Page 49 of Long Road Home

I blew out a breath, refocused on the vendor reports and contracts and was finally in the work mindset when my assistant, Alicia, opened my door.

She peeked her head in, blonde hair bouncing on her shoulders and glanced back at the reception area. She turned slowly back to me.

“Yes?” I asked.

Her face had some weird pinched look she never wore, and I was already pushing away from my desk and standing before I asked, “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Um. There are people here to see you.”

“So let them in.” Swear to God. If I had to tell one more person how to do their job today—

“It’s a woman and boy.”

“And?”

“She said it’s your son.”

Oh. That. “Yeah. He’s mine. Thanks, Alicia.”

“It’s just that, I’ve worked here for three years now, and you’ve never mentioned.”

I pulled my door open. It fell out of her hands and made her jump backward. “That’s because I didn’t know.”

She gasped. I ignored it becauseholy shit.

Destiny was here, in my office, with my son. Both of them stood by a couch in the waiting room, grinning like the cat who finally got its cream.

“This place is so cool. Even better than seeing it from outside,” Toby said.

“It’s amazing, Jordan. I mean, you said you ran this…own it…built it…but I never imagined it to be so beautiful.”

“Think I’d be more neon bar lights and pool tables than top of the line spas and local brewery beers?”

“Well.” She shrugged in that innocently cute way she always had. Like she didn’t realize how funny she could be and was just hoping someone laughed at her joke. “Yeah.”

And that… that right there, was exactly what I needed to see. Destiny as Destiny. Not whatever Jane bullshit she’d tried to pull. Not the fearful and sorrowful woman I’d seen the last week. It was her…beingherthat drew me to her.

“I hired a designer. Trust me, she hated almost all my ideas.”

She laughed and covered her mouth, hiding it, but that first damn flash I got of her unhindered laugh went straight to my balls. She pulled her mouth away and the smile went with it. “I’m proud of you. This is really something.”

I’d won National Championships. My first game pitching for the Rockies, I was on the mound, bottom of the ninth, up by one run, two men on base and the league’s number one home run hitter up to bat with a full count and two outs. I struck him out. Won the game for my team. Cemented my role as a starter. It had been the highlight of my life.

It didn’t compare to the blast of heat surging down my spine at her praise.

“Thanks, Des.” I went to her, pressed my hand to her hip and brushed my lips over her cheek. She went straight as an arrow and her breath caught as I whispered, “That means a lot to me.” Her breath skated across my cheek and I pulled back. “So what brings you two here?”

A faint hint of pink rimmed her cheeks and she looked down at Toby, ruffled his hair, before coming back to me. “I thought, maybe, if you weren’t busy tonight, we could do dinner?”

I had a Friday Night League Tournament teeing off at six and I always liked to be around for the beginning of them to make sure everything started smoothly even though the clubhouse manager never needed me.

“I’ll be done here around six-thirty.” I grinned down at Toby. “Your place or mine?”

“Actually,” Destiny said, “I was thinking you and me. Dinner out somewhere?”

A date? Was she asking me out? That heat in my spine settled to a comfortable warmth and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from teasing her and asking. This was a lot for her. I schooled my features and lowered my voice, made sure she could see I knew exactly what she was asking. “You ready for that?”

She gave that cute little shrug, the wide cut of her shirt causing her sleeve to dip down slightly. It took all my resistance not to fix it for her. But I stared at the spot of her skin. The edge of her collarbone. A tiny, moon shaped freckle I knew was still there, hidden beneath that wide strap.

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