Not Quite Dating(68)

A house of our own. Jessie had a hard time picturing it. In the space of one holiday season, her life had completely changed. Grown.
“Danny, about the Uncle Jack…”
Danny stopped hugging Jack long enough to look at him. “Yeah?”
“When your mom and I get married, I can’t be your uncle Jack anymore.”
Danny’s smile fell. A cold chill fell on all of them.
“That’s because Jack will be your dad,” Jessie said quickly.
“My dad?” His little lip started to shake. A confused set of eyes peered up at them.
“I’m new at being a dad, Danny. Do you think you can teach me the ropes?” Jessie grasped Jack’s hand as he spoke.
The uncertainty on Danny’s face worried her.
“My real dad didn’t want me,” he said with surprising fear in his voice. “He left us.”
Jessie’s heart shattered with her little boy’s words.
Jack pulled her son close. “I’m never going to leave you, Danny. I love you and your mom more than anything in this whole world.”
“Really?”
“Really!”
“Jack wants to adopt you, and then both of us will have a new last name,” Jessie told her son. “Would you like that?”
Danny bobbed his head.
The three of them hugged and Jack wiped away Danny’s tears.
“Do I get to call you Daddy?”
Jack’s smile lit up the room. “I’d love it if you called me Daddy.”
“OK.” Danny sniffled a couple of times before bouncing out of Jack’s lap. He picked up the magazine and thumbed through its pages.
“I think that went well,” Jessie told Jack once Danny had moved away from them.
“He had me worried there for a minute,” Jack confessed. “He looked so scared when I told him I’d be his dad.”
Jessie agreed. “He seldom asked about his real dad. I didn’t realize how much it bothered him.”
“That’s all over with from today on.”
Jessie’s chest felt full again. “I love you, Jack.”
Jack folded her into his arms and kissed her soundly. It seemed he couldn’t keep from touching her. Outside of sleeping, Jack was either kissing her, holding her hand, or touching her knee. It was wonderful.
The sound of knocking pounded from the penthouse door.
“Do you want me to answer the door, Daddy?”
Unexpected tears sprang to Jessie’s eyes.
“That would be great, Danny.” Jessie noticed Jack’s eyes well up.
“Who’s here?” Jessie asked Jack as he swiped one fallen tear from her cheek.
Jack pulled her to her feet with another cryptic smile. “It’s time you meet the members of your new family.”
Danny opened the door and ran his gaze up the length of Jack’s father’s frame. The man was even more massive than Jessie remembered him. Of course, he was sitting in a chair the last time they’d met. In Gaylord’s hand was a cowboy hat similar to the one he had on his head…only smaller.
“Well, hello there, little partner. You must be Danny.” Gaylord Morrison extended his free hand.
Glancing at it, Danny went ahead and put his tiny palm in the much bigger one.
“You must be my new grandpa?”
Gaylord’s jaw dropped. Then his eyes widened. Jessie knew then where Jack had inherited his dimples.
“I think you’re right.”
“Is that for me?” Danny pointed to the hat.
“Only if it fits.”
Danny stepped closer to the big man and ducked his head so Gaylord could secure the Stetson.
Once properly crowned, Danny rolled his eyes up, trying to see the hat. “Does it fit, Grandpa?”
“Now you look like a Morrison,” Gaylord boasted before he swept Danny into his arms and tossed him in the air.
Danny giggled as Gaylord sat him back down, then lifted his arms. “Again.”
They all laughed.
The elevator outside the suite chimed.
Jessie glanced beyond Gaylord’s shoulder to see who was talking in the hall.
Monica filed into the room with a beautiful blonde at her side. The two of them had their heads together, and Monica was laughing about something. Jessie’s mom stood beside an older woman Jessie didn’t recognize.
Jack pulled her hand and led her to the party of people filing into the suite.
“Jessie, this is my father.”
Gaylord set Danny down and pulled Jessie into a bear hug. “You don’t know how happy it makes me to see you again.”
Overwhelmed by the man’s embrace, Jessie remembered her curt words to Jack’s father and felt remorseful. “I’m sorry for how we met,” Jessie apologized when Gaylord ended the hug and took a moment to stare at her.
“I’m not,” Gaylord said. “Jack needs a woman like you to keep him straight.”
Jack scowled at his father and continued his introductions. “This is Katie, my sister.”
Katie smiled in greeting. “You’re just like your sister described.”
“My sister? You guys know each other?” Jessie asked Monica.
“Kind of.” There was a story buried in Monica’s cryptic answer.
“What exactly do you mean, kind of?”
Monica sucked in her bottom lip. Bad sign. Jessie knew something was off.
“I called Monica after she searched out Jack here at the hotel,” Katie offered.
“You were looking for Jack?” Jessie asked her sister.
The sucking of Monica’s lip turned to chewing. “He disappeared. You were miserable.”
“I told the managers to call me if anyone came to the hotel asking for Jack Moore,” Katie chimed in.