Homecoming (A Boys of Fall Novel) Read Free Page A

opened her mouth and the words came out.
    She watched as what she’d said sank in and Kelly’s expression changed to her “cop face,” as Jen and Gretchen liked to call it. She even drew herself up into her “cop stance,” even though she didn’t have the heavy utility belt to rest her hands on. “Scared of him?”
    “Not like that. Not physically scared.” She watched Kelly relax a little, though her face was still guarded. “He’s rough and . . .”
    Kelly lifted an eyebrow. “And . . . rough how? Or should I say how rough?”
    “Again, not like that.” Jen blew out a breath and sat on the edge of the bed they’d just made. “He’s got a lot of baggage, with his parents and his background and stuff. And he’s a runner. He took off for fourteen years. I’m not just looking for great sex. When push comes to shove, I’m looking for somebody to spend the rest of my life with, and the father of my children.”
    “I’ve known you my whole life. You’re one of my two best friends. And, professionally, I’ve seen you counsel so many kids through crises. So I know you’re not dismissing a man’sability to be a good father because his father was abusive and his mother is a recovering alcoholic.”
    Jen felt the hot flush across her cheeks. “Of course not. Let’s just say I didn’t get the impression he’s a guy who believes in white picket fences, minivans and happily ever after.”
    “I don’t know about picket fences, but he believes in family. Maybe it’s
my
dad and not his own, but twice now he’s uprooted his life because I asked him to on Coach’s behalf.”
    “If I ever need help with football, I’m sure he’ll be on my list of people to call.”
    Kelly laughed. “Considering how often the guys on the team are in your office, you might want to put him on speed dial.”
    “Not funny.”
    “A little bit funny.”
    Jen shook her head and then looked around the room that had been Kelly’s growing up and then again after her divorce brought her back to Stewart Mills. There weren’t many of her personal belongings in it, so it looked like a typical guest room, but Jen felt a pang of nostalgia thinking about the many hours they’d spent in the room as teenagers, talking about movies and music and boys.
    There were three of them. Jen. Kelly. And Gretchen Walker, who’d completed their circle of best friendship when she moved to town to live with her grandparents in fifth grade. There had been no secrets between them, and they never broke each other’s confidences. They knew how rough Gretchen’s life had been before her no-good parents had essentially traded her for her grandfather’s new truck. Theyall knew Kelly had secretly crushed on Chase Sanders, the star running back for her father’s football team, and had pretended not to like him in order to hide it.
    And they all knew Jen’s head had been filled with fantasies of bad boys that her very strict, white-collar parents would disapprove of. Boys who grew up to be men like Sam Leavitt, she thought, fussing with the knit throw blanket draped over the easy chair in the corner so Kelly couldn’t see her face.
    But she’d grown up and her view of her parents’ marriage had grown with her. What had seemed boring then was now stability. What had seemed, when she was a teenager, like a lack of passion for each other, she could see now was the kind of quiet, constant love that got two people through decades of marriage together.
    Teenage Jen may have daydreamed about guys like Sam, but adult Jen wanted what her parents had. Quiet, constant and stable.
    A door slammed outside and Jen whirled to the window. “That’s not him, is it?”
    Kelly pulled back the curtain to peek. “Yup. Sam’s here.”
    “I wanted to be gone before he got here, dammit.” She knew it was childish, but she wanted to avoid him for as long as possible. “I can go out the back.”
    “Really?” Kelly rolled her eyes at her. “You’re being