Edge of Glory (Friendship, Texas Book 1) (9 page)

Vrrrrrrrrrr. Vrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Vrrrrrrrrrrrr.

My phone vibrated again.

Dammit Sofie, this better be good gossip
.

I lifted my head up and pulled my phone out of my pocket before looking down at the screen.

One new message from Jay:

Where are you?

I looked up, but still couldn't see him past the swarms of people with their phones.

Sitting on the floor near the windows. Didn't want to be in the way.

I sent the message and slid my phone back into my pocket before standing up. I hoped he would get to me soon. It was almost another ten minutes before he finally pushed his way through the crowd and found me.

"I don't think we’re going to make the movie," he yelled and took my hand.

I shook my head. "At this point I just want to get the hell out of here."

He nodded before he pushed his way through the crowd until we were out in the parking lot. Suddenly the air didn't feel as brisk, but refreshing to finally be away from the hot bodies of the theatre and snarls of the girls that saw me with Jay. I was used to getting called names by Christy, but it was pretty tacky when girls I didn't even know were finding new ways to describe my looks.

She's too ugly for him

Ew. Mismatch.

Jay, baby, I can make you feel way better than she ever could.

"Sorry about that. I swear that never happens. A few months ago no one knew who I was." Jay said, shutting the driver's side door.

I shook my head, looking down at the seat. "I don't know how you put up with all of it."

"Yeah, neither do I."

We sat in silence for a few moments as he fiddled with his keys and then pulled out his vape, taking a long inhale. Most of the people who swarmed him didn't follow us out to the car and we were parked far enough out that no one would want to. The temperature had dropped since we first went inside and a thin layer of frost formed over the car, covering the windows in a white glaze.

"Okay. I'll be honest. I'm not used to all of it. I was a nobody. Just a dumb jock that only other swimmers knew about. When I won my first gold medal in the games, people started to take notice and I was like a deer in headlights. By the time I won my eighth, every single reporter wanted to talk to me. There were girls screaming my name. I couldn't go anywhere outside of the Olympic Village without someone trying to get my attention."

He sighed and licked his lips. "I let it go to my head. Swimmers aren't usually celebrities, but then I started getting invites to red carpet events and access to the best clubs. I got greedy. I partied. I didn't care about swimming. Then pictures appeared on the Internet. Ones of me drunk on the sidewalk outside of clubs in LA or standing with my ex-girlfriend when she passed me a bowl at a party. I turned it down, but I guess the picture spoke louder than words. When the last article came out calling me "The Dumbest Athlete Alive” that was when I knew I had to get away. When Coach offered this trip to Texas to train, I couldn't turn it down. I knew I had to get back to swimming. To the real focus."

"So...does that make me a distraction?"

He blinked before shaking his head and looking at me. "The farthest thing from it. Lia, you're the first girl I've been with in a long time that has a life. A family. You don't care that I'm a swimmer, and neither do your parents. They treat me like I'm a normal guy and I love that. I love that it brings me back down to the level of human."

I laughed. "I never thought anyone would like being yelled at by my dad."

"I mean, I'm not saying that I like the fact he thinks I'm some kind of cockroach, but after all of the fake people in my life since the games, it's nice to have some realness. I feel like I was on the edge of being great and then I let it get to my head. After being in Texas and meeting you, I'm hoping to get that back."

He leaned over the seat, his fingers grazing my chin as he pulled my face to his. I smiled as his lips pressed against mine. They were cold and chapped from the outside air, but his warm tongue glided along mine and made me forget everything else.

I could get lost in him. His kisses tasted like chocolate and I wanted to savor him as long as possible.

Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Vrrrrrrrrrrrr. Vrrrrrrrrrrrr.

My phone vibrated against my leg. I wished that I could have thrown it out the window. I ignored the vibration as Jay unzipped my jacket.

Vrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Stupid phone. I wanted to focus on the way Jay's hands felt as his fingers trailed underneath my sweater and even though his hands were freezing my body instantly heated up from those soft fingers sliding down my back.

Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Vrrrrrrrrrrr. Vrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Jay pulled back, moving his hands from my skin. "Are you going to answer that?"

"No…it's fine. Whoever it is, I'll just get back to them later." I barely opened my eyes and reached for Jay's hands, trying to pull him back toward me.

Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Vrrrrrrrrrr.

Shit.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and stared at the screen.

One new message from Sonny

Jeff Gallagher just texted he saw Jay get mauled by a herd of high school hormones. Where the hell are you?

Nothing like a text from my brother to ruin the mood. I shoved my phone back in my pocket and sunk into the seat. "Maybe it would be better if you just took me home…"

"What did the text say?" I looked over to Jay's blue eyes locked on me. When he was looking right at me, it was as if his eyes got bluer. Like they were an ocean of blue and I could jump right into them and swim around in there where there weren't any girls taking pictures of him or calling me desperate.

I shook my head. "Nothing, just Sonny being stupid."

"Are you sure that's all it was?" He leaned in closer.

"He just said that one of his friends texted him from the theatre and said you had a bunch of girls around you and was wondering where I was…"

Jay let out a deep breath of air. "You know all those other girls don't matter to me. Hell, I don't even know them, and there’s no way I’d leave you for some crazy girl with a phone glued to her hand if that's what you're worried about."

"Well it did take you almost twenty minutes before you even realized I wasn't standing next to you…"

He let out a single laugh. "Seriously, Lia? I couldn't even get to my phone. I knew you weren't beside me the minute that cheetah print lady took the first picture. It's not like I was trying to push you out of the way."

I shook my head, "I guess I'm just not used to all of it."

"Don't worry…" He leaned over and kissed the top of my head before starting up the car and turning the defrosters on full blast. "You have plenty of time for that. But it might be best if we take your mom up on staying in and having her cook for a while."

Jay turned on the radio before pulling me close to him as we sat and waited for the car to defrost. How would I ever get used to a bunch of girls always going after a guy who was supposed to be with me? He said it didn't always happen, but now I wondered what life would really be like in California.

Would he still want the Texas distraction around?

Maybe I wouldn't even make it that far and this was all just a fun little ride.

"I can't believe you were stuck in the lobby of the theatre while Jay got pummeled by hungry hormones."

It had been a few days, but Sofie couldn't stop talking about my embarrassment at the theatre. I tried to change the subject and act like it was no big deal, but it was hard to hide anything from Sofie.

"It's in the past. There is nothing I can do about it." I shrugged, following in step with her to math class. It was my last math class hopefully ever and I was ready to get it over with.

Sofie and I always signed up for our classes together. We'd been in the same classes since we were in grade school and I hated to think what was going to happen next year. She wanted to stay closer to home, insisting she couldn't be that far from her dad, and I’d hopefully be on the west coast.

If things worked out with Jay and me.

And my parents.

I still hadn't heard anything about the scholarships I applied for and after hours of searching for grants, I was coming up empty handed.

"So how are you going to see him if every time you go somewhere you’re followed by cameras?" Her eyes widened like giant Easter eggs as she stared at me. "Are you going to go all crazy celebrity on some paparazzi and attack a girl?"

I glanced over at Sofie, dodging out of the way of some other students before looking ahead of us. "Don't be ridiculous. First off, it was just a bunch of girls at a movie theatre who didn't even know who he was until that crazed lady said something. Second of all, hopefully TNC and Saul will stay in Dallas. And I wouldn't fight anyone. I don't have it in me."

"I could totally see it happening." She put her glove-covered fist in the air and clutched her books to her chest. "Feisty Sicilian girlfriend of gold medalist takes down a paparazzi lady and leaves her in a coma. Everyone said she was such a mild mannered girl, but one day she just snapped."

I shook my head as we turned the corner toward the math hallway. "Okay, seriously, Sofie, I’m taking all of the celebrity gossip magazines that you have and flushing them down the toilet."

She rolled her eyes, walking into the classroom. "Okay Miss Serious, how do you plan on avoiding all the camera toters?"

I plopped my bag on the floor and slid into my desk next to Sofie. "Even though this hopefully won't be an everyday occurrence, I just figured we would lay low for awhile. He's coming over after my classes today, so maybe we'll just have to hang out at one of our houses until everyone forgets that he's around."

Sofie snorted. "Yeah I'm sure that people are just going to forget there’s a gold medalist in Friendship."

I ignored Sofie's comments as our professor stepped to the board and started writing some equations. Maybe she was wrong, or maybe I was just delusional.

                                                        ***

Snow in Texas didn’t happen.

The weather report said that we were supposed to get significant snowfall, but I told Jay that the weatherman was usually wrong so there was nothing to worry about.

This was one of the first times that Jay was going to hang out at my house and nothing was going to ruin that for me.

Or so I thought.

I'd cleaned everything from top to bottom a million times over and made sure my parents would both be at the restaurant along with Sonny.

Jay was just coming over to watch a movie, but I couldn't wear my usual "lounging" gear of sweatpants. It took me forever to figure out what to change into after school and put on extra deodorant.

Staring at myself one last time in the mirror, I thought I could pull off looking half way decent. I smoothed out my sweater and touched up my lip gloss.

Okay, so maybe I wasn't a Christy Quinn with a great fashion sense, but hey, a sweater and jeans weren’t that bad.

The doorbell rang and I bolted down the stairs only to feel something warm and squishy underneath my sock-clad feet.

I winced, not wanting to look at what I stepped in, but as soon as Nonna's goat walked into the foyer, I knew it was exactly what I thought it was.

"Nonna! What is Capra doing in the house?"

Nonna shuffled into the foyer and looked down at my feet then at Capra, swatting him on the butt and swearing in Italian. Capra snorted and turned around, dropping another big pile of little pellet poops on the ground before she sauntered toward the living room.

I put my hand on my head and looked between the new pile of poop, the one on my foot, and the door where Jay was standing behind the stained glass door.

I didn't even have any time to panic. I whipped off my socks and turned, cracking the door open slightly, trying to put on my biggest smile. "Um, hey, Capra had a little bit of an accident, so I'm just going to clean it up before you come in. Okay?"

Jay raised an eyebrow. "Um. Okay?"

I shut the door again and then raced my socks to the laundry room, throwing them in the wash then moved as fast as I could to clean up the new piles.

I let out a deep breath before I opened the door again to see a smiling Jay. He always found a way to look better than me, no matter what he was wearing. His hair was still wet as if he just got out of the shower, or maybe the pool, and he smelled of soap and cool mint. I tried not to let my eyes wander at the way his thin black t-shirt clung to him with moisture still on his chest, but there is only so much a girl can resist.

Or maybe he was freezing and I was the jerk that didn't let him in because I was cleaning up goat poop.

"Hi," I said, closing the door behind Jay, I made sure to look over the floor again for any goat pellets that didn't make it to the mop and laundry room.

"So...Capra...Is that your dog? Or a nephew?"

"Oh, no. She's my nonna's goat." A nervous laugh escaped my lips. Normal people didn't have goats or goats that pooped in the foyer.

"Does your goat usually hang out in the house? Is it like a dog?"

"No. She has a pen outside. Nonna probably just let her in to feed her because it's cold out."

At least when I said the words I believed them, until Jay and I walked into the living room where my mouth practically dropped to the floor.

Nonna sat on the leather couch with Capra next to her, both of them eating some vegetable chips from the same bowl.

I couldn't even look at Jay and just had to wonder what kind of horrified expression he had.

Instead, I heard him laughing before he walked over to the couch and pet Capra. "I don't think I've ever actually been this close to a goat."

Capra snorted, which I wasn't sure if it was actually a snort or a fart.

Clearing my throat, I finally picked my jaw up and stood next to Jay, giving Nonna a look. "Nonna, shouldn't Capra be outside?" I asked in Italian.

"No. Too cold," Nonna said, not looking away from the TV while she fed Capra a chip.

"Uh, isn't there a heat lamp in her pen?" I asked in the best way I could translate.

Nonna blinked and scratched Capra behind the ears and then explained in Italian that it was healthier for the goat to be inside instead of in the snow.

I didn't want to argue with the eighty-year-old woman, but I at least needed her and the pooping goat off the couch.

"Nonna, we were going to watch a movie. Can you and Capra watch that in your room?"

The only other option would be to go upstairs to my bedroom, which I wouldn't have minded the alone time with Jay, but I had a feeling Nonna wouldn't let that slide.

Nonna stood up and pinched my cheeks, muttering something under her breath before she called Capra, who happily jumped off the couch and followed Nonna through the kitchen to her bedroom.

I inspected the couch for goat poop before plopping down. Jay sat next to me, his arm going around my waist. I couldn't help but lean into him, taking in all of his scent. It was definitely a shower and not pool water, but I could still smell the tiniest hint of chlorine. It was like his permanent cologne.

"I think ESPN has the snowboarding finals on," Jay said, grabbing the remote and changing it off the random reality TV show that Nonna had on.

"Did you seriously come here just to put on ESPN?"

"Maybe. My buddy Blake is in the finals."

I raised an eyebrow, sitting up and looking at him.

Jay laughed. "We don't have cable. I haven't been able to watch ESPN since I left LA."

"Fine." I frowned.

"Hey. I'm sorry. That was douchey. How can I make it up to you?" He put both of his arms around my waist, pulling me onto his lap.

I squealed, glancing behind me to make sure that Nonna hadn't come out of her room. Hopefully, she would pass out and then I'd just have to worry about getting goat poop stains out of the carpet later.

Once I was sure that she wasn't going to come out of her room, I turned to face Jay and straddled his lap. He shifted slightly then positioned his hands on my lower back. "Is this your way of distracting me?"

I smiled. "Am I distracting you? Sorry. I'll move so you can watch your buddy."

The grin spread across his face and in one fell swoop, he had me off his lap with my back on the couch as he hovered over me.

"That's a better move," he whispered before he crushed his lips to mine.

My hands went for his hair, tugging it lightly, which caused a moan to escape his mouth then he nibbled at my bottom lip, and holy fire Batman, my entire body trembled.

He pressed his hips to mine, the growing bulge in his pants hitting right at my core. If that wasn't enough to entice me, his fingers slowly slipped under my shirt, tracing a trail up my stomach until they were at my bra line.

His lips moved from my mouth to my ear. "Is this okay?" he whispered, running his tongue down my jawline.

Holy hell it was.

All I could do was manage a small nod. I was afraid if I opened my mouth at all, some terrible noise would come out or a squeak.

He grinned against my neck, his hands making their way underneath my bra until his fingers circled my nipple.

Holy hell.

No man had ever touched me there.

I'd barely touched myself there except for self-exams.

I bit down on my bottom lip to try to keep from squealing. I thought I was going in to full-blown shock when the front door opened and the shuffling of boots sounded on the wooden floor.

Without even thinking, I pushed Jay and he practically jumped off the couch before sitting on the other side.

I smoothed my hair down and sat up just in time to see my parents walk into the kitchen with their arms full of takeout boxes from the restaurant.

"Mom! Dad! What are you two doing home?"

Mom shook her head, setting some boxes on the counter. "Haven't you been looking outside, Rosalia? It's a blizzard. The whole town is shutting down."

"What? That doesn't happen."

Jay jumped off the couch. I couldn't help but stare at where the massive bulge was just a few moments earlier. Apparently having his girlfriend’s parents walk in when he had his hand on her nipple was enough to make his hard on disappear.

I finally pulled myself together enough to ask, "Really? Snow?"

Ma walked toward the patio doors and opened the blinds. "Come. See for yourself."

I stood between Jay and Ma and gawked at the site before me. The fine mist of snow had turned into a full white out. I could barely see the large pecan tree that was only a few feet from the window and Capra's pen was completely covered.

"We brought food for dinner. Jay, I hope you like swordfish. It won't stay good for tomorrow, so we brought
Pesce Spada Alla Ghiotta
  and
Spaghetti Ai Ricci
," Dad said, opening container after container of swordfish and pasta with sea urchin.

"Thanks, Mr. and Mrs. Conti. I'll eat anything."

The garage door opened and Sonny came sliding into the kitchen. "Jaybird! Are you ready to play in the snow?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Did you seriously just call him Jaybird?"

Jay laughed and bumped fists with Sonny. "Hey, man. I'm not sure. I've never done much in the snow. Didn't exactly have it in So Cal."

"Then what are we waiting for, bro? Let's go!" Sonny jumped in the air like an excited little kid.

"Since when did you decide you two were best friends?" I asked, looking between Sonny and Jay.

"Since you're usually too much of a chicken shit to let me pull you behind my truck with the sled."

I rolled my eyes. "What part of that sounds like something anyone would want to do?"

"That sounds awesome!" Jay laughed.

"We eat first. Then you can play," Ma said, handing Sonny a plate.

"But, Ma, this snow will all be melted by the time we're done eating," Sonny whined.

My brother was two years older than me, but sometimes I swore he was twenty years younger.

"Mongiat, Sonny, then you can play." Mom handed Jay a plate.