Chapter 23

Jensen

The flight to New York was long, but I spent part of the time watching ‘Every Time You Look.’ Bailey and Manny’s performances were amazing, and I was slightly surprised at how talented she’d been. No wonder she’d won an Oscar. Somewhere in my mind I’d understood that you had to be good to win an honor like that but seeing it on the screen gave me perspective into her life I hadn’t thought about much until now.

Knowing she’d been an actress and seeing her award-winning performance were two completely different things.

I was having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that she would never act again, never share her talent with the world again. How could she have walked away from something she was so good at? It would be like me leaving hockey because of an injury. Even if it took time to get back to a hundred percent, I would do anything and everything in my power to get there.

How could she be content leaving something that was such a part of her behind?

Maybe I was wrong and comparing it to hockey made me biased.

But I was truly blown away by her talent, her beauty, and how incredible it had been to see her on the screen.

I was starting to see parts of her I didn’t completely understand, and while it didn’t change how I felt about her, some of it worried me. She was purposely depriving herself of something I knew she still wanted but convincing her of it would be something else. And I wasn’t even sure it was my place to point it out. I was falling in love with her, and I didn’t care if she went back to acting or not, but there was no doubt in my mind there was an emptiness in her life without it.

She missed her career, her friends, and even the house she’d lived in, yet refused to even attempt going back to that world. I would have understood had the damage been done to her face, but she looked the same and I was positive the talent was still there.

She moved a little slower, of course, but that could be masked in so many ways on a movie set. They could shoot her from the waist up or use those special shoes she wore to balance her limp. When she walked slowly, you could barely see it, and I had to believe there were tons of parts that didn’t require a ton of movement. Makeup could cover the scars if she absolutely had to wear something revealing, but lots of actors refused to go nude and used body doubles, which eliminated another problem.

I didn’t understand her reluctance to even try.

There was also a hip surgery that could potentially help not just with pain, but to lengthen her leg to minimize the limp.

She didn’t want to do that either.

Because we were still so new, I didn’t want to overwhelm her with the dozens of questions I had, but I also thought we needed to be able to talk about these things. It worried me that I felt like I had to walk on eggshells around her sometimes, but I’d mentioned it to my mother over the weekend and she’d suggested being patient. Bailey had to learn to trust me, and that took time. Even though the rest of our relationship was moving at warp speed, some things apparently would need to go slower.

I just wanted her to be happy.

Surgery that could alleviate her pain seemed like a no-brainer, but maybe I was missing something.

A text on my phone distracted me from my thoughts and I grinned at the message from my youngest brother, Tanner.

TANNER: Dude—check this out!

He’d attached a video of him playing beer pong and I chuckled at how good he was. Of course, I’d taught him how to play, and I was pretty damn good at it, so no surprise he was a chip off the old block.

JENSEN: Obviously, you had an excellent mentor.

TANNER: I did!

JENSEN: What else is going on? You doing any studying or is it all about girls and beer?

TANNER: Girls, beer, and hockey.

JENSEN: Fair enough. You doing okay? Ready to graduate?

TANNER: I’m great. And yeah, I can’t wait to be done with school.

JENSEN: Careful what you wish for—the real world is filled with all kinds of issues you’re not thinking about in college.

TANNER: Don’t bum me out, bro.

JENSEN: I’m kidding. You’ll be living the dream before you know it.

TANNER: What about you? Rumor has it there’s a woman in your life.

I rolled my eyes, wondering who else my mother had told.

JENSEN: There is. Her name is Bailey. Hopefully, you’ll meet her this summer.

TANNER: Cool! Pic?

I was startled to realize I didn’t have any, and I felt a moment of discomfiture. How had we not taken any pictures together? Except maybe the ones Mom had taken of us on the beach. I hadn’t seen them, so I’d have to ask her about it, but I couldn’t tell Tanner I didn’t have a single picture of my new girlfriend.

JENSEN: They’re all on her phone, I guess. I’ll send one when I get back to L.A.

TANNER: Excellent. Well, gotta run. It’s my turn at darts.

JENSEN: Be safe, bro.

TANNER: Always.

My youngest brother always amused me, but he was smart, hard-working, and talented. I was looking forward to seeing him go pro next year.

Since today was a travel day and the only thing I had to do was a team dinner, I was back in my hotel room and logged into Realm Crusaders by eight thirty. You never knew what hotel Wi-Fi would be like, but we figured we’d try anyway since it had been a while since we’d done any raids or quests.

The notification icon was flashing as soon as I logged in and I clicked over to see the message.

Dear @Phantom Knight: Congratulations on winning one of this year’s Crusaders’ Swords! Your sword will be active for one year, giving you unlimited lives and optimum strength during any in-game events. Please accept or gift your reward by clicking the link below...

Holy fucking shit.

I’d won a Crusaders’ Sword.

This was epic.

But I already knew what I was going to do with it.

Without hesitation, I texted Bailey.

JENSEN: When’s your birthday?

BAILEY: June eighteenth. Why?

JENSEN: Check your Crusaders’ messages. I just got you an early gift.

BAILEY: What?

I didn’t respond, typing in her gaming handle to gift the sword to her.

Then I waited.

Ten seconds later my phone rang, and I answered with a grin.

“Hello?”

“Jensen Bang!” Her voice was so loud I had to pull the phone away from my ear.

“Yes?”

“Oh, my God! You won the Crusaders’ Sword and gave it to me?! Why would you do that?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” I countered. “My beautiful Empress needs the sword more than I do. You run all the raids and you’re our leader. As one of your knights, I bow down to you, my lady.”

“You aren’t one of my knights,” she said warmly. “You’re my main knight. The knight. And I’m going to have a very special thank you waiting when you get home.”

“Oh, yeah? Tell me more.”

“You’ll just have to wait and see.”

I laughed.

“Seriously, Jensen, thank you. This is amazing.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

“How could I not? But don’t you want it for yourself?”

“Nah. I’m good. I’d rather you have it.”

“You’re a very nice guy, Jensen Bang.”

“Make sure you tell my mom that.”

“I absolutely will the next time I text her.”

“You and my mom are texting?”

She hesitated. “Yes? I mean, is that okay?”

“Oh, of course! I just didn’t realize you’d exchanged numbers.”

“We had our moments,” she said. “Plus, I think she’s still a little starstruck.”

“No offense, but I’m pretty sure she’s half in love with Manny.”

“Oh, no offense taken. Everyone who meets him is half in love with Manny.”

“Even you?”

She laughed. “Yes, but he’s like a big brother to me. You don’t have to worry about that.”

“I’m not worried, per se, but not only is he a movie star, he’s handsome as fuck. I mean, come on—I’d probably have a hard-on for him if I swung that way.”

“Manny is completely devoted to Lucia, so no matter which way you swing, he’s not available.”

“My dad will probably be relieved to hear that.”

“We need to get online—they’re waiting for us.”

“I’m there.”

“Me too. I’ll meet you in the room.”

We disconnected and a moment later her voice came through my headset. We’d decided to enable the in-game audio, so it was kind of fun to hear everyone’s voices. I wasn’t sure why we hadn’t done it before, but the feature hadn’t worked well initially, and it hadn’t seemed like a priority.

“You guys,” Bailey said excitedly. “You’re never going to believe this, but Phantom won the Crusaders’ Sword.”

Whoops of congratulations filled the room.

“Are you serious?” Leif demanded. “You won it?”

“I did,” I said. “And I gifted it to Empress.”

There was a beat of silence before someone—I was pretty sure it was Macy—said, “Seriously? Are you guys hooking up or something?”

“Actually, we are,” I replied.

“We turned on the romance option,” Bailey giggled, referring to an option in the game where you could enable characters to have either romantic or sexual relationships.

“But it was sort of an accident,” I put in.

“I’d told him about a themed kids’ party I was going to,” Bailey added. “And then we wound up at the same restaurant. He saw me, thought it was a strange coincidence, sent me a message, and that was that.”

“That’s pretty fucking cool,” Jordan said. “You got any friends, Empress?”

“I do, but don’t you live on the east coast? I’m in California.”

“Darn.”

“Are we going to gossip or play?” Manny demanded.

“Okay, Uncle Grumpy-Pants,” Bailey teased him.

“I have ninety minutes,” Manny said. “Then I gotta help with bedtime. Someday, the rest of you heathens will have kids and you’ll understand.”

“Not any time soon,” Jordan grunted.

“Ew, not me,” Macy said. “Kids are gross.”

Manny laughed. “That opinion may shift as you get older, maybe meet the right guy. Or gal. Whatever you’re into.”

“I’m not ready for that,” Macy said. “Not now.”

“I could be ready,” Leif said, laughing. “With the right lady.”

“Relationships give me hives,” Jordan said.

“That’s probably syphilis,” I teased him dryly. “You might want to get it checked out.”

“Jesus, can we focus?” Manny asked.

“All right, let’s do this,” Bailey said. “We’re reinforcing the back wall, and there’s a legion of phantoms waiting for us.”

“You’ve got the sword, Your Highness,” Manny said. “Make sure you know how to use it.”

“Oh, trust me,” she replied. “I know exactly what I’m going to do with it.”

I bit back a chuckle, but the others all groaned.

“Ew,” Macy said “Is that some kind of double entendre? Because my virgin ears are bleeding a little.”

“Guess they’re not virgin anymore,” Bailey quipped.

“Is this what we have to look forward to?” Jordan demanded. “Because I’m going to protest.”

“Who, exactly, are you going to protest to?” I asked. “The Crusader police?”

“Maybe!”

“All right, let’s do this,” Bailey said. “I’ll worry about my sword later.”

And I was really looking forward to it.