I felt Amber and the Taylors trailing me.
I stopped wide to the side (and Amber and the Taylors stopped with me) and looked to Conner who was looking at me.
He started, “Josie—”
“I think you need privacy with this young lady,” I said quietly and pointedly. I then turned my eyes to the blonde as well as reached a hand out to her. “Come,” I encouraged.
“Ellie,” Amber whispered close to my back.
So I was correct.
I nodded and pushed my hand further toward Ellie. “Come, Ellie. Let’s go sit, watch the game and await Conner.”
Ellie looked to Conner who was looking over his shoulder at her.
“Go,” he said gently. “Josie’ll take care of you.”
She pressed her lips together, hesitated but a moment and finally moved toward me.
“Watch your back,” the brunette hissed as she got close to me.
Ellie scuttled closer and I took her hand. Hers clasped mine surprisingly tight even though she had to have no idea who I was (outside of the fact that I was with her boyfriend’s sister).
I took her hand and moved her away, my gaze going back to Conner.
His eyes were on me. “I’ve got this, Josie.”
“Yeah, you think you do,” the brunette was still hissing. “But you don’t.”
Oh dear.
It appeared Conner had his hands full.
I moved Ellie clear of the burgeoning fray and did it quickly, Amber and the Taylors trailing.
We got well away, moved in close to the side of the bleachers, and I found us another pocket of privacy. I could tell the game had started but I could also see Ellie’s face was pale and stricken and her hand had not loosened even a smidgeon in mine.
I turned to her when we stopped and Amber and the Taylors huddled close.
“I’m Josephine,” I introduced myself.
“Yeah,” she said quietly, her voice timid, her eyes not exactly meeting mine. “Con told me about you. His dad’s new girlfriend.”
At her words, I felt shafts of fire burn through me like spears were drilling from top to toe. This feeling was painful because this feeling was hope in the face of hopelessness. It took everything I had not to focus on that feeling and instead focus on this frightened shy girl.
“I think Conner would like it if you would sit with myself and Conner’s dad. He’ll find us when he’s done with that young lady,” I told her.
She shook her head. “It won’t matter. She’ll get to me. She’s been saying at school for days she’s going to take me out.”
“Then you shouldn’t be alone,” boy Taylor stated, getting close.
“We’ll stick by you, Ellie,” Amber assured, also getting close.
“Mia’s just ticked she knows she’s not going to make the cut and you are. She’ll burn out,” girl Taylor told her, also getting close.
When she did, I sighed.
Make the cut, indeed.
Conner had weaved this tangled web. I certainly hoped he had it in him to unravel it without too much heartache.
“I think I need to sit down,” Ellie said softly.
“Let’s get her to the bleachers,” I urged and immediately moved my charges to do just that.
I found the set of stairs that were closest to our seats. I also saw Jake sitting amongst the crowd, a seat open on either side of him on the blanket, one for the absent Ethan, one for the absent me.
I let Ellie go but curled my fingers around Amber’s arm and dipped down to say in her ear, “Can you take Ellie up and ask your father to come down?”
When I pulled away, she caught my eyes and nodded.
Boy Taylor grabbed the forgotten cocoas from my other hand and they all scrambled up. They then pushed in front of the four spectators to get to Jake. I saw Amber bend down and talk to him then I saw his eyes come to me. He stood, his eyes never leaving me as he and the children shuffled around. He eased in front of the spectators then I watched as he jogged down the stairs to me.
When he got to me, I took his hand without a word and tugged him to the spot the youngsters and I had vacated earlier.
I stopped us and got close.
Thereupon, I got up on my toes to get closer and launched in.
“I have much to say and not much time,” I announced.
His brows shot up.
I sallied forth.
“I’ll explain later so you can get angry without an audience as to what prompted me to make a number of rash decisions but right now I’ll break it down. With your permission, I’ll be taking Amber and the Taylors to see Bounce in Boston whenever it is they’re playing there. I know the band and am relatively close to the front man so I can get backstage passes. I’ll chaperone them. But I want very much for Amber and her friends to have this as I’ve met Noah Young, it was not a pleasant meeting, I dislike him greatly and I wish for Amber and the Taylors to be able to rub his nose in their not only attending the concert but meeting the performers.”
Jake blinked.
I carried on.
“Conner is currently calming down a rather irate young lady who has threatened bodily harm to Ellie. Amber, the Taylors and I forged to the rescue and thus Ellie is with us awaiting Conner’s return. I would think that he may need you to intervene at some point as, for reasons unknown to me, it would seem the girls may start turning on each other rather than aiming their ire at Conner, who I imagine could take it and who arguably deserves it. It isn’t my place to say but he may need a mature guiding hand as he maneuvers the minefield toward monogamy.”
Jake said nothing. He simply stared at me.
“And, just to say,” I continued. “Amber and Noah, if they were ever officially together, have broken up. I played an, um…rather substantial hand in that, alas. It’s likely there will be some teenaged girl moods in your house for the foreseeable future. Or, uh…more of them. I’d like to apologize for that in advance.”
I stopped speaking and Jake continued to stare at me for a moment before he asked, “Jesus, Slick, how long were you gone?”
It seemed like a year.
I didn’t share this. In fact, I decided not to speak at all.
“Does Con need me now?” Jake asked into my silence.
“He says he has it,” I shared.
“Then he has it,” he muttered, looking down to his boots.
I got closer and realized I was still holding his hand. I drew back on mine but couldn’t release his because when I did this, his fingers tightened.
“I’m sorry, Jake. I may have made a bit of a mess.”
His eyes cut to mine. “What went down with Noah?”
Oh dear.
“Perhaps I can tell you later,” I suggested.
“What went down with Noah, Josie?”
I stared into his eyes and noted he was not going to back down.
So it was me who held his hand tighter and I again got closer before I shared, “Obviously, he has no idea who I am and thus I overheard him—as boy Taylor put it—trash talking Amber.”
Jake’s mouth got tight in a way I found vaguely frightening but I persevered.
“I’m afraid I lost my temper and gave him a talking to,” I admitted.
“You gave him a talking to,” he repeated.
“Indeed,” I confirmed.
He said nothing to that and asked, “I need to have a word with Noah’s parents?”
I shook my head quickly.
Jake studied me.
Then he asked quietly, “He was trash talking Amber?”
I nodded my head slowly.
His big man energy started expanding all around.
“What’d he say?”
It was then I got even closer, lifted my free hand and put it on his chest, trying to find the words I needed.
I found them from memory of what boy Taylor had said and stated, “It doesn’t matter, Jake. I laid him out.”
He again studied me before asking, “Amber know what he sai
d?”
“Some of it, yes. But I think the Taylors have that in hand. They’re quite supportive in a way it’s most gratifying. Further, neither of them likes Noah very much.”
“Was she there?”
I shook my head.
He took in a big breath and exhaled.
Then he shocked me by grinning, turning into me so he could sling his arm around my shoulders and tuck me into his side as he moved us toward the bleachers, stating, “Then I guess we’re goin’ to a concert in a couple weeks, Slick.”
We?
I didn’t ask this.
And I didn’t because I was noting that it was awkward walking with him with his arm around my shoulders and mine hanging down at my sides, so I slid one of mine around his waist.
Jake kept us connected until we hit the steps that led to our seats in the bleachers. He bid me to go before him and did this by putting a hand in the small of my back and gently pushing me toward the stairs.
I ascended, noting that children had appropriated more seating for us and Ethan had returned.
Though there was no sign of Conner and Ellie didn’t look any less anxious.
Jake maneuvered the seating arrangements so he was sitting between me and his daughter. Although extra seating had been procured, it was close and my side was plastered to Jake’s, including hip and thigh.
But he didn’t curve an arm around me again.
Instead, he curved one around his daughter and pulled her close to his other side, bending to kiss the top of her head.
When he lifted away, she tipped her face back to gaze at him, her eyes soft and partly lost, partly loving, and seeing that I thought she never looked lovelier.
And seeing Jake silently give his daughter his loving care, I thought he’d never been more wonderful.
And he was normally quite wonderful.
Clearly father/daughter affection was acceptable only for short periods of time at high school events for Jake released Amber a short time later and turned his attention to me, again curling an arm around my back and pulling me even tighter to his side.
It was then it occurred to me why Conner would think I was his father’s new girlfriend. Jake’s easy, and frequent, affection could undoubtedly be misconstrued in this manner.
I wondered if I should talk to him about this for I felt it might be confusing to the children and if he should (regrettably, but very probably) find another woman, they might not understand.
I was thinking this when Conner returned and Jake didn’t budge from my side even as his sharp eyes locked on his son.
But Conner saw no one but Ellie. He went directly to her and claimed her from boy Taylor who was sticking close.
Upon witnessing this, it became clear that Ellie was the one who was going to make “the cut.” Watching them after he returned, I noted that Conner seemed very attentive of her, also very protective and, as they said these days, very “into” her.
Our seating became even tighter when Conner joined us but the other spectators were involved in the game so they didn’t appear to notice.
Needless to say, our cocoas were lost in the shuffle and eventually got kicked under the bleachers without even being sipped. This was done by an excited Ethan, who did it when the Magdalene Tritons made one of their many touchdowns. This situation was rectified at halftime when Jake sent Ethan (who was accompanied on this errand by Conner and Ellie) to procure all of us warming beverages.
Except for the fact that it was a rather exciting game and even though I had not watched one in some time, I saw the Tritons were very talented, it seemed our drama for the evening was thankfully at an end.
The only thing earth shattering that happened (and this was only my perception) was that when we were seated (in other words, when Jake wasn’t clapping or cupping his hands around his mouth and shouting encouragement at the team I was relatively certain they couldn’t hear or jumping to his feet like all of those around us, applauding and shouting), Jake held me to him the whole time. And some of that time, I even felt the tips of his fingers stroking my hip (yes! stroking my hip!) through my jeans.
It was a lovely feeling (very lovely) but it was another display that more than likely, if caught by his children, could be confusing.
When the Tritons emerged victorious, after the raucous applause ended, Jake commanded to our brood to, “Roll out.”
We all moved.
Once on the graveled lane in front of the bleachers, Ethan leading the way followed by Amber and the Taylors, their heads together, looking like they were plotting, followed by Conner and Ellie with their arms around each other, heads also together, looking like they were doing something vastly different, Jake again claimed me. He did this like his son claimed his girlfriend except without our heads together.
No, when I slid my arm around his waist, I looked up and saw his head was held high and regardless of the drama that began our foray into high school athletic spectatorship, his expression seemed most content.
Perhaps his most handsome look.
Then again, that would be hard to judge as they all were.
I started to look to my feet in order to best negotiate the gravel in my high-heeled boots but my eyes caught on Ellie’s thumb hooked in the belt loop of Conner’s jeans.
When it did, I had another overwhelming urge—an urge so overwhelming, it was a yearning to do the same to Jake.
More accurately, to be to Jake the person in his life who could stake that kind of claim of his jeans (an inappropriately heated thought).
But more, his person.
I sighed as I realized my pretending needed to be well and truly done for even if Jake was holding me close, I knew it was simply Jake doing with me what he would do with his daughter if she would allow him to do so in front of her peers.
On this thought, I spied Noah standing with his companions to the side of the end of the bleachers. In spying him, I saw he was studying Amber and doing it closely.
His friends were as well, and if I was not mistaken, a couple of them were doing it not with speculation or indignation but admiration.
I looked to Amber and saw her resolutely avoiding eye contact with Noah and I knew, as a woman but also someone who was once a teenaged girl, she knew he was there.
Her slight of Noah didn’t go unnoticed. I saw his jaw get hard and then I saw his gaze turn to me.
I held his eyes momentarily before I looked away, fought back my grin but didn’t fight back my murmur of, “That’s my girl.”
I knew Jake heard this when his arm around me got tighter. I also knew Jake saw it when Amber looked over her shoulder and leaned to the side to catch my eyes.
I winked at her. She grinned at me. My entire frame warmed delightfully and it warmed even more when Jake pulled me so tight to his side, I had to twist slightly into him to accommodate the embrace.
“You take care of my girl,” he said softly.
I looked up at him. “Yes, Jake. But I believe I get more out of it than she does.”
His gentle gaze held mine captive when he replied, “Then you believe wrong, Slick.”
I pressed my lips together and looked away for the warmth I was feeling was so acute, so lovely, even precious, I needed to concentrate on walking so I didn’t get overcome by the feeling and fall flat on my face.
It was within five more feet of our advance when it happened.
And what happened was that a remarkably attractive, tall, buxom redhead approached our parade, crying out, “My babies!”
“Fuck,” Jake muttered.
I quickly glanced up at him as he stopped us.
He no longer looked content.
And I saw when I looked in the direction his eyes were aimed that he stopped us because the advance of our party was halted by the woman bearing down on Amber to give her a tight hug that Amber markedly didn’t return.
The woman didn’t seem to notice as she let Amber go and moved promptly to wrest Conner away from Ellie and do the same.
/> Unlike his sister, Conner hugged the woman, though it appeared to me that he did this more out of consideration than fondness, and I knew in that instant the woman was Donna, Conner and Amber’s mother.
It was then my study of her heightened and I noted she looked very like her daughter except for the fact she was far more curvaceous. And this last wasn’t lost on me in any way that Donna, Jake’s ex-wife, had big hair and big…other stuff.
Precisely the reason that Donna was Jake’s ex-wife and I would never be Jake’s anything.
She turned to Amber, pouting disingenuously, “You never call.”
Before Amber could reply, her eyes went to her son.
“And if I didn’t see you at Wayfarer’s, I’d never see you.”
“Mom—” Conner started but it was then, two things happened.
One, I noticed a man hovering a bit away, watching these proceedings.
He was very good-looking. He was also quite young. I would place Donna at around my age, no younger, perhaps older. The man hovering in a way that made me think he belonged to her couldn’t be older than thirty, but he could be younger.
And even good-looking, at a glance I knew he wished to be just like Jake. He wanted to have that big man commanding presence, the self-confidence, the manner, but this would always be nothing but a desire. To have what Jake had you had to be born the man he became. You couldn’t want it. You simply were going to be it until you were it.
The other thing that happened was that Donna’s eyes came to Jake and I, took us in quickly with back and forth flicks of her gaze (most specifically our arms around each other), and finally settled on Jake.
“Jake,” she greeted.
“Donna,” he returned.
Her gaze came to me just as I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Ethan was sidling close to Jake.
“This is Josie,” Jake introduced me, unnecessarily indicating I was the Josie he was speaking of by giving me a slight shake.
“Yeah, Lydia Malone’s granddaughter,” Donna stated, her gaze moving the length of me.
“Yes,” I confirmed. “And you’re Conner and Amber’s mother. Lovely to meet you.”
The last was a lie.
It was this because she had once had Jake in the way I wanted him and I had to admit I was envious. I wasn’t proud of that emotion but I couldn’t deny I had it.