Fair Catch (Love and Sports Series)

by Quinn, Meghan

  “You know Lexi, if it was the other way around. You could bet your ass, you would be worth the heartache to me.”

  With that he left, leaving Lexi feeling like a left over pile of crap on the football house’s floor. She spent the night crying herself to sleep. Wondering what possessed her to say such awful things to the guy who had stolen her heart.

  Chapter 9

  It had been a week, a week since she last saw Jake. She didn’t know why she was counting since she was the one who had ended whatever they had, which was not much. Still she felt herself lazing about her apartment when she wasn’t at practice or in class. She skipped out on her morning workouts in the weight room, due to fear of running into Jake and instead she did her own workouts in her apartment which was proving not to cut it. Lifting cans of beans and doing stairs on two steps was not a sufficient way of keeping her up to her own workout standards.

  At least she had an exercise ball in her apartment which made her workouts a little bit better, that was until Margo walked in and said it looked like Lexi swallowed her gum and farted out a huge bubble. Ever since then, Lexi couldn’t look at an exercise ball the same.

  She was just putting away her cans of beans when there was a knock at the door. Lexi fixed her messy bun and answered it. Mason was standing in her doorway holding two smoothie cups from Jamba Juice. He gave her a tentative smile and handed her the smoothie.

  “Can I come in for a second?” Lexi couldn’t turn him down since he brought her a smoothie so she let him in.

  Mason looked around at Lexi’s sad attempt at a gym and asked, “Is this where you’ve been working out in the morning?”

  Lexi felt embarrassed because it was obvious that she was avoiding the weight room in fear of seeing Jake. She lied, “Uh, yea, you know just needed a change of scenery.”

  Mason didn’t buy it. “Uh, huh.” He sat down in her couch and pushed aside a workout band. “What are you doing Lexi?”

  She sat down in a chair across from him and took a sip of her smoothie. It was strawberry banana, her favorite. “What do you mean?”

  “Why are you torturing you and Jake?”

  “I would not say I’m torturing myself, I’m fine thank you.” Lexi said with an indignant tone.

  Mason looked around her apartment and gave her a “yea right” look. “Lexi, he misses you. He has been moping around, not working out like he had been. He’s been terrible at practice and is not even close to prepared for the game tomorrow.”

  “How does that have to deal with me?”

  Mason blew out air and ran his hand over his face. “God, you really are stubborn.” His voice turned sterner. “Look, Jake is trying hard to change. I know he has a fucked up past that might cause issues for whoever he dates but he’s trying, he likes you, he wants you. Why can’t you give the guy a chance? He is throwing himself out there and you are too stubborn to realize it. He is making a change, a change to be with you, why can’t you sacrifice a little and try to be with him as well? You guys are meant for each other. You need to get that through your thick skull.”

  Lexi couldn’t even believe the things Mason had said. She was speechless. She didn’t even know where to start. She was just about to blow up at him when Mason interrupted her.

  “Do you know what he said to me while you and Brooke were in the bathroom?” Mason didn’t give her a chance to answer. “He told me you were the most beautiful girl he had ever laid eyes on and not only were you beautiful but you made him feel whole again since his parents died. He said you made him feel alive again. Don’t tell me you’re just going to walk away from him because you’re not strong enough to stand up to a couple of bitches. I’ve seen what you can lift in the weight room. You can take out any of those noodle armed whores. You are just too chicken to face that fact that you actually like Jake and he might be the one for you.”

  Mason got up and walked toward her door. “Call him Lexi. He really needs to hear your voice, especially if we want to win tomorrow.” Mason slammed the door shut before she could even say anything. She buried her head in a couch pillow and screamed.

  Mason was right, she was being a chicken. She was too much of a coward to throw her heart in the wrestling ring of love in fear of her heart being wrung out to dry. But what was worse, not giving in and keeping herself semi safe from any kind of heart break or throwing everything she had into a relationship with Jake? Well right now she felt like crap and when she was with Jake, yea it was stressful but it was also amazing. She missed the way she felt in his arms or the way he smiled at her or the way he would lean against a wall and wait for her like he had nowhere better to be.

  She was an idiot and it took Mason to help her figure it out. Lexi looked at her watch, tore her clothes off and headed to her bathroom for a quick shower. Thirty minutes later she was in her car headed down to the events center parking lot. She had thrown on a pair of jean shorts, white t-shirt and her brown flip flops. Her hair was in a messy bun on top of her head and she was able to throw on a little bit of make-up before she headed out. She pulled up next to Jake’s Jeep and looked at the clock. He would be done with his morning workout and out to his Jeep in a couple of minutes. She got out of her car and decided to sit on the hood of his Jeep.

  Just like clockwork, Jake exited out of the side door of the events center and walked toward the parking lot. He was looking at his phone so he didn’t see her until he was a couple of feet away. When he looked up, he stopped in his tracks.

  ***

  Jake felt like crap, he had felt like crap for a week and there was one word for it; Lexi. He promised himself he wouldn’t call her or bother her. He wanted to give her space and time to think about what they had, what they briefly shared together. Yes, she was right, they only went out one time but there was much more to them than just the one date. They had a connection he had never experienced with anyone else before and once he lost that connection he found it quite hard to function.

  He finally was able to drag his carcass out of bed for a morning workout since he missed the rest of his workouts all week. Mason didn’t even show up this morning, probably because Jake had stood him up every other day of the week. Jake didn’t mind working out on his own though, he was able to abuse his body without Mason telling him to take it easy.

  Practices had been awful. He had been playing like hell all week so he decided to punish himself, even if he had a game the next day. He needed to get his head back in the game but it was hard since his head was somewhere else. He had a meeting with his coach yesterday about his piss poor behavior and Jake had to lie, saying he thought he was coming down with something. He didn’t think his coach bought it but he let Jake go, slightly unscathed. Jake left the meeting with his coach telling him to pull his shit together because Saturday night was a big game.

  Jake exhaled and headed towards his Jeep, he was checking the football rankings on his phone when he looked up and saw the most beautiful sight in the world. He stopped a couple of feet away, not believing what he was seeing. He blinked a couple of times to make sure he wasn’t making things up in his mind.

  “Hey big guy.”

  Her voice confirmed that she was in fact sitting on his Jeep. He adjusted the strap of his messenger bag that was hugging his chest and walked closer to her so she was only a couple of feet away.

  “What are you doing here?” He asked, still shocked that she was near him.

  She turned so she was facing him and put out her hand for him to take. He reached out and she clasped her hand around his, pulling him into her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and kept him close while she stroked his hair with the hand that was not holding his.

  “I’m sorry.” She said. “I’m sorry I scared you the night of the party, I’m sorry for the things I said that I didn’t mean and I’m sorry for letting you walk out the door when I should have gone after you.”

  Jake couldn’t believe what he was hearing, was this the stubborn Sexy Lexi he was talking to? She bent her
head down and kissed him on the forehead. It was such a tender gesture that melted his heart.

  “Do you forgive me?”

  Jake looked into her pleading eyes, her crystal blue eyes. How could he not forgive her? She was all he ever wanted. “Of course. I’m sorry I put you in that position at the party.” He kissed the palm of her hand that was caressing his cheek. “I don’t want to upset you and I promise, I will do whatever it takes to show you how much I truly care for you and want to be with you.”

  She shook her head. “You don’t have to prove anything to me Jake, I believe you. But there has to be some ground rules if we are going to make this happen.”

  He kissed her hand again. “Lay it on me babe, I’m all ears.”

  She smiled. “Well first off, keep calling me babe, I love it.”

  “Easy enough.”

  “Secondly, if I’m going to be with you, I’m only going to be with you. It has to be exclusive.”

  “Done.” His quick response brought out her gorgeous smile.

  “Thirdly, I want to hear of every girl that throws herself at you because I’m going to have to personally kick their ass and let them know that you belong to me now. Maybe then girls will start getting the hint?”

  He laughed out loud. “I can do that. I promise if a girl does try to get my attention, I will make it quite clear that I’m off the market and they can take it up with my bad-ass girlfriend.

  She brought him in closer, her lips were mere inches from his. “That’s what I like to hear.” Then she pulled him in the last couple of inches and kissed him while she sat on the hood of his Jeep as he rested between her legs, leaning in, trying to get as much Lexi as he could.

  Her lips were so soft and molded precisely into his as if they were meant to be together. She wrapped her hands around his neck and rubbed his cheek as they kissed. Her small touches sent him off to the moon with no return in sight. She made a little moaning sounds which caused him to bury himself deeper in her little body.

  She pulled away and rested her forehead on his. They both stared at each other in the eyes.

  “God, I missed you.” Jake finally said. “I could barely function. I didn’t work out in the morning until today.”

  She laughed. “I made a really pathetic gym out of my apartment to avoid you in the mornings, if I knew you were going to be a lazy ass, I could have spared myself and gone to the weight room.”

  Jake squeezed the ticklish spot right above her knee, causing her to jerk and slide off the Jeep right into his arms.

  “Do you have dinner plans?” She asked while studying his face.

  “No, I would love to have dinner with you.”

  “You’re buying.” She said with a devilish grin.

  “Oh, is that how it’s going to be?”

  “That’s what you get for making me work out with cans of beans.”

  Jake threw his head back and laughed. “You don’t even have your own weight set?”

  She scrunched her nose. “Beans worked out just fine.”

  He chuckled and opened the Jeep door for her. “You’re cute babe.” He kissed her on the nose and practically skipped to the driver’s side. When he got in he noticed she threw on his aviators.

  She shrugged. “It’s sunny out.”

  “You look fucking hot.”

  That brought out another smile of hers. “Alright, big guy. Let’s get a move on. I have some things to get done today. Pick me up after practice?”

  “You got it hot stuff.”

  ***

  Lexi sat on a bench outside the lecture hall studying before her next class. She was having a difficult time focusing because images of Jake kept popping into her head. She knew it was going to be a difficult road but she was ready to face it head on with him. She hadn’t felt this good in a while. She actually felt like a weight had lifted off her shoulders, especially with everything that had been going on with her parents lately. It was nice to have something else to keep her thoughts busy.

  Images of Jake kept running through her head, preventing her from internalizing any studying materials so when Lexi spotted Parker walking toward her, she was grateful for the break from her books. She shut her books and tucked them away in her bag. She stood up and greeted her friend she hadn’t seen in a while with a big hug.

  “Hey stranger.” She said.

  “Hey Lex, how’s it going?”

  Lexi couldn’t help but smile. “Great.”

  Parker sat down next to her and pointed at her face. “I know what that smile is. That’s a I-have-a-hot-man-in-my-life smile.” Lexi shook her head, letting him know he was right. He clapped her on the back, almost sending her to the floor. “That’s my girl. It’s about time. He was moping around the men’s locker room area all week. Just in time for game day tomorrow as well.”

  “Yea, I needed a little help getting my head out of my ass, no thanks to you.”

  “Hey, I’ve been busy.”

  “How’s Sierra?”

  Parker stared out into the quad, like he was thinking about all the different experiences he had with Sierra. “She’s amazing, what can I say? I can’t get enough of her.”

  Lexi scrunched her nose. “Really?” Lexi didn’t see what all the hype was about with Sierra. Yes, the girl was attractive but she was also kind of an idiot. She said some of the dumbest shit Lexi had ever heard. She never thought Parker would go out with a dumb blonde.

  “What’s that look for?”

  Lexi shrugged and tried to pass her look off as nothing but she knew better, he just stared at her until she answered him. She let out a long winded breath and said, “I don’t know Parker, she doesn’t really seem like she’s your type. She’s kind of… you know, ditzy.”

  Parker waved his hand at her, dismissing her comment. “That doesn’t bother me, since she is hotter than hell in bed.”

  A swift intake of water got stuck in Lexi’s throat, where water should never be permitted when Parker caught her off guard with his comment. She started coughing frantically while Parker patted her on the back. She wiped her mouth and looked at him. He had the devils smirk on his face.

  “Jesus, Parker.”

  He laughed. “Don’t be such a prude.”

  “Don’t be such a pig.” Lexi surveyed her friend who had been like a brother to her and realized that he had changed this year, and not in a good way. It was like he didn’t care about the people around him and didn’t treat women with respect. It nagged at her. This wasn’t the Parker she knew. He would never go out with a girl if she wasn’t able to hold some sort of intellectual conversation.

  Instead of getting into a long drawn out and uncomfortable conversation, she changed the subject. “Have you talked to Margo lately?”

  “Nah, she’s been weird lately and she is always at the lacrosse house.”

  “That’s not true. She’s been home a lot lately.”

  Jake shrugged and took a sip of his drink. “Not what I heard, apparently she’s been making her rounds again.”

  Lexi got defensive. “No, she’s been home.”

  “Whatever, not my problem.”

  “Parker, what is wrong with you? Margo is our friend, if people are spreading rumors about her you should set them straight.”

  “How am I supposed to know they’re rumors, the girl gets around.”

  Lexi didn’t care for Parker right now and before they got in a huge fight she decided to leave the situation before it blew up. She stood up and gathered her items.

  “Hey, where are you going?” He asked.

  “I should get to class.” He stood up with her and grabbed her arm before she could walk away. He pulled her in close and wrapped his arms around her, planting a kiss on her head like always.

  “Listen, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you and I’m sorry I haven’t been there for you lately.”

  Lexi could feel herself start to crumble, she hated when Parker got all emotional on her. “It’s fine.”

  “No, it
s not. I haven’t even asked you how your parents are. I know this is always a bad time for your dad.”

  Damn him for bringing up her family. Parker and Margo were the only ones who knew about her shitty family situation and she planned on keeping it that way. She didn’t want Jake knowing about her dad and his issues, Jake would only judge her. Lexi fought back the tears that tickled her eyes.

  “They’re not good. My dad had another episode yesterday. Luckily my mom was out with my aunt so she didn’t get caught up in his destructive tornado. When she got home she found my dad passed out drunk on the floor surrounded by a broken coffee table.” Lexi shook her head in disgust. “I don’t know why she just doesn’t leave him. It would be easier on me if they just got a divorce rather than hearing the horrid stories about how much of an ass my dad is.”

  Parker squeezed her tighter. “She is going to have to make that decision on her own, no matter how much you beg her. She is never going to leave until she is ready. You just need to keep being supportive and encourage her. Maybe if you talk to her about your relationship with Jake and how happy you are, it will give her an idea of what a healthy relationship is like.”

  Parker was right, he had a valid point. Maybe if she did talk to her mom about Jake it could open her mom’s eyes to what an abusive drunk her father was. Lexi tried reporting her dad once but when the cops came, her mother denied everything. Ever since then, Lexi never went home and only communicated with her mom over the phone, trying to convince her to move on with her life. With the way things were going, Lexi didn’t ever think her mom was going to leave.

  “I might just do that, thanks Parker.”

  “You’re welcome. I’m sorry I dropped the ball on our friendship. I will talk to Margo too. I was having such a nice time with her earlier. I don’t know what happened.”

  Lexi knew what the problem was and it was blonde, leggy and ditzy. Margo would never confess to it, but Lexi knew her friend. She just felt bad for Margo and wished there was something she could do to help her. She didn’t like it when Margo turned to random sex with men to cover up her feelings. She wished she would talk about them like a normal human being.