by Alley Ciz
Tucker blew out a breath in frustration. “I don’t know man, I can’t figure this chick out. I mean we’ve hooked up already but now I feel like she’s blowing me off.”
Jake could only laugh in response.
“Thanks, man. Real helpful,” Tucker finished his beer and stood to leave. “Anyway I’m gonna head out.”
After Tucker left, he went upstairs to brush his teeth and put on a pair of sweats. He debated calling it a night but decided to take advantage of the nice weather by relaxing in the hammock out back.
Exhausted, Jordan breathed a sigh of relief to finally being home. Her bed beckoned as she pulled on pajamas.
All that was left to do was let Navy out.
The moment she opened the sliding glass doors Navy bolted. He stopped on the patio, sniffed the air and was off again. That's when she saw the open gate and began to panic.
“Navy? Come here, Navy.”
Damn it, why is Sean always leaving the gate open?
When she moved toward him, Navy took off again, headed toward Jake’s backyard.
When she finally caught up with him, he was standing up on Jake licking his face. “Navy, down! You know better.”
At the sound of Jake’s laughter she relaxed. “It’s okay, as long as he’s not trying to eat me for his midnight snack, I’m good.”
She quickly walked over to Navy’s side to pull him down by his collar. “I’m sorry about that. He’s too smart for his own good."
Navy wagged his tail and continued licking Jake.
“It’s amazing… I’ve never seen him take to anyone like this before. He’s usually so protective and on edge.”
“Maybe I smell like beef jerky or something. By the way he won’t stop licking me, you would at least think I tasted like it.” He moved over to one side of the hammock and motioned for her to sit. It did look comfy with one of those small mattresses on it. After she was lying down, Navy walked in a circle and made himself comfortable on the patio next to the hammock.
Jake put his arm behind her head. In such a close position she could tell he smelled nothing like beef jerky and more like fresh soap and shaving cream. Instinctively she closed her eyes and breathed his scent in deeply.
Jake looked at her with pure amusement. “So I guess you weren’t planning on leaving your house were you?”
“What do you mean?” She looked at him, confused by his question.
“Well seeing as you’re in fuzzy pink slippers, minion boxer shorts, and a beater I assumed that wasn’t your standard taking the dog for a walk outfit.”
She felt her cheeks heat. In her rush after Navy she didn’t even realize she was practically half naked. Thank God I left my bra on. But Jake wasn’t making fun of her, he was smiling.
She looked down at Navy and frowned. “Yeah well when you're busy running after a hundred pound dog you’re not really thinking of the fuzzy slippers on your feet, but hey, shit happens,” she turned to face him and her eyes trailed over his body. “Well you know my excuse so what’s yours?”
Confusion crossed his face. “What do you mean what’s my excuse?”
“Well all you’re wearing are sweats and a beater. You don’t even have slippers, all you have on are socks.”
One side of his mouth lifted up in a half smile revealing one of his panty melting dimples. “Well this is my backyard.”
She realized he was laughing at her. She tried to give him a how dare you look but failed. All she could do was laugh at herself when he gave her a small wink with his left eye. Boy he had a good wink, it sent chills down her spine.
“What are you doing home on a Saturday night anyway?” she inquired.
Jake melted deeper into the hammock. “Well since the guys didn’t want to go to Rookies, I offered to watch Carlee so my parents could go out.”
He just got better and better. It wasn’t fair.
“You two do anything fun?”
“Tucker came over and we took her to play mini golf.”
It was the last thing she expected to hear.
“Tucker, took your little sister to play mini golf?” She couldn’t keep the disbelief out of her voice.
“Hey, he’s not all bad.”
She pursed her lips in doubt.
“No seriously, he’s great with her. He may be a man-whore but he’s an amazing ‘big brother’ to her.” He made air quotes around big brother.
“That’s gotta be something to see.”
“It is. But I’ll give you this, he does love how much of a chick magnet she is.”
She barked out a laugh. “Guess she wasn’t successful tonight.”
“How’d you know?”
She felt his chest rumble under her cheek in laughter. “He was texting Skye tonight.”
“She told you?”
“She showed me. He is smooth. Too bad for him Skye is probably the female version of him in a way, so she won’t fall for his tricks easily.”
She raised her gaze to meet Jake’s. His emerald gaze danced with laughter.
“Oh this is going to be fun,” he stated.
The hammock caused their bodies to cuddle in a non-platonic way, but she couldn’t bring herself to move.
“So how’d everything go there by the way?” Jake asked her after a few beats of comfortable silence.
“It was good, a little hectic but all in all things went well.”
“What exactly was it that you guys had to do?”
“Skye and I are public relations majors, so whenever my aunt has special events we usually help her with planning them. This was the first time we were able to be there for the actual event though.”
“That’s gotta be cool. I’ve only ever heard good things about any special event she’s thrown there.”
She smiled with pride. “Thanks. I tried to remind her of all her past success tonight, but she was too stressed for it to sink in.”
“Why was she so stressed?”
“Tonight the guest list included a bunch of brass from all the major professional sports. I think she was worried if they didn’t like it, it would reflect badly on my dad.”
“What does your dad have to do with it?”
“Some of the people are my dad’s colleagues through his job with ESPN. He tells a lot of players about Rookies and tells them to check it out when they’re in town. So if they didn’t like it, it meant the players didn’t either, hence making my dad look bad.”
“Oh that makes sense, I guess. I wouldn’t worry about it though Rookies is awesome. It has a great atmosphere and everyone I know that’s been there loves it.”
“Yeah that’s what I told her. When I left everyone seemed to be having a good time,” she sighed and leaned further back into the hammock. “It’s really nice out tonight. I’m kind of glad to be outside and not stuck in the bar.”
“Yeah my favorite part of summer is that the nights are warm enough to hang out outside. I like to lay out here and relax.”
Even though she could feel the heat coming off his body she shivered slightly and it didn’t go unnoticed. Jake reached down to the end of the hammock and pulled a light fleece blanket over them to keep her warm. She was touched by how observant and considerate he was of her. It really was peaceful.
NAVY OFFICIALLY BECAME Jake’s new best friend. Jake was relaxing in the hammock in his backyard, like he had countless other nights, when Jordan’s beast of a dog came barreling towards him. Shortly after Jordan came to retrieve the mutt, hence earning his new best friend status.
Jordan looked surprised to see him with Navy. As she helped remove the dog from his personal space, he took the opportunity to take her in. She was adorable in what he assumed were her pajamas and fuzzy slippers. The way her tiny boxer shorts displayed her legs had him biting back a groan.
He may not be a man-whore like Tucker, but he was no slouch either. Using his considerable charm, he embraced the opportunity to spend some quality alone time.
When she laid down next to him h
e couldn’t stop his smile. But how she snuggled against him as they talked, that was everything.
“So I have a couple questions because there are just some things about you I just can’t seem to figure out.”
“About me?” She touched a hand to her chest feigning innocence. “What is it that you want to know?”
He took a deep breath before he continued. “So why is it all the seniors on the hockey team not only know you but are really close with you? And why did everyone make it seem like Jordan was another sibling of your brothers and JD was Jase’s twin, and brother at that?”
She laughed when she turned to face him. “Well that’s an easy and complicated question all in one, so we’ll just go down the line. First, when Ryan was a freshman on the team and Jase and I were still in high school, I dated one of the guys on the team so I was around a lot. But things between us ended… kind of… messy. Second, the guys always called me JD… I guess because my brothers always have. But I honestly have no idea why they made it seem like we were two different people. When you told me you thought JD and Jordan were two different people I was surprised. I guess it stems from their overprotective tendencies.”
She took a deep breath.
“Now that Skye and I have transferred to BTU I know they are going to drive me crazy with how ridiculously overprotective they are. I even had to promise not to date another teammate of theirs.”
Jordan’s statement was like a punch in the gut. He figured his friends were protective of their sister, but hearing how she promised not to date a teammate threw a wrench into his plans of asking her out.
“Who’d you date on the team, Nick?”
Maybe if he found out what happened with her past relationship, he could find a loophole for himself. His question earned him a playful smack on the stomach.
“Nick?! Oh my god, are you serious?” She said with a laugh.
“Yeah. I mean besides Wade who has a girlfriend, you seem closest to him and Billy. So I guessed it was either one of them.”
“No the guy I dated is no longer on the team. After we broke up he left the team, that’s why things were a little messy.”
Feeling there was more to the story than she was letting on he decided to push. “Why’d you guys break up? What was so bad that he quit the team because of it?”
She paused so long he wasn’t sure if she would answer or not. When she did, she kept her head down and spoke to his chest. “It’s complicated. But it created tension between Ryan and the guys in his year and some of the upperclassmen. I swear it’s part of the reason the team was so bad the next year.”
Jake thought back to his freshman year and first year playing for the Titans. He wasn’t a starter but tensions ran high on the team.
“So Wade is still dating Cara?” She asked.
He realized she didn’t really answer the question but thought it better not to push the subject right away. It was the first real one-on-one conversation he’d had with her and he didn’t want to spoil it over an ex-boyfriend. “I guess you met her when you hung around the house?”
“Oh yeah. They were the cutest couple.”
Jake agreed.
Jordan yawned, the cutest yawn he’d ever heard, kind of squeaky. When she looked up at him a strand of hair fell in front of her face. He reached out to tuck it behind her ear and their eyes met. Something lurked behind her eyes that made his gut clench. In such an intimate moment the electricity between them couldn’t be denied. He had to find a way for her to be able to date him.
He watched her bite her lip. The lip biting was going to be his downfall if he wasn’t careful. It brought so much attention to her full lips that it took all his self-control to not take her right there.
Trying to mask his emotions he changed the subject. “So what made you go to NYU and not Brighton Tynes? I mean Jase came here, aren’t twins supposed to do everything together? You guys even have that crazy ESP stuff so it’s weird you guys split up and all.”
“How’d you know we have ESP?”
“At Rookies he said he knew you were there without even looking at the door. I thought he was kidding and Ryan was giving him shit about it but I knew he was serious because I was looking right at you when he said you were there.” He looked away when he realized what he just admitted to.
“Yeah Ry was always a little jealous of the connection Jase and I have but he’ll always be the one I turn to, there’s nothing like the bond a girl has with her big brother.”
He knew what she meant. Carlee may only be five but he already felt it, even with the age gap.
“I decided to go to NYU because Skye got accepted there and it was her dream school. We’ve been inseparable since we were five so there was no way I was going to go through four years of college without her.”
“So why transfer if it was her dream school?”
“We liked it there, it’s a great school and it was nice to put a little distance from my brothers’ protectiveness. But we missed Jersey and BTU now offers a better Public Relations program so we decided to transfer. Ultimately we want to open our own firm that focuses on all aspects of an athletes career and BTU added a concentration in sports PR. There’s also the added bonus of my parents moving closer to the school.”
“I guess that makes sense.”
“Why do you go to BTU?”
“They offered me a full athletic scholarship for hockey.”
“I’ve seen you play, they can’t have been the only school to offer you a full ride.”
A few things rushed through Jake’s mind at her statement. Mostly he felt pride she thought he was good enough to assume he had multiple college offers.
“When did you see me play?”
“Mostly I watched the games on TV but I came to the few home games I could. The way you played in the Frozen Four was legend… wait for it… dary.”
The How I Met Your Mother reference made him smile.
“Yeah that was the best I’ve ever played.” The Frozen Four and NCAA Championships garnered him attention from pro scouts.
“I guess I chose BTU for the same reason you originally went to NYU. BTU was the only school whose offers matched for both Tucker and I. We’ve been on the same team since our Mighty Mites days, didn’t see a reason to break up the team.”
“You’re right. I know the feeling.”
The longer the two lay there talking the bolder Jake became. Jordan’s long hair tickled his arm around her shoulders. He bent his arm and played with the silky strands.
Curiosity finally got the better of him. It was time to bring the conversation back to what he really wanted to know.
“You know you never did answer my question earlier.”
“What question would that be?” She asked from where her face rested on his chest.
“Why you and your ex broke up. Or who he was.”
Chapter Ten
Jordan sucked in a startled breath. Her head lifted to look Jake in the eye as a shudder racked her body. She hoped Jake moved on from his earlier questions but he was like a damn dog with a bone.
She must have been silent for too long.
“Hey, it’s okay. You can tell me it’s none of my damn business.”
Jake rubbed her arm that was across his chest. The reassuring touch cracked the wall of her past. Very few people knew what happened with Tommy.
Actually, the only people who knew, outside of those there that night, were Maddey and Sammy.
Something about Jake made her want to bring him into the fold. Before she lost the nerve, she spoke.
“I caught my ex cheating on me at the team’s end of summer party.”
She felt Jake’s chest expand with a deep breath. His silence gave her to courage to continue.
“I may have fudged some of the facts earlier.”
“How so?”
“Well when I said he left the team that wasn’t necessarily true.”
“You mean I play with the jerk?” She liked how he instantly p
icked her side.
“No, he’s not a Titan anymore.”
“Okay, still not seeing what you mean.”
“He didn’t leave the team on his own as I implied. He was kicked off it.”
Jake’s eyes widen at her revelation. She could see the questions flash in the green depths.
“Who?”
“Tommy Bradford.”
Pressed against him as she was, she physically felt the shock rush through his body at the name.
“What aren’t you telling me?” He rasped out.
Her brow furrowed in question.
“As messed up as cheating is, it wouldn’t get him kicked off the team.”
Now came the hard part of the story. She buried her face in his chest.
“After I caught him with another girl, I dumped his sorry ass right then and there. His response was to hit me.”
“He did what?!” Jake growled.
Stunned by Jake’s reaction, she was unsure of what to say. His entire body coiled tight like a cobra ready to strike.
She needed to diffuse the situation.
Now.
THIS WAS THE absolute last thing Jake expected to hear. The. Absolute. Last. Thing.
Sure, a part of him may have expected the cheating, based on how the guys would clam up when the subject of Jordan’s ex came up. But to hear the guy hit her, never entered the realm of possibilities.
And by Tommy Bradford, no less.
“Damn baby, I’m so sorry.” The endearment slipped out.
He lifted her face to his, pain clear in her golden gaze.
The tautness of her body released from the soothing of his thumb across her cheek and down her chin.
“So that’s my story. I really should get back home now.” She moved to get up.
“Don’t go.”
He tightened his hold when she hesitated. He breathed a sigh of relief when she settled back. He tucked her against him and dropped his chin where her head rested beneath it.
“I just need a minute to process all this.” Unconsciously, his hand drew gentle circles on the skin between the hem of her tank and the band of her shorts.