Chasing Jillian: A Love and Football Novel

by Julie Brannagh

  “I figured out that if I leave my house earlier in the morning, the traffic isn’t quite so bad. Maybe we could grab some coffee or breakfast once in a while.”

  He braced one hand on her desk as he watched her expectantly. She could answer him, but her mouth had just gone dry. He smelled good. The scent of clean skin and woodsy-smelling soap enveloped them.

  “Six works for me,” he said. “It’ll be fun.”

  “Six AM? In the morning?”

  She was still trying to concentrate on a ringing desk phone and cell phone and shuffled some paperwork on her desk. The last call must have gone to voice mail. If it was John, she was in some trouble. But if it was John, he’d be storming out to her desk by now, so she had a minute or so.

  “Yeah. Are you busy?”

  “Other than the usual showering and dressing for work, not really.” She wasn’t exactly alert at six AM, either, but maybe he wouldn’t really notice.

  His smile was enchanting. “I’m guessing you need to have this spelled out. You. Me. Coffee or breakfast. What else is it that you do in the mornings that might prevent that from happening?”

  She had to admit that the look on his face when she gave him a hard time was hilarious, and she wasn’t quite ready to stop doing it yet. “It’s a secret. I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”

  Jillian watched the smile move slowly over Seth’s mouth.

  “What’s with all the secrets? You’re only as sick as your secrets, you know.” He let out a bark of laughter. “Maybe I’ll run into you outside at noon.”

  He marched off toward the players’ area of the building, and Jillian let out the breath she’d been holding. Vivian had just walked into the office.

  “What was all that about?”

  “Oh, he’s teasing me. It’s nothing.”

  Vivian gave her a speculative look. “You know John fired his last assistant for getting involved with one of the guys on the team, don’t you?”

  “He mentioned that.”

  And he’d asked Jillian if she had a boyfriend during her interview. Jillian needed the job, and she sensed John wanted her to say yes about having a boyfriend, so she’d told Seth the same whopper. If anyone really wanted more information about her alleged “casual thing,” she could tell them he traveled a lot or something.

  IT WOULD TAKE a bulldozer to shove Seth out of her mind, but she did her best. John had left quite a stack on her desk for this morning. She pulled up her e-mail, and there was even more work. He was trying to keep up with each week’s opponents, so there was a ton of printing and collating of lists and spreadsheets for her to get done. John asked for a lot of stuff, but he was pretty easy to work with, as long as she finished the work before he needed it. Then again, the only time she’d blown a big deadline, he’d laughed and said, “You’ll get it next time.”

  There was too much to do to wonder why Seth kept asking her to hang out with him. She was fairly sure that there were thousands of other women in the Seattle area who would be happy to see him at six AM for any reason at all. Mornings were never her favorite time, but maybe she needed to rethink that whole thing if she got some time with him as a reward for pulling herself out of bed.

  John blew through the office as he returned from a meeting. “Hello, ladies. Jillian, you got the stuff I left you?”

  “Yes, John. I’ll finish it as quickly as possible.”

  “Actually, do you have a minute? Come into my office.” She followed him in as he flipped the lights on, hung up his coat, and dropped his briefcase next to his desk. “Sit down.” John sat down in his chair, steepled his fingers, and regarded Jillian for a minute. “Remember when I interviewed you for this job?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “We talked about not getting involved with the players, didn’t we?”

  Jillian swallowed hard. The hair stood up on the back of her neck. “Yes, John, we did.”

  “Do you have something you’d like to tell me?” He waited.

  “I . . . I went for a walk at lunchtime a couple of weeks ago with Seth Taylor.”

  “Why?”

  She bowed her head. She twisted her hands in her lap. What should she say? She took a deep breath and said, “It’s not what you think.”

  “What do I think, Jillian? Fill me in.” He leaned back in the chair and folded his arms across his chest.

  “We’re not involved with each other. I . . . I was trying to work out, and he decided to help.”

  “Excuse me?”

  She let out a sigh. “I bought an exercise DVD. A gym membership isn’t in my budget right now. My neighbors get mad if I exercise in my apartment. The walls are thin.” She pulled in a breath. “I didn’t know how to get started, so I wondered if I could use the gym in the evenings after work. Seth found me with the DVD and offered some exercise pointers. And . . . well, it’s stupid. I’m sorry, John. I know you’re probably not happy about this.”

  “So, you were in the weight room after hours. What else happened?”

  “Seth was initially mad at me. I think he thought I’d broken in or something. Then I think he felt bad for me. He said I was doing it all wrong, so he showed me how to use the treadmill. Sometimes he walks with me on the sidewalk outside the facility at lunchtime.”

  John had leaned forward in his chair and laid his forearms on his desk. “No gym membership, huh?”

  “No,” Jillian said miserably.

  “Taylor called me over the weekend.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “He wanted your address.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “Seriously?”

  Seth didn’t seem like some kind of stalker, but this was a bit worrisome. She was a bit confused as to why he’d asked John for her address. They’d talked on the phone, but she couldn’t imagine why he wanted to know where she lived.

  “He wouldn’t tell me why he needed it. I told him that I couldn’t give out that information without your permission. He apparently dislikes the word no.” Jillian saw John’s smirk. “Does this mean I’m going to have to chaperone you? You might want to tell him that you’re dating someone else.”

  She should never have lied to John in the first place. She needed to confess, but maybe that might work out better for her another day.

  Her words burst out. “I’ll take care of it. He said he didn’t mind showing me some exercise stuff, but—”

  “You don’t need a gym membership,” John said. “We have one here. You can use the machines if you’d like when the team isn’t in there, but first of all, you need to get checked out by a doctor. We have one of those here too. I’ll ask the team doc to take a look at you—draw some blood or whatever.”

  He gave her an encouraging smile and pulled his desk drawer open and rooted around in it. He passed a pink heart-monitor watch to her across the desk. “We get free stuff from athletic companies all the time. Go in the storage area later and check it out, okay? This is for you. My girlfriend has one, and she really likes hers.”

  She already had a heart monitor watch, but she wasn’t going to refuse his thoughtful gift. Maybe she could donate it to someone else who needed it.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “Thank you. So, Seth wants to be friends with my assistant.”

  Jillian shrugged her shoulders.

  “Okay. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll give the doc a call and get things set up. In the meantime, tell Seth he can’t flirt with you,” John said.

  Chapter Six

  SETH PULLED THE overstuffed easy chair in his room closer to the window. He propped his bare feet up on the broad windowsill as he stared at a darkened sky. He saw the faint illumination on the horizon; the pink and yellow rays of a late-summer’s dawn would come eventually. He knew he’d feel better if he could get some sleep. He also knew it wasn’t going to happen. He glanced over at the clock radio on his nightstand. It was four forty-seven AM.

  He’d had more than a few sleepless nights over the past five years.
He wondered how many other people were looking at the stars tonight and remembering someone they’d miss for the rest of their lives.

  His little brother, Liam, had died five years ago. Five years of grief that lessened (allegedly) as time passed but cut him like broken glass at unexpected moments. He never knew when it was going to happen either. He’d see something or hear something that reminded him of Liam, and he’d be breathless with pain. It was such a senseless loss. Even worse, it wasn’t like he was discussing it with anyone outside of his family.

  Most days were fine. He didn’t dwell on it. He kept busy. He usually slept like a rock. Once in a while, though, he found himself lying awake and remembering.

  Seth and Liam had had one last summer together before Seth went to training camp and Liam went into premed. They’d managed to duck Lauren early one morning, heading off to Snoqualmie Falls for a hike and breakfast afterward at one of the cafes in town.

  Liam asked the college-aged, pretty blonde waitress who brought their breakfasts to have coffee with him. Seth considered himself fairly confident, but his brother had moves.

  She glanced at Liam, raised an eyebrow, and said, “You’re a bit young for me, don’t you think?”

  “Maybe you should date me and find out,” Liam said.

  She laughed and agreed to meet Liam for coffee after the family returned from Hawaii in two weeks. Eleven days later, Liam was gone.

  Seth glanced out the window. The sky was lightening as the sun edged over the horizon. He stood up from the chair, walked into his bathroom, and flipped on the shower. He wanted to visit Snoqualmie Falls again, but he didn’t want to do it alone.

  JILLIAN OPENED HER eyes on another Saturday morning to CB purring on her chest and someone knocking on her front door. The jolt of adrenaline caused by an unexpected (and evidently urgent) visitor cut through the fog of a steely gray Seattle morning and forced her out of bed. CB let out an aggrieved “meow” and dived into the still-warm blankets.

  She didn’t have to be at her volunteer shift until later that morning. The extra sleep she was hoping for looked like it wasn’t happening.

  She pulled on a sweatshirt over her nightgown and hurried to answer the door. Whoever was out there sure was impatient. The doorbell had rung three times now, and the person had knocked twice. She peeked through the keyhole and saw nothing but flesh. Someone’s finger was over it.

  “Who’s there?” she called out.

  “It’s me, Seth. Open up.”

  Jillian pulled the door open to stare at a rumpled-looking Seth.

  “It’s six thirty AM. What on earth are you doing here?”

  “You texted me your address last week, silly. Go get your shoes on,” he said. “I don’t have to be at the facility until later today. I have something I want to show you.”

  “ ‘Something you want to show me’? Really? Does that usually work for you?” She realized she was babbling, but she couldn’t seem to stop talking. He looked like he was about to laugh.

  “Shit, yeah.” He raised an eyebrow, smirked, and pushed past her into the apartment. CB raced into the living room and came to a dead stop on the top of Seth’s foot. “Who’s this?” He reached down and scooped the kitten into one big hand.

  “That’s Crème Brulee, but I call her CB.”

  “The hell? It’s a kitty, not a dessert in a four-star restaurant.” He looked into the kitten’s eyes. “I can’t believe you let her name you that.”

  CB responded with a purr. Seth cuddled her close to his chest, and she nestled into the crook of his arm. “You know, I usually don’t like cats,” he said.

  “You can leave at any time.”

  “What if I don’t want to?”

  “I don’t get it. Why are you here?” she said.

  He ignored that, crossed the living room, and sat down on the couch with the cat in his arms. “If you’ll put some shoes on,” he coaxed, “we can get out of here. We’ll get to where we’re going before the tourists take over the place.”

  She indicated her current attire with one hand. “Tourists? In my nightgown? And I have to be at Treehouse at eleven AM.”

  “Whatever floats your boat,” he said. He gave CB a scratch behind her ears. “I see your ‘casual thing’ boyfriend is nowhere to be found.”

  “He could be in the bathroom.”

  “Sure, he is,” he said. He lifted one eyebrow.

  This was her time. She couldn’t imagine what in the hell was wrong with him. There must be something else for him to do at the crack of dawn on a Saturday.

  “Don’t you have a new girlfriend or something?” she said.

  “Nope.” He settled one ankle over his knee. “Right now, you’re my date. Go get dressed, and I might even pay for breakfast. I’ll have you back here by ten AM.” He held the cat inches from his nose again, looked into her eyes, and said, “Sorry, kitty, you can’t go. We’ll try to find you a treat.” CB let out a pitiful mew. He stared into the kitty’s face. “I’ve dated supermodels. You’ll have to try harder than that.”

  Of course, CB purred some more and head-butted him. What a flirt.

  He glanced over at Jillian again. “You’ve got ten minutes.”

  “Is this a dress-up thing?”

  He looked horrified. “Oh, hell no.”

  Jillian turned and fled into her bedroom. She wanted to slam the bedroom door, but waking up the neighbors this early on a Saturday would be a disaster. She pulled off her nightgown; brushed her teeth; yanked on a bra, T-shirt, and sweats; covered the T-shirt with a sweatshirt; and jammed on her cross-trainers. She put her front door keys in her pocket. Minutes later, she reappeared in the living room.

  He looked like a cover model in messy hair, stubble, a pair of warm-up pants and a long-sleeved T-shirt advertising some NFL event. She didn’t even have time to comb her hair.

  “Nine minutes and thirty seconds, Jillian? I’m impressed.”

  “Again. Why are you here?”

  He gave her a raised eyebrow and explained in an excruciatingly slow manner. “We’re friends. Friends spend time hanging out. I think you’ll enjoy what I have planned this morning.” One side of his mouth twitched. “Okay?”

  “Fine. Let’s go,” she said, both hands on her hips. “Don’t you have to be at the walk-through before tomorrow’s game or something?”

  “We’ll do that shortly before we go to the team hotel late this afternoon.” He let her kitten head-butt him again. “Crème Brulee, do you mind if I call you CB?” The kitten meowed. “Your mom is pissed at me,” he said.

  Jillian steeled herself. She was not going to melt at how cute he was with her kitten or how at home he looked sitting on her couch. “Do you often get out of bed at six thirty on weekends?”

  “I was up at five,” he said. “I waited an hour.”

  “You’re joking!” she cried out.

  “Oh no. I don’t joke about stuff like this.”

  SETH SET THE cat down gently on the couch cushion, unfolded himself, and got to his feet. He wasn’t sure what it was with Jillian and why he couldn’t seem to stay away from her. He kept inventing reasons to run into her or spend time with her. Maybe it was the fact she didn’t fawn over him. She didn’t seem to care that he was famous, and she gave him shit about his money. At the same time, he’d seen vulnerability in her when he hadn’t expected it.

  Jillian kept him on his toes, and he hadn’t had that for a long time now. He wondered to himself how many women he’d passed up over the years who might have been a better choice than Kim. One such woman had just let both of them out of her apartment and stuck her house key back in her pocket. He had to admit he was more than a little attracted, even if she was currently trying to incinerate him with her eyes. Her morning crankiness was pretty damn funny.

  “So, where are you taking me?” she said.

  He gestured toward the apartment house parking lot. “Let’s get in my car and you’ll find out.”

  “Am I going to end up as the subjec
t of a Lifetime movie?”

  “That would be a no.”

  She stared at his Escalade as he clicked the key fob to disengage the locks. “Nice ride,” she said.

  A few minutes later he pulled onto I-90, the freeway that led to Snoqualmie Falls, one of the most spectacular sights in western Washington. Hundreds of thousands of tourists visited the falls each year, which were internationally famous due to the television show Twin Peaks. When people weren’t marveling at the beauty and force of water cascading hundreds of feet, they were visiting the hotel perched at the top of the falls or touring the small town where it all was located.

  The sun’s rays were peeking through the quickly dissipating cloud cover, exposing blue skies. Autumn was on its way, but the Seattle area still basked in late-summer sunshine and moderate temperatures. There were hardly any cars on the road this morning. Hopefully, he could spend a little time alone with Jillian before someone recognized him.

  He pulled into the lower parking lot at Snoqualmie Falls half an hour later. The place was almost deserted. He stifled a sigh of relief. Hopefully, the entire hiking community had decided to attend today’s University of Washington football game or other outdoor pursuits. He only had a few hours before he had to get himself to the practice facility and she was due at her appointment. If she liked it here, he’d bring her again, when they could hike from the top of the falls to the observation platform and back.

  “Have you been here before?” he asked above the roar of pounding, falling water.

  “Not since I was a lot younger.” She opened the passenger door and slid out. He walked around the front of the car to join her.

  “Gotcha,” he said. They took a few steps on the path toward the observation platform that gave a 180-degree view of the falls. “It isn’t far to the observation area, but you might need to stretch a little. Try this.” He pulled one of his legs up by the heel.

  “If I did that, I’d be in the ICU.”

  “Just try it,” he coaxed. “Put your hand on my shoulder.”

  Jillian bent to try to grab her heel, teetered alarmingly on one foot, and he reached out to steady her before she fell into the brush that lined the pathway. For someone who probably didn’t attempt to twist herself into a pretzel on a daily basis, she wasn’t doing too badly with the stretching.