Right. His dad. Detroit.
The blood rushing to his cock slowed.
“Why are you coming to Detroit?” Jack asked.
“Playoffs?” his dad said with a tone that indicated Jack had asked a particularly stupid question. “Josh and the Quakers are playing the Warriors tonight.”
“Right!” Jack said, snapping his fingers as the lightbulb in his brain turned on. At the sound, Jessica lifted her head and glared at him.
“You know it’s like…barely seven, right?” she asked, her voice hoarse from sleep.
“I know, sunshine,” Jack said. “I’ll be done in a minute.”
“Who is that?” his dad asked.
“Jessica,” Jack said. “You know, my girlfriend?”
“Right!” his dad said, his voice so like Jack’s own that Jessica’s eyes narrowed. “Well, bring her with you! We booked a box.”
“How did you manage that?” Jack asked.
“Please,” his dad said, but what he really meant was,get to know me already. “I’m Joe DeLuca.”
Jack supposed he had a point, and that attitude was exactly where Jack and Josh had gotten their cockiness from, though Josh had taken it a step further and become kind of a dick. Not that Jack would ever tell him that. He loved his brother, thorny personality and all.
“Fair enough,” Jack said with a snort. “What time should we be there? Of course, I’ll have to check with Jess first.”
“I’m in,” she said with a smile. “You’ve met my family. It’s about time I met yours.”
“Great!” his dad boomed. “Puck drop is seven, so get there at six-thirty or so.”
“Sounds good, Dad,” Jack said. “We’ll see you later.”
“Looking forward to it. Love you, son.”
“Love you, too,” he replied, then hung up, turning to Jessica. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Of course,” she said, sitting up. The sheet fell from her body, and Jack found it difficult to focus on anything coming out of her mouth when her breasts were staring him in the eye. Still, he made a valiant effort, especially when she fingered the chain around her neck where the ring he’d given her on Valentine’s Day hung. “I made you a promise. Meeting the fam is part of that.”
Jack leaned forward and kissed her, the gentle press of his lips against hers quickly turning heated in the way they always did with them. Before he could lay her out and make her scream his name loud enough the neighbors heard, she pushed on his shoulder.
“Jack,” she breathed.
“Yeah, sunshine?” he asked, tracking his lips over her jaw and throat.
“I have to tell you something.”
Jack’s heart plummeted. “Okay…”
“I…I was officially offered a job.”
“Let me guess,” he said. “It’s not anywhere on this continent, is it?”
Jessica shook her head, and Jack watched her throat bob with a swallow in the dim, early morning light. “No. It’s the one in Saint Petersburg.”
Fucking Russia, Jack thought. What he said was, “Okay. We knew this would happen. Is that all of it?”
“No,” she said. “I got my start date, too.”
