Double Trouble

by J. R. Madison

  With a mug of tea sending scented steam into the air beside me on the bedside table, I felt myself relaxing. My thoughts were getting less coherent, disjointing the way they do just before one goes to sleep. I thought about the evening and my whole body tingled as the memories played through my mind.

  Jake was amazing. Nobody had ever touched me like that. I felt myself getting aroused just thinking about the way he had used his hands so expertly, bringing me to a climax that made me smile just recalling it again.

  But, weirdly, as I snuggled down into my comfortable, warm bed and closed my eyes, rolling over on my side to sleep, it was Tyler who I thought of, with his gentle smile and those warm brown eyes. No, I scolded myself, annoyed. No, girl. You are absolutely not going there. You would ruin your reputation and regret it, so just make them forget you, or make them hate you: those are the only choices you have.

  CHAPTER 8: TYLER

  “So,” Jake said in the car. “You…did you?”

  “No,” I said.

  He whistled. “You didn’t? Why not, runner?” He was fullback, me running back; which was why he always called me that.

  “I dunno,” I said tightly. How the heck must I know? I just hadn’t. That was none of his business. He was making me feel inadequate about it, which wasn’t exactly fair of him.

  “Well?” He pressed. “Wasn’t that amazing? I will never forget that. Wow. Man, that woman is hot.”

  “Yes,” I spat.

  He chuckled. “Hell, Tyler. What’s the matter?”

  I didn’t say anything. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I just looked down at my hands and let him do the driving.

  “Oh, here we go. I know it’s late,” he said, “but can we get gas? I want to be able to get home without having to run out. As it is, we’re almost empty…” he sighed.

  “Fine,” I said tightly. As it was, I just wanted to get out of his car and get home. And then go to bed and pretend none of this had ever happened.

  He frowned at me and said nothing. He was acting all quiet and I wasn’t about to tell him not to. Suits me.

  We got gas and Jake suggested we get an ice cream, but I said no. I didn’t want to eat anything. I was feeling nauseous—probably my mood. He shrugged and got back into the car.

  We sped off back past my apartment. He stopped.

  “Good night, Tyler,” he said.

  “Night,” I said ungraciously. I got out and then looked back. His chestnut-brown eyes were watching me. He looked amused and sad at the same time and I felt bad about hurting him. “Thanks, Jake.”

  “No problem,” he said.

  He drove off and left me in the drive and I went up to my apartment.

  I got into bed and closed my eyes, trying to will the images out of my brain. Jake touching her. Jake grinning. Jake making her feel good.

  She had been panting and screaming and moaning in a way that was so sexy it had made me release right there. The worst thing about it was that I doubted I could ever have done that to her the way he did. The more I thought about her—her body shiny with perspiration, her head twisting as she gritted her teeth—the more I just wanted to scream myself, in real agony. She was the sexiest woman I had ever seen. And as yet I had never actually been with her. Not the same way he had.

  And now he’d had her twice. It just didn’t seem fair, I thought. I didn’t want to hate Jake any more than I wanted to hate anybody—he was my best friend, after all—but in that moment, it was really hard not to.

  I looked at the clock. It was one am.

  I need to go to sleep.

  I had to train tomorrow. There was a big game this weekend. How, I thought brokenly, was I going to play with Jake on the team? I wouldn’t be able to look him in the eye without all these feelings of jealousy and confusion and hurt. Never mind actually work with him.

  “And besides, Tyler—she is so, so far above you.”

  I might have been an NFL football player and pretty well known. But this woman was a seriously wealthy businesswoman who moved in circles where a football player was someone they could buy. I wasn’t ever going to be welcome in her world. I should just get used to that.

  I must have eventually fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, my alarm clock was telling me it was eight and time to get up.

  At the gym, I bumped into Blade—almost literally. I was walking up the hallway from the locker room, and he was walking down.

  “Hey!” He stared at me.

  I grinned sheepishly. “Hey, Blade. How’ve you been? Didn’t see you, man.”

  “I’ve been great! You saw the game last night? That was a sick tackle Ray pulled, huh?”

  “Mm,” I nodded. “It was.” I rolled my shoulders, yawning. I was so exhausted I could barely stand up.

  “Hey, man? You okay?” Blade asked, his big, dark-skinned face concerned.

  I shrugged. “I guess so,” I said, noncommittal. “Just tired. Didn’t sleep much last night.”

  “Oh?” He laughed. “Looks like we’re all getting the same problem. Just saw Jake. He looks as wrecked as you. Also didn’t sleep.”

  “Oh?” That made my ears prick up. Really. “Where’s Jake?” I asked.

  “Treadmill,” our wide receiver said succinctly. He jerked his head in the direction of the room where the treadmills were. I nodded and went in.

  At this time of the morning, there were only three other people using them. A woman athlete with massive shoulders, a guy who looked like a professional runner, and Jake. I saw him look up and see me. I went to the treadmill next door.

  He took out his earphones and looked at me. “Tyler, I…”

  “It’s okay,” I said. My acceptance of his apology interrupted him as he gave it. We both smiled shyly.

  “Hell,” I said to Jake. “It’s not your fault.”

  He let out a long breath. Stopped running. “I feel like it is,” he said. “It’s dumb. Why are we letting this happen?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Listen—should we meet somewhere after this?”

  He nodded. “Let’s.”

  We both went back to our running.

  At the end of the session, I found Jake as he set down his weights.

  “Should we go for lunch together?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Absolutely.”

  “At Luisel?”

  “Yeah.”

  We headed out there together. A new place that functioned part as restaurant, part street cafe offering authentic Mexican food, it was our preferred place for lunch after training. Not only was it convenient but it was possible to get takeout and sit in the park. We did that.

  “Mm, this is good,” Jake commented.

  “Uh-huh.”

  I looked at him where he sat on the bench opposite. He looked at me. Neither of us said anything.

  As he sat there in the stark daylight, I found myself noticing what a stunning man he actually was: cleft chin, brown eyes, and that handsome face. He was so far out of my league it was actually funny.

  “Jake,” I said. I sighed.

  “What?” he asked. Even the way he looked up at me, with those big brown eyes doleful, a hesitant smile twisting his full lips, just proved my point. He was a heartthrob. I was just homely Tyler, fit for being in his shadow.

  “Nothing,” I sighed. “I was stupid. It’s not your fault?”

  “What’s not?” Jake said carefully.

  “Well, you know…what happened last night,” I sighed. “I don’t blame her, you know. If I had to choose, I’d choose you too.”

  He grinned properly this time. “Tyler?” he laughed. “I’m flattered. But honestly? Don’t you own a mirror?”

  I stared at him. “Really?”

  “Well, yeah. And besides—I don’t think that’s the point.”

  “You don’t?” I frowned. As far as I could see it, that was the only point. I took a bite of my pozole filled wrap and chewed, dabbing with a napkin at the sauce that ran down my chin.

 
; “No,” he said, wiping his fingers. “I think she’s playing with us.”

  “Playing with us?” I frowned.

  “Yeah,” he nodded. “Like—you know, trying to set us up as rivals. I don’t know why I think that.” He laughed. “I just do.”

  I frowned. I had to admit it made sense. “But why?”

  He shrugged. “Beats me,” he admitted. “Beats me why anyone would have fun making people fight. But you know how some people are.”

  I didn’t, not really. But now that I had seen it, I couldn’t very well un-see it. She was seemingly doing everything to make sure we fought—so perfectly that I had to think it was on purpose. As to why she had chosen to favor him over me to get that result, I had no idea.

  “I guess you’re right,” I sighed. “So? What can we do?”

  He grinned. “You know what I think?”

  “No?”

  “I think we should play the same game. Why shouldn’t we?”

  “You mean, set her up somehow?” I frowned. He had always been better at strategic thinking than me.

  He nodded. “I just think that, if her idea is to make us fight, we should present a united front. Like we do on the field.”

  “Working together,” I said slowly.

  “Yeah.”

  We grinned at each other. He held out his fist and I bumped it with mine. “Fighters forever,” I said—our team motto. We both laughed.

  It felt better. Like all was right between us again.

  “Whew,” he sighed. “Now that’s sorted, we need to have a strategy.”

  I chuckled. “That’s where you come in.”

  He pulled a face. “Okay,” he said. “I was thinking that, first, we should go see her.”

  “She almost threw us out last time we did that,” I cautioned.

  “You think she would?”

  I nodded slowly. Much as I wanted to do something to stop the rivalry that was being systematically set up between us, I also wanted to keep Ryanne from being hurt. I didn’t wish her any harm—far from it. The way I felt for her was part of the problem—part of the wedge that she could so easily drive between us.

  “Okay,” he sighed. “Well, I have to agree that us getting kicked out of some rich girl’s home wouldn’t do the team any good.”

  “Don’t say that,” I said stonily. “She’s not a “rich girl”. She’s a person.”

  He just looked at me. Then he grinned.

  “What?” I said.

  He just laughed and I felt some of that sour anger that had been building up in me for days now start to surface.

  “Stop it, Jake,” I said. “Why’re you looking at me like that?”

  “It’s kinda obvious, Tyler. You’re hooked on her, aren’t you?”

  “I am not!” I said, my face going crimson. He laughed. I knew how much I’d just confirmed it, so I just shook my head. “Okay,” I said. “Maybe a little. Who wouldn’t be?”

  To me, Ryanne was the most beautiful person—male or female—I had ever seen. With that toned body, that long black hair, her chiseled features, she was, to my mind, everything that was right.

  Jake shrugged. “She’s stunning, I grant you,” he admitted. “But I can’t say she’s my type. You know that.”

  I nodded, reaching for my iced tea. “Yeah, I know.” I thought back over the girls he’d tended to go for during the years I’d known him. Margie, Chrissie, Tammy. His type was softer, curvier, prettier. Ryanne was stunning, not pretty.

  “Okay,” he said. “So, we’ve got her number. So, we’ll let her know we’re coming and…”

  “You’ve got her number,” I pointed out, gesturing with my Styrofoam cup.

  “Yeah,” he admitted. “I’ll text it to you, okay? Fair’s fair.”

  “Yes,” I nodded slowly. That was part of the problem. Things hadn’t been fair from the start. We would make sure they were from now on. “Thanks.”

  He did so. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. It was quite exciting, the thought that I had her number. I felt good.

  “Okay,” he said, looking up from the screen. “So, if we’re going to be fair about it, we need to decide who’s calling her. Or texting. Whatever.”

  “Okay,” I shrugged. “You did it the first time—you can do it again.”

  He frowned. “If you want,” he agreed. I saw him pull out his phone and put his head on one side, thinking. “You know, I have a better idea.”

  “Okay,” I shrugged, feeling uneasy. “But—when are we going to see her?”

  “Tonight?” he suggested.

  I wasn’t sure about that. Today was the last day of the weekend—she’d be wanting to go back to work tomorrow. I had this sense that she wouldn’t be too pleased if we turned up tonight. But I just shrugged. In all the years we’d known each other, I’d tended to follow Jake’s lead and it had usually turned out to be right. So why not this time?

  “Okay,” I said uneasily. “Let’s go tonight.”

  He smiled triumphantly and sent the message. His brown eyes met mine and I saw a hunger there that surprised me. For someone who said that she wasn’t his type, Jake seemed to be awfully excited about seeing Ryanne again. That made me feel more uneasy.

  Whose side was he on, anyway?

  “Done,” he said. “So. We’ll meet at six at your place and go right there? Okay?”

  Again, I was a little unsure. But when I saw his brown eyes smiling into mine, I knew I was being silly. It was Blake and Trent, the field heroes together. We weren’t going to let anything come between us. Not even how I might or might not feel for a woman I had only just met, and who was out of my league anyway. Especially not something like that.

  CHAPTER 9: RYANNE

  “So, Jess,” I said to Jess, who was sitting on my couch where, I tried to forget, Jake had briefly sat that morning, a seeming lifetime ago. The late afternoon filtered in, turning her cloud of red hair gold at its limits. “Let’s get this straight. You’re thinking of moving to Thailand?”

  She laughed. “Well, yeah! Don’t look at me like that, Ryanne—it isn’t like I changed color or something.” She grinned to take the sting from the words.

  I sighed, feeling confused and a little hurt. “It’s just…it’s a bit sudden,” I said. “I’ll get over the shock.” I set aside the cup of coffee I was holding and leaned back carefully on the couch, legs folded under me.

  “I know it’s sudden,” Jess agreed. “But, well, I’m thirty-five, and I’m a designer, and I thought—why not? It’s not like I have to be here in LA for my work—the store has its own support. I just need to be able to create. And I can’t do that here.”

  “Okay,” I nodded, trying to understand. “But…it’s so far!”

  She grinned. “So far, and so unspoiled! Seriously, Ryanne—I can walk on the beach for hours there sometimes. And the architecture and the trees and the culture…it is so, so different there. So inspiring. My mind flows with ideas there. Here I’m stifled, Ryanne!” She made a big gesture.

  I sighed. “I understand,” I nodded. In truth, I couldn’t understand, not in a deep way—I wasn’t a creator. But I loved Jess’s creative spirit and if it was really suffering here, I could accept she needed to go away. It was hard, though. She was my best friend and my only confidante.

  “And,” she shrugged. “well, you know how it is. Sometimes one has to follow one’s heart. Life’s too short not to.”

  I nodded. “Absolutely.”

  “I would regret it forever if I didn’t take this chance to move now. I want to be with Duane, and I want to be in Thailand. This way, I get to have both.”

  “I understand,” I nodded. “As long as I see you sometimes?”

  She smiled. “I will Skype often. I’ll miss you too, Ryanne.”

  I grinned. “Well, we’ll have to work with that.”

  “I’ll come back often too, though,” she promised. “I mean, the business will need me to pop in occasionally. And Mom—I can’t just move to Thailand and not
see her sometimes.”

  I nodded. “Well, that’s something. Just let me know when you’re coming—you’re always welcome here.”

  She grinned, her heart-shaped face lighting up. “Thanks, Ryanne. You know I’ll take advantage of your offer.”

  “Good,” I nodded.

  We both sat silently for a while. The space filled with memories for me—ones I did my best to ignore. If I thought about last night, I would smile, and then I would have to explain what I was smiling about. I didn’t feel like doing that. I schooled my thoughts and my face to neutral and finished my coffee slowly.

  She stretched. “How late is it?” she asked.

  “It’s five thirty,” I said. I was expecting a nice quiet evening in. I had received a cryptic message from Jake that didn’t tell me much at all, and I’d replied in kind. So it seemed like I’d have an evening alone. “You have dinner plans?”

  “I do,” she said, making a face. “I joined this group who’re starting a sort of—I dunno, retreat?—out near Pattaya. I said I’d meet up with them and get talking.”

  “You’re going to move to Thailand and live on a retreat?” I asked.

  “Well, why not?” she grinned, sipping her coffee. She looked excited. In that moment, I envied her. Here I was, stuck in LA, tied to my dad’s company—which I admittedly loved—and she was spreading her wings and flying to a crazy, exotic and peaceful place.

  “It’d suit you,” I said. It would.

  She reached across and squeezed my hand fondly. “You’re so supportive, Ryanne. I’m going to miss you.”

  I was surprised by how moved I felt. I squeezed her hand. “I’ll miss you too.” We sat there quietly for a while. I finished my coffee in the silence.

  “Whew,” she said. “That’s a lot to process.”

  I nodded, smiling. That was such a Jessism. “I’m glad I’m going to be there for your birthday next weekend, though,” I said, trying to lighten the mood a bit.