Wicked Game (19 page)

“But Jaime…” She started to protest that she needed to get home and pack some things to take back to Jaime, but his mother caught her arm and steered her to the baggage claim area.

“Jaime has an entire nursing staff fussing over him, and all he needs right now is sleep. Anything else will just have to wait,” Helen said as she hefted a large suitcase off the carousel and went in search of a second one.

“Gee, Helen, did you bring enough with you?” Gloria plucked her single but very large bag out of a pile. “With all the shopping to be done here, you could have left some of it behind.”

“They’re only half full, how do you think I’m going to haul all those new clothes home, Gloria?” Helen retorted, and for some reason this tickled Cass; she sounded so much like her son it was uncanny.

“I plan to ship everything through the mail. Less to deal with that way,” Gloria explained patiently, but Helen just rolled her eyes. “And you, stop laughing. I swear you are the rudest child on the face of the earth.”

“I can’t help it. You two bicker like an old married couple,” Cass couldn’t help saying.

“Well, honey, takes one to know one.” Helen smiled sweetly and dragging her bag behind her, headed for the door making a beeline to the limo waiting at the curb.

“What did she mean by that?” Cass whispered to her mother as they followed her out.

“Well, Cass, if I have to explain it to you … on second thought, you wouldn’t believe me anyway.”

“Exactly how long did you say you were staying?” She rushed out to find Franco lifting Helen’s baggage into the trunk.

“A week, maybe two. We’re just playing things by ear. Aren’t we, Gloria?”

“Oh Lord.” Cass climbed in the car and immediately bent down to see if there was anything potent in the bar. It was going to be a very long week or two.

* * * *

“Hey.” Jaime squeezed the hand that held his, the warmth there comforting. His mind was fuzzy from the drugs and sleep, and he ached all over. “How long have you been here?”

“A couple of hours,” she said, the voice not the one he expected.

“Did you have a nice flight?” He couldn’t focus, but he thought he saw her smile.

“Nice save. I’m not Cass.” She always did have a sarcastic streak. He decided he got that from her and not his father.

“I knew that. Where is Pepper anyway? I thought she was coming back with clothes and stuff.” He tried to sit up, but his muscles had other ideas.

“Muscle pain finally set in, did it?” She lifted the blanket and peeked under. “Ooh, those are some pretty bruises. The doctor came while you were sleeping. He’s going to let you go home this evening. Not because he wants to, but because you are causing a disturbance.”

He winced. “Has she seen it, then?”

“No, we took her home and fed her. Gloria tossed her in the shower, then shoved her into bed. I checked in a little while ago. She was still sleeping.”

“She’s going to have a freaking cow when she sees it.”

“It was a nice picture, Jaime, sweet. However, I can see why it would bother the two of you. You know, sneaking around is not good for a relationship.”

“We’re not sneaking around. She lives in my house.”

“And you sleep in her bed. But you’ve kept her a secret from the world. I’ll bet your team mates don’t even know about her. Okay, didn’t before the game yesterday at least. And pardon me if I’m prying, but I can’t help but wonder if you’ve even admitted to yourself that you’re in a relationship with Cass at this stage.”

“Did she say something? Is this why you are harping on this subject?”

“No, Jaime, all Cass did was fret over you. Getting you something comfortable to sleep in. Clothes to come home in. She was worried that the hospital food wouldn’t be enough. There was more. She was just going to go in, grab some stuff, and come back here.”

“I told her to get some sleep before coming back. I’m sure she put up a fight when you stopped her.”

“Not so much. Gloria slipped her a tranquilizer. She didn’t even notice, she was so worn out.”

He laughed, picturing Pepper falling asleep in the shower. “She’s still going to flip when she sees that picture. It’s everywhere.”

“It made the cover of the sports page this morning. I think I’ll frame it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so content. Not like…”

“Not like what? Mother, I know you didn’t like Lisette…”

“And I was justified in that. Or have you forgotten?”

“But please, don’t make more out of this than there is. Cass and I are…”

“Just friends? Is that what you were going to say? Honey, you and Cassandra Pendleton have never been friends. Sexual adversaries since you were both old enough … hell the way the two of you fought when you happened to be in the same room was almost like foreplay as far back as middle school. Everyone knew that but the two of you, apparently. Gloria and I worried most of your high school years that she’d either kill you or turn up pregnant. So don’t tell me you’re just friends. Friends don’t fog up the windows together.”

“Mom…” He couldn’t think of a thing to say. Pepper had told him she loved him. This thing had long ago gone past friends with benefits, and he knew it. “I don’t want to hurt her.”

“Do you love her?”

“Wow, you do get right to the point, don’t you? I don’t know how I feel about her. She makes me crazy, but Pepper has always made me crazy. I like being with her. She doesn’t care about my money or my fame or clothes or stuff. Of course, she doesn’t know one damned thing about football, which could be a problem. And she tells me she hates me to my face. How the hell am I supposed to feel about her?”

“Lisette burned you, honey. I understand that. And Cass was there when you pulled your head out of your ass. However, based on what I saw on television last night, and there is that picture of her lying in your arms here in this very bed, all I can say is, you look happy. Don’t throw that away just because she doesn’t meet some standard you have in that little pea brain of yours.”

“Why is it everyone challenges my mentality lately? Doesn’t my diploma have magna cum laude on it, or did I dream that up?”

“You know, Jaime, I love you to death, but for a smart man, you certainly are dumb.”

“Gee thanks, Mom.”

Chapter Twenty

She knew it was still early despite the dark outside her window, but she was too tired to climb out of bed and go downstairs to see what damage those two old biddies had inflicted on her kitchen. Besides, she suspected one of them had drugged her, since she didn’t remember much after walking in the door. She sure as hell wouldn’t have climbed into bed naked otherwise.

Sleep came and went most of the day. She gave in to it only to be released when she remembered Jaime. Once, she had the television on and could have sworn she’d seen a picture of herself asleep in Jaime’s arms—okay, arm, but, after a while, she decided she’d dreamed that.

Her stomach rumbled but she ignored it. She didn’t want to leave the warmth of her bed even to answer the call of nature. She could hear them talking downstairs. Two female voices where quiet was supposed to be. There was the scent of food, then dark came. She heard her door open and close gently. The lock clicked into place but she assumed it was her mother. “Move over, Pepper.”

She almost sobbed when he settled in beside her, lifting her arm and laying it gently over his chest. “When did you get home? Why didn’t someone wake me?”

“Not long ago. You were sleeping so soundly your mom didn’t want to disturb you.” He wiggled into a comfortable position, grunting with pain when he twisted wrong. “Are you hungry? I brought up a tray.”

“Not right now. How are you feeling? What did the doctors say?” She inhaled deeply, taking in his scent. “You smell like hospital soap.”

“Sexy, isn’t it?” He laughed. “God, you’re naked. Kill me now, please.”

“I think one of those old ladies down there gave me something. Which one looked guilty?”

“Probably both of them. After all, my mother is a doctor and yours is a nurse. They’d have the nerve and the stuff to do it.”

“Your mother is a kindly pediatrician, not a drug moll, so it had to be mine.”

“I don’t know, Pepper. I have large chunks of my childhood missing thanks to her and her Benadryl supply.”

She laughed. She remembered nights in which her mother dosed her too, for allergies she didn’t have. “Too bad that stuff doesn’t do anything for my actual allergy. Would have saved me a couple of trips to the ER.”

“Yeah, after last night, I’d really like to avoid that place for a while. I ache like a sumbitch. They only let me go because of the media circus downstairs.”

“Yeah, about that? Who is Lisette? Shit, I don’t remember her last name. Is there a picture of us on the news, or did I dream that?”

“No, you didn’t dream it. Early this morning, some guy dressed as an orderly got past security and the nurses. He managed to get off a few shots before they almost caught up to him.”

“Wow, thanks for the heads up on that, but that doesn’t exactly explain this Lisette person?” She noticed he held his breath. “You hold your breath when you don’t want to talk about something. All of those commentators were talking about her finding out about the mystery woman in your bed. Why would she care?”

“Lisette Delacroix was my fiancée.” He said it very slowly. She could hear something in his voice, shame or hate or whatever.

“Why isn’t that little detail on Wikipedia? When was it over? It is over, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it’s over. Has been since April. I’m sorry, Cass. I guess I should have at least mentioned her to you.”

“You think? Here I am wondering if I’m the other woman listening to these people talk like you and she are still a thing.”

He sighed which meant he was changing the subject, but to her surprise he started to explain.

“I met her at a party in New York last summer. She was beautiful, and sort of reserved for a model, you know. I liked her. She liked to talk and didn’t cling to me as if I was a pretty bracelet. I’d fly to meet her or she would fly to meet me when we had time. God, I don’t know how to explain this without sounding like a jerk.”

“You’ve always sounded like a jerk, but one thing led to another and…”

“She asked me if I would marry her.”

“So she was desperate. Did you love her? You must have or you wouldn’t have said yes.”

“Maybe, I don’t know, I loved the idea of her. So I bought her a ring, and we told my mom. Oh, she was not happy. She hated her on sight, and Lisette hated Tuscaloosa on sight. She decided then and there we were getting married in France when I flew over to meet her family.”

“So what happened in France? Did her daddy take a shotgun to you?”

“No, they welcomed me like a conquering hero. They had a pretty chalet outside Provence. Her parents, a couple of brothers, and a sister all lived there. They were nice enough. Kind of rough around the edges, now that I think about it. No one seemed to work except Lisette. There were signs that something was off but damned if I saw any of them. And then one afternoon about a week before the wedding I walked in on her and her maid of honor, uh … going at it, I guess would be the nice way to put it.”

“I thought that was every man’s dream. Didn’t do it for you, huh, big boy?”

“Shut up, Pepper. It’s not funny. She wasn’t very good in bed. I thought she was just … I don’t know … Christ, you’re lying in my arms naked as a fucking jaybird, and I’m talking about sex with someone else. Ouch, don’t pinch me. I’m injured.”

“Serves you right for keeping things from me. So, Lisette liked girls and not you, is that what I’m getting here? Damn, Jaime, that must have done wonders for your manhood.”

“Because I am a first-class stud, I know. I never understood why she’d just lay there until it was over.”

“She did the
Harry Met Sally
thing, then?”

“Yeah, she was great at that. Anyway, after I found out her little secret, the other secrets weren’t that far behind. The family was living off her, and modeling jobs were getting farther apart. She was afraid of going back to living in the slums in Paris. She thought she’d hook herself a rich, dumb American jock. She had it all planned out. She’d get pregnant and move her girlfriend in with us to take care of her. The girlfriend was supposed to seduce me and…”

“Voila, Tiger Woods all over again.”

“Something like that. Needless to say, we parted ways quietly. She didn’t want her dirty little secret to get out, and I, well, I just didn’t want it showing up on TMZ.”

“So sex with me was rebound sex?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know, Cass you drove me crazy with your mouthy ways. The constant bickering, the constantly being around you. I started looking at you like a dying man eyeing a last meal. That day on the patio was unforgivable, but that’s when I caved. You don’t know how close I came to bending you over and…”

“I get the picture. We’ll let it go for now. For what it’s worth, I think you are a first-class stud.”

“Why thanks, Pepper, and you are far from being a cold fish. Ouch. Stop pinching me. Ouch. Stop it or I’ll make you tell me a painful truth about you.”

“I don’t have any painful secrets.”

“Oh yeah, what about those two years you lived in Nashville? I don’t know, Cass, that seems an awful lot like a painful man-related secret to me.”

“I was going to school. Have you been talking to my mother?”

“You said you taught at a private school in Tennessee for two years. I checked your resume. You were finished with grad school and hadn’t started your doctorate yet, so why did you stay after finishing up? Come on, Pepper, I told you mine. You tell me yours.”

“I hate you.”

“Really? That’s not what you said this morning.” His voice grew soft, serious as he held his breath again. Damn, those three little words were like ammunition for him.

“So you heard that. I was hoping you hadn’t.”

“I heard. Let’s just say I don’t hate you anymore and leave it there for now.”

She felt tears well in the corners of her eyes. He didn’t hate her anymore. What kind of a response was that?

“I had an affair with one of my professors. He said he loved me, and I moved in with him after I graduated. I took the job at a school nearby, and for about a year, everything was great. Sex on Wednesdays and we spent Saturdays in bed. We talked about books and politics, went to the farmer’s market on Sunday. We got a dog. Everything was perfect. I contracted for a second year with the school. I liked it there. It wasn’t a large school, and the kids were like little sponges. I started having the picket fence fantasy, you know. The house, the dog, the two point four kids who would go to that little school and know all about heirloom tomatoes and…”