Jade's Match, the Jewel Series Book 7

by Hallee Bridgeman

  Cora walked up to Ruby and Ivan on the Virginia beach, adjusting her hat more securely on her head. Ruby saw her coming and raised a hand. Ivan whistled and waved and a pair of women who drilled on the other net grabbed their ball and rushed forward.

  “Hey,” Cora said, setting her bag next to Ivan’s chair. “Going to be hot today.”

  Ruby snorted. “It’s hot now, and it’s seven. Noon is going to kill it.”

  “Best drink up, girls,” Ivan said, handing each of them a bottle of water. “We’re going until three today. In addition to beating everyone you face today, I expect you to make every effort to combat dehydration. Got it?” Cora rolled her head on her shoulders and drank half the bottle. He looked her up and down. “How’s the knee, young lady?”

  “I ran on the sand this morning. Feels good so far.”

  “That’s good.” He nodded and checked his watch. “Clementine? Lead the warm up. We’re going to play full matches.”

  The tall brunette stepped in front of them and started counting off stretches. While Cora stretched her shoulders, she thought about the late-night text from Davis last night. They’d started making team cuts already. One other player who played the same position as him had already gotten cut, so she hoped that meant Davis was safe. He clarified that no one was guaranteed a spot until this training camp was over. She knew how it worked. She’d battled her way through tryouts and teams and national competitions her entire life.

  It didn’t make it easier.

  She realized in the last several days away from him how often she thought of him. What would happen, she wondered, when, on Valentine’s Day, that first hockey match of the Winter Games took place and they officially fulfilled the VelTech contract? Would they lose each other’s number? Or would they come back together in the fall as a couple on the Virginia University campus?

  Did she want that? As she stretched her calf muscles, she seriously thought about it and decided that, yes, she definitely wanted that. How to go about letting Davis know, though? As an incredibly pragmatic person, he would want the direct approach. “Hi, Davis, I really like you and want to keep dating you for realz.”

  “What did you say?” Ruby asked from her bent over position touching her toes.

  Had she said that out loud? Where was her head? Blood rushed to her face that had nothing to do with being bent over at the waist. “Nothing. Just, uh….” Just what? “Just song lyrics.”

  They shifted to the other leg and her knee twinged as she stretched.

  “Uh-huh. Don’t think I know that song.” Ruby grinned skeptically. They strained through a few more bouncing stretches that made her hamstrings burn. “Maybe leave off the ‘for realz.’ Try to sound like an adult,” Ruby offered.

  Cora smiled in embarrassment. Thinking about saying it like that made her chuckle out loud, even as she and Ruby took their places on the court. Digging the balls of her feet into the sand and watching Clementine prepare to serve, she smiled and contemplated what she could do for Davis to make him feel appreciated and respected. As the ball flew through the air, she mentally counted down the days until the Fourth of July when she would see him again.

  Davis tapped on the coach’s door and forced himself to cross the threshold at his beckoning. So far, everyone called to the office ended up cleaning out his locker twenty minutes later. He walked up to stand before the coach’s desk, but it felt like this was happening to someone else.

  “Elliott. Good. Please, sit.” The coach gestured at the man leaning against the window sill. “I don’t think you’ve had the pleasure. This is our attorney, Mr. Ariel Kaplan.”

  Davis lifted his chin in greeting. “Hello, sir.” His voice sounded hoarse. He tried to make enough spit that he could swallow some and clear his dry throat. He wished he could just get on with clearing out his locker without sitting through the humiliation of the cut and the whole ‘take one for the team’ pep talk.

  “We’ve had a complaint.” The coach picked up a piece of paper and held it out to him. “We want you to know about it because you’re a popular guy these days, so it’s going to get out there.”

  He noticed the tremble in his own hand as he took the paper from the coach and read the letter. At first, the words didn’t make sense, then he started back at the beginning and read slower.

  Dear Olympic Committee:

  The Team USA hockey team has a player who is only there because he is Korean. This inferior player is being kept on for the purely political reason of his nationality. He is only there to be a poster boy for these games taking place in Korea. I am in the process of filing official charges.

  “What?” he skimmed the signature and saw Stan Denney’s name.

  Mr. Kaplan straightened. “Please understand, Mr. Elliott, that you are on this team because you are one of the best, if not the best, forward in the country.”

  “Kaplan,” the coach scolded. He held out his hand and took the letter back from Davis.

  “My apologies,” Kaplan offered. “I got ahead of myself.”

  Davis could barely shift gears from the letter to what the men had just said. “I’m on the team?”

  Coach shook his head. “No, son. Not yet.” He stood and walked around his desk. Davis found himself standing as well. He had no idea what might happen next. Coach extended his hand and Davis took it. “Davis Elliot, as head coach for Team USA, it is my duty and my great pleasure to inform you that you are the first player identified to represent this great nation in the upcoming Winter Games. You have been added to the roster.”

  Coach released his hand and walked back to take his seat behind the desk. He plopped into his chair with a sigh and gestured for Davis to sit back down as well. Once Davis settled back into the chair, he said, “Now you’re on the team. Okay?”

  “Thanks, Coach. You won’t regret it.”

  Coach sighed again. “I know that, son. I can’t imagine you doing anything to make me regret my decision. Now, just because you’re on the roster doesn’t mean you’ll play. I know you get that. I just want to be very clear about the criteria I used to arrive at our decision to put you on the roster.”

  Kaplan interjected, “It has nothing to do with your race.”

  Coach nodded. “That’s true, Elliott. This….” He gestured at the letter and his face scowled as if swallowing something that tasted just awful. “This will be investigated. No one who knows you like we do will believe for a second you haven’t earned the right to be here based on every drop of blood you’ve spilled out there. Keep doing what you’re doing, and you have nothing to worry about.”

  “I understand, sir.”

  “Maybe you do.” Coach sat back. “The entire purpose of the games is unity. It is designed to overcome the kind of bigotry that exists in our world. This… love note here… this is a disgrace and an insult to everything the games represent. It flies in the face of everything I’ve dedicated my life to. We wanted to inform you that this kind of thing is going on and make it very clear to you where we stand.”

  “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

  “No need to thank me. Just give me all you got both on and off the ice.”

  Understanding that sentence served as his dismissal, he stood and nodded to the men. The tightness in his chest loosened and he felt much lighter than when he walked in the door. “Count on it, Coach.”

  “One last thing,” Mr. Kaplan added. “Please don’t make this a public campaign. Believe it or not, this isn’t the first time we’ve dealt with this kind of thing. Just let us handle it.”

  He had no time for social media right now anyway. All excess energy off the ice was spent eating or studying. Even if he wanted to launch some defensive or even offensive campaign, he couldn’t. “Yes, sir.”

  “Good,” Coach said. “Go grab some dinner. See you in the morning.”

  When he walked down the hall toward the dining room, he encountered John Crist. “You’re not under escort, so I assume that means you’re not cut?”

&nb
sp; Davis smiled. “Nope. It was something else.” He looked at his watch. “I know you weren’t out here waiting for me while our dinner hour is fading fast.”

  “Nah.” They both knew he was. “I was just getting something I’d forgotten out of my locker.”

  Davis slapped him on the back of the shoulder. “Thanks, brother.”

  They stepped out of the hockey complex and crossed the yard to the dining facility. He thought about Cora and wondered if he should tell her what happened. Would she even care if it wasn’t about the campaign? A part of him believed she would very much care. Was that just wishful thinking again? Was he projecting who he wanted her to be in his heart instead of the person she really was again, like he’d done when they first met? Or was something really there?

  “What was that about?” John asked.

  “I’m not sure I can talk about it.” Davis shrugged. “But they didn’t say I couldn’t. It was about bad blood.”

  After a second, John asked, “Denney?”

  Tightening his lips, Davis considered the question. Finally, he said, “I don’t know what I’m allowed to say, John. Coach wanted me to know he has my back.”

  John shoved him off the sidewalk. “At least someone does,” he joked, then slipped his hands into his pockets and sauntered toward the door.

  Davis laughed and raced past him, opening the door for him and gesturing with exaggerated movements. Following John into the dining hall, he breathed through his nose and recognized the smell of pasta and red sauce. His stomach growled as he picked up a tray.

  Hours later, he lay in his bunk and stared at his phone screen, his eyes burning with exhaustion. He saw nothing so far. Sending a quick status update without a picture, he said:

  All day on the ice. Sore everywhere. Sometimes, I forget it’s June. Missing my volleyball rock star Jade.

  Deciding that he’d sacrificed enough sleep over a situation over which he had no control, he rolled over and closed his eyes.

  CHAPTER 7

  Cora ran along the shore, staying close to the water and running on the hard-packed sand. She knew she should run on the softer sand, but since today was the Fourth of July, she gave herself permission to take it slightly easy.

  As she ran, she thought about the last two weeks. Through scattered conversations and long text messaging, Cora learned about Davis’ struggles growing up in a mixed family and feeling out of place wherever he went. Cora understood that on a slight level, due to the Native American features she’d inherited from her mother, and how dark her skin would tan as summer progressed.

  Cora told him about her family, about her mother’s scary upbringing and heartbreaking adolescence. “She doesn’t trust men much,” she’d said on Sunday afternoon after church, sitting on her back patio and staring at a hummingbird dancing around the bird feeder she’d added to her town house’s back porch. “The fact that she agreed to this contract really blows me away. There’s no telling what thoughts have gone through her mind as all of the details were put into place.”

  “Isn’t she the one who created this entire experience?” Davis had asked.

  “The original idea, yes. The romance, probably not. But she would have been contacted by the advertising team before they put it together. It was her baby and they’ve respected that all along.”

  The Sunday afternoon she flew home from a tournament in Seattle, she found a quiet corner of the airport and video chatted with him. Davis talked to her about his temper, and how his father had taught him how to focus it on the ice, making him a fierce hockey player who could control the rage inside himself through focus and concentration, making him calm and assured off the ice.

  “I’m surprised about that,” she’d said, ignoring the first call for her flight. She watched his expression carefully. “You don’t seem to have a temper at all.”

  His eyes widened, and then he smiled. “It’s been since I was a young teen that I lost my temper, and I hurt someone badly as a result. I made sure to be in control of myself ever since that.”

  Thinking about how calm he took her mistreatment of him at the beginning of their contract with VelTech, and how easygoing he always was, she was impressed at what hockey had done for him.

  These long conversations, either electronic, voice, or video, shifted the tide in their relationship. It brought them closer as friends and made her feelings for him grow. Every time her phone buzzed or rang, she jumped to answer it, hoping to see his face fill the screen. They covered their social media with little details about each other and kept their followers enthralled with the blossoming romance. Every day she missed him with an ache in her heart that didn’t make sense because they’d only spent one single week together.

  Today, he’d be here, and so would her entire family on her mother’s side. Her cousin, Madeline, and Maddie’s husband Joe had arrived early this morning, bearing bagels from her favorite place in New York, and the rest of her family would arrive well before lunch. Davis had texted her at midnight to tell her he’d checked into his beach cottage. He only planned to spend last night, though, because she had to leave her tournament in San Francisco this afternoon.

  As she turned to go up the path to her house, she spotted Davis stretching in the warm sand. Her heart leaped at the sight of him and her pulse started racing. With a huge grin covering her face, she sprinted up to him.

  “Hey. I didn’t expect you so soon!” He stood and brushed sand off his hands just as she reached him. It felt good as his arms came around her and hugged her close. She stepped back, grinning. “Congrats on making the team!” She pumped her fist in the air and laughed, “USA!”

  “Thanks. It’s not actually the team yet. I’m on the roster. So, this is just the team we practice with to see if I can make the team.” He chuckled and brushed his dark hair off his forehead.

  “So, still more cuts?”

  “More cuts. We have some exhibition games and stuff before the final team is announced.” She watched the muscles exposed by his tank top ripple in his arm. “Even though I got in late last night, I was hoping to get a workout in with you before your family descends.”

  She picked up the towel and water bottle she’d left at the mouth of the trail and wiped her face. “Already have some cousins here. Did you meet them?”

  “No. I saw the cars but didn’t go inside. I saw your stuff here and knew you were out running.” He lifted his arms above his head and leaned to the right then to the left. “You sure you don’t want to get a couple more miles in?”

  “No. I wish, though.” Cora looked at her watch. “I’ve already done my five. Go on. When you come back, I’ll make you breakfast.” She leaned toward him. “Madeline brought me bagels from Marcus, my uncle’s pastry chef in New York. You will seriously fall in love in about an hour. Trust me.”

  He looked her up and down, a serious look on his face, before he winked. “Count on it.” He started away in a slow jog. “Give me about thirty minutes.”

  “Okay!” She watched him for a few seconds, then said, “Hey!”

  He turned, jogging backward. “Yes?”

  “It’s really good to see you in person.”

  He didn’t speak, but smiled and saluted with his right hand before he turned and kept running. Cora slowly walked up the path, running her fingertips along the tops of the dune grass. When she got to the top of the dunes, she saw her brother on the back porch of the house. “Chase!”

  Running the last twenty yards, she tossed her towel and water bottle into a chair and threw herself into her twin’s arms. He’d inherited their father’s height and size. At six-nine and two-hundred-fifty pounds, he looked exactly like a football player. He would start his senior year of college this year, while Cora would start the second semester of her junior year. She remembered all the news articles and discussion during his first year starting for Texas A&M about how his size fit more a linebacker instead of a quarterback. People only said that until they saw the precision and strength of his throwing a
rm. With his size, he rarely got sacked by the opposing team.

  “You’re all sweaty,” he said, exaggeratedly wiping his chest and arms.

  As she stepped back from him, she looked up at him, punching him in the shoulder. “I thought you weren’t coming.”

  “We’re all off for the week. Have to be back in Texas Sunday night,” he said, smiling. His bright blue eyes glowed in his tan face, contrasting with his dark hair. “Plan to fly out with you to California tomorrow. Might be a treat to spend some actual time with you.”

  She squealed and hugged him again. “I’m stoked! I can’t remember the last time you were able to see me play!”

  “Right? Actually, I think it was Rio. When’s the last time you saw me play?”

  “That’s not even fair.”

  The back door to the house opened and her dad stepped out. “Hey, Jade, Chase is here. Surprise!” he teased with a grin.

  She stepped forward to hug him but cautioned, “I’m all sweaty.”

  “How come you didn’t warn me?” Chase asked, laughing, as Barry hugged Cora.

  “Where’s your hottie hockey player? Off taking selfies somewhere?” Barry asked, clearly tongue-in-cheek.

  She gestured toward the beach. “He just left for a run.”

  “Oh, I figured he’d go with you.”

  “He got in late, so I went without checking with him.” She picked up her water bottle and towel. “Madeline brought some Marcus bagels.”

  “And lox. Best get some before your Uncle Derrick gets here.”

  “Maddie knows to get him his own bag. He’s not normal.” She pointed at Chase with a grin. “Good to see you, brother. Can’t wait for you to meet Davis.”

  “Oh? Is that so?” Chase asked, his eyelids drooping and his head tilting slightly.

  Ignoring him, she stepped into the house. Her mom and Aunt Robin stood at the kitchen island. Robin leaned against it, sipping an aromatic smelling cup of coffee, while her mom sliced melon. “Hello!” she said, grinning, as she walked toward them. “Happy Fourth.”