Page 20 of The Secret Crush Book Club (Peach Blossom #3)

Fourteen

J ordan slammed into the house and if it were any other night, Dani would have said something.

As it was, she could understand his anger, considering when she had gotten to his dad’s house to pick him up, he was already sitting out on the front stoop with his overnight bag packed.

If not for trying to maintain her peace, she would have marched her ass into the house and demanded to know why their son was sitting outside in the dark by himself.

Instead, Dani had taken a few deep breaths, grabbed Jordan’s bag and hurried him to the car.

The drive home had been quiet, and she pretended not to see the dried tear tracks on his cheeks.

Dani was happy that he felt comfortable enough to call her and tell her to come get him, but he hadn’t responded to any of her questions.

After the third one was answered by silence, Dani decided to give it a rest until they got to the house.

When they walked in the front door, the house was quiet.

Dani knew Ava was out at Grace’s. She figured their dad was in his room watching television, and she didn’t want to get into why she was home earlier than the norm or why Jordan was here when he was supposed to be at his dad’s house until next week.

She figured the fewer people around when she tried to get him to open up and talk about what happened, the better.

“Why don’t you go on upstairs and get showered and then I’ll be up in just a minute, okay?”

Jordan’s fists clenched and Dani waited to see if he was going to say anything.

After a moment, he just nodded sharply before grabbing his bag and stomping up the stairs.

She walked into the kitchen and grabbed a cup before pouring herself a glass of water.

Her body was still thrumming from not only the adrenaline of picking up Jordan but also exhaustion and the slightest bit of arousal.

It was a strange mix that she wasn’t used to, and she needed a few minutes to collect herself before she could switch completely into mommy mode.

When she heard footsteps, she turned in time to see her dad walk into the kitchen.

“Why does it sound like a herd of wildebeest are stamping their way upstairs?” He gave her a once-over. “And why are you back home so early?”

Dani sighed before setting the cup on the kitchen counter. “I wasn’t planning on it, but Jordan called me and asked me to come pick him up from his dad’s house early.”

He raised an eyebrow and looked up at the ceiling before back at her. “He asked you to come pick him up a whole four days earlier? What the hell happened for him to do that?”

Dani shrugged, though it was more out of frustration than nonchalance.

“I’m not sure and he wouldn’t talk about it when we were in the car.

I told him to go upstairs and shower and that I would come up to see what’s going on when he was done.

” She crossed her arms and looked away. “That man had my baby sitting out on the front porch with his bag when I pulled up.”

“Oh. I’m sure it took everything in you not to go inside and raise hell, am I right?” When she nodded, he chuckled softly and shook his head. “Sometimes I wonder if that man has a death wish.”

“I don’t wonder if that man has a death wish, I know he does.” When Dani heard the water turn on upstairs, she dropped her arms and leaned back against the kitchen counter. “Sometimes, I’m wondering if things would have been better had I made some different decisions.”

“Different decisions?” her dad asked. “You mean different decisions about who you decided to lie with?”

Dani looked at him sharply, wondering if he was talking about Jacob or if he knew about her and Zoey.

She genuinely liked Zoey as a person and even though they hadn’t yet gone public with their relationship, they also weren’t hiding it either.

It was the same balancing act Dani had always done when it came to dating.

She wasn’t about to have a conversation with her dad or Jordan about it just yet, not when things were so new.

No, he had to be talking about her marriage with Jacob.

She decided to go with that and keep things with Zoey quiet for now.

Peach Blossom was a small enough town anyway that people would find out soon enough if they hadn’t suspected already.

“That among other decisions,” Dani said finally.

“I don’t know what goes on in that man’s head sometimes.

It’s like he doesn’t even try when it comes to Jordan, and I don’t know how much longer I can keep propping up this relationship.

But I know if I don’t keep at it, that I’ll be labeled as the bad guy for not facilitating the two of them spending time together. ”

Daniel nodded before walking over to the dining table and sitting down.

He pulled out the chair beside him and patted it, gesturing for Dani to join him.

She followed his lead, collapsing down into the chair as if the weight of not only the current situation but also her exhaustion fell to her shoulders.

“I know it feels like sometimes you’re doggy paddling against a rough current,” Daniel said. “If you haven’t heard it lately, I want you to know that I think you’re doing an excellent job raising Jordan and really keeping this entire household running.”

Dani knew it, but it was still good to hear. “Thanks, Pop. But now I need to figure out what’s going on with Jordan and if it’s even something that I can fix.”

Daniel nodded. “I get that, but you also need to try to come to terms with the fact that you might not be able to fix this. It’s not always up to you to fix something you weren’t the one to break.”

That idea sounded good in theory, but Dani didn’t really know how to utilize it in practice.

If there was something going on with Jordan, she had to be the one to fix it because if she didn’t, who would?

Jacob had taken a back seat when it came to Jordan, even right after he was born and none of that changed when the two of them had split.

Dani had hoped that when Jacob got a new girlfriend, something in him would shift and he would realize that he needed to be a better person for his son.

That idea had quickly been dashed and Dani had reevaluated her dependence on him doing what needed to be done.

“And about making different decisions,” Daniel continued, giving her a look.

“I think ‘everything happening for a reason’ is a terrible phrase. People said that to me back when your mom first died, and it made me want to deck them. But knowing that, I do think that we go through certain things in life in order to prepare us for what comes next.”

“What do you mean?” Dani asked, not understanding where he was going with this.

“I think with everything that had gone on years ago, if you had met Zoey then, you wouldn’t have been ready for her now.”

Dani really shouldn’t have been surprised that her dad knew about Zoey, which meant the whole town definitely knew about them at this point.

She figured the start of it was probably Sharon.

She wasn’t exactly known for keeping her mouth shut when it came to town gossip and if she paid half as close attention to Dani and Zoey’s interactions during book club as she did to the books they were reading, then she had no doubt observed them sharing significant looks more than once. Maybe even a hand brush or two.

“Did you or Mom ever have an idea that I might be interested in women?”

He sat back and gave her a considering look. “Honestly, I don’t know if your mother ever suspected it, sweetheart. I don’t know if I ever really thought about it either. We tended to just let you girls come to us when you had things you needed to say.”

That sounded about right. Dani had only been a little apprehensive when she first came to them to let them know that she was pregnant with Jordan.

She had known it would be an uncomfortable conversation, but she hadn’t even considered hiding it.

When it came to coming out of the closet, Ava and Vini had come to her first before going to talk to their parents.

Secrets in their household didn’t stay buried for long.

“Sometimes I think I should know myself better, considering I’m about to turn thirty.”

Her dad’s laughter was loud, leaving Dani feeling some type of way about it.

“Oh, don’t give me that look, sugar. I know you young ones have this idea in your head that by the time you reach some arbitrary age you should know everything about yourself, but I just want to let you know that that is not real.

Hell, I’m damn near sixty and I’m still figuring things out about myself. ”

Despite his words, Dani still felt a little annoyed that she had missed this big part of herself and slightly ashamed that it had taken her this long for it to come to fruition. “I get that, I guess, but it still just seems like I’m starting out behind.”

The water upstairs shut off and Dani glanced up at the ceiling, knowing that she needed to get up there and have a conversation with Jordan.

Her dad’s hand brushed hers. “There’s no such thing as having to start on page one, sweetheart.

Sometimes, chapter one happens after the book has already begun. ”

Dani looked up again when she heard Jordan call her from his room. Daniel patted her hand again.

“Go. I’ll turn the lights off down here and then I’m headed to bed myself.

” They stood and impulsively, Dani wrapped her arms around her dad, hugging him in a way she hadn’t in a long time.

When his arms curled around her, drawing her in, she felt the type of comfort that had always given her strength when she was a kid.

She had been named after her dad, but this was the first time in a long time that she truly felt the connection that his namesake brought.

“Thanks, Pop.”

He brushed a kiss over her forehead. “Anytime, kiddo.”