Fair Catch

by Ruddick, Jessica

  How sad. He hadn’t said anything, but it wasn’t the type of thing to come up in lighthearted conversation with someone he’d just met.

  “No. I mean, I figured they were out of the picture. Otherwise, why would he take in his siblings?” Actually, I hadn’t stopped to think about it. All I’d been able to think about was how hot Jake had looked manhandling my tire. He’d thrown that thing around like it was a Cheerio instead of a heavy tire. I didn’t actually know how heavy tires were, but for the sake of my fantasy, I was pretending they were very, very heavy.

  But now that I’d learned the reason behind Jake taking in his siblings—deceased parents and apparently a shitty aunt—I felt even more like a self-absorbed asshole.

  Katie turned her attention back to the chicken. “Yeah, it’s sad. They were killed by a driver who fell asleep at the wheel. It’s not common knowledge, though. Wyatt told me when we were talking about who could take Freddie’s place. Apparently, Jake was really good, but his parents’ death really messed him up.”

  “I can only imagine,” I murmured. Except I really couldn’t. The only person in my family I was close to was Eli. I honestly didn’t know how I would react if my parents died suddenly. I would be sad, obviously, but beyond that, my life wouldn’t be affected very much.

  In addition to dealing with grief, Jake’s plate was overflowing. I felt like such a heartless bitch for acting the way I just had. I normally wasn’t so quick to judge, but I guessed I was overly sensitive about being blown off. Lesson learned.

  I desperately hoped Jake would contact me like he’d said he would, but I wasn’t going to take the first step this time because as much as I wanted to see him again, I didn’t want to complicate his life further. If I didn’t hear from him, I wouldn’t have hard feelings, but I would sure as hell be disappointed.

  CHAPTER 11

  Jake

  ASHLEY HAD LOCKED herself in the bathroom. Luckily, the house had two other bathrooms, but she had been hiding in there for nearly three hours.

  I leaned against the door. “Ashley, please come out of there.” It was all I could do to keep my voice even. I was at my wits’ end. I’d threatened her, pleaded with her… hell, I’d even bribed her with cold hard cash, but nothing had worked.

  “I can’t!” she shrieked. “Use another bathroom.”

  “Are you sick? What’s going on?”

  “Nothing! Go away!”

  My fingers curled into fists. I was over this shit. “You realize I can take the door off the hinges, right? If I—”

  “Don’t… you… dare!”

  The ferocity in her tone made me take a step back. I scrubbed a hand over my face. Christ. She’d called my bluff. I could take the door off the hinges… if I had tools, which I didn’t.

  Ben walked past on the way to his room. “Just leave her alone. She’ll come out when she’s hungry.” Though his strategy sounded like it applied more to a pet than a person, he made a fair point. She couldn’t stay in there forever, and we did have other bathrooms.

  I followed him to his bedroom. “Has she done this before?”

  Ben plopped down in front of his laptop. “Nope.”

  I should probably call Aunt Christy for advice, but I wouldn’t for two reasons. The first was that I didn’t want to seem incompetent only a few days in to taking my siblings. The second was that my aunt hadn’t bothered to call and check on them. It pissed me off.

  I lowered myself onto Ben’s bed. “When she comes out, I’m going to have to deal with why she locked herself in there. She’s obviously upset over something.” That was what bothered me. Though I hadn’t lived at home for the last few years, my parents had always worked to maintain open lines of communication with us kids. I guessed I’d assumed that since I was one of them—the kids—I didn’t have to worry about that.

  I’d thought wrong.

  I was coming to learn that living with a girl who was twelve going on twenty-five was not for the faint of heart. I couldn’t even begin to understand her thought process. I was chalking it up to pubescent hormones, but even still, I couldn’t relate. Boys in general were a lot less complicated than girls. I thought of sweet, little Emily and wondered if she would turn into the devil’s spawn like Ashley. God, I hoped not. I hoped that some of Ashley’s drama was because of the difficulties in the past year.

  My brother shrugged, not bothering to look away from his computer screen. “Maybe she had a bad hair day. Who knows? More importantly, who cares? She’s a drama queen.”

  Though Ben put on a tough front, he was the one who’d called me when he was worried about Ashley being passed out. He wouldn’t admit it, but he cared. Or at least he cared when it mattered. The trouble was that I wasn’t sure if this was one of those situations that mattered.

  I checked the time on my phone. I was giving her one more hour and then… what? What the hell was I going to do? Something. Maybe this was a power struggle. Maybe I needed to put my foot down and show I was the alpha of our pack. Fuck. Kids—especially preteen girls—should come with a damn instruction manual.

  Since I was in Ben’s room already, I decided I might as well try to figure out how he was doing. Things had been so busy the last few days that I hadn’t exchanged more than a few passing words with him. He was a quiet kid who didn’t draw attention to himself, which was probably how he’d ended up failing two classes before my aunt had realized it. I didn’t want to make that mistake.

  “How was school?” I asked. “You never told me.” It was Saturday, so the kids had spent three days at their new schools so far.

  “Fine.”

  I waited. “That’s it? That’s all I’m getting?”

  He shrugged, which I was coming to learn was his primary means of communicating.

  “Do you like it better or worse than your old school?” I pressed.

  He gave me another shrug.

  I pulled myself up off his bed. “Great talking to you,” I muttered. I would have to work on Ben another day. Ashley was all I could handle at the moment.

  I strolled down the hall to check on Emily. She wasn’t in her room, but I found her in the living room, watching a show and chowing down on potato chips. Yeah, that probably wasn’t the best diet. We’d been surviving on take-out and mac and cheese for the last week. I hadn’t had the time or energy to do more.

  The doorbell rang. I groaned when I saw it was Carson dressed in workout clothes. I’d already stood him up twice for training since Ben, Ashley, and Emily had come. It bothered me that I’d been a shitty friend, but it also bothered me that I wasn’t able to devote myself to training. I still had the notion in my head that the approaching fall was going to be my comeback season, but that dream became less likely with every day that I neglected my training.

  “Hey, man.” I stepped aside so he could come in. “Did I forget again?”

  He shook his head. “Nah. I’m on my way to the gym if you want to go, but I just stopped by to see your new place.” Grinning, he held up a six-pack of some fancy beer. “I brought you a house-warming present.”

  “Thanks.” I actually hadn’t brought any alcohol into the house because I wasn’t sure if I could trust Ashley. I still hadn’t gotten to the bottom of that situation. Also, considering the circumstances with Uncle Brian, I hadn’t wanted to drink in my siblings’ presence. Carson didn’t know all the details, though.

  We stepped into the living room. When he caught sight of Emily, he grinned. She had that effect on people.

  “Emily. Emily.” I had to snap to get her attention. “This is my friend Carson.”

  “Hi.” Her eyes darted back and forth between Carson and the TV screen.

  Carson smiled, not taking offense at her lack of attention. “It’s nice to meet you.” He turned to me. “She’s a cute kid.”

  “Thanks.”

  “There are two more, right?”

  “Yeah. Ben is in his room on his computer. Ashley is locked in the bathroom.” At Carson’s raised eyebrows,
I shook my head. “I don’t get it either, man.”

  “You should call Rachel,” Emily said, not taking her eyes off the screen. I thought she’d tuned us out. “I locked myself in the bathroom stall after I missed the bus, and she talked me out.”

  I hadn’t heard that part of her missing the bus. Great, apparently locking themselves in the bathroom was the Truitt girls’ reaction to being upset. Noted.

  It wasn’t a bad idea, though. Rachel seemed to have a way with kids. Things had been weird between us when I left after changing her tire, though. Meeting her when I had was piss-poor timing. I would give anything to have met her a month earlier so we could have gotten to know one another before my life went to Shitsville.

  That’s not fair. It wasn’t Ben, Ashley, and Emily’s fault that our parents had died or that my aunt and uncle had turned out to be incompetent guardians. The kids were the victims in this scenario, not me. At least I’d had my parents for the entirety of my childhood. So not Shitsville. More like Crazytown.

  “I don’t want to keep you,” Carson said. “Especially since you have a… situation.”

  “Thanks for stopping by,” I told Carson. “I’ll give you a tour when things aren’t so nuts.”

  “No problem. Let me know if you need anything.”

  I thanked him again and walked him out. I appreciated the sentiment, but he was even more clueless than I was. Still, it was nice to know I had people I could count on if it came down to it.

  I checked the time. Ashley had twelve minutes to come to her senses. And I had twelve minutes to decide what I was going to do—go buy tools to take the door off the hinges or call Rachel.

  It wasn’t fair to involve Rachel in my family drama, but I really didn’t want to take the door off the hinges to bust in on my twelve-year-old sister in the bathroom. I just wanted her to come out and talk to me, not traumatize the both of us.

  Despite the circumstances, it would be nice to see Rachel. Even though I’d done nothing wrong, I felt bad that she’d thought I would blow her off.

  So I called her.

  ***

  Rachel

  “EMILY IS LOCKED in the bathroom?” I’d been happy to see Jake’s name flash up on my phone, but now I was simply perplexed about why he was calling.

  “No, not Emily,” he replied. “Ashley.”

  “How many siblings do you have?” I’d thought there were only two—a brother and Emily.

  “Three. Ben, Ashley, and Emily. Look, I’m sorry to call you about this.” He sighed. “I hoped the next time I called you, I’d be arranging a date.”

  His words sent warmth through my belly. I also wished he’d been calling about a date. “It’s okay.”

  “I didn’t know who else to call. I thought a woman might be able to get through to her.” He sounded exasperated, like he was at the end of his rope. I hadn’t heard from him the rest of the week, but then I hadn’t expected to. But now it looked as though I would get the chance to make up for my bitchy attitude after all. Thank you, universe.

  “It’s no problem,” I said quickly, already searching for my keys. “I can come talk to her. But she doesn’t know me, so I don’t know if it will do any good.”

  “You can’t possibly make the situation any worse.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I muttered as I quickly ran a brush through my hair.

  “No, that’s not what I meant. I—shit. I’m really screwing this up with you, aren’t I?”

  I paused, trying to decipher the meaning behind what he’d said. Screw what up exactly? Then I dismissed it, figuring now wasn’t the time to look for subtext. “It’s fine. Text me your address.”

  “Sure thing. See you soon.”

  “Wait! How old is Ashley?” I wanted to formulate a plan of attack on my way over.

  “Twelve.”

  As soon as he said that, I was ninety-percent sure I knew what the problem was, and it definitely wasn’t one Jake could help her with. Poor thing. While it kind of sucked, I hoped that I was right and the situation would turn out to be no big deal.

  I hurried out to my car, pausing briefly to admire Greta’s new tires. I hadn’t thought they would make that much of a difference, but my poor old car didn’t look quite as crappy with them. I liked to think she drove better, too, but that might have been wishful thinking. Unfortunately, despite opening the new credit card to pay for the tires, I’d still come up short on rent this month, forcing me to accept the loan Katie was always offering. My share of the rent was chump change to Katie, but I still hated borrowing money based on principle. I might have to find an evening job in addition to working at Miss Melinda’s daycare over the summer. I’d begun the painful process of accepting the inevitability of another summer at home. Only this year, I would be in the guest room. Not gonna think about that yet. I had a few more weeks to enjoy first.

  I stopped at a drug store on the way to Jake’s to pick up the supplies that I suspected were needed. His house was in one of the few neighborhoods in Bleaksburg with single-family homes. Over half the city’s residents were students, which meant the town was mainly filled with apartment complexes and rows of townhouses. Most of Jake’s neighbors were adult grad students who had families.

  I knocked on the door, and Emily flung it open. She beamed at me. “I’ve been waiting for you!”

  “Oh yeah?” I smiled back. I couldn’t help myself—I liked this kid. With her blond hair, she didn’t resemble Jake closely, but they had the same eyes. Sadly, I wondered if those came from their mother or father. “How did the rest of your week at school go?”

  “Much better. Mrs. Jenkins was there the entire day, and she walked me to the bus to make sure I found it okay. She’s super nice. And she gave me thirty warm fuzzies for sharing my lunch with Claudia, who forgot hers.”

  “That’s great,” I said. “So you’re making friends okay?”

  “I guess. I mean Claudia… or is her name Chloe? I can’t remember. But she’s nice. She promised to bring me a Rice Krispies Treat on Monday.”

  Jake appeared behind his sister. “Emily, let her come in.”

  “Oops.” Emily stepped back, and I entered the foyer.

  Jake hooked his thumbs in the waistband of his sweats, looking absolutely delicious. His hair had that tousled look that male underwear models had to suggest they’d just gotten out of bed. His mouth stretched into an equally delicious smile that put wicked thoughts in my mind. “Hi, Rachel. It’s good to see you again.”

  “Yes, it is,” I said without thinking. “I mean, it’s good to see you too. I want to apologize again for—”

  He put his hands up to stop me. “Let bygones be bygones.”

  “What’s in the bag?” Emily was looking at the plastic bag hanging off my wrist.

  Instinctively, I held it up. “Oh, um, just some stuff.” I didn’t want to be forced into having that talk with Emily. I’d been blissfully unaware when I was her age.

  Jake’s face paled noticeably when he saw the labels on the packages through the thin plastic bag. “Do you really think that’s what it is?”

  I raised my eyebrows and shrugged. “She’s the right age, so I took a guess.”

  “What are you talking about?” Emily asked.

  “Em, can you go back to watching TV for a few minutes?” Jake asked.

  Emily huffed, obviously not liking being excluded, but she did what her brother asked.

  “Do you know if she’s gotten her first period?” I asked quietly.

  Jake’s eyes focused on a spot behind my left shoulder. “I have no clue.”

  Awkward. But we were both adults, and if Jake was going to be raising two girls for the foreseeable future, he would need to get comfortable with those types of things.

  “I might be wrong, but I wanted to be prepared just in case.”

  “No, you’re probably right. It makes sense.” His shoulders slumped. “I can’t believe I thought I could do this. I have two sisters. They need a woman. They n
eed—”

  “Hey,” I said sharply before he could continue down the spiral of self-despair that I’d become all too familiar with lately. “Stop. You’re not the first single man to raise girls, and you won’t be the last. And what about all the single mothers raising boys?”

  “You’re right.” He ran his hands over his face. “This all happened so fast, and I…” He laughed. “Sorry. This isn’t why you’re here. Thanks for coming.”

  “Don’t thank me yet,” I quipped.

  Jake took me down the hall to a closed door. He knocked on it and was greeted with an immediate cry of “Go away!”

  I cringed at Ashley’s response but then grinned. I couldn’t help it. I remembered the overwhelming feelings of my tween years all too well. In retrospect, I should probably give both my dad and Eli props for living with four women. It couldn’t have been easy at times.

  Jake shot me an apologetic look. “Ashley, my friend Rachel stopped by. I thought you might want to talk to her.” He paused, but she didn’t respond. “She’s the one who Emily met at her school the day she missed the bus. Remember? Emily told you about her.”

  That was news to me. I wondered what Emily had said… and what Jake had said. But I could wonder later. I cleared my throat and leaned closer to the door. “Hi, Ashley.” It was so odd that I’d met both of his sisters through closed bathroom doors. I hoped I wouldn’t meet his brother under the same circumstances. Now that would be awkward. “I’d love to talk to you if you’ll let me in.”

  Similar to the experience with Emily, there was a pause while Ashley thought it over. “Okay.” Her voice was much softer. “But Jake has to go away.”

  I looked at him. “You heard the girl. Shoo.”

  He put his hands up. “I’m going.” As he retreated, he mouthed “thank you.” I wanted to remind him that I hadn’t earned a thank-you yet.

  Then Ashley opened the door, and I slipped into the small room.

  CHAPTER 12