My heart jolted.
I blinked at his choice of words. Well, one word in particular—“mermaid.” I used to be on the school’s swim team in high school. Was that what he was referring to? Probably not. I mean, I doubted he even knew about it.
Yet he softly said, “Good night, Mermaid,” as he left.
I floated into my house in dreamy confusion, kind of lost in a cloud from his dreamy warm stare all night and his sweet attention all night too (though he kept sweeping his attention to Daisy the whole time we were in the restaurant—sadness!). Still, his intentions toward me at the cemetery had obviously been out of kindness—so yes. I was confused.
The heartbreaker seemed to have a heart after all.
Sigh.
Too bad he was all “taken” with Daisy. (Talk about superficial! She had actually won that crown in high school.) (And Justin was stupid.)
I complained about it to my mom as soon as I entered my house.
She smiled faintly. “You have my head spinning, Faith. This afternoon at dinner you had me worried for you. The way you talked, I began to think sweet Justin had turned into a womanizer. But I saw the way he was looking at you just now, Faith. The woman he is “taken” with is you.”
“Ha! No, you should have seen him at the restaurant. He was all ‘Daisy’ ‘Daisy’ all night long.”
“Well, you did tell him not to come to our dinner,” Mom pointed out.
“Because he’s a monster!”
Mom smiled. “Well, Toby likes him. He’s certainly ‘taken’ with him.”
“That’s because Toby isn’t a vulnerable woman. And yes I am aware Justin is sweet to everyone else—well, and even sweet to the women. All the woman. That’s the trouble.”
Mom smiled again. She kept doing that. “Well, I’m going to get on home. Toby is in bed—and he hated the woman he met tonight with Chad. According to Toby, she’s a monster.”
“Swell.”
Mom kissed my forehead. “Take a bubble-bath sweetie, and then have some ice-cream.”
“Oh, don’t you worry, I will.”
*
And I did.
CHAPTER 15
Faith Cooper
Faith Cooper—the next morning
As I’m leaving the school’s staff lounge, Justin is just coming inside.
“Hi stranger,” he says with an adoring-type smile—yowza.
Uh, I mean player!!
… yet it turns my heart to mush just the same.
I gulp, and quickly stammer out, “Any grand gestures?”
His grin quirks. “Not yet. You said it has to be epic. I’m kind of rusty with gestures, since my—well, it’s been a while.”
My heart squeezes. “Right,” I murmur sympathetically. I guess he hasn’t felt like doing “grand” anything since his loving wife died. I should cut him some slack. I know that. But he’s still a heartbreak waiting to happen, and I should stay away from him. I know that too. My heart is still healing from my last heartbreak (divorce). I owe it to Toby to be wise. And mature. So, I quickly say, “Well, see you later. I’m subbing in math class today.”
“Good luck.”
I sigh. “Unfortunately, I’ll need it. Thanks.”
He grins. “You’re welcome.”
My heart pounds from his warm grin and lingering stare. “Um, okay. Bye,” I say quickly. (So quickly it’s as though it’s all one word.) Then I zoom out of the room and away from his magnetic stare so I can breathe.
Then I see Daisy down the corridor. Awesome, she’s here today too. That’s so … awesome. Totally, totally awesome.
My heart sinks as I watch her head down the hallway towards the staff lounge.
No, stop moping about that! I urge my pathetic heart. If they get together, Justin will stop toying with you, dear poor heart. I need him to stop toying with you. You’re not strong enough—sorry but you’re just not. You are a wimp. Face it: you are! You’re still trying to recover from your last heartbreak, don’t go getting into another one.
(My heart didn’t really listen.)
***
After school was finally over I hobbled to my car, somewhat shaken. It’s not good to work at the same place as your ex, in case you are wondering. I thought it would be okay (well, survivable) since Chad works clear over in the gym, and there is no need for our paths to cross, but he seemed determined to make our paths cross all day.
While I was in the supply closet looking for charts, he slid inside right behind me and locked the door.
He drew too close and said, “The only reason I went out with Sabrina last night was to make you jealous. Just like you kissing that hockey loser—that’s what that was about, right? Trying to get me jealous? Well, it worked Faith, I was jealous. But I know it was just a game with you—and with him, Mr. Heartbreaker Hockey Guy—just a big game with you both. Still, I couldn’t take it, seeing you kiss another man. I’m not going to give up, Faith. Not ever. You’re my wife—my life. We belong together.”
I shook my head and gritted my teeth. “I’m not your wife. We’re divorced, Chad. And we don’t belong together. Not anymore. Your cheating on me proved that.”
I had stormed out of the supply closet fuming, but Chad had called after me, “I’m not giving up, Faith. I’m never giving up.”
So, I’m not in the best shape now. I collapse into my car, my only thoughts on a bubble bath since my mom is taking Toby to her art class today—she signed him up for lessons as well. Since the divorce, she’s been signing him up for all kinds of things. It’s good for him—and her. But it leaves me alone a lot. However, today that’s A-okay. Bubble bath, here I come.
With a sigh, I back out of my parking spot.
THUMP, THUMP.
Oh no! I even hear a CRUNCH.
CHAPTER 16
***JUSTIN***
JUSTIN—Two minutes earlier
“Hey, Daisy. Wait up.” I put down my briefcase as I hurry to catch up to her in the faculty parking lot.
I’ve been trying for weeks now to get the lady to go out with my Christian hockey teammate, Dave Edwards. Dave will give me his ring-side seat tickets if I can get Daisy to go out with him. I already have seats, of course, but the tickets he scored—well, I’m chasing after Daisy for them. Big time. The thing is though, she won’t give Dave the time of day. And she’s taken to wagging her fist at me whenever I even suggest she go out with him.
She gives me an impatient glance now as I catch up to her. But she lets me catch up to her. That’s the thing—she likes the attention, even if she can’t act like she likes it.
“Hello Daisy,” I tell her. “You have my good friend and teammate, Dave, losing his mind.”
She gives me a flirty smile, “How ‘bout your mind?”
Suddenly, I’m distracted. Because I hear a sound behind me. The sound of my briefcase being run over. Actually, I figure that out when I turn and see it happening.
I squeeze my eyes shut. “Man.”
“Huh.” I tell Daisy, “I’ll have to get back to you, because my new laptop was just annihilated.”
“Oh,” she makes a sympathetic sound. It makes me turn back to her and grin, “If you want to make me feel better you can go out with my teammate, Dave.”
She wags her fist at me, but she gives me a sympathetic little tilt to her lips.
“Okay, so you’ll get back to me on that. Thanks.” Then I trot over to see the damage done to my belongings. But I stop in my tracks when I see who wiped-out my stuff. Because it’s my kindergarten girlfriend.
Faith looks up at me apologetically when I bend over to examine my decimated briefcase.
“Justin?” she gasps. “Was that yours?”
I look up from my briefcase and get lost in her worried pretty eyes. Slowly, I nod.
She groans. “I’m so sorry.”
I grin weakly. She’s so cute. “Don’t worry about it. I shouldn’t have abandoned it there like that. I wasn’t thinking. That was dumb.”
I p
ick up my wounded briefcase, and see that she’s quite alarmed when it makes a lot of noise—you know, the laptop pieces. They kind of rattle around. Crunching. Not a good sign.
Her big pretty eyes widen in distress. “What do you have in there?”
I don’t want to show her.
I quickly unsnap my briefcase and peek inside to examine the damage. Unfortunately, I see my mangled laptop and cringe. She must have noticed. She begs/coaxes, “What’s in there?”
Finally, I show it to her.
She winces and her face gets all white, yet blotchy. She gasps out, “I’ll pay you back. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. Everything on it is backed up on my key-drive. And the laptop was a gift that I shouldn’t have accepted. So, really you did me a favor. No more guilt.”
I grin, since ironically she looks guilty. I murmur, “—well, no more guilt for me.” I grin again, “Thank you.”
She doesn’t look convinced that I’m not crying on the inside.
She exhales deeply. Then she blurts out, “Okay.” I have no idea why.
She takes another big breath, “I’ll help you get her.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Who?”
“Daisy—waitress lady. The woman you want. She was who you were talking about last night, right?”
No. I’d been talking about her—beautiful, sweet Faith. But I clear my throat and say, “Right.” Because I’d like her to go on with her plan—her “helping” me. It intrigues me.
Faith’s eyelids close and she swallows. Then she does this cute little head shake, like whatever she was just thinking about bugs her and she’s trying to shake it away. Finally she opens up her pretty eyes again and says determinedly, “You said she sees you as a heartbreaker—”
“No. You said that.”
“Okay—her. Me. Everybody. Same difference. Anyway, I’ll help you get her. I mean, I’ll pay you back for the laptop too. But just as a bonus, because I’m so sorry—I’ll help you get her.”
I can’t help smiling. “You’ll help me—how exactly?”
She swallows, though it’s more like a gulp. “We’ll—we’ll act like we’re dating. She’ll see you be nice to the poor divorced lady. The poor, normal looking divorced lady who isn’t super skinny, or insanely sexy or a celebrity—just a normal lady, and yet you’ll be super romantic and nice to her, slash me. It will get Daisy’s heart melting and swooning to see you be so incredibly sweet. Then I’ll dump you. You’ll be totally heartbroken—in public. That way, she’ll see you differently. That you’re not a heartbreaker. In fact, you got your heart broken—by a totally normal, not gorgeous or super skinny, totally normal woman. She’ll hate on me for it, but she’ll love you.”
I tilt my head. “You’d be willing to have her hate on you?”
She shrugs. “I really don’t care what Daisy thinks.”
Me neither.
I cock an eyebrow. “So, we’re going to fake date?”
“Yeah, but don’t worry. You don’t have to kiss me or anything.”
“Yeah, that would be a chore,” I deadpan. “Look, Faith, I’d like to kiss you—again. Very much.”
She turns red but chooses to ignore my words. Apparently dismissing them as “player” lines. (They’re not.)
She goes on as if I didn’t say a word, “We can just hold hands and stuff.”
She adds kind of dreamy, “You can tenderly touch my cheek and hair—women eat it up when you do stuff like that. But what’s going to be the clincher is—you’re only going to do it to one woman for a while. One. Can you handle that?”
I nod. “Absolutely.”
I tell her this because, well—absolutely, I can do this. In fact, I want to so bad that I’m afraid she can tell and she’ll back out of her crazy plan seeing that she has it wrong. It’s not Daisy I want … it’s her.
“Okay, sounds good,” I tell her quickly, trying to sound distracted rather than delighted. “I’ll text you later.”
I tell her this as my teammates swarm on me, but what I’m really thinking is: She digs me touching ladies’ cheeks and hair?
Man, this is going to be heaven.
CHAPTER 17
***FAITH***
FAITH
Chad was intolerable today—the way he kept finding excuses to “run into me” the entire day at school.
That’s sort of (well, mostly) the reason I came up with my crazy deal to help Justin. I mean, face it: It seems the easiest way to avoid an obsessed Chad is to make him think I’m actually really, truly dating someone bigger than him.
Chad seeing me with Justin—that will help him “give up” since he had basically said today he was never going to do that. Well okay, he didn’t just “basically” say it—he had flat-out said it. As I had stormed out of that supply closet, he had called after me, “I’m not giving up, Faith. I’m never giving up.”
… well, maybe now he would, right? Anyway, I figured him seeing me with Justin would help him do it way easier than seeing me alone and pathetic. No need to give him false hope. So yeah, I’d appear all entangled with Justin.
All I had to worry about was keeping my heart in check through this … but at least I could also repay Justin, since I destroyed his laptop. So, it was like two birds with one stone—get rid of obsessed stalking Chad and repay Heartbreaker Hanson. And I really, really needed Justin Hanson to no longer be single.
So, three birds, actually.
CHAPTER 18
***JUSTIN***
JUSTIN
We didn’t end up having hockey practice due to a lot of the men needing to bail. (Most are married—we’re Christians. We have different priorities.)
Dave—one of the non-marrieds—looked at me all hopeful when he saw me in the locker room. “Talk to Daisy for me?” he asked.
“I’m working on it,” I told him.
Griffin Piper just smiled. He says Daisy wants to work on me—well, my mouth. I ignore him because I really want the tickets—and Faith.
“So, no hockey practice?” I ask, confirming with Griffin. He’s our captain, due to forming our formidable team.
He nods, “No hockey practice.” Then he grins, “How’s it going with Kindergarten Girlfriend?”
I raise my eyebrows. “It’s looking up, actually. Despite that there are lies about me on ladies’ bathroom walls.”
Griffin grins, “Are they lies?”
I still. “You knew about them?”
He shrugs, looking amused. “Ally’s a lady. She uses those rooms sometimes.”
Ally’s a nice lady. I like her a lot. I rub my chin, more than a little perplexed. “She let the lies stay up?”
Griffin laughs slightly. “Again, are they lies?” Then he says, “Sorry dude, Ally demands they stay. She says women need to know.”
“Know what exactly?”
His grin quirks. “That you’re in love with your kindergarten girlfriend and have not been able to love anyone else—well, except your deceased wife, I suppose.”
I thump my head against my locker. “It says all that on the walls?”
Griffin shrugs, his grin twitching. “You have to read between the lines.”
“I’m kind of annoyed that there are lines at all.”
“No you’re not. Just suck it up and get your girl.”
I exhale. “Yes sir, Captain.”
CHAPTER 19
***JUSTIN***
JUSTIN
So, yeah, hockey practice got cancelled.
When I went back out to the parking lot, Faith was still sitting in her car, her head pressed against the steering wheel.
I smiled slightly. She seemed to feel so bad about the laptop, but really I felt all kinds of angst using the thing. It seemed the fancy lady that had given it to me had expected some sort of big (aka: sordid) thank you from me. The whole thing left me uncomfortable, especially because I don’t need gifts—or that kind of encounter—but I’d felt obligated to take the thing, as I couldn’t give it back
. She’s my son’s therapist (his grandparents are having him see one, due to his mom dying) and I couldn’t decline the gift while they were standing there, looking like I should be appreciative. The lady had told me (aka: all of them) that I could keep a journal of my son’s progress on it. Whatever. I can buy my own laptops. But I took it. I didn’t want to make an issue—or seem “unappreciative,” though I didn’t appreciate the way the lady acted towards me when they weren’t around.
Anyway, now the issue was suddenly taken care of. Kind of like the hand of God stepping in. Or something. Of course his sending Faith over to do His work was very nice. I must have done something right. At some point in my life. After all, the object brought Faith to me. Thank you, strange fancy lady. Or God. Or both. Everyone.
CHAPTER 20
***FAITH***
FAITH
I sat in my car a long time. I mean, running over someone’s laptop didn’t help calm my nerves or give me a boost of confidence in my driving capabilities at the moment.
I was full of despair, my stomach in knots. First of all, there was … well you know it all—the stalker moves Chad was pulling, and NOW, on top of that, I ran over Justin’s laptop. His laptop! And he wasn’t even angry about it. At all. In fact, he was nice. Nice!!
I really shouldn’t have made that deal with him—the one where I’m going to be spending hordes of time with him, having him look into my eyes and caress my cheek (dreamy sigh). That was such a stupid move. My mushy heart is going to get clobbered. And I volunteered it.
I thump my head on the steering wheel and moan.
“Need a ride?”
I jerk my head up. Then my body goes up in flames—because it’s Justin. Of course he would catch me like this—banging my head on a steering wheel. Grumble.
The Heartbreaker Next Door (The Hockey Team Book 1) Page 6