Chapter 18

Lisa

"Where'd you disappear to this weekend? As if I didn't already know." Bambam badgered sarcastically on the other end of the line.

"Uh … Jennie's." I yawned, still half asleep.

"No shit, Sherlock. How did that go? Did you two crazy kids profess your undying love for each other? Will I be getting a wedding invitation in the mail?"

"No, asshole. We just hung out," I snapped back, slightly irritated at his teasing.

"Wow! Little defensive, aren't we? Okay, okay. I'll back off. I do have a question for you though, actually a favor." Hesitation rang loud in his voice and I wasn't sure I wanted to hear what this favor was.

I sighed. "This is gonna piss me off, isn't it?"

"Probably."

"What is it?"

"Remember I told you last week that Blaire is trying to turn into Suzy Homemaker? Well, she's hosting a party and doing all the cooking to show off her new … skills."

"No," I shot back before he had a chance to continue.

"Come on, Lisa. Don't make me suffer through this by myself," he begged.

Driving all the way out to Bambam and Blaire's house was bad enough, but having to fake through an evening of pleasantries and eating her cooking was going above and beyond.

Before I could answer him, he sweetened the pot. "Why don't you bring Jennie with you? I'd like to meet the girl who has turned my best friend's brain into a pile of shit anyway."

Smiling at the sound of her name, I responded, "When is this grand dinner?"

"Next Saturday night. My house. Cocktails and hor d'oeuvres at six, dinner at seven. You in?" He sounded excited, clearly expecting me to say no.

I sighed. "Yeah, I'm in."

"Jennie too?"

"Yes. It's going to take some convincing on my part, but I'll get her here."

Convincing, begging, whatever.

"Awesome. Thanks, bro. It means a lot to me. By the way, you might want to eat before you come out here, but don't tell Blaire I said that."

"You busy?" Jennie's voice was soft and sexy, tempting me to jump into my truck and drive back to her house right then, just for one more kiss.

"I am busy actually, but I'd drop just about anything for you."

Wow. Okay, way to sound like a lame teenager, Lisa.

"You're sweet, but stop it or you're gonna make me like you even more." She giggled.

Challenge accepted.

"How's your morning been?" I asked.

"It's been full of Lysol and laundry detergent." She sighed. "Both girls have the stomach flu. I was actually calling to warn you. I hope you don't get sick."

"Eh, don't worry about me. I'll be fine, I'm more worried about you."

Hmm, getting sick might be a blessing. It would get me out of Blaire's fake ass dinner.

"I'm okay. I think between the girls and all the people I'm exposed to at the inn, my immune system is made of steel. I almost never get sick."

"Never say never," I teased her. "So, let's assume for a minute that I did end up with a raging case of the stomach flu. Would you come down here and take care of me?"

Silence on the other end of the line.

"I'll take that as a no." I laughed, trying to break the tension.

"No, that's not a no. I just haven't really thought about the whole coming to your house thing yet. It caught me off guard," she said quietly.

"Funny you should mention that…" I said matter-of-factly.

She inhaled quickly. I could feel her anxiety through the phone.

"Before you freak out, nothing has changed, we're still taking things slow … but I have a dinner party to go to next weekend and I was hoping you'd be my date."

"Oh. Wow. Coming to your house…" She paused. "Um, I don't know."

"That's not the answer I was hoping for. I was looking for something more along the lines of: 'Why yes, Lisa, I'd love to spend the weekend at your house having copious amounts of crazy, sweaty monkey sex.'"

Silence.

"Jennie, I'm kidding. Look, if sleeping here makes you nervous, I have a spare room with its own bathroom. You are more than welcome to sleep in there. I won't be offended. No pressure, remember?"

"Okay."

I could tell she was smiling now, thank God.

"I have to run it all by my mom and see if she minds watching the girls for the night."

"Maybe you could come down on Friday and go home Sunday?"

"I don't know, Lisa, that's a long time to be away from them. I've never been away longer than a few hours." She sounded unsure, nervous even.

My jaw was on the floor. "You've never been away from them overnight?"

She giggled. "Nope, they're my life. I hate to be away from them. Besides, where would I have gone?"

I hadn't thought of that. "True."

"How about we compromise … I'll come Saturday morning and stay until Sunday afternoon sometime. Okay?"

"Jennie, I'll take what I can get with you."

"You're doing it again." She laughed.

"I can't help it."

"Hang on…" I could tell she put her hand over the phone and was hollering at someone. "Lisa, I gotta go. Ruby is getting sick again. I'll text you later?"

"Go. Be with them, I understand. Text when you can."

To say I was excited for Jennie to get here was putting it mildly. All week, Jennie and I had texted throughout the day and at night after she put the girls to bed. We talked well into the morning. I felt kinda bad about that. I could sleep in, but she was functioning on only a few hours of sleep each night. She never once complained though, and each night on the phone, we got more and more comfortable with each other.

Friday afternoon, I decided to tackle my ghost town of a guest room. No one had stayed with me in a while, and she slept in my bed, not in here. I spent the better part of the day washing sheets and dusting bookcases, doing whatever I could think of that would make Jennie as comfortable as possible while she was here.

A little while later, my phone chirped. It was Viper this time.

V: DUDE. SHIT HIT THE FAN AGAIN TODAY. CAN I CRASH AT YOUR PLACE TONIGHT?

You've got to be fucking kidding me. Of all nights he wants to stay here tonight?

YEAH, THAT'S FINE, BUT YOU HAVE TO SLEEP ON THE COUCH.

V: TOTALLY COOL WITH THAT. I'M GOING TO GRAB A PIZZA AND I'LL BE OVER.

GET TWO. I'M STARVING.

An hour or so later, I was kicked back on my couch watching baseball when my front door flew open and Viper came strolling through, pizza and beer in hand.

"Sup, my man?" He bellowed as he dropped the stuff on my kitchen counter and came over to shake my hand.

I stood and shook his hand back.

"I'm clearly doing better than you. What's going on at your house?"

He groaned and rolled his eyes. "Kat came home and the cleaning lady was still there."

I stared at him, confused. "Why would that piss her off?"

Well, Kat came in and I was relaxing in my chair. The maid was on her knees … sucking my dick." He laughed. "Apparently, that was not an approved chore. Kat ran over and grabbed her by the ponytail and started whaling on her. I'm not gonna lie, it kind of turned me on at first, those two going at it, but I wrapped my arms around Kat until what's-her-name could get out of the house. Needless to say, she's fucking pissed, and I didn't want to sit there all night listening to it."

Shaking my head, I asked my next thought out loud. "Why do it? Why go through all of this? Is it worth it? Why not just break up with her and live your life however you want?"

Viper narrowed his eyes, contemplating my question. "I don't know. She's always there when I need her. It's nice to have someone there for me all the time. I know she'll never really leave. Plus, she's a fucking animal in bed." His eyebrows wiggled up and down. "Clawing, biting, screaming. Who bails when you get to fuck that every night?"

"You … make my brain hurt." I smacked him hard on the back of the neck as I walked into the kitchen to grab the pizzas.

"Speaking of fucking, what's up with you? I haven't talked to you all week. You fuck that girl yet?"

I turned around and locked eyes with him. "Dude. Don't."

He held his hands up in front of him defensively, his eyes wide. "My bad, man. Sorry."

I picked up the pizza boxes from the counter and turned back to the living room, nodding toward the kitchen. "Grab the beer, will ya?"

"Got it." Viper grabbed the six packs of beer and carried them over to the coffee table. "This girl really has you all fucking crazy, huh?"

"Yeah, she does. And I'm totally okay with that."

"What is it about her? I don't think I've ever met a girl who has made me act as idiotic as you are," he said, as he shoved a piece of pepperoni in his mouth.

"Nothing. Everything," I said, smiling to myself.

"Oh my God. Did you grow a pussy while you were up there?"

I reached over and punched him on the arm, hard.

"Seriously, dude." He looked at me incredulously. "What is it about her? I've never seen you like this."

"I don't know…" Moments I'd had with Jennie started running through my head as I tried to pinpoint exactly what it was that had me so crazed. "It's the way she looks when she's playing with her daughters. It's the way she crinkles her cute nose when she smiles really big. It's the way her hair looks sexy all the time, even when it's in a ponytail. I could sit here listing things for hours and still not tell you all of the amazing things about her."

Viper stared at me; his eyes wide open in disbelief.

"Whoa."

Whoa was an understatement, I was beyond crazy about her and it was completely foreign to me. Ever since I was old enough to form memories, hockey was my life. I thought about it constantly, obsessed about it. I dissected plays from past games in my head, watched thousands and thousands of hours of highlight reels, anything I could do to improve my game. Jennie was the first person to pull me out of a lifelong hockey haze and consume my thoughts with something I never expected. Something far better. My mind often wandered to thinking about her and what she was doing right that minute, what she was wearing today, if she was thinking about me, too.

"She's coming here this weekend," I said nonchalantly.

"She is?" He grinned wildly and licked his lips like a wolf on the prowl. "Do I get to meet her?"

"Hell no."

"Come on," he begged.

"Not a chance." I shook my head. "You can crash here tonight then get your ass up and out early before she gets here."

He smirked at me like he had other plans. "We'll see about that."