Hi! :-) Thanks for your response to the last chapter. I'm glad you're hanging in with me on this story. I hope to add chapters more frequently. Hope you enjoy this one! :-)

Thanks again!!

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Chapter 14

"So, what's this all about?" Jack asked Nick, wanting to get right to the point after they had a found a table in a quiet area of the lounge.

They'd both decided to order coffee.

"This is about you, Janet and Todd," Nick said, after stirring cream into his coffee and taking a sip.

Jack's blue eyes narrowed. "Todd? What do you know about Todd?"

The dark-haired man sat back in his chair and sighed. "I wasn't sure if Janet had mentioned anything to you about Todd and me."

"She hasn't. What's this about you and Todd?" Jack asked, his senses now on alert.

"We knew each other," Nick admitted. "For better or worse, we were friends. I guess that's the best word to use to describe our relationship."

"How does this have anything to do with me?" Jack asked, but deep inside, he knew the answer to that question.

Nick's next words confirmed his suspicions.

"I know what Todd did to you, Jack. I know he made it impossible for you to return from Europe when you first went over there."

Jack, still not sure he could trust Nick completely, carefully worded his question. "He told you about what he did?"

Nick nodded. "Yes. He was very proud of himself. He couldn't wait to tell me all about it."

"Did Janet know?"

"No. I don't believe so. It wouldn't have benefited him for her to know. She would have been furious."

"No more than I was when I found out what was really going on."

"Did you know that Todd knew Angelino?"

"He didn't know Angelino directly," Jack corrected, realizing Nick knew exactly what scam Janet's late husband had pulled, "but he knew the man Angelino had talked to who arranged the 'opportunity' for me to travel to Europe. Once I got there, I realized I couldn't leave. I never could have come up with that amount of money. I kicked myself a thousand times for not reading the fine print of the contract I had signed."

"And asking Angelino for the money to pay off the guy was out of the question?"

"Yes. Definitely. There was no way I could've asked him. No way."

Jack and Nick each took a long swallow of their coffees as they both reflected on the past. Nick shook his head.

"I have to tell you, Jack. You played right into Todd's hand when you broke up with Janet and announced you were moving to Paris. Todd couldn't wait to call me to tell me the news."

"Yeah," Jack said, his voice derisive, "I can imagine." He nodded towards Nick. "How did you end up so involved in Janet's life?"

"I had never met Janet until I went to L.A. to visit Todd after he'd told me he and Janet were getting back together and were going to get married now that you were so conveniently out of the picture. I came with the intent of trying to talk Todd into ending this dangerous game he had started, but I was too late. When I arrived in Santa Monica, Janet and Todd were already married. They seemed happy enough, but because of what I knew, I wasn't about to cut Todd any slack. When he told me they planned to move to Washington, I made it my business to keep an eye on them. Especially Janet. I liked her the moment I met her, and I knew she needed protection. She didn't know what she had gotten herself into, and if there had been any sign of mistreatment, I was ready and willing to step in."

"I never thought Todd would do anything abusive to Janet," Jack said, a shiver running down his spine as he thought of what could have happened to his friend and how he would have been nowhere around to stop it. "Tell me Todd never...I mean, he never did...anything...to Janet, did he?"

As his imagination took flight of the horrors Janet might have endured, Jack pushed his coffee cup away. The strong beverage now churned in his stomach.

Nick knew he had to ease Jack's mind. "No. To my knowledge, Todd never took any of his frustrations about you out on Janet, and Janet does not seem the type who would've stayed in that kind of a relationship."

"You're right about that," Jack said, feeling somewhat mollified.

"Believe me, Jack. I was around them. A lot. Todd changed when Janet got pregnant. A softer side of him seemed to emerge. He was happy that he was going to be a father."

"Janet mentioned that to me the other night. She said she felt so guilty when Todd died. She said he loved his daughter very much. If she knew the other side of the story..."

"I've often contemplated telling her," Nick admitted, looking at Jack to gauge his reaction to that statement.

Jack seemed to be considering the possibility, too.

"I think I would have, eventually," Nick continued, "if you hadn't come back into her life. I think this is the best thing that could have happened to Janet. She needs you, Jack."

"Well, we're forging a very tentative relationship," he hastened to inform Nick. "We're trying to rebuild our friendship, but that's as far as it goes."

"That's enough," Nick said, seeming content with that news. "For now. I've enjoyed being a part of her life and Taylor's, but you and Janet have the connection, Jack. You have the history. She needs that in her life. She needs to know that you are around and that you'll be around. Know what I mean?"

"I think so," Jack said. "But I have to be honest here. I feel as though I've been replaced by you. You're the one who knows the latest happenings and who's been there through her bad times. Taylor must look at you as some kind of a father figure. I don't have any of that."

"You have your own history with Janet," Nick reaffirmed. "That's all you need, Jack. Taylor needs another male figure in her life. I love her like the daughter I know I'll never have, but you and her mother go back a long ways. You can bring a different perspective to her life."

"Janet said you guys are just good friends."

Nick nodded. "Trust me, Jack. Trust what Janet is telling you. We are good friends, but that's it. That's as far as it goes. I am a confirmed bachelor. Janet knows that. We accept each other the way we are. I love Janet, but I'm not in love with her. I fell in love with the woman of my dreams when I was in college. We made so many plans for our future. We had it all mapped out, and we were living the life. The one thing we didn't count on was that she would end up dying of cancer before we'd even graduated. I vowed then that I would never fall for another woman in that way. The pain and the loss are too great. I couldn't go through it again. I've managed quite well. I love that Janet is in my life, and I would do anything for her, but if she's to find happiness again with another man in a romantic way, my money's on you."

"What about Todd?" Jack asked, not ready to dwell on what Nick was saying about his future with Janet. "Do we let Janet continue to suffer with her guilt or do we come clean and tell her just what kind of a man he was?"

"For now, don't you think it's better if we let things be? Concentrate on the two of you. Don't bring Todd into it. I've held off telling her the truth about him for this long because he was Taylor's father. But now, he's out of both of their lives. We can't change what's happened."

"Do you think the car accident really was an accident?"

Nick shrugged. "I have my theories about that, but the police never pursued any other angle, so I haven't either. I've just concentrated on Janet and Taylor. But there's always an open door if the accident needs to be explored."

"This is all so crazy. I feel as though I should have told Janet, too, but I've made my own mistakes with her, and like you said, Todd is gone."

"So don't bring him back into this, Jack. At least, not now. Down the road, depending on what happens between you and Janet, you can tell her when you feel the time is right. It's ultimately going to be your decision, Jack. Because believe me, you may not see it at this very moment, but I do. You and Janet will be together again. I don't know what it's going to take for it to happen, but something is going to happen that will bring the two of you together. And once it does, it's going to be up to the two of you to find a way to finally make it last."