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  “Don’t you think I would have been devastated anyway?” I asked. “I would have felt just as bad about it. Worse maybe, because I wouldn’t have been there with you.”

  “You sound like Aaron,” Jaxon said. “He said much the same thing when I told him what I was planning to do.”

  “So Aaron knew you were sick, but not me? I’m going to kill him the next time I see him.”

  “Don’t blame him,” Jaxon said. “It wasn’t fair of me to bring him into it, but I needed help to make sure the plan worked. I needed you to see me kissing someone, but I didn’t know anyone in town. Aaron hooked me up with Emilia. She knows too, by the way. For what it’s worth, she’s actually a lesbian, so I doubt she enjoyed the kiss any more than I did.”

  Jaxon stopped talking. He opened his mouth a few times as if to speak, but it didn’t look like he had anything left to say. I probably should have had questions for him, but everything seemed astonishingly clear. I couldn’t say I agreed with what he had done, but I understood it. I think.

  “Let me get this straight,” I said. “You found out you might die and you didn’t want me to get any closer to you, so you arranged with Aaron for me to see you kissing another woman. You then spent nine months going through treatment for a brain tumor without telling anyone. Is that about it?”

  Jaxon nodded. “It all sounds rather straightforward when you put it like that.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me all this once you’d recovered?” I asked.

  “I nearly did. But you had a boyfriend at the time. It didn’t seem right to just pop back into your life when you were happy with someone else.”

  I’d never been happy with any of my college boyfriends. I’d been content, but never happy. They’d been there for me on the rare occasions I took time away from studying, but I’d never felt a spark with them. Not like I had with Jaxon. It might sound callous, but I’d have dropped them in a second if Jaxon had come back into my life.

  I pulled my hand out from under his. Jaxon’s hand fell to my thigh, but he quickly moved it away, no doubt assuming I was pissed with him. I looked up into his eyes and slowly, nervously, moved my head towards his. When my lips were inches from his, I leaned in and kissed him. The spark hit me instantly as I felt the intensity of his kiss for the first time in four years. It was every bit as good as I’d remembered.

  When Jenny pressed her lips to mine, it took every ounce of strength I had not to pull her close to me and start tearing the clothes from her body. Perhaps she wanted that, but I couldn’t say for sure and didn’t want to take the risk.

  The kiss had come from nowhere. I’d told her everything there was to tell—except for the recent news from the hospital—and I’d half expected to walk out of her bedroom and never be allowed back in. This was the first time we’d really talked about what happened four years ago and I still found it hard to say the words aloud. I’d practiced telling her in front of a mirror and even then the words had to be forced out. Actually saying it to her face had been almost impossible.

  Now she was kissing me. My heart raced as I placed a hand on her cheek and leaned in to her, returning the kiss with only a fraction of the furious passion I felt burning inside me at that moment.

  Our lips fought for supremacy and our tongues did battle as I squeezed her thigh while she grasped my bicep. I wanted to open her legs and throw her back on the bed, but I didn’t want to take advantage of her. Minutes ago I’d been telling her that I thought I was going to die. It was only normal for someone to get emotional under those circumstances. If I took the lead now she might hate me forever.

  Jenny’s hand left my bicep as her fingers took hold of a handful of my shirt. She leaned back, leaving me kissing the air, and then pulled me down as she fell back on the bed, legs parting as she landed. Okay, screw being patient, that was all the sign I needed.

  I fell on top of Jenny and started kissing her neck while my hand went down to her ass. She pressed her sex against my stiffening cock and groaned as I rubbed my erection against her. My hand was squeezing her thigh when I heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

  “Jaxon?” Carrie yelled out. She’d probably been calling for me from downstairs; she didn’t go to the effort of leaving her office to come and get me unless she had to. I froze, but Jenny reacted quickly, pushing me off her and sitting up on the edge of the bed, desperately pressing the creases out of her blouse.

  I followed suit and moved up the bed a few feet to create a gap between us. Carrie burst into the room without knocking.

  “There you are,” she said, as if she’d been looking for me for hours instead of seconds. “I need your help with the computer.”

  “You know, it’s generally considered polite to knock before you burst into someone’s bedroom,” I said with mock sincerity. “Anyway, don’t you have lackeys who work for the firm that can help you with computer problems. It’s a work computer after all.”

  “Most of them have left early for the day,” Carrie responded, apparently unaware that it was now approaching midnight which, for most people, did not constitute ‘leaving early.’ “And the twenty-four-hour staff are useless. Are you going to help or not?”

  I had no desire to help Mom when Jenny was on the bed horny and waiting for me to fuck her, but I also didn’t want Mom to get suspicious about Jenny and me.

  “Fine,” I replied. “But if I can’t fix it in ten minutes then you’ll just have to deal with the minions at work.”

  When Mom had walked away I turned to face Jenny and mouthed ‘be back soon.’ She smiled and nodded, but I immediately feared she was having second thoughts about the whole thing. Giving her time to cool off and think things through was probably the right thing to do, but if it ended in me going to bed with a loaded gun then I wouldn’t feel all that positive about the decision.

  I walked down to Mom’s study and immediately saw what was wrong with the computer. Nothing. The problem was the user.

  “You have a code PEBCAK error,” I said. PEBCAK—problem exists between chair and keyboard.

  “What’s that mean?”

  “Nevermind.”

  Mom didn’t seem to realize that there was a limit to how many tabs you should have open on a laptop that was intended for little more than responding to email and basic browsing. The firm provided all employees—including senior directors like Mom—with the same basic laptop for work use. I’d told her she’d be better off buying her own laptop, but apparently the firm didn’t want her using a personal one for security reasons.

  The computer had come to a grinding halt, so I closed the browser and reopened a fresh tab.

  “I needed those tabs,” Mom complained.

  “I can bring them back up,” I said, navigating to the history page, “but you should limit how many you have open at any one time.”

  Mom pointed out the tabs she needed open and immediately resumed working without so much as a thank you. I muttered “you’re welcome” under my breath and headed for the door.

  “Don’t even think about finishing what you started in there,” Mom said, not looking away from her laptop.

  “Excuse me?” I asked. I’d forgotten that she nearly walked in on Jenny and I kissing, so I was genuinely confused at what she was talking about. At least that meant my shock should have sounded genuine.

  “With Jenny,” Mom said calmly.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied. It was now fairly clear exactly what Mom was talking about.

  “Don’t treat me like an idiot Jaxon. How many times have I caught you with girls in your room? I know that look you have on your face when you’re about to get some.”

  I closed the door in case Jenny’s father could hear, although the television was on loud enough that he probably wouldn’t hear a thing.

  “What I do or do not do with Jenny is none of your business,” I snarled. I couldn’t be bothered to deny it. I never confided anything to Mom, so if I got too defensive she would know she was rig
ht.

  “Of course it’s my business. She’s my stepdaughter.”

  “Oh please. You’ve never treated her like a daughter. You’ve barely treated her like a human being. Mind you, that’s the same way you act towards me so I suppose you have a point.”

  “Don’t play games with me, Jaxon. I want you to come back to New York and to play for New York United, but the last thing we want is a scandal.”

  “Why do you care?” I asked. “You don’t work for the club. They’re just another client to you.”

  “They happen to be a very lucrative client and I am close to the CEO. It would be embarrassing to say the least if I helped engineer your transfer only for you to shame the club by getting involved with your sister.”

  “She’s not my sister,” I snarled.

  “Whatever. Just stay away from her. You can stick your dick in any other women that takes your fancy, just not her.”

  I stormed out of the room and took the stairs two at a time, before heading straight back into Jenny’s room. I didn’t care that Mom knew—she wasn’t going to tell anyone—but Jenny would care and that would put a real dampener on any fun we might have been about to have. I couldn’t tell Jenny, but that meant we would need to tread carefully.

  I found Jenny sat on the bed in the same spot she’d been when I left the room, but she didn’t look excited any more. She’d been crying. Had she overheard the conversation I’d just had with Mom? Maybe she’d had second thoughts about the whole thing? It wouldn’t be the first time. Four years ago, Jenny had taken a lot of convincing about how the whole stepbrother and stepsister thing should not stop us getting together. I’d won that argument four years ago, and I was confident I could win it again.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, sitting down next to her on the bed like I had done before we’d kissed. That felt like a lifetime ago now, not just a mere ten minutes or however long it had been. So much had changed when I told her the truth and when she followed that up by kissing me. The world felt so different now.

  She nodded and wiped tears from her eyes, before blowing her nose lightly into a tissue.

  “Then why are you crying? I don’t usually make women cry by kissing them.”

  She smiled at my weak attempt to lighten the mood. “It’s not that.”

  “What is it then? I’ve told you all my secrets, so it’s only fair that you’re open with me now.”

  “You haven’t told me everything,” she said.

  “I told you everything about what happened four years ago,” I replied.

  “But you haven’t told me about what’s happening now. You told Aaron that you were going to leave me again like you did four years ago. And I saw you. In the hospital. You went into the Neuro-Oncology Ward. You’re sick again, aren’t you?”

  Shit. I’d intended to tell her about that as well, but all my good intentions went out the window the second she kissed me. Four years ago, I’d pretended to cheat on Jenny so that she wouldn’t have to watch me die, but now history was repeating itself, and I had no choice but to let Jenny in on my secret.

  “It’s come back,” I said. “The tumor. I’ve been having regular scans since the first one, because there’s always a chance it could return. The operation had been a success and my doctors were optimistic, but the latest scan wasn’t positive.”

  “But they can treat it again?” Jenny asked hopefully. “They cured it before, so it’s just a case of doing the same thing again, right?”

  I shook my head. “No. Well, maybe. They don’t know. I’ve been trying not to think about it too much, because there isn’t much to say for sure at the moment. All I know is that they have found something troubling and the doctor told me the same thing he told me before; I could die from this if I don’t get treated soon and even then…”

  I trailed off in much the same way the doctor had when he’d explained the situation to me. I knew the drill by know. I had a ticking time bomb in my head and I might die. But I might not, and with Jenny around I truly felt like I had something to live for. Soccer had never been life or death for me, not like it was for some players. For me, soccer was a means to an end. A very luxurious end, but an end none the less.

  “You have to tell your mom,” Jenny said softly. “I know you two don’t get on, but she has a right to know.”

  “I will, eventually. I need to tell Dad anyway, and he will insist on telling Mom too. That’s going to be tough. No father wants to outlive his child. He’s going to feel completely helpless.”

  “Did you tell him the first time?” Jenny asked. She couldn’t look me in the eyes and I knew she hadn’t truly accepted the news. It would take a while to sink in.

  I nodded. “Yes, but only after I had the all clear from my doctors. I needed someone to talk to and in many ways I’m closer to my dad than I am to any of my friends. I don’t tell him all the sordid details of my sex life, but he knows more about my life than most.”

  “He’s a busy man. I doubt he has time to listen to all the sordid details of your sex life.”

  “Very funny,” I replied with a grin. “I’m not that bad.” Jenny forced a smile, but it quickly disappeared. “I’ll have to tell my club as well, and obviously there is no way for the transfer to go through now.”

  “That means we won’t be able to spend as much time together.”

  We shouldn’t be spending any more time together anyway, but I couldn’t help myself. The same facts applied now as they did four years ago, but whereas four years ago I’d convinced myself to do what I thought was the right thing, today I couldn’t make that same decision.

  “Good point,” I agreed. “Maybe I won’t tell them just yet. They’ll want to do a comprehensive medical exam at some point, but I can string them along for a bit. Well, Daisy can anyway. She’s good at that. I’m her best client and she might not have me for much longer.”

  “Don’t talk like that,” Jenny said sternly. “I don’t want to hear you talking about dying all the time, okay? You’re going to get through this just like you did last time, so you can cut out all that bullshit about this being the end.”

  I opened my mouth to argue, but then closed it again and just nodded my head. Jenny was clever enough to know that positive talk was not enough to fight this, but she was also right to insist that I don’t bring it up all the time. Other than following my doctor’s orders, there wasn’t much I could do to help my chances, but dwelling on the negatives all the time wasn’t going to help and it wasn’t fair to Jenny either.

  I heard the sound of glasses clinking together downstairs as Sheridan stacked the dishwasher like he did every night before coming to bed. My bedroom door had been left open so if he came upstairs now he would know I was in here with Jenny.

  “You’d better leave,” Jenny said, coming to the same conclusion I had. “What do we do now?”

  “I still need a little persuading before deciding on whether New York United is the right place for me to continue my career. How about you arrange for me to take a tour of the facilities tomorrow?”

  Jenny smiled. Her eyes were still red from where she had been crying, but that smile never failed to light up her face. I’d fallen for her the very first time she’d looked at me like that.

  “Sounds like a good plan,” she replied. “Come by the office tomorrow morning around ten.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  I carefully opened the door to her bedroom and, not hearing anyone come up the stairs, snuck down the hall and into my bedroom. The similarities with four years ago were impossible to ignore, but now we had arranged another date—albeit an informal one—and this time I wouldn’t push her away. If I only had a limited amount of time left, then I wanted to spend as much of it as possible with Jenny.

  -*-

  Being able to walk around a busy city like New York without being recognized every ten seconds was more unnerving than I’d expected it to be. I couldn’t do anything in Liverpool without being spotted, either by fans of my club or
fans of its local rival. Needless to say the reaction to seeing me depended entirely on who they supported.

  Even outside of Liverpool, I was spotted almost instantly in any major city I visited in England or most of Europe. I even had a degree of notoriety in Asia now, although that was more because I had inadvertently dated a famous Malaysian model for a few months, rather than for my modest success on the soccer field to date.

  Daisy had screamed at me down the phone when I’d told her the model and me were splitting up. Apparently Asia was a huge market for soccer players now and the potential for sponsorship deals was huge. I was throwing away millions by ditching the model. Daisy could be really odd at times. She made no secret of her desire for me, but she was happy for me to date other people if it brought in the big bucks.

  New York United must have had my picture up on the staff room walls, because every employee in that building recognized me and they treated me like royalty from the second I walked inside. The receptionist offered me all manner of drinks from tea to coffee to something stronger—despite it being ten in the morning—but fortunately Jenny came down to meet me and led me out of the office and back into the streets of New York where I could go back to being relatively inconspicuous.

  “When I told my boss what we were doing this morning he insisted I use one of the club’s limos to escort you to the ground.”

  “That’s really not necessary,” I said. I rarely used limos back in the UK. When you owned a fleet of cars as good as mine, driving tended to be more of a pleasure than a chore, but limos did have their uses in the evening. Certain women just couldn’t resist the allure of a limo with champagne flowing, and the thrill of having sex while being able to watch people walking past.

  “Yeah, I figured you’d rather keep this low key for the time being, so I said we’d just take a taxi,” Jenny said. “I know Daisy wants things to be high-profile to a certain extent, but it would be best if we weren’t seen together all the time.”