Jeff couldn't remember the last time he'd slept so well.
He supposed that it was the bad luck that seemed to plague him after Ginger and he ended their engagement that left him unsettled. He knew he'd been foolish to make her choose between him and a song because they were both so important to her but was so afraid at the time that that one song would take her away from River Run and from him.
It had all gone to hell in a hand basket after that.
He started going around with Judy, but it was never more than friendship with her because she was smart enough to see that he still loved Ginger. Besides, Judy was having romantic troubles of her own and it was something that he didn't want to get in the middle of. He started to see Caroline and he'd even gone so far as to sleep with her, but it wasn't what he thought it would be. Judy guessed what happened and when he confessed how different it had been, she told him it was because he didn't love Caroline.
He never told Ginger what happened, but the guilt of what he'd done with someone else haunted him even though he'd not been unfaithful to her. It was true that they were no longer engaged, but underneath all of the animosity and anger he did still love her. After that, he knew that he couldn't continue to see Caroline because it wasn't fair to let her think that there might be a future for them.
It was his plan to ask Ginger to give their relationship another chance, but that was before Miss Wescott informed him that she and Arthur had become engaged. It was no more than he deserved.
The only thing left for him after that piece of news was baseball. With Abe Davis' help and encouragement and Satchel Paige's liniment, the knee injury he sustained on the Lemo All Stars barnstorming tour began to heal. He knew that if he hadn't fooled around that night with Caroline Hailey it wouldn't have happened.
It didn't matter anymore, though. Because with Ginger's help, Jeff was given another shot to get back into the Indian's lineup. He was also given another shot with Ginger with Coach's help and he hadn't passed up on either opportunity. He didn't know exactly what they were going to do about their respective careers because baseball was as important to him as show business was to Ginger. Deep down he always knew that and now also knew that he would to have to give a little so that she could have a chance at success, as he had.
"What are you thinking so hard about?"
Ginger's sleepy voice brought him around and he smiled at her. "You."
"Really?" She seemed surprised and pleased by his admission and her face turned a pretty shade of pink.
"Even when we weren't engaged anymore and I didn't have the right to think about you, I did."
"I did too." She admitted to him. "That is, I didn't have the right to think about you either and I did. Arthur was wonderful, but he wasn't you."
The green-eyed monster reared its head. "How wonderful was he?"
"Oh Jeff for pity's sake." She looked annoyed at the inference. "He wasn't that wonderful."
"Just wonderful enough to take your mind off me I suppose." He sounded jealous and he knew it.
"And I suppose Caroline Hailey was even more wonderful." She frowned and folded her arms across her chest.
"Ginger."
"You started this mister, so you'd better finish it." She said as she sat up and pulled the blankets up with her.
He sat up next to her and realized that he'd opened a can of worms that should have been left alone. "I didn't mean it the way it sounded."
"Well just how did you mean it?" She wasn't about to let him off the hook and he knew if he tried to be sweet to her, it would just make her all the angrier.
Jeff sighed because he didn't know how he was going to get out of it.
"Arthur and I were never together the way that we were and I told you that. But I'd bet a dollar to a donut hole that you and that British tramp were."
There it was.
He always hoped against hope that she would never find out, but Ginger knew him better than he'd ever given her credit for. He wouldn't lie to her about it but he couldn't come out and say it, so he just nodded.
She was only as quiet as she was at that moment one other time. She'd found Judy Owen in his room after she surprised him in Florida when he was called to Clearwater to join the Indians for spring training. She was so hurt that she didn't talk to him for nearly two days. He worried that if she found out about him and Caroline she would never be able to trust him again or forgive him. "Ginger?"
"Caroline Hailey." It came out so softly that he almost didn't hear it. "I worried about Judy Owen for the longest time but once I got to know her, I knew she'd never go after you. I knew you were seeing her," The contempt in her voice was plain. "But I never really thought you'd do with her what you'd only done with me."
He felt his face flush and he took a deep breath. "Ginger, I can..."
She stopped him. "I don't want you to explain anything because it was something that happened when we weren't engaged. You're a man and you had... appetites... that weren't being taken care of and you found someone who didn't have any guilt in taking care of them."
He wanted her to know. "It was only once. It never happened again because it wasn't the same." Jeff took one of her hands gently in his to get her to look at him. When she did and he looked into her eyes. "She wasn't you Ginger and because she wasn't you, it wasn't special the way it was with you."
"Did you keep seeing her after that?" She seemed to brace herself for the worst.
"No. I broke things off with her even though I knew you were engaged to Arthur. You're the only girl I've ever loved Ginger and you're the only girl who can make me feel the way I do."
"This is not something that a girl ever thinks she'll ever talk about on her honeymoon." She sighed before she put her head on Jeff's shoulder. "If I'd just come with you instead of singing that night, it never would have happened."
"And if I hadn't been so stubborn about letting you sing it wouldn't have happened, but it did." Jeff sighed as well.
"Would you have ever told me about it?" She sat up and looked at him.
He shook his head. "It was something that happened when we weren't engaged and the only thing it would have done was hurt you. And I never wanted to hurt you."
"I'm disappointed more than anything because you are right. What happened with her was between the two of you and it's really none of my business. But at least it came out now rather than later because it would have come out Jeff, these kinds of things always do. And usually at the most inconvenient moment."
He began to laugh because he remembered some other information that had come out at an inconvenient moment and had been the inadvertent catalyst to his relationship with Ginger. "Hank's wedding day."
"And you hid me." She smiled back at him.
"Mom would say it was providence that it happened the way it did."
"I would never argue with your mother Jeff."
He tightened his hold on her hand. "She's always liked you. I know she wasn't too sure about our dating for awhile, but she could see how happy you made me and that made her happy."
"I feel like I never said it enough and maybe that was part of the problem, but I do love you Jeff. You've made me happier than Charlie ever did and Arthur ever could." She told him with a sigh.
"I love you too Ginger and I always knew you loved me. Even when we'd have a fight, I knew you loved me." He hesitated for a moment before he leaned over for a tentative kiss. When she answered back with a tentative kiss of her own, Jeff sensed that everything was going be all right.