eyes. “You talked to your sister.”

“Yeah, she’s in town,” Mollie said, dropping her purse to the floor with a careless thud. “Which I’m surprised you didn’t know, what with her being your confidante and all.”

Jackson fought down the surge of panic. “Mollie, look, I know how this must seem, but—”

“No, I don’t think you can possibly know how it seems, Jackson. I’ve been in absolute hell, trying to figure out how to tell my sister about this thing between us. And just when I finally manage to break it to her, I learn that the joke’s on me. That I’m the clueless idiot, not her.”

And there was the second blow: finding out that Madison knew about him and Mollie.

Jackson waited to feel something: guilt, relief, confusion. But his brain didn’t even seem to want to bother with that little fact. And his heart definitely didn’t. His heart was too busy sounding a red alert over the devastation on Mollie’s face.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, her voice breaking.

God. He stepped forward, but she took a pace back.

“No, actually, you don’t have to answer that. I can guess why you didn’t tell me. Maybe you were putting it off, trying to figure out how to let me down easy. But Madison? Was all this talk about how she was dead to you a lie?”

“No. Of course not.” He rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. “But I didn’t know she’d even gotten involved until Coach told me.”

Mollie stilled. “So she did this without your involvement? Went behind your back to get you the job?”

His throat hurt at the sudden hope he saw on her face. For a horrible moment he wanted to lie to her—to make this all go away by telling her that the coaching job had been all Madison’s manipulation.

But when he opened his mouth to tell the fib, he found he couldn’t. He cared about her too damn much. She deserved the truth. And she deserved a man who was a hell of a lot better than he was. A man who would stand by her—one whose future didn’t involve a football field in Texas.

He couldn’t be that man. He wasn’t cut out for the life she wanted, with the parties and the Central Park walks and the suits. What place did a rough-around-the-edges cowboy have with a woman poised to pursue her Ph.D.?

He forced himself to meet her eyes. “I told her. That day she came into my office, I told her that I’d been talking to Coach. That I wanted the job.”

She bit her bottom lip so hard it turned white. “How long? How long were you trying to get back to Texas?” He said nothing, and she took another step back. “The whole time? This whole freaking time? Why did you even come to New York in the first place?”