Ruff and Tumble

by Lucy Gilmore

  “Hey, Reg… She says she can’t come over on Sunday.”

  “Wait. She’s there? Now?”

  “She’s throwing her own party, apparently. I didn’t know.”

  “It’s not really a party,” Hailey was quick to say. “Just a small gathering. For my family and friends.”

  “Yeah, I’ll tell her.” Cole’s voice grew a little louder as he returned his attention to the phone conversation. “Reggie says you’re welcome to bring them along. She has more than enough space.”

  For a long moment, Hailey was afraid she was going to have to ask Garrett to shove her head between her legs again. In another lifetime, this would have been a dream come true. She was invited to watch a Lumberjacks game at the home of Cole Bennett’s manager and sister—and she was allowed to bring witnesses with her. She could hobnob and talk shop and indulge in her love of football with the one woman in the world who probably knew more about Cole than she did.

  Except…she didn’t have any family or friends to bring along. Oh, she could rustle up Penny and a few other coworkers, of course, but it wasn’t the same. Deep friendships—lasting friendships—had always eluded her, a sort of what-if dream that came easily to other people, the same way they had things like extended families and social safety nets and someone to call when they needed a hug. And the only other person she could imagine sharing this with, her father, was long gone.

  But oh, how Dad would have loved to go.

  She could almost hear his deep laugh, smell the sharp tang of his favorite IPA and the burning cheese of the pizza they always cooked—and forgot about—on game day. She could also imagine exactly what he’d say if he knew she was acting so silly about all this.

  If you want something, Hailstorm, go after it. You only get one chance at this life. You might as well throw the ball.

  “Sure,” she said before she was even aware that her lips were moving. As was the case the first time she’d lost her mind—and her verbal filter—around Cole, something about this man caused every logical reaction she had to fly out the window. “That’s very generous of her. I’ll be there.”

  “Really?” Cole sounded as surprised as she felt at her sudden turnabout. “You aren’t going to fight me over it? Not even a little?”

  She couldn’t help but laugh. Until Cole had waltzed into her office, she’d never fought anyone over anything. Just last week, she’d watched as the receptionist had walked up to the break-room refrigerator, pulled out the yogurt with Hailey written on it in permanent ink, and proceeded to have a midafternoon snack.

  “No. I mean, I think it’s pretty cowardly that you had to send your wide receiver to do your dirty work, but considering how often you rely on his catch radius to get the job done, I shouldn’t be surprised.”

  Behind her, Garrett choked on a laugh.

  “I just spent the past hour going over all my shortcomings with Coach Taylor,” Cole said. “Nothing you say can hurt me.”

  “Then you won’t mind if I tell you to work on putting more realism into your pump fakes. A down-on-his-luck magician could sell it better than you do.” As soon as the words escaped, Hailey wished them unsaid. Not—as might be supposed—because they were unpardonably rude, but because both Garrett and Cole roared with laughter.

  “Oh, man.” Garrett got up from the chair and shook his head, a grin splitting his face. “What I wouldn’t give to watch the game with you and Reggie on Sunday. You two are going to get along great.”

  “We are?” Hailey asked, suddenly wary. “Why?”

  Cole must have overheard his teammate, because he answered for him. “Reggie says you don’t have any choice now. If you don’t show up, she’ll come to your house and drag you by force.”

  The thought of yet another Bennett viewing the spectacle of her home was more than Hailey could bear. “That won’t be necessary,” she said quickly.

  “Good,” Cole said and paused. Hailey could almost swear there was hesitation—uncertainty, even—in that pause, but that was ridiculous. What could Cole Bennett have to feel uncertain about? “Thank you, Hailey. This means a lot more to me than you know.”

  Chapter 6

  “I wasn’t sure what to bring, so I made this.” Hailey shoved a plate at the woman standing on the other side of a colorfully paned wooden door. The door matched the rest of the house—a huge, historic residence located near the top of Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill. “Sorry.”

  “What for? It’s perfect.” The woman accepted the cheese log and parted her bright-red lips in a smile. Even if Hailey hadn’t already assumed that this tall, wide-shouldered woman was Cole’s sister, that smile confirmed it. The dimple in her right cheek was identical. “Let me guess…a log for the Lumberjacks?”

  Hailey blushed. She’d downed several bottles of water on the way over in hopes of controlling the inevitable flush of heat, but it didn’t appear to be working. Plus she really had to pee.

  “I’m Reggie, but you probably already guessed that, didn’t you?” The woman stepped aside to allow her into the paneled foyer, pausing a moment to peek over Hailey’s shoulder. “Where’s the rest of your party?”

  “Oh, um. It’s just me, I’m afraid,” she said. And a good thing, too. Penny would have started screaming before they even made it up the driveway. “I thought it would be better if—”

  “It’s the puppy lady! The puppy lady is here!” A small figure darted around the corner and hurled itself at Hailey’s legs. It was fortunate that she’d already handed off the plate, because Mia hit her with such force that she almost toppled over. “Where’s Rufus?”

  Hailey couldn’t find it in her to meet Regina’s eyes. Offering this child a puppy was all well and good when she’d thought it was the reason for Cole’s interest in her, but it took on new meaning now that she was meeting Mia’s mother face-to-face.

  “He’s at home with his brothers and sisters,” Hailey said as Mia disentangled herself from her legs.

  “Oh.” Mia’s face fell. “So it’s just…you?”

  Hailey was struggling to come up with an appropriate response when Regina laughed. Like the smile, there was something unsettlingly familiar about it. “Listen to the two of us. You’d think we’d never had company before. We’re delighted you’re here, Hailey, and don’t require anyone else—human or canine.”

  It was such a nice thing to say, coming from such a nice woman in such a nice house, that Hailey wished she’d never come. She should have channeled her inner Jasmine while she’d had a chance and maintained a strict professional veneer over the rest of her interactions with Cole instead of gallivanting about with his sister.

  “If it helps, I do have this.” Hailey pulled out her phone and pushed a few buttons. A gray, grainy image of her kitchen popped up. The camera was focused on Bess and her puppies, most of whom were contentedly napping on her stomach. Even with the pet sitter thoughtfully provided by Jasmine’s deep company pockets, Hailey had some qualms about leaving them alone any longer than she had to. Bess was starting to show signs of neglecting poor Rufus. “See? So I can check on them while I’m gone.”

  “Gimme!” Mia didn’t wait for permission before she yanked the phone out of Hailey’s grasp. Regina admonished her for it and began to apologize for the girl’s behavior, but Hailey was too grateful for the change of topic to care.

  “I don’t mind,” she said. “It’s not a very exciting thing to watch, but I remember doing the same thing when I was little. There was this channel on public access that showed nothing but an eagle’s nest and a bunch of eggs that were getting ready to hatch. I used to watch it for hours.”

  “Hours” was an understatement. She’d actually spent weeks sleeping in front of the group home’s television, fearful of missing even one minute of the big event. The anticipation of those eggs cracking open, of the babies being welcomed into the world by two loving parents who took turns car
efully watching over them, had been her everything.

  In the end, they’d hatched while she was at school.

  “Well, isn’t that the sweetest thing,” said a low-pitched female voice. They were in a formal living room daintily decorated to match the historic characteristics of the home, but the woman who stepped in didn’t match. For one, she was six feet tall. For another, the first thing she did upon sight of Hailey was whisk her into a hug that was incredibly strong and just as strongly scented with rose. “You must be Cole’s friend from that TV show. Aren’t you lovely? And so darling to offer Mia one of your puppies. Isn’t that darling, Reggie?”

  “The darlingest,” Regina agreed but with a wink that showed Hailey she knew where to assign the blame. “Hailey, if you haven’t guessed, this is our mother, Paula. Dad is already parked in his favorite chair in front of the game, so don’t expect anything out of him but monosyllables until the final whistle. He takes his football very seriously.”

  “We all take our football seriously,” Paula said. She released Hailey from the hug, but only enough to wind an arm through hers and start leading her through a pair of double doors. “My mother-in-law is pottering around here somewhere, too, but don’t pay any heed to her. She uses game day as an excuse to hit the gin a little harder than usual, if you catch my meaning. She loves a prelunch tipple. Sam is coming, too, isn’t she, Reggie? With her family?”

  Hailey’s head was starting to spin.

  “I think they’re already here. The Wegmores too.” Regina quirked a rueful smile at Hailey. “I’m sorry. I should have warned you that Sundays are a kind of family reunion around here. You’ve entered the official home of the Cole Bennett fan club.”

  The cheese log was starting to seem woefully inadequate in face of all these new revelations. So was Hailey. She’d had the foresight to google the address before she came, so she knew she would be entering a neighborhood where million-dollar properties were on the low end of the price value scale. She’d expected wealth and abundance. She’d expected to find herself a weed among gilded lilies.

  She hadn’t expected every branch and twig on Cole’s family tree.

  “Sam and her wife are lovely, but don’t sit near the Wegmores unless you want to be bored to death hearing about their recent trip to Italy.” Paula gave Hailey’s hand a warm pat. “If I have to hear one more word about the correct pronunciation of vermicelli, I’m going to swear off pasta forever.”

  As it turned out, Sam and her wife were lovely. Sam was some sort of cousin who worked in a high-powered financial firm downtown, but who always—always—took football Sundays off to watch the game. The Wegmores weren’t half bad either, even if they did wax poetic about the health benefits of hand-pressed olive oil. From all that Hailey could gather, they were related to Cole in a vague, nebulous way that no one was willing to define.

  Apparently, no definitions were needed. They were here to watch the game and support Cole, and that was enough.

  “Shove off, Gertie,” said a frowning, powerful bear of a man seated in a deep leather recliner in the center of the television room—which, as far as Hailey could tell, was a modest descriptor for a room that contained at least twenty thousand dollars’ worth of audiovisual equipment. “Let the new girl sit next to me. She looks sensible. She can help me break down the plays.”

  His words had the effect of causing the woman seated to his right—Gertie Wegmore—to slap him playfully on the arm. As she also got up to leave, Hailey could only assume she was used to being treated so cavalierly.

  “What’s your name again?” Cole’s father asked as Hailey approached his chair. “I can never remember all of Cole’s girlfriends.”

  “Oh, um.” Hailey felt the blush mount to her cheeks. Even though everyone in the room was politely pretending they hadn’t heard the remark, Cole’s father spoke much too loudly not to be overheard. “I’m Hailey. Hailey Lincoln. And I’m not Cole’s girlfriend. I’m—”

  “She’s the woman who’s going to help with the you-know-what, Dad.” Regina swooped in and planted a kiss on her father’s cheek. She lowered her voice in an attempt at discretion, but Hailey was still close enough to hear. “So be nice.”

  “What?” Cole’s dad turned to stare at Hailey. “That’s bullshit.”

  “Dad!”

  “Julian!”

  “Uncle Jules!”

  “Grandpa said a bad word!”

  Hailey was oddly grateful to the older man for drawing the room’s attention away from her. He reminded her a lot of her own father—gruff and rough and a little bit cranky, but with a twinkle in his eye that made it difficult to take offense.

  “Well, it is bullshit,” he said, repeating the word much more clearly this time. He also patted the seat until Hailey lowered herself into it. “No offense, but I never went in for any of that hocus-pocus nonsense. Get her a beer, would you, Sam? Get her two. She’s going to need them.”

  “One is fine, thanks,” Hailey managed.

  “I know, but they’ve got me on a strict watch. You can pretend it’s yours, and I’ll sip when no one is looking.” Cole’s dad thumped his chest. “The ol’ ticker isn’t what it used to be.”

  Since everyone in the room also overheard that, Hailey wasn’t surprised to find just one bottle placed in her hands.

  “Keep it out of his reach,” Sam said with a wink. Like the rest of the family, she was built on generous lines, her eyes that same preternatural blue. “He’s a liar and a thief, but we love him anyway.”

  Hailey’s chest felt tight as she lifted the bottle to her lips and drank. She wasn’t a huge fan of beer—and she definitely wasn’t used to drinking at ten o’clock in the morning—but it seemed rude to refuse when everyone was being so nice. Besides, she felt the need for liquid courage. Especially when she turned toward the older man to ask the question that was burning on her lips.

  “What hocus-pocus are you talking about?” she asked in what she hoped was a casual voice.

  “Eh?” Cole’s dad asked before reaching up and adjusting his hearing aid. Everyone in the room jumped as the feedback screeched through the air. “What’s that?”

  “You said you don’t go in for that hocus-pocus nonsense,” she repeated. “You don’t mean the Kickoff Cup Curse, do you?”

  From the gasp her use of the phrase elicited, Hailey realized her error almost at once. This was a room full of die-hard Lumberjack fans—Cole Bennett’s family, in fact. She couldn’t have picked a worse audience to say the name of the curse out loud to. His mother made the motion of a cross over her chest. Gertie Wegmore muttered something under her breath. And Sam’s wife, a slight woman whose chunky hair was worn in spikes colored in Lumberjacks teal, actually covered her ears in an attempt to keep the words at bay.

  “I’m so sorry,” Hailey said, flushing with mortification. Just once, it would have been nice to be the kind of person who could think before she spoke, who had at least a little bit of a verbal filter in place. “I don’t know what came over me.”

  “As long as you break the darn thing, you can say whatever you want.” Sam laughed and pulled her wife’s hands down. “Do you really think you can do it?”

  All heads in the room—even those belonging to Sam’s two young children and Mia—turned her way. Hailey blinked, dazed by the intensity of all the attention. She might have remained that way for quite some time, but she was starting to realize what was going on.

  A hell of a story, Cole had told Jasmine that first day. Real human interest. He’d also admitted that he had an ulterior motive in asking for Hailey’s help and that her six-and-oh winning streak was part of it. All that footage of her “winning” at puppy football, throwing her into the pit of his family without warning…

  Why on earth hadn’t she realized it before? This wasn’t about Cole wanting to do good in the world. He was going to ride her coattails in hopes of break
ing the curse. He was making her responsible for the outcome of the most anticipated sporting event of the year.

  Of all the sensations she could have felt in this moment—anger at being manipulated, annoyance at not seeing it earlier, fear of what Jasmine would say if she found out—one in particular stood out: relief.

  At least now I know what he wants with me. At least now I know what I’m doing here.

  “Cole tells us that you haven’t lost a single game since you started playing puppy football,” his mom prompted, smiling kindly. “You must have extraordinary luck.”

  “Extraordinary luck,” Hailey echoed, her mouth dry. “Yes. Yes, that’s it. I was born with it.”

  She didn’t know what compelled her to say such a thing, unless it was the entire room of strangers staring at her with hopeful expectancy. Extraordinary luck was the last way anyone would describe her entrance into the world. She’d been born the usual way, she presumed, but someone had dropped her off at a fire station when she’d been eight months old, leaving no trace of her birth or origins. From there, she’d lived in a succession of foster homes and group facilities. None of them had been terrible, and she hadn’t been abused in any way that could be quantified, but her early years had been marked by a kind of indifference that was difficult to overcome. The places she’d lived had been full to capacity and struggling to do their best, accomplishing what they could with what little resources they had.

  She’d gotten by. She’d survived. But she hadn’t been loved.

  There was nothing extraordinary or lucky about that.

  “Thank goodness!” Cole’s mom rushed over and grabbed Hailey’s face between her hands. She squeezed until Hailey’s lips were forced into a pucker, at which point she planted a loud smack on them. “What a doll you are for helping out like this. Cole never says so, but it gets him down, always coming so close only to lose at the last minute. Anything you need from us—anything at all—and it’s yours for the asking. Isn’t that right, Julian?”